Do you know what these little grassland babies will be when they grow up? Try your luck matching the germinants (1-4) to their grown-up form (A-D) below. Click on the images to enlarge them!
Continue reading →The majority of spring mushrooms in our area are small. It is in fall that we get our display of the larger, more noticeable species. An exception to our diminutive spring species is Calocybe gambosa, known as the lightning mushroom. They are good edibles and have a long history of being collected for food by Interior First Nations bands. The ecology of these mushrooms is interesting. They occur in open grasslands, damp meadows, and in sagebrush ecosystems. You would never find them in closed forests. The reason they form circles (“fairy rings”) … Continue reading →
It’s pretty easy to spot differences between these two plants – one has yellow flowers, one has white flowers. One is squat, the other is tall. But what do these plants have in common? What if I were to tell you that these are the same plant?
Continue reading →I went to Riverside Park in the mid to late afternoon today in order to photograph waterfowl. Mallards dominated the flocks but there were some Trumpeter Swans and a few geese. I took some landscapes but I will post those later. Initially, here are a few studies of waterfowl. Click on any image for a full-size view: Notes: Trumpeter Swan – This is an interesting Trumpeter Swan. It has a white body and an adult-like black bill. But the head and upper neck has the grayish-brown feathering of a juvenile … Continue reading →
We were camping on Leo Island on Murtle Lake. In the dark I walked out onto the spit to have a look at the supermoon rising in the east. On my way back, my headlamp shone onto the trees and we heard an unusual call from the trees above. I scanned the trees with my headlamp and climbed up the slope to try to spot it, but it kept moving from tree to tree. Each time I tried to pinpoint the location, the owl called: Barred Owl on You Tube … Continue reading →