A few days ago, Glen Dreger sent me two pictures of a large mushroom he collected near Tunkwa Lake. I sent the photos to a mycologist colleague in Vancouver and he suggested that it was Neolentinus lepideus, having the common name of the “Train-Wrecker.” The common name derives from the fact that it is tolerant of several wood preservatives used to treat railroad ties, including creosote. In earlier days, before our current more effective wood preservatives, it was an important cause of rot in ties. This species is recorded as … Continue reading →

Submitted by Margaret Graham. Photos by Steve Schmidt except where noted. Sunday, June 17 was a perfect day for a drive along country roads to look for birds. We started at the bottom of Rose Hill Road and made our first stop at the water tower where we climbed to the lookout to admire the view of Kamloops and the South Thompson River valley. It appears that this is a great party place so we spent some time picking up cans and bottles to add to our coffers.

Submitted by Margaret Graham Five hardy soles braved the rain on Sunday morning, June 10, to look for birds along the East Shuswap Road. We crossed the South Thompson River at the Lafarge Bridge and travelled as far as the Wolf Ranch and the pond at the corner where the road turns left to Niskonlith and McGillivray Lake where we had hoped to see the bobolink and curlew but didn’t spot them. We did see a total of 50 other species of birds on our trip, stopping often to get … Continue reading →