This article appeared in the May 2018 edition of Sage Whispers. You can read the complete newsletter here. In January 2018, the Kamloops Naturalist Club applied for funding available from BC Nature to build 50 bluebird boxes in order to … Continue reading →
Paul Handford reports on Facebook that the tanagers are back. Have you seen them yet? You can learn more about them from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. … Continue reading →
Here is some of what was seen on the trip. All photos by Lynne Borle. Hover cursor over image to see caption. … Continue reading →
Here is a look at what was seen on the Naturalist Club trip to Gamble Pond. If you know the names of these birds, please add them in the comments. Hover your cursor over the images to see the caption, … Continue reading →
One arrived on Tuesday and a few more today, feeding on the sunflower seeds under my feeder in Barnhartvale. A number of years ago hundreds arrived and ate everything. Freshly emerged peas in the garden were devoured. A week later … Continue reading →
Welcome to Mushroom Monday for April 30, 2018 With the recent appearance of a few species of ink cap mushrooms, we can expect to see them through the summer and fall. The big majority of ink cap mushrooms (called the … Continue reading →
A Modified Letter to the Editor of Kamloops This Week published April 25, 2018 By Rick Howie, Registered Professional Biologist I read with interest the comments by Hugh Jordan in Kamloops This Week regarding the Sandhill Cranes passing over Aberdeen … Continue reading →
Jesse Ritcey posted on Kamloops Neighbourhoods Associations Discussion Nexus on April 25, 2018 McArthur Island IS a nature preserve. While the parks department has been planning and pondering future possibilities for the golf course lands something incredible happened. … Continue reading →
Welcome to Mushroom Monday for April 23, 2018 The cup fungi are a wide-spread and variable group of cup-shaped mushrooms. The most conspicuous ones are often colourful. There are hundreds of species with many being hard to identify and requiring … Continue reading →
Look around on road sides or bare disturbed ground and you are likely to see the small yellow flowers of Bur Buttercup (Ranunculus testiculatus). It is also known as Hornseed Buttercup or Horned-Head Buttercup. It is native to southeastern Europe … Continue reading →
Welcome to Mushroom Monday for April 16, 2018 Puffballs are a specialized group of mushrooms that produce spheroidal fruitbodies. They belong to a group called Gastromycetes meaning “stomach fungi.” In this group, spores are produced internally in sacs that are … Continue reading →
Hank and I went to the Dallas-Barnhartvale Nature Park today. In the restored wetland, this elderberry is unfurling. The delicate green ball, cradled by purple leaves, will later differentiate into hundreds of creamy-white flowers. And these flowers will eventually develop … Continue reading →
Hank & I have been getting to know the Barnes Lake Trails. Yesterday, we arrived during light showers, and as the sun came and went, I photographed sagebrush galls while Hank did whatever he likes to do. Near the lake, … Continue reading →
If you have walked around in the grasslands, you may have noticed strange growths on the sagebrush. These growths, called galls, form when some organism – usually an insect – develops within the plant’s tissues. … Continue reading →
Following the third annual Lac Dubois garbage collection on April 8, Frank Ritcey led a group of 19 energized naturalists on a hike in the Dewdrop Range. Here is some of what we saw and learned. More information about the … Continue reading →
Welcome to Mushroom Monday for April 9, 2018
Posted by Gary Hunt
Snowbank fungi are species that fruit adjacent to melting show. They are represented by a diverse array of species found in forested regions, primarily higher elevations, of western North America ranging from New Mexico to Canada. They may be saprophytic (decomposers), symbiotic (mycorrhizal) or even pathogenic.
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 →
Welcome to Mushroom Monday for April 2, 2018
Posted by Gary Hunt
And welcome also to the new website of the Kamloops Naturalist Club. I hope you return often to see the wide variety of nature-related activities our members are involved in.
There is a group of wildflowers that have learned how to cheat photosynthesis. This allows them to simplify physical structure and eliminate the work of making chlorophyll and their own food. It confers a significant survival advantage in low-light forest conditions.
The snow is almost gone in the Dallas Barnhartvale Nature Park. The delightful little sagebrush buttercup (Ranunculus glaberrimus) is now in bloom. It is consistently one of the earliest blooming wildflowers in our low elevation grasslands, sagebrush slopes, and ponderosa … 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 … Continue reading →