Butterflies come in a great variety of colours and sizes as club members learned on a recent butterfly outing with Brady Mathes. One of the more abundant but inconspicuous species that was flying that day was the Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche … Continue reading →
There are 7 species of swallowtail butterflies in BC, all in the genus Papilio (Guppy & Shepard, 2001.) People seldom miss seeing these large butterflies as they flutter by or gather at wet spots to drink or on flowers to … Continue reading →
Jesse Ritcey took these pictures of a very common slime mold found on bark mulch and woody debris. Slime molds are fascinating organisms. Even though they are called molds, they are not fungi. In fact, they are not animals, plants, … Continue reading →
Submitted by Adele Stapleton (photos) and Margaret Graham (text) It was a great day for a field trip to the newly restored Dufferin Wetlands beside Dufferin Elementary with Kirsten Wourms who is in charge of the City of Kamloops Nature … Continue reading →
Submitted by Marina Lipinski These pictures show a black widow spider capturing a wild bee in our front flower garden. The victim is wrapped up and towed back to the spider’s lair, where the spider will suck the life out … Continue reading →
Anyone exploring the grasslands and dry forests around Kamloops is familiar with the Hereford cattle that graze the area. Their distinctive white faces are hard to miss. But a closer look around pond edges or even in dry forest openings … Continue reading →
Dragonflies in British Columbia are classified in the Order Odonata with two sub-orders. The Anisoptera sub-order comprises the larger dragonflies that many people see around marshes while the sub-order Zygoptera consists of the smaller and more fragile-looking Damselflies. This latter … Continue reading →
Here is a photo gallery of our owl friends at McArthur Island courtesy of Lynne Borle. Thank you Lynne! Wonder how she gets them to look at the camera every time. … Continue reading →
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 →
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 →