NATIVE PLANTS

        I confess that my weakness is for native plants. I don't recognize many plants but I do go out on field trips to find plants.

      Here we have bush and all kinds of plants that grow in the under bush. With deciduous trees we have a very lush undergrowth. I like prairie flowers best , but since I don't live on the prairie I don't see the prairie flowers. 

     Yesterday I was birding in the morning. Birds and plants were at their peak. We identified 39 species of birds. I tried getting some flower photos but since I'm not that steady anymore the camera is continually refocusing .

     We started at a foot bridge across the Red Deer River. There were hundreds of cliff swallows nesting under the bridge. 

            Then we walked along the escarpment of the river so it's a challenging walk . It's set up for cross country skiing but it goes through heavy bush.

     So here are some of the flowers I found. 

FATHER'S DAY RAMBLE

      I spent a few hours of my father's day rambling over 300 or so acres of park known as Heritage Ranch. I've spent many hours in this area cycling, cross country skiing and leading my bird watching group through the are. I have spent much time in the area and know it well.

     Yesterday , I wanted to check on a patch of tiger lily  (western wood lily) or (Lilium philidelphicum) and brown eyed susan  (wild gaillardia) or (Gaillardia aristata).

     I was a few days too early as I only found one tiger lily in full bloom 

     However thee were other plants in bloom such as the wild rose. 

     It was a windy day so some of the smaller plants I photographed and not in focus but worth a look.

WHAT I DID FOR FATHER'S DAY

     For many, Father's Day has a tradition of a special breakfast, lunch or dinner. They are good times and traditional celebrations.  It's been interesting reading blogs and seeing what people did to celebrate Father's Day.

     Well, what did I do. I'm not big on going out to restaurants to celebrate. There are many more things I would rather do. Both my kids live very far away. I got a phone call from one and an email from the other. The phone call came just a few minutes before I was leaving.

    Yes, I was going out to one of the local parks that has natural habitat. I was actually going to one of the larger sanctuaries. Yes, this is what I would rather do. Surprise! Surprise! The Micro manager came with me. The Micro manager has not been feeling well at all so I as surprised she came.

   So in two hours I got my fix of flowers birds and critters. I didn't get a photo of a Richardson's ground squirrel (gopher) . It would have been easy but they entertained me and I forgot about a photo.

    

My Canada Day

      Yesterday was Canada Day and a day for all kinds of public events and interesting activities. These events were all in the name of celebrating our country's 147 birthday. We live in  beautiful land and wonderful country. There's lots to celebrate. I have been with this country for over half of it's life!

     Now , I'm not big on public celebrations. I'm happier to go off by myself and wander through an area that still has the native habitat. So yesterday, the Micro manager and a friend went to the local celebrations and I went off for a walk through the local nature sanctuary. Don't get me wrong. I like my country and think I'm most fortunate to have had my family make the choice to live here.

     I took my camera and knew what I was looking for but thought I was too late as the flower I was looking for bloomed about mid June. I thought I might as well look. I did find Lady's slippers. The first find was of very brown and long past due bloom. A little while later I found a lady slipper in full bloom. It made my day. I took many more photos of flowers , but I dumped most of them as they were not in focus.

The faded lady slipper

The lady slipper in full bloom

I'll leave this one for you to identify!

Common Wild Rose

The trail I spent my time on.

A really healthy wetland. Well maybe not. It's choked with reed canary grass.

Woodland Flowers

      I went for a walk in the woods yesterday to find some flowers. Well, it actually wasn't a walk. I have a piece of recreational property and very little of it has been developed so there are quite a few wild flowers that show up over the summer. The property has old growth poplar trees. A poplar forest has a heavy undergrowth which by itself is an interesting level of the forest. I have cleared a minimal amount so there are areas where it is open. So yesterday my walk was really mowing grass. However, over the years I have noticed the various plants. This is my first time photographing some and I find that I don't know many names. 

This is the Twin Flower. It likes moist mossy woods. It grows very thickly and is a bout 3-4 in high.

The bell like flowers have a vivid pink center.

Ordinarily the twin flowers hang down

A faded rose with a visitor. It is now the end of season for roses so they look a little the worse for wear.

Lily of the Valley (Maianthemum canadense)

Twinning Honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica)   This is quite common in open woodlands

       So my grass cutting was done in between much flower watching. I was watching for the Round Leafed Orchid. I found two of them but before I could stop my mower I ran over them. I looked for others but couldn't find any.

       I've always been interested in native plants . This has made me put some effort into identifying and  learning about them.

More on: Did We Name Thing the Right Way?

      I had a part that I forgot to put in on my previous post on naming living things. Since I remembered it I thought I would add it in a separate post.


      The names aboriginals gave living things varied a great deal. Names changed with different tribes . And then there were many different native languages. Names were variable since they had an oral culture and history rather than things written down. These differences would have certainly caused some problems. I'm sure that some solution could have been arrived at to overcome the variety of names.


      In some cases we have several  common names  given to living things. Again the reasons for different names are similar to the reasons in the above paragraph. For example, in Western Canada we have Amelanchier alnifolia which we call Saskatoons. Americans call Saskatoons June berries as well  a few other names.. Americans wonder what we're talking about and Canadians wonder what their talking about. The Cree name for Saskatoon was Misaskutum.


     Now my friend Bobby, who is a treasure of humor and wit, asked me for the aboriginal name for dandelions. I don't think Bobby likes dandelions. It might have something to do with his lawn. I should tell him about dandelion wine!  I  wasn't going to let him down with this information so I tried to look it up. I found more than I bargained  for. Dandelions are native to North America and Europe. I couldn't find any aboriginal name but I found a long history of dandelion names from many languages. In English dandelion comes from the French who called it dent-de-lion which became dandelion. Dent de lion means tooth of the lion. The French also called it pis-en-lit which means "piss in the bed."  the English didn't use that name.


     So you see  living thing names can take us many places. If you're looking at dandelion names you may get off the search at Portugal and travel through Portugal for a while before you get back to names.


    I had more fun with this post than I expected because it took me on a bit of a trip.

Great Spring Bird Count

       Today was the day to count birds in our area. I have posted before that I have participated in winter and spring bird counts for a long time and enjoy them. Today was one of those "just right" days...clear , calm, and cool. Birds were not particularly active but there was enough to keep my interest. I saw 14 different species. One species I had never seen before but when I identified it I realized that I had heard this bird many times before. So today I officially saw a warbling vireo.

        The area that I patrol is a coulee that runs into the Red Deer river. It's old growth spruce and poplar. Unfortunately many invasive species are making their way into this coulee.The part I count in is from .5 km to 1 km wide.

      For the spring bird count we also count native plant species which are blooming. I'm not too hot on identifying plants so today I said I will take the cam,era and take pictures. This is because the count coordinator called me one time and said, "Did you really see the plant you named?" So I had to hoof it back to where I saw the plant and get more information. It was easy to identify once I was told what to look for. In that case I brought a specimen back.

     Since our spring is very late we do not have many native species in bloom.

The first bloom I saw was what I call buffalo bean Thermopsis rhombifolia. These are prairie flowers and grow well in disturbed areas .

     The next plant I found was the early blue violet violo adunca. These plants bloom very early and are very attractive. The ones I found were a patch of a bout the size of a house.

     The third blooming plant I found isn't hard to find as it's quite abundant. Saskatoon amelanchier alnifolia is again a common prairie plant found in coulees and forest edges. These plants have along history with the aboriginals and when my people came here they immediately took a liking to saskatoons. One summer my mother canned 96 quarts of saskatoons. These are known in other areas as juneberries or service berries.

 

           The fourth plant I had to cheat a little bit as it is only in bud This is the choke cherry prunus virginianna. Again these plants grow on stream banks and on the edges of forests or on the prairie "bluffs." Again the choke cherry has a great flavor and are used to make syrups and jellies. They have a pit and since they are small berries would be difficult to take the stone out and use the flesh . Raw choke cherries are fairly tart.

The fifth plant I found made me do lots of work to identify it. It's a plant that I should know. I think after this I will remember fairy bells(disporum trachycarpum). These plants bloom early before the trees fully leaf out. They grow in moist shady poplar or mixed woods and thickets.

     So my day was much more interesting when I took the camera to record sightings. Plants don't fly away like birds and you don't have to wait for plants as you would with birds. I a couple of weeks I will have to make another tour and show some more native species in bloom.