Plants of Alberta 6

It has been ages since I had much to do with plants and now, of course, I can't remember what many of them are, or else what their names are. I'm not sure if this is Spiraea - would really appreciate help with the ID if someone happens to recognize this plant. Thanks! It was photographed along the Many Springs Trail in Bow Valley Provincial Park three days ago. On 20 July 2014, I plucked up courage to do a drive that I’d never done before. I had been that route once before that I can think of, when I carpooled with others. A good part of the drive was in familiar territory, but I’d never driven the last part of the journey myself. I had met my youngest daughter at 9:00 a.m. and we were both eager to see a display of birds of prey that had been brought up from the Coaldale Birds of Prey Centre. We came across Dee (rockymtnchick) and her partner, there to see the owls. Great to see you both! This year, there were fewer birds, but it was great to see any at all. There was a Burrowing Owl, a Barn Owl, a Great Horned Owl (photo posted two days ago), and a Golden Eagle. Another real treat that was an amusing one, was seeing a baby Barn Owl that was just 45 days old (photo posted today)! I should add that we don't get Barn Owls in the wild in Alberta. This little ball of fluff was acting as a great ambassador, letting young kids get a close view and ask questions, and fall in love with it – and to hopefully, in the future, do everything they can as adults to protect our precious wildlife. The enjoyment of seeing these birds up close reminds one that the reason these birds are not free to live in the wild, is because of some kind of interaction with humans – such as permanent injuries from being hit by a vehicle, pesticide use, or even worse, being shot by a human! This is what happened to “Spirit”, the magnificent Golden Eagle, shot and blinded by someone. This exhibit was our first destination in the park, though on the drive from Calgary, we had stopped at the small McDougall Church at Morley (one of the photos posted yesterday). After seeing and photographing the birds of prey, we then drove to Middle Lake that’s in a different part of the park. We walked the very short distance to the edge of the lake, but didn't walk around it (photo posted today). From there, we drove to Many Springs Trail and did a very slow walk around the lake, stopping to look at and photograph different flowers and a few butterflies. Though slow, it was still further than I should have walked. Certain wildflowers were already finished, including various Orchid species, but there were still plenty of other species to see and enjoy. Even the weather cooperated, though the forecast had been for isolated showers. Not too hot, nice clouds in the sky and lovely to have my daughter’s company for the day. Thanks so much to the people down at the Coaldale Bird of Prey Centre (near Lethbridge, down towards the Canada/US border) for bringing your gorgeous birds of prey for us to see! I have been south to the Centre three times I think, and always long to go back again, but it's not somewhere I can drive to, so this was a much-appreciated treat!

I love the little McDougall Church, seen in the next photo posted today, especially the long, photogenic fence line leading up to it from the parking lot. These cheery Fireweed flowers were growing against the side of the small cabin that is on the site. Taken on 20 July, when my daughter and I called in, on our way to Bow Valley Provincial Park. The small, white flowers are some kind of Campion (Silene). Lots of beautiful Harebells in the area, too. Fireweed is a native plant, growing in open forests, riverbanks and areas that have been subjected to forest fires. Especially when there is a patch of these tall plants, it makes a beautiful splash of colour. Belongs to the Evening-primrose family. Fireweed is the floral emblem of the Yukon. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamerion_angustifolium

After a volunteer shift on 23 July 2014, I wasn't too far away from the Erlton/Roxboro Natural Area, where I was finally going to go on a botany walk. Having been to this location several times before, I knew it was a short, easy, flat trail, and that I could go as far as I wanted and then turn back early, which is what I did. I've missed pretty well all the botany and birding walks the last few months, which is quite depressing. The main thing I wanted to see were these Nodding / Musk Thistles, as they are my favourite species of Thistle. They are called a "weed", but I love to see them. The sun was unfortunately in the wrong direction, so I was only able to get a couple of OK shots, but better than nothing. Its name, Nodding Thistle, comes from the fact that the flower heads commonly droop to a 90° to 120° angle from the stem when mature. Here in Alberta, this species is a noxious weed - but a beautiful one. With a couple of hours to "kill", I had spent them at the Reader Rock Garden, which was just a few minutes' drive away from the evening botany walk location. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carduus_nutans

I had to edit this photo to pass on to local botany friends, so thought I'd also add it to my Plants of Alberta album. The female flowers have a much shorter, rounder calyx than the male, and I'll post a photo of one later. This species is native to most of Europe, Western Asia and Northern Africa, so is a non-native plant in Alberta, where it is a noxious weed. Taken at the Erlton/Roxboro Natural Area on 23 July 2014. www.agric.gov.ab.ca/app107/loadPest?action=display&id=61 This morning, I slept through my alarm's loud music for an hour and then for an extra hour and a half. Have an Open House to go to this afternoon, so am in a real rush and may have to finish off today's photos when I get home.

One-sided Pyrola, also named One-sided Wintergreen, is a very tiny plant, found in the forest. Came across this one at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, SW of the city, on 14 July 2014. "A raceme of 3 to 25 flowers on short stalks hanging from 1 side of the arcing stem at the top of the plant. Flowers are about ¼ inch long, creamy white to greenish white, urn-shaped, with several creamy-tipped stamens and a long, stout green style protruding from the center. There is often a scale-like leafy bract where the flower stalk attaches to the stem. One-sided Pyrola is fairly common but may go unnoticed due to its diminutive size. It prefers the mossy floor of forests and bogs. It may form small colonies, spreading via rhizomes." www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/one-sided-pyrola

My alarm clock was not set last night, as I was so desperately tired after three nights in a row of very little sleep. As a result, I slept in really late this morning, so am posting my photos around noon. I turned on my computer and left the room. A minute or two later, when I returned, I found a black screen with white writing on it - don't know if I just missed seeing the Blue Screen of Death, which I got a few days ago. Panic now sets in, as I think of many months' worth of photos not backed up at all! Looks like I'd better back-up at least a few photo folders. Yesterday was a birding trip to Bow Valley Provincial Park, west of Calgary, at the very foot of the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. Takes around 45 minutes to drive there, via Highway 1, from the western edge of Calgary. This was the park that I finally made myself drive to on 20 July, with my youngest daughter. Can't wait to tell her what we saw yesterday, that made the day "exciting" as well as thoroughly enjoyable - and not a single photo to show it, ha. A good thing she and I didn't come across certain of yesterday's sightings on 20 July! I'm going to use the trip leader's write-up of the events of the day - thank you, Andrew, for yet another great trip to a very beautiful place. Each year, this trip to the park makes such a great day. Hope you don't mind my using your report here! I should add that all these birds were far, far away, too far for photos and, for me with no binoculars, too far to see either properly or at all. "We had six participants on this trip. We arrived at BVPP with early morning temperatures which started to warm up. We walked around the Flowing Waters Trail where we heard many of the species we recorded. The highlight of this segment was a Blue Headed Vireo (conceivably a Cassin's but we decided Blue Headed was the higher probability, based on location and the song). I do have some photographs but doubt they would delineate between the two species. (Later: confirmed to be a Cassin's). We had lunch in the Whitefish area and then went over to the Many Springs Trail. As we were assembling in the small Many Springs Trail's car parking area, we looked back along the road we just driven in by and saw a fairly large very glossy, very black Black Bear amble across the road and vanish into the woods. We carried on walking around the trail. About half way around we heard a call from ahead which sounded something like "bear on the trail". We exchanged a few shouted communications with the group ahead of us and concluded that there was a black bear with two cubs wandering around on the trail about 200m ahead of us. We all looked at the (suddenly small looking) bear spray I had with me and decided to turn around and head back to the car park. There were still six of us when we got back. We stopped briefly at Middle Lake and then stopped at the Morleyville Church on Hwy 1A on the way back to Calgary. We had cell coverage all day so I recorded all of the sightings on the Birdlog app, which created the convenient summary of the trip which follows. Checklists included in this summary: (1): Bow Valley PP - Flowing Waters Trails Date: Aug 2, 2014, 8:30 AM (2): Whitefish Date: Aug 2, 2014, 11:30 AM (3): Bow Valley PP - Many Springs Trail Date: Aug 2, 2014, 12:15 PM (4): Bow Valley PP Middle Lake Date: Aug 2, 2014, 1:40 PM (5): Morleyville Church - Aug 2, 2014, 2:49 PM Date: Aug 2, 2014, 2:45 PM 1 Mallard -- (2) 4 Common Merganser -- (2) 1 Common Loon -- (4) 2 Red-tailed Hawk -- (1),(3) 2 Spotted Sandpiper -- (2) 2 Solitary Sandpiper -- (3) 2 Hairy Woodpecker -- (1) 1 Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) -- (1) 1 Merlin -- (5) 1 Western Wood-Pewee -- (3) 1 Willow Flycatcher -- (1) 1 Cassin's Vireo -- (1) 8 Black-billed Magpie -- (5) 4 American Crow -- (2),(4) 3 Common Raven -- (2),(3) 6 Northern Rough-winged Swallow -- (1) 12 Tree Swallow -- (1) 2 Black-capped Chickadee -- (1),(3) 3 Mountain Chickadee -- (1),(3) 2 Red-breasted Nuthatch -- (1) 1 Townsend's Solitaire -- (3) 1 Swainson's Thrush -- (1) 6 American Robin -- (1),(3) 6 Cedar Waxwing -- (1),(3) 1 Northern Waterthrush -- (1) 3 Yellow Warbler -- (1) 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) -- (1) 1 Clay-colored Sparrow -- (1) 1 Savannah Sparrow -- (5) 3 Song Sparrow -- (1),(3) 2 Brown-headed Cowbird -- (3) 1 American Goldfinch -- (1) Andrew Hart"

Will have to post and more or less run this morning. Last night, I set two alarm clocks (one set very loud), for 5:45 a.m., but I slept right through an hour of very loud music and then woke up nearly five hours later! As a result, I have missed a trip to a great place - one that I don't like going to on my own. Knowing that there will be other people there today, I think I will still go, but not very far into the forest on my own. Hopefully, the others will scare any Bears and Cougars out of the forest and not in my direction! To say that I could kick myself is to put it mildly, ha!

"For many Native American tribes of the Northern Rockies, Northern Plains, and boreal forest region of Canada and the United States, chokecherries were the most important fruit in their diets. The bark of chokecherry root was once made into an asperous-textured concoction used to ward off or treat colds, fever and stomach maladies by native Americans. The inner bark of the chokecherry, as well as red osier dogwood, or alder, was also used by natives in their smoking mixtures, known as kinnikinnick, to improve the taste of the bearberry leaf. The chokecherry fruit can be used to make a jam, jelly, or syrup, but the bitter nature of the fruit requires sugar to sweeten the preserves. Chokecherry is toxic to horses, and moose, cattle, goats, deer, and other animals with segmented stomachs (rumens), especially after the leaves have wilted (such as after a frost or after branches have been broken) because wilting releases cyanide and makes the plant sweet. About 10–20 lbs of foliage can be fatal. Symptoms of a horse that has been poisoned include heavy breathing, agitation, and weakness. The leaves of the chokecherry serve as food for caterpillars of various Lepidoptera." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_virginiana Taken on 10 June 2014, in North Weaselhead. This was a most unfortunate day, for many of us. In the afternoon, four of us met up to go for a botany walk in North Weaselhead. Shortly before we were supposed to start, a lady came over to us in the parking lot, to let us know that our leader, Karel Bergmann, had just been in an accident. She said that he was so concerned about the rest of us wondering where he was, that she very kindly offered to drive to the park and find us and give us the news. I had seen a fire truck blocking the road, and so had turned up the road just before the one I needed, but of course never dreamt that it was there to help Karel. He was riding his motorcycle, when a young man (who was very upset over the accident, apparently) turned in front of him, cutting him off. Karel's leg was broken, which means that he will be missing the joys of summer - and we will be without a great leader for plants and mushrooms. We are all so thankful that the accident wasn't worse than it was! Good luck with your recovery, Karel! It will be so good to have you back with us once your leg has healed. Two of us decided that we would still go on the walk, despite Karel not being with us. I knew that we would most likely see only a few of the plants, but we did our best, and enjoyed ourselves. Towards the end of our walk, I heard a rustling in the leaves and bushes at the edge of the path and was really hoping that it might be one of these beautiful, small Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrels. We found two of them! Such a treat.

A couple of days ago, on 13 August 2014, I had a volunteer shift and afterwards, as I sometimes do, drove to the Reader Rock Garden. Thought I'd better see what flowers were in bloom, as summer is slipping away so fast and I haven't taken all that many colourful images of flowers, garden or wild. They come in so handy during the seven long months of winter that are not all that far away now, breaking the monotony of "white" photos. Some of the flowers were well past their prime, but can still make an interesting shot. A lot of the Baneberry plants were putting on a great display of these gorgeous red, shiny berries. Some of the Baneberry plants had clusters of white berries (Actaea pachypoda). I saw something move and when I looked closer at this cluster, I noticed this tiny black and white Jumping Spider. Got a shot just before he jumped and disappeared. I've added a previously posted photo of the beautiful white flower in a comment box below, for anyone not familiar with this plant. "All parts of the plant are poisonous. However, accidental poisoning is not likely since the berries are extremely bitter. The berries are the most toxic part of the plant. A healthy adult will experience poisoning from as few as six berries. Ingestion of the berries causes nausea, dizziness, increased pulse and severe gastrointestinal discomfort. The toxins can also have an immediate sedative effect on the cardiac muscle tissue possibly leading to cardiac arrest if introduced into the bloodstream. As few as two berries may be fatal to a child. All parts of the plant contain an irritant oil that is most concentrated within the roots and berries." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actaea_rubra