Readers’ wildlife photos

April 26, 2016 • 7:30 am

We don’t get very many submissions of plant photos, and I know we have some botany lovers out there, so enjoy these photos from reader Ken Phelps from the Pacific Northwest:

A foliose lichen (Flavoparmelia caperata??) growing in the moss that substitutes for lawn in our yard.

Moss & Fungus

An assortment of chocolate lilies (Fritillaria biflora):

Chocolate Lily & Pink Crop

Chocolate Lily & Red Crop
Camassia quamash before it has opened.
Blue Bud Dew Layers Vivid Crop

Dew on an unidentified plant.

Dewy Green Leaves Crop

Bracket fungus on tree trunk. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of these with a seascape painted on the underside and made into a lamp. I consider that a mercy.

Fungus Tree

Leaves (or “leafs” for Ontarians) sprouting on a young maple.

Maple Leaves Spring 3000

Arbutus, as we call them here, with stripes of peeling bark.

Arbutus Color 2200

Another close-up of the intense arbutus colors.

Arbutus Stripes 3000

Some very mossy maple trees (and a few alders) on a flood plain adjacent to the Nanaimo River earlier this spring. By now, this is all dry.

Nanaimo River Maple Flat 2200

And let me (PCC[E]) throw in two photos I took of birds at the Chilika Wildlife Sanctuary in India. I don’t know from birds, so help me out here.

P1100234

P1100232

20 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photos”

  1. Nice photos Ken!

    I like the shots of Arbutus menziesii, a beautiful tree and wonderful wood. We always called them madrone (or “madrona”) when I was living in the Seattle & Portland areas.

    The unidentified plant looks like lupine leaves (leafs) to me (Lupinus spp.).

  2. Those wading birds are cool too. I also don’t know from birds (except my locals).

    But the first looks like Black-tailed Godwit
    (Limosa limosa)

    The second looks like a Black Winged Stilt
    (Himantopus himantopus)

  3. If that is the same Nanaimo River that I’m familiar with from back in the days when I lived on Vancouver Island, then that would put Ken from the Pacific Southwest.

  4. Great photos! And Ken, I see you have an artistic flair for framing the short for color and composition

    1. Thanks, the truth is that I’m more interested in *that* than I am in the plant and bug thingies I’m often shooting.

  5. The lichen looks like one of the green Peltigera, like P. aphthosa. (Species identification is difficult in the group.)

    Nice photos!

    1. I’m certain you are correct. I should probably stick to my usual M.O. of using Biblical kinds, where taxonomy is easy. The picture was really a Greenplanticus godmaditall.

      1. I was going to object that this was a Greenfungicus godmaditall, but then I realize that if one takes this approach to taxonomy, Greennonanimalicus = Greenplanticus. So I was going to be wrong.

  7. Nice to see plants. I’m reminded of botany courses I took years ago. The field trips to the sphagnum bogs in Upper MI were terrific experiences. Sundews , pitcher plants, exotic lichens, springy sphagnum mats…

  8. Leafs is a hockey team, Jerry (although just barely). The things we rake up and compost are leaves here, just like everywhere else in Canada. Well, except for Quebec, where they are les feuilles mortes.

    1. Don’t blame Jerry for that. It was an over-the-Rockies jab at the (Please Lord put them out of their misery) Canucks of the East.

    2. I’m sure Jerry was just poking fun at us. I would have liked to have been at the meeting when the team’s name was chosen. At least they didn’t choose “Maple Leaf’s”.

      1. The comments between the photos are mine. Poking fun at Toronto/Ontario/Everything East of the Trees is bred right into Cascadian chauvinists.

  9. Fantastic photos, Ken! I love plant photos just as much as the animal ones. The dewdrops shot is especially beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

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