annkelliott's photostream  

A tropical Julia (Dryas julia) butterfly resting on an Orchid at the Calgary Zoo. Taken on April 30th in the ENMAX Conservatory.

Not the greatest photo, but it was so sweet to see the numerous Canada Goose goslings take shelter under Mom's wings. Seen at the Calgary Zoo on April 30th.

This is an old macro photo from 4 June 2010. Just not getting time to go through all the photos I've been taking recently, but had put aside this image when I was backing-up and deleting photos from my hard drive. Haven't seen any Striped Coralroot yet this year, just the Early Coralroot. Photo of this tiny, wild Orchid taken at the fairly new Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park - we had been allowed to botanize there a long time before the park was opened to the public.

"Corallorhiza striata is a species of orchid known by the common names striped coralroot and hooded coralroot. This flowering plant is native to much of North America, especially Canada and the northern and western United States.[1] It is a member of the coniferous understory flora, where it lives in the layer of decaying plant matter on the ground obtaining nutrients from fungi via mycoheterotrophy.

Like other coralroot orchids, it has reduced leaves and no chlorophyll and relies upon its parasitism of the fungi for sustenance. This coralroot has an erect stem which may be red, pink, purple, or yellow-green to almost white. It is mostly made up of an inflorescence of orchid flowers. Each flower is an open array of sepals and similar-looking petals which may be pink or yellowish and have darker pink or maroon stripes. Inside the flower is a column formed from the fusion of male and female parts, which may be spotted with purple or red. The fruit is a capsule one or two centimeters long." From Wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corallorhiza_striata

Seven of us covered an area SW and W of the city for the annual, provincial May Species Count on May 27th. This is one of the 65 species we were very lucky to find that day. Managed to get a few quick shots out of the car window, but then we had to continue on our search. I'm just so thankful that the two drivers stopped briefly - I, of course, would have loved to stay there forever, lol.

I must add that the only reason I am lucky enough to have this (macro!) photo of Mountain Bluebird nest with eggs is that I went with Bluebird Monitor, Don Stiles, on his Bluebird route on 22 June 2010. Don has been recording all "his" nesting boxes along certain backroads SW of the city for many, many years. Without this dedicated work by Don and others, the Mountain Bluebird population would have declined - as it is, their numbers are still low. Nests and nestboxes of any species of bird should, of course, never be approached or opened unless one is accompanying a trained nest monitor.