Author Topic: Alberta Wanderings 2011 (Read 4174 times)

cohan · « **Reply #15 on:** June 26, 2011, 03:36:55 AM »

https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011G2BirdsAndPeas

I only saw these yellow flowered plants in a couple of spots-- Draba sp? Unless this is a well known plant and someone recognises it, I doubt I got enough details to id it-- shape of seed capsule being important (and too early!)..
This bare spot near a sign was the first place I saw it (then later, slightly upslope laterally in an apparently older plant community..)....

cohan · « **Reply #16 on:** June 26, 2011, 07:04:01 AM »

same album still: https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011G2BirdsAndPeas

I mentioned I was hoping to find the tiny pea in flower, which I did; there was another plant I'd seen just finished flowering last year, which I thought might be Sax oppositifolia (a plant I have not seen in person)..
This one was not to be, since I'd just found the pea when someone started to complain about me being in this immediate area, and I had to finish up the pics quickly and move on to another spot....

(She?) started doing the usual song and dance- look at me! follow me! stay away from my nest!
I did not want to stress her, much less inadvertently step on her eggs, so as much as I wanted to search for plants in this older plant community, I got out of there... I saw a couple more of these birds (of a familiar class to me, from fields and shores around here, but I have not looked up the species..) in the general area, but I guess I was never as close to their nests, as they didn't come so close trying to distract me... More views of this first bird...

Paul T · « **Reply #17 on:** June 26, 2011, 11:54:30 AM »

Cohan,

I love that purple Oxytropis. It is very striking.

The bird is beautiful as well, whatever it is.

Maggi Young · « **Reply #18 on:** June 26, 2011, 02:39:56 PM »

Super pix of a lovely bird, cohan... a type of plover....Charadrius vociferus

cohan · « **Reply #19 on:** June 26, 2011, 09:19:01 PM »

Thanks, Paul and Maggi!
This pea (Oxy or not is still being debated elsewhere

note: confirmed Oxytropis podocarpa ) is supposedly as conspicuous in seed, though I think the flowers are quite showy! here's an immature fruit view from last year...

That's the bird I was thinking of, Maggi-- we call them Killdeer, for their call, but I hadn't checked to see if they range up there, and don't know the markings well enough--mostly know them running ahead in fields, from my childhood!

cohan · « **Reply #20 on:** June 27, 2011, 12:32:18 AM »

last images from this album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011G2BirdsAndPeas

Another undetermined pea-- it seemed to have similar/the same foliage to the Hedysarum boreale common at the site, but only some plants have this tumble-weed like arrangement of old stems;
I checked last year's pics to see if it might be another pea I saw flowering last year-- a maybe Astragalus with similar leaves and sprawling habit and with pale flowers: couldn't say for sure, though there was more sign of old stems in the Hedysarum pics...

another view of the area, and some stone arranging tips for your garden

.....

cohan · « **Reply #21 on:** June 27, 2011, 07:48:25 PM »

All of these photos have been in a rather low area below the glacier, among mounds and ridges of deposited glacial till; For the first time, I went slightly upslope laterally, to an area that seems to have been out of the glacier for a longer period of time: instead of gravel surfaces with spotty to local plant coverage, this area has an almost entirely covered surface.

https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011G3IceAndLichens

Many of the same species occur here as below, but there is much more grass, lichens etc between the other plants...
I didn't spend too much time on this surface, there wasn't a lot in flower yet, but also this area seemed very fragile with the carpet of lichens- I walked very lightly and carefully, and still didn't want to wander around too much, damaging this plant community which took so long to establish!

I showed these Anemones above, now decided to be Anemone parviflora still growing singly among Arctostaphylos rubra here; the second shot shows some of the other common plants- Antennaria sp (with shorter wider leaves than many of our other spp) and Hedysarum boreale

cohan · « **Reply #22 on:** June 30, 2011, 09:06:32 PM »

https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011G3IceAndLichens

Mostly I'd stayed back from the glacier (that's where the plants are!) but we did drive up a bit closer, I wanted to check for Chamerion (Epilobium) latifolium and Saxifraga aizoides which colour the area in mid-summer.. they were just beginning to emerge now...

The views were still nice..

There were mats of Dryas (probably drummondii) which colonised quite far through this area (not sure if it still floods beyond the current water line); these with seed heads still from last year, also see the mats in the views above; and farther back, some small willows (Salix sp, a metre or so tall, not the miniatures) ..interestingly, below these were some Pyrolas not yet in growth; I wouldn't hazard a guess as to species without seeing the flowers...first time I'd seen these up here..

cohan · « **Reply #23 on:** June 30, 2011, 10:50:09 PM »

https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011G3IceAndLichens
Last of this site;

Across the highway to the end of the vast parking area, to use the washroom...
Watching for a handout from some parking barriers, was this little person, I believe to be a Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel, Spermophilus lateralis

some final views..

Paul T · « **Reply #24 on:** July 01, 2011, 01:40:16 PM »

Lovely, Cohan.

I fondly remember the one time I have ever seen a Glacier..... in New Zealand more than 35 years ago. Such an amazing sight, but not something we get here in Australia. I love your ground squirrel, the rock arrangements and the Oxy seedpods in particular, although all your pics are excellent.

Thanks again.

cohan · « **Reply #25 on:** July 01, 2011, 08:02:45 PM »

Thanks, Paul.. it is an amazing place--just being up there in general.. though after the first couple of times I don't pay as much attention to the ice itself, just a few shots when I remember to look up...lol

cohan · « **Reply #26 on:** July 08, 2011, 06:54:12 PM »

Still up high, near the tree/snow line, heading toward home, a few views from the vehicle..
https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011HStillWinter

cohan · « **Reply #27 on:** July 14, 2011, 09:45:03 PM »

Interrupting pics of the mountain trip, a short walk up the road, the other day..
Lots of Castillejas in flower, never realised this colony, which starts about 1/4 mile up and continues in varying density on both sides for at least a half mile, was so extensive!
Its not quite as varied in colour forms as the other colony I have shown on these pages, but still has a broad range from near white through the common salmony-scarlet range, and a few near true red (not orangey).
Only C miniata is listed for my immediate area, but C lutescens and C occidentalis are not that far, and I have some doubts about how carefully this agricultural area has been surveyed! I've seen questions on flickr about possible hybrids....
just a few here, more in the full album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/July102011Castilleja

cohan · « **Reply #28 on:** December 29, 2011, 03:31:28 AM »

Okay, I thought at least I should finish that May 31 trip to the mountains started so long ago!
https://picasaweb.google.com/111492944361897930115/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011IHildaRidge
On the way home, not so very far from the Columbia Icefield, and still at fairly high altitude- below the timerline, but not by a whole lot---
Hilda Ridge. This is a roadside pullout area, between the Columbia Icefield and where the road drops back down again, going south. Based on the notices posted at the entry to the site, there is some sort of access to skiing from here, not sure where/how.. never been up there in winter, and not likely to do so, driving through a long stretch of avalanche prone roads to get there!... I go there for the plants...

Not a large area, it has fairly steep to steep gravel/stone slopes, treed to varying degrees, which fall down to a river on three sides, and the highway and then higher slopes rising on the fourth side. There are some exposed areas with nice plants along ridge edges and down the slopes, as well as among open trees and bushes on the flat top of the site, and also down into shadier places among denser tree growth and shaded slopes. Shaded areas still had significant snow on May 31, and it was not long gone in the open it seemed...

cohan · « **Reply #29 on:** December 29, 2011, 03:39:45 AM »

Still at Hilda Ridge. https://picasaweb.google.com/111492944361897930115/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011IHildaRidge
Earlier, we were talking about Anemones I'd seen in a few places, including on this trip, a half hour or so (? rough remembering) up the road at the Columbia Icefield. There, what was presumably Anemone parviflora was found, commonly growing through Arctostaphylos rubra. Here, it was growing in mats of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi... Still generally no more than 10cm high...

Anemone parviflora with Arctostaphylos uva-ursi