June 12/Nature Notes

Green frog admiring  this week's blossoms

Largest square: As you can see, the Green Frog (YES, that is his real name) is concentrating on something...and it's not me or the flowers/ He's about to pounce on a delicious-looking dragonfly. I'm sure though that if his hunger had been satisfied he wouls have been admiring the wildflowers.

Working clockwise: devils paintbrush aka orange hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum), golden ragwort (Senecio aureus), hairy beardtongue (Penstemon hirsutus), pasture rose (Rosa carolina) and shrubby cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa).

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NATURE NOTES.

Carden Alvar II/Our World

Wood lily (aka prairie lily) - the Saskatchewan provincial flower

This lovely lily grows  beautifully in Canada's Prairie Provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta) but it also grows on grasslands in Ontario. I found this wood lily on the Carden Alvar. (See last Monday's Our World post here.)

Wild wood lily growing among daisies at the side of a dirt road

I visited  the Carden Alvar again on Friday and learned that the area will soon (I hope soon) become Carden Alvar Provincial Park, a project that has been in the works now for about 20 years. Alvars are rare and some of the wildlife on this one is endangered in Canada, such as the Loggerhead Shrike, a small bird of prey. I'd show you a picture of a shrike, but last Friday I could just barely see one out in a field, let alone take a photo of it. Maybe next time I'll be closer to one.

Click  HERE to see tons more photos about Our World.