Purple Finches show up through out the year at Leaning Oaks, but in the winter months usually in only in small numbers and not regularly. Starting in March they become regular visitors to the feeders and males set up territories in the neighbourhood. As shown here, they also enjoy drinking and bathing in the pond. The best part of having them around is their lovely rich warbly song. Listen here to it: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/purple_finch/sounds, although that isn't the only sounds they make. Once call is confusingly similar to the call of the Cassin's Finch and begging young have a call that sounds very similar to the upslurred and oft-repeated "weeep" of the Hutton's Vireo. The amount of red that a male Purple Finch sports is based on the availability of carotinoids in their diet and is thought to be indicative of their vitality as a mate.
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Yellow Archdevil would be a better name. This species is a aggressive weed at Leaning Oaks having escaped from the garden a number of years ago, and despite a steady effort to control it still manages to persist. Lamium galeobdolon is a herbaceous vine that has the ability to root from small pieces dropped from the weed pile or nodes on stems and grow from seed. There is no doubt that the form most often seen has an attractive variegated leaf, but its ability to spread into the wild makes it a decidedly undesirable plant. In shady areas is able to out compete many native plants, and can form thick mats that cover large areas. This is a species that is often spread by people dumping garden waste at the side of a road or the edge of a park. For more information about invasive species in B.C. visit: http://www.bcinvasives.ca/invasive-species/invasive-species We usually have a few Song Sparrows coming to the feeders and we often have a pair or two that nest on the property. However from time to time our Song Sparrows disappear and we can go for a month or so without seeing or hearing one at Leaning Oaks. We suspect house cats are responsible, and the sparrows seem to be particularly vulnerable during the spring months when they nest. This year, despite the number of cats our wildlife camera has documented, we have a few Song Sparrows using the feeders and they have been singing snippets of song off and on for several weeks now. There few trees as distinctive as the broad-leaved evergreen (Canada's only one) Arbutus, or if you are from the U.S. "Madrone". The idea that I'm fortunate to live on a property with many Arbutus, my favorite tree, still astounds! Arbutus trees are adapted to the dry open forests and rocky slopes with shallow soils that are found on Leaning Oaks. The thick leathery leaves will shed in the summer during times of drought. The peeling bark exposes the smooth, silky sensuous surface that can be cool to the touch. The drooping clusters of small white bell-like flowers that bloom in the spring fill the air with a lovely earthy honey scent. The fall clusters of red berries are manna to the birds, particularly the robins and other thrushes. In a good berry year dozens of birds will burst from the tree tops, pooping red berries everywhere! We'll add photographs of the flowers and blooms as those seasons come. When a friend told me about the poem "My Love's an Arbutus" by Alfred Perceval Graves, she said she never really understood the reference to the tree until she moved to Victoria and saw the tree through the seasons. "No wonder his love was an Arbutus, she is always shedding her clothes" was her assessment! Rattlesnake-plantain is always a treat to find when one is out for a walk in the woods. The attractive variegated leaves vary a lot from plant to plant and I don't think any two clones we have on the property have the same leaf pattern. Goodyera oblongifolia most often grows in shaded areas of our Douglas-fir forest that are dominated by the moss, Electrified Cat's Tail. Several references I have read talk about First Nation's use of Rattlesnake-plantain as a children's toy - apparently rubbing the leave separates two layers and the leaf can be inflated like a balloon. I have never tried this, partially because each plant only has a small number of leaves, and they always seem to rare and delicate to pick. Despite the common name, this isn't a plaintain at all, it is actually a species of orchid. The Hairy Woodpecker is a year round resident and one of the four woodpeckers that help to decimate the suet feeders. The Hairy always seems the most cocky and attacks the food with as if it were set out for them alone. Larger than the Downy and if you have a moment of uncertainty without a size reference -look at the bill. It is about the same length as the head. We'd always wondered why this feathered creature was called "Hairy". It turns out that they have highly modified feathers called filoplumes at the base of their upper mandible and on their legs that give the impression of hair. Can't say I ever noticed! Goldback Fern (Pentagramma triangularis) grows in the wet fall and winter and goes dormant for droughty months. At Leaning Oaks is grows best on our the west-facing cliff that bakes dry in the summer. When I took this photo it was below-freezing and after a night with a strong, drying wind. In response to dessication, the leaf edges roll under and then unfurl when humidity increases. Later in the spring, the white sori on the undersides of their leaves will start to produce gold spores in sufficient quantity to colour the undersides gold. Placing a leaf gold-side-down on dark material will leave behind a delicate gold imprint of the leaf pattern. Lungwort is a large, leafy lichen that is found on Big-leafed Maples, Garry Oak and sometimes Douglas-fir branches and trunk. It is loosely attached and after high winds there will be big chunks strewn about.
Lobaria pulmonaria has a great ring to it--and sounds much more appealing than "Lungwort"! The name comes from this plants resemblance to the inner surface of a lung and was apparently used to treat pneumonia and other lung diseases because of this similarity. Leaning Oaks is home to two species of swordfern. This one, Polystichum imbricans is the smaller and more drought tolerant of the two. Both are attractive, evergreen ferns. The Latin name imbricans, means overlapping, like the shingles on a house overlap, which describes the way the leaflets grow on this fern. Here this species grows on the rock outcrops and exposed cliff face. Our plants vary quite a bit in their vigour from small plants with just a few fronds growing in the cracks in the rocks, to a couple of large clumps that were fortunate enough to start life in deeper pockets of soil. As one might expect from a plant that faces severe drought, the leaves are more leathery and covered in a thicker waxy cuticle that the bigger Western Swordfern. The speckled balls that appear on the underside of some of the Garry Oaks are formed by a tiny wasp called Cynips maculipennis. The wasp lays its eggs on the bud of a Garry oak leaf before the leaves unfurl. The small worm-like larvae are suspended in the center of the gall by radiating fibers where they develop. Their numbers are kept in check by native parasitoids and don't do any major damage to the tree. Apparently there can other species of wasps that will live within the red speckled gall as "guests". There is a non-native Jumping gall wasp that will cause a lot of damage to Garry oaks but it's galls are tiny and yellow -about the size of mustard seeds. We'll do a post on that species should we be unfortunate enough to find it on Leaning Oaks! |
AuthorsTwo biologists on a beautiful property armed with cameras, smart phones and a marginal knowledge of websites took up the challenge of documenting one species a day on that property. Join along! Posts and photographs by Leah Ramsay and David Fraser (unless otherwise stated); started January 1, 2014. Categories
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