Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Fireweed

I think I'm right in saying that this is Fireweed, displaying its wonderfull fall colours. My rough plans for 29 September 2018 changed when I saw the weather forecast. I ended up visiting the Reader Rock Garden instead of driving to a different garden. As usual when I go there, it was a bit windy, which always makes photographing flowers, especially ones on long stems, more difficult. It was also overcast and I was hoping that it wouldn't rain. Instead, I found myself standing at the highest point of the garden, with very light snow falling for just a few minutes. There were still quite a few flowers in bloom, though many were already past their prime. I'm pretty sure these glorious leaves belong to Fireweed. Usually, I see Fireweed growing in the wild, but Reader Rock Garden does have some native plants, too.

On 10 August 2013, I had such a wonderful day in the mountains! I don't get out there very often at all, and certainly not as far as we went today, so it was an absolute treat! Friend Sandy had found an interesting Liverwort (non-vascular plant) there and wanted to go back to see it at a different stage, hoping it would make ID a little clearer. She asked if I wanted to go with her - ha, yes, you bet! We went past Banff and Lake Louise, as far as Bow Lake (seen in my photo) along Highway 93, the Icefields Parkway. They do say that this scenic highway is the most beautiful in the world, and it's easy to believe. I had jokingly said to Sandy when we left Calgary, that what I would really like, please, was blue sky to start with it, then a few puffy white clouds and then maybe even a touch of grey with the white - and that's exactly what we got (plus some rain on the drive back to Calgary). While we were there, we walked very slowly along the Bow Glacier Trail, which runs along the right hand edge of Bow Lake, but we didn't continue as far as the Falls. I had only ever once been to Bow Lake and that was 30+ years ago, but I had always longed to go back. It's one of my favourite places.

Today, I'm again leaving my Waterton images and instead adding three more photos taken three days ago (23 July 2015), closer to home. Five of us spent the day botanizing the land belonging to Darryl Teskey, SW of Calgary and W of Millarville (maybe a 40-minute drive from the city). This was the first time I had been there and I'm so glad I went - I would have missed all sorts of things, including a family of Ruffed Grouse and several fungi. These Grouse are the rare rufous-morph, and we startled them when we were walking through the forest in their direction. Usually, you don't see Grouse because they are so well-hidden. When you get fairly close (sometimes very close) to them, they suddenly "explode" from the tangle of shrubs and plants of the forest floor, making ones heart beat fast! Our walk took us over grassland and through forest, everywhere treacherous with so many fallen logs which were often barely visible. I have never, ever seen so many tiny Skipper butterflies - there must have been hundreds or even thousands of these bright orange beauties that were flying or perched on flowers of every colour. Fortunately, the rain stayed away until we started driving back to Calgary. Quite a lot of black clouds, reminding me of the tornado that passed through Calgary just the day before (22 July 2015). Our purpose, as always, was to find and list everything that we saw - wildflowers, trees, grasses, birds, insects, fungi, etc.. Our leader then compiles an extensive list of our finds and this is later sent to the landowner, along with any photos that we might take. Always a win/win situation, as the landowner then has a much better idea of just what is on his property, and we have a most enjoyable day. This summer, with so many botanizing outings like this, plus two 3-day trips to Waterton Lakes National Park, I am so far behind with the photos that I need to edit and e-mail!

Fireweed was nicely in bloom when I went with friends, Cathy and Terry, for a great day out in the mountains on 19 August 2014. Our trip was part way along Highway 40 and then along the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Lakes Trail. We passed maybe three or four large, dense patches of Fireweed that were absolutely beautiful. Wish I could say the same about the sky - it was far from blue. The weather forecast was not good for this day, but we were so lucky that, apart from a few raindrops, the rain stayed away. The sun actually came out at two locations we stopped at for a short while. "Coming to a newly opened (Fireweed) flower, a bee finds abundant pollen on the anthers and a sip of nectar in the cup below. At this stage the flower keeps its still immature style curved downward and backward lest it should become self-fertilized - an evil ever to be guarded against by ambitious plants. In a few days, or after the pollen has been removed, up stretches the style, spreading its four receptive stigmas just where an in-coming bee, well dusted from a younger flower, must certainly leave some pollen on their sticky surfaces." From chestofbooks.com/flora-plants/flowers .

Fireweed was nicely in bloom when I went with friends, Cathy and Terry, for a great day out in the mountains on 19 August 2014. Our trip was part way along Highway 40 and then along the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Lakes Trail. We passed maybe three or four large, dense patches of Fireweed that were absolutely beautiful. Wish I could say the same about the sky - as you can tell from my photo, it was far from blue. The weather forecast was not good for this day, but we were so lucky that, apart from a few raindrops, the rain stayed away. The sun actually came out at two locations we stopped at for a short while.

"Certain types of aphids live in colonies where they are used as a food source by a neighbouring colony of ants. The ants have been known to bite the wings off the aphids in order to stop them from getting away and depriving the ants of one of their staple foods: the sugar-rich sticky honeydew which is excreted by aphids when they eat plants. (They don't eat the actual Aphids). Chemicals produced in the glands of ants can also sabotage the growth of aphid wings." From ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071009212548.htm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamerion_angustifolium

Will have to wait till I get home later, after my volunteer shift, to add more information about yesterday's 18-hour trip. For now, I'll just say that the day started and ended on a great note. The little Pika in the previous photo started our day off with such delight, but wait till you hear about the day's ending (no photos taken, though). This was one of several huge displays of beautiful, vibrant Fireweed that we saw yesterday, on our drive through Kananaskis.

My alarm clock was not set last night, as I was so desperately tired after three nights in a row of very little sleep. As a result, I slept in really late this morning, so am posting my photos around noon. I turned on my computer and left the room. A minute or two later, when I returned, I found a black screen with white writing on it - don't know if I just missed seeing the Blue Screen of Death, which I got a few days ago. Panic now sets in, as I think of many months' worth of photos not backed up at all! Looks like I'd better back-up at least a few photo folders. Yesterday was a birding trip to Bow Valley Provincial Park, west of Calgary, at the very foot of the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. Takes around 45 minutes to drive there, via Highway 1, from the western edge of Calgary. This was the park that I finally made myself drive to on 20 July, with my youngest daughter. Can't wait to tell her what we saw yesterday, that made the day "exciting" as well as thoroughly enjoyable - and not a single photo to show it, ha. A good thing she and I didn't come across certain of yesterday's sightings on 20 July! I'm going to use the trip leader's write-up of the events of the day - thank you, Andrew, for yet another great trip to a very beautiful place. Each year, this trip to the park makes such a great day. Hope you don't mind my using your report here! I should add that all these birds were far, far away, too far for photos and, for me with no binoculars, too far to see either properly or at all. "We had six participants on this trip. We arrived at BVPP with early morning temperatures which started to warm up. We walked around the Flowing Waters Trail where we heard many of the species we recorded. The highlight of this segment was a Blue Headed Vireo (conceivably a Cassin's but we decided Blue Headed was the higher probability, based on location and the song). I do have some photographs but doubt they would delineate between the two species. (Later: confirmed to be a Cassin's). We had lunch in the Whitefish area and then went over to the Many Springs Trail. As we were assembling in the small Many Springs Trail's car parking area, we looked back along the road we just driven in by and saw a fairly large very glossy, very black Black Bear amble across the road and vanish into the woods. We carried on walking around the trail. About half way around we heard a call from ahead which sounded something like "bear on the trail". We exchanged a few shouted communications with the group ahead of us and concluded that there was a black bear with two cubs wandering around on the trail about 200m ahead of us. We all looked at the (suddenly small looking) bear spray I had with me and decided to turn around and head back to the car park. There were still six of us when we got back. We stopped briefly at Middle Lake and then stopped at the Morleyville Church on Hwy 1A on the way back to Calgary. We had cell coverage all day so I recorded all of the sightings on the Birdlog app, which created the convenient summary of the trip which follows. Checklists included in this summary: (1): Bow Valley PP - Flowing Waters Trails Date: Aug 2, 2014, 8:30 AM (2): Whitefish Date: Aug 2, 2014, 11:30 AM (3): Bow Valley PP - Many Springs Trail Date: Aug 2, 2014, 12:15 PM (4): Bow Valley PP Middle Lake Date: Aug 2, 2014, 1:40 PM (5): Morleyville Church - Aug 2, 2014, 2:49 PM Date: Aug 2, 2014, 2:45 PM 1 Mallard -- (2) 4 Common Merganser -- (2) 1 Common Loon -- (4) 2 Red-tailed Hawk -- (1),(3) 2 Spotted Sandpiper -- (2) 2 Solitary Sandpiper -- (3) 2 Hairy Woodpecker -- (1) 1 Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) -- (1) 1 Merlin -- (5) 1 Western Wood-Pewee -- (3) 1 Willow Flycatcher -- (1) 1 Cassin's Vireo -- (1) 8 Black-billed Magpie -- (5) 4 American Crow -- (2),(4) 3 Common Raven -- (2),(3) 6 Northern Rough-winged Swallow -- (1) 12 Tree Swallow -- (1) 2 Black-capped Chickadee -- (1),(3) 3 Mountain Chickadee -- (1),(3) 2 Red-breasted Nuthatch -- (1) 1 Townsend's Solitaire -- (3) 1 Swainson's Thrush -- (1) 6 American Robin -- (1),(3) 6 Cedar Waxwing -- (1),(3) 1 Northern Waterthrush -- (1) 3 Yellow Warbler -- (1) 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) -- (1) 1 Clay-colored Sparrow -- (1) 1 Savannah Sparrow -- (5) 3 Song Sparrow -- (1),(3) 2 Brown-headed Cowbird -- (3) 1 American Goldfinch -- (1) Andrew Hart"

I love the little McDougall Church, seen in the next photo posted today, especially the long, photogenic fence line leading up to it from the parking lot. These cheery Fireweed flowers were growing against the side of the small cabin that is on the site. Taken on 20 July, when my daughter and I called in, on our way to Bow Valley Provincial Park. The small, white flowers are some kind of Campion (Silene). Lots of beautiful Harebells in the area, too. Fireweed is a native plant, growing in open forests, riverbanks and areas that have been subjected to forest fires. Especially when there is a patch of these tall plants, it makes a beautiful splash of colour. Belongs to the Evening-primrose family. Fireweed is the floral emblem of the Yukon. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamerion_angustifolium

Another shot taken on 29 August 2013, on my second recent visit to Bow Lake, Icefields Parkway (Highway 93), Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. The turquoise, glacially-fed lake lies at the foot of the mountains, behind the patch of coniferous trees, The Crowfoot Glacier is seen in the centre of the image. Crowfoot Mountain lies at 3050m (10007ft.). The Bow Glacier and Bow Lake Falls lie further round the lake, off to the right of my photo. This is the source of the Bow River that is the main river that runs through Calgary. The river that flooded and devastated so many places in June during our Alberta Flood of the Century. In the fall, we don't get the magnificent red Maples that you see in Eastern Canada, but I reckon Fireweed does a pretty good job of making sure we still get some vibrant colour with its glorious leaves! They positively glowed.

Always a lovely combination, Fireweed with a backdrop of Aspen. This was taken in the forest near Maclean Pond, off Elbow Falls Trail, Kananaskis, on August 16th.

I always love to see Fireweed - such a gorgeous colour and it adds such a beautiful splash of colour. To me, it looks especially beautiful in sunlight. Photographed this one on 12th August, on a full-day botanizing trip to West Bragg Creek, Kananaskis.

Fireweed adds so much beautiful colour to wild places. Photographed this particular plant out in Kananaskis recently, when we botanized some forest along the edge of Barrier Lake. "Epilobium angustifolium, commonly known as Fireweed (mainly in North America) or Rosebay Willowherb (mainly in Britain), is a perennial herbaceous plant in the willowherb family, Onagraceae. It is native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere, including large parts of the boreal forests.... It has a tendency to quickly colonize open areas with little competition, such as sites of forest fires and forest clearings." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilobium_angustifolium

The mid-evening sunlight was absolutely gorgeous on these tall Fireweeds. Taken towards the end of an enjoyable walk in Weaselhead a few evenings ago. I hardly ever manage to get out in the evenings, but when I do, I am in awe of the wonderful light that changes everything.

Fireweed is a native plant, growing in open forests, riverbanks and areas that have been subjected to forest fires. Especially when there is a patch of these tall plants, it makes a beautiful splash of colour. Belongs to the Evening-primrose family. Fireweed is the floral emblem of the Yukon.

I always enjoy seeing an area of Fireweed - a mass of these flowers makes such a beautiful display of colour. Tends to grow in areas that have been burnt. Fireweed is the floral emblem of the Yukon.

Our hike in the mountains yesterday, along the Jumpingound Loop trail, took us through forest and also into patches of more open hillside, as in this photo. The Fireweed had turned this beautiful colour and made such a spectacular sight! Perfect weather. What more could one want??

This is one of my favourite photos, taken maybe 25 years ago, so obviously scanned from an old print. I have longed to go back to this place but have never been able to return.