Summer Showers, Summer Flowers

The nature walk yesterday to identify summer flowers in the meadows began & ended with a few showers, though the rain held off during the walk itself. Below a list of plants reported:
Trees:
Mountain hemlock
Amabilis fir
Subalpine fir
Western white pine
Yellow cedar

Shrubs:
Oval-leaved blueberry
Dwarf blueberry
Alaskan blueberry
False azalea
White flowered rhododendron
White mountain-heather
Pink mountain-heather
Crowberry
Western bog-laurel
Five-leaved bramble
Arctic willow
Sitka mountain ash
Bog blueberry

Liliaceae:
False hellebore
Clasping twistedstalk

Orchidaceae:
Rattlesnake plantain
Northwestern twayblade
White bog-orchid

Saxifragaeae:
Leatherleaf saxifrage

Rosaceae:
Partridgefoot
Sitka burnet

Violaceae:
 Early blue violet
Stream violet

Asteraceae:
Mountain arnica
Pearly everlasting
 
Ranunculaceae:
Alpine white marsh-marigold
Globeflower
False bugbane

Fabaceae:
Arctic lupine

Scrophulariaceae:
Bracted lousewort

Other families:
Three-leaved goldthread
Jeffrey's shootingstar
Pretty shootingstar
Bunchberry
Deer cabbage
Sitka valerian
Swamp lantern
Buckbean
Sundew
Common butterwort
Fireweed

Grasses:
Black alpine sedge
Meten's rush
Arctic bluegrass

Thanks to Mary & Fred for sending the lists!

BC Parks rangers Gemma & Geoff were on site assembling the 2nd of two picnic tables, now in place in front of the Centre.

Hikers reported a Great Blue Heron in the Paradise Meadows ponds, a rather unusual sight - though where there are fish, there will be herons!

On the BCVI Birds Yahoo group website, a hiker & birder from Ladysmith reported on a recent trek through the central part of Strathcona Park:
Hermit Thrush: full song at 1200 meters Aug 5 & 1500 m Aug 10
Gray Jays
Rufous Hummingbirds: at up to 1700 m
American Pipits: July 24 etc at 1600 to 1800 m
Peregrine Falcon: at 1600 m
Gray-crowned Rosy Finches: including a begging juvenile
Bald Eagles: 2 "almost adults" at 1700 m with white head & tail and significant light wing patches
Goldeneye (Common?) single female at 1500 m
WT Ptarmigan: lotsa poop, but only one adult sighted at 1740 m
Sooty Grouse adult hen: at 1720 m on Aug 9, the highest I have ever sighted.
in Marble Meadows approx 1475 m elevation: RB Nuthatches, Juncos, CB Chickadees, and very surprising . . . 2 American Robins . . . one of which was an obvious juvenile.

Some lost & found over the weekend: a pair of sunglasses, and a black umbrella with a music motif pattern. Contact coordinator(at)strathconapark.org to retrieve any items.