The wild sunflowers are blooming in the Okanagan! For most people here, this is a welcome and certain sign of spring. The common name in the literature is Arrow-leaved Balsamroot but most local people call them wild sunflowers.

I took these pictures in the Glen Canyon Regional Park this morning. This plant is edible, all parts of it were eaten either fresh or cooked by the native peoples.

Honey bees were very busily at work on the blossoms. Close up photos of the bees revealed to me that there were also many other very tiny insects on the flowers, insects too small for me to notice with the naked eye! I don't know what they are.

A Pygmy Nuthatch, probably one seen on my last visit to the area, continued reconstruction of his nest hole in the tall stump of a Ponderosa Pine.

As I watched from my seat on the slope, I noticed periodic puffs of dust coming from behind another tall stump about 50 metres away. Going to investigate, I saw that the "dust" came from another hole in a tall stump that was being excavated--this one by a male Northern Flicker. When first seen, he appeared to be trying to hide, or at least, hoping to be unnoticed. Then, when I took a seat on the hillside, obviously without intent to approach more closely, he went back to his hole and resumed work.

The depth of the hole was now such that when he was audibly tapping away inside, only the tip of his tail was exposed at the entrance. The puffs of dust came each time he discarded a mouthful of fine wood chips. 

He paused periodically, keeping a sharp lookout for enemies, such as rival male flickers. Flickers were calling from other locations in the creek valley.