On Saturday, July 2, accompanied by Martha (photo at left)--Karen and I returned to the bear tree area. We hoped to get more pictures of the Red-naped Sapsucker family that we had found two days earlier. When we arrived at their nest hole in the aspen, we were surprised to find that the nestlings had fledged and now were moving about with their parents and feeding at the sap wells that the adults had drilled into the birch trees.

The lower bird in the picture to the right is a juvenile.

This day we also found a second family of Red-naped Sapsuckers, just two or three hundred metres from the first.

The next picture shows a juvenile sapsucker at the  sap wells on a birch tree and also, on an adjacent tree--at the source of the sap and insects that feed upon it--is a Rufous Hummingbird (lower right corner).

Martha's camera was busy too. She took the above photograph and the one of Karen, at left.


In addition to the exciting observations on birds, Karen drew my attention to two plants, Showy Daisy and Striped Coralroot.

Showy Daisy

Striped Coralroot

This plant is a saprophyte, entirely without chlorophyll and it gets its nutrition from organic matter in the forest soils. Initially an overall pink colour, it is now in the seed production stage and the blossoms have been replaced by oval seed capsules.

And finally, here is an unknown plant that we found. I would appreciate suggestions as to its identity.