Yesterday, Karen and I checked my trail cameras at the bear tree, south of Peachland Creek. There were pictures of two bears on the cameras, one a night shot of a blond bear with a darker coloured head and the other this large black bear, shown just arriving at the bear tree.

An interesting series of photos followed, showing him rising on his hind legs, back against the tree and rubbing his body vigorously against it-----

-------all the while pulling the upper branches of the little tree down about his head.

There were many pictures of cattle on the memory cards but of most interest was the behaviour of the large Angus bull. As he was about to walk past the bear tree, he turned and put his nose up to it.

Then he turned toward the camera and one could almost say he rolled his eyes!

Next a beautiful whitetail doe appeared-----

----and she also put her nose to the bear tree.

It was a good day for birding; a sparrow, tentatively identified as Lincoln's Sparrow, moved about in the trail-side bushes.

Red-naped Sapsuckers flitted about in the swampy forest near a woodland pond. They were feeding on birch trees, leaving them marked with their characteristic feeding patterns---small holes in lines encircling the trees. This gives them not only access to sap which wells up into the holes but also to the insects which come to feed on it.

Karen noticed the sapsuckers' nest hole in a larger tree, an aspen, I think, although the pictures taken show needles from a nearby Douglas fir tree. The sapsucker nestlings kept up a constant high-pitched calling and repeatedly showed their heads at the nest entrance. The parent birds made frequent trips between their food source in the birch trees and the nest. Karen's videos are now awaiting editing.

Smaller birds of two or more species also profited by the work of the sapsuckers. Two or more hummingbirds of undetermined species kept darting in to feed at the holes made by the sapsuckers.

A female Red-breasted Nuthatch also came to the sap wells drilled into the birches.

Karen noticed a Flower Crab Spider in an aster or daisy blossoming on the trail-side. Although it doesn't show in this picture, the spider had red marks on each side of its body, suggesting that it was the species, Misumena vatia.

It held its two front pairs of legs out to the sides, as if in defence. Unfortunately, I frightened it away when I moved to try for a picture showing its red markings.

The beautiful little forest plant Pipsissewa is now in bloom. It is also called Prince's Pine.

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