This sunflower was photographed against the very smoke filled late evening sky in the North Okanagan July 2021. The smokey sky highlights the colour nuances in the flower ever so subtle. Smoke and particles in the air paint the background a stunning shade of red. It was so quiet and still last night in our valley. Eerie and scary at the same time.
Caught a bumble bee on this pretty flower. Columbia lily (Lilium columbianum). Also known as Columbia tiger lily, or tiger lily. Did you there are over 250 species in the genus Bombus?
Sitting in a meadow and having a picnic lunch by the remains of an old frontiers cabin on this slightly overcast day. A trio of Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio Canadensis) was dancing around a wild Mock-orange (Philadelphus lewisii). I had to sneak over and capture the moment and one of the butterflies decided it was lunch time as well and started darting in and out of the blossoms pausing ever so briefly for me. The Mock-orange is a native shrubs in British Columbia and attracts many a pollinator.
This female Red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) is romancing me from it's cattail perch. The background off Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium) makes this image a wall hanger.
World play on the "ducks in a row on this group of Western painted turtles.The Western painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) is the largest subspecies of painted turtle. I found those on one of my favorite ponds closed to Vernon, British Columbia, Canada.
Okanagan natives are the Black-eyed (Rudbeckia hirta) and Brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba). While they are self pollinating they still attracts numerous nectar and pollen-seeking insects to its flowers.
The Aberdeen columns are just in my backyard and a favorite with climbers coming from all over the world to them. The polygonal basalt are columnar jointing and are a geological structure where sets of intersecting closely spaced fractures join in columns. Lichen cover select areas of the rocks in incredible colours.
