Category: Flora


Antarctic visit

 

 

Alan Burger has returned to Merritt from a trip to Antarctica. The Nicola Naturalist President will present at the local community college on Thursday March 10th at 7:PM.

NNS President Alan Burger regularly goes to the Antarctic as a naturalist/lecturer on small adventure-tourism vessels. In 2015 he completed a 31-day voyage from New Zealand to the Ross Sea – the deep south – and along the West Antarctic coast. He visited many areas where people seldom go. In January-February 2016 he was in the Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia. Global climate change is affecting the Antarctic and its wildlife but sometimes in unexpected ways. Enjoy many photos of wildlife and spectacular scenery.

Alan has recently taken on the executive of the Provincial Naturalists organization.
The lecture theater allows no food or drink, There is free parking in the College Parking lot, at 4155 Belshaw avenue at the top of the hill.
Membership or donation requested.

On this Day, March 1st 2002

An Earth Observation Satellite for environmental purposes reaches orbit. Envisat is a the largest environmental satellite put in orbit and is operated by the European Space Agency.

 

 

Butterflies

Bob Scafe is presenting at the monthly meeting of the Nicola Naturalists on Thursday February 18th.

Bob is a director of the Nicola Naturalist Society and one of our most prolific nature photographers. Lately, he and his wife Bev have become interested in butterflies and moths – getting to know and identify the local species. Bob will give us an introduction to the rich butterfly fauna of the BC interior. Later this spring he has promised to lead a few butterfly field trips so this presentation is a valuable primer. We’ll have lots of great photos too!

Bob recently presented on his trip to South East Asia , mostly highlighting people and lifestyle. He has titled this presentation The wonderful world of butterflies. The presentation starts at 7PM in the NVIT lecture theater in Merritt, no food or drink allowed in, free parking, and membership or donation requested.

March will see club president Alan Burger back from a trip to Antarctica. the meeting will be on the 17th titled:  Antarctic Wild  Life-  Life in a changing environment .

Winter/Spring Programs – January to May 2016

Meetings continue through May.

On this day: February 16th 2005

The Kyoto protocol comes in to effect after Russian ratification.

TGIF-One month to daylight saving

March 13th is daylight saving time, at 2 AM the clock will go ahead one hour giving the clock an hour of sunlight in the evening and taking it from the early morning.

Some tulips are pushing through in a sheltered area outside the house at this writing, some heat from the home has always broadcast into the soil about it and are usually in bloom about Easter weekend.
Sunrise is at 7:29 AM now and sets at 5:25 PM we are gaining about 3 and quarter minutes a day on ward to the Spring Equinox on March 19th at 21:30 Hours.Vernal Equinox is 12 hours dark and daylight and happens twice a year.
Degree days are the number of days of above freezing temperatures needed for different plants. For open gardens planting here is most effective in the second half of May.

Some people have been complaining about Flem in their throats and that it persists this winter, others feel a little sad from light deprivation. Light and warmth is on its way , a month to go to help these and other winter afflictions with a significant change. You can take comfort in the momentum and watch sheltered gardens like the Baillie house here in Merritt for plants coming back .

You can start eyeing the molasses and sulfur for a timely spring tonic in a few weeks.

There is also a total lunar eclipse on March 8th at 11:19 PM to look forward to as you watch the night sky.

The city garden at the Baillie house  File Photo KDG

The city garden at the Baillie house
File Photo KDG

On this day February 12th 1947

The Soviet Union gets am impact crater from the largest recorded iron meteorite to that time.

The Nicola Naturalists are having their January presentation meeting on the 21st of the month. Frank Ritcey of Wild Safe BC will talk about safety about wildlife and in particular bears.

Frank Ritcey is the Provincial Coordinator for WildSafeBC, based in Kamloops. Run by the BC Conservation Foundation this program focuses on how we can minimize our impact on the wildlife we observe and keep ourselves safe at the same time. Frank was raised in the wilds of Wells Gray Park by his pioneering mother, Clara Ritcey, and Park Biologist father Ralph Ritcey. Frank’s love of nature has been with him his whole life and he still spends much time filming and studying nature. Frank often contributes to CBC’s popular North by Northwest show.

The meeting starts at 7PM and is open to the public (membership or donation requested) , no food or drinks allowed in the NVIT lecture theater, however there is free parking. NVIT is a local community college founded in part by Grand Chief  Gordon Antoine ( deceased) , Gordon was a member of the Coldwater Indian Band and promoted education for his people, he is survived by his wife Janice a principal of the Coldwater Indian Band K -12 school.

The Nicola Naturalists use the lecture theater at NVIT as a non profit and provide a bursary to natural resource students as a matter of consideration for its use.

On this day: January 12th 1959

The Caves of Nerja are rediscovered.

 

 

 

Mallard on Nicola River File Photo KDG

Mallard on Nicola River
File Photo KDG

The Nicola Naturalists are organizing the Merritt Christmas Bird Count. This count has been running since 1995 and is one of thousands held across N America and other parts of the world. The count is on Sunday 20th December 2015 – you can come for the whole day or part of the day. We tally all the species and numbers of birds within a 22 km diameter circle. The area is divided up and groups of birders spend the day looking for both common and rare species.

Source Alan Burger

Here are a few samples of birds within 22 Kilometers of Merritt…

 

Ring Neck Doves File Photo KDG

Ring Neck Doves
File Photo KDG

Sandpiper Photo KDG

Sandpiper
 File Photo: KDG

Mallard Duck File Photo KDG

Mallard Duck
File Photo KDG

Heron Photo KDG

Heron
Photo KDG

Feeders help Photo KDG

Feeders help Sparrows
Photo KDG

On this Day: December 11th 1997

The Kyoto Protocol comes up for signature.

Nicola Naturalists -Island Conservation

Thursday the 19th will see Chris Gill present Guns, Traps, and Poisons to the regular  monthly meeting held at the lecture theater at the local community college on Belshaw avenue in Merritt.

Islands support fragile ecosystems and are the nesting sites for huge numbers of seabirds. Invasive alien species, such as rats, are one of the greatest threats to these sensitive locations. Chris Gill is a wildlife biologist from Salmon Arm and the founder of Coastal Conservation. He has been working for 15 years on island restoration in Haida Gwaii, BC where invasive rats, raccoon s and deer are a major threat. In 2014 Chris received the prestigious Parks Canada CEO Award of Excellence for the Night Birds Returning program – recognizing his excellent work in restoring breeding populations of birds on these islands. An important conservation success story.

Presentations start at &:PM membership or donation requested, no food or drinks in the theater.

Nicola Naturalist Society fall programs – 2015

On this day November 12th 1990

A proposal for a World Wide Web is published.

Graphics for the sage…

Enhancing the image of the city photo KDG

Enhancing the image of the city
photo KDG

Taylor, Jordan and Brett are installing graphic sheets to nine hydro/ utility/ transforming boxes to make the city more appealing.   A city works foreman said that the cost wasn’t that much and they are resistant to vandal writing or tagging…
The men are from Premier Graphics of Richmond.
On this day: October 5th 1665
The University of Kiel is established.

Utilities box with new graphics Photo KDG

Utilities box with new graphics
Photo KDG

https://www.uni-kiel.de/index-e.shtml

Photos from Vietnam

A local is giving his photo tour of Vietnam and the flora and fauna that he photographed.

Bob Scafe is a Naturalist Society director and one of our club’s keenest photographers. Bob and his wife Bev recently traveled through Vietnam and Cambodia and will share their experiences with the local people, wildlife and places that they visited. Something tropical and exotic – this will be fascinating.

The Nicola naturalists meet at the local community college NVIT, the west top of Belshaw avenue in Merritt. They say all welcome, membership or donation requested. No food or drink in the lecture theater start time is 7:PM

Spring programs – April-June 2015

On this Day: May 12th 2008

Four hundred emigrants are detained for identity theft and document fraud in Post Ville Iowa.

DSC_7595

Tom Sullivan (left) and Alan Burger ready for his presentation

 

Doctor Tom Sullivan presented at the Nicola Naturalists last week on the work he has done with wood debris from logging operations.The University of BC professor and resident of the interior Town of Summerland said that piles of wood waste can be habitat for weasels and small forest animals. The slide show gave images of wood debris used to in strategies to connect habitat to mandatory patch’s of left forest in clear-cut operations. He had brochures available taken from his published works in scientific journals.

Tom noted it is best used to do these piles in remote logged areas as human access lends its self to them being set on fire.

There was a class of natural resource teck students from the First Nations run community college NVIT in the  audience and were introduced to the gathering by Nicola Naturalists President Alan Burger. They were said to be possible beneficiaries of the 600 dollar scholarship award just created by the group.

Pious Chong was also recognised  by Burger for his award of “The best artist in Singapore” by the President of Singapore.

DR. Sullivan works through the Applied Mammal Research Institute In Summerland as well as UBC : http://www.appliedmammal.com

Today in history: November 25 th 1940

The De Havilland Mosquito Bomber has its first flight.

 

Pallets are money

Wooded pallets for moving beer are made from oak. Photo KDG

Wooded pallets for moving beer are made from oak.
Photo KDG

Sources says that pallets can cost about 85 dollars a piece and that one supplier of brew in kegs may have a thousand of them. That’s near 6 figures in capital. the one for moving beer kegs are made of Oak. Oak is cut in the province of Quebec here in Canada.

Toxic to some:

The leaves and acorns of the oak tree are poisonous to cattle, horses, sheep, and goats in large amounts due to the toxin tannic acid, and cause kidney damage and gastroenteritis. Additionally, once livestock have a taste for the leaves and acorns, they may seek them out.[clarification needed] Symptoms of poisoning include lack of appetite, depression, constipation, diarrhea (which may contain blood), blood in urine, and colic. The exception to livestock and oak toxicity is the domestic pig, which may be fed entirely on acorns in the right conditions, and has traditionally been pastured in oak woodlands (such as the Spanish dehesa and the English system of pannage) for hundreds of years.
Acorns are also edible to humans in processed form, after leaching of the tannins. source Wikipedia

Oak is used because of it’s strength and the prestige of its name, often in furniture and trim in expensive buildings. Pallets can be a valuable source of recyclable material.

Make a Relationship with Local Business People You Deal With on a Regular Basis Over the years, I’ve chatted up more than my share of produce department managers. Yes, part of this friendliness was totally self-serving. I was looking for empty cardboard boxes for a household move, and then in later years, to move the kids to college. The same approach can work for pallets. If you are looking for a specific type of pallet, and you are a valued customer, good things can happen. You should understand, however, that some reusable pallets have to go back to suppliers. These may be rental pallets that are the property of those companies, or other reusable pallets that must be returned. Many shop operators, however, have pallets they will happily give away if it is not too much of a hassle to segregate them for you./p>  source:http://recycling.about.com/od/Scrap_Theft/a/Five-Great-Places-To-Find-Free-Or-Low-Cost-Pallets.htm

 

Today in history: November 13th 1986
Kevin Bridges Scottish comedian and actor born.

Nicola Naturalist Society

The local Naturalists had there AGM on September 18th, they reported 63 members after its 4th Year of operation. they have a schedule of monthly meetings in the non summer part of what they do. Speakers included Bruce Archibald ( Fossils of the BC interior),Richard Doucette, ( mine reclamation) Barbara Pryce ( nature conservancy of Canada) and they reported others. The group had outings over the year including the Christmas bird count, Spius Creek Hatchery, and many frogging outings. They had two nature presentation in elementary schools by members. They report their website as having 5 50 visits on average per month, http://www.nicolanaturalists.ca/ .They report a healthy balance sheet with a three fold increase in income over last year to $14,119.11 after paying $11,259.62 in expenses they had a net income of 2,859.49. The club has a balance of $6,936.02 in cash and $4,310.26 in assets, with outstanding liabilities of 75 dollars in cheques to clear, and 1500 dollars in liability to BC nature. they report 15 dollars in petty cash reserve. Directors for 2014/15: Alan Burger Norm Hanson D. Kerridge Anne Pang Chris Lepsol Margret Carlson

The next meeting is on October 16th 2014 with Doreen Olson on the Similkameen Natural park proposal, the presentation starts at 7:00 in the NVIT Lecture Theater

Today in history, October 8th 1904 The Canadian City of Edmonton Alberta is incorporated.

Nicola Naturalists

The local naturalists are starting their fall/winter program on Thursday the 18th, they will have their member photo night and annual meeting at 7 PM in room 0001.
President Alan Burger, a PHD and artic explorer is the president at this time, and will present a brief AGM. The group has monthly meetings with guest speakers open to the public with a request for membership or donation.

Today in history: September 18th 1906

A typoon kills ten thousand people in Hong Kong.