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Central Okanagan Naturalists' Club (CONC) |
Welcome to the home page of the Central Okanagan Naturalists Club (CONC)
CONC is dedicated to nature, and to keeping it worth knowing
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Discover Nature: Hikers on Knox Mountain
Virginia Falls, Nahanni
Threat to Nahanni National Park Reserve.
To find out more about this proposal see Goat Peak
Swallowtail
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The Young Naturalists Club is inviting the Senior Club, to join them in a “clean sweep” on Sunday April 29 in Enterprise City Park. This park is located at 2500 Enterprise Way and joins to Mill Creek linear trail. Our club has not been active for a couple of years in Pitch-In Week so this is a chance to rectify our absence in this community effort. The park is located behind Enterprise Auto and has lots of parking. So please come and help. Start time 1 pm onwards. Bring clippers, shovels trowels, plastic bag, work gloves and a smile. See you April 29. Pat Westheuser and Fiona Flook The Annual Okanagan Mountain Park Bird and Critter Count will be held on Saturday and Sunday, May 26-27, 2012, sponsored by our club. The count was held annually from 1993-2003, but then was interrupted for two years by the fires of 2003. The birds have come back in full force with higher species totals on the post-fire counts. Many of the woodpeckers, both Mountain and Western Bluebirds, and Olive-sided Flycatchers have all become regulars. And Okanagan specialties like Canyon Wrens and White-throated Swifts are still just as common. If you’d like to join in, contact me directly - Les Gyug (250-769-5907, les_gyug@shaw.ca), or if you' have participated in a Count in the past, you can contact your previous route leader. We do between seven and eleven routes per year, so there are a number of opportunities to join in--either by car birding, short walks, or long strenuous all day hikes to the center of the park. We can hook you up with a group covering a route from either the north end at Kelowna or the south end near Naramata/Penticton. Or we can set you out on a route of your own that doesn't get regularly covered. Besides contributing to the long-term record for comparing pre-fire to post-fire species abundance in the park, we will contribute any new or upgraded breeding information to the B.C. Breeding Bird Atlas. 2012 is the last year of its five year project.
The Central Okanagan Naturalists Club is celebrating its 50th anniversary
The Club is launching events throughout the year for the public to get to know the Okanagan and nature.
CONC is hosting events right through the year - come back to this site often to check up on what is being planned.
For full schedule click here.
April 10. CONC monthly meeting.
April 21. Discover Nature with Lesley Robertson Meet at Applebowl at 9 am, bring binoculars if you have them, a snack, water and wear good walking shoes. This is a public event but of course members are encouraged to join in. Non members will pay a dollar to cover insurance. Lesley will explore the Glenmore area, Robert Lake, the Linear Walkway, Blair's Pond off Clifton and Redlich Pond on Gillard Drive. She is also going to talk about the interesting history of Glenmore, no original buildings are left, but lots of tales of The Good Old Days !Please join in this Discovery.
May 10-13 BC Nature AGM at Okanagan College, Kelowna |
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The Central Okanagan Naturalists' Club will be hosting the BC Nature 2012 AGM May 10-13, 2012
The AGM will be held in Building E - The Centre for Learning. Parking will be in the student parking lot just north of the building.
Our AGM sponsors
photo: Les Gyug
Arrowleaf Balsamroot Balsamorhiza sagittata Kelowna's official flower
Arrowleaf Balsamroot, grows from a strong-smelling taproot, has clumps of arrowhead-shaped basal leaves up to 30 cm long and 15 cm wide. They are silver-grey in colour, with a dense cover of woolly, white hairs on both sides. Bright yellow, sunflower-like blossoms. up to 10 cm across, are borne singly at the end of long stalks. Although generally shunned by domestic livestock, deer, elk, and mountain sheep graze Arrowleaf Balsamroot. Native Americans used to eat the stout starchy roots and tender young shoots. This striking plant blooms in early spring.
source: Scotter, George W. and Hälle Flygare. Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountains.
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| webmaster: Teresa M. Smith, tmsmith.rio@shaw.ca |
