White-Tailed Deer at Grasslands National Park

This White-tailed deer watched from the wildflowers as we drove along the Frenchman River Valley Ecotour through Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan this summer.

White-tailed deer.  © SB

What is this deer? White-tailed deer

Location: Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan.

Photo date:  June 23, 2012.

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Orange Skipper Butterflies on Purple Flowers

Skipper butterfly feeding on flowers
(Note the long proboscis sipping)  © SB 

Tiny skipper butterflies fed on wildflowers and rested in the grass beside Wascana Creek in Regina last week.

Skippers as a group are easy to identify because their furry bodies are so large in proportion to their wings, at least compared to many other butterflies.

They are also very small — overall, these butterflies are less than an inch long. They were tricky to snap pictures of because they rarely paused long as they skipped from blossom to blossom.

There are many different kinds of skippers, and I'm not really sure what kind sips from our Regina flowers. 

However, the dark rim and markings on their wings look like Delaware Skippers. (Here's their range map, and yes, it includes Saskatchewan.) Perhaps someone who knows will comment here. 

Skipper butterfly on a stalk of grass  © SB

Top view, Skipper butterfly   © SB

What are these?  Skipper butterflies on alfalfa or wild purple vetch. (Perhaps Delaware Skippers.) 

Location: Along Wascana Creek, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Photo date: July 5 and 6, 2012.  

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I don't know where I am, but I like it...

Eagle Butte -- I'm not sure what's where, but I love this sign. © SB

Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada: Propped in the sand before the final climb up to 70 Mile Butte, there is a wonderfully rustic sign.

Reading it at first, I thought I must be standing on Eagle Butte — but maps in the GNP Visitors' Guide indicate Eagle Butte is some distance north.

The arrows on this sign are also intriguing. What lies 0.7 km in one direction, and 8.8 km in another?

The posts stood beside Yarrow plants, and a feet away, Prairie Roses grew in barren-looking sand, and I didn't care where I was, or what this sign meant, beyond the obvious: You are now in the land of buttes, dry grasses and erosion — surrendered ranches in the wild old West. 

I wish all Parks Canada signs were so evocative. I hope this one is not replaced with a cold metal plate.

What is this? A sign high on the climb up Grasslands' 70 Mile Butte, so called because it's visible from at least 70 miles away. 
Location: Grasslands National Park. 
Photo Date: July 27, 2011. 

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Cabbage White Butterfly on Canada Thistle

Cabbage White on Canada Thistle, Regina, SK © SB

The most abundant butterflies in our Regina, SK (Canada) neighbourhood this summer are Cabbage Whites, fluttering through the grass and garden.

Especially the garden. These delicate-looking butterflies love vegetable gardens. As the Government of Canada says of Cabbage Whites on its Canadian Biodiversity website:

"Its bright white colour and fondness for gardens make it one of the butterflies familiar to anyone even mildly interested in nature."

We're not trying to grow cabbages this year — or other Brassicas  — and we're not growing thistles, either. This photograph was taken beside a public path/parkway along Wascana Creek a few days ago.  

Location: Along Wascana Creek, Regina, Saskatchewan. 

Photo Date: August 15, 2011. 

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