Nature Happenings- July 2024

• Butterfly Weed is in bloom.
• Queen Anne's Lace blooming.
• American Goldfinches are our last birds to nest, waiting for mature thistle plants to provide nesting material and food for their young.
• If you are getting Goldfinches in your yard, consider trying fresh Nyjer® (commonly referred to as thistle), or Finch Blend seed in your finch feeder.
• American Robins have finished nesting, but will readily visit yards in search of worms and berries.
• Plant berry-producing shrubs or offer cherries, cranberries, raisins, grapes, or blueberries to help robins feed their young.
• Look for hummingbirds feeding in your garden and at hummingbird feeders.
• Mallards and Wood Ducks molt into their "eclipse" plumage and are unable to fly for several weeks.
• July is the best month to see butterflies in Alberta!
• First brood of immature hummingbirds begin to show up at nectar feeders later in the month.
• The full "Buck Moon" is July 21, 2024.
• Delta Aquariids Meteor shower peaks July 28, 2024.
• Beautiful Fairy-slipper Orchids can be found in moist, shaded forest in the Foothills region, there are over 24 native orchid species to be found in our province (www.northamericanorchidcenter.org).
• Coots and their striped young thrive in the potholes of the Parklands.
• Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump has an abundance yellow-bellied marmots, easily sighted.
• The Franklin's Ground Squirrel or "bush gopher" is regularly seen in many of the Provincial Parks in the eastern part of the Parklands.
• The carnivorous Northern Pitcher plant grows in wet bogs in the Cold Lake area.
• Rocky Mountain Goats move down in summer to visit mineral licks along the Columbia Icefields Parkway.
• Fireflies are visible on hot nights over fescue grasslands in the Cypress Hills.
• By early July, bighorn sheep rams, barren females, and juveniles in Banff National Park have moved to their summer range.
• Beginning in late July and lasting several weeks, Common Loons will begin congregating on Muriel Lake. Flocks of over 100 should be visible and numerous.
• In early July, White-tailed Ptarmigan can be seen above the tree line at Wilcox Pass.
• By late July, leopard frog tadpoles begin their transformation into adults.
• On hot summer days, the buzzy trill coming from the trees above is the call of the male cicada, a tree-dwelling insect.  Alberta is home to seven species of cicada.