ER # 7 TROUT CREEK TOUR MAY 10 2010

I was accompanied for most of my 2 hours in the ER by Don Gayton. I appreciated him sharing his knowledge of the grasses we found, as grasses are not my forte! He says the ER is in pristine condition and that a prescribed burn is necessary to keep the pine trees from taking over as they are rapidly doing. I saw or heard 14 species of birds; unfortunately no Gray Flycatchers. We did see, however,3 Osprey flying over! I have previously recorded this species flying over the ER, but very seldom.

Many flowers were in bloom. The Columbia Bladderpod was especially noticeable. There were few toadflax beetles; Don figured that this was due to the cool weather. On the other hand, I pagan found no knapweed rosettes, so the root beetle has been very effective. We checked the 1974 site where the red-listed DALLES MILK-VETCH was reported, but found none. Tevor Goward found a few plants on the east side of Skaha Lake on May the 8th in 1922, so I thought that I would try the ER site today. The site is semi-shaded, so that may be problematic if it is even there. It may never have been numerous.

There was no sign of human activity. Some of the fence (rock)cribbing has rotted out along the N-S fence, but there is less pressure on the fence at that point and only one post has rotted at the base, so it is not a yet a problem .

Cheers.............Laurie