by lcmuseum@shaw.ca | Nov 30, 2022 | Guest Bloggers
September 17, 2022 On a lovely September Day Virginia and Peter Palma kindly hosted a gathering of Kobayashi Descendents to dedicate their beautifully renovated home to the Kobayashi family. This kind gesture was appreciated by four generations of the family, who...
by lcmuseum@shaw.ca | Nov 30, 2022 | Animals, Environment, Guest Bloggers, Natural History
Flooding is common in the Okanagan. Our post ‘Flooding in Lake Country’ touches on this, as we noted how flooding occurred nearly every year in the early 1900s. In 1908, the Oyama canal was built, connecting Wood Lake and Kalamalka Lake. This lowered the lakes’ water...
by lcmuseum@shaw.ca | Nov 23, 2022 | Deana Asham, Guest Bloggers, Natural History
Kokanee, a form of landlocked salmon, are Indigenous to the Okanagan and at one time were abundant within Okanagan and Wood Lake. Kokanee adapted from sockeye salmon, who migrated from the Columbia River approximately 10,000 years ago after the last ice age. Once...
by lcmuseum@shaw.ca | Nov 23, 2022 | Guest Bloggers, Pam Laing
In our spring posting we took a close look at the three species of Grebe that spend their entire year here, changing plumage into breeding ‘duds’ each spring. Today we’ll focus on the two species that migrate here to breed during our summer. These are the Western...
by lcmuseum@shaw.ca | Nov 23, 2022 | Guest Bloggers, Tiana Langedyk
The Vernon to Kelowna Bike Race in the 1930’s was instigated by a local bike shop to promote their store. Biking at the time was growing as an important sport in the Okanagan Valley with the development of new roads and pathways, particularly the development of...
by lcmuseum@shaw.ca | Nov 23, 2022 | Guest Bloggers, Peter Palma.
Here are some pictures of one of the oldest and original houses in Okanagan Centre still in existence. This home at the bottom of Camp Road was built by a German immigrant builder in 1889, so we were told, who shortly thereafter returned back to the old country. The...
by lcmuseum@shaw.ca | Nov 23, 2022 | Guest Bloggers, Pam Laing
Three Grebes In past postings we’ve looked at many of the ducks that can be seen in our valley annually. Today let’s look at another family of diving birds, the grebes. Five species of grebe come to the Okanagan annually, plus one more occasionally, but only three are...
by lcmuseum@shaw.ca | Nov 23, 2022 | Guest Bloggers, Pam Laing
Four Owls Winter is undoubtedly the best season in which to see owls. This is partly because many trees are bare, enabling better sightings, if you are lucky. But it’s also because in winter some of the owls that usually breed and hunt in the upper forests come down...
by lcmuseum@shaw.ca | Nov 23, 2022 | Guest Bloggers, Nancy Josland Dalsin
In 2018 I was working as a volunteer at Mackie Lake House in Coldstream researching some of the artifacts. One of the artifacts that I was researching and trying to provenance was a beautiful, wall mounted artists jewel case designed by the famous Victorian period...
by lcmuseum@shaw.ca | Nov 5, 2022 | Guest Bloggers, Natural History, Okanagan birder, Pam Laing
Two small falcons – Merlin and American Kestrel Peregrine falcons are probably the best-known of all falcons and we do see them occasionally in our valley. But we are much more likely to see one of the smaller falcons, Merlins and American Kestrels, especially in fall...
by lcmuseum@shaw.ca | Nov 5, 2022 | Guest Bloggers, Okanagan birder, Pam Laing
More Icterids – Bullock’s Oriole and Western Meadowlark Bullock’s Oriole male In the spring posting we looked at three of the family known as Icterids. Those three were Red-winged Blackbird, Brewer’s Blackbird and Yellow-headed Blackbird. Today let’s turn our...
by lcmuseum@shaw.ca | Nov 5, 2022 | Guest Bloggers, Okanagan birder, Pam Laing
Red-winged Blackbird, Yellow-headed Blackbird, and Brewer’s Blackbird One and perhaps two of today’s birds are probably familiar to you, the other might not be. They are all blackbirds, members of the Icterid family, a group comprising (in our valley) these two, as...
