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Now that the official start of summer is just about upon us, we welcome you with this lazy-day image of a moose browsing in the rocky mountains to Whispers. |
Greetings
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Hello everybody and welcome to June's issue of Whispers, the newsletter of the Dereila Nature Inn - your cyber nature centre.
This newsletter is designed to keep you informed and connected to some of the latest additions of the Inn as well as featuring some monthly sections we hope you'll find interesting.
We've received quite a few new subscribers recently so we want to say a special hello to you - welcome! And to our long-time subscribers, as always, thank you for supporting our project.
We hope this newsletter finds you all well and that you're enjoying the natural world in whatever way possible, wherever you may be.
Have a wonderful June! |
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Trivia Time
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Each month we'll start things off with a little bit of nature trivia for you.
What is the largest group of insects?
You'll find the answer at the end of the newsletter.
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Tips From the Inn - #6 - Photographing a Seagull ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our little tip for this month is for those photographers who manage to get to the coast and encounter seagulls. Noticing how the gulls carried some huge clam shells and dropped them onto the beach rocks to open them, gave us the idea how we could possibly get some pictures.
Strolling along the beach we discovered one of these great clams that was probably dropped and left. We tapped it on a rock, not to open it but to attract the gull's attention. Placing the shell in the gull's view, we backed away and waited. The gull quickly decided to get the shell.
Then it was just a case of taking a few photos as the gull walked away with his prize.
We welcome your nature tips and ideas! Just send us an e-mail. |
| New Features at the Inn
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It's been a busy month at the Inn and here are our new features. Just click on the images to go directly to the page.
Dragonflies and Damselflies Photo Gallery
 We've added a few photo galleries this month, the first features some of everyone's favourite insects: Dragonflies and Damselflies. Fungi Photo Gallery Our second new photo gallery includes some of the amazing shapes and colours of fungi. Bird Adaptations: Feet
 See how birds have feet that are especially adapted to suit their ways of life. Caption This! The Bugs
 If it could speak, what on earth would this dragonfly be saying? Visit our new page with images of bugs doing their thing and suggest a funny caption or two.
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Contributed by... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a community of nature enthusiasts exchanging ideas, stories, tips and images, we invite you to submit nature images to this part of our monthly newsletter.
This month we have another two wonderful underwater images from Dr R. Walker from Victoria.
 
Thanks once again for the submissions, Dr. Walker!
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And more great images from Steve Slayton, who is becoming a regular contributor.
 
There is the male Vermillion Flycatcher shown here on the left with the female on the right side. Our thanks to Steve once again. If you'd like to see your image as part of our members' section, simply send us an e-mail. |
| Monthly Selections
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each month we select a bird, bug and wildflower of the month. Here are this month's choices:
Click on the images to visit the page and don't forget that we welcome your suggestions for future selections, even if you don't have an image to supply for us. Please send your ideas to us by e-mail.
And a reminder that the year's archives for each are just a click away:
Wildflower Archives | Bug Archives | Bird Archives |
| Notes from Around the Inn
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Travels to Special Places
Many of us are entering a season of vacations and sunshine, perhaps making plans for holidays to special places. You can also take some virtual trips to some of our favourite natural places in North America. Click on the image to go to our index page of national parks featuring slides shows of such places as Banff, Jasper, Yellowstone and Arches National Parks, to name but a few.
Water Birds Quiz
Test your skills identifying some water-loving birds. We have two collections of images and clues to help you get some of the different species sorted out. Get started by clicking here. Beautiful Butterflies Most people love butterflies and there are several pages at the Inn in which they're featured. Hover over the image for a description and then click on the image to visit the page.    
Wildflowers Galore
 Come on down to the Inn's Wildflower Garden where you'll find several photographic features full of diversity of colour.
Coming Up...
We're always working on new ideas and features. Currently our works in progress include the following: more photo galleries; a feature on cacti; a page on birds and their young and an article on shrubs. If there is something in particular that you'd like to see featured - please just let us know by e-mail. Site Map
Our site map is a handy, straight-forward way to find your way around the Inn. You'll find a link to the map at the bottom of most pages, or you can visit the map here. Where Are You?
We're very curious to know where members of our community are. Why not take a moment to send us a note indicating your location? It'd would be interesting to see how far-flung we all are!
Book Recommendations
You may have noticed that we've been placing more and more featured books on our various pages. We receive a very small commission from anything purchased through the Inn on Amazon.ca or Amazon.com - not just recommended books - which all helps pay for our webspace and other expenses. So please, shop with us and support our project! Pay-Pal Accepted - or a cheque!
We have had a few people inquire about donating to help with our costs. Apart from making a purchase through amazon.ca or amazon.com (see above) you can help out by making a credit card donation through Pay Pal. Just click on the Pay Pal logo on the main home page or site map. If you don't want to use a credit card and would prefer a contribution by cheque, simply e-mail us or write to address at the bottom of this newsletter and we'll be happy to send the details for that to you. Thanks again for your support! Don't Forget Our Forums
Just a reminder about and an invitation to visit our two forums:
The Birder's Place - This a social network and forum just for Birders. Here you can meet other birders, exchange stories and upload and share your images.
The Nature Hut - Here we invite you to join our community of nature lovers. Upload your nature images and enjoy discussions and stories of experiences and nature sightings.
Click on the images to visit the two forums. Suggestions, Ideas and Feedback
We invite and welcome your contributions, thoughts and comments. Please, take a moment to send us an e-mail. If you're a new subscriber to Whispers you might be interested to know that past issues are available online - simply click here. We upload the issues as new ones are released, so as you receive this edition we will be uploading last month's issue. |
The Wandering Image
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The Arbutus Tree, Arbutus menziesii, is member a family of plants that inhabit temperate regions of Europe, the Mediterranean and North America. It is Canada's only broad-leaved evergreen tree. A striking feature is that the red or brownish bark peels off each year as the tree grows - leaving the trunk smooth to touch.
In some parts of North America, other species are called Madrones while in Europe they are referred to as Strawberry Trees.
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Snippets in Nature ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ June is a wonderful time of the year to visit Waterton National Park in the southwestern corner of Alberta.
Waterton is famous not only for its natural beauty but also its amazing diversity of wildfowers. In fact, there are hundreds of species here including many which are rare or threatened.
You can also learn more about Waterton National Park and take a virtual photographic tour by visiting the Inn's page - just click here. |
| Caption This!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each month we would like to invite you to submit a funny caption to go with one of the images in our "Caption This!" collection.
Here's this month's image. What do you imagine this Red Squirrel is saying?
If you have a suggestion that will make us chuckle, please, send us an e-mail! We'd love to hear from you and add your caption to our collection. You can visit the rest of the collections at the Inn: The Mammals | The Birds |
Nature Notes
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| Stories Behind the Pictures
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sometimes, there's a story that goes with the photograph.
The story behind these two images is quite simple. On the left, a robberfly is in big trouble in a bird bath. After taking the picture, we thought we could perhaps help it out a bit - so it was to the rescue. This led to the second image - a much more relieved robberfly. You can still spot a few droplets on him. We didn't get any rescue awards - just some nice photos! |
Joke of the Month ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan had been studying whales for over 20 years and had made some thrilling breakthroughs regarding their communication. He had managed to decode many of their underwater sounds and to translate them into English. His latest research had proved that they can communicate over a distance of 300 miles.
When asked what could they possibly have to say at such distances he replied, "As best as we can figure, it is something like - Hey, can you hear me now?"
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| Trivia Answer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The answer to this month's trivia question is: beetles. There are over 330,000 species! This is one of them, Carabus Nemoralis.
And by the way, all of our pictures are of live insects, except of course if they are the prey of others. They are also photographed in the wild. We do not capture or chill or pose our subjects.
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Shop with Us ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Don't forget to check out the amazon/dereila bookshop. You'll find a super selection of nature books and guides. See what's in the store for you by clicking on the image. You'll also find amazon.ca and amazon.com search boxes for our Canadian and US visitors throughout the Inn.
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Spread the Word ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please spread the word about our project by passing on our website information to friends and other nature lovers. You can also forward this newsletter by clicking on the "forward e-mail" link at the bottom of this newsletter.
Any other ideas and suggestions are always welcome. Send us an e-mail!
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