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Welcome to March's issue of the Dereila Nature Inn newsletter.
An American Bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana, pops up to greet you this month.
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Greetings
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Hello and welcome to the March's issue of Whispers, the newsletter of the Dereila Nature Inn - your virtual nature centre. We have lots of great photos, trivia and news this month. Thanks for subscribing and supporting us. We hope you enjoy the issue.  We would like to remind you also that we are now on Facebook and invite you to post comments and photographs. |
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Trivia Time
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What is the name of the highest cloud formation and what does the word mean?
You'll find the answer at the end of the newsletter.
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What's This?
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Do you know what this cropped close-up photograph is? You'll find the answer at the end of the newsletter.
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| New Features at the Inn
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Here are the latest additions at the Inn. Just click on the images and you'll be taken straight to the page. 
Nesting Materials Project
Use a suet cake holder to make a container in which you can stuff nesting material for birds.
Provincial and State Mammals
Check out our visual guide to some of the wild animals chosen by various states and provinces.
Desert Blooms Crossword If you know the difference between your Prickly Pear Cactus and your Pincushion Cactus flowers try this interactive crossword featuring blooms of the desert 
Bird Feeding Table
This project requires some simple carpentry skills, but the end result is worth it.
Find the latest additions on the news/updates page. |
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Contributed by...
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We invite you to submit nature photographs to this section. This month we have a wonderful selection from our friends.
Purple Gallinule, Orlando Westlands
Marilyn Flanagan, Florida
Garden Spider, Araneus diadematus
Jewell Hemenway, Olympia, Washington
Joyce Cahill, Fort Myers Beach, Florida sent in this lucky
egret in Florida with a great looking fish.
This amazing underwater image of a Frosted Nudibranch was
sent in by our regular diving expert, Rob Walker of Victoria, BC.
This beautiful image of a Short-Eared Owl, a rare daylight shot
taken in Aberlady, was sent in by Laura in South Edinburgh, Scotland.
Many thanks everyone for your wonderful photographs!
If you would like to see your nature images in our members' section, simply send us an e-mail. We'd love to hear from you! |
| Monthly Selections
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Here are this month's choices: Bug - Sandhill Hornet; Wildflower - Bog Cranberry; Bird - Pacific Gloden-Plover.   
Simply click on the images to visit the pages.
You can also check out the archives as they're just a click away:
Wildflower Archives | Bug Archives | Bird Archives
OUR MONTHLY PAGE
Each month we would like to suggest another page in the Inn for you to visit. This month's choice is Wild Stories. Just click the image and wander off into the wild with the Hoary Marmots.
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| The Wandering Image
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Enoplognatha ovata This interesting spider is photographed with a huge egg case which it doesn't seem to want to leave behind. |
| Caption This!
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Here's our monthly image ready for your humourous caption along with a couple of our ideas.
Number one: "I tawt I taw a puddy tat."
Number two: "When I do this I can see my toes!" Catherine Scorey of Victoria, BC sent in this caption for last month's photo: "How much longer till you get your camera set up?" If this month's photo inspires you, 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 | The Insects |
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Snippets in Nature
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This delightful mountain stream in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park was sent in to us by Susan Asis Kalman, Flushing, NY. We invite you to send us pictures of your favourite places in nature for this section. It could be of a favourite pond, waterfall or forest trail. Perhaps it's a valley, mountain, coastal scene or special national park holiday destination. Thank you Susan for your submission! If you think you have a suitable photograph please send us an e-mail along with a brief explanation. We look forward to your ideas and submissions.
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Behind the Name
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 Yellow Mountain Avens, Dryas drummondii, is a pretty, nodding alpine flower belonging to the rose family. Its genus name, Dryas, refers to the Dryades, wood nymphs of Greek mythology and daughters of Zeus. The second part of its name, drummondii, is in honour of a Scotish naturalist, Thomas Drummond who sailed on a expedition with explorer John Franklin in search of the Northwest Passage in the 1840s. Source: Alpine Beauty by N.L. Jennings, Rocky Mountain Books.
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Joke of the Month ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two men were travelling the the mountains when one of them shouts out, "Look at that flock of elk!"
His buddy in disgusts says, "Herd of elk."
The former replies, "Of course I've heard of elk and there's a flock of them over there!"
"We like being together whatever you call it."
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| Notes, News and Tips from Around the Inn
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Facebook
 We invite you to post comments, suggestions and participate in discussions on our new Facebook page. To visit, just click on the logo or here.
A Little Reminder
With spring in the air and new arrivals we'd like to remind everyone not to touch any young ones that may appear abandoned. Usually this is not the case and its likely that the mothers went off to feed and will return to their young.
Tips from the Inn
 Here's another bird feeding idea to try. Place some grape jelly in the crevices of a branch or tree trunk. Orioles love this food if you have them in your area. You can use a small bowl if you are not looking to take a
natural-looking photo, but natural props are more interesting to use.
Curious chickadees are usually among the first to
discover any new item on the menu!
Photos Wanted!
One of our recent additions to the Inn was our page of state and provincial trees. We've been extremely pleased with the response to our pleas for images to help complete the page. However, we still need a few more, and perhaps you can help. We're looking for the following: Arkansas - Loblolly Pine; Minnesota - Red Pine and Wyoming - Plains Cottonwood. If you have any of these images, we'd love to be able to complete the page. Simply send us an e-mail. You can see the page by clicking here.
Add an iGoogle Gadget
If you have an iGoogle home page you can add a gadget to it from the Inn.
The gadget features a variety of nature images from our library. To see how to do this just click on the image above or here.
Picture of the Week 
Be sure to drop by the Inn every week to see the latest Picture of the Week. You can also do so by clicking on the image to the left or by clicking here.
Past Issues
We upload past issues of Whispers as new ones are issued. You can view them all with a simple click here.
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Great Rivers
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The Athabasca River is one of the great rivers of Western Canada. Starting high up in the icefields of Jasper National Park it flows through the park, gouging out its way as shown here in these waterfalls. It travels for a total of 765 miles/1,231 km draining into Lake Athabasca in north eastern Alberta. Eventally waters from the river will travel along other rivers and drain in the Arctic Ocean.
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Did You Know...
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Did you know that the National bird of Denmark is the Mute Swan? |
| State and Provincial Symbols
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The majestic Kukui, Aleurites moluccana, is the state tree of Hawaii. It produces a nut with a high oil content that can burn. In some places it is called the Candlenut Tree. You can view more in our collection of state and provincial trees by clicking here. |
| Trivia Answer
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The highest clouds are Cirrus clouds. Cirrus is Latin for "lock of hair." |
| What's This?
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This month's mystery picture is a Red Rock Crab, Cancer productus.
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| Nature Notes
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Spread the Word ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading this month's newsletter. 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. Your ideas and suggestions are always welcome, send us an e-mail.
Watch for the next issue of Whispers in your inbox during the first week of April. See you then!
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