In Vancouver, Canada: This is a big shrub, 10 or 15 feet high, which commonly mixes in amongst Salmonberry in Red Alder habitat. It is now in blossom at Lost Lagoon, where this photo was taken. Do you know what it is? Thank you.
okay, I shall do that. The elder seems to be an important plant in its community. I like the way it grows so close amongst the salmonberry, and they and the red alder form beautiful thickets that are ideal for birds. These thickets now are full of ruby-crowned kinglets, Audubon's warblers, song and fox sparrows, towhees, and earlier this year—for the first time in half a dozen years—I saw a Bewick's wren there. These very dense thickets are beautiful and very very beneficial, but a lot of people seem to be almost afraid of them, as the thickets are not neat and tidy. Some years ago a lot of this kind of vegetation was torn out near Lost Lagoon, maybe because the Parks Board didn't know how else to deal with occasional homeless people sleeping there. A different solution would have been preferable, as the reduction in the rough thickets also eliminated the Bewick's Wrens from that area entirely. Thanks for all your help.
@ Ron B, I thought I'd wait a bit before responding, as the Pileolated Warblers weren't here just then. Today there were likely hundreds of them around Lost Lagoon, and their hot sticky songs were an enthusiastic background to a gray would-be rainy May day; delightful. These newcomers are frequenting poplars and alders and are a few feet higher up than the bush-and-thicket understory, but of course that will soon change. Marsh Wrens are short a few cattails' worth of habitat at Lost Lagoon, but they are singing exuberantly in other places. So exuberantly that their songs are obviously rendered with very sore throats, making them sound so terribly scratchy. I love springtime. Thanks for all your help. Balcony plants are thriving.
