Colt’s prance beside Calgary’s rivers

In early spring, Palmate Coltsfoot blooms before the leaves unfurl. Photo Jim Dubois.

In early April, Mother Earth hosts a race alongside melting rivers and streams. Depending on one’s powers of observation, it’s the deftly-hidden sprint to become Calgary’s first blooming wildflower.

Most folks who guess “Prairie Crocus” will correctly identify one of the race’s front runners. Fluffy and soft (like a bunny) and glowing in Easter mauve, Calgary’s wild crocus is undeniably the season’s first-noticed wildflower on south-facing hillside parkland.

But head down to the river and look a bit closer, lower to the ground, in bogs, meadows, damp seepage areas and rich streamside soil, to find another contender. Posing pretty in Easter shades of ivory and mauve, coltsfoot (colt’s foot) is the more delicate of spring’s two front-runners, and one with a captivating genealogy.

The ample blooms provide some of the first springtime nectar for bees. The blossom resembles a heavy clustered flower-head, replaced in autumn by a flattened ‘dandelion’ puff. This native perennial is unique in that the flowers usually appear – and wither away – even before the leaves unfurl.

Long ago, First Nations people gathered fresh coltsfoot stalks as a spring vegetable. Steamed, with a pat of butter, salt and pepper, its smell and taste resemble celery or asparagus.

Various species of this circumboreal plant existed in ancient Europe, where it was called coughwort or butterbur. Imaginative early botanists thought coltsfoot leaves resembled horseshoes … thus the common name. So useful were the leaves, flowers and roots that French pharmacists painted ‘Pas d'âne’ blossoms on their signposts.

Scientific analysis confirms zinc, calcium, potassium, vitamin C, and tannin (an antiseptic) in coltsfoot, and it’s a potent ingredient of some cough syrups and herbal teas. Bees love it, butter improves it, our ancestors smoked it, and coughs may be cured with it, making coltsfoot an all-in-one wildflower, vegetable, medicine and tobacco!

Springtime fantasies of little colts prancing along a riverbank should be enough to coax anyone outside to look for these wildflower front-runners, but don’t delay, as they’ll soon disappear beneath their own canopy of dinner plate-size leaves.

Palmate-leaved Coltsfoot is found along Montgomery Flats, while Arrow-leaved Coltsfoot grows in Fish Creek and Glenmore parks.

E-mail: wildernesswest@shaw.ca.

‘Nature deficit’ rears its ugly head

It’s spring break for many students – a whole wonderful week with time to explore. Time, also, for a reminder that Mother Earth is, has been, and always will be, a primary source of learning material for every age.

There’s bark to feel and weather to observe; jackrabbits to chase and birds to count; animal tracks to discover and photograph. In short, all manner of learning (disguised as fun) can be found out-of-doors.

Whoever said that schoolwork has to be done inside? Let Mother Earth be the classroom. Most classroom topics can be taught from an environmental perspective.

Research suggests that educating outdoors promotes self-esteem and responsibility, conferring many academic benefits by stimulating, inspiring and improving motivation. When walls are gone, student attitude and work gains energy, releasing creativity and imagination.

Ever since Richard Louv wrote his groundbreaking work: Last Child in the Woods (2005), society has been alerted to saving children from ‘nature-deficit disorder.’ Louv cautions us to think carefully about children’s connection with the natural world…or lack thereof.

His book directly links the absence of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation to some of the most disturbing childhood trends: the rise in obesity, attention disorders, and depression. This was the first book to bring together a body of research indicating that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development and for the physical and emotional health of children and adults.

The younger generation, increasingly plugged in to electronic devices, may be tuning out the out-of-doors to their great disadvantage. Surveys show that today’s kids know little about nature, an undeniable problem tied to social and cultural values.

The internet, ipods, blackberries, and TV seduce us with quick fixes and instant gratification. Technology makes information access easier … but this electronic savvy comes at the detriment of healthy self-actualization.

In this age of pagers, instant messaging, and cell phones, the precious time for free, natural and adventurous play has been lost. Louv explains that the way children understand and experience nature has changed radically within the space of a few decades; today’s youngsters know about global warming and other threats to the environment, but their physical contact with nature is on the wane. Today’s younger generation has come to think nature is something to watch, to consume, to wear or to ignore.

Video games, keyboards and remote controls will never replace insects, animals and hands-on experience with nature. Increasingly, as ‘nature deficit’ rears its ugly head, we all need to increase our exposure to nature.

Adults who guide children towards a relationship with nature will help them find joy and solitude in the outdoors and a sense of purpose. Experiencing, knowing and thereby respecting nature leads to an understanding of the Earth and the systems that support our very lives.

E-mail Christine at: wildernesswest@shaw.ca.

Nesting songbirds needs snips of ribbon

With each passing day, the outdoor airwaves fill with ever-increasing levels of birdsong as our avian friends commence another breeding season. In early spring, American Robins and other backyard birds are far more interested in hauling beaks-full of dried grass than juicy worms.

Most songbirds build a new nest every season, using it solely to lay and incubate eggs, and raise young. Once the last fledgling leaves the nest, it is often abandoned, but birds may re-use bits and pieces for new nests. Eagles, however, refurbish their nests every year, resulting in some heavy, deep twig structures. One such nest, at 36-years old, weighed two tons.

Most songbird nests resemble rounded cups or bowls, with twigs, grass, leaves or other coarse vegetation chosen for the outer layer (dry grass is in high demand come springtime, so for the health of the birds, avoid lawn chemicals). Softer materials like feathers and moss will line the cavity interior for insulation and cushioning, and silky, sticky, stretchy spider webbing is often the glue holding everything together.

Providing an assortment of bird-friendly material is a simple way to encourage backyard nest-building and involve the whole family in a fun nature activity.

Once, I watched spellbound as a neighbour ran about her yard tossing feathers from an old pillow, and lo and behold, a bumper crop of songbirds chose her trees and shrubs for nest construction.

Wire suet holders or open-top plastic berry baskets make ideal containers to stuff with soft material like dog fur, horse hair, wood shavings, string, yarn, ribbon, cottonwood fluff or cattail down.

Birds’ sense of sight is highly acute, and they’re drawn to bright colours. Try cutting bright fabric scraps into one-inch strips. Cut everything into 4-inch lengths to prevent entanglement, and nix dryer-lint, which hardens like cement.

An abundance of trees and shrubs will provide birds with safe nest sites, hidden from view. Simple nesting ledges made of scrap wood may attract robins, swallows and rock doves. Remember to fill an old garbage pail lid with mud which the birds use like cement.

It’s springtime, so let the little ones run riot and deck the yard with ribbons and yarn. The ultimate reward will be seeing how avian ingenuity includes man-made material when fallen leaves reveal secret nesting sites come autumn.

E-mail Christine: wildernesswest@shaw.ca.