Archive | September 2013

Nest camera study of the Red-throated Caracara

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Photo copyright Phillipe Gaucher, 2008. The fruit sitting near the chick is from the tree itself.

Determining the diet of birds is difficult undertaking.  Because predation is so difficult to observe in the field, a relatively unbiased way to gather data on food habits is to place a camera in the nest to record the types of food brought to chicks. In my literature search on Red-throated Caracaras, I had come upon several references of gut content examination from shot specimens [1], as well as some field observations by J.M. Thiollay [2] and Whittaker [3], but little in the way of quantifiable data on the diet of caracaras. Because my research project was on the adaptations of a specialist predator of social wasps, we needed to first determine whether Ibycter americanus was in fact a specialist!

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There are lots of delicious wasps in the jungle, like these Apoica albimacula, but are the caracaras eating them?

In 2008, my field assistant Onour Moeri and I were extremely fortunate to discover a nest of Red-throated Caracaras not far from the Inselberg Camp of the Nouragues Station in Central French Guiana. They appeared to be nesting in a large bromeliad, 45 m up a Chrysophyllum lucentifolium tree. These big trees in the Sapotaceae produce a large hard fruit, that despite its copius latex, is a favourite food of spider monkeys (Ateles paniscus).

There were certainly lots of spiders coming to the tree every few days, raining down discarded fruits from high above. We evacuated the area as soon as they reached the tree, as the hard, heavy fruits were travelling very quickly when they hit the ground!

This find was a great breakthrough for us, as we now had a reliable focal point to find the birds and observe their behavior. We were extremely excited, because this was only the third nest ever observed by scientists, and as such was an amazing opportunity to gather data on the habits of the birds. We spent the first few weeks on the ground below the nest tree, watching with binoculars as adult birds arrived with food. We observed them bringing wasp nests and fruit, arriving roughly every half hour. This was not the most fun thing to do, as sitting still in the jungle looking up all day is actually kind of difficult, especially when it rains. The data we were getting was spotty and probably quite biased…Not good!

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The nest bromeliad!

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We also found another nest in 2009, in another bromeliad 40 m up a different tree. We have good reason to suspect it was made by the very same group. I am not showing any footage of this, due to its low quality! We got good data from it however.

Luckily, going above and beyond the call of duty, Philippe Gaucher (the technical director at Nouragues, and a good friend) was kind enough to track down some video recording equipment in Cayenne and bring it back for us to set up a nest camera. On Feb 2 he climbed the nest tree to install it. The nest contained a single caracara chick, which we later sexed as a female, via a genetic analysis from a plucked feather. The still pictures Philippe took up there were the very first (that I know of) ever taken of a Red-throated Caracara chick. Evidently, these caracaras had not constructed the nest at all, but rather had torn the bromeliad leaves to make a platform to lay an egg on. Like many insects and frogs, the Red-throated Caracaras are bromeliad breeders!

The photos also showed evidence of predation on both wasps and millipedes! We were extremely excited to have this equipment installed, and that very night we started getting video from the nest.

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Philippe climbing the nest tree to install the camera.

Each evening, I would go down to the nest after dark (there were a lot of tarantulas I became quite familiar with) and lug the DVR and usually the 20 kg battery back up the hill. Then every morning before dawn, I would take the recharged battery down and replace the DVR for that day’s recordings. The setup involved a large plastic box, to shield the DVR from rain, plus a tarp to do more of the same thing. With the DVR running in the box, there was little danger of water damage (it was the rainy season), but to leave it there at night without power was out of the question.  Unpowered electronic devices (that are not making heat) often succumb to the near 100% humidity of the rainforest.

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The DVR in place under the tree. The tarp protects from falling fruit and rain, and the DVR stayed cosy in the Tupperware!

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The camera in place over the bromeliad, about 1 m above the nest. Photo by Philippe Gaucher.

After a couple days of recording, we quickly discovered that the “waterproof” camera was less than watertight; our lens had fogged up with internal condensation. A whole day of wasted recording! Phillipe had flown back to Cayenne, so there was nothing for it but to go up the tree myself and fix the camera. I had trained in tree climbing  back when I was an environmental activist, so I knew what to do, but still, this was a 45 m straight climb up to a spiky bromeliad, with possibly murderous birds protecting their nest.

The climb was exciting, though relatively uneventful, and I retrieved the camera and dried it out. Then, after jamming a silica gel dessicant pack into the housing, I carefully wrapped every threaded connection with Teflon tape. With the camera returned to the nest, we continued filming.

A Polybia nest brought via an overhead branch.

In total, we managed to get about 100 hours of recording done over 10 days. During that time, we recorded 186 items being brought to the chick, most of which were the nests of social wasps, but also fruits, millipedes and a single snail. Back in the lab, I watched these hours of footage, timing the arrivals and departures, the types of prey, and other aspects of the footage. I organized all of this in a database, which is the best way of storing large amounts of data and retrieving it in a format for analyses.

The chick receives a delivery of an Angiopolybia or Pseudopolybia nest. Notice how packed the brood comb is with larvae and pupae. 

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Breakdown of the diet over 2 years. Most of the items (and definitely most of the biomass) were the brood-filled nests of social wasps.

A large spirostreptid millipede is brought to the chick. 

The large spirostreptid millipedes were brought intact, and were decapitated by the adults, after which they generally tried to feed bits to the chick. Usually, the chick ate very little or perhaps none of this material. These large millipedes are well-defended with a lot of noxious benzoquinones, which are toxic, irritating and carcinogenic compounds. My suspicion is that these are in some way related to chemical defense against ectoparasites, as some birds as well as capuchin monkeys are reported to anoint themselves with the millipedes’ secretions [4].

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Onour with a millipede on a stick!

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The nasty, nasty secretion from these docile animals. It burns the skin, and seems to stain it purple. Oh yeah, and then your skin smells of millipedes.

Though we had no birds marked, on a few occasions we saw more than two adults bringing prey to the chick, confirming Thiollay [2] and Whittaker’s [3] observations of cooperative breeding . In 2009 we captured and colour-banded four adults and were able to determine that as many as 6 and most likely 7 birds bringing prey to a single chick [5]! This is highly unusual in raptors, and another reason I love these caracaras so much. What kind of remarkable social system is this? Which individuals get to breed? Are all the helpers young from previous years (delayed dispersal) or are there joiners from other groups? We still do not know the answers to these questions, but I hope to find out in the future.

Two adults deliver fruit, while a third remains in the nest with the chick. 

Watching the videorecordings of nesting behaviour has been one of the highlights of my career so far. Seeing this drama unfold for the very first time was so exciting; no one had observed this species ever before, and my job was to describe it to the world. What a treat! And to watch closely at all the magical moments in a young bird’s life was just priceless. Check out this caracara chick observing an insect flying overhead. The interest she shows in this event is so cool to see, and you get the notion that she is learning lessons every waking moment that will help her out when she is out foraging for herself.

This young caracara is a truly professional entomologist! 

By March 17, we had no more time left in the field, and no one to continue the camera work. We had to take down the setup and get packed up to return to Canada. When I went up the tree to retrieve the camera, it was bittersweet, as we had succeeded in getting great data from our first field season, but our lovely caracara chick would grow up and fledge without us being there to see it. In just a few weeks of observation, she had already stolen our hearts.

Of course, I brought my camera up to take a farewell portrait.

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Farewell, little caracara chick! Best of luck, and thanks for all the data! By the way, what is that on your beak?

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A gorgeous Sabethes mosquito!

References

1.        Huber W (1932) Birds Collected in Northeastern Nicaragua in 1922. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 84: 205–249.

2.        Thiollay JM (1990) Foraging , home range use and social behaviour of a group-living rainforest raptor , the Red-throated Caracara Daptrius americanus.

3.        Whittaker A (1996) Nesting records of the genus Daptrius (Falconidae) from the Brazilian Amazon, with the first documented nest of the Black Caracara. Ararajuba 4: 107–109.

4.        Valderrama X, Robinson JG, Attygalle AB, Eisner T (2000) Seasonal Anointment with Millipedes in a Wild Primate: A Chemical Defense Against Insects? Journal of chemical ecology 26: 2781–2790.

5.        McCann S, Moeri O, Jones T, Donnell SO, Gries G, et al. (2010) Nesting and Nest-Provisioning of the Red-throated Caracara (Ibycter americanus) in Central French Guiana. Journal of Raptor Research 44: 236–240.

Some more crow portraits

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Some of my favourite photographic subjects to revisit periodically are crows.  These bold black birds seem to me unusually expressive, with minor variations in posture and plumage conveying very different feelings photographically. I like to get in close, to show their eyes and plumage. In the following shots, you can see that some are molting countour plumes around the face. In another month or so, they will be at their sleekest and blackest, and I will probably go out for some more crow sessions.

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Cover of the Canadian Entomologist!

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Sinodendron rugosusm, one of Canada’s few stag beetles, walks across the moss on Burnaby Mountain.

Have I finally arrived as an insect photographer? Well, one of my images placed 3rd in the ESC/SEC 9th Annual Photo Contest. That means that for a whole year, the image of the beetle you see above will be on the cover of The Canadian Entomologist!

Congratulations also go out to Guillaume Dury (1st, with an awesome jumping spider) and Bob Lalonde (2nd, with a bird eating a grasshopper), as well as the runners-up Steven Paiero, Tim Haye, Malcolm Furniss, and Francois Lieutier. For the top prize for entomologist in action, congratulations to Shelley Hoover!

Many thanks to the judges, Felix Sperling, Chris Cutler, and Rick West as well as Ward Strong for organizing this!

The contest allowed 5 shots per entrant, so the following were the images I chose and submitted. What do you think of the pictures?

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A bee-like robber fly, genus Laphria perched on a stick. Robbers are just so cool!

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A Goldenrod Crab Spider, Misumena vatia!

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A Elderberry Longhorn, Desmocerus aureipennis cribripennis (on a willow leaf)

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What is a Canadian insect photo contest without a mosquito? Here Culiseta incidens drinks my blood.

Weekend Expedition 32: Iona in the morning

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A Northern Harrier decides not to pose.

On Saturday I saddled up the bike in the pre-dawn hours to get out to Iona Beach, in the hopes I could find a sleeping insect smorgasbord such I I had previously found on Island View Beach.  Iona has been productive for me in the past, especially for things such as jumping spiders and wintering raptors, and in previous Septembers I have found quite a wide range of Phiddippus. Saturday was not as productive as I had hoped, and  I had trouble turning up many of the creatures I would normally expect this time of year. I did get some cool shots though. I hope you enjoy them.

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Noisy high ISO shot of the moon from a moving bike!
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UPS, delivering on-time and charging exorbitant brokerage fees. More on this in a future post.

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My favourite shot of the day, a long-jawed orbweaver (Tetragnathidae), with the dawn light flaring the lens.

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There were still quite a few lady beetles about, which stood out on the dying vegetation.

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A freshly-moulted harvestperson.

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Grasshoppers appeared to be basking in the morning chill.

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I was hoping to find more sleeping wasps and bees, but only found a few Ammophila, later in the morning and way down the beach.

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This Polistes dominula nest was fallen due to rain and the chewing of isopods, a common fate for nests in the late season.

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The skies were dramatic, foretelling the crazy rain that Sunday brought. The beach was a bit desolate, but soon there will be wintering Short-eared Owls, not to mention migrating Snow Geese.

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Just like Island View is the heart of black widow country, Iona has an amazing abundance of hobo spiders (Tegenaria agrestis). For some reason, their close relatives, the giant house spiders (T. duellica) are not as abundant.

Going to Guelph!

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Due to an unexpected change for our plans for a scouting/survey mission to Honduras, Catherine and I have suddenly found ourselves in a position to attend the Entomological Society of Canada/Entomological Society of Ontario Joint Annual Meeting in Guelph! I am not sure that our abstracts will be fit in for talks, but I sure hope so. If not I will probably bring a really cool poster. In celebration, I walked outside the lab, and what should I find but a handsome Western Conifer Seed Bug, Leptoglossus occidentalis, a species that our lab has studied in the past. Seems like these bugs have infrared sensors built into their abdomens that allow them to find the relatively hot maturing conifer cones on which they feed. This time of year, adults are seeking warmer sheltered locations in which to overwinter, and since they can’t go to Honduras, they often come indoors. I found this one perched on a still-warm hood of a delivery van outside.

Consider this blog post fair warning then, my eastern comrades, that like the Western Conifer Seed Bug, we are coming to Ontario in numbers, ready to rock your socks with some BC-style sciencing!

Stand Up For Science!

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Yesterday, I crawled my sick ass out of bed to meet Catherine and attend an important event in downtown Vancouver: the Stand Up for Science Rally. This Canada-wide action was a call to arms for citizens and scientists alike to protest the Canadian Conservative Government’s abysmal track record on science.

We heard from many speakers, listing the long dark tale of the Conservative reign over science policy: from backward steps like closure of the Experimental Lakes Area, gutting of the Fisheries Act, persecution of drug harm reduction programs, the list really goes on and on. The long and terrible record on science is explained in great detail at Confessions of a Science Librarian, where John Depuis has amassed a vast and depressing catalog of Conservative-led attacks on science in Canada.

Hopefully this event will raise public consciousness about the current threats to science and science policy in Canada, and our voices will be heard. Catherine and I were glad to do our part and felt the day well worth it.  So sit back, enjoy the photos and click some links to find out about some of the great science advocates we have in this country.

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Joe Foy of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee explains how exactly the Conservative War on Science will affect wildlands management.

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Dr. David Suzuki, documentarian and geneticist (and a childhood hero from “The Nature of Things” lays into Harper big time!

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NDP Deputy Critic for Fisheries Fin Donnelly explains the Harper-led destruction of federal fisheries protections.

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Dr. Tzeporah Berman, author and activist from Greenpeace and  ForestEthics, delivered a fiery speech outlining how Harper’s Big Oil love affair has landed us in hot water with our international climate commitments. I knew Tzeporah from way back when I was a forest protection activist during the 1993 Clayoquot Sound Campaign.

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Dr. Sarah Otto of UBC makes the leap from evolutionary biology to science policy, by outlining the failure of the Canadian Government to take seriously the Species At Risk Act . Of over one hundred SARA submissions in the last 2 years, representing years of effort by conservation scientists, only 2 have made it to Cabinet.

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Dr. Alexandra Morton, former whale researcher and now staunch defender of the wild coast, gave an impassioned appeal for unfettered research and science communication at the federal level. Her organization has had to undertake their own research and monitoring in order to help police the coast, something that the Feds should have been on long ago.

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Dr. Thomas Kerr, an addictions specialist working with the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS explains the Conservative-led attack against the proven results of Vancouver’s Insite safe injection site and other harm-reduction initiatives in Canada.

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SFU’s Dr. Lynne Quarmby, algal researcher got everyone fired up about basic research and the unexpected discoveries that misguided policies cannot anticipate.

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Bregitte DePape (a gutsy activist) and others from ShitHarperDid role play the Conservative antagonism to Science.

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Protest Dogs

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A super-cute puppy travelling with Alexandra Morton!

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A seasoned protest dog, this venerable beast inhabited the steps right below the PA!

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Keeping an eye out, in case Harper sneaks up from behind.

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Social interactions!

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Further shots from Island View Beach

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I wish I had a Weekend Expedition all shot and set up to show you, but the truth is I have been lying in bed all weekend, sick with a really bad cold. I attribute this to too much human contact at last week’s Bug Day!

Instead, here are some other, non-pinup, shots I took last week during fieldwork at Island View Beach.

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A Tachinid fly waking up dewy at dawn.

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Another view of Lycaena helloides, also called the Purplish Copper.

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Termites in their tunnel.

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A large cricket.

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A female slender meadow katydid, Conocephalus fasciatus.

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Wish they were all so colorful!

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Sexual termite

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An ichneumonid searching a flower

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Ravens coming up the beach

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This big peregrine falcon flew over Catherine’s head. This is a passage bird, a first-year bird on its first migration.

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A male Giant House Spider on the prowl.

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A female Wolf Spider under a log.

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Here is what we were there to study: a male black widow, out walking the beach looking for a mate.

Ibycter Illustrated 2013 Beach Issue!

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Welcome to the 2013 Beach issue! Here we bring out our best shots of the loveliest ladies relaxing at beautiful Island View Beach.  The beauties in the next few pages had us stunned at our exotic field location on gorgeous Vancouver Island.

Cute Little Homewrecker

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Coelioxys says she is really a nice girl at heart, enjoying the simple things in life: nectar, long flights on the beach and sunrises.

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II chatted with this little cutie after the shoot, and she says the rumours about being a homewrecker are blown out of proportion.
“Where did you hear that? Megachile? I can’t help how she raises her larvae! She is probably just mad because she has a big butt! Did you know Coelioxys is Greek and refers to my sharp ovipositor and’slender tapered abdomen’? That’s me!”

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“I am actually super playful!”

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“sure, sometimes I drop some eggs in Megachile‘s nest occasionally, but she seems like the nurturing type! She is always working, so an extra mouth to feed will just give her a new challenge!”

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“I just love to hang out at the beach and watch the sunrise! It is so romantic!”

Sand Lover

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“I am just the girl next door. I enjoy simple things, like sand to dig in, caterpillars to paralyze, and a communal roosting site”

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“My girlfriends and I like to hang out together. Preferably from a stiff dead flower stalk!”

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“In the daytime, it is just go go go, but nighttime is our time to just relax, with our jaws clenched tightly on dead vegetation!”

The girls of Island View Beach!

Sometimes the girls like to hang out in a group situation. II was there capturing all the hot, yet completely motionless action.

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“Cross-species sleepovers are fun”, Ammophila tells our reporters.
“You get to meet all kinds of interesting insects. It is funny how we have such different day to day lives, but at night we all like the same kinds of things, like allowing our bodies to reach low temperatures. It isn’t a party until you cannot even fly!”.

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When the girls hang out together, nothing is sexier than a giant bee-wasp totem formation.

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Copper beauty Lycaena helloides doesn’t mind getting wet!

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I really feel like I have a lot in common with Coelioxys! We just have the same kind of liberated outlook. And we both like, kinda enjoy sticking our ovipositor in someone else’s stuff!”

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“I have a love/hate relationship with sunrises. I like to dry my wings, but it means getting back to work, and possibly getting grabbed by a random male”

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Buff Beach Body

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“I use these big, burly tibiae to cover my mate’s eyes while mating, although I am so pretty, I wonder why she would be into that”.

This stunner of a bee was sleeping the beach when our photographer found him.  Ibycter Illustrated beach shoots have a way of uncovering new talent!

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He is a mysterious creature, and would’t even give his name, but he told us “I frickin’ hate Coelioxys, that little parasite!”.

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Insects, kids and science outreach!

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Yesterday, we headed down to Richmond Nature Park for their first annual Bugs Galore! event. This was a fun opportunity to introduce the public, particularly children, to the wonders of insects and other arthropods. When you have a roomful of kids meeting some pretty cool bugs, magic happens!

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kids of all ages showed up, and most were wide awake…

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The leaf insects got quite a workout, and the kids loved handling them.

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Although some adults were more wary!

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Catherine brought male and female black widows, as well as some false black widows.

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The Reptile Guy, Mike Hopcraft brought some awesome tarantulas, amblypygids (tailless whip scorpions) and scorpions. Here Catherine gets up close with Gretchen.

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Most folks were happy to have a close spider encounter…

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but some less so!

When people asked Mike (the Reptile Guy) “why doesn’t the spider bite you?” he replied “why would she?”. Catherine also surprised a lot of folks by telling them that black widows are not aggressive and hardly ever bite.

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A great educational display was a female black widow, into whose cage we introduced this male. Over the course of several hours he courted and copulated.

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Which was awesome!

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What time is it? Amblypygid time!

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The Reptile Guy doing his thing!

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We got to talk to all kinds of people about science and bugs.

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Tanya introduced visitors to some of the major common insect orders

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We had about 750 people come through, most of whom stayed for quite a while.

Many thanks to Emily Toda at the Richmond Nature Park and all the great volunteers for making this event so awesome!

With so many cool insect/kid encounters going on, I had better just truncate this post with a slideshow. If you would like to see some of these in larger size, try my flickr page.

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Early morning in Beacon Hill Park

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The past week has been rather hectic, with a flood forcing Catherine and I from our home, paper revisions made and further plans for Honduran fieldwork underway. I did not get a chance to post these shots I took from our time on the Island, where I spent part of Sunday morning out shooting in the dry grasses of Beacon Hill Park.

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I saw lots of moth eggs on the dry grasses.

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Now is the time to find sclerotia of ergot (Claviceps spp.) which contains chemicals studied by Albert Hofmann (from which he synthesized LSD-25).

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This sleepy robber fly was not as sleepy as I thought, and flew off after this shot.

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The skipper was more accommodating.

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A peacock stalks the Garry Oak meadow.

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Coelioxys rufitarsus hanging from grass in the dawn light.

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I tried a couple wider shots with the 18-55 on 11 mm of extension (around 24 mm focal length). This is something I would like to try more of…

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