Leaving the West Coast

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Sorry sorry sorry neglected blog! I apologize for the lack of blog posts over the past months. Catherine and I have been very busy, with a spider course in Arizona, ant work,  many manuscripts to finish, and an impending move to Toronto. Catherine is going to be starting a PhD on widow spider behaviour this fall at UTSC, and I am heading out with her to try to ind some work or a postdoc there.
For now, I will just post some photos with some rambling about what we have been doing in the last few weeks. I will try to get more in depth on the spider course and associated activities soon!

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Catherine at the Spider Course in Arizona. This was an awesome 2 week trip for us, and a real education in spider ID!

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During the spider course, I shot quite a few pictures…Here is a beautiful Chrysina gloriosa!

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Wow. What an awesome beetle!

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The spider course was held in the Chiricahua mountains, an absolutely gorgeous area that has a lot to offer the naturalist.

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Off course, the spider course brought us to a great area or spiders…Here is a huntsman. Be prepared for many cool species when Catherine gets around to posting about them!

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After our return from the spider course, we made a trip to Island View Beach to stock up on black widows or Catherine’s PhD research.

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It was a gorgeous day for collecting, and the coastal dunes were doing their best to tell us not to leave!

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A garter snake from Island View. We will look forward to a more diverse snake fauna in southern Ontario.

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In the past few weeks, as we organized our gear for the move, we had some balcony visitors, including this juvenile Cooper’s Hawk. Right above our door!

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The hummingbirds are still here, right outside the door…In Ontario, we will have but a single species, and only for part of the year 🙁

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Ant work has kept me busy…Myrmica rubra tending to larvae.

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I have managed to do some shooting on the weekends…Including a quick couple trips out to Iona Beach.

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A Paciic Treefrog from this morning. We will definitely miss these little cuties!


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