Weekend Expedition 56: To the realm of the pikas

Oct6

This weekend, Catherine and I were invited by Sofi Hindmarch and Brian Coote (along with his kids Alexa and Jamie) to go down to Mt. Baker, a stratovolcano in Washington State near the Canadian border. On Sunday, we went on a trip to Lake Ann, a 13 km alpine trail. Catherine had to sit this one out due to knee issues, but I went to document our trip. This was my first outing to the alpine zone in quite a while, and it was not disappointing!

A Hericium abietis! These are great edibles, but as we were in a reserve, we did not take it. There were also numerous King Boletes nearby.

Alexa stops for a water break.

The view going up the trail, Sofi in the lead, followed by Jamie and Alexa.

Near the crest!

An American Pika, Ochotona princeps. These odd lagomorphs make a whistling alarm call when disturbed.

These animals prefer talus slopes, and spend much of the summer gathering and drying plant material for a long cold winter buried beneath the snow.

We saw these giving alarm calls in response to both Red-tailed Hawks and some kind of mustelid (possibly a marten or a mink).

At the end point of our trip, I found this wolf spider under a rock.

To prove we did it: Brian, Sofi, Jamie and Alexa in front of Lake Ann.

Of course, on the way down I could not resist more pika shots.

Awww!

Yet another pika scanning the skies.

Blueberry break on the way back.

Much needed fuel for the last leg of the trip.

The end of summer

Sep22

Things are really winding down here in Vancouver, with colder nights, falling leaves, abundant spiders, and a distinct lack of bees, wasps and plant-feeding insects. This is one of the more melancholy seasons for an insect lover, but there are still some treasures to be found.

In the mornings, the dew sparkles on the webs of numerous orb weavers, such at this tetragnathid at Iona Beach.

There are even some syrphids still about, although the floral resources are dwindling rapidly.

Some spiders are still guarding egg sacs, keeping a lonely vigil despite their deteriorating condition. This Castianeira longipalpa looks a bit shrivelled.

Odd to see a male of these Myrmica incompleta still in the nest!

Some really odd, but abundant spiders…Could they be Dictynids? Check out the palps on this guy!

these have a great pattern!

A gorgeous chrysomelid on tansy.

Soon I will have no more of these lovely sphecids to shoot!

As the sun goes down on Iona Beach, this grasshopper contemplates leaner days and its inevitable demise.

A few from McDonald Beach

Sep15

Like a fairy god, this grass veneer moth sits on a bejewelled seat.

The summer insect fauna is winding down, so I thought I would go out for a quick stroll at McDonald Beach to see some of my favourites before they disappear. If you want to know what else I was up to this weekend, check out this awesome post by Catherine Scott on the Spiders Unravelled event at Iona Beach!

When the Ammophila are gone, so will be one of the best opportunities to practice lighting and composition. I will miss them! Here is a shot with the morning sun flaring the lens and highlighting the wings.

A slightly different angle and the flare is gone, and the sky takes on a creamy hue.

With my bounce card behind, I have the makings of a studio-style “Meet Your Neighbours” shot.

The cool fall weather allows close approach to otherwise flighty species.

Again, the grass veneer, showing its pretty white wings.

A shy wolf spider on the beach.

A male Castianeira with a missing palp. I would bet he has some raunchy stories to tell about that.

A long-jawed orbweaver, finishing her meal.

Spider rappelling! A great way to get around.

Sep11

When a spider wants to make a long distance traverse between two objects, or just wants a quick way to ascend an obstacle, what can he do? Lets find out by watching a male crab spider.

Well, as in ballooning, the spider can jet out a thread of silk, letting it be carried by the wind.

The spider then turns and checks the tension on the web to see if it has snagged a target. In this case, there is no tension, so the spider reels in the thread. I am not sure if crab spiders consume the spent silk.

Another try, in another direction.

This time the tension is right, and the spider quickly disappears from the frame.

And arrives safely at another, more lively flower.

Bugs ‘n’ More! Insect outreach with kids

Sep8

Getting out to talk to kids about bugs has got to be one of the coolest things to do in science outreach….As we did last year, we went to the Richmond Nature Park for their insect (and spider!) show. Great thanks to all the volunteers and especially Emily Toda for putting this together.

Tanya Stemberger was out to get the kids into entomophagy (eating insects), serving up tasty insect treats with Grant Olson. Tanya is subtly indicating that this is going to be awesome.

Grant is a professional in the world of insect cuisine, as he works for Enterra, a company that produces animal feed from insects. Of course, all the bugs served up were human grade!

Catherine Scott was on hand to talk to kids about our native spiders, and to show some great examples, including black widows and jumping spiders. Here she is with a Madagascar hissing cockroach, one of the great insects we had on hand for kids to touch and handle.

It was great to see Mike Hopcraft, the Reptile Guy, back again with his awesome collection of scorpions, tarantulas and more!

We had an absolute blast showing these cool insects and spiders to the kids. If you ever get the chance to do this kind of outreach, DO NOT HESITATE! It is awesome!

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OK, bear with me here. I got so many great shots of kids playing with insects, I put them in a gallery. Just click on the first image below, and a slideshow should appear. Enjoy!

Further shots from Naramata

Aug27

The Rubber Boa I wrote about yesterday was just the icing on the cake of my recent trip to Naramata.

Here is a large mayfly by the shores of Lake Okanagan.

The owner’s friendly dog at the Village Motel.

My first sighting of a very elegant myrmicine, Manica invidia

One of the coolest wineries in BC!

With the namesake!

This is probably BC’s smallest ant, Solenopsis molesta.

This gives an idea how tiny these ants are!

Another elegant myrmicine, Aphaenogaster occidentalis.

Framed spider art on a fence in town.

A large tenebrionid in a defensive posture.

A Cooper’s Hawk with some prey.

Rubber Boa!

Aug26

This past weekend, Erin Adams and I were up in Naramata to do some ant surveys. This beautiful little town is right near Penticton on Lake Okanagan. This arid, yet fertile land is home to fruit and wine growing, as well as the wonderful faunal diversity of the northern Great Basin Desert. One of the great species we have is Canada’s only species of boa, the Rubber Boa (Charina bottae). These gorgeous snakes make their living mainly preying on subterranean nesting mammals, and hence they are difficult to find in the open.

Nonetheless, we set out to find some on the KVR trail above the town. Erin must have the golden touch, because on the very first rock she flipped sat this lovely female rubber boa.

Erin posing with her catch! They are not big snakes, but they certainly have some impressive constricting muscles.

Me with one of my childhood heroes! Photo by Erin Adams

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These snakes have a special place in my heart, because when I was a child, visiting Science North in Sudbury Ontario, I got to hold one of them! This was a great thrill for me, and it was so great to get the opportunity to see these wonderful animals again in the wild. I can personally attest to the lasting effect that brief encounter had on my outlook and interests.

A natural light shot on a warm rock. Apparently, these snakes will roll into a ball with their head tucked in when disturbed, but this individual was not playing that game.

What a great snake to have in Canada. Although they are not yet considered threatened, I certainly hope that enough of their habitat can be conserved so that they may persist.

Island View Beach predators!

Aug12

Island View Beach was not all bees and high fashion, I also got some cool shots of some awesome predators. First up is this cool robber fly! I think it is in the subfamily Stenopogoninae, but I am by no means an expert.

Here is how I found it, shot with the 300.

Dewy on the perch, the sunlight catches its hairs and bristles nicely.

With some coaxing, I got it to perch on top of the flower.

Robbers are some of my favourite flies, possibly because of how raptorial they are.

It takes them some time to warm up for flight, so they are great subjects for a photographer.

I also saw a couple of juvenile Cooper’s hawks haunting the seaside vegetation. They hunt from perches like robbers, but have a more protracted chase when they spot prey.

As endotherms, these hawks are more difficult to approach!

The tidal shallows at dawn is a great place to find Great Blue Herons, looking marvelous as silhouettes.

Here is what happens when an Ammophila chooses the wrong perch to sleep.

And this is what can happen if a lacewing hits a black widow web!

Weekend Expedition 55: Fashion shooting at Island View Beach

Aug11

This weekend I went to Victoria, and spent both Saturday and Sunday morning at dawn at Island View Beach. The usual cast of characters was about, so I took the opportunity to do some experimentation with background, lighting, composition and cropping. I am sure you are all getting a bit tired of Coelioxys now, but they make such great models! They are awesome for practicing macro photography with.

If there are any suggestions from other photographers regarding what else I could be doing with these photo ops, please let me know in the comments!

Here is a wider shot showing the beach behind and the rising sun. I like shooting these kinds of shots, but it is difficult to get great results with the setup I have now.