Life and death at Burnaby Lake

Jul5

Yesterday, on the way home from the University, I decided to spend a bit of time at Burnaby Lake. A light warm rain was falling, and the lakeside was a quiet place to wander around and contemplate the life all around. The evening had a somber feel, and the photographic subject matter at hand echoed this.

What does it all mean? This towhee looked worried in the rain.

New life: goslings were resting by their parents by the lakeside.

On its own: a brown headed cowbird, fledged from its hosts nest was picking damselflies off the dockside.

Lost: these three ducklings were searching for their mother.

Master of contemplation: a Western Painted Turtle surveys the scene.

End of a short life: a gull shakes a baby Wood Duck before swallowing it alive.

For the next generation: a female Aedes cinereus drinks my blood to provide protein for egg maturation.

The essential transfer: mating gall midges on a flower.

Top up: Aedes cinereus again, really going hard at my ankes.

After swatting some Aedes cinereus, I share the bounty with a Lasius worker.

Nearly dead: A Meadow Jumping Mouse (Zapus hudsonius) by the side of the trail. I have no idea what was wrong with this beautiful, normally speedy rodent.

Laphria are back!

Jul4

I came up to SFU today to give a practice run-through of my PhD defense seminar (it is next week!). The talk went OK, given that I had not practiced it, but afterward, at lunch, I went out to see what I could see in the forest behind the lab. What I saw was this beautiful bee-like robber fly (Laphria spp.) munching down on a bumblebee! I hope you enjoy the pictures!

This fly was being very uncooperative, facing away from the camera on a high bush.

Laphria are likely Batesian mimics of bumblebees, and you can see the resemblance here.

Here is the last shot I got of the pair, as the robber takes off to find a paparazzi-free perch to enjoy its meal.

A whole mess of eagles

Jul3

Ah, the majestic Bald Eagle, soaring regally through the clouds, bringing freedom and democracy, and sitting at a freshly-hayed field to eat dismembered voles. Yadda yadda yadda, Ben Franklin, turkeys, whatever…Lamenting of the Bald Eagle’s varied and practical diet has been done to death. I myself do not feel any letdown in watching these gorgeous birds earn their keep. …It reminds me of the caracaras!

We spotted this group Monday on the way out to Boundary Bay in an unsuccessful bid to find a rumoured population of black widows.

This one wasn’t taken at Boundary Bay, but rather at the Victoria Airport last week. Like the ones we spotted the other day, this eagle was grabbing injured or newly-exposed voles from a freshly-mowed field.

Date Night at Iona

Jul2

Friday night is date night, and for the past few weeks, Catherine and I have been going out to Iona Beach for outings. Rather than stroll on the sand hand in hand, we move slowly down the beach, scanning the ground and vegetation for spiders and insects.

The evening light was pretty nice.

Here I am trying to shoot a reluctant ant queen. Photo by Catherine Scott.

A very pale Tegenaria.

Catherine investigates a log for spiders.

Weekend Expedition 52: Return to the exit ramp

Jun20

Last week, Catherine Scott, Sam Evans and I returned to the Annacis Island exit ramp to see the amazing array of salticids in all their glory. A rather odd place for a Weekend Expedition, but we found there is abundant life to be found in a noisy, chaotic industrial zone roadway.

Believe it or not, a concrete barrier provides great habitat for spiders! All the cracks, gaps and holes are good for retreats, and the busy roadway provides an endless source of maimed and stunned insects to serve as prey.

Most of the jumpers we found were smaller sized, but there were a few larger Phidippus as well.

This Phidippus female looks especially pretty on her drab background.

One of the most common spiders was Salticus scenicus, the introduced Zebra Jumper.

Here a Salticus scenicus female munches on a maimed moth.

Other arthropods are to be found on the concrete as well, such as ground beetles, ants and honeybees.

We found this crab spider in the rock fill of the bridge. It has a colouration reminiscent of Evarcha jumping spiders.

I am not sure who this cutie is, but she kept raising her palps up in a really endearing way.

Here is an Evarcha showing off some stunning eyes.

I did manage to find another male Habronattus decorus!

Their colouration is remarkable, but it is hard to convey in a photo!

Catherine and Sam found a couple male Habronattus ophrys males! We had no idea these beauties were to be found here; we had found them previously at Iona Beach.

Behold the awesome eyebrows and palps!

We stopped for some emergency calories at a ~~local organic eating establishment~~ McDonald’s and found this interesting contraption, well guarded by a furious chihuahua!

Feel the fury!

First Coelioxys of 2014!

Jun17

I am so excited to have met up with (on Saturday) my favourite little bees, Coelioxys! Something about these streamlined little wonders is just so appealing to me. Of course, they were sleeping in their usual manner on the rainy morning, so I had good opportunities to play with the lighting.

Here is what a cluster of Coelioxys looks like, on a dead flower stalk.

Because of the rain, this one had quite a bit of water accumulated.

Like with the Ammophila yesterday, the water adds something to the already pretty texture.

For this shot and the one at the top, I used some hard light from the rear and to the right to make these droplets shine. The green streak is a plant stem in the background.

This bee is starting to wake, and grooming begins even before detaching her mandibles.

In the midst of waking up…

Now the bee is detached, and looking for a place to groom all this water off.

After a couple swipes with the feet, the thorax is drier.

This pretty little bee had a bit of a drier perch for the night.

Sand Lovers

Jun16

In addition to the bundles of sleeping bees I found at Iona Beach on Saturday, I also encountered some Ammophila wasps. Their name means “Sand Lover” and they are major predators of caterpillars in sandy habitats. They sting their prey precisely to paralyze it, then bury them in dungeons under the sand for their larvae to eat. The wasps I was shooting were resting on various vegetation, especially stiffer dead flowerheads. The rain made for some beautiful texture and reflections.

Most sleeping Hymenoptera I find seem to have a preference for dead vegetation. Perhaps this is less attractive to other animals and makes for a disturbance-free night? In addition, the dead twigs and flowers are often stiffer and don’t blow around as much.

In sleeping mode, these wasps grasp tightly with their mandibles. If you disturb them, they quickly re-grasp the substrate rather than waking and moving.

Here is one on a living plant. I like the way the droplets highlight the smooth abdomen.

It can be a wet business sleeping in the rain. I suppose while they are sleeping they must shut down their grooming responses.

Here is another Sphecid, not Ammophila, but perhaps Isodontia?

Tomorrow I will thrill you with some more sleeping hymenopterans…I have saved the best of them for last!

Sleeping (Colletes) bees!

Jun15

Yesterday was cold and wet at Iona Beach, where I set out for an insect photography walk. The conditions were a bit uncomfortable for me, but it was not raining so much that I could not use my camera. To make up for the wet misery, I found such a lot of cool things that it will take a series of blog posts to cover them all!

This subject came up as I was just leaving the beach, aiming to warm myself up in a hot shower when I glanced down and saw a little cluster of sleeping bees. Looking around on adjacent flowers, I found that there were 5 such clusters! This was too good to pass up, so I buckled down and started shooting despite the cold.

Here are a couple of the other clusters:

I am no expert on solitary bees, so I would love to know what these are. I initially thought they were Halictus, but I am beginning to wonder about that…Whatever they are, they are all males, as they have very hairy faces (most female solitary bees are all business in the front).

Update! These are apparently Colletes males. Thanks to John Ascher for the ID!

Having such still subjects allows some experimentation with lighting and background…

Here they are against the overcast sky. This was a single diffused flash to the upper left of the cluster and a white bounce card held immediately to the right.

Here I have the diffused light to the upper right, and the bounce card behind (with a flash pointed at it) to blow out the background. In hindsight, maybe I should carry two cards!

Here I am using a single diffused light to the upper left, a bounce card to the right, and the background lit with the second flash using the Monster Macro Rig.

Here the setup is similar to the above, except the background is mostly dark and the second light throws hard light to the right and rear.

Sleeping bees are awesome…Now I have yet another search image burned into my brain for when I go out in the mornings and evenings!

As I urge you always, go out and find some sleeping Hymenoptera! They are great subjects for photography!

I mentioned that I had a good photography day at Iona Beach…Here is a hint at what comes next:

Weekend Expedition 51: Wild Research Butterfly ID workshop

Jun9

This weekend, I went to the UBC Botanical Garden to cover another Butterfly ID workshop for Wild Research. This was very similar to last year’s event, basically a crash course in family and species-level ID of BC butterflies and a pitch to take part in the BC Butterfly Atlas project. This project is a citizen science initiative aimed at documenting diversity and trends among butterfly species across the province. The classroom learning in the morning was followed by a walk around the grounds to catch and ID butterflies found amid the large botanical collection, which represents several BC habitat types.

Getting the ID sheet squared away with the field guides.

This kid was the focus of much of my attention! Super cute and periodically voicing her opinion on the proceedings.

ID quiz!

Seriously, the kid was pretty adorable.

We learned about diversity and ecology of butterflies, as well as planting a garden with butterflies in mind.

Butterflies can get to be about this big! (Taisha Mitchell was actually talking about planting for butterflies, and did a great job!)

I think I can see the speaker and the screen in her glasses. Enhance!

Well I guess that only works in the movies…

A Western Tiger Swallowtail in the garden.

Captive-reared Painted Ladies were on hand in case no wild ones showed up!

I am not sure what she is planning to do with this Painted Lady, but my guess is eat it!

A beautiful Halictid on the way to the Alpine section.

Getting familiar with the sweep net is an important component of the ~~indoctrination~~ training.

The pond in the Alpine section is actually a good place to find Pacific Treefrogs!

Weekend Expedition 50: Richmond Nature Park

Jun2

Wow! I can’t believe Weekend Expedition is turning 50! Seems like just yesterday we were at Richmond Nature Park, bringing bugs to kids and speculating how cool it would be to walk around and see the place. Catherine and I saddled up after a long week to see what we could see in this Richmond gem, a bog forest habitat just off Westminster Highway. The day was bright and sunny, but it was cool on the trails.