Tag Archive | animals

Weekend Expedition 8: Return to Reifel!

Mar10
Cannot resist these cranes! This one was calling.

Cannot resist these cranes! This one was calling.

The Weekend Expedition to Reifel Bird Sanctuary with Wild Research was a fun outing, made better by the good company and great weather. Highlights of the trip were a Great Horned Owl, Saw Whet Owl and American Bittern. Only the Bittern was a cooperative model. I tried a few low angle shots on feeding ducks, but did not have much time to work out the kinks. I think I will try to do more of this in the future, as it is an interesting and humorous perspective.

Below is a selection of the photos…Check out that lovely Bittern!

Weekend Expedition 7: Burnaby Lake Park

Mar4
IMG_5596

This male Wood Duck seemed agitated, I presume because I was between him and several females.

This week’s Weekend Expedition was a bit of a hurried affair: I wanted to get done and get on the road to return my malfunctioning Canon 60D. This camera was working Saturday night, but when I got up Sunday morning to prepare my gear discovered that my generally reliable camera body would not start. I suspected all manner of grievous harm to the motherboard, and grumpily decided that I would return it for a refund or exchange at the store where I bought it (I had bought the extended warranty).

Because such misfortune can strike at any time, I have a backup body, the Canon 450D (Rebel XSi), which I took on the trip to Burnaby Lake.
While out in the glorious sunshine, seeing the spring springing and the birds and insects becoming active, my mind was still cloudy thinking about my traitorous camera back home. Instead of fully immersing myself in the sight of testosterone-fueled combat between Canada Geese, or sunbathing fireflies, my thoughts were elsewhere, and after a couple of hours I packed up and headed home.

IMG_5643

Several Ellychnia hatchi , large, diurnal fireflies. were sunbathing on exposed bark.

IMG_5730

This Scaphinotus marginatus  (ID courtesy Todd Lawton) was a  new one for me. Generally, the most common Scaphinotus here are the larger Scaphinotus angusticollis. These odd Carabids  are specialist predators of snails, and their elongate rostrums are thought to be an adaptation for extracting them from their shells.

IMG_5577

I did not get a great shot of the behaviour, but the Canada geese are getting their spring on with some feisty combat.

When I arrived back home, I called the store asking about the procedure for returning the camera. While I was waiting on hold, I started idly wiping the battery terminals with some cloth, thinking it might just be a connection problem in the battery compartment. Sure enough, it ended up  being the case that the sole cause of the camera’s mysterious reluctance to boot was dirty contacts on the battery terminals.

Although this Weekend Expedition produced some okay shots, I find that I was dissatisfied with the day. Whereas I had planned a leisurely 4-5 hours ambling around the lake shooting birds and bugs, I ended up truncating the outing, and not really being fully present to make the most of the time I did take.

So there is a lesson in this, I think. While it is important to have a decent lenses and a working body for your expedition, it might be more important to bring a clear mind.

IMG_5620

This Stonefly (ID anyone?) was sunbathing on a railing, and fled from my approach. After a time, it resumed sunbathing, so I could take this shot.

IMG_5724

Even the Chrysomelids were out to soak up the rare Vancouver sunshine .

IMG_5584

Playa.

Rainforest video trapping!

Feb28

Music: DJBrownBum “like a jungle”

In lieu of a more substantive post this week, I must resort to some footage of a Red Acouchi (Myoprocta exilis) coming to some Astrocaryum seeds. This I took in March of 2011 while testing out a DVR which I was going to use on the caracaras. Having this equipment on hand during the our field seasons was a cool opportunity to get some footage of interesting animals (as well as providing large portions of our data). In future posts I will put up some more of these jungle camera-trapping clips, as I think they can be fun and informative.

High speed Fly Takeoff

Feb21

We had a representative of High Speed imaging Inc. in the lab today to demonstrate some high speed cameras…So what did we record? Some blowflies of course!

Check out how these awesome flies take off:

We have used high speed cameras before, but this one was pretty impressive. This video was recorded at 4000 frames per second, and is slowed down to 30, so it is about 133 times slower than real life. No wonder they are so hard to catch!

Weekend Expedition: SFU

Feb10
IMG_4081

SFU, supposedly an “architectural jewel“designed by Artur Erickson looks like a hideous Stalinist prison*, and in many ways it is. But being situated on a forested mountain means that the non-building areas are quite nice, and a great escape if you need to immerse yourself in nature.

IMG_4048

The forests are all second growth, although a few old cedars were not chopped down. Most of the mountain is parkland.

IMG_4075

The view down the sides of the mountain allow glimpses of Burrard Inlet, which is not as much of a toxic waste dump as you may have thought (although I would not eat the shellfish)

IMG_4192

Out behind the Biology Buildings there are some nice wooded paths, where even on a cool February day you can find a firefly or two.

IMG_4251

Seems like many insects were out soaking up the sun.

IMG_4282

Spring is waiting to be sprung…Hang on spring, you will be called for in June.

IMG_4167

This cranefly is a good example of a winter-active creature you can find out flying on a sunny day.

The weevil sunning on a railing rounds out the expedition.

 

IMG_4275

And one more to show that blue skies can exist in Vancouver.

*I know, I know, I probably don’t “get” architecture. But I don’t “get” classical music either, but it still sounds nice to me. These buildings however, look like about the worst kind of ugly I can imagine.

Results of Weekend Expedition 3: Reifel

Feb3

IMG_3718

Weekend Expedition 3 went off with no undue trouble thanks to Willow English, a phalarope researcher who drove us both to Westham Island and the George C. Reifel Bird Sanctuary. This was the first time I had been there in many years, the last having been on a field trip with my vertebrate ecology lab way back in undergrad.
The weather was a mix of fog, cloud, and sun, so no real dramatic lighting was available, but this is typical for this area in the winter. There were certainly a lot of birds, as this is one bird sanctuary where you are allowed to feed the wildlife (which, when you think about it, is kind of odd). I think these feeding opportunities made for some good photo opportunities  such as the sandhill cranes in closeup, as well as the low angel mallard shot. On the raptor front, we were not disappointed to find a sleepy Saw-Whet Owl dozing on a low limb with another somewhat higher. These have been spotted for several weeks now, and in general they seem to be reliably found at Reifel.

Overall, not so many surprises, but it was definitely worth the trip. And feeding Sandhill Cranes really is pretty awesome.
What did you get up to this weekend?

Weekend Expedition 2: Stanley Park with Wild Research

Jan26

This weekend expedition was much like any you might venture to make on a winter day in Vancouver: grey and rainy! The rain was not severe though, so with the camera protected by a big umbrella, I headed out with Wild Research for a birdwatching trip led by Elly Knight, a grassland songbird researcher at SFU. The mission today was to get out and see some waterbirds as well as some passerines that make their homes in wintertime Vancouver. I was along to document the fun, as well as to offer my own, often unreliable, ID help! Click on any image below to see a gallery of the resulting shots.