Tag Archive | BC

Students do learn!

Isn’t it gratifying when the lessons you teach your students stick?

Antonia Musso, who was my entomology student in 2010, correctly identified this as a Stonefly (Order Plecoptera) and that they are best preserved in ethanol. She also remembered the most important lesson…Bring the cool insects to me! Adam Blake was quick on the species ID, determining it to be Pternarcys californica (family Pternarcydae). His photo is here.

Antonia and Adam wrangle the Stonefly

By the way, Antonia also has a cool tattoo!

Results of the Stanley Park Photo Contest

Apr24

Syrphid

Short version: I didn’t win!

Slightly longer version: Don’t bring insects to a bird contest!

Longest version: Check out all the great entries here, as well as the winning entries here.

I think I did a good job, representing the ONLY two insects out of 259 images (and there was only two other invertebrates: a slug and a crab).

All in all, it was a fun exercise, and a good way to get people out with their cameras. By the way, the nature category had by far the most entries, so it is heartening to see what people find truly inspiring at Stanley Park.

Weekend Expedition 14: Pacific Spirit Park

Apr22

Millipede

On this Weekend Expedition, Catherine and I found out what just a tiny bit of Pacific Spirit Park has to offer. It is really large, and we did not cover very much ground!

Since this was a joint effort, we decided to concentrate on forest invertebrates, which worked well during our last field season in French Guiana. Catherine is really good at spotting things!

The first of her great finds was this lovely Dance Fly (Empididae). They look a bit like Robberflies, and in fact are somewhat related (both are Orthorrhapha). The Empidids are a really diverse group, so if anyone has ID suggestions, I would love to hear them!

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The second major find is what looks like a gravid Wolf Spider. This big girl was sheltering in a rotted log, and impressed us with its lovely large abdomen.

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And check out these Net-winged Beetles (Dictyoptera simplicipes). There were a whole bunch in a seeming mating aggregation on a rotting log in one dark little section of the forest. So colourful!

Those have to be one of the most impressively bright insects of early spring that we have!

The second bright spot in these dark woods was this gorgeous male Amaurobiid, sheltering in a knot hole in a snake fence. You can see his modest hacklemesh web and his dark retreat. These spiders are fascinating and beautiful, and I would like to learn more about them…

A fern frond for colour and contrast in a small patch of sun.

The author in situ. Photo by Catherine!

As we left the park, this Equisetum emerging from the moist soil near Camosun Bog was a beautiful sign of spring.

But wait! There’s more! On our way out to a bus stop, we were immediately impressed by a large gathering of bees in Chaldecott Park. These were Andrenids (update: they may have been Colletes) busy mating, digging nests and provisioning them. There were hundreds if not thousands in this small 20 m sq. patch of grass. I did not get a good chance to shoot them really well, because a big rainstorm was coming, but I think I will head back out there this afternoon with Mike to examine some of the bees for parasites. This patch might also be a good spot to put in a temporary fence to keep folks from damaging the nest site. With all the concern for native pollinators, it seems like a good place to try to protect.

Colours boosted to emphasize bees.

The same as above, with yellow and green pushed to white and desaturated. Look at all those bees!

at the burrow

excavation

Weekend Expedition Plans: Pacific Spirit Park

Apr19

One of the largest wooded areas in Greater Vancouver is the former UBC Endowment lands, now known as Pacific Spirit Park. Of all the large parks in the region, I have spent the least amount of time in this one. I do not live close by, and it takes a while to get there, but I thought it might be fun to check out. Highlights of some of my past trips included Ceruchus striatus (see below), one of our few stag beetles… Stand by for a full report Sunday or Monday!

Pretty bad photo, but a pretty badass beetle!

Weekend Expedition: Photo Contest!

Apr15

A fresh-looking syrphid cleans in preparation for flight.

Hello! Well, the Weekend Expedition has come and gone, and I did go out to take some shots for the Stanley Park Ecology Society‘s photo contest. It was not my best day out shooting, and all I can really say about that is that some days I am “on” and some days I am not. Yesterday I was definitely not “on”.

Going out and looking for a prize winning shot is hard! Nonetheless, I went out and did what I could do.

Below is a gallery of the candidate shots. Have a look and see what you think! Below the gallery is the selection of five images that I submitted to the contest, with extra commentary on why I chose them.

: Morning light on the coast Mountains as seen from Lost Lagoon.

: Three Northern Shovelers chill in Lost Lagoon.

: Male Northern Shoveler

: Song Sparrow

: Tipulid on Skunk Cabbage

: Tipulid on Skunk Cabbage

: Spider (Metellina?)

: Male Spider (Metellina?)

: Male Spider (Metellina?)

: Jackie Chan not on board

: Prey Captured!

: Hard light, not so nice for crows..

: Hard light, not so nice for crows..

: Hard light, not so nice for crows..

: Disjointed, but good for my collection

: Mallard Fight!

: Mallard Fight!

: Golden-crowned Sparrow

: Song Sparrow

: Tailless Reflection

: Syrphid

: Douglas Squirrel

: Common Merganser

: Common Merganser

The final five:

Syrphid: I chose this because the isolation of the detailed subject makes for a powerful image. The colours are nice as well!

Mallard Fight! I chose to submit this because it conveys the aggression and action of these common ducks.

Dung Fly: Again, an isolated subject and a colourful frame.

This Song Sparrow knows where it’s at. Chosen because it is nicely detailed and has a “spring feel”

Tailless Reflection: I chose this because I like the distorted reflection. I am not too keen on the light water below, but it is OK nonetheless.

Portrait session with a raccoon

Apr11

After lunch yesterday, Catherine dropped by the lab to pick up some supplies and mentioned that there was a raccoon outside the insectary. She had driven it up a tree when she came out the door, and that is where I found it when I arrived. This was a pregnant female, and after watching her for a couple minutes, she decided I was not a threat and came down from the tree. In the few minutes we spent together, I saw her eat a scavenged apple, and when I went back to the lab she was grabbing and eating worms from a puddle outside the insectary door.

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Weekend Expedition 11: A composite

Apr1

This Weekend Expedition is a composite of 3 trips, the first, on Saturday to Boundary Bay, where Catherine and I were shooting pics for the final Wild Research fieldtrip of the winter. The light was pretty awful for photography, but the trip was interesting nonetheless, as we were able to see several species of raptor (including some snowy owls) as well as various passerines.

Sunday I went out with Maia Smith to try out her Canon 7D, specifically the autofocus capabilities thereof for photographing birds in flight…I was amazed at how much easier it was to lock on and stay locked on to flying birds than using my own lazy Canon 60D. This point was driven home forcefully later that day in Deep Cove, where I was unable to get good focus lock on a Red-tailed Hawk and Raven sparring in the sky. I really need to improve my technique with the flying birds, but perhaps in addition it would help to have a fully capable autofocus system…

Anyway, enjoy the pics below.

: A rare image of myself, taken by Catherine

: Savannah Sparrows…So pretty!

: Catherine’s image of a young birder and his dad

: Catherine’s image of a young birder

: Here I am shooting Snowies…

: Boundary Bay is still loaded with eagles, but mostly immatures like this one.

: Catheirne ready with camera and binocs..

: Another great shot by Catherine

: This harrier caught a vole while we were watching.

: This dog stopped dead on the path when I pointed the camera

: Iff you pull down the blues, the mountains reappear even on a hazy bright day…

: Late Snowies…Hopefully they will make it back home.

: A rough legged hawk and an Bald eagle share a thermal.

: First Mourning Cloak of the season!

: This Snow Goose has taken a shine to a Canada Goose at Burnaby Lake.

: Awww…Maybe we will see some hybrid offspring!

: Other Canada geese are feeling their hormones in different ways.

: Likewise the Red-winged Blackbirds were singing and sparring near the lake.

: Maia enjoyed the use of the 300 F4

: This was the one decentish shot I got…It didn’t help that my shutterspeed was too slow.

: This is how trails near Vancouver look on nice days.

Mystic Beach

Mar28

As I was in Victoria yesterday for a short trip to give a talk for the Victoria Natural History Society I decided to take a trip out to Mystic Beach with my brother Colin to grab some photos of the rainforest in spring.

Enjoy!

The beach itself was pretty, but kind of dull on an overcast day…

The forest, now that the cold of winter is behind us, was inviting and mysterious…

This large weevil was a lucky find on a shadowy fern.

There were also some lovely spiders, the identities of which I have yet to determine. Update: This is a Tetragnathid of the genus Metelina.

The forest had quite few Western Redbacked Salamanders! This was my attempt at “wide angle macro”…I really need a different lens to do this type of photography justice…But I was much inspired by reading this excellent book!

The 100 mm macro and the Cheapskate Diffuser Mark II gives a different perspective on these salamanders.

Colin is a Nikon shooter, but I don’t hold it against him..He gets a lot more photo views on flickr than I do!

The one good Cormorant shot I got…

Salamanders are pretty cute, and a good way to end a blog post…

Weekend Expedition 10: Spring is springing in Stanley Park!

Mar25

Calling Red-winged Blackbird…These odd fellows are related to the Oropendolas.

This weekend, I returned to Stanley Park to check out some of the early spring action. The herons are beginning nest construction and courtship in the large heronry near English Bay, and there are more and more birds bursting into song and aggression at the slightest provocation. Check out the video of the bill snapping/nest building heron, and then browse around the gallery below to see the highlights of this Weekend Expedition.

: This Mute Swan was rocking out!

: Further crow portraiture

: Anna’s Hummingbird feeding low

: Anna’s Hummingbird feeding low

: Anna’s Hummingbird feeding low

: Anna’s Hummingbird feeding low

: Centipede

: Centipede

: Isopod

: Further crow portraiture

: Gull looking dsitinguished

: Further crow portraiture

: Duck Detail

: Fox Sparrow

: Catherine feeds the chickadees

: Catherine feeds the chickadees

: Check out the epaulets!

: Smaller on a younger male

: Crow searching the intertidal at Second Beach

: mmmm…molluscs!

: Coolest dog?

: herons get a bit crazy..

: herons get a bit crazy..

: Thinking of oviposition…

: Check out the breeding regalia!

: Full body

: Further crow portraiture

: cant get enough Icterids!

Gallery:

Weekend Expedition 9: Deer Lake Park

Mar17

This weekend, I went to Deer Lake Park in Burnaby with Mike. It is not terribly far from Burnaby Lake Park, and in many respects has some quite similar habitat types. Because it was sunny, we were hoping to find a lot of early insects out basking, but it remained cold and windy most of the day and the insects remained elusive. Some of the photographic highlights of the trip are to be found in the gallery below. For colours I seem to have shot lots of blues and pinks today, with some yellows thrown in for good measure.