I am still not back on my regular blogging schedule, as things have been quite busy. Catherine and I are preparing for some fieldwork at Island View Beach (which should be interesting!). Sorry about the lack of a Cheapskate Tuesday post, but I did take some pictures in the community garden last night.
A picture of me, with a sizable prey item, trying to hold it together!
It has been a busy couple weeks here in Vancouver, preparing manuscript revisions for an upcoming paper and writing grant proposals for upcoming fieldwork. They way it is looking now, I may soon be travelling to Honduras in the fall for a 3 week expedition to survey for Red-throated Caracaras and Scarlet Macaws in a remote region of Olancho. This trip will also be to familiarize myself with the terrain, meet the local conservationists and researchers, and get rolling on some permitting issues pertaining to future fieldwork. This is an exciting development for species and habitat conservation, as well as for my harebrained scheme to continue research on my favourite loud birds!
Anyway, with all the excitement, it has been tough to find time to go out to shoot, but that is exactly what I did yesterday, hanging out in Stanley Park, and seeing what the late summer had to offer.
At first, I thought this fly was a member of the Orthorrhapha, the group including horseflies, but Morgan Jackson of Biodiversity in Focus correctly ID’ed it as a Tachinid! Don’t believe me? Check out the closeup of the antennae! The species is Euthera setifacies, one of only two species of Euthera in North America.
That’s a Cyclorhaphan, man! Those antennae are aristate!
The Himalayan Blackberry is still being visited by pollinators, but the vast majority of the fruit is ripe.
The ripe blackberry is under heavy attack by Drosophila suzukii, an invasive species of vinegar fly from Japan. This is male shows why the species goes by the common name “Spotted-winged Drosophila”.
This male Common Aerial Yellowjacket (Dolichovespula arenaria) is also a harbinger of fall. Their colony cycle is almost finished, reproductives are being produced, and within a month or so their nests will decline.
When the Bald-faced Hornets (Dolichovespula maculata) start nectaring, it is also an indication their colonies are in decline. Because much of the sugar for the adults is produced by the larvae (trophallaxis!), when larval numbers are low, adults must find other sources of fuel.
A Sierra Dome Spider, Neriene litigiosa (Linyphiidae) has a snack at the top of her dome web. As fall approaches, these become extremely apparent in almost every salal bush.
Our largest native slug, the Spotted Banana Slug eats some skunk cabbage.
The termites are flying, and their long wings and slow flight make for easy snares for web-building spiders. I like how the green of the fern is reflected in the translucent wings.
A Pacific Forktail (Ischnura cervula) hangs out by the water.
A Black Dancer (Mystacides sepulchralis) a type of Caddisfly, rests near Lost Lagoon.
Some kind of Nematus sawfly.
A raccoon checks out the situation before crossing the water.
I love how they hold their tails out!
Those without tails make do.
A very late brood Mallard Duckling from water level.
I was excited to see this male Pine White nectaring.
The omnipresent Woodland Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanoides).
Skippers can be pretty cute!
A lucky Goldenrod Crab Spider (Misumena vatia) takes advantage of the skipper abundance.
An introduced Drumming Katydid female (Meconema thalassinum) hangs out on a fern. Check out Piotr Naskrecki’s awesome blog post showing katydids ovipositing!
A colourful background makes this bumblebee pop!
Well, we have been working hard for 9 days with the Photron SA-5, and this weekend was mostly busy as well. I managed to get some time out to take some photos amongst all the high speed madness. Most of these shots were taken during 6 minute downloading breaks with the camera, and I also snuck in a quick trip to the local community garden.
Culiseta incidens, probing my finger.
tanking up!
Graphocephala fenahi, the rhododendron leafhopper.
A beautiful syrphid bumblebee mimic, Eristalis flavipes.
A flower longhorn in the community garden.
A western yellowjacket delves under bark for prey.
OK, you have made it to the end of the photos. Did I ever mention that I am part American? The following 2 videos were shot at a whopping 10,000 frames per second.
A few weeks ago, I suggested a Rat Safari, as a budget-minded wildlife photo expedition that is easy to do in most cities. Today, I bring you a budget spider safari, which Catherine and I conducted in the tiny park across the street. For this to work, I needed some constant illumination in the subject area, so I simply taped my Fenix E-05 flashlight to the lens hood of my 100 mm, which illuminated the spiders for easy focusing. The lighting for the shots was simply accomplished with a single diffused speedlight on the Monster Macro Rig. I hope you enjoy the photos, and are inspired to go find some little night spiders yourself!
Realm of the Amaurobiids: These Hacklemesh Weavers are the most abundant of the spiders we found. Their disordered web flanking their retreat is laid as a trap for unwary passing insects.
Some webs are more sparse than others!
Here is a freshly-moulted Amaurobiid.
We guess that this is a male Steatoda hespera (Therediidae).
These small orb weavers (Araneidae) were out in small numbers.
A nice big sac spider (Clubionidae)! This is a female.
Could this male sac spider be the same species as the previous? It is difficult to tell. There are hundreds of species of Clubionidae in Canada.
Here a male Amaurobiid tackles an introduced Drumming Katydid (Meconema thalassinum)
This Weekend, I joined local naturalist Istvan Orosi and members of the Hastings Park Conservancy for a guided walk around the pond at Hastings Park, my local greenspace. While Istvan kept an eye out for birds (he is master of the Audubon Bird Call!) I mainly scanned the foliage for insects and spiders.
This week was big for the Conservancy, as the Vancouver City Council heard arguments for the transfer of governance of the park from the PNE corporation (which is not doing that great a job for the wildlife) to to the Parks Board. The Council will decide the issue in a special session Aug. 1, but I am not really hopeful the governance will change.
In the meantime, here are the pictures I took on Saturday!
An impressive male Tetragnathid, or Long-jawed Orbweaver, which seem common near bodies of water.
Green Lacewing resting in the shade.
A bird-dropping mimic caterpillar, which I believe is that of a swallowtail butterfly.
We spotted a Golden-rumped Warbler, which was a treat.
A nice Ichneumonid.
A crazy looking nymph, which I believe to be Heterotoma planicornis, an odd member of the Miridae.
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The star of the show, out in the middle of the pond was a Green Heron, a rare bird in the Vancouver region.
Behold the Green Heron!
This weekend I have been working on revisions on a paper, so have not had time for a full-fledged expedition, but I spent a couple hours outside the lab at school (Simon Fraser University) on Saturday and Sunday, and some time in the Community Garden at Pandora Park in the evenings. For the time invested, it was not a bad haul of shots!
Dis you know that National Moth Week is upon us? This Pale Beauty did! Check back here Thursday for moth shots, as I am organizing a nighttime light trapping at school Wednesday night.
Mounting a second flash in a tree up the trail, I mimicked what a foraging bird might cue in on when examining sun-struck foliage.
Once he landed, this fly was very cooperative for photography! I didn’t notice his Nematoceran buddy til later though.
Here I am trying to make millipedes look good.
A Coquillettidia perturbans feeds on my arm. This species has larvae with a blade-like siphon that they pierce plant tissue with in order to breathe. They never have to come to the surface.
Found this firebrat (Thermobia domestica) in a basement hallway at SFU. They must have been on my mind, as my friend Nathan Woodbury just defended his PhD last week describing how these guys use symbiotic bacteria and fungi as site cues for resting spots.
A male Polistes dominula found at the community garden. I should revise my post about in situ on white, because I find when I push the whites using levels in Photoshop, I get a cleaner result than in ACR…
Polistes dominula and thrips. What a size difference!
Bombus vosnesenskii on lavender. They really are an elegant bee.
I put the Polistes on an Echinacea. I think he liked it.
At the SFU comminity gardens, a honeybee learns the perils of pollination.
This is one of the major perils, and so pretty! The Goldenrod Crab Spider lies in wait, and seems to blend in with its surroundings.
A Snipe Fly (Rhagionidae likely in the genus Rhagio) in the clutches of death.
Will this hoverfly learn? No one can say. This pullback shot was possible thanks to the Monster Macro Rig; see the next picture for details.
This is a configuration you can use for pullback shots using the Monster Macro Rig. Notice that the camera body is pulled way back on the Arca rail, and the magic arms are somewhat extended forward. It can go even further than that, but mostly I use it close in. Photo by Mike Hrabar, who captured a wicked shot of the Crab Spider and Snipe Fly encounter.
Speaking of hoverflies, what I love about this shot is how the vortices from the landing fly kick up the pollen.
Honeybee, looking elegant on Echinacea.
The Weekend Expedition ended with this lovely Brown Lacewing on a daisy neat the Pandora Park Community Garden.
In defensive posture!
Of all the spiders found locally, none has more impressive fangs than Dysdera crocata, the Woodlouse Hunter. These beauties are often found under logs near the beach or in woodlands. I have this one in the lab, hoping one day to record some of the predation behaviour on video. Their bright coloration and fearsome armaments make these one of my favourite species.
Shy with legs drawn in.
dorsal view.
Occasionally, when it is a nice day out, it is too much to be good and stay in…Even when I am fighting the good fight, writing grant proposals and revising manuscripts, sometimes the lure of the outdoors becomes irresistible. This morning was one of those times. Just before lunch, I grabbed my camera and headed out to shoot for 40 minutes in the SFU Community Garden. I am glad I did, because it was the most productive 40 minutes shooting in a long while!
I was extremely excited to see these beautiful halictids out. I am pretty sure this is Agapostemon but it is hard to tell with the tibia so loaded with pollen!
I thought there might be a spider associated with this dead Cabbage White, but the only thing feeding was this fly. Pretty cool anyhow!
This Philodromid gives a good lesson in persistence and struggling through adversity.
I really can’t get enough of these Halictids. They are just like living jewels!
Takeoff!
The crème de la crème of the outing was this beautiful Laphria with a honeybee. I only had a short time with this beauty, as the strong wind caused it to fly far when I startled it.
So overall, my little adventure produced some decent shots! To top it off, when I returned to the lab I got an email informing me that a paper I am coauthor on had been accepted for publication in the Canadian Entomologist. Productive slacking! Is there anything better?
This lovely jumping spider is a common sight on walls around the Vancouver area: meet Platycryptus californicus, a member of the Marpissinae subfamily of Salticidae. If you live in Eastern North America, another Platycryptus, P. undatus is also common.
At first glance, P. californicus seems a wee bit boring. They are overall grey and drab, and hang out on grey drab walls. When shot up close on white, however, these little salticids reveal their beauty. I found this one yesterday on a wall in my back yard, and a couple days ago one was in my living room. This is truly one jumper that has adapted well to the urban habitat.
The greyness and drabness help these little jumpers blend in to rocks and now concrete.
The drabness is not complete however, as there are rufous hairs scattered around, particularly near the eyes and on the sides of the abdomen. A bold white stripe is evident on the lower portion of the prosoma, just above the legs.
Unlike some other species, these jumpers seem to pause every once in a while, which makes photography easier. Check out those cute little eyelashes!
They seem to move their palps quite a bit (perhaps to cover their hideous fangs, like Dracula with his cape?)
A few weeks ago, I delved into what a white card could do paired with two flashes. I found it was a bit tricky to use it to add fill except in a few situations, but the way that it could be used to blow out a background was intriguing, so I wondered if it was practical to use for “Meet Your Neighbours” style lighting in the field. The difference between MYN style and mine is that the MYN people are really good…But enough of that, the other difference is that the MYN style often involves larger setups and “field studio” type conditions, using tripods and lightstands and the lot. With bounced flash from a white card, I can blow out the background, so what is to stop me from just holding it behind the subject and using the Monster Macro Rig to light both the subject and the background? I gave it a try, and here are my results and some thoughts.
For relatively slow moving insects on stable backgrounds, this is a great technique. The only issues are to get an angle that allows a blown background, and to balance the light hitting the subject and the flash. I was working at f13, with 1/8 power on a YN560 for the subject, and 1/8 to 1/4 with a YN460 (a smaller light) for the background. ISO around 160-250.
For subjects on more mobile backgrounds, it is better to have no wind! The more flighty subjects may tolerate a close approach with the macro rig, but putting the card behind is a whole other level of disturbance to manage! I found that flies and bees and such were tough to approach.
This Grass Veneer was flighty and was also on some ridiculously mobile grass, so this is the only shot I got. Luckily it was mostly in focus. Again, working in calm conditions would be best.
Getting the subject isolated in natural (unselected) vegetation is difficult, especially when they are timid. This shot could be better isolated.
A tiny subject on a larger leaf is a tough one to compose. Wherever you cut the leaf, it will look odd. It may have been better with this lace bug to cut it in the corner…That being said, this technique can make for some nice textural contrasts with a subject such as this.
Small fine features coming out into the white background can be easily swamped, so it is important to keep fine features parallel to the plane of the rest of the subject…This would be great, but the way the antennae fade is not so nice.
The nicest thing about this approach is that the subject is actually in the position and situation it was found in, so the setting is appropriate and not contrived. A field studio approach may not achieve this.
So that’s it for this week’s Cheapskate Tuesday! I think that it is something I will continue to work on, as it seems to have promise. Keep watching this blog for more results using this technique, preferably of lovelier subjects on calmer days!
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