Tag Archive | Weekend Expedition

Weekend Expedition 16: A Grab Bag

May6
Probably the coolest find of teh weekend, this Rough-skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa) was the first I have seen on the Mainland.

Probably the coolest find of the weekend, this Rough-skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa) at Maplewood Park was the first I have seen on the Mainland.

This Weekend Expedition is actually another composite of three trips:

1) to Burnaby Lake with Mike, Catherine, Viorel and Tavi, stalking the elusive goslings

2) back to Hastings Park in the morning for some early insect shots

3) finally making it out to Maplewood Park in North Vancouver, accompanied by Adam Blake.

It was an exhausting weekend, with fine weather and good company, so I think I will let the images do most of the talking here!

Gallery 1: Burnaby Lake

Gallery 2: Hastings Park

Gallery 3: Maplewood Park

Weekend Expedition Plans: Goslings at Piper Spit

May3

Piper Spit is the main, official entrance to Burnaby Lake Park. It is also a great waterfowl haven, with nest boxes for wood ducks and reed beds. I will go there tomorrow morning with Mike and Catherine to try my luck at shooting excessively cute Canada Goslings! I will of course have the full (heavy) kit with me so any cool insects or spiders are also fair game…

On Sunday I will go with Adam Blake to attempt to redeem last week’s debacle, and actually make it to Maplewood Park.

Weekend Expedition 15: Hastings Park

Apr29

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This Weekend Expedition, we set out to go to North Vancouver’s Maplewood Park. Just a short bus ride across the bridge, right? Well, if is if you manage to catch the bus! Catherine and I arrived at the bus stop just as our bus was pulling out…And it was Sunday, so the next one was in 25 minutes. No problem! Lets just walk to the next bus stop and wait there.

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This bus stop was awesome, we had knitting to do and Tobey Maguire (Spiderman!) to keep us company. Except the next bus didn’t stop for us! Apparently, our special bus only stops at the first stop (not that they are labelled or anything. Thanks TransLink!). Rather than wait another 25 minutes, we decided to change plans and head to Hastings Park, a few blocks away. Have a look below to see what we found!

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The crows are nesting!

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this looks a lot like Brumoides histrio, a type of Ladybird beetle (Coccinellidae). UPDATE: this is actually Brumus quadripustulatus. Thanks V. Belov!

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We call them harvestpersons. This one appears to be a harvestchild.

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first Odonates!

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To me this looks like an Anthomyiid. Anyone else have an idea?

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I think this syrphid turned out pretty nicely.

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The first Damselflies of the season!

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I liked how the drop on this lupine magnified the details.

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A Sawfly

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This Ichneumonid was hunting on the Lupines

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taken with the Monster Macro Rig…Even though the leaf was moving, the whole exposure is with flash, so no problem.

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I wasn’t the only photographer there. Check out this guy with a large format camera!

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Chironomid midges!

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This Red-winged Blackbird was doing an awesome job defending his territory.

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This was my favourite photo of the trip…This heron was unconcerned with me after I had squatted observing for a while. I was apple to approach really close.

Results of the Stanley Park Photo Contest

Apr24
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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

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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!

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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…

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

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The author in situ

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.

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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.

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Colours boosted to emphasize bees.

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

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at the burrow

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excavation

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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
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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.

The final five:

Syrphid

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

Mallard Fight!

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

Dung Fly

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

This Song Sparrow knows where it's at.

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

Tailless Reflection

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.

Weekend Expedition 12: Indoors!

Apr8

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Sometimes the easiest way to shoot a macro subject is indoors, under carefully controlled conditions. Because the forecast this weekend called for rain, and I had a lot of writing to get done, I spent the weekend at school without any real outdoor adventure. I took a few hours to shoot some captive arthropods and a salmonberry flower from outside the school. I took some time to illustrate the effect of different background lighting on some of the subjects.  Besides the photos you see below, the other results of the Weekend Expedition were mixed: my paper needs major surgery*, and the sac spider you see above escaped during a photo shoot. Good for the spider, not so good for me! Anyway, enjoy, and let me know what you think!

*the good news is Catherine is helping with the “paper surgery”…I think I was just stuck and in need of an outside perspective.

Weekend Expedition Plans: Indoors!

Apr5

Our gorgeous spring weather has turned back to rainy Vancouver miserableness, so instead of an expedition outdoors, I will do some studio shooting indoors at school (as a short break while writing the last paper of my thesis on caracara predation behaviour). The target of the weekend’s shooting will be captive and indoor spiders such as this male and female western Black Widow (Latrodectus hesperus).

Weekend Expedition 11: A composite

Apr1

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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.