This weekend, we travelled to Victoria to attend the Entomological Society of BC annual meeting. This was pretty convenient, as this is my home town, just a short ferry ride away, and I could stay with my mom. On Friday, folks from my lab joined other (mostly student) presenters to give talks on our work. This was especially fun for me, as Richard Ring, my entomology professor from my undergrad days was in the audience, as was my mom! The talk I gave was a pared-down version of the one I did in Guelph, and it was a little rushed, with 3 major topics to cover. That being said, it was also quite well received.
I did not attend the honeybee symposium they held Saturday, as I had to do some final revisions to a manuscript, but we did end up having an extra morning on Sunday due to some ferry cancellations due to high winds. This was not such a bad thing, as it meant that we could have a Saturday night movie (we went to see “Gravity”), and I could get out in the morning to take some pictures!
Maggie the dog is the lucky beneficiary of our 3D glasses!
She looks thrilled.
Dawn at Gonzales Hill.
A pretty town.
Trial Island from Gonzales Hill.
Sylvan Lane, the pretty little lane leading up Gonzales Hill.
After Gonzales Hill, I took Maggie out to a foggy and mysterious looking Uplands Park for a walk.
This fog was cold, and there was frost on the ground. Winter is here!
This cranefly was actually still alive, and I made to shoot it while I presumed Maggie was off eating rabbit poo (her hobby).
While I switched up to macro, trying to get a shot of the fly’s pretty eyes, I heard Maggie crunching something and thought to myself “Rabbit poo does not crunch!”
And indeed, rabbit poo does not crunch, but rabbit heads evidently do. She did not kill this, but she did find it, about 5 feet from where I was shooting!
There was little out in the way of insects, but this large Cynomya cadaverina (Thanks Ben Coullter for the ID!) was soaking up the rays on a log.
Maggie was somewhat disappointed I took her head away…
On the way back, I did some wildlife spotting from the ferry. We were hoping to see thousands of dolphins, but we settled for a couple Dall’s porpoises and seals.
The calliphorid is Cynomya cadaverina.
Oops! Thanks for the correction!