I’ve always enjoyed gently turning over rocks and pieces of wood and bark to discover what is living underneath. Today I was out poking around for snails, inspired by my finds on International Rock Flipping Day back in September. While I did find one new snail (I’ll post on that later this week) I was thrilled to discover a small …
Invertebrates
Flight of the Woolly Aphids
Woolly Aphid, possibly the Woolly Apple Aphid | Eriosoma lanigerum Over the last couple of evenings I’ve noticed a massive flight of woolly aphids both in Courtenay and today up at my mother-in-law’s house in Black Creek. I’ve managed to get a few decent images of these white furred aphids (though they are quite small). I initially thought that they …
There Be Dragons
I had the opportunity to lead a Young Naturalists Club walk this morning out at Woodhus Slough just north of the Oyster River. We were looking for dragonflies and on this sunny morning were fortunate to find a few. It’s late in the year for dragonflies and many of the ones that we caught (and released) were looking tattered. Variable …
In the Pink
One of the sure signs of the season is the return of the fall salmon runs to the east side of Vancouver Island. Puntledge Park in Courtenay, BC is an excellent place to witness the phenomena of pink salmon returning to their birth stream to spawn Pink Salmon | Oncorhynchus gorbuscha Pink Salmon Spawning Spectacle! If you have experienced a …
Puddling in Paradise
Zephyr anglewings (Polygonia zephyrus) have been fairly regular in the parking lot at Paradise Meadows, Strathcona Provincial Park this week. Zephyr Anglewing | Polygonia zephyrus Common Characteristics of Zephyr Anglewings Anglewings belong to Nymphalinae which is a subfamily of the family Nymphalidae. The genus name Polygonia (Greek – many-angled) refers to the shape of the wings of this butterfly. The …
Back in the Garden
With two young children it’s often difficult to get out to a new location to photograph. As a result, I usually have to revisit a location that I’ve photographed before – the challenge then becomes how to create new images with the same subjects. Taking the time to look at details, repositioning the camera and playing with depth of field …
What Wasp is That?
I spent some time this week in my mother-in-law’s garden photographing wasps, bees and other insects but am finding it challenging to identify them. These wasps were unconcerned about me being close to them. As a result, I was able to get some good photographs of these fascinating insects. I’m working on identifying conclusively the insects pictured below. The photographs …
More Garden Insects
Given that I had little success photographing bumble bees on my last visit to our garden I was determined to try again. One of the advantages of using a digital SLR instead of film that you can capture an unlimited number of images without having to worry about cost. This is beneficial when trying to photograph moving garden insects! Bumble …