Wordless: Last Blue Moon Until 2015

Black Swallowtail and (almost) Blue Moon

I was at school yesterday (Aug 29) doing some work.  After a while, I brought my camera out with me to go on a stroll behind the building.  I didn't see anything worth photographing until I saw this Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) visiting the clovers.  Swallowtails are pretty difficult to photograph since they are very fast flyers and rarely stay still in one spot.  I was chasing it around (from a non-disturbing distance) before I took this decent photos.  The males are brighter and with a yellow band near the edge of his wings; thus, this is a female.

Exploring the Lady Eaton Drumlin

Went out shopping in the morning to get a few more things that I still need for my new place, e.g. kettle, spatula, etc.

On the way to the store, I spotted this toad on the hot gravelly trail.  It's good to always bring my P&S camera with me.  You'll never know what you might encounter.

2012 Peterborough Folk Festival

I had been pretty busy the past few days.  I arrived on Tuesday, checked out and agreed on a new place on Wednesday, packed on Thursday, and moved into new place on Friday.  Phew.

I took a break today and biked from my new place to where the Peterborough Folk Festival is held this year.  This is last year's post.

The weather was beautiful and many people showed up to participate.

Back to Ontario

Photo taken on the shuttle bus going from Pearson airport to Peterborough.  First Ontario sunset of the summer.. so far this year.

Wordless Sunday - Leaf Vein

Photo taken with the Raynox adapter of a leaf outside our porch. 

Photographic Post - Flowers at London Heritage Farm

Out at the London Heritage Farm on this hot afternoon looking for wildlife and photographing flowers.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Drone Honey Bee

Found a dead honey bee on the sidewalk yesterday when I was heading out to city centre to get a haircut.  However, it was not the more common female workers, but a male drone honey bee.  I am not sure why it died - maybe it was too hot or maybe he had done his part of passing his genes onto the future.

After the haircut, I brought the honeybee back home to pin it and take some photos.

Interesting specimen

From this photo, you can see the drone has extremely large compound eyes, relative to the female workers, and his feeding proboscis is inconspicuous and small.  Not seen from this photo, but drones also lack the stinger because their sole function in the society is to mate.

Five more sleeps in Richmond before flying back to Ontario...

Wordless Wednesday - Biked to Phoenix Pond & Finn Slough

Pair of Yellowlegs

UBC Botanical Garden & Greenheart Canopy Walkway

The past few days has been quite rewarding - volunteering at two different sessions, listening to different researches, and not stressing over the presentations like most of the presenters.  I saw presentations discussing from lizard diversity in Chile to genetically identifying shark species all over the world to the threats to Japanese Giant Salamanders.  Today was the last day of the conference (to be followed by the huge bird conference - NAOC), and I was assigned to help out with the registration table.  A few days ago, I saw a special discount for going to the UBC Botanical Garden plus walking the Greenheart Canopy Walkway for only $11.  I bought the ticket right away and thought this afternoon would be a good time to use it.

A Barn Swallow nest right outside the gift store at the botanical garden.  The parent(s) were flying in and out feeding the young chicks.

Pollinators Drinking Nectar

Another day hanging around the community garden hoping to see and photograph the hummingbird.  The hummingbirds were nowhere to be found and so I decided to photograph the pollinators instead.  Looking through the photos made me realize how different the feeding methods are for all of these creatures.

Skipper with its long proboscis.

Grizzly in Ivvavik National Park

This field season, I saw a total of five grizzlies.  The closest encounter was on May 31 when we were setting up experiments for my soapberry project near campground.  During the set up, I looked around and saw a bear crossing the creek to the other side - meaning it was very near us just a few moments ago.  We abandoned what we were doing and cautiously went over to the kitchen shed.  Sensing the bear was not interested in us, we took some photos from our side of the creek.

The grizzly on the other side of the creek.

Attending WCH volunteer orientation at UBC & Cyanide-producing Millipedes

Went to UBC early in the morning to attend the WCH volunteer orientation.  I haven't been to UBC in a while, and surprise surprise, there is still construction going on at the campus.  Since I started going to UBC in 2004, I don't think there has been a year where UBC is completely free of construction machines.  This is probably the main reason why I dislike UBC so much. 

Anyways, the bus arrived earlier than expected so I walked to the rose garden to see some sights. 

Fireweed with water droplets.

Baby animals at Minoru Park

My mother and I went to Minoru Lake Park after dropping my father off at work.  Walking towards the park, we saw many Japanese student-visitors taking photos of a Grey squirrel.  I guess I would act the same if I am in a new country seeing unfamiliar animals, although doesn't Japan have squirrels?

Lotus pads in Minoru Park.

Birds, insects, and flowers of the community garden

I tried to look for the hummingbird again this afternoon at the community garden.  It might had been too hot because very few things were active, except for insects and a few birds.  Here are some of them.

Young unknown sparrow.

Hummingbird at GCCG

A warm and sunny Saturday - good day to be outside and enjoy the sunshine.

Bald Eagle perched on Shady Island, not very shady at all.

Raccoon Family at Lost Lagoon

I accompanied my mother to downtown Vancouver today to pick up prizes that she had won from a local newspaper contest.  Afterwards, while it was still early, we decided to bus to Stanley Park and walked around the Lost Lagoon.  According to this post (the photos from that post have all been taken down by the server, sorry), the last time I was there was more than three years ago!?

Anyways, today was a nice day to be out - although there were too many people to our likings.

Several Mute Swans around the lagoon.

Riding the fixed bike to Finn Slough; Seeing snakes

Took my newly repaired bike to the dyke this afternoon.  Let's hope the inner tube is indeed puncture-resistant as it says on the package.

There was one Western Tiger Swallowtail flying around the trees at the end of the trail and defending its territory from other fliers.