Field course in Algonquin - Part 3

Aside from working on their projects around the research station, the students had not really had any opportunities to explore other parts of Algonquin.  On Thursday morning (20th), a group of us woke up extra early (~ 6:15) to go birding at the Hardwood Lookout Trail.  Aside from myself, I don't think any of the students are really bird-waters, so even though we heard birds singing in the forest, we couldn't really identify them (neither could I because I am more of a bird-watcher than birder).

Anyways, we saw several flowering Indian cucumber-roots, as well as this Blackburnian Warbler (Setophaga fusca).

This was the best photo I could get, and you can sort of see the orange throat.

On the way back, we saw a Wild Turkey (two birds for this so-called birding trip), as well as two moose.  Not a bad morning, I suppose.

After breakfast, it was back to work for the students.  I took some photos during my breaks and lunchtime.

Lots of these beetles trying to find mates.  I believe this is one of the insects that visited the Indian cucumber-root flower.

A White Admiral butterfly (Limenitis arthemis)

We didn't see any orchids here in Algonquin.  The only species (and the only individual) was this Stemless lady's-slipper or Moccasin flower, the provincial flower of PEI.

Stemless lady's-slipper (Cypripedium acaule)




Unidentified dragonfly

A student caught this White-spotted pine sawyer (Monochamus scutellatus) for another student.  I brought it outside to take photos of it in a more natural setting.  It can be confused with the invasive Asian long-horned beetle, but the sawyer beetle is a native species and has one large white dot between the head and body (as seen in the above photo).

Got one more day of photos to post about, and then that's the end of my two weeks helping out with this field course (and my only field season of this year).  So sad.