Blossoms and a sad finding

Last week at the Arboretum, I made a mental note of when I think the crabapple trees will start flowering so that I can return and photograph the blossoms.

I went back today and the trees were just before peak-flowering.

Science by Night at the Museum of Nature (2016)

This evening, a free event called Science by Night took place at the Museum of Nature.  In addition to the usual Thursdays' free open house (in the evenings), there were activities where the visitors could extract strawberry DNA, see birds of prey up-close, talk to paleontologists and park scientists, and more.  Since I have been to the museum many times already, the activity that interested me the most was seeing the birds of prey from Falcon Environmental Services.

The Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus).

Fauna/flora surveying at Gatineau Park (2015) - Part 3 & Sawmill Creek Wetland

On April 28th, I helped out at Gatineau Park for the last time this year.

Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)

Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus)!

Bats have a special place in my heart because they are the first group of wildlife that I started my career with as an ecologist.  They are always the first animals that I search for when I go to a new place; however, I am not very lucky at finding them.  The last time I saw a wild bat was almost four years ago in Taiwan!

Well, today I saw one outside the DNA building hanging right by the door.  I think it is a Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) because according to this PDF document, it should have long silky fur and a large nose.

 Long silky fur

A fairly large nose.

What a cool creature.  I hope it finds a better place to rest tomorrow because it was about 3 feet off the ground next to the building entrance, not an ideal place at all.

Ottawa's Museum of Nature

Thursday evenings are supposedly "museum nights" here in Ottawa and they are free during this time of the week. So, after 16:00, many of the course participants packed up for the day and headed out to the Museum of Nature.

The entrance. The building from the outside looks like a castle.

Exploring the Silver-Dragon Cave at night (2009-10-16)

I was helping my mother cleaning the house today, so I didn't have time to go out and wildlife watch. So here's a continuation of my trip in southern Taiwan after watching the sunset in Guanshan (2009-10-16).

After having mouth-watering dumplings for dinner, we headed back to our dormitory. And after getting some rest, we went to explore a public-accessible cave in the Kenting Botanical Garden. Since the whole area is closed off during the evening, we were the only people able to go into it. The cave is called Silver-Dragon Cave and it is a natural limestone cave.

Below were some of the species we saw. I tried to identify most of them and asked for help on forums and so forth, but not all were identified.

Pancala Snail (Pancala batanica pancala). Taiwan has more than 170 snail species, and the Pancala Snail is an endemic subspecies found only in the Hengchuan Peninsula. This special snail has the special trait of being left handedness. I just Googled an interesting information about "handedness" in snails here - for interest's sake.


Next is a large cave-dwelling cricket called Ceuthophilus maculatus. Or maybe a different species in the same genus, I am not totally sure. But it sure is cool to see such large insects crawling on walls all around you in a narrow cave.


This is a mammal that I was very surprised and happy to see in a cave - Formosan Tube-nosed Bat (Murina puta) - an animal that I researched in in the summer of 2008! You can read about my stories from that summer here - good times! It is surprising because it should be a forest dwelling bat, not cave-dwelling, but I guess since the cave is surrounded by forests, it is much safer in a cave than in the furled plant leaf. This species is easily identified by its pointy nostrils (clearly seen in the picture). Wow!


Then we encountered a female Geothelphusa albogilva. It is a freshwater crab endemic in Taiwan and most common in the Hengchuan Peninsula.


The cave itself is fairly narrow and short, and pretty soon we entered the forest and started shining lights everywhere to see some wildlife. We didn't have much luck and the only animal we saw was this small Stejneger's Narrow-mouthed Toad (Micryletta stejnegeri). They are fairly easy identified with their small body size (2 ~ 3-cm) and their dark metallic gray or brown color.


After a while, we gave up and returned back to the cave and to our mopeds. On the cave wall, we spotted this Hekou's Gecko (Gekko hokouensis) - it has alternating dark and light patterns running from the middoral to the tail, and it's tail is more rounded rather than flattened.


Then we saw a large unidentified Heteropoda spp. hiding in the cracks of the cave. Wow.

After we came out of the cave, our light shone on a Acanthaspis immodesta. Neat insect to see before we conclude our adventure and head back to the dorm for a shower and sleep.

365 days ago (2008-12-28) ...
.

Tiny Happiness...Rest In Peace

Today, I learned from one of the technician assistants (of Taipei Zoo) that one of the bats that we took care of during our internship had pass away last month.

A-shi

The bat's name was A-Shi (or Tiny Happiness, translated into English). Her name was derived from a famous disabled hero in Taiwan, and the reason was because she had disfigured wing structure had disallowed her to fly. During our time at the zoo, we (the interns) all took turn taking care of it, feeding, cleaning her box, and playing with her.

I still remember her playing on my hand trying to wiggle out of my fingers or when she was trying to fly by hopping a few centimeters above the floor before falling down. Not realizing that she doesn't have the correct wing structure to fly, she still tried time after time relentlessly. It's her courage that impresses me the most. Her friendliness with people that handled her allowed us to break the usual human attitudes towards bats are invaluable.

I know that she won't have a long life with her disability, but it still hurts me deeply to find out a month later that one of my good friends had passed away. I shed many tears, had moments of silence, and sincerely wish A-Shi a great afterlife where she can return to normal and fly in the sky.

R.I.P.

Interestingly, my playlist is just playing 정엽 - Too Shy To Say (Dedicated To Stevie Wonder). And I, in turn, dedicate this song to A-Shi.

You make me smile
You make me sing
You make me feel good everything
You bring me up
When I've been down
This only happens when you're around

And I can't go on this way...
With it stronger every day...
But being too shy to say
That I really love you...

I wanna fly
Away with you
Until there's nothing more for us to do
I wanna be
More than a friend
Until the end of an endless end

And I can't go on this way...
With it stronger every day...
But being too shy to say
That I really love you...

And I can't go on this way...
Feelin' it stronger every day...
But being too shy to say
That I really love you
Ohh.. ooh...
I... do...

Here are two of the last few pictures of A-Shi the last few months prior to her death (taken by my friend at the zoo). Thank you.

Dedicated to my friends (the ones not in Vancouver).

Today, I was planning to bring my Taiwanese friend to visit Richmond Nature Park because I am pretty sure he will enjoy the natural side of Lower Mainland besides the people and buildings. Sadly, due to unforeseeable events, he was not able to come. I still went to the Nature Park (and then the Garden City Community Park) by myself. I took many pictures and they are for all of my friends around the world to show this beautiful place that I live in called Richmond.

Anyways, I haven't come to the Nature Park for quite a while now, so this place is becoming quite unfamiliar to me. The park contains the remnant of the Greater Lulu Island Bog and the soil is very acidic due to the Sphagnum moss species within the park. These mosses can absorb large amounts of water, and they secrete acid to help absorb other scarce nutrients. Therefore, most of the vegetation in the bog must tolerate a high water table and a soil that is low in nutrients and pH.

Some of the plants that are found in the park are: heaths, Labrador tea, salal, native and domestic blueberries and cranberries, cloudberry, Shore Pines, ferns, western hemlock, red elderberry, and sundews.

This was what the sky looked today (for the most part), and then it rained for a little while before back to sunny blue skies again. Quite beautiful. I didn't see a rainbow though. Pity.

Imagine a jigsaw puzzle made from this picture...confusing!

I saw many fungi today, and once again, I am incompetent in identifying them.

Staghorn Jelly fungus (Calocera cornea)

This is one of the interesting creatures that I came across today. Asked for help at bugguide, and the answer seems to be Tachinus spp. (Rove Beetles in the Family Staphylinidae). Mine looks like this one close-up.

I also saw this spider with another spider species by its web. Strangely, they were aware of each other's presence but no fights were happening. I wonder if it is because they were too stressed by the raindrops on their bodies to fight anymore.

Mostly likely a Winter Wren (Troglodytes trolodytes) with the stubby tail in that position.

Unknown accipiter.

Unknown scat.

Douglas's squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii)

Pathway to a magical world...and no, not Disney.

Unknown species.

Downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)

This woodpecker seems to have a yellow cap, which narrows down to either American Three-toed Woodpecker or Black-backed woodpecker??

Such a wonderful place for birds. My future backyard will definitely have something like these.

Well-mannered Black-capped Chickadees. Some of them were even lining up to use the feeders.

Very few people were in the park today. Not sure why because the weather was lovely and so were the animals.

I hope I will get time to attend this event in two weeks. Seems to be very exciting!

And bats of BC!!! I wonder if there are any roosts inside the park.

After Nature Park, I went to the Garden City Community Park, which is the first time I've been there. I always wanted to go there because several other bloggers seem to enjoy going there to see the plants and birds.

This is one of the well-known mushrooms that I can identify. I am pretty sure even a brainless organism can do it. This is a Fly Agaric Mushroom, Amanita muscaria. Definitely not a good idea to eat them.

Then I was stumped by another fungus (again). It seems to be a puffball, but it was definitely hard when I tried to poke it with a stick.

Besides being frustrating by my ignorance, I was still able to enjoy the Canadian Geese, as well as the lonely Pied-billed Grebe chick (Podilymbus podiceps).

I know the presence of the grebes in the park from reading Hugh's post, but today, I only saw one chick swimming and diving alone. It was trying to join a couple of mallards, but they swam away from the chick. No siblings or parents were observed, I wonder if they had left (or forgot) this poor little one behind. Hope it will know to migrate south when the winter comes.