May update #2 - From Colorado

Since my last post, the weather has been a roller coaster ride.  It can be snowing in the morning, the snow melting and sky clearing up by mid-day, but then back to snowing in the afternoon.

Anyways, while it is snowing really hard outside right now, I have entered the data I collected yesterday, sorted my photos taken the past few days, and then decided to write this post.

May 9th

My labmate was examining cocoons and saw these spirally frass inside a cocoon.  Based on the orange colour, we suspect it is one of the composite-specialist bees - either Osmia montana or O. coloradensis.

Close-up on Buffalo Treehopper & Full moon

Went out for a walk around the neighbourhood pond for a short break from work.  I smartly brought the 70-300 lens this time.

Queen Anne's Lace

Hiking around Canal Nature Area at Trent University

The weather here in Peterborough has been quite similar to the typical weather that Vancouver gets at this time of the weather - overcast, rainy, and depressing.  So you can imagine my surprise and excitement when I saw nothing but blue sky when I opened the window in the morning.

As I grabbed my bike and headed to school, I kept debating if I should do work in my office or at least spend a few hours outside and enjoy the beautiful weather.  In the end, I decided to do the latter before I go working in my office.  Last year, around this time of the year, I was hiking on the other side of the road, this time, I visited the Canal Nature Area.

Sign.

Wordless Wednesday - Biked to Phoenix Pond & Finn Slough

Pair of Yellowlegs

More insects from Ivvavik National Park - Conclusion of 2011

I hope I haven't post these photos yet. Life is incredibly busy at the moment. I am still in the processing of sorting and analyzing my data from my first field season. On top of that, I need to find and hire a field assistant, have my second supervisory committee meeting before I leave for fieldwork, buy my plane tickets and field equipments, do my taxes, sort out my housing situation while I am gone as well as when I return from the field, and I am going to St. Louis for 10 days in April to take part in a pollination biology field course. Just listing it makes me wonder how I am going to get it all done, even though I know I will somehow.

Well, before I head out to Inuvik in two months, I really should post the remaining of my insect photos from Ivvavik National Park. So here they are, the final photographic post of my 2011 field season. Once again, thanks to all the kind folks at BugGuide for their help.

Nordic Mountain Grasshopper (Melanoplus frigidus) - male

Definitely a leafhopper (Family Cicadellidae), perhaps a Limotettix sp.?


I really should take more photos of the bees last summer. Will try to do more of that this summer. Here is an Andrena sp. (Mining Bee) collecting pollen from Lapland rosebay (Rhododendron lapponicum) flowers.






Here's a plant bug (Family Miridae) on a soapberry plant, people think it is a Lygus sp.


One of the rare visitors of my soapberry plant - an Azure butterfly.


Towards the end of the day, I was tired and took my socks off and laid them on the field. Pretty soon, a Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus) showed up and starting drinking the salts, I suppose.


Lastly, a Freija Fritillary (Boloria freija) on a vaccinium (blueberry) plant. It is surprising how much you learn about plants and insects after one field season of studying them.

Time for bed.

First time visitng Miller Creek Wildlife Area

Today I decided to take my biking trip further and go to the Miller Creek Wildlife Area (MCWA) in Bridgenorth. I learned about this place from my friends who took their ornithology class there earlier this semester. Plus, the sun was out when I first woke up this morning so why waste a beautiful day inside.

However, biking to MCWA was tougher than I thought. It is probably because I haven't bike in awhile, or that there are many "hills" along the way, or that there are no bike trails and I had to bike along 70km-limit lanes. Nonetheless, I surprisingly found the place about an hour later without getting lost at all.

Along the way, I saw this snake in the middle of the road with some blood around it. At first I thought it was dead, but a closer look showed that it was still alive. I was unsure if I should leave it be and have other cars end its life sooner or bring it aside and hopefully it will still survive. I chose the latter.

Flowers and Insects from GRCG

Here are some photos from Gilbert Road Community Garden. On my way there, I saw a sign that said "Welcome to Gentle Cove" (or something like that) with many filming equipments around, must be for that TV show "Once Upon A Time" currently being shot in Steveston and Richmond. It would be kind of interesting to watch it just for the sake of seeing Steveston on TV.

Bright colours

More Than Usual

Saw an unknown grasshopper at the Gilbert Road Community Garden today. It was sort of trapped between me and meshed fence, hence the closer-than-usual photos. Hopefully someone will help me identify it over at BugGuide.  [Edit: It may be a Carolina Grasshopper (Dissosteira carolina), thanks to Tim for the help.]

Bees and Grasshoppers and Some Birds

I went out for a quick jog this morning as soon as I got off bed - the only time that makes sense for me to go running - not too hot and with an empty stomach. Then in the afternoon, I biked to South Dyke Trail. First stop, the community garden. It was cloudy and windy today so not many insects were spotted.

Saw this honey bee cleaning its tongue and wiping pollen off its body - quite neat to be close-up and see this beautiful creature doing its things without it flying away.

Visiting Junjianyan Hill

I had a nice long sleep until late morning. After having breakfast and lunch at later times than usual, I decided to hike Junjianyan, a local hill with an elevation of 192-m that is a popular location among daily morning hikers and families during the weekend.

Sights along the hike. From here you can see most of the urban northern Taipei City.

Junjianyan means "Battleship Rock" in Chinese - because at the top of the hill, a large white rock resembles the front of a battleship.

Me standing at the highest point of the rock and enjoying the blue sunny day.

Afterwards, I hiked to the nearby Huang-Xi Shan (shan = mountain).

There are plenty of beautiful plants to photograph, including these colorful flowers.

The mountain is covered by mid-altitude shrubs, ferns, and trees and is very hot in the mid-day. Therefore, animals were very difficult to spot. Can you see the animals in the above pictures?

Other insects provided less problem in seeing them.

That's all for today. I am feeling quite sleepy after a nice cool beer after the shower, and need to arrive early for work tomorrow. Have a nice new week, everyone.
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Camera malfunction...hope it's once-in-a-lifetime thing.

I was going to the dyke yesterday, but the rain came as soon as I was getting ready, so I didn't.


I took full advantage of the nice sunshine at noon and went at the first break that I can get. Beautiful. The sky was perfectly blue with just enough clouds to make it a speechless scene. Took many pictures. Saw a couple of Northern Harriers flying close to the pathways. I was going to get some good pictures but they flew farther away as I approached.

I also saw two grasshoppers (of two different colors) on the deck of the lookout at the Terra Nova Natural Area. I think they are the ones identified by Mr. Griffith here. Therefore, they are in the Family Acrididae, Subfamily Melanopilinae, and Genus Melanoplus, and are some type of short-horned grasshoppers. The brighter colored one had ripped wings, such a shame. I wondered how it ended up like this, in a fight or something? Not sure about their species though. As a punishment to my ignorance, my camera decided to quit on me at that time, leaving me helpless and scared. I owned this camera for less than two months, and I had not even used it at the beautiful shots that I wanted to take. Noooooo!!!!

Still, I was already outside and no point in going back home with a heavy heart. So I continued with the trail and saw at least hundreds of snow geese settling down on the banks of Sturgeon Bank. Oh, how I really wish my camera was working at the time. That's when I decided to head back home. A "naturalist" is useless without a camera, especially if you want to show people what you saw.

Got back home and replaced the battery on the camera. Prayed. Then turned the camera on. Voila, it worked. Thanked the god. Next time, remember to bring the spare battery.
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