ESC-ESO 2013 Conference, Guelph (Oct 20 to 23)

I just returned from a four-day ESC-ESO conference at Guelph, and it was a great conference with excellent presentations and posters.  This conference also attracted a large number of CANPOLIN students showcasing their research on pollination, and it was great to see fellow peers whom I had met the past two years, but it was also bittersweet because this was the last official meeting for CANPOLIN members as the initiative comes to an end.

The conference also promoted the use of social media: Twitter: (#ESCJAM2013), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIn22KYNkQI), and blogs (e.g., The Bug Geek, Ibycter, and The Boreal Beetle).  The conference also invited the well known insect photographer, Alex Wild, to teach a photography workshop and to speak to everyone at the banquet dinner about insect photography techniques - keep image simple (i.e., avoid messy background), light (know where your light sources are), tell a story, avoid centering the subject (i.e., follow rule of thirds), and patience.

My trip began with a six-hour Greyhound trip from Peterborough to Guelph (via Toronto) on Sunday morning.  I was unable to make the proper connection at Toronto so I ended up waiting in Toronto for two hours (which I used the time to check out cameras at BestBuy and had lunch at McDonald's).

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.

Field course day 4 - Carden Plains & Clearwing hummingbird moth!

On the fourth day of the field course, we were at Carden Plains showing the students the unique alvar habitats and the flora associated with it.

Wood Lily (Lilium philadelphicum) in the Liliaceae family is the provincial flower of Saskatchewan.

Wildflowers of Carden Plains

Despite me living so close to where I worked in 2010 (i.e., Carden Plains), I did not have the means to revisit the place.  Thanks to the field course I am assisting this month, I am now back to where it all began for me here in Ontario.

View from the Carden Rec Centre looking at Dalrymple Lake.

Grant's Woods and George Langman Sanctuary

It's been a while since I last posted a post. Between today (my off-day) and the last time I posted, I had two more off-days when I went to Orillia and checked out the city and the surrounding natural areas - Grant's Woods and George Langman Sanctuary, both of which I would definitely recommend for people to visit and enjoy nature.

Grant's Woods