(Wild)life back in Ottawa

I have not done a lot of wildlife-watching since I returned from Baltimore - mainly because I do not have a valid bus pass yet and I only try to go to places within walk- and bike-able distances.  Besides where I live, the other places I go to for the past two weeks are: Sawmill Creek Wetland, the Arboretum, McCarthy Woods, and the university.  Here are some interesting things that I photographed.

Sawmill Creek Wetland

Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillar (Euchaetes egle)

July update - Plants & Mushroom

Here are some of the flowering plants and one of the many fungi that I saw this month.

Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon pulchellum) at Kebler Pass.  Apparently these flowers have no nectar but are visited by bumblebees for their pollen.

Hiking to my 2nd tallest mountain so far - Gothic Mountain (3,850 m)

Today, my labmate and I hiked to the top of the mountain that towers over our cabin (and Gothic) - Gothic Mountain. Its height is 3,850 m, which is just four metres short of Avery Peak that I climbed last week.

Quick picture of Gothic Mountain before we left.  To get to the top, we followed the trail descriptions in this website, which we found to be accurate and useful.

Life in Peterborough winding down

As my work here at Trent winds down, I have a very very very busy month ahead of me as I have to pack, find housing in Ottawa, and then move there, all the while arrange for my parents to travel from BC and Ontario (because they want to help me move).  I'm up to my ears in searching for housings, car rentals, travel and accommodations for my parents; therefore, I may disappear for a week or a month.

The poor weather this past week did not help with my stress, until today when the sun came out.  I decided to bike to school and visited the Trent's Wildlife Sanctuary (probably one last time).  Sigh.

Foams on the Otonabee River.

Busy life...

One of the reasons I am extremely busy these days is that I am temporarily employed by my supervisor to analyze the data from my deceased labmate's project.  In the end, we will publish the results on her behalf with her being the first author.  I will also be presenting her research at the ESC-ESO conference next week at Guelph.

I walked to school yesterday to get feedback from my supervisors on the presentation slides.  I took some photos on the way there.

Maples leaves on the ground.

Aquatic plants in Pigeon Lake

This afternoon I had the fortunate opportunity to learn about identification of aquatic plants in Pigeon Lake from one of Trent's graduate students and a contributor of the guide "Aquatic Plants Guide: Aquatic plants in the Kawartha Lakes - their growth, importance and management".

An overcast day.

Walked around the neighbourhood

The weather wasn't too great this weekend, so I mostly stayed at home and tried to get some work done.  I took a bit of a break this afternoon and walked around the part of my neighbourhood that is currently being build.

The pond from the other side.

Windy Pine BioBlitz - Day 2

On our second day at Windy Pine, we first went canoeing and then hiked in the forest looking at fungi in the morning.

Kushog Lake in the morning.

Windy Pine BioBlitz - Day 1

This past weekend I was at Windy Pine documenting the fauna and flora of the area.  It was sort of like a bioblitz but with only three people.  Once we arrived, the first thing we set out to do was sampling the aquatic invertebrates.

Skullcap flowers at the lake shore.

"Botanizing" for the last few days - Part 1

This week, we visited several sites from past years so that we know the current flowering species, as well as what species to expect flowering.  This year's abnormal Spring had messed up the phenology of the flowering plants leading to many species flowering at the same time when they shouldn't.  I also observed the similar trend in other organisms too, such as frogs and insects.

On Monday, we visited the site closest to Trent University - Lady Eaton Drumlin.

King-devil (Hieracium caepitosum) in the Aster (Asteraceae) family.  The genus name, Hieracium, means hawk (hierax, Greek).  The orange-coloured flower cluster belong to a different species H. aurantiacum (Orange hawkweed or Devil's-paintbrush).

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.

Algonquin Weekend

I arrived back in Peterborough yesterday afternoon. The Algonquin trip was fun despite the rain and the absence of wildlife, such as moose, otters, etc.

The weather was actually nice on Saturday morning. Photo taken while waiting to get picked up.

Photographic post: Outside time before trapped indoor for a week

Terrible weather is suppose to be coming and staying for the next week or so, so I grabbed any chance I can today to try and be outside.

Dark gloomy day

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard

Great Blue Heron number 1

Fall colors

Great Blue Heron number 2

Number 2 giving itself a head scratch

Another view of the sky. Yep, definitely cloudy.

Another sky-watching photo.

Several Dark-eyed Junco foraging in that big sand pile by Terra Nova. First time I been there since coming back. Quite ugly and terrible use of space if I do say so myself. Such is the woes of being a host of the Olympics, I guess.

A female Scaup in the Fraser River. Greater or Lesser? I think it may be a Greater Scaup because of its more smoothly rounded head, but I can never tell for sure.

Rain was starting to come down quite hard. But I still spent some time photographing these Fly Agaric Mushrooms (Amanita muscaria). Beautiful but dangerous.
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The aftermath of Typhoon Morakot in TBG & Watching UP with friends

Today, in the morning, one of the first things we heard in the office was that two of the nest sites had fallen during the weekend after the strong wind and rain of typhoon Morakot! [Edit: Morakot had brought destruction to many parts of Taiwan - see here.] One nest was still hanging by the bark, so we had to go quickly to salvage it before the garden maintainence tam cut it down and throw it into the junkyard. The other, however, was already in the junkyard and needed us to go and find it in a whole bunch of wasted plant matters from the typhoon.

TBG maintaince team hard at work all weekend and Monday. The second photo shows our nest tree - the branch had snapped just below where the nest entrance is.

The maintaince team removing the branch.

Piece by piece.

The broken nest site still attached to the tree (left), and inside the nest cavity (right)

The effects of the typhoon are not just broken branches or trees. The super wet weekend had sprouted mushrooms on a (dead) nest treee. According to a mushroom expert at TFRI, the mushroom species is Coprinus disseminatus (a.k.a. Little Helmet or Fairy Bonnet). We wonder if there some symbiotic relationship between these mushrooms and barbets?

After work, everyone in the office packed up and went to watch the movie "Up" in 3-D. I have to say it was one of the best cartoon movies I have seen in awhile, and I am glad to have done it with such a close group of co-wokers and friends!
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Stag Beetle & Little Egret in TBG

Another tiring day today. I spent most of the day in the botanical garden observing barbets and trying to catch them. Fortunately, at the end of the day, our modified (several times) mist net trap finally worked and caught an adult!

Other than watching barbets, I still found time to find and photograph these cool creatures!

Dorcus titanus sika is a beetle of the family Lucanidae. This is one of the most common stag beetles in Taiwan, and the males are about 24 to 72-mm in length, while the females are 24 to 42-mm in length. This individual is quite small and is about 25-mm long only.

The observation station today was the same as yesterday. So I checked to see if the mushroom is still there or not. Surprisingly, it had changed! [I am still working on identifying it.]

Near where we were trying to catch the parent barbets, a Little Egret was trying to catch fishes.

Walking along the wooden columns and catching fish

Quite an elegant and graceful looking bird, no?

This is today's status on the caterpillar and the parasites.
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Photos of the Day: Day Three

I just had a group dinner with new friends from last week's orientation tour. Plus, today was extremely hot and stuffy in Taipei City, so it wasn't too pleasant working under the sun. Here're some of the interesting photos that I took.

The latest nest tree discovered and its owner. Inside the nest cavity are three eggs. Strangely, in the three hours that I observed, I only saw the male parent incubating the eggs. I wonder where the female went.

Near where we were observing the nest, a bright orange mushroom was found. I hope to have its identification soon because it's quite beautiful.

In addition to observing the nest, we continued with our barbet catching assignment. The first method of using a mist net with extendable poles on two sides never really worked out since the parent barbet never allowed enough time for us to make our move. So in the late afternoon, we changed our plan and used a smaller mist net hanging (on four corners) placed just outside the entrance - kind of like raising a flag. We will be trying this method again tomorrow.

While catching the birds, I tried to photograph a Chinese Bulbul's nest while the parents were away. But shortly afterwards, the parent returned and wasn't very happy with me being an intruder. So I quickly left them alone.

Back in the office, the parasitic eggs are entering into another life stage...So fast?
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Mushrooms, Night Heron, and Announcement

While checking the nesting status at one of the sites, I came across these (unidentified) mushrooms underneath the canopy. The particular site I checked had two eggs. This is the second brood of the pair using this nest hole. However, the female remained the same individual, but the father had changed! This certainly came as a surprise to us since this should be a monogamous species. I wonder where the original male is now...

In addition, we found another new nest tree today inside the botanical garden. When we checked inside, there were already three eggs! What a find!

Black-crowned Night Heron

As some of you may remember, the current (work) position that I work at is all voluntary. However, beginning next week, I will officially start my internship as a "Research Assistant" at the Forest Protection Division, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan. But before that, all of the interns partaking in this so-called Taiwan Tech Trek internship program will go on this 5-day orientation trip (or to simply put, touring around Taiwan for 5 days). It will begin tomorrow so I will not be posting during this time. But please sit tight, and I will be sure to share some nice photos and stories next week.
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More observations from the backyard

Yesterday, I saw this pretty Black Swallowtail (Papilio protenor) flying in the backyard. Strangely, there is also a North American butterfly having the same common name, but having the different scientific name Papilio polyxenes.

So pretty. If you look closely, you can see its curled proboscis.

I spotted the same Swinhoe's japalura (Japalura swinhonis) as last time. This time, it was hiding in the underneath a flowering pot - away from the direct sunlight.

I will have to ask around again for this following organism, but while I was poking around the plants, I saw this pair of mushroom hiding beneath a larger plant. What a find!

I will be traveling to Taipei this afternoon to begin my volunteer work starting next week. I am both excited and also sad because I won't be seeing my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and family members for the next three months.
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Finally a sunny break

What a gorgeous day it turned out to be in the afternoon. The sky cleared and animals were out in full forces enjoying the rare sunshine.

The Bald Eagle was out too. Although it didn't look too happy?

Turned out the reason was this annoying crow that kept diving at the eagle and cawing loudly.

Ignoring it won't work.

Nor will screaming at it. Some people (or birds) just never get it.

I was also lucky enough today to see this Great Blue Heron enjoying a nice, big, fat fish. Yum.

Mushrooms are here? I guess the rain the last couple of days had the fungi thinking it is autumn already.

A couple of Lesser Yellowlegs were out feeding.

While looking at the mushroom and Yellowlegs, I sort of wondered too close to the Killdeers' nest - leading to its infamous broken wing act. It was my first time seeing it performed and they did it quite well.

Yes, I fell for your trick. Now go back and attend those eggs, please.

Near the same location, four Canada Geese and a pair of Gadwall were enjoying the fresh green grasses.

Love this view. Too bad the trail was only a few metres long. It would be pretty amazing if there is an entire forest beyond this opening.

A Golden-crowned Sparrow pulling out the Dandelion fluffs and eating the seeds. Must be tasty because it ate quite a lot.

A nice round tummy.

Probably the same Great Blue Heron as the one I saw earlier.

Hooray, Friday tomorrow!

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