Flower beetle mating

Posted on June 25, 2026 by Alistair

 

I was looking for a crab spider eating on a daisy. I didn’t find one.

Instead, I found a yellow velvet beetle mating. Well, the bug is also known as the golden flower longhorn beetle, and also the golden-haired flower longhorn. Ah, the ambiguity of the naming of bugs. At least the scientific name, Lepturobosca chrysocama is fixed. 

A shot of the flower beetle was seen as I walked up past the daisies.

When I walked down again past the daisies, there were two of them positioning to mate.

They then mated. They were fast and it was all over in about 1/8 of a second. The speed of the event meant that there wasn’t time to get an accurate focus. Fun, nevertheless.

 

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Moose

Posted on June 20, 2026 by cynthia fraser

 

What a difference one letter can make. Earlier this week, a mouse was posted here; later that day, we watched a moose. There is a remarkable difference in switching the u f0r the o. The mouse is tiny, the moose is huge. Indeed, the moose is about 30,000 times heavier than the mouse.

A moose is distinctly uncommon around here and to see one walk close by was a treat. Photo by Cynthia Fraser.

The moose went for a swim and briefly turned our way. This enabled us to more easily see the spread of its beginning antlers still coated in velvet. Remarkably, moose antlers can grow up to 2.5 cm (1 inch) daily during June and July.  Photo by Finn Grathwol. 

The moose climbed out of the water and vanished to the upland forest.

 

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House mouse

Posted on June 14, 2026 by Alistair

 

The clearing of a bushy area on my property produced an unexpected sight: two house mice. I have not seen a house mouse (or a rat) for sometime, but apparently at least a couple of mice were living in the brush on the now cleared land. Well, I prefer them outside rather than in the house.

The house mouse appeared groggy after abandoning the cleared area. I moved and released them into the distant woods.

 

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Birds & mammals

Posted on June 7, 2026 by Alistair

 

All these pictures were taken within less than half a kilometre near Harrop. Most were taken in the last two days, but the first was taken at the end of April.

Three male white-tailed deer, with small antler buds, were running along the lakeshore. As they bound, each has only one foot touching the ground.

A columbian ground squirrel has a mouthful of grass to prepare a soft bed for his underground nest.

In the summer months, the Chipping Sparrow is common across North America. In the winter months, it is mostly gone,

This picture is included largely to show the long tail of a flying adult Black-billed Magpie.

Two days ago, we watched a juvenile Magpie. It hopped around on the ground for it was too young to fly. Look how short its tail is.

These two Common Loons are curious. They are a couple. The larger male is slightly in front. They were close to the shore (which is odd). They are in breeding plumage, yet are on this lake. Normally, by now, they will have gone to a higher lake in the surrounding mountains to breed. Also their eyes are not the bright red of breeding loons, yet they otherwise look like a breeding pair.

Er, a three-winged Killdeer flies away.

 

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Pine Siskins

Posted on May 28, 2026 by Alistair

 

Pine Siskins are nomadic and irruptive. They are here one season and gone the next as they roam around looking for seeds in trees. Today, a flock of them was indulging in a offbeat practice of getting salt into their diet in a parking lot that had been salted by humans to melt snow and ice during last winter.

A small proportion of the more than 30 Pine Siskins eating salt in a parking lot.

 

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Tadpoles

Posted on May 25, 2026 by Alistair

 

Each spring, thousands of tadpoles spawn at various shallows around the Lake. This is a look at a small portion of one large population seen two days ago. Of course, most of these will die, many being eaten before they become toads that can then wander off into the woods. Since only a few tadpoles survive, that apparently justifies the initial large number.

This represents a tiny portion of the many tadpoles in the shallows.

 

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Heron returns

Posted on May 23, 2026 by Alistair

 

Yesterday, I saw a Great Blue Heron for the first time since early last September. It was an adult in its non-breeding plumage. It has a white crown and a long plume extending from the back of its head. This is likely the only plumage that we will see this early in the year.

Soon, this adult will grow the breeding plumage with dense shaggy plumes on its neck and back. In August, we will see juveniles with dark crests and without plumes extending from their heads. And in September, the herons will again head south.

An adult Great Blue Heron seen in May.

 

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Fussy dipper chicks

Posted on May 22, 2026 by Alistair

 

The three dipper chicks are growing quickly, and the parents have a full-time job feeding them. Their nest is above the creek, and one or the other parent flies in every five to ten minutes with something they have caught in the fast-moving waters below. (It is not possible to tell the two parents apart, but both are feeding the chicks.)

A parent feeds the dipper chicks a mouth full of grubs from the creek below. Each time a parent arrives, the chicks stick their heads out and open their maws to accept the food.

On one occasion, an unusual bit of food brought to the chicks was a minnow.

The chicks kept their maws open, but they some-what withdrew when a minnow was offered. 

Strangely, the dipper chicks did not accept the minnow, and the parent quickly flew off with it, This is odd, because dippers have caught and eaten minnows before.

Why did the dipper chicks reject the fish? I have seen dippers catch a fish maybe a half-dozen times. I have even seen a dipper bring a fish to its chicks before. I include one old picture of a dipper with a fish, to show that dippers are familiar with this as food. This dipper clipped the fish’s caudal fin (tail) so it could not escape.

 

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Dipper chicks feeding

Posted on May 18, 2026 by Alistair

 

Three dipper chicks are now looking out of their nest with their maws wide open. The parent is bring them food. I will now try to get a better shot showing the parent stuffing some food into a chick’s mouth.

 

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Osprey interloper

Posted on May 17, 2026 by Alistair

 

It was a calm time for the nesting osprey. The female was sitting on unseen eggs and occasionally turning them over, and the male went out hunting for a fish for his partner. 

Then, an interloper came by.

The male Osprey heads out to catch a fish.

While he was away, the female received an unwelcome visitor. It was another male osprey apparently looking for an opportunity. As he was preparing to land, she recognized him as an interloper and stood up and squawked at him to go away.

Being rejected, the interloper ceased trying to alight, and flew off. Now, it took me some time to figure out how she recognized him as being different from her partner. I am not sure how she did it, but it seems that he has slightly different markings on his crown.

Then her partner returned having not found a fish. She accepted him immediately.

 

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