Exploring Kootenay Lake

Odonata passion

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Alistair

Odonata is the order of insects that includes damselflies and dragonflies. Odonata, which as adults live only one to two months, indulge in perhaps the most conspicuous copulation of any insect. September is the time when a casual walk through fields or mashes reveals dozens of them mating, always in their characteristic wheel formation. Last year’s posting on this topic, sex in the park, only showed dragonflies. Below are examples of both dragonfly mating and damselfly mating.

Saffron-winged meadowhawks are dragonflies. The male (red, on top) has grasped the female by the back of her head. Characteristic of dragonflies, she holds onto his abdomen and swings her abdomen up to receive sperm.

Spotted spreadwings are damselflies. The male (blueish, on top) has grabbed the female by the neck. Characteristic of damselflies, she has grabbed her own abdomen when she swung her abdomen up to him to receive sperm. This version of the wheel position looks rather like a heart.

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Fiery sunrise

Posted on September 23, 2012 by Alistair

The rather wet spring has protected us from most forest fires this summer, although there have been a few minor ones. At the moment, there is small fire in the Purcell Mountains (adjacent to Sphinx Mountain) on the east side of the Lake. As seen from the West Arm, the Sun appears orange as it rises through the smoke. People in industrial settings may be used to such colours, but given the normal clarity of the atmosphere around here, we are not. The event is illustrated, not with a picture of the Sun, itself, but with one of the Sun’s reflection on the rippled waters.

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Losing velvet

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Alistair

Velvet is the soft downy skin that covers a deer’s antlers when they are growing. A month ago, I posted a picture of this same buck in velvet. In late summer, the velvet dries and peals, and while it does so, the antlers look quite shaggy. The velvet will soon be gone.

Early this morning, a white-tailed buck displayed velvet hanging in tatters from its antlers.

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Kingfisher

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Alistair

Herons and kingfishers are both long-billed birds that will stand in one spot and watch for fish to capture. Yet, they have apparently adopted different fishing strategies, and this makes one easy to observe and the other difficult.

A heron’s strategy seems to be to wait for a fish to come to it—it is the model of patience. A kingfisher’s strategy seems to be to actively search for fish—if it sees nothing at one place, it quickly looks elsewhere.

This morning a male Belted Kingfisher stayed in one spot long enough for a picture, but not much longer.

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Aestivation’s over

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Alistair

“Look daddy, a butterfly” was all I overheard as a little girl and her father cycled by. She had, indeed, seen a butterfly—a mourning cloak.

There are quite a few mourning cloaks around now that August is over. These beautiful butterflies prefer somewhat cooler conditions and so they aestivate when the weather is hot and dry. Aestivation (from the Latin word for summer, aestas) is a hibernation-like period of dormancy in response to high temperatures and low humidity. Mourning cloaks aestivate, but they are now back in goodly numbers.

Incidentally, mourning cloaks not only aestivate in the summer, they also hibernate in the winter. If the weather is not just as they like it, they close down.

This is the mourning cloak spotted by a little girl on a bicycle.

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Two-bear day

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Alistair

There are two species of bear found around here (and throughout most of the Province): grizzly bear and black bear. On Sunday, I managed to photograph each species.

Grizzly bear

Black bear

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A myth isn’t born

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Alistair

In March of 2011, I captured a picture of the rarely seen three-legged killdeer. Last Saturday, I captured a picture of the rarely seen three-legged heron—this time in flight. Both pictures are below.

Would such observations be sufficient to enable the more excitable local promoters to launch a mythology around three-legged birds? Perhaps not, the Okanagan’s ogopogo myth feeds upon crummy pictures, not good ones (see my own pictures of the Ogopogo).

The three-legged killdeer seen in March 2011

The three-legged heron seen in September, 2012

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Deer making its bed

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Alistair

Doug Thorburn sent me these pictures of a mule deer buck preparing its bed. Neither of us had previously seen a deer do such a thing. It repeatedly scraped its fore hoof across the dirt until the ground was smooth and cleared of small sticks and rocks. It then lay down.

The pictures were taken in Kokanee Glacier Park a couple of weeks ago.

The first two pictures show the hoof being moved forward and back as it prepares the ground.

Having prepared the ground, the buck lay down.

Doug took the next two pictures prior to watching it prepare the ground.

Douglas Thorburn’s pictures are used with permission.

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Park walks

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Alistair

Now that Labour Day has passed, one can walk through the meadows and marshes of Kokanee Creek Park and meet only wildlife.

Below are a few interesting things seen on two recent walks.

Great Blue Herons appeared in trees, water, and air.
This Cedar Waxwing was one of many small birds.

Ospreys have yet to leave; this one watched the fish in the creek.

Although deer are not seen as often as are their tracks, a white-tailed fawn was spotted (chuckle).

Dragonflies abounded. Here is a pair of mating darners. The male is the bluish one.

An adult Bald Eagle patrolled the mouth of the creek,

while two juvenile Bald Eagles sat in a tree overlooking the creek.

The most satisfying picture taken was of a juvenile Bald Eagle circling overhead.

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Seeing the unfamiliar

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Alistair

While rummaging through a bookstore nearly a half century ago, I discovered an interesting paperback. It was an English edition of the 1937 Dutch book by Marcel Minnaert: Light and Colour in the Open Air. I read it, reread it, and gleaned many insights to interpreting nature.

A striking point he made in the preface was that:

However remarkable it may seem, it remains a fact that we do not observe much more than the things we are already familiar with; it is very difficult to see something new, even if it stares us in the face. In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, innumerable eclipses of the sun were observed, and yet the corona was hardly noticed until 1842, although nowadays it is regarded as the most striking phenomenon of an eclipse and may be seen by anyone with the naked eye. In this book, I have tried to collect and draw to your attention all those things that in the course of time have become known through the activities of many outstanding and able naturalists.

Minnaert’s book did not talk about birds (he was an astronomer), but his remarks are certainly applicable to my recent observations of four unfamiliar birds. Although none is uncommon, each was new to me and I had to seek help to identify two of them.

It is just rather difficult to see something new.

Nashville Warbler