It seemed a bit early to see the first dragonflies of the season, but there they were. And a welcome sight they were. These acrobatic aerial predators are especially partial to mosquitoes, flies, mayflies, midges, and gnats. If the insect flies, a dragonfly captures and eats it. A summer at the beach greatly benefits from the predation of dragonflies.
There are quite a few species of dragonflies. Here are two seen today.
Saffron-winged meadowhawk
Eight-spotted skimmer
The crabbing season has begun, so I went crabbing.
Mind you, I am not talking about the crabs found in oceans, but the crab spiders found here (and elsewhere).
A crab spider is an ambush predator that waits patiently on a flower for its meal to arrive. Sooner or later, a pollinator — bee, fly, or ant — arrives at the flower. The spider then grabs the prey with its front legs and delivers a deadly dose of venom through its fangs. The venom’s effects are twofold: It paralyzes the insect, and it digests the insect’s insides. The spider then uses its fangs like a straw to drink the insect’s pre-digested insides.
Around here, daisies are favourite hangouts for crab spiders, however they are seen waiting for visitors on other flowers.
In the morning a female crab spider (Misumena vatia) was stalking prey from a daisy.
In the afternoon, on a different daisy, a crab spider was feasting on a (mining?) bee.
As wildlife contortionists go, few exceed the twists of the heron when it preens. It preens to repair its feathers and spread waterproofing oil on them.
The Great Blue Heron hunts for fish in Kootenay Lake year round. However, its numbers are greater in warm months. Further, its plumage evolves from juvenile to adult and from non-breeding to breeding season. The heron seen yesterday was an adult in its breeding plumage.
The white crown and black pigtail show this heron to be an adult. The orangish upper mandible and shaggy plumes on neck and back show it to be in its breeding plumage.
The heron seems to be acquiring oil from its preen gland on the base of its back. The oil is used to waterproof its feathers. The bird’s two shaggy plumes are clearly visible here.
The bill is used to preen most of its feathers.
However, the bill cannot be used to preen the feathers of the head, so a foot is employed.
Yesterday, a friend told me that she had just seen a Golden Eagle that was hunting by the lakeshore. I was assured that it must have been a golden as it was particularly large and brown.
Hmm…, I was skeptical that a golden was what was seen. The problem is that a Golden Eagle didn’t quite fit the proffered description. Consider, a Golden Eagle:
• prefers to hunt small mammals in the uplands, not fish at the lakeside
• a Golden Eagle is not particularly large, being slightly smaller than a Bald Eagle
• is brown, but so is a juvenile Bald Eagle, which does hunt over the lake
• can be distinguished from a bald by, among other things, it golden nape
Today, I visited the nest of a Bald Eagle, where its two (brown) chicks were holding court. When they fledge, they will appear larger than their parents for their feathers will not have been worn. However, they will lack the golden nape.
Juvenile Bald Eagles are often misidentified as Golden Eagles, a result of being both brown and of wishful thinking.
Looking for an illustration, I visited a Bald Eagle’s nest and photographed two (brown) Bald Eagles chicks (and mommy) sitting on a nest.
The feeder wasn’t intended for raccoons. It is for birds, specifically finches.
Around humans, raccoons normally are nocturnal. Alas, the bird feeder is not left out at night, so a racoon kit has stopped by during daylight hours.
Kit: “This feeder is not well designed; The holes are a bit small for my hands.”
Kit: “I apologize for complaining about the design. Please don’t remove it. I’m hungry.”
Almost simultaneously, the tigers have arrived. They are: a tiger beetle, a tiger butterfly, and a tiger lily.
I have commented previously, somewhat whimsically, on our rather odd naming conventions for species: butter sipping (on butterflies and buttercups); horned birds and insects; siskins and catkins. But, naming local things after tigers has got be one of the oddest.
The tiger is the apex predator of an Asian cat family (felidae). It has orange fur with black stripes. So, why are local animals named after this distinctly alien species?
Our Canadian tiger swallowtail butterfly won’t have been named for its predator characteristics. Maybe it is those black stripes, but the butterfly’s base colour is yellow, not orange (oops!).
The tiger lily is orange, but alas, the black embellishments are spots, not stripes. Now, that is a rather sloppy bit of naming.
The tiger beetle is certainly named, not for its appearance, but its predation. I have watched them within the week, but this is an earlier shot of two tiger beetles mating. Of course, the question could be posed: Why name this predator after tigers, as opposed to grizzlies or cougars? The province has quite a number of beetle species that are styled as tiger beetles.
Then there are moths. BC has nearly a dozen species of moths that are styled as tigers. This is one of them, presumably named because of the black stripes (against yellow) on its abdomen.
So, we have a few dozen species of various sorts that are named for a large Asian cat. Hmm, there does seem to be a certain linguistic bankruptcy among taxonomists.
I visited the eagle’s nest at Cherry Bay to see how its two chicks were doing.
The two chicks appeared to be out of their down and sporting dark brown juvenile plumage.
The story became much more interesting when one of the chicks spread its wings in a practice flight exercise — although its flight feathers have yet to grow. Some of the earlier down is evident on the chick’s lower body. However, the fascinating thing was a display of the white rhaches (the feather shafts) of the proto-flight feathers which extended from each wing. The rhaches grow first and then the barbs extend from them and fill in the feather. Although these feathers are growing quickly, flight is still a while off for these chicks.
Since mid-May, I have been watching for the appearance of the mountain lady’s slipper. I had already posted images of two earlier local wild orchids: fairy slippers, and striped coralroots. But, the mountain lady’s slipper had yet to appear. Today we saw five of them along a trail in Kokanee Creek Park. Now, that was nice enough, but behind them in the woods was a freshly blooming spotted coralroot, something I had last seen a number of years ago.
One of five mountain lady’s slippers seen beside a trail.
The flowers of the spotted coralroot grow as a raceme: multiple flowers sprouting from a single stalk. The flowers of a raceme start low on the stalk and gradually spread upwards. This one had just begun, so flowers did not yet cover the whole stalk. Maybe a more impressive image is yet to come.
I am sure the participants did not appreciate the etymological niceties of their situation as a butterfly sipped nutrients from a buttercup. The names of each species seem to have been of imitative origin, and resulted from their yellowish colour resembling that of butter. (In the case of the butterfly, perhaps only a few yellow species prompted the name.)
A clouded sulphur butterfly (Colias philodice) sips nectar from a buttercup.
Toad amplexus ≡ toad sex
Amplexus (Latin for embrace) is a type of mating exhibited by western toads (and other amphibians) in which there is physical contact, but fertilization is external to the body. During amplexus, a male uses his front legs to grasp a female under her armpits and stimulates her to release eggs into the water. He then fertilizes them. Around here, amplexus is an activity of May.
In the shallows next to the shore, the smaller male western toad has embraced the female.
Elsewhere in the shallows, another couple is in amplexus. The strands of eggs from an earlier encounter are apparent on the right.
A second male (left) is attacking a pair of toads in amplexus. He is trying to force the earlier male to release its grasp on the female so he can then mate with her. Also, notice the egg strands in the water on the upper right.
