flora – Page 8

Monday Miscellany

Isn’t this a lovely photo? I found these two butterflies clinging to a blade of grass out in our lawn the other day when I took my book outside to read in the sun for a bit. Naturally, I hadn’t brought my camera – I was going to be reading, not looking at wildlife. They seemed to be staying put, so I decided to run inside and grab it. I believe these are Clouded Sulphurs (Colias philodice), although they could possibly be the closely related and nearly identical Orange Sulphur (C. eurytheme) – they didn’t open their wings for me. I think the amount of pink edging makes them Clouded, though. Their larval foodplants are white clover and alfalfa – making our lawn a perfect place for them!

This moth was found in our garden one afternoon, flitting between these white flowers. I think they’re leeks, or some other oniony plant closely related to chives (they smell very chivey when crushed). I believe the moth is a Bronzed Cutworm, Nephelodes minians, a reasonably common species that would be starting to fly around now. We tend to think of moths as being nocturnal, but even some species that are primarily encountered at night (at lights) can often be found at flowers during the daytime. These leeks (or whatever) appear to be a favourite; I also saw a looper moth at them this week.

Dan brought me this guy one evening, wondering if it was a giant queen ant. It sure looks like one, with that long, fat abdomen. However, it’s actually a blister beetle in the genus Meloe. I found one last fall and wrote about it here. The one I found last year was a female, with a huuuuge abdomen and straight antennae. This individual has a more moderately-sized abdomen, and its antennae have U-shaped hooks halfway up their length. These hooks are used to grasp the female while mating. Blister beetles have some incredible life-history facts, including the ability that gives them their common name, and climbing stalks of grass to hitchhike rides on passing bees (visit last year’s post to find out why).

I mentioned in last week’s Miscellany that there were some bird-seed-plants growing underneath our feeder. A few days later, Dan happened to notice that there are a couple also growing in the feeder. This one is a baby sunflower. It won’t make it to any size before the frost arrives in a month or so, but it’s an extremely valiant effort.

I posted a little while ago about the delicious fresh produce we’ve been getting with our pick-ups from our local Community Shared Agriculture farm. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of one of the colourful dishes that we had this week. It’s stuffed squash – I’d made this once before, using patty-pan squash that we got in our basket, and enjoyed it so much that I thought I’d do it again, even though we lacked the patty-pans this week. I used acorn squash rings instead, and it worked out fairly well. The filling includes fresh peppers, green onions, corn and tomatoes, mixed with local eggs, cheese and chicken and baked in the oven for half an hour. Mm-mm…. this was probably my favourite dish of all the ones I’ve made with our CSA produce this summer. And I love the colours. It’s too bad this photo has a yellow cast because of the incandescent lighting.

Finally, any gardeners out there? My Love-lies-bleeding ended up growing very stumpy this year – the plants on the right of this photo are only about 6 inches high. Mid-summer it looked like it was dying and done for the year. I didn’t remove it because I tend not to pull things out till the spring. Then a few weeks later I noticed the plant had perked up, started growing again like crazy (horizontally rather than vertically, strangely) and re-bloomed (many short little droopy flower tails growing from the forks of the branches rather than the big long ones at the top of a tall plant). At about the same time, I noticed these similar-looking plants coming up beside it. They had reddish bases to the stems like the L-L-b does. Could it be possible the plant self-seeded when the original flowers had finished, a month ago?

That’s all for this week! A short post because I’m trying to beat our internet, which has been habitually cutting out on us around 11pm every night. Our ISP doesn’t know what the problem is, and can’t help us troubleshoot unless it’s actually doing it. We’ve so far been too lazy to call Tech Support at midnight.

Won’t you come and bird with me?

ecuador1 — Jatun Sacha Biological Station guest cabin

Waaaay back in 2002, when I was still in university, I had the fabulous opportunity to visit Ecuador. It was a field course that would count as one credit toward my degree. It happened to be Field Entomology, and although by that time I had already established my primary interest in birds, I couldn’t pass up the chance to visit the tropics – someplace I had longed to visit. My extremely generous parents covered most of the cost of the trip as part of my university expenses (thanks Mom and Dad!) and off I went for two fantastic weeks. Almost as soon as I was back in Canada I began plotting my return to this amazing ecosystem. Unfortunately, being freelance doesn’t earn one much money, Dan and I just squeak by most months, and so I’ve never had the free cash available to go.

ecuador2 — Rainforest canopy view from ridgetop

A couple of days ago I and a number of other prominent nature bloggers were contacted with a rare chance for a trip to Manu, Peru. Gunnar Engblom, of Kolibri Expeditions Birding Tours and A birding blog by Gunnar Engblom, managed to convince his company to invite bloggers on one of their new tours all-expenses paid as a form of promotion for both the company and the particular tour. I can’t tell you how flattered and honoured I was to be chosen alongside the ranks of some very exceptional nature bloggers! From the moment I read the email I was hooked by the idea.

ecuador3 — Flora at the Jatun Sacha parking lot

The catch? The blogger who goes agrees to blog about the trip before, during, and after the trip. I can guarantee I would have no difficulty doing that. My biggest concern would be whether I’d have enough space on my camera cards to contain all of the photos I would take! On my trip to Ecuador I took 200 photos. That would be a drop in the bucket these days. My photos from Ecuador are very low-quality – it was my very first digital camera, back in the days when digital was still something of a novelty, and was a measly 1.3 megapixels. I would love to have the opportunity to replace them with better photos.

ecuador4 — Huge tree at Jatun Sacha - not sure what the sign says

Also, the trip needs a minimum enrollment to run. This is the main reason for this post. Yes, I’m selfishly asking my readers if they’d pay for a fabulously amazing birding tour of Peru that they’ll never regret doing so that I can take advantage of this opportunity to go for free. Hey, at least I’m honest about it! :)

The dates are currently flexible with one trip running per month from now till Dec 2010, although it’s first-come first-served and particular months may fill up as other bloggers sign up. My preference would probably be for one of the winter months, Nov-Mar, but I suspect they’ll be the first to be snapped up, since who could imagine a better way to beat the winter blahs than visiting a tropical rainforest and watching colourful birds. My other choice would be a May departure in celebration of my 30th birthday that month. Edit: Gotta be quick! Dec/Jan/Feb 2010 are already snapped up, as are Oct 2009 and Oct 2010.

The trip will be 8 days/7 nights. The tour itinerary is posted here. Cost per individual is $1680. This cost would include all lodging, meals, birding guides (a fabulous resource when traveling to the tropics), local transportation, and in-country flights to and from Lima. Perhaps best of all, they take care of all the booking and arrangements for you – all you have to do is show up and enjoy yourself! The cost would not include airfare to Lima from your hometown, personal expenses, souvenirs, extra bottled water/snacks, etc. If you are a blogger you would get a further $100 off (so $1580 total) in exchange for blogging about/promoting the trip in at least one post. Of the amount you pay, $100 goes directly to improving the local infrastructure for ecotourism (promoting conservation of habitat and biodiversity). Also, if you book an additional trip with Kolibri of 5 days or more, you get a further $100 off of this trip.

ecuador10 — Heliconia along Jatun Sacha trail

Sound tempting? C’mon, you know it does… just think how much fun you would have tromping through the rainforest with me, looking at Purple Honeycreepers, Paradise Tanagers, Band-tailed Manakins, Curl-crested Aracaris, Emperor Tamarins and Giant Otters, a macaw lick, ocelets, tapirs, toucans, parrots, barbets, tanagers, antpittas, and hundreds of other species of birds and mammals and insects and plants you can only imagine. :) I know I don’t have quite the same star power as someone like Kenn Kaufman would on a tour he goes on (let’s be honest: I have none at all) but I’m still a really nice person, and you’d have a great time. Ooo, how’s this for a gimmick – I’ll give you a free signed copy of our moth field guide when it comes out if you sign up! :)

To try to whet your appetite, here are a few additional photos from my trip to Ecuador…

ecuador5 — Rain every day at noon, like clockwork - didn't dampen our enthusiasm

ecuador11 — An actual cacao pod! The locals harvested these and dried a batch while we were there. The beverege of choice there was hot cocoa.

ecuador8 — A heliconia in the Jatun Sacha parking lot

ecuador7 — The view from Jatun Sacha's canopy tower. That iron railing is only a foot high. We remained secured by safety harness and carabiner at all times.

ecuador16 — Traveling by river boat to a nearby wildlife rescue operation.

ecuador12 — White-throated Toucan at wildlife rescue centre

ecuador13 — Lowland (I think) Tapir at wildlife rescue centre

ecuador9 — Heliconia in Jatun Sacha parking lot

ecuador14 — Blue-and-gold Macaw at wildlife rescue centre

ecuador15 — Free-roaming semi-tame coatimundi at wildlife rescue centre

ecuador17 — Lodge at SierrAzul Cloud Forest Reserve, with beautiful gardens (hosting many hummingbirds) and really nice, comfortable accomodations

ecuador18 — SierrAzul crew bringing in our luggage by pack donkey

ecuador19 — Bromiliads growing on tree trunks - they were everywhere!

ecuador20 — Unknown flowers in cloud forest at SierrAzul

Tuesday Miscellany

Another week flies by – has it passed already? It seems all I can do to keep up some days. Here is the other half of last week’s miscellaneous collection, along with a few new additions from this past week.

Our swimming pool was closed up this weekend and drained today. The owners of the house had it going earlier this season, before Dan and I moved in. Neither Dan nor I are avid swimmers, though I do enjoy paddling in warm water. However, the weather was so cool and rainy this summer, the pool never warmed up, and it only got hot enough for me to even consider it on a couple of occasions. Rather than waste the energy in keeping it up, we advised our landlord that it might just be best to drain it.

It will be missed by the frogs, who had discovered this watery oasis in the middle of our pondless meadows. Our peak count was seven individuals. We tried removing them at one point, walking them back half a kilometer to the neighbour’s pond, but within a couple of days new ones had moved in to take their place. Surprisingly, they didn’t seem to suffer from the chlorinated water (very low levels, but still), and they probably loved the bonanza of insects that got caught in the pool and drowned. They would haul themselves up on the hose of the kreepy krawler. Raven had a blast running about the pool edge, peering in at them, she’d go to the pool gate and sit and whine for us to let her in. We mostly seemed to have Green Frogs inhabiting the pool, identified by their green upper lip and dark bands across their back legs.

August was our first “repeat” month in eastern Ontario, since we moved out of Toronto to the lake house for Aug 1 last year. It’s been interesting to see some of the same observations we had last year turning up again this year. One example is this giant crane fly. Almost three inches from foot to foot, it’s got to be the biggest crane fly species I’ve seen. We had a couple around the house last year, including this individual. It’s a Giant Eastern Crane Fly, Pedicia albivitta. They’re attracted to artificial light, and we’ve been seeing them regularly at our porch lights.

This repeat goes back to spring 2008. I found a similar cocoon stuck to my parents’ windowsill last winter, and later saw many at the research station. Since that initial observation, I’ve also seen them on the outside walls of the lake house, and now around here, including on plants in the meadow. They belong to a bagworm moth, probably Psyche casta, a species whose females fashion these stick cases like caddisflies and then never leave them. They mate with males and then lay their eggs all within the confines of their case. Once the female has mated, she secures the case to a surface with a sticky pad of silk, and then dies. The case in this photo probably no longer had a living adult in it, though I didn’t try taking it off to check.

I spotted this strikingly-patterned beetle on a plant at my parents’ new place while housesitting last weekend. It’s a leaf beetle, and I foolishly neglected to pay attention to what species of plant it was on. Since leaf beetles tend to be very closely associated with particular types of plants (such as the Three-lined Potato Beetles or Clavate Tortoise Beetles on my Chinese Lanterns in the spring), knowing the plant species would have helped with identification. Still, I suspect it to be a Ragweed Leaf Beetle, Zygogramma suturalis, which feeds, unsurprisingly, on ragweed, a pretty common plant around here.

I found this brightly-coloured clump of fungi on an old stump in one of our small stands of trees out in the middle of the meadows. From the photos in my mushroom guide I think it’s Mycena leaiana, a fairly common and widespread bright orange fungus that is usually found in clusters on stumps and logs. It’s considerably larger than other Mycena species I’ve encountered, and was particularly eye-catching, even through all the foliage.

I found this lovely flower in the woods at my parents’ place. Of course, after posting the white mystery flowers last week, I knew what these ones were: White Turtlehead, Chelone glabra. It’s a very common, widespread species that enjoys wet soils and is found blooming this time of year. It’s a host plant for Baltimore Checkerspots, which we’ve seen lots of in the wet woods at the back of our meadows where I found that first one.

I noticed under our birdfeeder the other day that some opportunistic seeds had sprouted. Two of them had got quite large. I think the one on the right is a sunflower; I did notice a few other younger sunflowers hidden in the long grass. The one on the left, of course, is corn. This one rather surprised me, I didn’t think that the corn packaged in birdseed mix was actually viable. But apparently so! I don’t expect that it will get large enough to actually produce ears before the frost this year, but I’m impressed by its tenacity nonetheless!

Request for ID – purple-belled wildflower

Thank you to the good folks who offered that yesterday’s mystery flower was not in fact a species of gentian but actually Turtlehead. I had paused at Turtlehead in my wildflower guide and considered it as a possibility, but finally dismissed it thinking the flowers didn’t look quite right. Of course, the photos in the guide are taken from the side, and mine is taken from the top, which makes direct comparison tricky.

Since I have such a marvelous crew of plant identification experts reading this blog, I was hoping I might call upon some of you for help with this flower. This plant is growing in my sister’s garden (and lawn, when unmown) in Peterborough, Ontario. She claims it to be one of the most tenacious and invasive plants in her garden, persisting in the lawn despite constant hacking with the mower, and spreading through the garden if it’s not kept under control by weeding/pruing. Despite its pretty and rather distinctive flowers, neither myself nor our mom were able to produce an identification for it. It’s been blooming for a couple of months, and is apparently down to just an odd bloom or two (these photos were taken a month ago).

Edit: Jackie of Saratoga Woods and Waterways has identified the plant as Common Comfrey, Symphytum officinale, apparently a medicinal plant that has many practical uses around the garden. Thanks for the help, Jackie!

Here’s a closer image of the flowers. The closest match I could find was bluebells, but the shape doesn’t seem quite right. We contemplated that it might be a domesticated plant, but normally garden species aren’t so invasive. Ideas?

Speaking of tenacious plants in my sister’s yard… She’s had a lot of trouble with Field Bindweed smothering her garden ornaments and other plants. Apparently this evening she opened the oven’s bottom drawer to get a pot and noticed a bit of plant stem. Thinking it must have fallen in at some point (the only reasonable explanation) she tried to pick it up, and it resisted.

She pulled the stove out and discovered that the plant had managed to squeeze its way through a tiny hole in the floor where a hose came in, and, despite the near absence of light under the stove, had grown a few feet already. Aside from its somewhat sickly colour, it seemed to not be doing too badly under there! They’re contemplating setting up a trellis against the wall for it to grow up…

(all photos provided by my sister)

Monday Miscellany

I have a whole bunch of photos that I want to post for miscellany today, about a dozen of them. However, our internet has been rather flaky since last night. In and out and on and off and I never know if I’m going to have a prolonged stretch of connectivity. It’s also been cutting out nearly every night in the evening, which is particularly annoying since that’s when I typically do my blogging. I decided I’d cut my miscellany post in half, and do half today and half tomorrow, the better to maximize my chances of actually getting this up before the connection drops.

Today’s header photo is of a caterpillar I found hanging out on an oak leaf earlier this week. These sorts of fuzzy caterpillars, with the long tufts sticking out from the head and tail ends, are tussock moth caterpillars. This one is a Banded Tussock Moth. They’re not uncommon, with the adults being fairly regular at lights in the late spring and early summer, and are widespread, found across much of the continent east of the Rockies. Caterpillars are pretty generalistic feeders, with the only major deciduous group I didn’t see in the list being maples.

On the 30 acres that’s attached to the house there isn’t a whole lot of woods – most of the woods are on the part of the property two lots down the road. Three-quarters of our immediate land is meadow, however at the very back of the acreage is a small patch of moist woodland, predominantly cedar. A whole different community of plants and animals is found there. For instance, while moss and lichen is fairly uncommon in the meadow areas, there’s lots of it in the damp woods. I found this patch of cup lichen and mosses straddling a downed tree trunk there. The lichens, tall and upright, most likely belong to the genus Cladonia, although the particular species is harder to determine. The Cladonia include reindeer lichen, one of the primary food items of reindeer in the arctic tundra, and British Soldier lichens, which I’d found growing at my parents’ new house last year. I’ve actually noticed a few of them here this summer, too, though just small ones.

Also in the woods were these plants, whose identity remains a mystery to me. They were, naturally, in the middle of a soggy wet bit and I was in my sneakers, so I couldn’t position myself very well to get a good photo. They reminded me of gentians, and could possibly be Pale Gentians, Gentiana alba. Or, they could possibly not be. Whatever they are, they’re not in either of my wildflower guides. The only gentians I’ve encountered before happened to be Closed Gentians, Gentiana andrewsii, in the moist bits of the forests on my parents’ new property – a similar habitat.

I nearly walked through this web, which was built between a couple of stalks of grass, bisecting the trail I follow. The web belongs to an Argiope spider, most likely Black-and-yellow Argiope, A. aurantia. Argiopes built a zig-zag pattern into the middle of their web. The extra silk is called a stabilimentum, and its purpose is debated – it might be for camouflaging the spider as they sit on the web, maybe it somehow attracts insect prey, possibly it serves a strengthening purpose, or it might even be to make the web more visible to birds, who might otherwise fly through and destroy all the spider’s hard work. These structures are only found on the webs of diurnal spiders. I didn’t spot the owner of this web, which was too bad – they’re very striking spiders, and big, with bodies sometimes as large as your thumbnail.

Dan found this guy hanging out near our porch light a couple of nights ago. This is the second walkingstick I’ve seen in a year (the other one being this individual at our previous house), which is a lot compared to the none I’d seen in the many years previous. Like last year’s bug, this one is an adult, as told by the brown body and green legs – nymphs are similar in shape, but smaller and all green. The funny thing about this guy is that walkingsticks are traditionally associated with forest habitat, and while there’s forest nearby, and a scattering of trees around it, the house is basically in the middle of a meadow. Considering that these insects are wingless, he had quite a ways to trudge from the forest edge. Check out the link to last year’s stick for more info on the group.

Finally (for today), Dan took this photo of clouds at sunset the other night. We’ve had some nice sunsets here, since the meadow faces northwest and we have a good vista of the sky in that direction. With all the rain we’ve had this summer, there are often clouds in the sky at sunset which illuminate in interesting ways. These tall, fluffy clouds are probably Cumulus congestus clouds, also called towering cumulus clouds. They’re created by unstable patches in the atmosphere, where strong updrafts rapidly drive water vapour vertically into tall columns. With sufficient atmospheric disturbance, these can turn into cumulonimbus storm clouds, but even without getting that far they often produce rain. Fortunately, we experienced none that night – it was a lovely, clear evening.