Odonates Abounding

I went to the Sackville Waterfowl Park on Sunday morning for a walk.  It is definitely a favourite spot for me to take a walk, immerse myself in nature, and enjoy some quiet time.  I also like to take the camera along to record any interesting birds, bees or butterflies, and any other critters I see.  This time, it was definitely a day for odonates, meaning dragonflies (darners, meadowhawks, etc.) and damselflies (bluets, spreadwings, and others).  I spent quite a lot of time watching them and snapping pictures when I could.  Many of them don't settle for long, so it can be really difficult to take their pictures.  I thought I'd share some of the pictures I took. It's a bit of a picture-heavy post, but they really are beautiful creatures.

There was a lot of odonate love in the air....they really do contort into amazing positions for procreation.  I believe these are familiar bluets (Enallagma civile).

See how they make a sort of sideways heart shape?  I think that's kind of cute.

This is another bluet, but I'm not sure which species.  They can be very tricky to identify because they have very similar markings.  There are tiny differences in the tail appendages but this shot isn't clear enough to show those.

This is a band-winged meadowhawk (Sympetrum semicinctum).  It is easier to identify because of the brown tinge in the wings.

Here, just for some variety, is a tri-coloured bumble bee (Bombus ternarius) on goldenrod. 

This is another meadowhawk, but I can't identify it because there are several that look similar to this.  It is probably either the cherry-faced or white-faced meadowhawk (S. internum or S. obtrusum).  I love this picture because of the shadows of the wings - it makes it look like it has 8 wings instead of 4.

Here are a couple more bluets, but these are less acrobatic at this point.  They fly around stuck to each other like this.  Fascinating.

This is one of the big dragonfly species - a darner.  I can't tell which one because I couldn't get a side view shot of it, and the side markings are how you identify these critters.  Still, I love this shot of its eyes.  They are simply amazing to look at.

This is almost certainly a white-faced meadowhawk (Sympetrum obtrusum).

This bluet posed nicely for me.  Probably a familiar bluet.

This is a male slender spreadwing (Lestes rectangularis).  Look at those blue eyes!

This is a spotted spreadwing (Lestes congener), which an expert helpfully identified for me.  I post many of my sightings to iNaturalist, which is a great place for citizen science.  Experts can help identify all forms of life that are posted there.  You can post pictures of plants, insects, animals and birds, even fungi and lichen!

The white-faced meadowhawks were busy ensuring the future survival of their species as well. 

They look like a two-headed creature in this shot!  Who does the driving?!

I took some other insect pictures, including this mud dauber wasp.  What a weird conformation - look at how the abdomen is connected to the thorax with such a thin strip.  I love the stripey legs!

Here's a regular ol' two-striped grasshopper, hopping in the grass.

And here, one of the strangest things I saw on my walk, is what I initially thought was an interesting fungus growing on a branch.  Turns out that it isn't fungus at all.  It's a species of aphid called the cottony alder psyllid (Psylla floccosa).  The nymph stage produces this weird-looking cottony "fluff" on alder branches.  Definitely a new find for me.  You just never know what you'll see on a walk in the park.

Polyphemus Moth

I recently had an up-close-and-personal experience with a beautiful polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus) and wanted to share some of the photographs I took. As you can see, this is a very large moth, with a wingspan of about 6 inches.  It's the largest moth that I have had visit my screened porch moth lights.

Those beautiful spots on its hindwings earned it the polyphemus name, after the Greek cyclops of myth, whose name was the same.

It has marvellous antennae that look like small ferns growing out of its head.  This specimen is a male.  The female antennae are less glamorous.

As you can see, it has a 'furry' appearance on its head and body, although those are really just scales that will rub off if they are touched too much. 

The larvae of this moth eat maple, oak, willow and birch, among other deciduous tree species.  In fact, the caterpillars eat 86,000 times their own weight in about 2 months before they transform into the moth form. Amazing!

The moth uses its feet to hold on very tightly, even though one doesn't really feel the grip.  I could turn it completely upside-down. 

He is also wearing marvellously "furry" trousers.

Those eye spots on the wings help camouflage the moth and can confuse potential predators.  I hope to have more visits from this beautiful species in future, but having this nearly perfect one visit me this year was such a treat!

Moulting Blue Jay

I know I'm anthropomorphizing, but I can't help but imagine this blue jay feeling pretty embarrassed at its current condition.  Are the other birds staring at it?

Blue jays moult, just like my chickens and other birds.  Sometimes, their head and neck feathers fall out almost all at once, and they have to go more-or-less bald for a few days until the new feathers grow in.  In my area, that is most likely to happen in August.

There are other blue jays around who are not having this type of moult, so it doesn't seem to happen to all of them, and many seem to moult in a more gradual way, so you barely notice anything happening at all.  But not for this one!

I put some peanuts out to give this jay something to be excited about in the midst of its indignity. I think it was pretty happy about that.  

You can see the new feathers are coming in already, so it will only be a few days before this bird looks totally normal again.

The peanuts have lots of protein to help that process along.  Don't worry little jay, I still think you're beautiful!

A Visit to Fort Beauséjour

This weekend was beautiful and sunny and we decided to go to visit a local historical site.  We don't often get out and do things like that, so it was a good change of pace to go somewhere new.  I thought I'd share our visit to the Fort Beauséjour site on the blog so you can live vicariously through me!  The fort actually has two names - For Beauséjour and Fort Cumberland.  It is one of Canada's oldest forts, constructed by the French in 1751.  It is on the Tantramar Marsh, very close to where we live.  The Tantramar Marsh is a tidal salt marsh.  The views from the elevated land of the fort are beautiful.

It was very windy today, although it's pretty much always windy at the head of the Bay of Fundy, and you can see the tree in the far right of the picture below has grown on an angle as a result.  It would have been more striking if I'd taken the picture from a different angle, but I think you can still see that the tree is growing on a slant.

There is an interpretive centre at the fort with lots of artifacts from the archaeological digs that have taken place over time.  Although the fort was built by the French, it was captured by the British in 1755, and became a base for the deportation of the Acadians - a dark and dreadful time in the history of Atlantic Canada.  At that time, it was known as Fort Cumberland.  Later, in 1776, the British routed a rebel force from the US, retaining the area under British rule.  It was eventually abandoned in 1835, and declared a national historic site in 1920.

Outdoors, there are a variety of different cannon and mortar examples.

The fort is star-shaped, but that's difficult to show in photographs taken at ground level, so here's a picture from an info-board at the site that shows the shape.

Many of the old foundations of the original buildings still exist, such as this foundation for the British men's barracks.  

There were also several restored casemates (a vaulted chamber in a fortress), both stone and timber, where provisions were stored and in the event of emergencies, they could also be used as housing. This picture is a restored stone French casemate.

This stone casemate is from the British modifications to the fort.

This is a restored timber casemate built by the French.

There was a series of narrow windows, known as a curtain wall, providing views out over the marshland and the water, giving the fort's inhabitants a clear view of approaching troops.

As you can see from the following picture, the curtain wall looked out over the water and the marshland.

I like this shot showing the fort and its star-shaped protrusions with the modern windmills in the background.  I'm glad we have green energy sources now.

The fort offers a camping experience for people who want to experience tents styled after those from the 1700s that could have been used in the vicinity.  I think that would be kind of fun.

The fort has a lot of useful information panels as well as artistic renditions of activities that would have occurred at the fort.  This adds to the experience by helping visitors imagine how life would have been at the time the fort was occupied.

We got some exercise scrambling up and down the hills, as Marc demonstrates!

All in all, it was an enjoyable visit on a very windy day, and we had fun exploring this piece of local and national history.

UV Light for Moths

As many of my regular readers will know, I have a bit of a fondness for moths.  Odd, I suppose, for someone who loves wool, and let me tell you, if there's a clothes moth anywhere in the house, I have no fondness for it!  I think the diversity of moths is amazing though, and I love photographing all their amazing beauty when I have the opportunity.

I recently read that it's possible to attract more moths by using a UV light.  I tend to leave my screened porch light on overnight sometimes (with the screen doors open) to attract moths for photographing.  I decided that I would purchase a UV light to see if I could bring in some different species.  I bought one that is apparently used by DJs for light shows - I'm totally out of touch with that world, but apparently they like to use UV or "black lights" as they are sometimes called.  It's just a 24 inch tube-style light fixture that has a plug.  I put it on the wall of my porch very easily.

I left it on overnight last night. It really doesn't look like much when it's on, but it does have a purplish glow at night.

This morning, I think just about every moth in my entire neighbourhood was in my porch.  It was absolutely amazing.  There were hundreds, and they were everywhere.  I spent a long time out on the porch taking photographs and being completely excited about all the new moths that had come to visit.  I will definitely be using the light on a regular basis, and hope to see more new species being attracted to it.  I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in moth photography.

Here are some of the more interesting species that showed up.

Northern apple sphinx (Sphinx poecila) - this beauty was about 2.5 inches long.

The small but pretty clover hayworm moth (Hypsopygia costalis).

A gray spruce looper moth (Caripeta divisata).

This is a beautiful bent-line gray (Iridopsis larvaria).

Another large moth that visited - the fingered dagger (Acronicta dactylina).

I love this little guy - Harris's three-spot moth (Harrisimemna trisignata).  It's not a common moth around here and has such a pretty pattern.  I was really excited to see it.

I'm not 100% sure on this one but believe it is the bent-winged owlet (Bleptina caradrinalis).  Please correct me if I'm wrong on that.

This beauty is the olive angle shades moth (Phlogophora iris).

The red-humped caterpillar moth (Schizura concinna) holds up its wings at an unusual angle.

The tiny but elegant silver-spotted fern moth (Callopistria cordata).

The black-dotted glyph (Maliattha synochitis).  That spot on its back is a distinct olive green colour.

The wavy-lined heterocampa moth (Heterocampa biundata).

Finally, the lovely large lace border moth (Scopula limboundata).  I'm so pleased to have tried a UV light for mothing, and I hope to share more visitors soon!