Spring Fever

Spring crocuses at the Budai Arborétum, Budapest, Hungary. March 8, 2015.

I’ve been thinking lately about why nature photography is important to me, and I decided there’s good value in putting together illustrated narratives even if the individual photos aren’t all portfolio-worthy and the writing isn’t elegant. I often find I enjoy other people’s nature-documentary narratives more than I do technically and artistically stunning individual images. Context and story are import, and I’d like to be able to look back in a few years and remember what I saw.

The last few weeks, I’ve managed to take a few study breaks to enjoy spring a little—last Sunday I went to the Budai Arborétum, a botanic garden and arboretum attached to Corvinus University’s horticultural department. I had tried visiting last fall and got rained out, but last weekend the spring weather was lovely, although unfortunately only the lower part of the garden is open on weekends.

As always, I was hoping for some birds other than the great tits which have been the most entertaining common resident bird life all winter, but other than some very uncooperative crows, all I saw were some nearly as uncooperative Common Blackbirds (Turdus merula), a type of thrush not to be confused with North American blackbirds:

Crocuses and irises were abundantly planted in many areas, and heather was in bloom as well—a very purple effect overall.

Spring is bringing the re-emergence of insects, which makes me very happy! Firebugs (Pyrrhocoris apterus) are one of my favorites—a common but striking species, albeit extremely uncooperative photography subjects. Looking them up just now, I realized that they are also the species used in a famous (in entomological circles) accidental discovery about hormone regulation and insect life cycles.

There were also a lot of small bugs swarming in the crevices of tree bark, which at first I thought were firebug nymphs, but on a closer look, they’re not similar at all. I saw a few of these last summer, but not in these quantities, and my Google skills are failing me. If anyone knows what these are, please leave a comment and let me know!

On the way home, I stopped briefly at Feneketlen-tó (Bottomless Lake), a nearby artificial lake which is apparently home to all three introduced North American slider subspecies as well as (somewhat surprisingly) the one native European species of turtles. Alas, the native species is rather shy, and all the turtles taking advantage of the spring sunlight were sliders like this one, which is probably a yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta):

I do feel like my macro photography skills are very rusty after a long break—I need to spend some quality time rebuilding my flash diffuser and get some good practice as it warms up more!

Monitoring amphibian egg masses in Clark County, Washington

Volunteers training to monitor amphibian egg masses at Burnt Bridge Creek, Vancouver, Washington, USA. February 22, 2014.

I wrote a little about the Water Resources Education Center in my last post, so I’ll continue on about the actual amphibian monitoring training. We started the day at the Water Resources Education Center with an overview of common amphibian species in the area and how to identify their egg masses, given by Peter Ritson, the environmental scientist who coordinates the Southwest Washington Amphibian Monitoring Project (SWAMP). SWAMP is a volunteer citizen science project that aims to encourage protection of native amphibians and their habitat by collecting data crucial for conservation decisions, as well as engaging citizens in science and wildlife protection and educating people about the importance of wetlands in the region.

Ritson brought a couple Long-toed Salamanders (Ambystoma macrodactylum), a common Pacific Northwest species which can live in a variety of habitats, hibernating during the cold winter months.

Although it’s not always possible to see in the field, one of the characteristic features of their egg masses is a “double” layer of jelly (actually triple, which you can see better in this photo on Wikipedia).

After the classroom training, we headed out to the field to a small wetlands near Burnt Bridge Creek Trail. Those with waders (or more dedicated than I am) worked their way down a drainage ditch, while the rest of us tried to avoid being stabbed by blackberries or falling in from the banks.

Most of the egg masses we saw belonged to Long-toed Salamanders or to the Pacific Tree Frog or Chorus Frog (Pseudacris regilla).

It takes some practice to spot egg masses, especially since healthy egg masses tend to be below the surface of the water. This one—a Long-toed Salamander egg mass—wasn’t doing so well, possibly due to weather damage.

Normally SWAMP discourages handling egg masses or removing them from the water, but this one was probably not viable.

Pacific Tree Frog egg masses look quite different.

While we didn’t see any frogs, we could hear them!

More photos from the day on Flickr.

The first spring trip to Sawhill

Pasture Grasshopper (Melanoplus confusus), Sawhill/Walden Ponds, Boulder, Colorado, USA. May 12, 2013.

Not surprisingly, almost the first place I manage to get out to once the weather shifts–although this year we’ve almost skipped straight into summer–is Sawhill and Walden Ponds in Boulder. Just about every time I go there I see something new and interesting, whether it’s insects, reptiles, or birds, and today was no exception.

Since Lee gave me the T1i, my partner and I were both able to take pictures, which was a nice change from me taking pictures and him getting impatient. We had a pretty hot, sunny day, so the insects were quite active. I was hoping to see some early odonates (of course), but unlike last year, due to April being full of snow, this year’s ode season is starting slowly. Other local ode-watchers have just begun to report Plains Forktails (Ischnura damula) in the last few days, and they were the only species we saw.

Here’s a male with a nice meal:

And a female (teneral, I think–I didn’t see any mature-looking females):

I then spent a frustrating period trying to photograph a large and adorable Phidippus jumping spider, probably P. audax, which seemed convinced I might eat it and sidled around the other side of the cattail stem no matter where I moved. Eventually I managed to get a couple kind of decent shots.

My partner spotted a fairly large Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis), a species I’ve seen a few times at Sawhill before; like before, it wasn’t very cooperative, so this was the best picture he could get:

I attempted some photos of a very tiny Pasture Grasshopper nymph (Melanoplus confusus), with pollen covering its tiny face:

And spotted a handsome weevil (Notaris puncticollis):

The most exciting insect we saw, though, will be getting her own post. Stay tuned!

Thanks to v belov for the weevil and César Nufio for the grasshopper identifications.

Entomology Collecting at Pawnee Buttes

Pawnee Buttes, Colorado. September 15, 2012.

Today I went on another class field trip to collect insects. This time we went to Pawnee Buttes, part of Pawnee National Grassland. These buttes are remnants of the Brule and Arikaree Formations, relatively soft, fine-grained sedimentary rocks capped by resistant sandstone and conglomerate. The Brule Formation is the same as that in the Badlands of South Dakota, an Oligocene formation deposited between 30 and 34 million years ago. Some parts of Pawnee Buttes contain mammal fossils.

It was fairly dry, but we still saw a good diversity of insects and some other interesting animals. Of course, I forgot an extra camera battery and my battery promptly died, so I was stuck with cell phone pictures the rest of the day, and missed out entirely on a few of the best animals.

The most abundant insects were a great variety of grasshoppers:

We also saw a lot of beetles, mostly darkling beetles (Family Tenebrionidae) and ground beetles (Family Carabidae). Most carabids, including tiger beetles, are predators. Tenebrionids like this one are often scavengers (you can also see an ant feeding on the grasshopper leg):

My favorite animal of the day was a velvet ant mimic jumping spider, likely Phidippus johnsoni, but alas, no pictures. (Nor any of velvet ants–I brought one home to put in a terrarium, but so far she is hiding).

But after the jumping spider, my other favorite animal of the day were the abundant Greater Short-horned Lizards (Phrynosoma hernandesi) we saw as we were heading back. These are a type of “horny toad,” perhaps best known for the ability of some species to eject blood from their eyes as a defense, primarily against canine predators. We saw one very tiny baby:

With impressive camouflage:

And several larger individuals, including this one:

Despite the dryness, it was a pretty good day of collecting, and we all added some interesting insects to our collections.

Some critters of Texas

A hairstreak butterfly (possibly the Red-banded Hairstreak, Calycopis cecrops), Arlington, Texas, USA. August 12, 2010.

Back in 2010, I was interning in Oklahoma, and decided at the end of my internship to head down to Texas to visit Lee of Worm Salad, who was in my lab when I was in grad school. As we are both fond of insects, reptiles, and cameras, we sought out a local park (I’m no longer sure which one), to look for cooperative photography subjects.

Being Arlington in August, it was ridiculously hot and we didn’t find much, but there were a few nice animals. I didn’t have a macro lens yet, so most of my damselfly shots were not quite in focus, but this female Blue-ringed Dancer (Argia sedula) was fairly cooperative:

As was this teneral (recently emerged) male Powdered Dancer (Argia moesta):

We also saw a blue-form female Powdered Dancer obelisking, but I didn’t get the focus quite right on her.

And here’s a very tiny and incredibly cute fence lizard (Sceloporus sp.).

While photography in a big group doesn’t always work well, I love going out looking for animals with a friend–two people to find cool insects (and spiders, etc.), and not so many people that it’s impossible to take turns creeping up on them with a camera.

(Thanks to the very knowledgeable Jerry Hatfield for the damselfly identifications.)