All My Blogs

Edible mushroom along the ORT near Winfield, BC. I am not a mushroom aficionado, although I admit to enjoying them in a good stir-fry or chilli.   And I have never picked mushrooms, other than to remove them from my lawn, let alone eat them.  Yet, I am strangely drawn to them; their characteristics play to the storytelling of magical worlds which we imagine in our minds and on paper.  I have often photographed mushrooms, mostly with the help of toys I keep around for just such a purpose.  See the photo below. A type of milkcap mushroom I photographed being worked on by a toy farm tractor. Shaggy mane mushrooms are very edible and delicious, although they have to be picked at the right time and used promptly.  They are also called shaggy ink cap mushrooms because, within hours of being picked, they will turn into a black oozing liquid that will likely cause a different reaction if ingested.  This is their natural fate anyway, although the process takes ...

Cicada I found in Kelowna on May 22.  I found one like it last year too. I don't know the species of cicada for sure, but I think it may be the Somber Cicada ( Okanagana tristis ) based on its size and colour (or lack of it). I made an interesting observation.  I found this cicada on the sidewalk near our house yesterday.  What was peculiar was that there was a wasp next to it.  The wasp was either a yellow jacket or a paper wasp, but the thought is that the wasp stung the cicada and was waiting for the injected toxins to take effect.  The wasp uses captured insects to feed larvae back at its nesting site.  I wrote a blog on it here . The wasp left as I picked up the cicada; it had a hard time righting itself and seemed less active than what I remember.  I don't know if the presence of the wasp was coincidental or part of the cicada's story.  Between the facts that the cicada seemed off and that it was located in the middle of an asphalt sidewalk ...

Privit leafhopper ( Fieberiella florii ) as found in my backyard in Kelowna, BC.   Cicadas and "hoppers" used to belong to the order Homoptera.  However, that taxonomic title has been dissolved and the group has been folded in with the true bugs, the Hemiptera.  They are distantly related to the original group, which included the more familiar true bugs like stink bugs, back swimmers, and box elder bugs.  The website,  bugguide.net  gives a breakdown of its taxonomy ( click here to see link). Taxonomy of the Privit leafhopper as shown at the website bugguide.net.  See link above. I have never seen a tree hopper as they are mostly tropican, although there are some species that live in Canada (mostly in Ontario and Quebec).  They are peculiar looking insects; click here if you want to see some examples.    Frog hoppers are common where I live; I have photographed their nymphs and have written a blog on them (click here ).  The ...

Fruit tree leaf rollers    Top: pupa  Bottom: caterpillar  Right: enlarged head I noticed my fruit trees had numerous clusters of leaves that were stuck together.  I opened one up and discovered a small green caterpillar inside, maybe an inch long.  When picking up the designer of the protective housing, it wriggled spastically in the palm of my hand.  The inhabitant of another leaf cluster fell as I pried the home apart; it dropped from a single thread halfway to the ground and dangled there, probably hoping to return to its abode.  You can see an example of the caterpillar and leafy home below. Top: leaves wrapped encasing a caterpillar.  Bottom left: the inhabitant I had discovered a species of fruit tree leaf rollers; the caterpillars would use their silk to make a protective enclosure that they could live in when not foraging.  It also serves as a great place to pupate.  The caterpillars do a fair amount of damage to the tree, ...

Charm found while camping; I used my macro gear to photograph it on our green picnic table. Most of the stuff I find belongs to kids, although sometimes something else turns up.   It's amazing how many plastic animals I have found.  They are usually small, often no more than a few inches in length.  And an amazing number of them are dinosaurs.  I guess the intrigue regarding these extinct giants hasn't diminished much since I was a kid. Then there is the jewellery.  I took the above photo of a charm I found while camping a few weeks ago.  I have never found anything valuable, and I generally turn in what I find to the camp's lost and found.  Still, though, the things that people lose would astound you. I have never used a metal detector, but I have found lots of things made out of metal.  Small things, mostly coins, fasteners, and washers.  The coins go into my pocket, and the useful bits end up in my assorted pieces collection.  Yo...

Yellow-headed blackbirds are much larger then their red-winged counterparts. Every spring, I notice that it's the red-winged blackbirds that show up first to stake out a territory for breeding.  If they have chosen a nesting area that has some reeds and shallow water, it is unlikely that they will be evicted.  However, when the larger yellow-headed blackbirds show up, all bets are off if they have chosen a large reed bed in deep water (up to 3 or 4 feet). Red-winged blackbirds are not super choosy about where they nest, as long as there are some reeds and standing water present.  More successful males will want a better territory, one that one or more females will approve of.  And they will defend it, against other males of the same species. Yellow-headed blackbirds are more picky, insisting on large reed beds in deep water.  They also usually arrive later than the red-wings do, but that is not a problem for them.  That's because they are bigger, both in si...