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  It's been a busy week.  We have gone through boxes of stuff we haven't looked at since we moved (5 years ago) and pulled out things that weren't going to be missed, which was most of it.  If you haven't used it in five years, you probably don't need it. The problem is that maybe nobody else needs it either.  Such is the nature of a garage sale.  Maybe you'll find treasure, or maybe you'll find mostly trash.  And people want what you're selling cheap.  However, we managed to sell about 20% of what we had; the rest will either go into storage or be donated to a thrift store.   This is probably my 20th garage sale.  I used to have one every year, then it slowly changed to once every couple of years.  Now it has been half a decade since my last one.  The upside is that I now have some room to create some space.  I will be listing some of the stuff, like the cameras, on Marketplace.  It's more of a pain, but it will also...

Chalk-fronted corporal dragonflies.  Left: Male  Right: Female.  Dutch Lake, Clearwater, BC. I have always loved dragonflies.  As a child, I used to throw small rocks near them and watch them chase the falling stones as if they were a potential meal.  I learned that they have a favoured perch and would approach it when they left; eventually I could place my finger there and get them to land on it.  I have photographed over a dozen species I have identified and many more I have not.   While visiting Clearwater, BC, this summer, I managed to photograph a male and female chalk-fronted corporal dragonfly.  The term "corporal" comes from the pair of stripes found on the top of their thorax (just in front of the wings - you can see it in the above images.  The male I have is young and has not "earned" its stripes yet - click here to see a mature adult).  A corporal in the army has two stripes, as opposed to a private (one stripe) or a ser...

A flower fly, skipper butterfly, and flower beetle all visit a dandelion at the same time. On average, how many insects visit a flower in one day?  Five?  Ten?  A hundred?  Perhaps a thousand?  The value is highly dependent upon so many factors.  Temperature is an important one, especially in the morning, when many insects are waiting for the warmth of the day to enable flight.  Then there is the nature of the bloom itself:  colour, scent, build, and even location.  Time of year, availability of other flowers, perhaps more enticing or numerous, and so on. It turns out that there is a way to figure this out.  A FIT count (flower-insect timed count) is a way to track pollinators on flower interactions.  The essence of the count is to pay attention to a small area of one species of flower for a period of 10 minutes and record all the insects that land on the blooms.  It was a system of observation that started in the UK but has be...

Main:  A blow fly feeding on a dead Steller's jay chick.  Inset:  Maggot showing a pair of mouth hooks. Blow flies - if you watch forensic shows like Bones , you are probably familiar with the idea that the flies' larvae are used to help determine how long someone has been dead for.  The TOD (time of death) is determined in days, not hours, as the corpse has to be old enough that blow flies would find the body, lay eggs on it, and the maggots would hatch, grow, and moult.  The time between moults is an instar; each instar (3 in all) takes a certain length of time, with growth occurring along the way.  You can tell how long a body has been in place by the presence of blow fly maggots and how big they are. However, it is a bit more difficult than that.  There are different varieties of blow fly, each of them reproduces at specific rates relative to that species.  Another factor is the temperature associated with the body.  Flies develop more sl...

Four different insects that are important detritivores. What's a detritivore?  An organism that feeds on dead matter, plant or animal.  There is a long list of detritivores, including most fungi, bacteria, and a plethora of invertebrates.  I came across a dead Steller's jay chick a few weeks ago and discovered quite a population of scavenging insects.   Nothing in nature goes to waste.  Every atom in every living thing has been used before, again and again and again.  Plants extract nutrients from air, water, and soil.  Animals eat plants and other animals.  And all of them, when they die and their remains are left to the elements, are consumed by detritivores. Every.     Last.    Atom. The food web wouldn't be complete without detritivores.  Nutrients would make a one-way trip and not return to the environment.  Even fecal and metabolic waste is recycled.  Although we may feel gross or get a bad case o...

Does the bright yellow colour of goldfinch males make them easier prey for predators? The phrase "Sticking out like a sore thumb" could be applied to male goldfinches.  Not only are they a bright dandelion yellow, but they have dark, black contrasting feathers that make them stand out even more.  What evolutionary pressures would shape such a creature? Birds of prey and predatory mammals such as cats have colour vision and sharp eyes that pick up not only the colour of the male goldfinch birds but their strong contrast too.  Female goldfinches (see below) have more subdued yellows, less black, and do not have a stark black cap.  Of the two birds, the male is more likely to be seen and hunted.  This gives the female a better chance at incubating the eggs and rearing the young. Male (left) and female (right) American goldfinches. The bright yellow of the male also acts as a signal to females of his fitness for breeding.  The bright yellow colour comes from pi...