Another Bird By the Sea

Today I took my friends Beka, Brooke and Karmen to the docks before dinner. It wasn't very warm out and the girls were tired but Brooke and I took a short walk along the beach when the tide was lower. I saw a fair number of gulls and other birds but none new. The most interesting birds were Great black backed gulls and a Spotted sandpiper. There were also small fish and shrimp like creatures in

Spotted sandpiper

On highway 138 west towards Riviere du Loop the fields were turned white. Snow geese in such large numbers really do make fields look like they are covered in snow! There were 100s of them!

Photo Credit: Brooke Boyd

Snow geese

Jamaica Day 10: Before saying goodbye

On my last day I didn't do any birding or herping (looking for reptiles and amphibians). I just relaxed at the beach and by the house. Enjoyed watching the birds but didn't chase any of them down. The last few pictures I took in Jamaica were of orchids and butterflies in the yard. There was also a large swallowtail but it never stopped moving!

Jamaica Day 7: Beach Bums

Today we relaxed on the beach for the day. As always there was an afternoon rain, sunburns and chicken pattys. I found some interesting invert life. There was another species of jumping spider and a tiger beetle. I had never noticed tiger beetles on the beach before this trip so I guess they are more common in the rainy season? I do love these beetles. They are can be bright metallic colours with spots and are all predatory. VERY COOL!

White flowers outside of Margaritaville

Jumping spider

The highlight of the day was definitely Luminous Lagoon. We drove from Negril towards Montego Bay and then about half an hour to Farmouth (Where a few scenes from James Bond were filmed). Here we saw a new bird that was entirely yellow with an orange-ish head and darker wings. They call them canaries. Looks similar to a white collared seed eater.

Yellow canary -Chris Law

After the sun set we headed out on the 7:30pm boat toy gave of the lagoon. They gave us a short history of the area and then we found  bio-luminescent dinoflagelates. These microscopic organisms glow when disturbed. The water was brackish, warm and very shallow. On the bottom was a few feet of mud.  This is one of the only places in the world where people can see this biological phenomenon.

Jamaica Day 5: Night crawlers

The night brings out a lot of creatures in Jamaica. Walking around the backyard looking for owls once again I saw a lot of things but no owls.

Stink bug sp.

Hermit crab

Eleutherodactylus  cundalli- Jamaican rock frog

While looking for frogs on the vegetation there were a lot of other things crawling around. Ants don't stop being active and it was hard to avoid getting bit by a swarm of them.  There were slugs, milipedes, moths, spiders, anoles, hermit crabs, geckos, frogs and insects.

Very large slug

Moth

Millipede

We found a new species of frog that night in the ditch along the road and posed it nicely on a stick for pictures.

Jamaican masked frog- Eleutherodactylus luteolus

Eleutherodactylus luteolus

Eleutherodactylus luteolus

Anole

If you're identifying herps from the Caribbean this website is very useful! > http://www.caribherp.org

Jamaica Day 3: Down by the river where the birds all sing

The trees were all in bloom and the sun lit the flowers of this one beautifully.

In the morning Chris and I went down to the river by the fishing village. As we walked down the road towards it I was almost relieved at the many DOR(dead on road) cane toads. These are an invasive species that is poisonous to eat and which kills native species this way.

Birds for the morning:
Cattle egret

Male cattle egret

Nest

Boat tailed grackles
Brown pelican
Great egret

Great egret with a fishing hook stuck in it's mouth

 Common moorhen

Common moorhen

Great blue heron
Little blue heron
Yellow crowned night heron

Yellow-crowned night heron

Black crowned night heron
* hooded warbler
kinglet sp.  
parrot sp.
Tree swallows
Vervain hummingbird
American redstart

Redstart action shot

Black and white warbler

 Bannanaquit
 Loggerhead kingbird
Grey kingbird

The grey kingbird scopes out its next prey

then tossed the dragonfly up into the air and it disappeared like a natural magic trick

Red-eyed vireo?
Yellow warbler
hawk sp.
American kestrel
Magnificent frigate
Scarab beetle (Gymnetic lanius)-another endemic to Jamaica!

Scarab beetle (Gymnetis lanius)

White crowned pigeon
Red-billed streamertail

We spent the afternoon bumming around the beach. We got very scrumptious Jamaican patties from the vendor that walks a bike up and down the beach. He sells them for 100 J$ and you get a frozen juice.

At the beach we saw:
Light tan coloured crabs
Magnificent frigate
Royal terns
Swallows
Northern mockingbirds
Jumping spiders

Small jumping spider that was quite metallic

It started pouring rain in the afternoon (around 2pm) and we stayed around home. Hesran took us looking for frogs near the edges of Royal Palm Reserve. Many Jamaican's including Hesran appear to think that cane toads are frogs and tree frogs are toads.  I found it very interesting that the names were switched. We did find three new species of frogs (our definition of frogs). There were a lot of small frogs near a small spring but they were quick and hard to catch. A few of them slipped through my fingers before we finally got one to photograph.

Gecko sp.

Cuban flathead frog (Eleutherodactylus planirostris) ?

Jamaican masked frog (Eleutherodactylus luteolus)

Eleutherodactylus pantoni

 As we were driving away and scanning the road shoulders for frogs Chris got a glimpse of a blue crab. Hesran caught the small guys and our focus changed to a crab hunt. There were two species of crabs in the mangroves but the other doesn't taste good. We got to see them fighting which was pretty cool. Throughout the night we caught 19 crabs. We kept these alive in a large barrel for dinner tomorrow.

Chris and the big crab

Barrel a le crab

When we were out we heard a lot of things calling including grasshoppers, crickets, frogs, nighthawks? and other insects. We saw fireflies that glowed brighter and more orange than in Canada.

Back in Redground we saw a Jamaican owl in the backyard. I was getting ready for bed  and hear my name being frantically called by Hesran. I hear the word owl and jump up (not wearing pants) and run outside with my camera. Despite my lack of noticing I'm not wearing pants and my rush outside I was still to slow fumbling with my camera to get a picture of the owl. I am hoping to get it later tonight or tomorrow. I hope it sticks around.

Jamaica Day 1: Arriving in Jamaica

After a week of packing and moving, a weekend of birding and camping I finally head to the long awaited Jamaica. Getting there in the off-season is long indeed. Being there 3 hours early as recommended for international flights from Pearson airport in Toronto meant waking up at 2:30am.  I managed to sleep on the plane which is quite unusual for me.

The layover in Miami was quite long and although the airport has a lot of window shopping to offer (window shopping only because I can't afford to buy any of the billions of shiny things in the stores) I just wanted to sleep. Their benches ALL have arm rests and there was no hope of that unless I settled for sleeping on the ground. The next flight took me to Montego Bay, Jamaica where I waited for Aurora to arrive 4 hours later. This wait involved many games of cards and a few Jamaican Pattys.

There were swallows, boat-tailed grackles, butterflies around despite the tropical storm that had blown in. This is definitely rainy season in Jamaica. The hour long drive to Negril showed how important blue crab migration is to so many people. Trucks, cars and vans packed with people drove slowly up the road and we saw people with bags full of blue crab.

When I arrive in Negril and go to unpack and there was a sheet of paper in my luggage informing me that TSA (US border services) had gone through my bag.This was my first layover in the USA and also the first time this as ever happened.

Insects along the Speed River Park

Polypemus moth hatched from a cocoon (caterpillar was caught elsewhere but they are a local species)

I recently took a course by Stephen Marshall a brilliant entomology professor at Guelph and one of the best profs I have ever had. This inspired a day of insect collecting along the Speed River which is bordered by parks on both sides. Many insects can be found in Guelph along the Speed River in the forest of the park.

Fireflies are actually beetles not flies.Firefly larvae are well armored predators and all of them glow. This is likely a warning to predators that they shouldn't be eaten. Only some species of adult fireflies can be bio luminescent and this is how they attract mates or their prey in the case of some species that eat other fireflies.These two firefly larvae were found attached to a log we had flipped over.

Firefly larvae (Lampyridae)

Looking at the firefly larvae

Ground beetles are pretty common this year and I keep finding the species Carabus serratus. This species is also seen in my March 23rd post. The iridescent elytra (hardened fore wings that cover the softer hind wings) has small indented spots down it. The shiny black underside of the beetle has the first abdominal segment divided by the coxa. This characteristic is very helpful for telling these beetles apart from other groups since most beetles are undivided.

Patrick wit a Carabus serratus

A rove beetle was found by Patrick. These beetles are identifiable based on a very short elytra.  The one we found displayed aggressive defensive behaviour by bending it's abdomen up towards it's head. This would be quite threatening if it were able to spay chemical defenses, However  as Patrick found out this small beetle was not going to hurt him.

Patrick with a rove beetle

We found an insect that was suspected to be a stilt bug (Berytidae). These are true bugs with very long legs. This one got away before we could fully identify him for sure but it did have quite long legs and was definitely a hemipteran (true bug).

 After searching the woods under logs and rocks for a while we went down to a shallower portion of the Speed River and caught some mayfly larvae. Many of them were of the clinger ecotype which is very flat bodied. The gills on these species are not as obvious as in burrowing mayflies. Some case making caddisflies were also found.

Another neat creature that isn't an insect was found under the rocks as well. This female crayfish has an egg case with her.

Crayfish with egg mass

 We dug out some pupae from a goldenrod gall. Many things can parasitize the insects that initially form the gall and I can't yet identify things based on their pupae.  This is likely either a fly or wasp since both of these can be found in goldenrod galls. 

Pupae from goldenrod gall

A new lifer!

Although it had cooled down a bit and was somewhat overcast a friend Chris and I headed out to Rockwood Conservation Area to look for snakes. Our first few minutes of searching were unsuccessful, but be continued despite. Eventually under a large wooden board we found two brown snakes and a small garter. 

Adult (F?) Dekay's brown snake

 Despite the colder weather these snakes were a bit more active than expected and getting pictures took a few minutes.

Escaping

This glimmer of hope lead us to find three more brown snakes. Two of these were about the length of my finger and half the width of a pencil.

Tiny Dekay's brown snake

 Pussy willows were out and flowering.

Pussy willow flower

 Many centipedes and millipedes were found under logs, rocks and boards

Centipede

Further down the trail we flipped a rock and found a small red-backed salamander

Red-backed salamander

 After our adventures at Rockwood Conservation Area we headed to our spot near Guelph to meet up with some other friends and look for salamanders. There were a lot of ground beetles crawling around. This one in particular was very large and coo. It was not bothered much by being handled and didn't bite at all.

Carabus serratus

Searching one of the shallow vernal pools we didn't find any four-toed salamanders this time. The main pool where we always find things did have six species around it: green frog, spring peeper, blue spotted, spotted, jeffersons and eastern newt.

We found our first blue spotted salamander out of the water along the path in leaf litter.

Blue-spotted salamander

 This male spotted salamander was found near the back of the pool with some other spotted. He had so many bright spots. More than I have usually seen on one of these guys.

Spotted salamander

 This eastern newt eft was seen eating spotted salamander eggs in the pool. I actually waded out in bare feet to get a picture of this happening. This is about the best my camera could get but it was a really cool thing to watch although a bit sad.

Newt getting its fill of  spotted salamander egg masses

 Spotted salamanders lay eggs in large fist sized clumps whereas blue spotted salamander lay eggs in smaller clumps of about 20. We saw a lot of both spotted and blue spotted eggs in the vernal pools already so we might have missed the large portion of migration.

Spotted salamander egg masses

 And then.... as Josh, Dav and I are knee deep in muck.... Chris found the treasure of the night. This Jefferson's salamander was on land nearby the pool. The long limbs and grey colour are indication of a pure Jefferson's salamander however hybrids of blue spotted and Jefferson's are more common than the pure species. This species is endangered in Canada and is a new lifer for me. I have never been able to confirm seeing one but the slatey grey spots on this guy are very noticeably different than the bluish grey of the blue spotted above.

As a lifer, naturally there are a billion pictures. Here are a few of them.

Long limbs, tail and neck

Slatey grey coloured body with lighter grey spots

Jefferson's salamander (Ambystoma jeffersonianum)