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

Hairy woodpecker

Downy woodpecker

I haven't been out herping for a few days because school is getting busy in it's final weeks but here is a male  hairy woodpecker I saw on campus today. Notice he is banded as well. I wonder where he is from.

Birding and the first herps near Guelph

Spring is here. Crocuses are blooming and being pollinated. Commas and mourning cloaks have been seen flying around.

Since Guelph has been smokin' hot lately... It was a great excuse to spend an afternoon birding and looking for herps.  My friends and I went out to Mountsberg Lake and Puslinch:  killdeer, canvas back, red head, eurasian wigeon, ringneck ducks, pied billed grebe, northern pintail, scaup, american coot, godwall, bufflehead, common and hooded mergansers, song sparrow and red winged black bird.

Killdeer

American coots

Ring necked ducks

Common merganser flying

Buffleheads landing

Along the road there were many song sparrows, red tailed hawks, a bald eagle, rough legged hawk and two eastern meadowlarks that we had the pleasure of hearing sing.

Eastern Meadowlark

Eastern meadowlark showing the bright yellow

On our way towards a nearby herping site we saw about eight painted turtles in a pond.

Painted turtles basking in the spring warmth

As we started flipping rocks and logs and walking through forests looking for snakes I am pleasantly surprised by the number of herps we were finding.  A few red backed salamanders and a blue spotted salamader were my first amphibians for the year as we heard spring peepers calling from ponds nearby.

Redbacked salamader

Blue spotted salamander

Chris found our first ribbon snake and then we continued to find 14 ribbon snakes and 9 garter snakes. Many of the garter snakes were paired off in their acts of mating.

Ribbon snake

Chris and the first snake of the year

There weren't to many wildflowers blooming but you could smell skunk cabbage and some green life had survived under the snow.

Skunk cabbage

Wintergreen is one of my favorite plants to find in the wild since it makes a nice treat if spending hours in the field. It's very common and the leaves taste kinda like bubblegum to me. I don't know about  eating the berries. Haven't ever tried it. They don't look to appealing.

Wintergreen

We didn't have to walk far to hit the treasure trove our of herping but we did walk farther back into the forest.

Josh and Chris on the hunt

 One of my favorite finds of the day was when Josh found a baby ribbon snake.

Josh with the baby ribbon snake

Another adult ribbon snake

Some local birding

Coming back from Jamaica it is hard to get back into sitting around studying. A friend and I spent a Sunday afternoon driving to various places near Guelph and going for short hikes.

Our first stop was driving near the Guelph quarries. We drove down low trafficked back roads and saw many crows, red-tailed hawks and one rough-legged hawk. At one stop before driving away from our rough-legged hawk a horned lark lands in the middle of the road in front of us.

Red tailed hawk

Rough legged hawk

Horned lark

Our second stop was a walk around Sudden Track. The trails were somewhat busy and the cold and windy day kept the woods fairly quiet in terms of birds.  Far back along the trails we saw red breasted nuthatches, red-bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers and chickadees.

Red breasted nuthatch

Red-bellied woodpecker

 

Downy woodpecker

We drove to Mountsberg Lake and saw Canada geese, mallard ducks, hooded mergansers and more crows.

Hooded mergansers

Canada geese, Common goldeneye and a blurry Bufflehead in the left corner

At a feeder along the road we saw a purple finch and many chickadees. I need to start using my tripod more often.These pictures are shamefully blurry.

Purple finch and black-capped chickadee

 Had to include this one since it's my first in focus action shot.

Mallards in flight

Our last stop for the day and another short walk around Guelph Lake was much quieter than expected.  The feeders at the nature center had woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches and dark eyed juncos. We looked for but couldn't find the owl or tundra swans which had been seen earlier.

Dark-eyed junco