Last few days in Guelph

My last few days on Guelph were pack with trying to see all my old friends and say final see you in a prolonged laters.  I did make sure to see the crows I worked with at Wild Ontario one last time before leaving Guelph.

Ontario Veterinary Clinic

Flowering tree outside the OVC

 Out of the two crows I have worked with Poe is a lot more photogenic and sits still longer than Loki.  These are all of Poe.

American Crow

Finding treats!

 

It was a great pose but then she looked confused.

 There were a lot of dandelions scattering the lawns. I don't know why these cute flowers are considered weeds... I have always liked them. 

 Many people had gorgeous flowers blooming in their gardens. There are a lot of crocuses that are pretty much over for the year. Tulips and Irises are starting to bloom. Hyacinth are in their peak. Periwinkles are scattered all over the gardens of Guelph.

Hyacinth

 

Tulip

 

I did also manage to squeeze time in for one last walk through the arboretum. As I was admiring this adorable American toad on the path, I saw a red-tailed hawk flying over the field. It was a great view but I only had a macro lens.

American toad

 

 The macro lens was perfect for the many butterflies flying around though. These question mark butterflies were seen drawing nectar from this flowering bush (Rosaceae of some sorts?).

Question mark butterfly

 Unfortunately the questions marks were the only butterflies that would sit still for a second.  There were also many red admirals that had come back from migration in mass numbers.

Toronto Green Living Show

Today I went to the Toronto Green Living Show. There were a lot of neat ideas related to conservation ranging from reusable heat pads to a children's card game that was similar to pokemon but with real animals.There was environmentally themed artwork posted in a campaign to stop the Mega Quarry from being developed. A lot of this artwork was very well done and creative.

I initially was quite shocked at the amounts of plastic and waste being created by the free samples at various food vendors. Later I did notice that most of the plastic was recyclable and the spoons were often biodegradable. The most environmentally friendly sample I had was in a small jar that we drank juice from and gave back for them to reuse at other presentations. That little bit of effort that it's going to take to wash those probably saved more waste from going into the environment. Very interesting and good idea. Anyways enough of the environmental impacts and everything because I'd rather not turn this blog into a place for long winded rants.

A group that I am a part of called Wild Ontario is a volunteer organization that takes care of unreleasable injured or imprinted birds of prey and uses them for educational outreach. I attended the Green Living Show with this group and was giving presentations about the birds and talking to people for most of the day. I did however manage to get some time to grab some last photos of these amazing birds before I graduate and leave Guelph and sadly also Wild Ontario. So without further delay here are some amazing creatures:

American kestrels are part of the falcon family. Related to the peregrine falcon they are fast fliers with streamlined bodies.  They have many adaptations to being predators of other birds. Their streamlined body and strong angled wings allow them to catch other birds in the air while diving at great speed. They catch the birds with their sharp talons and can kill them quickly with a tomial tooth. However, kestrels aren't restricted to only eating birds. These agile fliers can catch insects such as dragonflies and small mammals.

Lianne and Apollo (Male American Kestrel)

 American kestrels in these photos might appear quite small but they are in fact fully grown. Most birds do all of their growing within their first summer. They are a migratory species and will need to be fully grown and flying by the time they leave the nest.

The most colourful bird of prey

   The first bird I ever got trained on at Wild Ontario was Artemis. Artemis is a female American Kestrel. You can tell the difference between male and female kestrels because they are sexually dimorphic (males and females look different) in terms of colour. The males are brighter coloured.  Artemis was taken out of the wild illegally. This was reported and she was handed over to Wild Ontario after she was deemed unreleasable by a rehabilitation center in Toronto. When we first got her she had no flight feathers or tail feathers. This is likely because she was kept in a cage that was too small. She wasn't able to fly at all but over time grew her feathers back. Unfortunately she was still too comfortable with humans to return to the wild.

Artemis (Female American Kestrel) and I

Helen-Marie is a new member of Wild Ontario and after months of training she is now holding her first bird. Congrats and welcome!

Helen-Marie with Apollo, Kerry with Einstein

Helen-Marie, Apollo and Jenn

Socrates is the founding father of Wild Ontario. In 1987, Socrates was one of the many avian patients treated by the veterinarians at the Ontario Veterinary College’s Wild Bird Clinic.  Socrates had been hit by a car, and had severely broken his left wing. A new type of surgery was performed on Soc in an attempt to fix his broken wing. This involved filling the bone with a substance that would dissolve over time while allowing it to heal over top and eventually leaving the bones hollow. Unfortunately for Soc this procedure was new and wasn't successful on him. However it has been greatly improved and has been successful on other individuals. Since Socrates was injured badly and could not fend for himself in the wild he became part of an education program which expanded after the wild bird clinic closed and is now known as Wild Ontario. 

Jenn and Socrates (Male Turkey Vulture)

 
 Einstein is an imprinted bird. Unlike Socrates who is physically injured Einsteins mind is the reason why she is unreleasable.  After a tree fell down it was reported that there had been an owls nest inside of it. The eggs got taken to a rehab center and were taken care of until they hatched. Owls lay their eggs a day apart and they usually hatch a day apart as well. Einstein hatched first and the vets weren't ready for her so the first thing she saw was a bearded man. This owl now thinks she is a bearded man!  Einstein can't go back to the wild because she wouldn't recognize her own species and could kill other owls or hurt people by trying to get food from them. Einsteins story isn't all bad though. Her two younger siblings didn't imprint on anyone and they did get released back into the wild.

Kerry and Einstein

Birds can't sweat so they will pant like dogs when warm

Einstein is actually named quite ironicly because most of her head is filled with large cone shaped eyes rather than brain

 

Helen-Marie and Kyle with Einstein

Whistler is a female Broad-winged Hawk. She was also taken out of the wild illegally. Whis didn't loose the ability to fly in captivity  but she did get frostbite. As a migratory species she can't cope well with Canadian winters and the person who had her in captivity did not deal with this issue as well as they could which resulted in Whistler loosing a few talons on her feet.

Lianne and Whistler (Female Broad-Winged Hawk)

 

 Whis is quite well named and Broad-winged hawks have a very loud whistling screech.

All of the birds seen above are wild animals that have been deprived of their natural life. Bird of prey are high maintenance, dangerous and do not make good pets. It is illegal to keep a bird of prey without a falconers license.  The people in these pictures have been trained to work with these birds.  Please keep these birds in the wild where we and future generations can admire them.

For more information about Wild Ontario see the website: http://www.ourwildontario.ca/index.html

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