Blister Beetle

Lytta nuttalli: Nuttall's blister beetle.  Found tons of them south of Shaunavon, SK early July 2012 eating Astragalus sp.(milk-vetch).

Jacerolled?

I was looking through photos from one of our last trips of the field season and couldn't help but laugh.  My field partner for the trip was in charge of photos since her data didn't take as long to collect.  As it turns out, most of the time I was completely oblivious of her trying to take habitat and stream bank photos... I popped into a whole bunch of them by mistake.  I have this image in my head of someone going through the project folder and checking the photos for habitat types or something and getting a bunch of surprise photos of yours truly.  At least it isn't as annoying as being Rickrolled ;).  I'll share a few of the photos here:

End of Field Season (but not the blog!)

October is now upon us and snow is right around the corner.  Which means field season is over for this botanist.  Once the leaves start dropping and the herbaceous species die for another winter, making a species list for an area becomes nearly impossible.  However, there are still lots of blog posts for me to catch up on, so you will still get some summery pictures on this website.

My last trip of the year was to the beautiful Peonan Creek, located roughly between Melfort and Prince Albert.  It is a winding, meandering creek with a variety of different riparian vegetation along its length.  We hiked through old-growth white spruce and balsam fir forest; willow and alder thickets; open aspen- and poplar-dominated habitat; and even some abandoned pasture.  In some places the bank is cut away in a sheer cliff 15 metres high, in other places the creek has flowed over a bit into its floodplain due to the enormous amount of beaver activity and the impressive dams that have blocked its flow to the Saskatchewan River.  My job there was to assess the health of the riparian zone by looking at the shoreline vegetation species and erosion and other such things.

Here are some photos that highlight my trip:

A wide part of the creek.

Tiny bear cub footprint on the creek bank?!

A tree hanging onto the tall bank for dear life.

And, just for fun, a tiny little waterfall in Duke Ravine (another stream I assessed on the same trip).

Hiking down the creek.

Looking down on Peonan Creek

Where Peonan Creek meets the Saskatchewan River.  It was a beautiful sight at the end of the hike.

Owl Picture as Promised

Wildlife in the North

Hello all!  As it turns out, maintaining a blog during field season was a bit ambitious.  Perhaps I'll catch up on posts this fall.  I'm currently at Points North Landing and the weather is cold and rainy.  This has been a long trip, but hopefully a few more days and I'll be making my way south to my cozy little home in the city.  I've been seeing wonderful wildlife here, but unfortunately my camera has not been handy.  Yesterday I saw the chubbiest and most adorable porcupine waddling his way across the highway.  I suppose he must have been fattening up for winter as of late.  I've also been seeing wolf prints around the area and the other day saw my very first wolf!  It was a beautiful sandy colour and was running down the road towards my truck.  I didn't get very close before it ran into the trees, but it was exciting nonetheless.  Today a very large cow moose ran across the trail ahead of the side-by-side UTV in which I was a passenger.  Her sheer size was breathtaking.  I can't believe something so large can move through the closely-packed young jackpine forests around here.

I have some photos that I really want to share once I can get them off the camera and on to the computer.  Last week in the bush I met an inquisitive little owl.  He perched on a tree branch and let me get as close as I wanted for photos while he cocked his head to the side and watched me.  He was such a beautiful little guy!  Maybe from this year's hatch? I could have watched him all day, and he seemed pretty entertained by watching me.  I also enjoy the company of the whiskey jacks around here. They are exceptionally tame and have no qualms about stealing your lunch.  I ended up sharing a bit of rice krispie square with one the other day, and the next time he flew overhead he dropped a mushroom piece beside me.  Likely it was just an accident, but I like to think he was sharing :)

-JR

Katydid!

Hello all.  My apologies for the lack of posts lately!  Things have been pretty hectic with moving houses between field trips.  Although, on the plus side, I now live in a house with a garden so I may post about my perennials now that I can grow them at home.  I didn't post any updates while in the field because it was crazy hot out down south and by the time I got back to the hotel everyday I was pretty content to just sprawl out in the air-conditioned room and sleep.  Quite a change from the snow we encountered in the same area in June!

I have a little time tonight, so I would like to share a picture of one of my favorite insects that I encounter in the Swift Current area: the katydid.  I think they are wonderful; particularly the lovely shade of green and their beautiful, long antennae.  This one pictured below is a male.  You can see that at the rear of his abdomen there are two short appendages instead of a long, sword-shaped ovipositor (egg-laying organ that only females possess).  Isn't he a cutie?

 I have a bunch more fun things to blog about from this past field trip.  I hope to do some more writing soon, so check back in a few days!

Colours and a Day Off!

I write this as I am stretched out on the bench of a picnic table at Points North Landing, SK.  A helicopter is just landing on the asphalt out in front of me.  I face a lake where float planes frequently land, and the runway where our plane landed this morning is to my left.  I have a hot black coffee, the sun is warm, and it is windy enough to keep the black flies down.  There are multiple swallow nests built on top of a light protruding under the eaves of the cafeteria/main office to my right and the birds are constantly swooping overhead.  The only complaint I have: we’re not working today.  We have some fairly inaccessible plots, but no helicopter access for various reasons.

However, it’s a minor complaint.  The weather is beautiful and I’m outside.  Really, that is enough to keep me happy.  Last week was definitely a test of endurance, but we made it.  All the hiking and manhandling of the zodiac has started to make me feel like I’m getting tough again.  Working in the office all winter and my constant fatigue due to my unexplained bout of iron-deficiency anaemia really set me back in terms of strength, but now that I’m working outside and feeling healthy, I have no doubts that I’ll bounce back completely.

I think that #1 on my list of cool nature-related things I’ve seen around here is the felsenmeer ecosites that are scattered around in the bush.  They’re basically a massive flattened-out rock pile with gorgeous lichens growing all over them.  There is the occasional resilient tree standing all alone in the middle of the rocks, precariously rooted, surrounded by a few small shrubs.

Other amazing landscapes I have seen are the bogs and the burns.  The colour of bogs is a wonderful composition of greens, yellows, pinks, and oranges.  The sphagnum has formed little hummocks that look a bit like the top of a cloud.  Walking through the bogs is a major chore and more often than not results in wet feet for the rest of the day.  I suppose the difficulty of crossing a bog is beneficial to the plants, however.  Rare plants seem to be extremely locally abundant in boggy areas, and the less traffic/habitat alteration they experience, the more likely their continued existence.  I have been dying to dip-net in a bog pool and see what kind of insects are present in the water, but I have a feeling 95% of what I pull out would be black fly and mosquito larvae.

Recently burned areas are another of my favourites because of how cool it is to see the new growth.  There are big patches of fallen and charcoal-covered trees, the lichens have burned away completely to show the bare soil, and still there are many things growing.  The alder seems to grow back immediately from its roots and provides a spray of bright green against all the charcoal grey, black, and brown.  Little shrubs are emerging all over the forest floor and tiny, tiny, spruce and pine seedlings are growing their first needles.  It is all very beautiful.

Anyway, I need to run off to a safety/logistics meeting… hope the descriptions I’ve given have inspired pretty pictures in your head that will suffice until I post photos!

Cheers, JR

From South to North

Well folks, I have now migrated from the lower reaches of Saskatchewan all the way up to Points North.  I can say with confidence that this is the furthest north I have ever been.  Quite a change from working in the grasslands!  The landscape here is dominated by jack pine and black spruce forests, lots of ericaceous shrubs, reindeer lichen, and various amazing bog species.  And all of this is overtop of the rock of the Canadian Shield.  I haven't seen anything quite like it before.

We are staying in a building that feels a bit like a dorm.  It's a long trailer-house/portable building with small rooms, each with a bed, cupboard, little table and chair, and a small tv.  It's nice and warm, for which I am very thankful after all the rain we had today.  I have all my gear spread out around the room right now to dry.  We pack bagged lunches most of the time and eat our other meals in the cafeteria here.  It's a pretty neat little place, and the food is always hot.

I have been learning to operate different modes of transportation here.  We rented a big 3/4 ton diesel truck and put in a radio so we could let the drivers from NRT know our position on the rather narrow road up to Points from La Ronge.  We also have a great little side by side ATV for rocky trails.  As one of the guys in the wildlife crew says, driving it is just like playing Mario Kart, but without the banana peels and turtle shells.  And finally, we put together and drove a Zodiac around Mink Arm Lake to get to our plots today.  It was fun, and I'm proud of the patch we made to slow the air loss.  Only trouble is, there is no good place to launch around here.  Zodiacs are surprisingly heavy and the shorline is a treacherous pile of rocks.  We've just been doing the best we can to find somewhere safe to store the boat without it getting punctured.  Luckily there have been people around from the wildlife crew to help with the lifting.  Those guys are all pretty awesome.

Me in the ZODIAC on Mink Arm of McMahon Lake, SK.

The SxS.  This little vehicle can make it through almost any kind of terrain.

My first helicopter ride.

So far for wildlife here we've seen a totally adorable grey jay, which reminded me of a giant overfed chickadee.  Probably my favourite plant that I have seen thus far is Drosera rotundifolia, or round-leaved sundew.  It is so brightly coloured and funky looking... I may try and get a good picture of one before we leave here.  As for insects, I've seen mayflies, beetles, ants, and tons of little butterflies, as well as many spiders.

I apologize for not having any photos for you wonderful readers this time around.  Perhaps I will have taken some good shots by the next time I post!

Coleoptera... more like COOLeoptera!

Well, I'm still in Swift Current, SK.  All the terrible weather meant that we couldn't do amphibian auditory surveys (listening to see which species are calling in an area) during the evenings this past week, so our trip has been extended.  Working at night is really different for me, as I am used to daytime plant surveys.  It means that I hang out and work on my computer in the hotel room during the day and do all my driving around and hiking at night.  It's almost a little spooky sometimes, especially working in wetlands located in livestock enclosures.  I sure don't want to run into a herd of bison in the dark!  At least now the roads have dried up quite a bit, so we don't run the risk of being stranded in a cow pasture in the middle of nowhere at midnight with our truck stuck in the mud.

Speaking of our truck, he is a rental and I have named him Roger.  It just seemed fitting!  Here is a picture of the big guy:

Of course, it's no longer snowing like it is in the photo.  We saw the last of the snow melting in the ditches around Shaunavon yesterday, and it's been quite warm in the daytime.

Anyway, now to explain the title of this post.  As many of you likely know, Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly known as beetles.  The literal translation of coleoptera is sheath-wing, which likely refers to the hard covering, or elytra, that form the shell over a beetle's wings.  As many of you likely also know, I really, really like beetles.  One might say they are totally cool.

I'm not entirely certain what species these two beetles are, but I thought they were worth photographing!  I am hoping to identify them from my insect books upon my return to Saskatoon.  I have a suspicion that the black and orange guy might be a carrion beetle based on the colouring, but the antennae threw me off.  Check out the orange spots right on the ends!  Beautiful.

The black beetle pictured below cracked me up.  It was having a very difficult time walking over and around the lumps of soil in the cultivated field where I saw it.  My guess is that legs were relatively new to the little guy, since the blue thing in the picture seems to be the remains of pupa.  If the blue casing belonged to this beetle as while it was pupating (turning from a grub to a beetle), I would say that the adult must have emerged quite recently to find the beetle and pupal casing together.  But again, I'm only speculating.  Maybe he was just nomming on somebody else who was pupating.

I'll be sure to update you if I find out what species these amazing little guys are.

-J.R.

Snow Day!

The date is May 27th.  And I had a snow day today.  Yes, a snow day in May!
We had planned on doing our plant surveys around Shaunavon today, so we left the hotel early in the morning to a fairly heavy rain.  The further southwest we travelled, however, the colder it got.  As the thermometer built into our rental truck registered zero degrees, the rain turned to sleet and then snow.  The road were terrible, but after a couple hours of driving we found an accessible plot.  The effort was futile, however, as the snow began moving north and our plot was covered with a blanket of snow.  It is nearly impossible to perform a rare plant survey if one can't see the plants!!  Here I am all bundled up:

Animal Encounters: Now With Photos!

It's only day 3 in Swift and I already have far too many things to write about in a single post. My field partner and I have visited 10 different patches of native prairie and scoped out a few wetlands for amphibian surveys, and encountered all kinds of wildlife along the way! Antelope, mule deer, coyotes, hundreds of ground squirrels, and... the first northern leopard frog I've ever seen! It was pretty cute, but not nearly as cute as these little fledgings we stumbled upon in a cow pasture:

So sweet and fuzzy.  I have never before seen such tiny little baby birds!  I really hope the mama bird came back soon, as it was beginning to rain at this point.  Here is another little nest we saw on our way to a plot:

The best nest discovery happened today, however. I had dropped my deerskin gloves a few metres back and stopped to get them as my field partner continued towards our plot. I heard a scream and looked up to see a female mallard flying away from where my partner was standing, looking shocked. She had nearly stepped on the duck, which had a skillfully hidden nest at the edge of a cultivated field. There were 11 eggs in the nest!


Near the end of the day, we hiked through a field occupied by some very curious cows.  They followed us around and even jogged a bit to keep up with us.  I assume that they were just gentle giants, and they were really funny, but I must admit they made me a bit nervous.  Having lived in the city for most of my life, I wasn't sure what to expect.  I realize now that I don't know how to interact with cows, or horses for that matter, but I would certainly like to learn more about them!

First Field Day

Today was my first day back in the field!  It feels great to be working outdoors again.  Our mission for the afternoon was to identify the plants in an invaded native pasture south of Gull Lake.  My plant ID skills are a little bit rusty, but I think that once we start spending full days in the field I'll remember it all.

The most exciting find of the day was a skull that was encountered en route to our plot.  Unfortunately it appears to be pretty old and isn't entirely intact.  I hope to still be able to identify it by the antlers and eventually display it in my office.

Welcome to Spring!

Hello, and welcome to My Nature Notes.  There is nothing I love more than all the little wonders that surround us everyday.  To me, there is beauty everywhere in nature, even in places we wouldn't normally expect to find it.  Plants, animal, rocks, and all their parts are fascinating and worth learning about.

Since spring is now upon us, and I've been meaning to write more, this feels like the perfect time to begin this blog.  The South Saskatchewan is nearly free of ice and full of erratically swimming Corixids, and I have the fortune to live near enough some fields that the no-longer-hibernating ground squirrels frequent my back yard.  The grass is greening, the perennials are starting to show, and I can't wait to get out and search some native prairie for the crocus blossoms that can often be found this time of year in Saskatchewan.