North Coast Diaries
Oregon Tiger Beetle --- Sunday, August 15, 2010
The Oregon Tiger Beetle (Cicindela oregona) is a fairly common insect of open sandy places, especially on sunny summer days.
There are over twenty species of Tiger Beetles in Oregon, but oregona is by far the most common. It can be quite variable looking, averaging in color from almost purple to greenish-brown. On some individuals the a markings of the back are well defined. In others, barely visible. Some of this may be a trick of the light, some of it a function of the age or gender of the individual. 
They are remarkably fast both as runners and as fliers. They are very difficult to catch and are even a challenge to photograph with a long lens.
 Tiger Beetles are voracious predators that actively hunt other insects. This tiger is wrestling with a smaller Platycerus beetle. It eventually gave up trying to eat the smaller beetle, probably because the armor was too formidable. Over the course of a morning's investigations, I saw them catch ants and chase flies.
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Youngsters --- Thursday, August 5, 2010
While waiting for the temperature on Mt Hebo to climb high enough for proper butterfly counting weather, I happen upon a feeding flock that included some recently fledged individuals. All of the following are common breeding species in the Coast Range. All were photographed within a space of 10 minutes in the same clump of Saskatoon (and adjacent small snag). No ringers, rarities or hybrids.
How many can you ID?
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Cavalcade of Dipteran Pollinators --- Sunday, August 1, 2010
 When most folks talk about pollination they have a way of focusing on a single bug, and a non-native one at that, The European Honey Bee. We've all heard that bees are in trouble and if bees are in trouble then flowers are in trouble, because many plants depend on bees for reproductive success. It is absolutely true that bees (both Honey Bees and the plethora of native bumbles and such) are extremely important to the success of plants. The hymenoptera as a group have, arguably, made a greater commitment to flowers than any other insect group by linking most of their life-cycle to flowers, but there are lots of pollinators that are not bees even though some may bear a superficial resemblance to a bee. Many of these non-bee pollinators are flies. They depend on nectar, pollen and flower-parts for food (or prey on other insects that do) and in the process move pollen from flower to flower. They may not be quite as dedicated or efficient as a bee, but they get the job done.
And they are fun to look at.
Of course, dedication is a relative thing. Beeflies of the genus Bombylius have an impressively modified proboscis for sipping nectar. This one is dusted with Hypochaersis pollen.
Laphria is an ambush predator that uses its bumblebee disguise to appear inconspicuous as it sits on or near a flower waiting to eat other pollenators.
Tachinid flies are a large group many of which also mimic bumblebees (with varying degrees of success). They lay there eggs on the backs of caterpillars and are considered an important biological control on loopers and tussock moths. This one had been visiting daisies and the pollen visible on the wings is probably that species.
Another large group are the syrphid flies like this Hadromyia pulchra. Syrphids are often referred to collectively as flowerflies. This group includes many of the most bee-like flies both in appearance and pollinating efficiency.
If we all agree that pollination is important, we probably want to nurture as many kinds of pollinators as possible. This, in turn, means we should be very selective in our efforts to manage insects in and around our gardens and croplands. In trying to get rid of species we've defined as pests, we might also be eliminating species we need.
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I'm no expert... --- Sunday, July 18, 2010
The world is chock full of people who know stuff. Some people know more about some stuff than I do and some people know less about some stuff than me. Those people who believe I know more than them routinely tag me with the epithet "expert". I've never been comfortable with the term and I'm always a bit suspicious of folks who claim expertise. All too often a self-proclaimed expert is more interested in protecting his title than getting things right. As my friend David Copeland used to say, "an ex is a has-been, and a spurt is a drip under pressure." Jon Graves defines an expert as "somebody from out of town…"
Every day the holes in my knowledge base are exposed and I learn stuff. But sometimes I don't make it easy for those trying to help me fill in those gaps.
 Just this last week while mapping for native seed collection sites at Trestle Bay, I came across a flower I didn't recognize and snapped a picture of it. I figured there would be enough information in the photo to get the plant ID'd when I got home. I couldn't find it in any of my references so I sent a photo out to folks who know more stuff than me. They were baffled as well and quite rightly asked me for more information, but I had failed to 1) accurately record the location. 2) photograph the back of the flower. 3) put anything more than cursory effort in finding any leaves.
Sometimes a photograph is worth a thousand words. Sometimes a photograph only complicates things. Nothing beats thorough documentation. Opinions were all over the place… rare Cinquefoil? odd Ranunculus? out of range Hypericum?
None of these was quite right. So I arranged to go back to the site, bringing along with me Kathleen Sayce who falls solidly into the category "knows more than me" when it comes to most things botanical. With some effort we relocated the flower in question and Kathleen almost instantly recognized that I'd called sepals petals and bracts sepals. The photograph simply did not contain enough information to get us where we needed to be. We were looking at a well-past-bloom Pacific Silverweed flower minus all the petals. Pacific Silverweed is a common species and one that I thought I knew pretty well before today.
We often forget that photographs do not represent a thing in three dimensions, and that they don't always properly represent scale or color or proportion. Nothing beats good old fashioned field work, and nothing is more valuable than having good, local people around who know more than you who are willing to help get those holes plugged.
Related commentary: When bad photos happen to good birds
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Dispatches from the Love Boat: Coda --- Saturday, July 3, 2010
We're back home, safe and sound... I've spent the afternoon tallying things up with the following results:
Total Bird Species: 62 (one life bird - Kittlitz's Murrelet)
Total Mammal Species: 9 (two life mammals - Brown Bear and Mountain Goat)
Total Boat-miles traveled: 2328mi (3745km)
Total Train-miles traveled: 41mi (65.6km)
Total Tour-bus-miles traveled: 32mi (51.2km)
Total walking miles (not counting laps around the Promenade): less than 10mi
Cost per person per mile (excluding T-shirts, etc. and the bar-tab): $0.59
Cost per person per bird seen: $22.00
The sharp-eyed among you will notice that I have lumped my crows. Those in Seattle Harbor were most probably hesperis-type and the ones in Alaska were (cough) caurinus-type. The individual that met us on the boat at Juneau certainly did seem to have more "ravenesque" nasal feathering and an arguably more raspy call, but it was otherwise not all that different looking than a small-end Clatsop County crow.
The HERMIT THRUSH was a heard only individual which remained "Catharus species" until I could get home and listen to some recordings.
I saw several (5+) KITTLITZ'S MURRELETS at Glacier Bay along with 100+ MARBLED MURRELETS. Those I called Kittlitz's were a distinctive buffy, golden brown and stood out in comparison to the always dark-chocolate Marbled Murrelets.
We are going with ALASKAN BROWN BEAR (Ursus arctos horribilis) in part because that's what the spotter on the bridge told us. The photos I got, which are barely record quality, seem to show brown individual with a good sized hump at the shoulder which is consistent with that identification.
Bird List:
| White-winged Scoter |
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California Gull |
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Common Raven |
| Common Merganser |
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Herring Gull |
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Tree Swallow |
| Red-throated Loon |
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Thayer's Gull |
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Violet-green Swallow |
| Pacific Loon |
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Glaucous-winged Gull |
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Barn Swallow |
| Common Loon |
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Black-legged Kittiwake |
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Chestnut-backed Chickadee |
| Black-footed Albatross |
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Caspian Tern |
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Bushtit |
| Northern Fulmar |
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Arctic Tern |
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Winter Wren |
| Pink-footed Shearwater |
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Common Murre |
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Golden-crowned Kinglet |
| Buller's Shearwater |
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Pigeon Guillemot |
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Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
| Sooty Shearwater |
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Kittlitz's Murrelet |
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Swainson's Thrush |
| Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel |
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Marbled Murrelet |
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Hermit Thrush |
| Leach's Storm-Petrel |
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Cassin's Auklet |
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American Robin |
| Pelagic Cormorant |
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Rhinoceros Auklet |
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European Starling |
| Great Blue Heron |
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Tufted Puffin |
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Orange-crowned Warbler |
| Bald Eagle |
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Rock Pigeon |
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Yellow Warbler |
| Spotted Sandpiper |
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Rufous Hummingbird |
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Yellow-rumped Warbler |
| Wandering Tattler |
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Belted Kingfisher |
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Song Sparrow |
| Red-necked Phalarope |
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Downy Woodpecker |
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Dark-eyed Junco |
| South Polar Skua |
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Pacific-slope Flycatcher |
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Pine Siskin |
| Bonaparte's Gull |
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Steller's Jay |
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House Sparrow |
| Mew Gull |
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American Crow |
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Mammal List:
Gray Whale
Humpbacked Whale
Harbor Porpoise
Dall's Porpoise
Steller's Sealion
Harbor Seal
Sea Otter
Alaskan Brown Bear
Mountain Goat
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Dispatches from the Love Boat: Day Six --- Saturday, July 3, 2010
We spent most of today at sea heading back south. The weather was way too sunny and nice for proper sea-watching and overall numbers were far less impressive than they were northbound. I saw only one LEACH'S STORM-PETREL and FORK-TAILED numbers were patchier. I managed a better BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS photo, however.
The lack of shearwaters on this trip has been puzzling especially given the NORTHERN FULMAR numbers. I finally started seeing them today as we entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I saw three BULLER'S SHEARWATERS early on, followed by decent numbers of PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATERS. Finally, I started seeing SOOTY SHEARWATERS, though at densities considerably smaller than the swarms we get at the mouth of the Columbia River. I also saw a good sized flock of RED-NECKED PHALAROPE in a spot of water covered in flotsam.
The most interesting bit of observation for the afternoon was the Orca that wasn't...
I saw a pod of what I thought were DALL'S PORPOISES off the port side upper deck and called them that, snapping a mess of pictures hpoing to catch one out of the water. I went down to the Promenade Deck to get closer to the action. It took only a few minutes. I met a man there who said he'd just seen a pod of Orcas and described them reasonably well. Later, when going through my shots, I found one photo...
For about 24 hours, I let my self believe that I'd been mistaken and the pod I'd seen were Orcas (which I really, really wanted to see). But in the harsh light of my reference library, I can see that these were Dall's Porpoises and I will have to continue to watch for Orcas...
Spent the evening in Victoria, BC. Just enough time for the Natural History Museum and some street music before getting back to the Love Boat for the return to Seattle.
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Dispatches from the Love Boat: Day Five --- Friday, July 2, 2010
 Our last extended stop of the voyage was in Ketchikan and it's a pity we didn't have more time here (a scant 4hrs). We spent our time along the well marked walking tour that took us along Ketchikan Creek. 
The salmon in Ketchikan are so plentiful that they decorate the streets with them.
On the way out, the skies cleared and I put the polarizing filter on my camera lens. I've looked at clouds from both sides now….
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Dispatches from the Love Boat: Day Four --- Friday, July 2, 2010
Dispatches from the Love Boat: Day Three --- Tuesday, June 29, 2010
We woke up this morning in Skagway and the first bird of the day was a RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD that buzzed the boat. Most of the day was devoted to taking the train up White Pass. This is a narrow gauge system that was first built to ferry supplies to the interior back in the gold mining days. Now it's all about tourism (and I mean that in a good way).
The problem for the eco-tourist is that the train is too loud and scares everything away and there are no stops to get out and look for stuff, so the only birds I saw on the trip were a SPOTTED SANDPIPER early on and nesting WANDERING TATTLERS in the big lake at the pass...
We spent the afternoon panning for gold and browsing the quilt shops.
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Dispatches from the Love Boat: Day Two --- Monday, June 28, 2010
Today started out all scenery and HUMPBACKED WHALES.
And turned into a touristy day of visits to points of interest around Juneau that included CROWS that don't actually exist, RAVENS that think they're pigeons and singing RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS.
Until we got to the Mendenhall Glacier where finally found some proper Alaskan species. 
 Those would be MOUNTAIN GOATS up on the grassy part of the hillside to the left of center
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Dispatches from the Love Boat: Day One --- Sunday, June 27, 2010
We are on a cruise headed for Glacier Bay and other South Alaska ports. We left yesterday under surprisingly sunny skies. Not many birds though.
This morning was a bit different. The sky was gray. The seas were choppy. Just the kind of day for sea-watching...
First bird of the day was a FORK-TAILED STORM-PETREL followed quickly by LEACH'S STORM-PETREL and BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS. By mid-morning, I was seeing storm-petrels everywhere. Alcids include TUFTED PUFFIN, CASSIN'S AUKLET and a few RHINOCEROS AUKLETS. The big surpise was a SOUTH POLAR SKUA that buzzed the boat in late afternoon.
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You don't see this much, anymore... --- Saturday, June 12, 2010
I was walking down the road at one of my favorite butterfly spots on Beneke Creek today when I thought I heard the sound of rushing water from an unusual place up the way. As I got closer, I realized it wasn't water.
It's been a while since I've stumbled upon a wild Honey Bee nest. Wild bees have been hit especially hard by all the diseases and mystery maladies and hives just don't seem as easy to find as they were when I was a youngster.
 Wild hives like this may be a sign that natural selection is still in charge and some bees are developing resistance to the recent suite of troubles that have befallen this important pollinator.
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Rufous Hummingbird nest --- Thursday, June 3, 2010
While doing bird surveys this morning, I flushed a RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD from a blackberry thicket. Coming out along the same trail, I flushed it again from the same spot. Careful examinations yielded...
I don't find hummingbird nests very often, because they're usually cagier than this. The nest was less than a meter off the ground in the blackberry patch. Well concealed, but remarkably close to the ground and right on a well used game trail. See if you can spot it.
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A flock of kingbirds --- Sunday, May 30, 2010
The WESTERN KINGBIRD is an annual migrant along the North Coast, but never common.
These are insect eaters of the interior West, that like the open spaces of the Great Basin. Generally, we expect to see one or two birds in May as they're passing through, usually sitting alone on a fence wire or powerline. And if you miss them in migration, you wait until the next season.
Today I saw four kingbirds, all sitting on the same wire...
It's been a weird season, with way cooler than normal temperatures and lots rain. One is tempted to blame any out of the ordinary event on the weather this year, but it is the season for moving birds. We're never surprised by flocks of tanagers or flocks of warblers or even flocks of smaller flycatchers. Why should kingbirds be any different?
Sometimes it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
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A change of strategy --- Saturday, May 29, 2010
Most organisms have survival strategies and behaviors that give each a competitive edge or at least the ability to co-exist within an ecosystem. When we think of woodpeckers, we think of the behavioral strategy of drilling into tree trunks for insects. But pecking holes is a labor intensive, high energy endeavor and it's not always necessary.
 This RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER is not doing any drilling. It doesn't need to. The young Cascara tree that it's on is crawling with WESTERN THATCH ANTS. Many of which you a can see on the under leaves of the next picture.
 These ants may be tending aphids or psyllids. They may just be hunting. In any case, they're easy pickings for the sapsucker.
Woodpeckers may have a competitive advantage in gaining access to tasty critters underneath the bark of trees, but sometimes the better strategy is to take advantage of a resource that requires less work.
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Aw, isn't that cute? --- Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Wiffles and pewees --- Sunday, May 23, 2010
We are deep into the third week of Spring migration and, as is so often the case, birds we rarely get to see most of the time are turning up in our back yards. This year a bird that many folks are seeing is the WESTERN WOOD PEWEE. This is a bird that is routinely mistaken for one of two other regularly occurring flycatchers: the WILLOW FLYCATCHER and the OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER.
Willow Flycatchers (and any other Empidonax-type flycatcher) can be sorted from pewee by looking at the degree to which the primaries project past the secondaries
 Note that the longest primary in the folded wing projects out to a distance which in noticeably less than the length of the exposed secondaries. In pewees, that projection is always as long or longer than the exposed secondaries.
 In most cases, there are several features that can be used to sort pewees from olive-sides, but every once in a while you get an olive-sided that's sitting in a way that hides the vest and the tail-lights.
 In cases like this, the primary projection can be compared to the length of the tail. In Olive-sided Flycatcher, the tail is short, relative to the primary projection (they also typically look big-headed). Pewees look longer tailed relative to the primary projection.
So, when you sit down with your killer shots of unknown flycatchers, the first set of field marks to check on are those ratios between the primary projection and secondaries and tail.
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Your camera as a spotting scope --- Wednesday, May 19, 2010
I managed to leave the house on my morning constitutional today with a camera, but no binoculars....
For the most part, this isn't all that big a deal. Most of what goes on the day-list on a given trip to Coxcomb Hill comes from bird-listening rather than bird-watching, but there was a conspicuous treetop migration going on today. Many of the birds on the move were not all that talkative. Luckily, one of the advantages of a digital camera is the photo screen that can be zoomed. Snap a picture, zoom the bird up on the screen, get an ID.
Here are "zoomed" photos showing examples of the two most conspicuous migrant species on the hill today. See if you can figure them out.
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This Morning on Coxcomb Hill --- Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The eagle and the raven --- Sunday, May 9, 2010
While out on Wireless Rd the other day, I noticed this critter...
He was eating something that had the local ravens very interested as well. Between the ravens and me he was feeling a bit uncomfortable and, so, picked up his treasure and flew a bit further into the field.
That may have solved his problems with me, but it didn't deter the ravens any...
Those of you trying to figure out what form of protein the eagle was eating should note the tail which makes an otherwise amorphous blob identifiable.
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Townsend's Solitaire
Black-headed Grosbeak
Black-throated Gray Warbler
