Readers’ wildlife photographs

February 11, 2015 • 7:30 am
We have arthropods and birds today. First, some caterpillars shot by reader Ken Phelps on Vancouver Island (I don’t know the species, but perhaps some readers do):
A bit of a leonine look to this guy:
image-2
image-1
 image-1
Recurring theme on B.C. coast:  a raindrop. Interesting reminder of how different it is to live at the scale where surface tension can be more important than gravity.
image-3
 Spanning a couple gear teeth on the inevitable (for Vancouver Island) piece of rusted logging equipment.
image
Diana MacPherson sent three bird photos which, as usual, she’s anthropomorphized:
Here are some photos of three different birds. The dove would creep out anyone afraid of birds as there were a bunch sitting on the deck and barbecue during Monday’s snow storm. I think the black of the cover on the barbecue was warm but the way the birds look at you suspiciously would unnerve an ornithophobe (here I picture only one among many).
A Suspicious Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura):
270A1550-2
This chickadee picture isn’t so good but I’ve never seen the bottom side of a chickadee before and the markings are interesting—he looks like he has a seam! I also like how he is so fluffy in the wind and that he is swinging by that one spindly leg!
Black Capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) Hangs by One Foot:
270A1522
I like the expression on this nuthatch’s face. Very much appears to sternly warn other birds that this is his fat!
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) Looks for Those That Would Steal His Fat:
270A1595

38 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photographs”

      1. The guy in the first couple pictures was wandering around on a porch-climbing Clematis (I think it was) while hordes of his fellows were utterly enveloping an apple tree a few feet away. Taken on Thetis Island.

        The swarm and the one on the gear were in Ladysmith.

        1. I found this USDA pamphlet as a pdf on the nanaimo.ca website.

          It isn’t restricted to the Island and is found on the Lower Mainland and here on the Sunshine Coast. It is Malacosoma californicum pluviale, a subspecies.

          2. …oops. pluviale, not pluvialis. The former is commonly known as the Western Tent caterpillar while the latter has the common name of the Northern Tent caterpillar.

      1. Your wiki link says M. castrense is European, so probably not. Recent invasive is always possible, though.

    2. And the one demonstrating surface tension has put a certain song by Burt Bacharach and BJ Thomas in my brain. But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turnin’ red.

  6. Many of the same birds we have here in southwest Iowa. I believe most of our nuthatches are the white breasted. Years ago they had a season on Doves but hopefully that is long gone.

  7. We would have regular outbreaks of forest tent caterpillars in northern Ontario (IIRC, they’re on a seven year cycle for outbreaks). My rural relatives would literally sweep the sides of their houses to keep them at bay, and it sounded like rain sprinkles when you were walking in the woods from all the frass falling down.

    And then a few months later, you would see several hundred nondescript brown moths at every single street light.

    2. The outbreaks are a classic fox and rabbit predator-prey cycle. There are several parasites, including wasps and viruses that ultimately outbreed and out eat their caterpillar food source.

  8. I think the caterpillar may be that of the Gypsy moth (Gypsy moth). The more mature larvae have spots that are brick red, which makes me suspect that. I am not absolutely sure since the tent caterpillars can be similar.
    But.. if they are you are welcome to squish ’em.

    1. That would be cause for serious concern, because an eradication program is in place to eliminate occurrences of Gypsy Moths in BC. Last year 214 adults were recorded, sharply up from previous years, according to the BC Forestry page. So far the moth has never been able to establish itself permanently in BC.

      Your link shows an entirely different life history for Gypsy moths compared to Western Tent Caterpillars. Note how the M. californicum egg masses are wrapped around a twig to lie in wait for new buds in the spring and how the tent is thick and compact. L. dispar leaves the hatching site individually on single threads contrary to the communal living of the tent caterpillars.

  9. Chickadees Or Tits as we call them in the UK DO have a crease like all birds. Their feathers do not cover all their skin area.
    The gap looks blacker because the fluffier parts of the body feathers are showing.
    When incubating they make use of this to snuggle their eggs up inside their feathers up against their incubation patch an area of skin with much increased blood supply.

    Ps Tit is a shortening of the old Titmice , interesting because the German is Meise also I guess a shortening.

  11. Vancouver Island is a terrible place to live. People should stop coming here.
    Plus, it’s infested with Western Tent caterpillars.
    They may even be carnivorous, stripping humans in just a day. Perhaps.

    Very nice pictures Ken, Diana. My favourite one is the first one of each set.

    1. You forgot to mention the bears and cougars. And the retirees. I hate it when they go feral.

    2. Ha ha a friend in Victoria keeps posting cherry blossom and other flower pictures to his FB page. He is from Ontario so he’s bragging to us. Pretty soon I’m going to take a picture of a snow bank and tag him in it.

  12. I’ve been back to look at the water drop caterpillar several times now, it’s a very cool photo!

    Mourning doves do tend to have a perpetually startled expression. They have very squeaky wings too, I often hear them flapping before I see them.

    Nice pics!

  14. Interesting reminder of how different it is to live at the scale where surface tension can be more important than gravity

    I recall an SF short story (novella, novellette?) by thatt prolific author I Forget about a species trying to break through the S.T. barrier. There was a framing story of a crash-landed Human “survey team” who genetically engineered the local biota when they realised they were, effectively, dead. But the struggles of the human-analogues to break through surface tension was the story.
    Classic!

  15. Sweet caterpillar pictures! That raindrop looks almost like a drop of mercury.

    Diana, the composition in that dove photo is extra good!

Comments are closed.