by ajblake
on May 8, 2014
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Common Dandelion
Taraxacum officinale, Asteraceae
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Olympus E-PM1, Customized 35mm Lens, Baader U-Filter
f/10, 1/40 sec, ISO 1600, No Flash
April 30, 2014
This week I have a UV photograph taken with our lab’s new camera that has been modified for greater sensitivity in the UV and infrared. We purchased our complete camera system from Dr. Klaus Schmitt, a truly accomplished UV photographer. I chose this Dandelion for the picture because like many flowers in the Asteraceae they show a pronounced ‘bulls-eye’ pattern with a UV-dark center.
I am really blown away with the UV sensitivity of this new camera system. It is sensitive enough in the UV to allow for handheld shots (like the one above) using only sunlight for illumination. This is a welcome change from previous UV camera systems I’ve used which required long exposures with a tripod or strong UV flashes. I’m still experimenting with color processing the images. You can see the image with the original colours by mousing over the image.
by ajblake
on May 4, 2014
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White-throated Magpie-Jay
Calocitta formosa, Corvidae
Sendero Colada 1968, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Nikon D5100, 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6
February 7, 2012
For various reasons I haven’t been out photographing in a while, so enjoy another photo from Costa Rica. This Jay reminded Sara of a saloon girl and for the rest of the trip she referred to it as a tarted up Blue Jay.
by ajblake
on April 27, 2014
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Bejuco picado
Gurania makoyana, Cucurbitaceae
Arenal Observatory Lodge, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Nikon D5100, 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6
February 6, 2012
One more late post, hope to catch up next week. This weeks photo is a showy vine from our trip to Costa Rica. I was surprised to find that this vine is actually related to cucumber and melons and not surprisingly has bitter pickle sized fruits. These fruits have been used for medicinal purposes and Bejuco actually refers to many central american vines with reputed curative properties.
by ajblake
on April 18, 2014
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Audubon’s Warbler – ♂
Setophaga coronata auduboni, Parulidae
Colony Farm Regional Park, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada
Nikon D5100, 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6
April 7, 2014
Sorry for the late post. As an apology enjoy this harbinger of spring. Audubon and Myrtle warblers are the two subspecies of the Yellow-rumped Warbler. Yellow-rumped warblers are both one of the earliest arriving and latest departing warblers in North America making them a great indicator of the change of seasons.
by ajblake
on April 6, 2014
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Beach Hopper
Iona Beach Regional Park, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
Nikon D5100, 105 mm f/2.8
March 9, 2014
We have another photo from my last trip to Iona Island this week. It was on that trip that I learned about the hopping and burrowing habits of some amphipods known as beach hoppers. As an Albertan I had naively assumed amphipods were all aquatic but there are in fact many terrestrial amphipods in damp habitats. I’m not positive on the ID but it closely resembles this photo of a California Beach Hopper (Megalorchestia californiana).
by ajblake
on April 1, 2014
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Figure 1 The number of bird species observed by year, the number of lifers (species not previously observed) by year, and the number of checklists submitted by year. The number of checklists is a measure of effort. One checklist includes all bird observations from a specific location at a specific date and time. This graph includes only North American observations and omits a two week trip to Costa Rica in 2012.
Well, this post was supposed to be up in early January and now it’s the end of March, but I really wanted to have some bird lists up when I posted this. I’m going to blame candidacy exam preparations and a steep learning curve when it came to parsing my data from ebird. I do finally, after more than a year, have some active links to birding lists in the menu above. The process is still very kludgy, is not live updating, and for the maps involves a pipeline shunting the data from excel to R to a csv to kml converter and then through google earth. Not in any way ideal but better than nothing till I learn more mySQL. Now we move from excuses and nerdy programing minutia to nerdy birdwatching minutia, buckle up!
[click to continue…]
by ajblake
on March 30, 2014
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Carabid Beetle
Bembidion tetracolum, Carabidae
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Nikon D5100, 105 mm f/2.8
March 21, 2014
This week’s photo is of the speedy little (7-8 mm) beetle, Bembidion tetracolum, I captured in the annex. I was able to use Alex Wild’s time out trick to get him to hold still long enough a few photos. The genus Bembidion is huge with over 1200 species worldwide with this diversity concentrated in temperate parts of the globe. Thanks to v belov and D.R. Maddison at BugGuide for the timely ID.
by ajblake
on March 24, 2014
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Wolf Spider – ♀
Arctosa perita, Lycosidae
Iona Beach Regional Park, Richmond
British Columbia, Canada
Nikon D5100, 105 mm f/2.8
March 9, 2014
A few weeks back I took a trip out to Iona Beech to look for the Tufted Duck that had been reported from the sewage ponds. Since it was a beautiful sunny day, I also took some time with my macro lens to photographing some of newly emerged arthropods.I found this female wolf spider hunting among the beach logs. I have this spider up at BugGuide if you can help me with the genus.
by ajblake
on March 17, 2014
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Snow Sedge
Psychoglypha sp., Limnephilidae
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Nikon D5100, 105 mm f/2.8
February 16, 2014
This hapless caddisfly blundered into my cage lighting down in the annex before I captured and photographed her (the 5 segmented maxillary palps makes this Limnephilid a female). I’m still waiting on confirmation of the genus on BugGuide but this caddisfly certainly seems consistent with Psychoglypha. I have a few more shots on BugGuide if anyone can help with an identification.
With this caddisfly I have observed 8 different insect orders down in the science research annex. It’s surprising what you can see when you spend enough time observing in one place, even if that place is a series of tiny windowless rooms. You can see some photos of the other orders here.
by ajblake
on March 12, 2014
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Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Tigrisoma mexicanum, Ardeidae
Parque Nacional Tortuguero, Limón, Costa Rica
Nikon D5100, 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6
February 3, 2012
Another late post and this time without a good excuse. Next photo of the week this Sunday for sure. That being said please enjoy this beautiful Bare-throated Tiger-Heron from Sara’s and my honeymoon trip to Costa Rica. We saw this male displaying on a buttress root for a female as we rounded a bend in the canal. Our eager suitor was kind enough to pose for photos as our boat approached. I really like how the yellow throat of the heron picks up on the yellow lettering of the signs in the background. This is definitely one of my favourite shots from the trip.
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