haida_gwaii's Favorites

060313

Removed from nearly fishing pond by Osprey (one of the talon marks in upper left). This osprey visited nearly every day, and caught at least a couple (a couple times two at once that I witnessed), then followed the local deadens road navigating it's way home. Once in a while a fish would wriggle loose and fall on or next to the road (got to release one alive once).

Water mite, not terrestrial. Body 2 mm long excluding legs and covered in strong reticulations. Can't see any swimming hairs. Not sure about number of acetabula but I think several and small. Under side matches Panisus michaeli but not the upper side. Upper side matches Aturus scaber but not the underside. Any help, just family, would be welcome please. Could it be juvenile?

Bernardino Blue (Euphilotes bernardino)

13 June 2017
Buckman Springs Rest Area
Interstate 8 East
San Diego County, California

Nectaring on California Buckwheat which was in full bloom, several Bernardino Blues present...

Very high sunlight availability. Growing next to European high bush cranberry what looked like curly or clustered dock and lot of reed canary grass. Thorny, woody bush, roughly 7-8ft tall. Thorns seem to always come in pairs. Fruits are roughly grape-sized, with five sepals present at the tip. Sepals are persistent after fruit falls off. Some fruits are completely hairless, and some have sparse, thorn-like hairs. Fruits are yellow-green to bright orange to vibrant red. Fruits come in clusters of 3 or less. Leaves are pinnately compound with no more than 7 leaflets; sometimes, although rarely, leaves can be seen with 5 leaflets. Margins are serrated.

I'm going back to some of my earliest wildlife images. These are scans from old prints and slides.

This swallowtail was photographed at a park outside of Taipei, Taiwan in about June of 1969 (annotated as "Summer 1969" on back of original). Identified from this reference:

Shirozu, Takashi. 1960. Butterflies of Formosa in Colour. Hoikusha, Osaka, Japan.

The several pink lunules on the hindwing suggest that this is a female (op. cit., pl. 16, p. 51). In that work, the Taiwan population of this east Asian swallowtail is termed Papilio bianor kotoensis. The following website suggests that ssp is "often treated as a full species".
http://www.swallowtails.net/P_bianor.htm

Perennial, sprawling, scented, tomentose leaves, stems; 7 mature individuals, localized population; in disturbed Juncus/Typha riparian herbaceous area bordered by Salix-dominated riparian woodland bordered by a disturbed, bare eroded slope; approximately 30m from beach. Associated species: Salix spp, Typha, Juncus, Foeniculum, Eriogonum grande grande, Acmispon grandiflorus grandiflorus, Acmispon argophyllus argenteus, Nicotiana, Baccharis spp, Epilobium canum, Rhus, Malosma, Lysmachia arvensis, Dudleya hassei, Bromus, Heteromeles.

Photo of Virginia Opossum growling at me, taken 9 years ago. Only when I came upon it today did I notice that the possum is standing over a dead mole (below near bottom and left of center).

Getting bit by a possum might not be a much better than getting bit by a Komodo dragon in terms of bacteria that will be introduced to the wound. Possums are slow and are not all that picky regarding food sources.

Source: IMG_6428x