On a Naturalists’ outing to the Mel Deanna Trail in mid-May we spotted this pair of Northern Alligator Lizards in a bite hold, motionless on a sun-warmed rock beside the trail. The male holds his mate, guarding her from other males for as long as two or three days. I uploaded a photo to iNaturalist. The app is great at identifying species of plants and animals, but also connects researchers around the world. Thirty minutes later, I received a message through the app from Greg Pauly, the Curator of Herpetology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. He’s been studying Alligator Lizard mating behavior for more than eight years. He said he was excited to see the post - he sees only one incident of Northern Alligator Lizard mating behaviour posted for every 10 or so of the ‘very urban’ Southern Alligator Lizards. If you have current or historical photos or video of Alligator Lizards in the bite hold, mating or wrestling, Greg would love to see them. Upload your images to iNaturalist, or send them to him directly at [email protected]. For more on his work, check out the project web page and video linked here: https://nhm.org/stories/look-out-amorous-alligator-lizards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtUFZMEt1Fw&fbclid= - Tarah Reesor, West Kootenay Naturalist
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Members of the West Kootenay Naturalist Association take care of 4 bluebird nestbox trails in the Castlegar area and others in the WKNA catch area such as in Rossland. Bluebirds are secondary cavity nesters, most often using holes made by woodpeckers. When dead trees with cavities are not available, they readily accept nestboxes. Nestboxes can increase their local numbers, help with their conservation and may have an advantage over natural cavities in decreasing predators due to the specific size of entrance hole or slot. Websites to check out for more information on bluebirds are https://www.bluebirds.org and https://www.sialis.org/monitoring.htm 2021 was a difficult year for bluebirds and other birds. First, fewer bluebirds arrived than usual. This was experienced on trails in a widespread area of Western Canada and United States. It is speculated that this was likely related to extreme weather conditions in their southern wintering grounds, such as in Texas and possibly due to food shortage. Nestling mortality was another huge issue. On my small trail of 12 nestboxes I experienced this in 2 out of 4 active Mountain Bluebird nests, although one pair went on to successfully fledge a second brood. Abandonment of nests with unhatched eggs and death of young birds was a common thread in reports from elsewhere, almost certainly because of the heat and drought. One report out of 100 Mile House stated that the first broods of bluebirds did well, fledging before the heat wave but many Tree Swallow nests were lost since the swallows fledge later. On the 4 trails around Castlegar we also had nests of Black-capped Chickadees, Tree Swallows and one pair of Violet-green Swallows. In the Champion Flats nestbox area, along with bluebirds and swallows, 4 boxes were occupied by Northern Flying Squirrels, up from 1 last year and 6 boxes were broken and /or raided by bears. This increase in bear activity and co-existence of flying squirrels, who are carnivorous, may well be a grave concern for the birds, but, as naturalists, we generally accept the ways of nature. The WKNA members involved with the bluebird trails believe that the provision, repair and maintenance of the nestboxes, plus cleaning out the old nests, is our most important concern. Monitoring involves closer, weekly or bi-weekly, checks on the progress of nesting birds and young. Detailed information such as number of eggs laid, young hatched and fledged of several species can be submitted at the end of the season to The British Columbia Nest Record Scheme, operating out of the Biodiversity Center for Wildlife Studies in Victoria. WKNA has a membership in the Southern Interior Bluebird Trail Society / SIBTS who forward our information onward. This membership also supplies us with much information via their newsletter The Nestbox, which our membership receives by email. Much of the material that I have shared came from there. Our local trails are maintained and checked with some frequency. We welcome anyone interested in doing more formal monitoring of the boxes on the Champion Flats trail. If this inspires you, please contact Paula Neilson at [email protected] - Paula Neilson, West Kootenay Naturalist
Hi All, Well, I did think this was a grasshopper until Peter W set me straight! Look at the huge antennae. It flew onto my Jeep driver window after a lovely Fall walk along the Mel DeAnna trail, in late September. But when I first saw the insect, it was totally brown. I thought that this grasshopper would blow off the window as I drove, and come to no harm. Then it quickly started to turn bright green, as I could see out of the corner of my eye, starting at the top of the back, spreading downwards onto the legs, taking no more than a couple of minutes. I could actually see the green move down the legs. It folded its rear legs over its wings as I accelerated to 90 km/h, but did not blow off the vehicle, moving its legs back into normal position as the speed dropped to 50 entering Castlegar. The sun was very bright and shining directly on the insect. I found both of these behaviors very interesting. A quick Google search seemed to imply that katydids come in different colours, with no mention of a change in colour. While I thought it was a grasshopper, I looked for reference to the change in colour and was directed to a scientific paper from Europe, where the researchers were aware of colour change in one species of grasshopper, but failed to observe it in the laboratory. Regarding the folding of the legs over the wings in a gale force wind, that is really remarkable. Somewhere in their history the ancestors must have lived in very windy places. The story has a happy ending, I think. The creature was still on my window when I parked the car only 2-3 km as the Katydid flies from the Mel D’Anna trail, but had disappeared an hour later. Of course one of my avian friends may have felt like eating greens for lunch. Who knows? - Peter McIver, West Kootenay Naturalist
Bluebirds are secondary cavity nesters, most often using holes made by woodpeckers. When dead trees with cavities are not available, they readily accept nestboxes. Providing and maintaining nestboxes increases their local numbers and helps in their conservation. Nestboxes may also have an advantage over other natural cavities in decreasing predators due to the specific size of entrance hole or slot and other accommodations that can be made. There are 4 Bluebird nestbox trails in the Castlegar area and others in the WKNA catch area, for instance in Rossland. The trails are being maintained and monitored by WKNA members. Maintenance includes repairing and ensuring the structural integrity of the boxes and cleaning out the old nests and debris after the nesting season / before the birds arrive in early spring. Monitoring involves more frequent checks on the progress of the nesting birds and young. Gratitude to Sarah Currie who managed a lot of these trails for the last 8 years. Sarah retired from this work this year, which marked a re-connection to the Southern Interior Bluebird Trail Society SIBTS, with our member Susan Spiller from Rossland taking out a membership for our club. This allows more detailed information such as number of young of which species hatched and /or fledged, to be collected and submitted at the end of the season. This info is sent to the British Columbia Nest Record Scheme, operating out of the Biodiversity Center for Wildlife Studies in Victoria. Membership in SIBTS includes “The Nestbox”, an informative newsletter sent to all our members via email. Websites to check out for more information on bluebirds are https://www.bcbluebirds.org and http://www.sialis.org/monitoring.htm Although WKNA's focus is on bluebirds, of course other cavity nesters use the boxes. This past summer we had Mountain and Western Bluebirds, Tree swallows, Black-capped Chickadees, and even flying squirrels. There was successful nesting and fledging of young from 7 Mountain Bluebird pairs, 3 Tree Swallow pairs, plus some Western Bluebirds and Black capped Chickadees. An eventful season. WKNA would appreciate volunteers to monitor one of the trails starting next spring. Two people working together could be the best since this beautiful area is a bit more remote with a rough access road. It can certainly be an enriching experience. If you are interested in this opportunity, or for more information, please contact Paula Neilson, [email protected]. - Paula Neilson and Susan Spiller, West Kootenay Naturalists
I was gently swinging in my hammock, minding my own business, when I felt some thing sweep its long spidery legs across the back of my neck. I brushed it off and away before I could see what it was, and a mighty stink instantly arose. Some say stink bugs stink of cilantro, but I quite like cilantro, thank you very much. This smelled nothing like that to me. No, this smelled like something foul and rotten, something like a garbage-poop-dead-thing fragrance spray. I held my breath and hoped it would pass like gas, but it persisted long enough that I gave up and went inside. The odour followed me right into the shower, but happily no further. I never saw the bug that skunked me and will never know what kind it was, though by its stench I can narrow it down to a few likely suspects, pictured above. These three bugs are native to BC. The Rough Stink Bug can be distinguished from the similar-looking invasive Brown Marmorated Stink Bug by the lack of big white bands around its antennae and by its spiny shoulder edges. The Western Conifer Seed Bug isn’t technically a stink bug (pentatomae), but if stinky is as stinky does, then this bug fits the description, leaf-footed (coreidae) or not. The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (not pictured) is invasive in BC and has been spotted throughout the province since about 2015. This is bad news, not least because of the damage they can cause agricultural crops. If you find one in BC (outside of Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, where they are known to be common), please send a picture of it to the Ministry of Agriculture (contacts and more information at https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/agriculture-seafood/animals-and-crops/plant-health/insects-and-plant-diseases/tree-fruits/brown-marmorated-stink-bug). - Tarah Reesor, West Kootenay Naturalist
Thanks to club member and entomologist Peter Wood for identifying this creature as an adult Square-headed Snakefly of the Inocelliidae family, found only in the USA and Western Canada. Its larvae are usually found under bark, and adults and larvae alike feed on soft-bodied insects.
You have until April 30 to be a part of BC's Moose Winter Tick Monitoring Program in 2019. If you've spotted a moose since New Years, the BC Wildlife Health Program wants to know how its coat was looking. This helps them know the extent of Winter Tick infestations among our local moose populations. Find the quick survey and more information here.
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West Kootenay Naturalists' AssociationTo know nature and keep it worth knowing. Archives
June 2023
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