Chasing Achievements

On the subject of Bruce Trail badges, a few of the other clubs have also started offering naturalist-themed badges, and I've already taken advantage of two of them. The Toronto club's "biodiversity naturalist" badge requires a certain number of observations from various categories (birds, trees, wildflowers, mushrooms, etc.) found within the Toronto section of trail. I spent some time in and around Hilton Falls Conservation Area this spring and managed to check off that list without too much trouble; it was a really good spring for wildflowers and other plants. The Caledon club's "citizen scientist" badge, in comparison, requires 100 different species reported to the BTC's iNaturalist project but they can be anything from anywhere along the entire trail, not just the Caledon club section. So between the stuff from Toronto for the other badge, a bunch of older observations that I logged during past hikes, and some extra photos taken during field work down in Burlington this year, I managed to get that one too.

The Peninsula section also has some really great bird, fern, and orchid badges that I covet, but that section's far enough away that I haven't managed to go for them yet.

On the subject of iNaturalist, though, let me take the opportunity to evangelize for them yet again. It's such a great platform and resource for identifying and tracking species, do recommend if you haven't already got it and you spend any time outdoors. I love looking at projects like the BTC's, where they've collected so many observations from people on the trail that you can call up the map and see exactly where the trail is based on where all of the little dots are - an entire trail system marked out based on what people have seen and photographed as they passed by. Harnessing the power of people's curiousity to collect invaluable information on the world around us. Encouraging people to slow down, take a look, and appreciate the vast variety of life around them. What are you waiting for?

Dragon Hunting

This year, for the first time since pre-pandemic, I was able to take part in the Hamilton Ode Count. Fortuitously, I ended up being assigned to the location I've been trying to get to for a few years now, in order to see (some of) the very species that I ended up seeing.

Amber-winged Spreadwing (Lestes eurinus)

I didn't realize what I had on this one until later when I was sorting my photos. I knew it was a spreadwing, but I wasn't able to net one so I thought I'd be hooped without a close-up of the cerci to ID from. But those wings are unmistakable, and in retrospect I do remember thinking that it was just big for a spreadwing, way too big to be a Slender Spreadwing even though it did seem proportionally thinner through the abdomen than others in that group.

Dusky Dancer (Argia translata)

Sadly did not photograph all that well, but there are small rings of bright blue on the abdomen that serve to ID it as Dusky along with the overall dark colouration. Very cool species.

Rainbow Bluet (Enallagma antennatum)

A female, lovely lime-green overall with yellow-orange face and legs, and blueish post-ocular spots. Thought it was a female forktail at first, since it was about the right size and I'd seen many forktails flying around already that day, but something just didn't seem right about it, so I'm glad I followed my instincts and snagged it for a closer look.

Odes are just great, you guys. I still have vague thoughts at trying to start an actual ode survey for my home county to feed into a local rarity ranking system, but that is such a huge thing to consider that I'm still too intimidated.

Yet Another Rabbithole

So lately I've been going down the mushroom rabbithole - I blame the Bruce Trail and their shiny, shiny badges, because Beaver Valley released a 'mushroom hunter' badge that is gorgeous and I need it like burning. So clearly I needed to practice mushrooms, which led to reading about mushrooms and photographing mushrooms....

Yeah.

Goblet Waxcaps (Hygrocybe cantharellus)

Mushrooms are... frustrating, so far, in many ways. I've been spoiled by birds and butterflies and dragonflies and wildflowers, which are all (relatively) big showy things with (sometimes) big identifiable field marks and (mostly) easily accessible and comprehensive field guides. Mushrooms... are not those things. There are so very many of them, and a lot of them look the same, and identification frequently comes down to putting things under a microscope and even then apparently sometimes it just doesn't work out for a variety of reasons. There are generic mushroom field guides available, sure, but after picking through a few of them trying to work out an ID, I'm not convinced they're actually functional considering how many species have to get left out in order not to have a massive three-volume tome. And there's an entire new language of technical terms to learn in order to know what they're talking about half the time.

So yeah, here's me, overconfident, thinking I'll just wander around with my camera and pick it up no problem. I know that you have to flip over the cap and see what the gills (or pores, or lack thereof) look like, I know you should take note of what the habitat is and what they're growing on. Surely that's got to be enough to start from, right?

?????

Sigh.

I am getting a little better. I haven't tried doing a spore print yet, although it's probably only a matter of time, for curiousity's sake if nothing else. I... am not sure I will ever get to the point where I want to collect a bunch and put them under a microscope, but hey, never say never, there was a point where I didn't think I'd ever be as much of a birder as I am now, either. Anything is possible.

At the very least, I'm gonna get that badge. And then we'll see.

Violet-toothed Polypore (Trichaptum biforme) with Fairy Pins (Phaeocalicium polyporaeum, technically a lichen but whatever; they're the tiny black bips growing on the top of the cap)

Oak Mazegill (Fomitopsis quercina)

Ontario's Native Tarantula

Alright, I'm probably going to do like three posts in a row here, because apparently I only remember I have a nature blog once a year and need to catch up.

We'll start out quick and simple by saying: look at this cool spider that I found.

Black Purseweb (Sphodros niger)

I was doing a bird survey and noticed this black thing trundling its way across the road nearby. Decided to go have a quick look, snapped a few photos, thought it looked pretty weird but, well, I had birds to count so I kind of put it out of my mind until later.

Apparently little buddy here is Ontario's only native tarantula - or, well, as close as we get to one. It's in the same general genetic grouping as tarantulas. It was about the size of a nickel, maybe, and certainly moved in a way reminiscent of its bigger tropical cousins in the way that the legs flexed, so I can see it. They're considered rare in Ontario, but it's suspected that's because they live underground and the only time humans notice them is when the males go wandering around in search of mates for a brief period in the middle of the summer - something that I just happened to stumble upon.

I still have a touchy relationship with spiders, if I'm being honest. Most of the time these days, I can appreciate spiders out in the wild the way I would any other bug, as something to study and be curious about but ultimately leave to their own devices. If they're in my home, then the story is likely to be different, but luckily that is unlikely to ever be an issue for these guys.