My first week back at work had proven to be fairly demanding, and I hadn't made it out in the field to take photos during the week, although I had briefly stopped for some more photos of the demolition of St. Mary's. Sunday the 19th was the first day I really made it back out.

There had been reports of a Baltimore Oriole and an American Redstart out at Grant Narrows Park, and I decided to go see if I could find them. The Oriole had been hanging out near the observation tower at the far end of the nature dyke, so when I got there I went directly to the path down the dyke.

I was walking fairly quickly, as I was a man on a mission. But I came to a screeching halt when I spotted a little orange critter crawling around on some leaves beside the trail. It had big yellow-and-black eyes and whip-like antennae as long as its body.

That critter turns out to be some sort of Ichneumon, which, depending on your perspective, is either a wasp or closely related to a wasp. These guys don't sting, and are a solitary rather than social animal (there are no big Ichneumon nests like wasp nests). The ichneumon pictured here is some sort of Short-tailed Ichneumon, but I don't know the exact species. Long-tailed Ichneumons have tails that are longer than their antennae.

When the ichneumon flew off, I headed on. A few minutes later, I found a Rufous Hummingbird perched on a bare branch near the trail. He posed for me for a while.

The redstart had been reported to be at a particular place on the nature dyke, and, despite looking carefully when I came to that place, I didn't find him. I made it out to the observation tower with no further encounters.

I climbed up the tower and took some photos of the acquatic plants growing in the adjacent slough. Here's my favorite shot of them, including some leaves floating on the surface of the water.

I like the way that shot simultaneously shows people from the top and from the side...that's the kind of cool stuff that you can do with a wide-angle but not with a telephoto.

And of course, wide-angle is also good for landscape. This is a shot to the southeast, from the tower.

The Baltimore Oriole is not a regular inhabitant or visitor here; the closest that it normally comes is east of the Rockies over in Alberta. This bird is an adult male. Our local oriole is the Bullock's Oriole, which, compared to the guy above, would have orange on the face and more white on the wings.

As the oriole continued its loud calling, it flew once or twice, and I eventually found myself on the sunward side of him with a little bit of a line of sight. Sadly, he never got to a place where I could get a photo that was completely unobscured by leaves.

After watching and listening to the oriole for a while, I moved on. There was a woodpecker working the area; I had first spotted him from the tower when he was foraging in the berry bushes near the base. I saw him there again after leaving the oriole, so I set up to see if I could get a good photo.

It turns out that my woodpecker had some pretty regular habits, and was returning to the base of the tower quite frequently. He also seemed fairly accustomed to people being around, and didn't have a problem with perching near me. Here he is, on one of the tower supports.

He flew over to the berry bushes for a little while, and then flew away; I suspect that he was gathering food for his children.

Right next to the base of the tower, I found a Potter Wasp. I like this photo because it shows the wasp's pedicel, which is the thin connector between its abdomen and thorax. It's amazing that they have two big parts like that connected by such a thin, fragile-looking thing.

I walked a little ways north, away from the nature dyke. I was a little shocked to notice a coworker of mine, Petra, coming down the trail with her two dogs. She was out of context for me; normally I see her in the halls at work. We chatted briefly, but she was intent on her walk and soon was on her way.

There were several dragonflies buzzing around and I decided to work on dragonfly photos for a while. I tried to get some flight photos, but just didn't seem to be able to get the camera focussed quickly enough and so I struck out there. I found a few dragonflies that had perched, though, such as this Skimmer that I can't identify.

The next dragonfly that I found, though, I could identify. It was a Four-spotted Skimmer. Not only that, but this skimmer reminded me of something that I learned as a child, but had forgotten: ladybugs taste good.

Although now I'd call them Ladybird Beetles, not ladybugs.

Here's a shot showing more of the markings of a Four-spotted Skimmer. It's named for the four spots at the front of each pair of wings. It also has a black triangular spot at the base of each hindwing.

After watching him disappear, I turned and headed back the way I came. The sapsucker flew past me one more time on my way back to the nature dyke.

I had almost made it back to the dyke when I stopped to shoot a Painted Lady that I had seen on the berry brambles. I got several interesting photos, including one of the lady in flight.

Vancouver is at the northern edge of this species' range.

I finally made it back to the dyke, but just a couple of minutes in I spotted a Western Tiger Swallowtail, our local tiger. He had his wings all spread out in the sun.

Nearby I found a red-eyed damselfly on a berry stalk. I couldn't get around the stalk for a shot from the other side.

Maybe the universe is trying to send me a message. What does it mean when insects start sticking their tongue out at you?

My next encounter was with bird with a sturdy bill. In the field, I saw only the bird's silhouette; I've brought up the dark parts quite a bit in Photoshop. There's enough detail here to show that the bird was a female Black-headed Grosbeak.

As I continued walking down the dyke, I occasionally saw a few fast, small, yellow birds flush from the bushes and trees beside me. Most of them were Yellow Warblers, and I got a few photos of them, but nothing that interesting.

However, one of those little yellow things wasn't quite a Yellow Warbler. At first I thought it was, but as I was scrambling to get a few photos of it, I noticed that a few things looked odd. Here's my bird.

It looks a lot like a Yellow Warbler, but that black line back from his bill to under his eye is strange. There also seems to be only a hint of red streaking around his "armpit", and his back and wings have a fair amount of grey on them. Those markings are not very Yellow Warbler-like.

Here's a shot of him from the front, which shows the underside of his tail. Undertail markings are often very helpful in identifying a bird.

But not this bird: that's just a typical Yellow Warbler undertail. I've shown my photos around, and had them looked at by experts, but nobody has identified this bird. It is most probably a hybrid warbler, a cross between a Yellow Warbler and something else, but no-one has figured out what the something else is. It's a biological mystery.

For comparison, here's a standard Yellow Warbler that I was able to catch a photo of later in my walk. Bright and happy little fellow, he is.

After that little bit of excitement, I almost forgot to check for the American Redstart on my way back. But I didn't forget, as a little plank bridge in the trail reminded me.; the bridge was near where the bird had been seen.

So I looked again for the redstart, with no luck. The only interesting thing I found in the area was a big mushroom up on a tree.

I really liked its shape for some reason.

It was now only a short walk back to the boat ramp and parking lot, but I saw a few more things on this last leg. There were a few Cedar Waxwings about, flying from tree to tree. Here I caught one curling his body into a crescent shape.

I don't know why that photo turned out so grainy, but it did.

Past the end of the trail, I found a couple of damselflies on a tree limb.

And then I caught a Spotted Towhee up in another tree. I like the towhee's bright red eyes.

I was pretty tired by this point and gratefully collapsed into my car and drank a bottle of water. I headed back towards home, but I stopped once when I spotted some swallows on a wire. One of them was a Cliff Swallow, and he was my first Cliff of the season.

I was happy to see him; I like Cliffs' coloration (and nest-building habits) and had been looking for them at several places lately. I'd heard reports of them being around, but it was nice to see with my own eyes.

Still puzzling over insect tongue,
Tom