| Photojournal
- 24
July 2006
B
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The 24th of July was
a Monday and I had an appointment with my chiropractor in Abbotsford
around noon. I had taken my camera with me, and so I decided to
drive a "scenic" route back home rather than take the
highway. I pointed my car south and a few roads past the highway,
turned west. (One can't go too much further south from the highway
without encountering an international border.)
Driving west, I didn't
happen upon anything too photogenic until I came up to Campbell
Valley Park. There, in a field that's used for riding horses,
I found a scattering of bales. Unfortunately, there wasn't a place
to pull off the road nearby, so I turned around, parked on a side
road, and walked a few hundred meters to get a good viewpoint.
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| During my
walk I noticed a bottle of wine by the side of the road. On my way
back to the car I photographed it. It was Peller Estates Proprietor's
Reserve. Wine from Port Moody. |
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Unfortunately, the
bottle was empty. I had visions of cowboys driving their pickup
trucks down this south Langley road, drinking wine, hootin' and
hollerin'.
Seemed like the wrong
beverage container to find at the side of the road. Oh, well.
I made it back to my
car and decided to stop by the non-equestrian side of the park.
Once there, I headed towards the pond near the parking lot. Once
I had been to this park, about two years ago, and found a frog
in that pond. I was hoping to maybe find another one. I don't
have many frog photos.
Well, the first guy
I discovered there was this bee. He's a bee in the genus Anthidium.
It turns out that there's a moderately-well-known invasive
species of bee, the Wool Carder Bee, in Anthidium (A.
manicatum). The Wool Carder Bee was introduced on the east
coast in the 1980's and has slowly been working its way westward;
it's been reported as far west as Denver, Colorado.
Back east, they don't
have too many native Anthidium species, so when they see
a bee like this, it's often a Wool Carder. But out here on the
west coast, we have lots of native Anthidium bees, and
this is almost certainly one of those. It's nice to know that
this guy's no invader.
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| After a
brief time with the bee, I had a look at the pond. It turns out
that I was in luck; not only did I find a frog there, but the pond
was almost coated in them. There were frogs whereever I looked.
And they were big frogs. |
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| They were
hanging out with the lily pads, just like frogs are supposed to
do. |
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I took a lot of frog photos. Their
eyes fascinated me. The sun was coming through some trees, leaving
spots of light and dark that would sometimes highlight a frog,
and sometimes hide them.
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| There were
a few smaller ones around, too. They were obviously the same species,
just younger, with that radiant youthful glow and a hint of mischief
in their eyes. |
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| If I got
too close, the frogs would sproing away into the water, so I quickly
learned what the comfort zone of a frog is. Much like birds, I was
able to get closer by sitting down (making myself less tall) and
moving slowly. I wasn't prepared to get wet, so I didn't get that
close, anyhow. |
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As you can see in the
photo below, these frogs have no sharp ridges down their backs.
Many types of frogs have these ridges, and if you find a big frog
without 'em (at least in this area), it's a Bullfrog. All the
frogs on the pond were Bullfrogs.
Hopefully that explains
the title of this entry. You didn't think it meant something else,
did you? After all, I run a wholesome, family-oriented photojournal.
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| I left the
pond for a while to check out some flowers next to a building nearby.
The flowers must've been putting off quite a scent, because there
were several different types of bees nectaring on them. One of the
bees, a Bumble Bee of some sort, was a much more vivid yellow than
the others; it stood out like a sore thumb. Here's a picture of
that bee with another, more sedately colored, Bumble. |
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| I took several
shots of the very yellow bee, but I've yet to identify what species
it is. |
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Getting good shots
of the bees wasn't easy, because I had only my long lens with
me and so I had to stand a few meters away to try to get them.
I soon tired of the bees and went back to the pond.
Once back at the pond,
I found this fellow, who looked a bit unhappy. I could sympathize;
I'm generally not that happy when you put celery in front of me,
too.
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| As one might
expect, where there's a bunch of frogs, there's also a bunch of
tadpoles. The water seemed fairly thick with them, but they were
hard to get good photos of, because the water was a bit murky, and
they were even more skittish than the frogs. I did eventually get
a few okay shots of them.
They were big tads,
10 to 15 centimeters long. Bullfrogs spend almost two entire years
as tadpoles before metamorphizing into adults; that's a very long
time compared to other frogs.
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Heck, some frogs bypass
the tadpole stage altogether, and hatch as fully-formed little
frogs. But not Bullfrogs; they've gotta pay their dues at the
bottom of the pond.
I'll indulge myself
with two more Bullfrog shots. I liked the contrasting green top
and whitish underside on this one.
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| And this
is closer in on the same guy, with a nicer reflection of his eye
in the water. |
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| After leaving
the pond, I walked over to a picnic area and onto a trail into the
woods beside it. There I found these trees bending over the path
with the dappled sunlight falling on them. |
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The trail led quickly
downhill, over some rocky bits, and since I only had my sandals
on I was quickly forced to turn back.
Once I was back up
near the picnic area, I walked the edge of the field and found
myself a rabbit. Now, I think this is an Eastern Cottontail, but
I'm not that good with rabbits. If I'm right, then this fellow,
unlike the bee I started with, is an invader. Unfortunately, nobody's
really been studying the Eastern Cottontail out here, so its population
densities and the extent of its range expansion are unknown.
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Anyhow, I always find
bunnies good for a smile or two, and I was happy to see this fellow
and happy again that he let me approach close enough to get a
decent shot of him sitting in his shade. He seemed a good way
to end my day
Bringing you lots of
bull,
Tom
...lots of bullfrogs,
dangit!
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