Grasshoppers

Red-legged Grasshopper (Melanoplus femurrubrum)

Going for a walk in the long grass yesterday, every step I took, a couple of these fellows jumped out of my way. Usually they are quite hard to photograph but this lady obliged me while she was sunning herself on a log. You can tell she is female by the tapered abdomen and the tips of her ovipositor. A male has a rounded tail. Perhaps she didn't mind me taking her picture because she was partially blind. Her left compound eye looks quite deformed.

When reviewing the photographs at home, I was amazed at how completely covered in fine hairs she is. These insect hairs are called setae. Even her well armoured head and thorax are covered in fine hairs. These setae provide the sense of touch to the insect even though she is covered in a chitinous exoskeleton.

I find the mouthes of insects to be their strangest parts. I rarely am able to get a good look at what is going on down there. The antenna like palps around the mouth of this grasshopper have the greatest "ick factor" for me. I'm used to antennas; they sort of make sense as great big external nostrils, but four extra external tongues for tasting and manipulating food is four too many.

As I walked along I saw a couple of grasshoppers almost fall prey to a banded argiope. Unfortunately for the spider I spooked him and he broke off wrapping up his meal and went back to guard the center of his web. This allowed the grasshoppers time to disentangle themselves and make their escape. Below are a couple of other predators of grasshoppers: the only black and yellow garden spider I've seen all year and a great black wasp. The light reflecting off the wings of the great-black wasp was much bluer in person.

Black and Yellow Garden Spider(Argiope Aurantia)

Great Black Wasp(Sphex pensylvanicus)

Yellow-rumped Warblers

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)

Fall has arrived. The nights are cool; the leaves are changing; and all the photogenic insects are hiding. There are still some sluggish grasshoppers and wasps about, and a cloud of gnats appeared around my head, but nothing particularly caught my eye. I think I'll have to go after the warm blooded now.

I noticed a couple of little birds foraging among the branches of the above pine tree. I was too far away to see them clearly and at first thought they might be sparrows. They seemed to be hunting for insects; flitting from branch to branch; sometimes even hovering to catch something out of mid-air. It turns out that they were Yellow-rumped warblers in their fall plumage. They still have a bit of yellow on them but I was too far away from them to get a good picture. It's nice to see birds like this taking advantage of the new habitat in the naturalization area. These warblers particularly like coniferous trees in the north but in their winter range they specialize in the waxy berries of the myrtle bush.

Hopefully these birds don't run foul of this guy:

An orbweaver with dinner

Banded Argiope (Argiope trifasciata)

A few weeks ago I realized that I hadn't seen any orbweaver spiders in the tall grass this year. In previous years you had to be careful where you walked in case you bumped into a Black-and-yellow garden spider's web but this year I haven't seen a single one. I have finally found a few other orbweavers though. I've notice 4 Banded Argiopes in the 2010 bushy area. Above is a picture of one of them making a meal out of a grasshopper.

The white flowers in the picture are Hoary Alyssum. It is quite common this year as it does well in dry conditions. It has 4 petals (like all other plants in the mustard family) but they are so deeply notched they seem like 8 petals. It is an invasive weed from Europe. For the longest time I didn't know what it was called and couldn't find it in my Wildflowers of Ontario guide or online, but today I finally identified it (thank-you Google Images).

Grasshoppers galore but where are the Orb Weavers?

Red Legged Grasshopper (Melanoplus femurrubrum)

In August, every step you take through the long grass causes a wave of grasshoppers to hop away from you. Grasshoppers are just everywhere and in the late summer they are one of the most prominent animals around. The other animal I expect to encounter about this time of year are the Orb Weavers, particularly the Black and Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia). There should be dozens sitting prominently in the middle of large webs spanning gaps in the vegetation, but this year I haven't seen a single one. Where have all the Orb Weavers gone?

Last of the grasshoppers

I walked through the long grass today and only noticed one small grasshopper hop out of my way. Winter is coming. The grasshoppers die with the first frost and overwinter as eggs. In late summer and early September they are everywhere hopping out of your way. Now in late October they have mostly disappeared.

I took these photographs earlier in the year. Grasshoppers are usually fairly hard to photograph because you mostly see them when they jump but you don't see where they land as they'll be hidden in the long grass only to jump again when you approach their hiding spot. The two striped fellow was easy though as I found him early in the morning before it had warmed up. He had no interest in moving at all.

Bluejay in flight

I was taking a picture of the trees when a blue jay flew over my head. Blue jays often travel in small family groups and as I had seen the one, I was not too surprised when I caught the second in frame.

This past Thanksgiving weekend has been warm and sunny and as you can see in the above picture many of the trees still have green leaves. We've had a frost, but not so hard a frost that it has killed the insect life. There are still grasshoppers in the long grass and there are still wasps hanging about. The other day I had to beat a quick retreat when I removed a mulch circle from a tree and realized there was an entrance to a wasp's nest underneath it. I don't see too many garden spiders about anymore though. In late August it is hard not to get tangled in their webs when walking in the tall grass, by late September they are quite rare.

A late summer field

Well the goldenrod is out with a few clumps planting their yellow flags in the square. The yarrow and trefoil are still in bloom with the occasional fleabane, and purple vetch still out. The grass has mostly toppled over to form a messy mat over which you can walk. The insect life has grown numerous with plenty of truly large yellow and black orb spiders hanging out at the centre of their webs. The grasshoppers are quite large though not numerous. I saw yesterday a clump of large metalic japanese beetles mating all over a rasberry bush. There is a wasps nest in the square. The wasps are living in the ground and the only evidence of their nest is a small patch of disturbed earth in front of their wasp sized hole in the ground. The wasps were entering the hole every couple of seconds so it must be a fairly large colony.

As for mammal predators, I have seen a couple of different cats hanging out in the area in the past week. I didn't see any active hunting but one was spending time in the tall grass of the square. Yesterday I also saw a young coyote less than a kilometer away at the intersection of huntclub and woodroffe, it was broad daylight and he didn't seem to mind too much being watched. He eventually lopped away down the road.