Excursion to Serendip

"So, what do we call the place we went yesterday?" Laurie asks. Well, it was part of Tsawwassen, on Boundary Bay, just south of Boundary Bay Regional Park, a few blocks north of the US border. The school in the area is called Boundary Beach. "South Boundary Bay Beach?" Not really good enough, and too long for a file name. After going over my memories of the afternoon and the photos we brought back, I've decided to file them under "Serendip".

It was a spur-of-the-moment thing; we were already in the car, going -- somewhere, anywhere -- when we decided to go to Boundary Bay Beach. But when we were almost there, I felt like driving just a bit farther, to new (for us) territory. We found a walkway to the beach in a quiet residential zone and parked.

And there the discoveries began, still on the street. And they ended, at tea-time, with a middle-of-the-road garden on a dead-end street, as we tried to find our way home.

For tonight, I'll start there, at the end.

The last flowers we saw were Astrantia major. A new flower to both of us, small and papery, in a tangle of stems and leaves, the flowers in all stages of growth and decay, and beautiful.

The 12 bracts on the outside are deeply veined, tipped either with green or pink or brown, and badly insect-bitten. The true flowers are tiny, and arranged in an umbel, like a cow parsnip or Queen Anne's lace. I loved those tiny "barrels" that some of them (not all) rest on. I read that they are often called the "pincushion flower"; I can see where the name comes from.

Here, one flower head has pincushions; the other one pins (delicate stalks).

Bending close to try for a close-up of the flowerets, I saw a flash of orange-red; some sort of insect. An ant, I thought at the time. I followed him around for a bit, trying to get him on camera. He didn't make it easy, and I clicked wildly every time I saw a flash of red on my screen. Mostly, I missed.

So I was pleased with two of my photos. I had more than one red insect. And they were more like beetles than ants.

Three of them. And there soon will be more. Here's a closer view.

Ah! Young love!

(Now comes the hard part: I'll be spending some time on BugGuide trying to identify these beetles. I'll update this when I do.)

Update: Boris Buche at BugGuide ID'd them for me: they are Common red soldier beetles, Rhagonycha fulva. They eat the aphids and other small insects from umbelliferous flowers, like these pincushion flowers. And UBC Botanical Garden has a photo (on fennel) and more links. Follow their link to the flying beetle -- amazing!