Ambush

I found a pretty hover fly on my roses. I was surprised that he so patiently waited to have his photo taken. Then I looked at the photo blown up on my screen.

Syrphid (hover) fly, not hovering.

Do you see it? Look closely; those white feet aren't his. They belong to the crab spider who was hiding under the petals, and now is under the fly, ready for lunch.

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Encontré una mosca sírfida en una de mis rosas. Me sorprendió que fue tan paciente, permitiéndome sacarle varias fotos. Más tarde, mirando las fotos en mi pantalla, descubrí la causa.

Foto: una mosca sírfida. Y las patas de una araña cangrejo.

La araña estaba emboscada tras los pétalos de la rosa, como suelen hacerlo, y ahora está debajo de la mosca, lista para cenar.

Roadside treat

Another May bloom in the sunny eaves of the forest: the red elderberries with their pyramids of short-lived, fragrant, white flowers.

Red elderberry, Sambucus racemosa ssp. pubens var. arborescens. Long name for our coastal variety, which produces red berries.

And a pollinator:

Copper-coloured hover fly. Species undetermined.

 My guide book says that the red elderberries are edible, and used to be an important food for coastal peoples. My dad used to harvest the flowers and dip them in pancake batter for a spring treat. Raw, they're toxic; cooking destroys the poison, a cyanide-producing glycoside. Birds and bears eat them (raw, of course) with no ill effects.

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Aquí otras flores que salen en el mes de mayo a las orillas asoleadas del bosque: el saúco rojo, Sambucus racemosa, el cual produce panículas de flores en forma de pirámide, fragrantes, efímeras, y blancas.

Primera foto: una panícula de flores de saúco rojo. Las frutas son pequeñas y de un rojo fuerte.

Segunda foto: una mosca polinizadora, de la famila de los sírfidos, este de un color de cobre oscuro. No he podido identificar la especie.

Mi libro guía hace el comentario de que las frutillas del saúco rojo son comestibles, hasta sirviendo como una parte importante de la dieta de nuestros nativos de la costa. Mi papá cortaba las flores y las cubría de masa de panqueque, para hacernos un dasayuno primaveral. Crudas, las frutas y el resto de la planta, son tóxicos, pero al cocinarlos, se destruye el veneno, que es un glicósido que produce cianuro al digerirse. Pero los pájaros y los osos comen la fruta (cruda, por supuesto) sin daño absoluto.

Another pollinator

This one is not a bee.

Syrphid fly on Queen Anne's Lace, Daucus carota.

The syrphids, or hover flies, sometimes mimic bees and wasps, but their antennae are short and stubby. A bee's antennae are longer, and elbowed. And, in proportion, the flies' eyes are larger than the bee's.

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Y este no es una abeja. Es una mosca de los sírfidos, que comunmente se confunden con las abejas y avispas. Pero las antenas de las moscas, incluyendo los sírfidos, son muy cortas, sin ángulos. Las antenas de las abejas son más largas, y tienen una articulación muy obvia. Y, con respeto a su tamaño, los ojos de la tribu de las moscas son más grandes que los de las abejas.

Esta mosca está buscando su alimento en las flores de zanahoria silvestre, Daucus carota, conocida en inglés como "encaje de la Reina Ana".

Green-gold hover fly

Many of these were busy over flowers at the edge of White Rock beach last week.

Look at that green spotted eye!

Top view

I looked through 5,000 of BugGuide's photos of Syrphids last night, without finding them. There are only another 5, 215 to go.

Life's too short to dawdle

I went over to the vacant lot today, to see if the ant pupae I found last month were hatching yet. Not quite, but it should be any day now, so I'll check often from now on.

On the way back, I discovered treasure; a temporary pond swarming with ephemeral life. I'll post photos and info tomorrow.

And, while I stood at the edge of the pond, a yellow jacket dropped in to get a drink:

One quick sip, and he was on his way. Busy, busy.

I caught this hover fly in the air as he zipped by. His wings are those pale blurs on either side. Hurry, hurry!

And the four-spotted skimmer was much in evidence, speeding past me every few minutes, never close enough, never pausing even for a second, so I could get a photo. Rush, Rush! Time's a wasting!

So many good rocks!

One more week till Rock Flipping Day!

Have you marked your calendars yet? This year, we're flipping rocks next Sunday, the 12th of September. If you missed the announcement, instructions and links are here.

I'm already looking for a good rock or two. This one absolutely begs to be flipped:

"Me! Me! Flip me!"

It's too little to be very productive, though. Maybe this one:

Lots of goodies in that crack. White Rock beach.

I'd love to pull that apart, but we'd need machinery. And we'd never get it back in place again. Have to be a bit less ambitious:

These look good. Barnacles and snails on top, worms and crabs and no telling what else underneath.

And some don't need flipping:

I was leaning over the bridge at Cougar Creek, looking at the muddy water behind the beaver dam, when this fly landed on a rock below me.

Helophilus, maybe fasciatus, probably female.

We won't flip this one, nor any of the smaller ones around it; I don't think the beavers would appreciate us mucking around in their new pool.

I found the fly on BugGuide; it's a hover fly. One of their photos notes, "Extremely common around flooded wooded areas." That describes this area of Cougar Creek perfectly. Those beavers have been very busy, and there are dams on each branch of the creek entering the little lake; the creek is backed up well into the bush.