Butterfly Gardening On Vancouver Island

It was a good year for the butterfly garden a American Lady showed up one day and that is a rare find for Vancouver Island especially mid island. At the end of the season there was an irruption of Painted Ladies that put on a good show.

Painted Lady Butterfly (Vanessa cardui)

Butterflies need more than just nectar producing flowers, the first thing they need is sun, they need the heat to get moving so basking areas of warm sheltered rocks can help.

Butterflies also need minerals and salt in there diet and they will get this from puddling along pond edges, dung, carrion and urine. Some butterflies will feed on ripe fruit also.

Green Comma (Polygonia faunus) Feeding on road salt. Mount Washington road.

Western Spring Azure (Celastrina echo echo) Feeding at the pond edge.

The best photo opportunities are on the flowers, I like to have a continuous show of flowers through the season so as one finishes up others are starting to bloom, some are perennial and others are annuals.

When planting think about a few things like are you going to be able to get close to the plant to take pictures, will there be some space so you can get the background to blur, will there be flowers of different colors in the background.

Also plant lots, mass plantings are what attracts more the better.

Woodland Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanoides)

In the above picture I positioned myself so the Mexican Sunflower was in the background and it was far enough back to blur.

Western Tiger Swallowtail  (Papilio rutulus) on Sweet Rocket

Sweet Rocket (Hesperis)

First of the tall plants to start blooming in the spring, they really draw in the Swallowtails, there a short lived perennial so you need to let them reseed which they will do on there own. 

Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) on Mock Orange.

Mock Orange (Philadelphus lewisii)

The swallowtail's really like this shrub, when it's blooming they are flying by regularly on there way to the Mock Orange. 

Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) on Torch Lily.

Torch Lilly (Kniphofia uvaria)

Not a long bloomer and the deer eat the flowers sometimes other than that a great flower, hummingbirds and the swallowtails give them a good working over.

American Lady Butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis) on Hyssop

Giant Hyssop 

There are a number of cultivars of the this plant and I have a few of them, Blue Fortune seems to be a good one. perennial, hardy, deer proof, long blooming and popular with all the pollinators, easy to grow from seed.

Mason Bee update

Here's a cooccon with mud screen off, still a lot of Pollen Mites, I think the brown things are droppings from the larva.

I thought I would post an update with pictures of before and after cleaning the coccoons.

The timing of the weather here is pretty critical for the bee's to get out and forage, with  a lot of tall tree's creating shade our yard is  not the best place for them, full sun starting in the morning would be way better and if you have a lot of fruit tree's you probably do, but my few fruit tree's struggle and the bee's help but a lot of them go over to the neighbors huge cherry tree so they do have access to pollen.

There is a lot of predation, parasitic wasps, paper-wasps, jumping spiders get a few, woodpeckers and a new one I discovered last summer, Carpenter Ants, I always wondered what was getting in there since there was always mud crumbs at the bottom of the houses. So next year I will make screens for the houses to put over once the bee's are done or the house is full.

This is a close up stack of the surface after the cleaning is finished, the silk covering takes a beating but the bee is protected inside the membrane.

For woodpecker screen's I have tried different things wood fronts, hardware cloth and last summer I tried a thin sheet of polycarbonate also known as Lexan, on one  front facing houses and it worked well, the bee's don't really like going through hardware cloth. So I will replace the hardware cloth with polycarbonate, I just leave a one inch gap and make it wider than the front the bee's don't seem to mind coming in from the side.

I probably get one to two thousand cocoons so the front porch is very active on warm days, and it's nice sitting out there in the warm sun with bee's working away.

I still put them out in batches in case a cool period happens and it does almost every year, but when the fruit tree's are starting to bloom some of them have to go out, and you can't hold back too long since first week in June they seem to be all done.

Animation of photo stack to show movement of the Pollen Mites. You don't seen any movement just looking at it but over a few minutes there are all kinds.

I have managed to get bit by the Mason Bee and I have been stung, both times was because one was tangled in some clothing, they are not aggressive at all, and we sit there with them flying around us and even landing on us to sun.

I am looking forward to taking them out of the fridge and putting them out, it is something I really enjoy.

Martin

Click on pictures for larger views.

Attracting Warblers to your yard

Warblers are small quick moving colorful birds that migrate through here in May/June and August/September feeding on insects and sometimes berries.

The only warbler that I have seen eat from the suet feeder is the Yellow-rumped Warbler and that only happened one spring so attracting them will take some planning.

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)

Tree's, shrubs and moving water is what works for many birds that aren't attracted to feeders, I never planned for attracting warblers, I didn't think there were that many around but after adding native shrubs and moving water they started showing up and now I look for ones  like the Wilson's Warbler where there is a three day window that they  come through the yard.

Wilson's Warbler (Cardellina pusilla)

My favorite shrub is the Black Twinberry (Lonicera involucrata), I plant them around the yard and right at the top of the waterfall and another one along side the waterfall, they give good protection, lots of flowers attracting pollinators and Orange-crowned warblers in the spring and quickly ripening berries in the summer. There is always activity in them. Other good shrubs and small tree's to have are and making them into a hedgerow is a good idea.

Red Elderberry

Ocean Spray

Mock Orange

Pacific Nine Bark

Sitka Mountain Ash

Fruit tree's, don't spray them with anything.

Red Flowering Currant

Hawethorn

American Holly

Service Berry

Vibernum's

Winter Honeysuckle

Vines

Orange Honeysuckle

Virginia Creeper

Chilean Glory Vine

This video show's what it's like when all the birds want to get to the water at the same time, the robin's some for the berries then bathe often treating the water like there own private spa but the others manage to squeeze in.

Running water is the other big attractant and will get Warbler's and other birds to stop moving long enough so you can get a good look and even take pictures.

I designed the water fall for small birds like hummingbirds and warblers but left some deeper spots for the woodpeckers and robin's. There is a three foot wide pool at the top that a carefully grade the pee gravel so it's about half inch deep of water into a deeper spot that is a couple of inches deep, the water comes up from the bottom as this is also a filter for the pond then run's down over the waterfall that has small streamlets and and rocks that are almost flat so the water is very shallow for the hummingbirds.

Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) in the Black Twinberry

We enjoy the show while sitting on the deck but sometimes I like to take pictures so I have to get closer, I use a blind and the minimum focus distance of the my 400 2.8 is ten feet so I am shooting around twelve feet away, I will put on a extension tube to get closer or if the light is bright enough I will use the 1.7 teleconverter.

Orange-crowned Warbler (Oreothlypis celata)

I will place some perches for them to land on that has a good background but you don't have much time before there in the water getting we.

Black-throated Gray Warbler (Setophaga nigrescens)

My camera settings are usually around iso 400, f3.2 with a shutterspeed around 1/200s, with the teleconverter I shoot f5.1 so it's stopped down just a touch.

Townsend's Warbler (Setophaga townsendi)

They can put on a reall show especially the male yellow Warbler, they don't jsut come in once, it's more like a quick dip then preen some them back to the water then preen some more then back in, then gone.\

Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) 

Newts, Salamanders and Frogs.

Just working around the yard I come across the occasional newt or salamander, I use this as a photo opportunity and a way to get out of some yard work.

Rough-skinned  Newts are toxic if  swallowed and can irritate the skin, Garter snakes in certain areas are immune to this toxin.

For photographing this newt, I grabbed some moss and and an old piece of wood to make a quick setup. Its best to work quick and to not stress the subject, if you do aggravate it they can let out a powerful toxin. Its always best to wash your hands before and after handling newts and salamanders.

Wandering Salamanders can be identified by there square toes, they feed climbing up into trees at night and lay eggs under bark and protect them till they hatch.

They have mottled coloring with bronze flecks.

I put piles of sticks and small logs in the garden for the salamanders and I do find eggs under the logs, I have small frog pond for the salamanders and frogs.

For the Wandering Salamander I found some fine moss to work as the backdrop, I setup in the shade and took a few pictures then placed it in a safe place, its best to place them back where you find them but if there in danger in that spot find somewhere where they have good cover.

Long-toed Salamanders breed in ponds in late winter, you will find there eggs the same time as the Pacific Chorus Frogs.

They can be identified by there orange stripe with black sides and the long fourth toe.

For this salamander I just used a backdrop of some fall colored leaves, the orange of the leaves works well with the color of the stripe and contrasts with the black of the body. I setup in the shade took a few pictures then found a safe place to put him.

The long-toed Salamander found on Vancouver island range all but the far north of B.C.. The larvae transform into terrestrial juveniles the first year except in colder climates where it can overwinter on or two times before metamorphose.

This newt larvae was the hardest, I made a small shooting box out of glass, filled it with filtered water and rinsed the rock of a few times before placing in the box, you have to have everything perfectly clean because at macro magnifications everything will show in the picture. I setup with my flashes for this one, one on the background and one with a softbox, I was in the shade. You have to wait till the subject moves into a good positions so it does take patience.

The first week in March with out freezing temperatures is when the Pacific Chorus frogs head for the ponds, they like still water that dries up in the summer, this way there are no fish to eat the eggs.

Sometimes I just come across frogs in the garden and I go get the camera like this picture, the one below I put the hip waders on and went into the pond, you have to stand still in the water for a bit before the frogs rise up again and start croaking.

Pacific Chorus Frogs can change there coloring, during the pond seasong they have darker greens to brown color. And the nice blue color around the eyes.

The young frogs can be found hunting during the summer, still small enough to fit on a blade of grass.

Northern Red-legged Frogs adults spend most of there time on land, during breeding season they move to shallow ponds and streams.

The Red-legged Frog pictures where see them in the yard then go get the camera opportunity, had to wait for the light to change to shade other wise there is too much contrast.
We were lucky enough to have a pair of Red-legged Frogs move into the yard this year, we have had them move through before but this pair hung around the ponds all summer.

You can see the red on the inside of the leg that they get there name from. There favorite hunting spot was on the Gunnera plant.

Amphibians-VancouverIsland-GulfIslands.pdf

Photographing Pileated Woodpeckers

Pileated Woodpeckers require a forest for there habitat that has trees that are old enough that they are starting to rot on the inside, fall over, become infested with different beetle larva and has lots of ants. This type of forest has the food they need and the right types of trees for excavating there nest holes. These are called wildlife trees, it is when a tree has reached its peak and starting to decline, this is when it useful to wildlife like the woodpeckers, this is a process that can take hundreds of years.

If you live in such an area and have Pileated Woodpeckers you can attract them with food like other birds, they really don't care for suet feeders, although I find with the tailboard they will use them, what they like is a log with holes drilled in it and homemade suet placed in the holes, the other woodpeckers like this along with the starlings and crows so you have to see if it will work in your area.

For me it does work and it gives me an opportunity to photograph these interesting birds, they are shy and I needed a blind or to shoot out a window at first but once they were used to my presence I could photograph from the deck.

Taking the photo in your yard allows you to control the elements in the picture, like background, foreground and what the bird has landed on. Picking the right log is important you want it to complement not be the focus of the picture.

I usually use a 400 mm lens with a teleconverter, the reason is just to get smoother backgrounds, other wise a 300 to 400mm lens is fine, mostly I shoot birds at f5.6 and 1/125 shutter speed, iso depending on the light but as low as possible, at these settings your not going to catch any action but like most birds when feeding they will pause to check there surroundings, get them looking into the frame. You want pictures when they don't have food covering there bill so when they first land or get ready for take off are good times for the picture.

For lighting, cloudy day's are best, thinner the clouds the better. Have your back to the sun.

You need to focus on the eyes, if you can't see the wrinkles in the skin around the eye that is one for the trash bin, use your off center focus points to get a good composition.

Early Morning Light Macro Photography

Macro photography is not about getting a macro lens its more about putting together a set of lenses and accessories to increase magnification, a lot of photographers don't want to do macro they just want to get closer and shoot smaller subjects.

Most macro lenses shoot from macro 1:1 and bigger, with accessories like tubes and teleconverters you can increase the magnification and shoot smaller subjects.

If you don't need to shoot 1:1 but want to take photo's of Dragonflies and Butterflies a lens like the 300 f4 is ideal, use it with extension tubes and teleconverters and you have some advantages over a macro lens, one is that you have a lot longer working distance, so you don't have to get as close to the subject and you have a narrower angle of view, this gives you smoother backgrounds.

If you do want to shoot small subjects like bee's, flies and other small insects and bugs a macro lets you get to 1:1 to start with and when you add accessories like extension tubes and teleconverters you can increase your magnification.

Photography technique is knowing what to do in each situation, what f stop to use, what kind of lighting and lighting setup from the basic to advance there is a technique for each photography situation, the purpose of this article is to describe the technique needed for going out in the early morning and doing macro photography.

The reason to go out in the early morning is twofold, one the light is at its best before the sun comes above the trees and the subjects are cold and don't move till the sun has warmed them. The drawback is the subjects can be hard to find, you have to comb the swamp for good subjects but once you have found one you get time to work it. The quality makes up for the quantity.

What you will need.

- A camera and lens, I prefer long macro lenses out in the field and use a Nikon 200mm f4 micro.
- Tripod preferably with spiked feet, I use a heavy tripod with four inch spikes and don't like macro tripods, they move to easy when focusing.
- A ball head, gear head any head that doesn't move on you when setting up the shot.
- Remote release.
- Small reflector.
- Knee pads.
- Small cutters.

And importantly you need a good place to hunt down critters, a swampy area, pond, fields near wetlands. My favorite spot has been the frog pond across the street, but over the years it has gone from loads of subjects to nothing, years of cold dry springs has killed of huge amounts of insects on Vancouver Island and there not coming back in the short term.

Now your out in the field and you have spent the last twenty minutes looking for something and found a Damselfly, these make great subjects so you setup, with your back to where the sun is going to rise if you can, guess how high you need your tripod and adjust it away from the subject, depending how warm out it is it could fly if disturbed enough. Now you will have to place the tripod as close as you can to almost fill the frame, going corner to corner works well for damselflies, once you have that close push down on the tripod to get the spikes onto something solid.

Make your fine adjustments and then it is time to focus, but before that make sure your at the same level as the subject, you don't want that top down look. Focus is super critical, you want from the eyes to the tip of the tail in focus, eyes always have to be in focus but for damselflies eyes to tip of tail is what separates the good from the great. You may have to move your tripod over a bit to get this be patient, get a couple of shots in then go for the perfect one, keep refining as you go along.

Was the subject low down, good thing you have the knee pads, now your working the subject and there is a blade of grass in the way, pull out your small cutters and snip this off, make sure this isn't going to start a chain reaction and your subject gets flung across the swamp, if you forgot the cutters try to just push it out of the way.

Back to focusing, use live view with magnification, scroll around your subject and check, sometimes you have to take focus shots at different spots and combine them later, its good to bracket focus just in case. Always check focus again when every you take your hand off the lens, this is why I like a heavy tripod, if when you remove your hand from the focus ring and focus changes you keep having to make fine adjustments.

Now your ready to press the shutter using your remote cord and maybe your small reflector in the other hand depending if the underside is to dark. Bracket f stops and expose to the right, once you figured you have the perfect one and some more move your camera to a different angle and start again, your first choice to set up usually isn't the best one.

A lot of times your next subject is found when your down on your knees working your currant one so look around before you get up.

One thing I didn't mention yet is and it is a drawback is that you can't have any wind, I get up and look out the window and if can tell the tree tops are moving I go back to bed, and its okay to go back to bed once you have been out, I am usually just in the yard or across the street so it can all happen quickly.

One cool thing you will see is the sun peak across the tops of the trees slowly warming your subject and they will wake up and fly off.

Pileated Woodpeckers along the Oyster River Trail

The Oyster River Trail is a popular walking trail on Vancouver Island that runs from by the old bridge to Salmon Point, it is not uncommon to see Pileated Woodpeckers when walking through the forested section, there are even old nest holes high up that I have seen Pileated's go into for the night.

One day after turning around and on my way back with my D200 and 300 af-s f4 lens and a small tripod I came around a corner and there was a family of Pileated Woodpeckers working an old log that was laying down right by the trail, so I set up to try for some pictures, I set up low since they were on the ground and its always good to get  at the same level as your subject. A lot of photographers don't like to use tripods but I find it is the best way to get sharp pictures, you can keep your iso down for clean pictures, it helps your composition also.

It was a female and two juveniles, one of the juveniles could forage on its own but stuck close by and the other was being fed by the adult and kept close to her. The juveniles have a washed out pinkish look to the tops of there heads compared to the bright red of the adults, juveniles also have dark eyes that slowly will turn yellow as they mature, young pileated's will stay with the parents for the summer, it takes time to teach them how to find food.

They rooted around that log for a bit and flew off, I thought that was it so I start walking down the trail again and there they were around the corner, so I set up again and watched them forage for food and took some photo's.

The other juvenile a male searched for food on his own, even a young pileated with it's sharp bill doesn't have any trouble making holes in logs.

Pileated Woodpeckers have strong muscular tongues with a sticky barb on the tip.

It was a bonus getting a second chance along the trail to see these amazing birds. They don't always show up on the trail in front of you, sometimes there up high or just on the other side of a tree so you don't see them, listening for there calls and the tapping noise of them excavating a feeding or nest hole is a good way to find them.

I have plenty other pileated pictures from a different location you can check them out here.

Martin