Naturescape: Amherst Island

A gloomy winter's day on Amherst Island, Lake Ontario.

Photo: Mark Conboy

Naturescape: American Black Bear

An American Black Bear (Ursus americanus) hunts Chum Salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) along a creek on Vancouver Island's wet western coast.

Photo: Philina English

Naturescape: Hawaiian Forest

Hawaiian Tree Fern (Cibotium menziesii) dominates the understory of this lush rainforest slope on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Photo: Mark Conboy

Naturescape: Hippopotamus

A bull Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) displays his tusks to nearby females.

Photo: Mark Conboy

Naturescape: Zebra Swallowtail

This immaculate Zebra Swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus) was found at the Tip of Long Point, Ontario in June 2016. It was the first record of this species at Long Point since the 1970's (according to the Ontario Butterfly Atlas) and the first one in all of Ontario since 2012.

Photo: Mark Conboy

BioBrevia: Microscopic Ménages à Trois

A new and startling discovery shows that hitherto undiscovered yeasts may be part of some lichens.

Photo: Mark Conboy

In a refreshingly good piece of science journalism from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Emily Chung reports on the shocking discovery that some Bryoria lichens contain yeast, in addition to their photobioant (an algae and/or cyanobacteria) and known fungal component. How this went unnoticed for more than century is almost unbelievable; so not surprisingly, not all lichenologists are completely convinced yet. The full paper was published in Science, but you'll have to pay to read it.

Naturescape: Crested Barbet

A Crested Barbet (Trachyphonus vaillantii) exploring my campsite in northern Botswana.

Photo: Mark Conboy

BioBrevia: Ancient Things Incredible

Some Trembling Aspen (Populus tremuloides) colonies in the Rocky Mountains are thousands of years old.

Photo: Mark Conboy

Check out this fascinating Ted Talk by Rachel Sussman on some of the world's oldest, and incidentally, weirdest, organisms. From the otherworldly Welwitschia mirabilis whose two massive leaves are never shed, even after centuries of growth, to the ridiculously ancient actinobacteria that remain active even in the coldest conditions of the Siberia tundra, it will blow your mind to meet some of the oldest organisms we share our little blue planet with!

BioBrevia: Comprehending Cuckoos

A victim of brood parasitism, an Eurasian Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) feeds a Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) nestling. The decline of Common Cuckoo means that this behaviour is becoming less common across Europe.

Photo: Per Harald Olsen (Wikimedia Commons)

A new paper in Nature Communications, Population Decline is Linked to Migration Route in the Common Cuckoo, by Hewson et al shows that Common Cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) take two different routes from Europe to their African wintering grounds during autumn migration. The researchers used satellite telemetry to track birds in virtually real time as they made their way south. The data showed that birds which took the shorter route experienced higher mortality rates than birds that took the longer route. This differential mortality correlated to population declines on the British breeding grounds. It's further evidence that effective conservation of migratory birds must take into account migration ecology as much as breeding and wintering site ecology.

Naturescape: Darth Vader Fly

I've always called this massive horse fly the Darth Vader Fly, for obvious reasons. Measuring up to 3 cm long, Tabanus atratus is a very large for a fly, especially one that has razor-sharp mouth parts. I've never been bitten by one, but I'm sure it hurts like crazy!

Photo: Mark Conboy