This Bumble Bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) has undergone a remarkable change in status on Vancouver Island in the last few years.  The first specimen record from Vancouver Island was one collected here at Leaning Oaks in May 2005. Since that time the species has spread up the east side of Vancouver Island and is known from at least as far north as Campbell River. In parts of Victoria and the Saanich Peninsula it is one of the commonest bumble bees.  The reasons for its rapid spread are not known, although it has done well at the same time that Western Bumble Bee  and a number of other Bumble Bees have declined. The change in status of this species in BC is documented in this journal article by David Fraser, Claudia Copley, Elizabeth Elle and Rob Cannings.  

Big and colourful, it is an interesting addition to the fauna here.

Wall Lizards (Podarcis muralis)  are relatively new critters to Vancouver Island.  Our population is derived from a small number of lizards that where released in 1970 from a now defunct zoo that was located on Rudy Rd on the Saanich Peninsula.  The lizards are spreading quickly and there are populations throughout the Saanich Peninsula, and isolated populations in Langford, Nanaimo and on Hornby Island.  Biologist Christian Engelstoft and I are tracking their spread to is you see any in other areas we would like to know about it (a comment here will work fine).  Their impact on native ecoystems is unknown, but often they rapidly reach very high densities, and are agile and heavy feeders on a wide variety of invertebrates.  They are far more agile than our native Alligator Lizard and they are able to scale walls, trees, drainpipes and can be found on the ground, cliffs or even building roofs.  They are most active in warm weather, but we have records from every month of the year, so they seem to be able to take advantage of warm weather periods even in the winter months. We think they are spreading by themselves as well as being assisted by being moved by people and horse trailers.

  Wall lizards were first  noted on Leaning Oaks in the late summer of 2013, and Leah photographed a female here yesterday. 

Our predilection for building things out of rocks on Leaning Oaks suits the alligator lizards just fine. They use the spaces and cracks to hide and will sit atop the rocks to sun themselves. Elgaria coerulea  bear live young, an average of five in B.C. where it is found across the southern  portion of the provice, with the exception of the very southeast corner. 

Very secretive, one usually just catches sight of a tail disappearing into a crack. The resident dog is determined to catch one and usually she is not even close. Except once when she managed to get a hold of the tip of a tail and we had a vivid display of caudal autotomy.  The lizard was long gone, but there lay a writhing tail doing exactly what it is meant to do -distract a predator. Unfortunately this individual will have lost the fat reserves that are stored in that area, expend energy to re-grow a tail and will have its movements compromised without the stabilizing influence. 

Almost all of the grasses that we have here at Leaning Oaks are not native species, and this one is no exception.  Orchard Grass (Dactylis glomerata), or Cock's Foot is widely planted as a forage and hay grass and it has escaped hayfields and is a common grass along roadsides, ditches and other areas.  It is an increasingly common species in our Garry Oak meadow, and we have to actively control it in order that some of the native species that we are trying to maintain on the property have a chance.  It is a vigorous tall  bunchgrass that makes tussocks  that tends to out compete many smaller Garry Oak species. 

Alsike Clover  (Trifolium hybridum) is a widely grown, non-native plant.  It is used as a forage crop and is a common escapee on disturbed lands, road edges and lawns.  Here at Leaning Oaks, it is found in our lawn, along with White Clover.  Its latin name is based on Linneaus' mistaken impression that this is a hybrid of White Clover and Red Clover.  The common name is also of Linneaus' doing, his type specimen came from the town of Alsike in Sweden.  Hanging out around clovers is a great way to see lots of pollinators, particularly bumble bees.

This large Eurasian cutworm moth, Noctua pronuba, was first recorded in Canada in 1979 in Nova Scotia and had made its way to BC by 2002, now commonly seen on the eastern side of Vancouver Island. It may have winged its way to the west coast on its own as a strong flier, but there are suspicions that it was human assisted. Many of the host plants of  N. pronuba are widely used in the horticultural trade and the larvae eat many common food crops. A summary of the status and spread was written in 2005 by Claudia Copley and Rob Cannings from the Royal BC Museum (http://journal.entsocbc.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/62/276).

There is another introduced moth with bright underwings -the Lesser Yellow Underwing,  Noctua comes that is smaller, has a dark spot in the centre of the underwing and was introduced to BC in 1982. You will have to trust us that this particular specimen did not have the dot!  

There are two subspecies of  Prunella vulgaris found in our area. The native subspecies, Prunella vulgaris ssp. lanceolata  is circumboreal and has more lancolate shaped leaves that are three times as long as wide, while the European introduction Prunella vulgaris ssp. vulgaris has leaves that are rounder and the length is about double the width. These were found in the disturbed ditch along the road. 

It doesn't really mater which you have; both are great for pollinators, bloom later than many other of the wild bloomers and both have a long list of medicinal uses. Self-heal is used for fever reduction, sore throats, heart and skin conditions, to stop itching, excessive menstruation and burns. References to the benefits of self-heal can be found in Chinese literature from over 2000 years ago where it is attributed with aiding liver and kidney problems. 

These small, bizarre wasps are called Carrot Wasps because they often are found feeding  on flowers in the carrot family.  Here however, they are commonest on our Pearly Everlasting plants.  Females have long ovipositors.  Carrot Wasps are not very well studied, there are likely unidentified species in North America and only a little is known about their life history. They are mostly parasitoids on solitary bee and  wasp species. The long ovipositor allows the female to place the egg on, or near, the bee larvae or egg. In photographing the Carrot Wasps here, we thought there were two species, one with a two red bands and another with a large single red band, however, in examining our photos, there are individuals with one, two or three red bands of various sizes, so perhaps it is one variable species or a whole mix.  The genus name for this group is Gasteruption.

This raspberry relative is represented here by a single plant in the lowest elevation part of Leaning Oaks.  Here it is in  too much shade to flower and set fruit properly.  Pity, for picking salmonberries was one of the joys of growing up on the coast, their fruit being the first of our native berries to ripen.  Interestingly, salmonberries have different colour morphs, some plants are ripe when the fruit is yellow, others orange, red or almost black. This plant is worth growing in the garden for its early spring flowers, bright pink and a favourite of Rufous Hummingbirds as the first arrive on migration. We grow a double-flowered form in our garden, which is  from a cutting that accidentally fell into a damp kleenix in a plastic bag in my pocket in a public garden.

This is probably the most common butterfly that we see during the summer at Leaning Oaks -in the meadow and in the vegetable garden. The caterpillars is small, green and a voracious feeder of members of the Brassicaceae family.

The first Cabbage White, Pieris rapae was collected in Quebec in 1860 very near a port of entry for immigrants arriving mainly from Ireland. These people would have been fleeing  the famine. Many would have been farmers that would be bringing their own food on the voyage and much of that would be cabbages and turnips; food that would store well. Another bit of evidence for this origin was that the adult males were bright yellow, the same as the form found that occurs most frequently in Ireland.

Sticky bedstraw, stickywilly, catchweed, grip grass, stickyweed, clivers, goosegrass or robin-run-the-hedge; it doesn't really matter what you call Galium aparine,  this sticky, floppy plant can wend its way around other plants, through fences and be a bugger to get rid of.  While green, the "stickiness" is caused by small hairs on the leaves that point backwards. Although considered edible (and the dried, ground seed pods apparently make a decent coffee substitute), I can't imaging eating something with those catchy hairs. 

I was curious about the origins of "robin-run-the-hedge" and it turns out that it refers to a character from an English tale of the early 15th century, Robin Goodfellow. This magician could change form and was a bit of a scoundrel, showing up everywhere including gardens and maidens beds. 

I was totally amazed to find out that this invasive is native! Thanks Marta for help in identifying this plant. There is a non-native species of Galium (Galium spurium ) that is similar and can be found on southern Vancouver Island. It's flowers are a bit smaller and the flowers are a greenish cream colour. 

Biomimicry
Here in silhouette are the dried seed pods, ready to snag on to any animal's fur or material and be dispersed! It was from these seeds that Swiss engineer, George De Mestral got the idea for what was to become Velcro. After a walk in the woods in 1948 and picking 100's of these cursed seeds off the dog and his clothing (examples below) he examined them under a microscope to see what was holding them on. The rest is history as they say. It took a lot of work to determine densities of hooks, the necessary rigidity as well as manufacturing methods--but it happened and in 1955 Velcro was patented; the word being a combination of velour and crochet. 
** We had it pointed out to us (via @VictoriaNHS)  by a biomimicry specialist (David Parr) that it really was burdock that was the original "Velcro" and not these guys! Both are in the literature -but if you do go to the actual Velcro site...it is burdock. And check out David's website; some really cool stuff http://www.biomimicron.com/  **

This week has given us a new appreciation for this plant and its role in our garden and the ecosystem.  We have several clumps planted behind the bench by the pond and we were sitting on the bench after dinner when Leah grabbed her camera and started shooting insects visiting the white flowers.  Dozens and dozens of insects has their faces buried in the centre of the Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) flowers, including Carrot Wasps,  Helictid bees, Bumble Bees, several species of beetles, flies, Paper Wasps, Potter Wasps, butterflies, the list went on and on....and the same the next time with yet more species being added.  So, depending on our ability to identify this bounty, you can expect to see some photos of cool insects on the distinctive papery white flowers of this plant in future posts.

Pearly Everlasting is in the daisy family, and its flowers are good "everlastings", easily cut and dried for bouquets.  The white flowers gleam in a summers evening, and its easy to see why one of the other common names is Moonshine.  

Those pesky moths that flap around your head when you have the windows open and the light on late on a summer night? Look closer, you may be surprised. I was. This looper, Autographa corusca is only found west of the Cascades and Coast Range from southern Oregon to the Alaskan panhandle and is a specialist on Red Alder. 

The four spots on the thorax are an easy way to distinguish Ischnura cervula from other damselflies that we have the area. The other feature are male genitalia that are shaped like deer antlers; this the species name cervula.  With a little imagination I can see the antlers with a hand lens. 

Pacific Forktails have a long flight season as one of the earliest damselflies that you may see in April to the end of September. Great resources for looking at the range of dragonflies and damselflies in BC can be found by going to the reports page for the species on BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer (http://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/search.do ) and then looking at either the link to the interactive maps that are on eFauna or the Range/Distribution link. 

This distinctive skipper was first recorded in BC in 1960. There was a separate introduction in Sicamous that was first noted in 1980 and then spread east and southward. Victoria recorded it's first Thymelicus lineola in 1992 (although wasn't identified until 1994).  It is apparently still only found in the Victoria area on Vancouver Island and is the only one of this Genus in BC. The flight period is June to mid-July.

Slender and delicate,  Piperia transversa blooms after the basal leaves have died off. They are about 25 cm tall and grow in the dappled sunlight of the dry Douglas-fir forest. The flat-spurred orchid (another name that more accurately describes this species)  doesn't bloom every year at Leaning Oaks so we were quite pleased with the number that popped up this year. The name "transversa" comes from the long spur that crosses the main stem....transversely!  The close up shows this well. The similar orchid that is found in the area; P. elegans, doesn't have the green mid-line in the flowers, flattened spur or a scent.  

The best part of this flower is the yummy vanilla and honey smell that gets stronger as the evening wears on. Although there was some discussion whether it was cloves or vanilla.  I'm right. 

What is there not to love about the muppet haircut and the beautiful emerald green of Hemithea aestivaria? The underside that you can't see here is a pale creamy green. The emerald moth is found through out Europe and has been introduced to the Pacific Northwest. Apparently the first that were observed around Vancouver was 1979. In Europe the caterpillars are known to feed on willow, oaks, birch and a number of other deciduous trees. On southern Vancouver Island  they have been seen feeding on dogwood and snowberry. Here are some photographs of the caterpillar: http://facweb.furman.edu/~snyderjohn/tatum/218-221.htm

Black Raspberry, or Blackcap is a native shrub that grows long arching stems with a raspberry-like dark purple berry for fruit.  The lone plant here at Leaning Oaks grows on the soil disturbed by an the up -rooted tree. The species is usually associated with disturbance. The fruiting stems are two years old when they bear fruit and then they usually die.
The berry is very tasty, but sadly, we don't have enough Rubus leucodermis to get a good feed.   Other common English names include White-stemmed Raspberry, Western Raspberry or Blue Raspberry. 

I am completely smitten with jumping spiders. This fellow, Salticus scenicus measures in at about 5 mm, is quick as greased lightning and is relatively common here at Leaning Oaks and across North America. The species name, "scenicus" is derived from the Greek skenikos, meaning "of the stage" or theatrical and "Salticus" is Latin for dance. When they turn to look at you with their eyes (total of eight, four facing forward) and wave their chelicerae and pedipalps like some sort of battle threat or odd dance, you can understand the source of the name

It does not spin a web to capture prey, but hunts actively for its dinner. The photo below is a different individual that has tackled a fly much larger than itself! I had to include it, even though it wasn't a great photo. They do produce silk, using it for safety lines, to make egg sacs and to build overnight retreats. The colours on the Zebra Jumping Spider vary, as do the width and spacing of the stripes. 

I was very sad to read that this jumping spider is considered a native of Europe and has been introduced throughout the northern hemisphere...I'd like to think that they belonged here! 

Lorquin's Admiral is a common species here at Leaning Oaks.  Males defend open patches and fight off intruders and aerial battles are a common sight in the summer months.  It is a distinctive black butterfly with a bold white strip in the wings, broken into cells by black viens.  The forewings are tipped in orange. Here the commonest food plant for the larvae is Oceanspray (133), but elsewhere, apples, willows, birches, cottonwood, hardhack and saskatoon are used.