It finally happened this morning, our early morning bird count gave us a calling Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto ) calling almost constantly for over a half an hour.  Our first record of this species was from October of 2012 and up until now, Eurasian Collared-Doves here have been short term visitors that stop in for a few hours at the most and then move on, but this morning's bird clearly was on territory and calling incessantly  to prove it. 

​Eurasian Collared-Doves are relatively recent arrivals to North America.  After spreading from southeast Asia through the middle east and into Europe in the 1900s, they were introduced in the Bahamas from Europe in the 1970s. From there they  spread on their own to North America with the first breeding record in southern Florida in 1982 and records from southern Vancouver Island by the early 2000s.  Their spread has been primarily to the west and to the north, and it has been rapid indeed.  This feederwatch website has an animated figure that shows just how fast this species colonized much of  North America.  Christmas Bird counts for British Columbia show also show a rapidly increasing number;

Given that Mourning Doves only recently set up shop here at Leaning Oaks (see 310. Mourning Dove) it will be interesting to see how the two species interact in the future.

Our latest jumping spider, a Salticid, was discovered in it's natural habitat, the butter dish.  Platycryptus californicus is found in south western BC and south to Mexico through the western USA (see iNaturalist observations below). I went looking to find out more about their natural habitat and had to look no further than Sean McCann's great blog, "Ibycter" to discover it is lab walls!  Hmm. I guess one can infer that they are fine around human habitation. Do make sure that you do click on the link to go to Sean's blog where you can see fun video of P. californicus leaping in slow motion. The lighter chevron leaf-ish pattern on the abdomen was one of the diagnostic features that I used for identification.  

Pause here for an iNaturalist plug.

​Not only have the wonderful naturalists on iNaturalist entered enough records to provide a range map, but the community also helped confirm the identification of this species after the AI gave this as a suggestion. 

(photos: A. Teucher)

 As the common English name suggests, this tiger beetle is nocturnal, coming out to stalk it's prey during the night and occasionally on cloudy days. It is a flightless hulk of a beast with massive mandibles and the distinction of being the largest of the genus Omus. Omus, by the way, according to BugGuide is "probably from Greek omos (ωμος) 'fierce, cruel'." Nice eh? The shallow dimples on the elytra and the broad "shoulders" are distinctive. 

Omus dejeani ranges from northern California to the south west corner of B.C., to the lower slopes of the Cascades and southern Vancouver Island. They are found on the temperate rain forest floor and the adjacent grasslands and occasionally the upper levels of beaches under driftwood. The larval burrows are in vertical clay banks.  

The only other Omus that is found in B.C. is Omus audouini, Audouin's Night-stalking Tiger Beetle. O. audouini has only been found in a few very low elevation locations despite much searching. It is listed Threatened federally.