Congregations of Boxelder (Maple) bugs are common in the fall. The ones with smaller wings are nymphs (juveniles). This tree had Boxelder bugs all over it, but strangely I only spotted the odd bug on the other trees in the area.
Although it happens every year, it's a bit of a shock to see the trees start to change color in August. The summer is short in Saskatchewan. The cool weather and (welcome) rain also make it seem like summer is ending.
The damp weather led to a rare foggy morning that coated the many spider webs on the bridge railings with water drops. I struggled to find a good angle with a clean background. The background in this shot is the river below, with the sky and clouds reflected in it.
Skippers aren't big flashy butterflies and often go unnoticed, but they are quite attractive if you get a close look.
Grass spiders are easy to spot - find their funnel webs on grass or bushes and look for the spider near the the tunnel. But don't make any sudden moves or it will disappear down that tunnel.
I had forgotten there were lizards around Victoria. These Common Wall Lizards are from Europe and were introduced to the Victoria area in the 1960's. There is a native Northern Alligator Lizard but I didn't spot any of them.
The American Bullfrog is another immigrant. They were brought in to be raised for food. That didn't work out, but the bullfrogs have stayed and multiplied. We saw lots at Swan Lake.
We saw this Harbor Seal mother and baby a few times. The baby seemed to be growing by the day.
Since childhood summer vacations on Vancouver Island, I've enjoyed turning over rocks on the beach to find the hiding crabs.
Of course, there are lots of gulls around. It was nice to see one finding its own food instead of scrounging human garbage.
Similarly, this crow had found a small fish, but it must have been quite tough since it was pecking away at it and not just swallowing it whole.
Great Blue Herons are much more common than in Saskatchewan.
I saw river otters a few times in the water. This one was out of the water by a busy path, in the middle of the afternoon.
A handsome black slug:
and a squadron of pelicans: (both at the Creston Wildlife Area on the drive home)
I'm falling behind posting photos so I thought I'd group some of the more abstract ones together.
This was on the Juan De Fuca trail near Mystic Beach. I had the vague idea of running this trail, but I'm not so sure after seeing all the roots. It would be slow going.
The last five months I've managed to maintain a good (for me) volume of running, bringing my yearly total to just over 2600 km (1600 miles), which equates to 50 km (30 miles) per week. I'm pretty happy with that. Amazingly (touch wood) I haven't had any major issues - my knees and feet and IT bands have been quiet. There's nothing magical about 2600, it's just a nice round number, as is 50. Of course, competitive runners will do a lot more than that. It's possible I could do more but I'm a little nervous about pushing too hard and ending up having problems. The increase over the last year or two has come quite naturally, without really pushing. If I end up increasing because it feels good, that's great. If not, that's fine too.
When we left on a road trip to BC at the end of July I still had 36 km to go to make 2600. But by getting up early, I managed to run every day. I ran along the Bow river in Cochrane, on a vague track in Merritt, along the Boundary Bay Dyke in Tsawwassen, and along the Songhees Walkway and Galloping Goose Trail in Victoria.
I enjoy seeing the hummingbirds in British Columbia, but I was sad to find this one dead in a pool of water, food for water striders. It was a place where you might expect to see a hummingbird - the native plant garden at the Royal BC Museum. However, the garden is next to the archives building with large windows reflecting the garden. It's not surprising that a bird would mistakenly (and fatally) fly into them.
