James Bay Shorebird Project 2017
- page 5 of 6 |
|
Mammals and
more - 30 July to 14 August 2017 |
 |
Just about every year we see a beached
Beluga on Longridge. We hypothesize that when the tide goes out,
Belugas get stranded on the ridge, which extends about 5 km north into James
Bay.1 August 2017. |
|
 |
Anne and Mark look
sadly at the Beluga, which may have been giving birth when it got
into difficulties. |
|
 |
It appears that the female was giving birth to a baby
Beluga. |
|
 |
American (Pine) Marten
frequently seen around camp. 30 July 2017. |
|
 |
Bronze Copper
butterfly has undergone a range expansion into James Bay since we
started going there in 2009. It was the most common butterfly on 9
August. |
VIDEO: Click photo above or this link |
|
 |
Unidentified
caterpillars on Yarrow on 4 August 2017.
VIDEO: caterpillar eating the flower. |
|
 |
The colourful Hudson Bay Toad is always
a delight to see. This year the number of toadlets was down
considerably from the hundreds we usually saw daily. Marsh dried
up this year. |
|
 |
Predacious Diving
Beetle walking in search of water. We found several dead, probably
lack of water. 10 August 2017. |
|
 |
Unlike southern Ontario and elsewhere in
Ontario, it's a very dry year on the James Bay Coast. Coastal ponds
and marshes were dry, small dead fish were on the dry mud, and our creek
where we get water was still flowing, but less every day. |
|
 |
I love the fossils at Longridge. David
Rudkin at the Royal Ontario Museum identified them:
"the compact domal form is small corallite
favositid ("honeycomb")colony - can't nail it down precisely,
but it's most similar to things known in the older literature as
Favosites hemisphericus
'minutus'.
It almost certainly derives from the Lower Devonian Stooping River
Formation, which is the only rock unit that is surficially exposed
in that area." |
|
 |
Squirrel-tail Grass in
the marsh at Longridge. 13 August 2017.
VIDEO: Click photo above or this link. |
|
End of page 5.
Now go to page 6. |
|
|