Trent Watts
Well-Known Member
A trip last Sunday to a friend's acreage was rewarded with lots of birds and even more Dermacentor ticks.
For someone like me with a poor ear for sound the Merlin Bird ID is so valuable to ID birds. I could hear a loud bird continuously singing in a large poplar tree. Merlin said it was a Warbling Vireo so I spent over an hour looking toward the source of the sound. With help from another person we eventually spotted the bird and I was able to get a rather poor shot but still it was worth the wait. I then walked through some tall grass and was very close to a couple of Grey Catbirds chasing each other. I knew there would be ticks so when I returned to my car I removed my glasses to take off my sweater. After pulling off about 15 ticks I got in my car and drove off, only to realize after a couple of blocks I had left my glasses. I returned and sure enough I had run over my glasses. On the drive home I removed another 3 ticks, knowing there would be more. Over the next 5 days I found another 5 ticks in my house and 2 that had attached to the skin on the back of my knee during the night.
These are likely the American Dog Tick (Dermacentor variabilis) which does not carry Lyme disease.
These two shots are the ones I used to submit to the Web based app E-Tick developed at the U of S here in Saskatoon. You can take pictures of a tick and submit it for ID.
Dorsal view.
Ventral view.
The elusive Warbling Vireo.
The Gray Catbird.
For someone like me with a poor ear for sound the Merlin Bird ID is so valuable to ID birds. I could hear a loud bird continuously singing in a large poplar tree. Merlin said it was a Warbling Vireo so I spent over an hour looking toward the source of the sound. With help from another person we eventually spotted the bird and I was able to get a rather poor shot but still it was worth the wait. I then walked through some tall grass and was very close to a couple of Grey Catbirds chasing each other. I knew there would be ticks so when I returned to my car I removed my glasses to take off my sweater. After pulling off about 15 ticks I got in my car and drove off, only to realize after a couple of blocks I had left my glasses. I returned and sure enough I had run over my glasses. On the drive home I removed another 3 ticks, knowing there would be more. Over the next 5 days I found another 5 ticks in my house and 2 that had attached to the skin on the back of my knee during the night.
These are likely the American Dog Tick (Dermacentor variabilis) which does not carry Lyme disease.
These two shots are the ones I used to submit to the Web based app E-Tick developed at the U of S here in Saskatoon. You can take pictures of a tick and submit it for ID.
Dorsal view.
Ventral view.
The elusive Warbling Vireo.
The Gray Catbird.
