Flamingo Friday: Face Forward

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Flamingo Friday: Overlap

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Three haikus on San Francisco beasts

Floating and falling,
the gulls swirl like flecks of ash:
risen from what fire?

Sky of clouded pearl.
The gulls sweep like music struck
from the Bridge’s strings.

Companionable
sausages, the sea lions
sardine each other.


[And this also concludes the Just Go Do It Photo Challenge for Day 17: Colors.]

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In which I demonstrate great powers of recovery

Coming back from the dead-tired after a week-long conference, I have not forgotten the 30-day photo challenge (see biobabbler’s blog for more).

Many of the following photos were taken on their appropriate day last week, others—well, weren’t.

A friend:

Joey and I have been friends since 7th grade (I used to be taller). We were in Delaware together this October.


Humans meet nature: what better example than a building touched by rainbow?

Beauty:

I spied these rain-beaded leaves lying on the wooden curb surrounding a tree on the sidewalk on my walk to work, proving that even the grimy streets of Dupont Circle are crammed with loveliness.


Dance and shadows (two in one):

These autumn sweet-gum leaves were on the verge of a gavotte, I’m sure.


Artificial light:

Outside in (I was inside my hotel room taking a picture of the sunset behind these buildings):

A face: San Francisco sea lions! (more in a later post)

Animals:

This is a ladybug larva. I think they look like crazy lion-spiky-monsters from old bestiaries.


Water:

Sky:

The stranger:

Technically I was the stranger in this mew gull’s winter habitat, but I had never seen one before (look at that tiny little bill!), so I’m saying that counts.

More soon, this time with words!

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Flamingo Friday: Tuck

This also matches the requirements of Day 4 of the Photo Challenge (see biobabbler's blog for more shots in this series), which is "natural light." (Admittedly, I didn't take the photo today, but since almost all of my shots are in natural light anyway, I think it all works out.)

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Two in One: the challenge continues

I’m including two more shots for the 30-day photo challenge (see biobabbler’s blog for more). The first is on the topic of “Where You Live”:

Our condo unit overlooks a neighboring building whose roof is in a state of disrepair and collects—and retains—water. This is bad for the building next door but good for us, since we can practice puddle meteorology—if the water’s frozen, it’s cold; if it’s rippling, it’s windy, if there are pockmarks on the surface, it’s raining. It’s a great system.

It also serves as a place for starlings and other birds to drink and wade in the morning, and it captures the stunning sunsets we see from our window with a clarity that’s almost better than the original.

The second is “black and white”:

And probably needs no real explanation.

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"AND it's predatory!"

At biobabbler’s urging, I’m participating in a 30(ish)-day photo challenge (supposedly leading up to xmas, but I don’t think that’s going to happen—New Year’s, maybe).

The first day’s challenge is a self-portrait, and here’s my attempt:

No, I didn’t do this just to keep most of me obscured. On the contrary, I think it’s the way most of my friends—especially on shorelines—see me, as I lead with my hand and whatever organism I’m pointing out (“Do you see the hole bored in this moon-snail shell?” “Look at this skate egg case!” “Oooh, I think this is a land-snail shell! Did you know all land snails are simultaneous hermaphrodites?”).

The shell in this photo is indeed a lobed moon-snail shell, and the beveled drill hole is the mark of cannibalism: another moon snail scraped away at this one’s shell (also secreting acid all the while to help in the shell’s breakdown), then liquefied the animal within and sucked it up.

Isn’t nature beautiful?

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Lump Day arrives again

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Flamingo Friday: Foreground

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Seven Science-y Topics for the Thanksgiving Table

Running out of conversation starters for the holiday? These subjects will keep the whole group engaged:

1. The U.S. National Dog Show

[this breed ("schnerrier") not recognized by the American Kennel club]

A great all-around topic for dog lovers (favorite breeds; favorite fur-styles; “I love it when the Afghan hounds/Komondors run!”) and a good springboard for discussions on artificial selection.


2. Turkeys

Of course. More opportunities to discuss artificial selection, tryptophan

, wild turkeys taking over (sub)urban areas, and why we’re eating such a basically boring food (there is no good reason).


3. The science of food

I’m more of a zoology/ecology-focused conversationalist myself, but there’s a lot of ground to cover here, from the pH of cranberries and how heavy cream whips to new research into how we process taste (though I’m a bit skeptical of the interpretations of some of the studies).


4. Local bird sightings

This gives the birders a chance to talk about migratory ducks and the first juncos of the year and gives the non-birders an opportunity to drink more.


5. Why everything related to biology-and/of-queerness is problematic and fraught

If you have an LGBT gathering, you can spend a good 45 minutes—at least—rehashing the topic of homosexuality and heterosexuality as social constructs and why dolphin sex lives (as fun as they are to discuss) can never be the final word on human identity politics.


6. Thankfulness

Probably I should be grateful more often and regularly, but one a year is a start, right? Among the many wonderful things on your list, consider adding primary producers, corrective lenses, wildlife refuges, and pollinators.


7. The myriad sexual systems of marine invertebrates

Because it’s always the right time to talk about barnacle endowment, sex-changing snails, and parasitic males.

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(Sub)Urban Incursions: Revenge of the Turkeys

Once, back in grad school, I led my departmental ecology/evolution reading group in a discussion of the sometimes funny, sometimes uneasy interactions of humans and wildlife in “human” areas.

We talked about several problems, but the one I remember best was the influx of wild turkeys into metro-Boston neighborhoods like Brookline, MA.

Around that time, the Boston Globe had done a story on the matter that included quotes from residents who had called the police over turkey sightings or incidents. These were some of the best—or, at least, most entertaining—quotes I have ever read in the newspaper on any subject. For example:

“Caller reports ‘giant’ turkey (½ the size of an elephant). Fears it will wander into traffic in front of Starbucks.”

“Caller reports 18 turkeys in her backyard. ‘Something must be done,’ caller says. ‘It’s just not right.’”

It’s been years since that discussion, but every fall I think of the turkeys invading Brookline, and this year I decided to do a quick online search to see if they were still a problem.

Sure enough, I found news stories like these from last year and this one:

Wild Turkeys Overrun Brookline, Mass. (ABC news)

Turkeys strike back, attacking the people who eat them (MSN)

Wild turkey invades home in Brookline (Boston Globe)

—And, this just in: Wild Staten Island Turkeys Everywhere (Audubon magazine)

The problems of living in harmony with the animals that we have either previously displaced or unwittingly attracted to an area (because of the food or habitat our own behaviors provide) are many. Different situations will require different behaviors, from acceptance and avoidance to actions ranging from better trash and land management all the way to culling.

At their most basic, though, all of the solutions will require us to recognize that we are not the only species out there, even in areas that we think of as ours. We will have to move beyond our feelings of entitlement and think about what we can do to live around other animals without either animosity or the excessive, hubristic fascination that leads us to pet bears or feed bananas to Coney Island seals.

Until that happy, enlightened time arrives, however, we can at least entertain ourselves with reports like these:

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Woolly Thinking: some ovine religious study

I love church signs. They’re full of entertaining parables, made-up proverbs, and easily misconstrued phrases.

One of my favorites, on a church sign in the Detroit area during the winter holidays, expressed this wish:

“May the Earth fall to its knees

In a whisper of peace”

Just imagining the logistics of that one has brightened my spirits when suffering through dark moments like long grocery-store lines.

I mention this on a blog about wildlife, however, because early this fall I came across the following sign announcing an upcoming sermon:

Now, this obviously highlights the integral nature of sheep to religion, but—just how do we read that?

On the one hand, there’s the rather snarky, “I have other sheep also, Gerald.”

On the other, there’s the more solely descriptive, “I have other sheep, also Gerald.”

The latter being more appropriate for a biblical verse like, “Rejoice with me; for I have found my [Gerald] which was lost.”

That’s the great thing about religion, isn’t it? It’s all about interpretation.

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Flamingo Friday: Triangles

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Fall Dog series (4)

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Not-so-wild Wildlife: Found Right Here...

Seen along a path in an upper portion of Rock Creek Park. Probably not as surprising as the guinea pig itself, but highly entertaining.

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Flamingo Friday: Sweet Sleep

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Fall Dog series (3)

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Flamingo Friday: Portrait of the Flamingo as a Young Bird

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Fall Dog series (2)

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Flamingo Friday: 86

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A Halloween Gallery

[nut-skulls]

…Of mostly spiders, even though I personally think spiders are only scary if you’re an insect—

-At which point they could be very scary indeed.

["Help me..."]

In any case, spiders are remarkably abundant and diverse, and there’s nothing like owning a macro lens to realize that—and make others realize it as well.

[I did say "mostly" spiders]

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