Flamingo Friday: Domestic disputes

Nest-building season can bring out the worst in all of us.

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Doing some Sunday dusting

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Flamingo Friday: Synchronicity

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So long, and thanks for all the shellfish

This Monday I learned, to my great dismay and regret, that on Sunday June 22 the National Zoo is closing its Invertebrate House, the only part of the zoo that highlighted the species representing 97% of all animal life and an incredible, awe-inspiring diversity of shapes, life cycles, and behaviors.

For more on the closing, you can read Gwen Pearson’s excellent post on Wired.com.

There’s nothing really to do about it except be sorry. I myself think it’s a tremendous shame that we’ve lost not just beautiful and fascinating animals but, through them, the chance to introduce the public to the enormous variation and value of species that many people don’t even realize exist.

So in preparation for the closing this weekend, in celebration of the Invertebrate House and its denizens, I’m posting a few more pictures of these astounding animals. Enjoy.

[cuttlefish; they can change their skin's texture in less than a second:]

[brittle star (related to starfish and sea urchins):]

[jellyfish:]

[sea anemones:]

[cleaner(?) shrimp on a cnidarian (maybe a soft coral?):]

[tube worm:]

[sea urchin:]

[soft coral or sea anemone:]

[mantis shrimp:]

Goodbye, all...

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Flamingo Friday: F is for Filtration

For more on these birds' feeding style, check out my post "A Strainer Among Us."

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The many modes of devouring

In farmers’ markets the strawberries are plump and bursting with flavor; the tomatoes swell on the vine; eggs when cracked spill yolks gold as suns. It is the season of lusciousness and gluttony.

We are only one of many species stuffing our faces with the summer’s bounty. Caterpillars are chomping holes through the succulent flesh of new leaves until the rose bush is airy as lace; robins grip slick, wriggling worms in their beaks and glare at me suspiciously; ladybugs crush the fat green bodies of aphids between their mandibles with an almost palpable glee.

There should be something disturbing about this orgy of gorging, and yet I can’t find it in me to be unsettled.

Instead, I’m impressed by the sheer diversity of creatures eating and the various kinds of eating they engage in. It serves as a much-needed reminder that the world is vast, and mysterious, and full of mouths.

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Flamingo Friday: Season of chest bumping

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