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grrlscientist | September 30, 2008tags: Forster's Tern, Sterna forsteri, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Forster's Tern, Sterna forsteri, photographed at Robbins Park, Smith Point, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 12 June 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Read how to identify this species below ..
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
A pretty picture, and well composed; with the bird's head turned haughtily towards the observer, we can't see the exact…
grrlscientist | September 29, 2008tags: Callanis Stone Circle, Callanish, Isle of Lewis Scotland, Image of the Day
Detail of one of the Callanish stones. The stones are Lewisian gneiss, formed approximately 2.5 billion years ago.
Image: Dave Rintoul, Summer 2008 [larger view].
grrlscientist | September 29, 2008tags: Common Tern, Sterna hirundo, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Common Tern, Sterna hirundo, photographed at the Texas City Dike, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 19 September 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
This is the image that springs to mind when a birder hears the word "tern": a graceful rear end, the wingtips tapering into infinity above a long pointed tail; a slender, flat-…
grrlscientist | September 28, 2008tags: Callanis Stone Circle, Callanish, Isle of Lewis Scotland, Image of the Day
Callanish (Callanais) stone circle on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland.
This image present a view of central monolith and central cairn.
Image: Dave Rintoul, Summer 2008. [larger view].
grrlscientist | September 28, 2008tags: Royal Tern, Sterna maxima, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Royal Tern, Sterna maxima, photographed at Quintana and Bryan Beaches, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 3 September 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/2000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Bring that recent ruffian of a Caspian Tern back up on your screen, and turn everything we said about that bird into its opposite. Here's a slender, graceful-footed, pale-…
grrlscientist | September 27, 2008tags: Callanis Stone Circle, Callanish, Isle of Lewis Scotland, Image of the Day
Callanish (Callanais) stone circle on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland.
Earliest construction at this site dates to 3000 BC.
Image: Dave Rintoul, Summer 2008 [larger view].
Read more about this.
grrlscientist | September 27, 2008tags: Caspian Tern, Sterna caspia, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Caspian Tern, Sterna caspia, photographed at Bolivar Flats, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 16 August 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Scared yet? This is about the meanest-looking bird I've ever seen, which identifies it immediately as a Caspian Tern.
But what are the features that make this animal look so intimidating…
grrlscientist | September 26, 2008tags: Callanais Stone Circle, Callanish, Isle of Lewis Scotland, Image of the Day
Callanish.
Callanish (Callanais) stone circle on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland.
View from southeast.
Image: Dave Rintoul, Summer 2008 [larger view].
grrlscientist | September 26, 2008tags: Wood Duck, Aix sponsa, birds, poetry, The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry
Abstract.
Male Wood Duck, Aix sponsa.
Image: John Del Rio [larger view].
This has been a difficult and frightening week, and I admit I was especially terrified to learn that my bank failed and was seized by the SEC last night -- how am I going to pay rent this month?? -- and I've wondered if we all would make it to Friday without the entire nation ending up hungry and homeless. But I am deplaning in Seattle at this moment, and getting ready to spend the weekend with my bird pals and my university pals, as…
grrlscientist | September 26, 2008tags: Black Tern, Chlidonias niger surinamensis, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Black Tern, Chlidonias niger surinamensis, photographed at Smith Point Hawk Watch, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 15 August 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
After all of those big, mean-looking terns, it's nice to see one as sweet and gentle as this little bird. How do we know it's little? The pebbles and…
grrlscientist | September 25, 2008tags: Butt of Lewis, Isle of Lewis, Isle of Lewis Scotland, Image of the Day
Butt (north end) of the Isle of Lewis, approx. 58.5º N.
Image: Dave Rintoul, Summer 2008 [larger view].
grrlscientist | September 25, 2008tags: Gull-billed Tern, Sterna nilotica, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Gull-billed Tern, Sterna nilotica, photographed flying over Bolivar Flats, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 6 June 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/2000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Read a detailed analysis for identifying this species below the fold ...
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Compare this bird's shape and structure to the Sandwich Tern in a recent quiz. You'll notice…
grrlscientist | September 24, 2008tags: Baile Tughaidh, Blackhouse Village, ancient human dwellings, Gearranan Scotland, Isle of Lewis Scotland, Image of the Day
Baile Tughaidh.
Blackhouse village at Gearranan (Isle of Lewis, Scotland). These thatched-roof, drystone walled houses were still inhabited until 1976.
Image: Dave Rintoul, Summer 2008 [larger view].
On the exposed Atlantic coast of the Isle of Lewis, the blackhouse village of Gearrannan lies steeped in history and sited in an environment of outstanding natural beauty. Since 1989 the local community trust Urras nan Gearrannan (the Garenin Trust) has been…
grrlscientist | September 24, 2008tags: Sandwich Tern, Sterna sandvichensis, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Sandwich Tern, Sterna sandvichensis, photographed flying over Quintana and Bryan Beach, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 26 August 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Below the fold is a detailed analysis for how to identify this species ..
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Does anybody else remember The Book of Terns? My favorite was the sketch of…
grrlscientist | September 23, 2008tags: Royal Tern, Sterna maxima, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Royal Tern, Sterna maxima, photographed flying over Frenchtown Road, Bolivar Peninsula, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 22 August 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/2000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Below the fold is a detailed analysis for how to ID this species ..
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
The taxonomically savvy will have noticed that these quizzes are proceeding in roughly…
grrlscientist | September 12, 2008tags: Sandwalk, Down House, Darwin, nature, photography, London, England, Bromley, England, Professor Steve Steve
Darwin's "weed garden" experiment, located near the pathway next to Down House, near the Gardens.
Image: GrrlScientist 31 August 2008 [larger view].
Sunday, the day after the Nature Network Science Blog conference was over, Mike, Mo and I caught a train to Bromley, England, where we toured Darwin's Down House and Gardens and walked along the famous Sandwalk that Darwin once walked. This is part two of my photoessay series about Down House, where I focus on the Gardens behind…
grrlscientist | September 11, 2008tags: Sandwalk, Darwin's Down House, nature, photography, London, England, Bromley, England
Light Shining into a Tangled Bank.
A view through a thicket of trees as seen from the Sandwalk near Darwin's Down House in Bromley, England.
Image: GrrlScientist 31 August 2008 [larger view].
The last paragraph in Darwin's On The Origin of Species;
It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately…
grrlscientist | September 7, 2008tags: Broad-winged hawk, Buteo platypterus, identify this bird, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Broad-winged hawk, Buteo platypterus, photographed at Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 April 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/800s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
grrlscientist | September 2, 2008tags: London Zoo, Black-cheeked lovebirds, Agapornis nigrigenis, ornithology, birds, parrots, avian
Black-cheeked lovebirds, Agapornis nigrigenis, a native of the African nation of Zambia. Image taken at the London Zoo.
Image: GrrlScientist 2 September 2008 [larger view].
Yesterday, I went to the London Zoo with one of my blog colleagues and reader, Bob O'Hara. Despite the fact that I dragged him through all the aviaries on the grounds, and spent the entire day snapping pictures of birds, he still speaks to me (I did bring him to a pub afterwards, so perhaps he forgot his resenment?).…
esiegel | April 24, 2008(Thanks to Starts With A Bang! reader benhead.) The Hubble Space Telescope has released some beautiful images of colliding galaxies in a huge collection! Here are some of my favorites, with my very own names for them (real name in parentheses).
We'll start with the Glowing Arrow (Arp 148):
The Highway Windshield (NGC 6240)
The Flaming Splinter (NGC 6670):
And finally, I call this one "my new desktop wallpaper:"
I was going to write a whole bunch about this, but I have been beaten to the punch by Universe Today, Bad Astronomy, and Will Gater. I'll have to wake up earlier next time! In the…