Photography
bnsullivan | August 26, 2009
They look like a cross between a caterpillar and a tricked out centipede. They crawl about with considerable agility, they are voracious feeders, and they certainly know how to defend themselves. Meet the Bearded Fireworm (Hermodice carunculata), a free-moving marine Polychaete worm.
This species is widely distributed from the Caribbean, throughout the warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean (including Florida and the Bahamas), and all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. All of the images in this post were captured in the Mediterranean, in the waters around Cyprus and Greece.
H. carunculata is…
grrlscientist | August 25, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
A tunnel to an open street in Tallinn's Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
grrlscientist | August 25, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
Light.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
I thought I was done sharing pictures from the wall surrounding the Old Town portion of Tallinn, but I was wrong. After looking through my images today, I realized I have more that I want to share with you.
The wall.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
This is a look at the wall as it curves around the city. I really like this image because there is so much to see…
grrlscientist | August 25, 2009tags: Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Archilochus colubris, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Moulting adult female Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Archilochus colubris, photographed in Brandon, South Dakota. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Terry Sohl, 12 August 2009 [larger view]
Photo taken with Canon 50D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
aardvarchaeology | August 25, 2009
From Aard regular CCBC, a heritage management conundrum to ponder.
This is a curious situation that I heard about on metafilter.com. I have included some of the links.
Near Kaufdorf, Switzerland there is an auto junkyard that was in use from the 1930s to 1970. It has become overgrown with various forest flora and people have found it an interesting place to take photos. Recently, the Swiss government has decreed the place an environmental hazard and says that it must be cleared and paved to prevent fluids from seeping into the ground. Many people have protested on the grounds that:
This is…
grrlscientist | August 24, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
Looking towards the next tower along the wall around Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
This is, in my opinion, one of the most spectacular views I've ever had the pleasure to see. I hope my photographs from atop the wall around Old Town can capture this for you well enough that you understand what I saw and experienced while I was in Tallinn.
Looking towards the next tower along the inner portion of wall around Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.…
grrlscientist | August 24, 2009tags: White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher,, Melaenornis fischeri, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher, Melaenornis fischeri, photographed in Nakuru National Park, Kenya, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 29 August 2006 [larger view].
Nikon D2X, 200-400 VR lens at 310 mm ISO 160, f/4.5, 1/160 sec.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
bnsullivan | August 24, 2009
The pretty creatures pictured here look like anemones, but they are not true anemones. They are Cerianthids, commonly referred to as 'tube anemones', which are taxonomically quite distinct from true anemones.
Cerianthids and true anemones do belong to the same phylum, Cnidaria, and the same class, Anthozoa, but tube anemones belong to the subclass Ceriantipatharia, a taxon that also includes the so-called 'black corals' (Antipatharia).
One of the visible features that distinguishes Cerianthid tube anemones from true anemones is the morphology of their tentacles. The macro photo below…
aardvarchaeology | August 24, 2009
[More blog entries about Sweden, photography, manor; Närke, Askersund, foto, herrgård.]
My part-time employers, the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, sometimes receive rather hefty donations. This is how they came to own Stjernsund manor near Askersund in the province of Närke / Nericia. (Don't confuse it with Christopher Polhem's early industrial centre Stjärnsund in Dalecarlia.)
Stjernsund received its säteri manorial charter in 1637. The original buildings were replaced by the current neo-Classical structures shortly after 1800. Stjernsund then belonged to members of the Bernadotte…
grrlscientist | August 23, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
A room inside the wall around Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
This is a room inside the wall that surrounds the Old Town portion of Tallinn, Estonia. As you can see, this room is in remarkably pristine condition, despite being older than god. Sorry that the pic is so bad, but the ambient lighting was impossible to deal with.
Another look at the room inside the wall around Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 […
grrlscientist | August 23, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
The wall around Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
The Historic Center of Tallinn, known as "Old Town", was one of the best fortified cities in Europe, with 66 towers adorning the city wall. Today, only 20 or so of these cannon towers remain. The history of Talinn as a trading town is still evident in the beauty of its buildings (for example, refer to the lovely dragons that I photographed on this building, which is now an art gallery).
Entrance to the Castle…
grrlscientist | August 23, 2009tags: Black Tern, Chlidonias niger, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Black Tern, Chlidonias niger, photographed at Galveston's East Beach, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 14 July 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200 ,Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/800s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
[Mystery bird] Black Tern, Chlidonias niger, photographed at Galveston's East Beach, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48…
grrlscientist | August 22, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
Amber Mall.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
This lovely building reminded me of NYC's Flatiron Building in Manhattan, a triangular-shaped building that once was the tallest building in the world. This building in the Old Town portion of Tallinn, Estonia, is where Baltic amber -- fossilized pine tree resin -- is sold. Baltic amber is the oldest amber in the world, but it is not as likely to have insect "inclusions" as the much younger ambers found in the Dominican Republic (the…
grrlscientist | August 22, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
Sightseeing Train.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
grrlscientist | August 22, 2009tags: Crowned Plover, Crowned Lapwing, Vanellus coronatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Crowned Plover, also known as the Crowned Lapwing, Vanellus coronatus, photographed in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 29 August 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D2X, 200-400 Nikon Lens at 400.
So of course, before you give me an ID, I have to ask you how many legs you see in this picture.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | August 21, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
Phallus.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)