Photography
grrlscientist | June 25, 2009tags: Juvenile Martial Eagle, Polemaetus bellicosus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Juvenile Martial Eagle, Polemaetus bellicosus, photographed in Nakuru National Park, Kenya, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 29 July 2006 [larger view].
Nikon D2X, 200-400 VR lens at 200. ISO 200, 1/2000, f 5.6.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
sjurvetson | June 24, 2009Alluring, enticing, begging us to come pay a visit...
Like a moth to the flame, before there were flames...
Reflecting our reflections...
and echoing in the dreams of Neil Armstrong...
grrlscientist | June 24, 2009tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Dahlia, Dahlia hybrid.
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side
on Columbus Avenue between West 81st and West 82nd streets.
Image: GrrlScientist, 20 June 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | June 24, 2009tags: Cliff Swallow, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Cliff Swallow, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, photographed at Attwater Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 30 May 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200 ,Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
laelaps | June 24, 2009
Mother gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) Mandara holding her child Kibibi. Photographed at the National Zoo.
sjurvetson | June 23, 2009For my last rocket-centric post, let me show the big project that I helped with, from a new prefecture for civilian space explorers, called Rocket Mavericks....
She lept off the pad with a glorious 30 ft. plume.
Computer simulations estimated she would scream to 100,000 ft. at Mach 3
⢠22 ft. tall, 540 lbs
⢠Booster stage: machined aluminum fin can and inter-stage coupler mounted directly on the Q motor casing.
⢠Upper stage: Custom wound composites, titanium tip
⢠Festooned with redundant computers, GPS, RF transmission
⢠Q booster staging to a P motor with a custom forward thermite…
grrlscientist | June 23, 2009tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Dahlia, Dahlia hybrid.
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side
on Columbus Avenue between West 81st and West 82nd streets.
Image: GrrlScientist, 20 June 2009 [larger view].
ddobbs | June 23, 2009
Perhaps because I so enjoyed the time I spent at sea learning about fish, I particularly enjoyed this collection of Nick Cobbing's photos of ice, sea, and people who work them â scientists, fishermen, adventurers. Cobbing has a great eye for color and form, particularly those of the icy north and the sea; his study of the Greenland ice, fast fading, is particularly stunning, and I very much like his photo account of the voyage of the Nooderlicht, pictured above â a 100-year-old schooner restored and then sailed from Svalbard to Greenland. And don't miss "The Watch Keeper," which is about…
grrlscientist | June 23, 2009tags: Pigeon Guillemot, Cepphus columba, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Pigeon Guillemot, Cepphus columba, photographed at Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Terry Sohl, 8 June 2009 [larger view]
Photo taken with a Canon 50D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
awild | June 23, 2009
An ant, climbing from the pit of a predatory ant lion.
The predator, buried in sand at the base of the pit, hurls a volley of debris towards its target.
Caught in the falling sand, the ant slides back into the pit.
The ant tries to escape, and again the unseen predator hurls a load of sand into her path.
No matter which way the ant turns, the ant lion adjusts its aim, sending up clouds of sand and preventing the ant from gaining traction on the steep walls of the pit.
In the end, the ant lion wins.
A tight crop of the previous image shows the jaws of the ant lion reaching up…
grrlscientist | June 22, 2009tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Dahlia, Dahlia hybrid.
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side
on Columbus Avenue between West 81st and West 82nd streets.
Image: GrrlScientist, 20 June 2009 [larger view].
Unfortunately, with the wind and rain, this flower made another moving target for my camera.
awild | June 22, 2009
Pogonomyrmex badius
The Archbold Biological Station hosts 100+ species of ants. Here are a few of them.
Trachymyrmex septentrionalis
Platythyrea punctata
Strumigenys rogeri
Cyphomyrmex rimosus (queen)
Dorymyrmex bureni
Brachymyrmex obscurior
Paratrechina longicornis
Xenomyrmex floridanus
Cardiocondyla emeryi
Camponotus floridanus
Pachycondyla stigma
Pheidole dentigula
Pyramica eggersi
Pseudomyrmex gracilis, with larva
grrlscientist | June 22, 2009tags: Pied Avocet, Recurvirostra avosetta, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Pied Avocet, Recurvirostra avosetta, photographed in Walvis Bay, Namibia, Africa [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dennis Paulson, April 2007 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
laelaps | June 22, 2009
Rokan the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), photographed at the National Zoo.
sjurvetson | June 21, 2009Drag races add a bit to all of the excitement, not only for their competitive elements, but also because the action fills the skies, sometimes with mishap.
This Great Gizmo drag race was sponsored by Wildman Rocketry at LDRS27 in Argonia, Kansas, with each flying the same kit:
It's a rare treat to see them all roar off the pad at the same time, and then spiral around like Keystone Cops. The sparky one at the bottom went into a death spiral and crashed into the farm dirt near me. (Since these are all the same rocket kit, I suspect the difference in flight dynamics derive from differences in…
awild | June 21, 2009
dawn in the scrub
I spent last week in central Florida at the Archbold Biological Station.
Archbold preserves 5,000 hectares of Florida sand scrub, some of the last remaining patches of an ecosystem now largely lost to agriculture and strip malls. The sand scrub is an odd place, a fossil beach from when sea levels were high enough to restrict peninsular Florida to a narrow sandbar. Water runs right through the coarse sand, leaving the scrub looking much like a desert in spite of regular afternoon rains. Cacti thrive. It is a paradoxical place.
The scrub is also remarkable for…
grrlscientist | June 21, 2009tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Pink Dahlia, Dahlia hybrid.
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side
on Columbus Avenue between West 81st and West 82nd streets.
Image: GrrlScientist, 20 June 2009 [larger view].
I am feeling a little better, so I am once more photographing the Big Apple so I can share the images with you. It has been raining a lot in June -- it's been one of the coldest and wettest Junes on record -- so the flowers have lots of raindrops on them, and a lot of insects huddled between their petals, too. Unfortunately, the wind is…
grrlscientist | June 21, 2009tags: Cedar Waxwing, Bombycilla cedrororum, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Cedar Waxwing, Bombycilla cedrororum, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 12 November 2007 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2007:11:12 09:11:15
Exposure Time: 1/639
F-Number: 8.00
ISO: 400
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.