there will come one May night
of every year that she’s alive
when the whole world smells of lilacs
— Al Purdy, “May 23, 1980″.
May 19, 2009
The prophecy is fulfilled.
September 30, 2008
Homo sapiens!
Not much is easier than bioblitzing a hospital room (provided you restrict yourself to macroscopic life). Jordan Charles came into this world at 7 lb 12 ounces, and covered in fur. The fur, of course, is lanugo, an interesting mystery of evolution in its own right, and also a possible piece of the larger puzzle of human hairlessness.
September 24, 2008
Beach bugs.
Despite spending some time with What’s that bug, I can’t identify the millipede, spider, or bees above. The flower, of course, is Goldenrod. A reddish centipede, 3 cm long, shared a pit trap with the spider, but the photo is kind of blurry.
September 21, 2008
Ottawa River
Here for the weekend, I’ll try to see who lives on the beach. Here are my over/unders:
Plants: 24
Birds: 5
Bugs and other crunchy things (phylum arthropoda): 24
Rodents: 2
Bivalves: ?
August 30, 2008
Bats!
My wife has developed a methodology for catching bats that find their way into the house. It’s sound and efficient, though not as elegant as this guy’s approach. Despite their name in so many languages (letuchaya mysh, fledermaus, etc.), bats are not rodents. In fact, order Chiroptera appears to be more closely related to primates than to mice. By process of elimination, I believe that the recently released critter below is a little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus. I also believe (though I can’t find the reference) that bats are the only known reservoir of rabies in the Laurentians.
What smells with it’s tongue, gives live birth, and loves a sun bath?
My 4-year old kept an eye on this guy while I went into the house for my camera. It’s flicking its tongue to get a smell of the surroundings; it’s tongue is forked to enable it to smell in stereo. It is Thamnophis sirtalis, the common garter snake, one of only a handful of species of reptile that give live birth.
What!? I thought live birth (and lactation) was the very definition of being a mammal. But, according to Wikipedia, the current definition of mammals is “sweat glands, including sweat glands modified for milk production, hair, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex region in the brain.”
What a tangled web we weave when we try to classify life on earth!
June 5, 2007
Nitrogen fix.
Meet Bradyrhizobium. You can’t see him in this picture of common lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus), but he’s there. The bacterium lives in symbiosis with the plant, acquiring nitrogen from the atmosphere and fertilizing the soil. In exchange, the plant provides carbon and almost a quarter of its photosynthate. (Hmm, could massive lupine invasion be responsible for the nitrogen runoff that presumably is contributing to the livelihood of Lac Mercier’s cyanobacteria? It seems unlikely; I haven’t seen any areas completely taken over by lupine.)
More about the bacteria: The genus Bradyrhizobium is but one of several taxa of rhizobia - nitrogen fixers that live symbiotically in the roots of leguminous plants and provide the biosphere with the lion’s share of its nitrogen. The symbiosis is far more complex than described above. The good folks at microbewiki break it down
More about the plant: Native to western North America, Lupinus polyphyllus has been widely introduced as both an ornament in gardens and as a soil improver and stabilizer. It escapes frequently. With its competitive nature, and its ability to change the native soil chemistry in favour of nitrogen-demanding species, it has the capacity to become invasive. For the most part though, it’s more of a “let’s keep our eye on it” kind of species, and rarely is of high concern. The northern Europeans have a nice fact sheet on it.
May 8, 2007
butterflies
In my classroom at school we had caterpillars and now they are cocoons. My teacher put them in a big net thing and five caterpillars came out as butterflies.
May 3, 2007
Hundreds of caterpillars have appeared out of nowhere!
Ever since Monday, hundreds of caterpilliars have been seen all over Maryland.
On Monday, I saw one caterpilliar n the steps up to my home.
Tuesday, at my school I saw a girl with a caught caterpilliar, so evidently I was not the only one to see them before. that girl and her friends caught some more, so that meant that there were more. When I got home, I saw a few in various places, three in a holly tree and seven adult and one baby on the stucco wall of my house.
Wednsday, I didn’t spend time outside.
Today, I made this blog after finding one every two seconds or so outside the A.V. Williams Building on the University of Maryland campus.
Here is a picture.
caterpiller inn
Well, caterpillar inn is a nice place for caterpillars to stay for a little while, no charge. There are only two workers and they dont get paid becuase there is no boss and always room for more caterpillars. We always work together our names are Shane and Stephen Shane open and closes the door to caterpillar inn and Stephen puts the caterpilars inside. Well if you find any caterpillars come find us (we could be anywhere at ant time) we will take care of them they will have a good time!
