Photography
grrlscientist | April 30, 2010tags: Rod-breasted Grosbeak, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus, photographed in a Houston backyard in Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 21 April 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Based on this bird's beak shape, what sort of diet would you expect it to have?
This bird primarily eats seeds, as indicated by the heavy beak and the angulated commissure (that…
awild | April 30, 2010
Podabrus sp. Soldier Beetle
Urbana, Illinois
Last week we featured a larval soldier beetle. Today we have an adult of the same family (Cantharidae), in the genus Podabrus.
photo details:
Canon EOS 50D camera
Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens
ISO 100, f/13, 1/250sec
grrlscientist | April 29, 2010tags: Dom Sankt Bartholomäus, St Bartholomew's Cathedral, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, photography
Dom Sankt Bartholomäus (St Bartholomew's Cathedral), Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Image: GrrlScientist, 14 April 2010 [larger view].
This is one of the back doors to the church, and it is a rather aesthetically pleasing one at that. Unfortunately, it was surrounded by a herd of parked cars, so it was impossible to get the photograph I could see in my head, unless I resorted to photoshop. This image is as close as I could get to what I was seeking, and I think of this as a "project…
awild | April 29, 2010Blog posts are long, thin things.
One could, for example, use a blog to post a high-resolution map of Chile. Or a single strand of spagetti. Any image up to 500 pixels wide, for as long as it goes. In that vein, here's a Cephalotes varians turtle ant:
Just wait until I find a stick insect.
grrlscientist | April 29, 2010tags: Orange Blüte, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, travel, nature, cities, image of the day, photography
Image: GrrlScientist, 14 April 2010 [larger view]
aardvarchaeology | April 29, 2010
In front, a boulder upon which I found cupmarks. Behind, a Bronze Age burnt mound consisting of fire-cracked stones.
In order to study the landscape situation of something you need to know precisely where it is. This poses a problem when it comes to Bronze Age sacrificial finds, because they are almost never made by someone who can document the find spot. They used to be found by farmers and workers before anybody owned a map and before there was a national grid, and they are no longer found much at all.
Sacrificial finds, or "deposits", are defined by two negatives: they are not in graves…
grrlscientist | April 29, 2010tags: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, photographed at Bolivar Peninsula, Galveston County, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 8 April 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | April 28, 2010tags: Dom Sankt Bartholomäus, St Bartholomew's Cathedral, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, photography
Dom Sankt Bartholomäus (St Bartholomew's Cathedral), Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Image: GrrlScientist, 14 April 2010 [larger view].
The Gothic-style St Bartholomew's Cathedral in Frankfurt am Main is constructed of red sandstone and was originally built in the 13th-15th centuries (restored after suffering heavy damage in 1944). Its 95 m/312ft high tower is a city landmark.
grrlscientist | April 28, 2010tags: Gilded Flicker, Colaptes chrysoides, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Female Gilded Flicker, Colaptes chrysoides, photographed sitting on top of a blooming Saguaro cactus on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Terry Sohl, 8 May 2008 [larger view]. You are encouraged to purchase photographs from this photographer. I am happy to email his contact information to you.
Canon 20D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | April 27, 2010tags: Dom Sankt Bartholomäus, St Bartholomew's Cathedral, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, photography
Dom Sankt Bartholomäus (St Bartholomew's Cathedral), Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Image: GrrlScientist, 14 April 2010 [larger view].
This gothic-style cathedral was constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries on the foundation of an earlier church from the Merovingian time. Some of these ruins are still visible. Dom Sankt Bartholomäus is the main church of Frankfurt and it has some historical significance. From 1356 onwards, kings of the Holy Roman Empire were elected in this church, and…
awild | April 27, 2010I apologize for the slow blogging this weekend. We took a little road trip up to beautiful Madison, Wisconsin and were too busy with bratwurst, cheese, beer, and roller derby to bother with the internet.
Atta cephalotes in the fungus garden
The University of Wisconsin is home to Cameron Currie, whose lab is at the cutting edge of insect-fungus-microbe evolutionary biology. Cameron is one of the people who first realized that the classic ant/fungus mutualism was more complex than just the insect and the fungus, involving all sorts of microbes, including some that live on the ants' exoskeleton…
bioephemera | April 26, 2010
These are images of cells from GE's IN Cell Analyzer Competition 2010:
every year we invite IN Cell Analyzer users to submit their images to the IN Cell Image Competition. This year we have received over 70 fabulous images from researchers' worldwide, working in areas such as toxicology, malaria, dermatology, obesity, cancer and neurology.
See the full-size images in all their fluorescent glory, and the winners from 2009, at GE's flickr page.
grrlscientist | April 26, 2010tags: Sedge Wren, Short-billed Marsh Wren, Cistothorus platensis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Sedge Wren, formerly known as the Short-billed Marsh Wren, Cistothorus platensis, photographed at Attwater Prairie Chicken Refuge, Eagle Lake, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 7 November 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
If you can ID this species, can you also tell me what its former common name was and how it came by its new common name?
Please name at…
grrlscientist | April 25, 2010tags: Black-faced Lourie, Bare-faced Go-away-bird, Corythaixoides personatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Black-faced Lourie, also known as the Bare-faced Go-away-bird, Corythaixoides personatus, photographed lying motionless in the afternoon sun in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 17 January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300, 200-400 VR lens at 240 mm, ISO 500, f/8 1/1250 sec.
As an added bonus, can you tell me what this bird is doing and why?
Please name at least one field mark that supports…
laelaps | April 25, 2010
A family of North American river otters (Lontra canadensis), photographed in Yellowstone National Park.
bioephemera | April 24, 2010Yesterday was a great day for space images. First, celebrating Hubble's 20th anniversary (via Wired):
This craggy fantasy mountaintop enshrouded by wispy clouds looks like a bizarre landscape from Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" or a Dr. Seuss book, depending on your imagination. The NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, which is even more dramatic than fiction, captures the chaotic activity atop a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant stars buried inside…
grrlscientist | April 24, 2010tags: African Wattled Lapwing, Senegal Wattled Plover, Vanellus senegallus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] African Wattled Lapwing, also known as the Senegal Wattled Plover, Vanellus senegallus, photographed at the Kilombero River, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 9 January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300, 600 mm lens. ISO 320, 1/1000 sec, f/7.1 Exposure compensation at 0.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.