Click through (below) – doesn’t look like the BBC is allowing embedding. Both videos (the big one at the top and the little one halfway down) are amazing.
“The overwhelming sensation you get when you see these birds in the wild is that you’re not looking at a bird, but at a dinosaur. They have a posture and a visage that is quite menacing,” says Mr Beeley.
BBC – Earth News – Close encounters with giant harpy eagle of Venezuela.
Mainly posted for the picture (I’m often 14 yrs old).
Ancient Whale + Killer Shark = Hypercarnivorous Whale | Wired Science | Wired.com.
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“I had a hunting territory in Africa at the bottom of the Olduvai Gorge.”
A month back, I noticed and commented on this BB post. Like other commenters I recognized it from the Life Nature Library (Early Man, to be precise). My primary partner in workcrime has a complete set of the books in his classroom, so I’ve scanned the illustration Mark F referenced and two others I particularly liked. I’m going to leave cleanup and stitching for another day…
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A little chest puffery – my original ID of the antelope as a Topi was dead-on. For an interesting post on early human/hyena conflict by Steve Bodio, click here.
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Jay Matternes’ web site (he did the work above) is here.
As my Sarracenia collection has expanded, my backyard table’s become covered with mini-bogs. I figured I’d reclaim it, so I threw together a shelf out of salvaged cinderblocks, chimney tile, disk rotor and strapping. Further proof that I am a DFH – swamp yankee subsp. [n.b. – some of the photos below, rather than embiggening when clicked as is our normal practice, will instead link to the main Flickr photo page so you can see attached notes.]
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Sarracenia unknown’s hood (maybe Tarnok?)
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A side (yard) note – the cherries are ready and the new growth bamboo is leafing out.
Last Sunday, the Seacoast Water Garden Club hosted the first of it’s summer garden tours. Mr. Smith’s ponds are beautiful – he’s working with the features and plants already on his property and the result is a critter and plant paradise.
A map – I’ll refer to this when I indicate where my photos were taken.
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One of many big green inhabitants of the Frog Pond.
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The ponds were swarming with damsel and dragonflies. (Duck Pond)
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I saw 4 Northern Water Snakes basking in the Silt Trap Pond.
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I could live here. (Water Works Pond)
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Near the Small Beaver Pond.
We’ve got 5 (count ‘em) giant azhdarchid models (two of which are standing on the ground as the world’s first Haenamichnus-inspired parasagittal terrestrial azhdarchid models), 13 pterosaur busts representing a broad sweep of their diversity, a life-size Pteranodon to have your photograph taken alongside and more information on pterosaurs than you could shake a stick at.
Pterosaur.net Blog: The Brotherhood of Leathery Wings goes to London.
It’s always a gas to check out M and R’s dart frog collection; just as exciting and interesting: they are doing some bird breeding. There are Gouldian finches and an araçari named Lance in the store – other birds, too, but theses two enclosures (Lance especially) captivated me.
Dendrobates leucomelas Guyana Banded. Love these guys. Black Jungle’s banded leucs seem pretty bold – most others I’ve seen have been very shy.
Dendrobates auratus. When I first got interested in dart frogs I was lukewarm on auratus. No longer.
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The tadpole room.
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M and R had the folks from The Creature Teachers down as well. They had some great critters with them.
Elliot the Umbrella Cockatoo. Elliot has more personality than some people I’ve met. He is an extrovert – within a couple minutes of him stepping onto my hand he and I were talking to each other, bobbing around and having a great time (at least I was – if Elliot wasn’t, he fakes it well).
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He thought that posing for photographs was pretty weak tea after our Soul Train session; the people looking at Sarracenia might want to have some fun, perhaps?
Skoochee the Coati, so named because he puts his front paws out through the door of his crate and Flintstones himself around the room. For folks who are unfamiliar with Coatis – they are cousins of the raccoon from Central and South America. Long canines, amazing double-jointed nose, inquisitive – a favorite creature of mine.
I’d been wondering a bit about this – the combination of stress, oil/dispersant toxicity and no great place to release the cleaned birds is, to say the least, problematic.
As I mentioned to a friend on the tweets last night, I hate to be pessimistic, but I think what we’re seeing is the death of the Eastern US Gulf Coast as we have known it.
All it needs is a cadge for the longwings and it’d be good to go. Who am I kidding? I’d drive it as is and be very happy.
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Carro de cacería mayor: An Argentine barn find hunting Ford at Hemmings Blog.
First, let me acknowledge peacay as undisputed champion of Internet cool-stuff-finding. Today’s Butterfly Album post is a multi-dimensional winner. First, there are the images. I’m particularly partial to a painting containing what I think is a Giant Water Bug:
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Then there’s the intriguing info on where the insects were collected:
The only other information known is that the butterflies and insects were collected from the Aralia (spikenard) and related Tetrapanax papyrifera (pith paper tree) plant species.
Followed by a link to the Harvard Herbarium for more info on the pith paper tree. The Herbarium rates a big marker pin on my mental map – it’s close, houses the Blaschka’s glass plant models and – most important for me – was the base of operations for Richard Evans Schultes (prev. posts here and here). I’ve wandered around the Herbarium website before, but today – thanks to peacay – I kicked around the Botany Library On-Line Exhibits (not sure I’ve ever happened upon this part of the site before). There’s a nice series on book covers/bindings:
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a section on the ‘other’ Amanita (phalloides)
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and then there’s this, from the Economic Botany Clipping File:
Dr. Schultes teaching in the Nash Lecture Hall
Painting by Hannah Barrett, November 1994
The caption in the tiles says, “Richard Evans Schultes, Director Emeritus, demonstrating the blowgun in the Nash Lecture Hall, the Botanical Museum, Harvard University, 15 November 1994.” Ethnobotanical explorer in lab coat? Check. Blowgun, darts and quiver? Check. Little potted cactus ($100 says Lophophora williamsii)? Check. More interesting details that I’ll leave for you, the reader? Check. I’m curious as to what molecule is diagrammed on the chalkboard…
One last picture to end the post – from the book Beata Ruris Otia Fungis Danicis Impensa. Enjoy!
This just in – Bunnyfish assists the Shark Girl while filming in Belize:
