MACRO MONDAY TUSSOCK MOTH

I have posted about this species before but when I spotted two of the life stages on one tree earlier this week it was an obvious choice for this weeks Macro Monday.

The Tussock Moth must be the ultimate reverse of the Ugly Duckling story. This spectacular caterpillar



With its totally flamboyant headgear


transforms into this utterly unremarkable moth!


This is the flightless female, she emerges from her cocoon which you can just see as the grey woven mass in the top half of the picture she remains in that spot, emitting pheromones to attract the male. She mates with the male and then lays her egg mass right on top of her cocoon, the egg mass is the white area in the picture. When she has laid her eggs she dies, having never moved from the spot where she emerged from her cocoon.


And in case you think that these beautiful caterpillars that emerge into male moths fare any better, not really, the male moth is the same drab colour as the female, it just has brown wings! See what I mean about the reverse Ugly Duckling story??

For lots of great macro posts, check out Macro Monday and discover a whole new world!


Photo Credits - CJT

JUST FOR FUN.

I have posted about Scabbers before, he is the sole non-human mammal at the Museum and he relishes this privileged status. He is extremely well connected - he is a big favorite of the President of the Museum! So we have to be sure to treat him well. He generally is referred to these days as 'His Majesty' - you think I'm joking! He has also had his fifteen minutes of fame doing a TV segment with one of my colleagues. You will have to excuse the squealy presenter!

I had always known that rats were considered to be very intelligent so I try and give Scabbers new 'toys' to provide variety to his days. The great thing with rats is these items do not need to be fancy or expensive. One big favorite is his little tube.


He sees this as the perfect spot for a snooze and I haven't the heart to point out that his rather ample derriere is not actually in the tube at all! The temptation to pinch his bottom is hard to resist but he looks so peaceful.
Today was a bonanza day, I received a package which contained lots of shredded cardboard and Scabbers took ownership as soon as I had removed the contents!


Lots of fun playing peek-a-boo!


Plenty of burrowing about


Time to stop for a quick wash and brush-up.


He is a great ambassador for winning people around to the appeal of rats


He has certainly got the whole 'cute' thing down pat!


He spent a very busy afternoon enjoying his new toy and now he is fast asleep :) What a tough life he has!


Photo Credits - CJT

MACRO MONDAY SWALLOWTAIL

I had a very obliging model for this weeks Macro Monday
This beautiful male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Papilio glaucus was feasting on the little round flowers of a Buttonbrush Cephalanthus occidentalis. I took dozens of pictures but these were my favorites.


There are all kinds of really neat images on this meme, check it out at Macro Monday


Photo Credits - CJT

WHY DO BIRDS BATHE?

I often see our Button Quail in the Haven at the Museum enjoying a long luxurious dust bath, rolling around on the ground, kicking their legs and flapping their wings to create their own personal dust storm. And on numerous occasions I have gone rushing upstairs in response to an urgent call from one of the Visitor Services team who have reported that there is 'something wrong' with one of the quail, only to find it sprawled out with legs akimbo, enjoying a blissful sunbathing session. I also remember being quite fascinated, when living in Africa, the first time I saw a Cape Turtle Dove sprawled out on the ground with wings spread, allowing ants to run all over its feathers. Just like when we visit a spa, it appears there are numerous skin treatments available for our avian friends.
I was sitting outside having lunch by the pond when this little White-crowned Sparrow flew down near me and proceeded to partake in some very enthusiastic ablutions and for once I actually had my camera to hand.


So why all this work on the beauty regime? Well, of course, it really has nothing to do with beauty and everything to do with survival, as with most things in the life of an organism. As we all know, one of the key characteristics that make a bird a bird, are its feathers and in order for the feathers to perform all the tasks they are designed for they must be kept in prime condition. In dust bathing the dust is thought to absorb excess preen oil and remove dry skin, lice, etc. When sun bathing the sun is thought to straighten the birds feathers and help the preen oil to spread through the feathers. Some ornithologists have suggested that it may also draw parasites to the surface where the bird can remove them or that the ultraviolet light in the sunlight converts chemicals in the preen oil into Vitamin D. As for the, what we see as somewhat bizarre habit of ant bathing, the popular thought is that the formic acid that the ants release may kill feather lice. The water bath helps in maintaining the quality of birds feathers, keeping them clean, removing dust, dander, loose feathers and debris from new feathers, moistening the skin, maintaining the insulation properties of their feathers and much more.
And when all the bathing is done, the long careful process of preening must begin. So whilst mankind has made a whole industry out of preening, our feathered friends do it because their very lives depend upon it! Bathing and preening are both done to care for the feathers, because if feathers become damaged, dirty or oily, the feather alignment will become affected and possibly cause the bird not to fly well. It could also affect escape from predators or search for food. The bird also becomes susceptible to extremes in temperature, especially the cold weather, because it cannot fluff up its feathers to keep warm.


Photo Credits - CJT

THE MILE HIGH CLUB!

I thought I would give Macro Monday a go. This is a great meme hosted by Ed from Sunday Stills.
Just get out there and get macro!
OK well as I live on the 21st floor the 'wildlife' tends to be a little thin on the ground! I did spot these two 'getting it on' on my living room window though!!


Puts a whole new slant on the 'mile high club!'
I will update when Bugguide gives me an update on what this raunchy pair actually are.


Photo Credits - CJT

SKYWATCH FRIDAY - MOONRISE IN CHICAGO

My Husband cycles home from work and when the weather is nice I sometimes walk out to meet him on his way along the lakefront. On this particular evening we sat and watched the moon rise over the lake as we looked back towards the city.


Don't forget to check out skies from all over the world at the Skywatch Friday site every week.


Photo Credits - CJT & DominickV

SUMMER (!) AROUND THE POND

I haven't posted about Chicago for a little while now so I thought it was time I took a stroll around the pond to see what was going on. As with most of the eastern half of the country, we have been having a very odd summer. We had the coldest June on record and the third coldest July (so far) and our rainfall has been a lot higher than normal too. This has meant that a lot of things are occurring later than usual. The fruit on the Mulberry trees is ripening weeks later than it usually does.


We still have very young Wood Ducklings


and some very young Mallard Ducklings too


I hope we have a late fall and winter to go along with our late summer otherwise these little guys are going to have a really tough time at a vital stage in their development.
But at least the female Mallards will not have to worry about being harassed by the males now, they are looking very disheveled as they shed their beautiful breeding plumage


and are transformed into mere shadows of their previously glorious selves.


The females who are done with breeding are enjoying the quiet life and taking the time to relax and preen after all the hard work of raising young.


The various turtle species in the pond are having to make the most of any hours of sunlight, this pair of Red-eared Sliders have hauled themselves up onto a prime basking spot.


And the dragonflies are making the most of warm spots too


You may remember a while back I posted about the local Park Districts rather ham-fisted techniques for removing a beaver from the pond. Well it appears that the beavers of the area are not to be defeated because despite the Park Districts brutal best efforts, we have another tree feller in residence!


The flowers in the prairie are just beginning to gain colour and I was watching large numbers of bumble bees enjoy the copious supplies of nectar and pollen. One of them drew my attention because it looked different. It had longer, black wings that were moving slowly enough that I could actually see them, unlike the bumble bees. It also had a smooth black abdomen unlike the fuzzy abdomen of the bumble bees. Upon closer inspection I realised it was a large Carpenter Bee. Unfortunately I couldn't get close enough to get a good photo but you get the general idea!


A couple of hours after I took these photos, the clouds rolled back in and the rain returned! Hmm, maybe I should move 'out West!!'

Michelle over at Rambling Woods hosts Nature Notes every Thursday, check it out, it's a great meme.


Photo Credits - CJT

MY INNER FISH

Although I read a lot I don't usually post about the books I read but I have just finished a book which I feel is worthy of mention. Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin, a journey into the 3.5 billion year history of the human body. For those of us who view evolution as scientific fact this is a truly fascinating read, but what is so important about this book is it's readability. Although the subject matter could by definition be very dense the author has a style that both educates and amuses in a way that is bound to captivate readers, regardless of whether or not they have a scientific background. His slightly irreverent sense of humour shines through, when you get to the piece about the evolution of the position of gonads in different species and the Pledge of Allegiance you will see what I mean! From beginning to end this book overflows with fascinating snippets, for example our relationship to tadpoles and it's link to why we get hiccups!

This is a gem of a book that not only sheds fresh light on an age old study but also, in my mind does something far more important. It breaks down the ever growing wall between 'scientists and science' and the general population. There are so many offenders in this particular issue that it is hard to know where to begin to resolve an issue that really does need attention. For generations the entertainment industry has cast a very unfavorable slant on scientists, often portraying them as evil, manipulative and usually slightly wacky. The press seems to view science with a mixture of suspicion and boredom and many scientists themselves do nothing to make science more 'approachable.' There is a definite sense of snobbery in the scientific world where if you don't have the right letters after your name you are obviously inferior in some way and also that age old, and frankly rather tiresome and overdone tactic, of using unnecessarily over complex vocabulary in order to make yourself appear smart! I can't help feeling that if we want science to be more interesting and engaging to the population we need to stop building walls of Latin and Greek and start taking a leaf out of Neil Shubin's book. Science is cool, science is fun and science is approachable and those of us who are working in the numerous scientific fields need to stop striving to sound like brainiacs and start captivating people in the way that Neil Shubin has done with this book.

MY PERSONAL PARADISE - PART 2

Yesterday I described the first part of a recent trip to the Isles of Scilly (pronounced 'silly'.) We stayed on one of the 'off islands' called Bryher which in Cornish means 'place of hills'. After a gloriously sunny day when we arrived, our second day dawned grey and windy but somehow it didn't seem to matter. It just showed another facet of these spectacular islands.


After breakfast we set off to hike the island and before you think we were being incredibly energetic, the island is only 327 acres so we weren't exactly pushing ourselves, especially with constant stops to look at the scenery and take photos.


It seemed only right to focus on the western extreme of the island on this cloudy day because it gave us a feel for the true character of this windswept and dramatic spot.


Look how little I am!! It was so exhilarating to be perching on the edge of the world! Of course we had to visit Bad Place Hill, with a name like that how could we not? So here is my husband being a Bad Ass on Bad Place Hill!!


There are some hardy little souls that manage to make their home in this windswept habitat, like this glorious little Stonechat who kept a very close eye on us.


With all the fresh sea air we were more than happy at the end of the day to sit down to another delicious meal and a good bottle of wine (I could very easily get used to this!)
Next morning dawned blue and sunny (such is the weather in Cornwall) so we were determined to get out and enjoy our last day on the islands.


Time for a little more beach combing on such a beautiful morning, like this strange little sand flea


and very busily running up and down the sand in pursuit of the sand fleas was this ringed plover who was so focused on catching his breakfast he hardly noticed me.


This really is such a special place, it always brings such a sense of peace spending a couple of days here, gazing at the sea.


The beautiful clear seas and wind sculpted rocks are an endless source of inspiration for many artists and photographers.


As you would expect the islands are home to hundreds of seabirds, one of the most eye-catching being the dramatically marked Oystercatcher.


Another reason that I love these islands is that the birds vastly outnumber the people, such a refreshing change from Chicago!


The little cluster of buildings in this picture is the hotel we stayed in, as you can see there aren't many other buildings around, and, best of all, no roads, just a couple of sandy tracks.


All too soon it was time for us to catch the island launch back to the main island of St Marys were the Scillonian was waiting to carry us back to Penzance.


And what a nice touch - one of the locals was there to say goodbye! Can you see him reclining on the rock?



Photo Credits - CJT & Dominick V