DUMPSTER RESCUE

Whenever anything animal related occurs in or around the Museum it is always the Biology Department who gets called upon to sort it out and yesterday was no exception.
We have several large metal dumpsters on the loading dock at the back of the Museum which are emptied by city workers early each morning. Around lunchtime Andrew, our seasonal gardener, discovered that a certain furry someone had got stuck in the bottom of one of them.


It was a very hot day and the heat inside the dumpster was very extreme so we knew we had to get this little guy out as promptly as possible.


Raccoons make look irresistibly cute but, as with any wild animal, they are likely to react rather unfavorably if you try to touch them! So we had to provide him with a means of getting himself out.


A wooden pallet provided a perfect raccoon step ladder! And within less than a minute out he came.


He made his way precariously around the top lip of the dumpster


Took one last look back inside his steamy prison


Before scrabbling his way down the side and trotting off to find a shady spot to cool down.


A good deed done and an unusual use found for an old wooden pallet!


Photo Credits - CJT

SKYWATCH FRIDAY (Sunrise on the Lakeshore)

I can take absolutely no credit for these photos, that all goes to my husband. A few weeks back he decided to partake in an event called 'Bike the Drive.' When the entire length of Lakeshore Drive in Chicago is closed to cars for several hours on a Sunday morning and given over completely to cyclists. Needless to say this is an early morning thing which is how he managed to capture these beautiful shots of an unusually empty beach lit by the gentle light of dawn. I, of course, was still asleep at this point!





For sky views the world over, go to Skywatch Friday.


Photo Credits - DominickV

THE DIESEL FAN CLUB

The vast majority of my work day to day involves animals of numerous different species and that is just fine with me. One species I am not so keen on is Homo sapiens so I tend to avoid spending too much time with them if at all possible. In particular I find the juvenile form of this species particularly daunting but such is the nature of my job, occasionally I have to step into the spotlight and actually talk to groups of children about my work. I would far rather spend my morning working with my venomous snakes and spiders than do this but sometimes it just can't be avoided. Luckily I can usually rely on some pretty cool back-up troops to help me out on these occasions. Last week I had to go to a summer camp on the west side of Chicago to do a presentation for a couple of groups so I packed up some Hissing Cockroaches, a Hermit Crab, an American Toad, a Box Turtle, a Corn Snake and my little buddy Diesel, the Rat.


Diesel is still very much a celebrity in training and this was actually his first trip off site to see a large group of children, although truth be known he was probably far less apprehensive than I was! Anyway we traveled to the site and did our 'thing'. All the animals behaved impeccably, no one pooped or bit or did anything untoward and the kids all seemed pretty happy and so it was with a large sigh of relief that I headed back to the Museum with my mini menagerie, quite happy to have got that task behind me.
A few days later I was checking my mail box which rarely has anything in it except for bills and was astonished to find it bulging with mail. What a surprise!


Dozens and dozens of notes and pictures from all the children! I read through them all and although I would like to show them all that would just go on for ever so I just tried to select some of my favorites.
The Hissing Cockroaches


The Hermit Crab


The American Toad


And the Corn Snake


And the group pictures


But of course there is always one mega-star in any group who gets a disproportionate amount of the fan mail and that was our little rodent friend Diesel.


But just in case he gets too full of himself, in amongst all the wonderful letters that the children wrote there was one from a little girl who very sweetly explained that her favorite animal is a giraffe and that rats make her throw-up! Hmmm how come I didn't notice that happening during my presentation!!??


Photo Credits - CJT

SUMMER IN THE CITY

I took a walk in the park at lunchtime to see what I could find in the way of nature, not an easy task when surrounded by concrete and steel. But I did pretty well, fish, bugs, birds, butterflies and even a sunbathing turtle.
The prairie plantings around the Museum are looking beautiful now and with so many plants in flower the butterflies are spoilt for choice. As usual though, the milkweed family always sees the most activity with the iconic Monarch Butterfly taking precedence.


When the Monarch moves off the beautiful Tiger Swallowtail gently flutters in to feed briefly before being moved on by the more dominant Monarch.


Although much smaller, the Red Admiral uses its speed and agility to grab a quick drink of nectar before being chased away too.


It beats a hasty retreat to a nearby Purple Coneflower.


Tent caterpillars are considered a pest by many but their unique structures which are believed to serve a number of purposes including thermal regulation and communication centres, are certainly eye-catching.


Moving away from the prairie and down to the edge of the pond it is spawning time for the numerous Blue Gills. They work hard to clear a little area of open ground on the pond bottom and then fiercely defend it from all comers (although the neighbours are pretty close!)



Of course a condensed food source like this does not go unnoticed!


Our little pond is usually only big enough to accommodate one or at most two, Great Blue Herons but we have Black-crowned Night Herons and Green Herons by the score.
I am not sure if a pair of Green Herons bred successfully somewhere around the pond this year or whether the juveniles just found their way here after fledging but I have noticed a number of small fluffy individuals who are clearly just getting rid of their last vestiges of downy baby feathers. (Check out the top of this ones head.)


I watched this particular individual for quite sometime


I couldn't quite work out why he kept pointing his beak straight up in the air. I know Bitterns will take a similar posture when they are amongst tall reeds in order to make themselves less conspicuous but I had not heard of herons doing it.


I finally worked out that he was actually watching the numerous dragonflies that were buzzing over his head. I watched him make a few random grabs at them but not with any degree of success.
Most other birds have fledged and grown now but there was this single Mallard chick that was obviously a late hatchling and as always they walk away with the cuteness award.


And then of course there are the Night Herons, which I can just never take enough pictures of


I don't know what it is about this particular species, I just find them so photogenic


and we certainly have no shortage of them around the pond. Maybe it is the stunning ruby red eyes


or the fancy yellow stockings.


Whatever it is I always end up with far more pictures than I could ever post!


and while we are on the topic of footwear fashions for the summer (?) Don't forget the more practical option for those rainy days!


The array of dragonfly species continues to impress although most of the really bright coloured ones refuse to land anywhere near the strange lady with the camera who keeps creeping about in the undergrowth at the waters edge!
This is the underside view of a male Widow Skimmer Libellula luctuosa


I would have loved to have got a good shot of the top side but short of wading out into the pond which I just didn't feel inclined to do (!) I had to make do with a very blurry maximum zoomed image at an angle from Terra firma.


The only other member of the Odonata order that was prepared to be photographed was this Common Whitetail Plathemis lydia which gave me about two seconds to get a shot before flying away and of course I managed to chop the edge of the image off! But you get the general idea I hope.


And finally, as promised, just to confirm that it is summer, the sunbathing turtle!




Photo Credits - CJT

hic sunt dracones (HERE BE DRAGONS!)

The pond in the park is alive with dragonflies at the moment, probably something to do with the tropical monsoon type weather we are having this summer. We have had 8 inches of rain so far in June! Everything is very green and lush and there are literally thousands of little flying insects for the dragonflies to prey on.


I don't know if you have spent any time trying to photograph dragonflies but it is one sure fire way to drive yourself rapidly insane. They alight on a twig or a leaf in perfect light and before you even get chance to raise your camera into position, they have flown away. Of the numerous species flitting around, only two actually stayed still enough for me to photograph.

The Eastern Amberwing, Perithemis tenera


there are no prizes for figuring out why that name came about. You can't tell from my photos but this is one of the smallest dragonflies in the US with a body length of barely an inch.


But it's colour is so vivid that it is hard to miss. The male selects a stick or twig sticking just above the surface of the water and defends a territory of approximately 3 to 6 meters around it, repeatedly returning to alight on the same spot.


And the Blue Dasher, Pachydiplax longipennis, (how is that for a scientific name!!!) The males are distinguished by their chalky blue abdomen


And their white head and metallic green eyes.



The Blue Dasher is also a small dragonfly with an average body length of just over an inch. The males spend a lot of time chasing each other along the edge of still or slow-moving bodies of water.


The stunning blue abdomen is brandished as a threat to territorial opponents. I personally prefer the alternative name for this species, The Blue Pirate! Especially if they are waving their abdomen around to ward off all comers.


Quite apart from the fact that they eat numerous mosquitoes in their average day (and what is not to like about that?) It is hard to imagine why such a stunning and delicate insect is regarded with such foreboding in so many cultures.
Some English vernacular names, such as "devil's darning needle" and "ear cutter", link them with evil or injury. A Romanian folk tale says that the dragonfly was once a horse possessed by the devil. Swedish folklore holds that the devil uses dragonflies to weigh people's souls. The Norwegian name for dragonflies is "Øyenstikker", which literally means Eye Poker and in Portugal they are sometimes called "Tira-olhos" (Eye snatcher). They are often associated with snakes, as in the Welsh name gwas-y-neidr, "adder's servant". The Southern United States term "snake doctor" refers to a folk belief that dragonflies follow snakes around and stitch them back together if they are injured.


I don't know about any of that but I think they are very cool and when I saw this last photo I had to wonder, if this wasn't the inspiration for the original design for the bi-plane, what was?



Photo Credits - CJT