Bird of Paradise

Jay Barber shared this video with me, and although it has nothing to do with Missouri, I had to share it with you.  The incredible photography shows the aesthetic value of diversity in nature.

Watch this Cornell Lab of Ornithology video and enjoy the glorious diversity of Birds of Paradise on a single island in the Pacific.

Socrates at Nine

From Youtube

When I am talking to a child I have a bad habit of talking to them rather than listening.  After all, we are supposed to have the wisdom to pass on to the younger generation.  NPR had an interesting story about what can happen when you just listen to a 9 year old.

You will notice in the video that even the cameraman feels the need to interject from time to time.  That is the nature of adults with children.  Now lean back, be quiet and listen to "The Philosopher."

Horse Hair Worm

Horse hair worm- kaweahoaks.com

Years ago a child brought me a worm like this, strained in her toy net from the swimming hole.  She asked what it was and the all-knowing adult in me answered "Its a worm."  No, that didn't impress her either.  After Thursday's Stream Team training, I can answer her better although she might not believe the answer or at the least would say "Yeeew!"

Horse hair worms  (Nematomorpha) are aquatic parasitoids with a complicated life cycle.  A parasite generally requires the resources of the host but doesn't routinely reduce its chances or reproducing.  A parasitoid on the other hand is like an ungrateful parasite in that it either kills or sterilizes its host.

Horse hair females are larger-okstate.edu

These tiny threadlike worms reach 20-32 inches in length.  They lack an intestinal tract and absorb nutrients directly through their skin.  When a male and female find each other they form a complex tight knot, leading to another name, the Gordian Worms.  Occasionally, clusters of up to 100 will form a complex ball in puddles or watering troughs, leading to the legend that these are the long hairs of horses come to life.

The worm lays thousands of tiny eggs which develop into 0.01 inch long larvae.  Some of these larvae collect on vegetation that is then exposed when water levels go down.  Some species will be eaten by grasshoppers or katydids, developing in their hosts until they are ready to spring forth.

Grasshopper worm- CSU Extension

It gets really weird at this stage as they seem to take over their host's brain not unlike the Cordyceps fungus affects an ant.  The insect is unnaturally drawn to water, be it puddle. pond or even moist earth where the adult worm crawls out leaving its disabled host to die on its own.  This process is shown in this Youtube video.

Addendum April 7, 2013.  Video taken of a horsehair worm on the Master Naturalist field trip is on line at this link.    Gordius robustus
For closeup pictures of worms and their claspers, see marietta.edu. 

Hairless Bears

When I was growing up, a sarcastic come back to a question with an obvious answer was "Does a bear have hair?"  Yes, that was a more innocent age.  It turns out that a few bears have lost their hair.

Spectacled bear- Wikimedia

The spectacled bear is a native of the west coast of South America.  It is the only surviving bear species in South America.  More interesting, it is the last living species of short faced bear, the North American megafauna which became extinct in the Late Pleistocene age.  You may be familiar with them from the Riverbluff Cave outside of Springfield, MO, where they left scratch marks 12 feet high on the wall.

So where does the hair come in, or more properly where does it leave?  The dailymail.co.uk/news reported that a spectacled bear named Delores and her mates at the zoo in Leipzig have lost all their hair for unknown reasons.  This has left them susceptible to rashes and skin infections.  It also has brought a lot more people to the zoo.

If you want to see a bear without hair, click here.

Sand Magnification.

Last year George Lantz shared some incredibly fine sand with me to view under the microscope.  These came from a beach in Hawaii and were tiny jewels at high magnification, showing incredible diversity of color and shape.











Even with my relatively inexpensive microscope used for these photographs, I could see that many were remnants of tiny sea creatures.  In addition to the diverse colors, there were grains with holes through them and others that were spiral shell imprints.  I suspected these were microfossils as the tiny shells seemed unlikely to have survived the pounding and grinding of the sea.

Just today I came across a site by Dr. Gary Greenberg dedicated to photographs of magnified grains of sand.  He has pictures from many different beaches and discusses the origin of the sand grains.

There are many estimates of the number of grains of sand on earth and arguments on whether there are more stars than grains of sand as Carl Sagan proposed.  If you are interested in the debate, check out npr.org/blogs/krulwich blog in which Robert Krulwich does the math.  Incredibly, it turns out that 10 drops of water contain as many water molecules as the estimated number of stars in the galaxy.

If you are starting to feel small, you can go to the Grains of Sand Magnified site.  There you can take solace in your individuality.  Dr. Greenberg says that each grain is different, just like snowflakes, and us.

They Are Baaaaack!

Spring is showing signs of returning.  It was 80 degrees on Friday at Bull Creek and I got my first attached tick of the year.  We have had occasional crawling ticks through the winter but they didn't seem to have their heart in it until now.

Fortunately there are many other more positive signs of spring.  Our most exciting one is the return of the black vulture couple to the stall in our barn.  We have watch them hatch and raise chicks the last two years.  I saw them sitting on the corral fence a month ago but hadn't seen them since.  Just when I was about to give up hope, they returned, apparently unable to find a better nest site that met their budget.

They have produced a beautiful set of eggs, laying on the bare ground as usual.  One of the expectant parents was perched in the opening in the wall which they use as their front door.  Each year they are less easily spooked and Friday this one paid no attention to me as I took some early family portraits.

The deer have been especially active lately and we saw 11 the other night just driving down the lane to our house.  An owl sailed overhead, making an aerial surveillance run.  That night the game camera spotted not only the usual deer but a pair of male gobblers heading down the road together.

The warm spell brought out the fence lizards in abundance on Saturday.  Every time I turned around at the house another one scurried by, stopping suddenly to use its camouflage to fool me as I turned to face it.  This one posed for several minutes, letting me crawl up close on my belly.  Like photographing butterflies, I apparently intimidate lizards more when I am above them.  By clicking on the picture, you can even make out the blue chest of this one, probably a male.

Finally, the wildflowers are fighting off the winter blahs.  Linda Ellis reports hepaticas and thousands of trout lilies down by her creek.  We see an occasional harbinger of spring and the Barb is pulling lots of invasive garlic mustard from the riparian area.  Its head start on natives is one of its secrets of success.  On the good news side, Saturday I found a solitary trout lily struggling through the gravel and rocks in a rather sterile hillside among the trees.  As Bill Bryson says, “Life just wants to be; but it doesn't want to be much.”

Barb, the ticks and I are all ready for spring.  Grab your magnifiers, nets and wildlife field guides, and  head outside.  Oh, and put the tweezers near the sink for the tick check.

P.S.  As usual, Linda Ellis one-upped me the next day with these pictures.

Trout lilies (Erythronium albidum)

Round-lobed hepatica (Anemone americana) 

Nesting Birdcams

"In the spring, a wild bird's fancy, lightly turns to thoughts of....." well you know what happens next.
     -Apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

From Iowa DNR

It is spring, and eggs are in the air, in some cases way up in the air.  Modern technology and the Internet have allowed us nature voyeurs to follow individual families as they are raising their chicks.

Clarkhoward.com lists their version of the top birdcams available in the web which I have reproduced below from their 'Top 10 (9) List". So far the peregrine falcon hasn't returned to the MDC birdcam so you will have to get by with osprey, terns, puffins, murres and the ever popular eagles.  

"Have you ever snuck a bird's-eye look at a wobbly eaglet as it emerges from its shell? You can, by checking in on an eagle's nest web camera, or webcam, through March. Wildlife webcams are wildly popular for taking people deep into eagles' nests, high onto osprey platforms, and deep into puffin burrows. It's the nearest you're likely to get to having wings. Birds make ideal webcam subjects because their nesting activity is contained in a small area for weeks. The best viewing is generally during the spring nesting season, when birds are most active. Here are some standout refuge birdcams:

Eagles:
1.Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Maryland
2.Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, New York (until the new camera is installed, check out the streaming eagle cam from on the campus of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services' National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia)
3.Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma

Ospreys:
4.Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Maryland
5.Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, New York
6. Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge, Idaho

Common terns:
7.Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge, Maine (Best live viewing: May-August)

Atlantic Puffins:
8.Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge, Maine (Best live viewing: Mid-May-August)

Common Murres:
9.Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, California

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people."