Black Swa—Penguin
05-Mar-10
All-black penguins are so rare there is practically no research on the subject–biologists guess that perhaps one in every quarter million of penguins shows evidence of at least partial melanism, whereas the penguin we saw appears to be almost entirely (if not entirely) melanistic….
Observing this black penguin waddle across South Georgia’s black sand beach revealed no different behavior than that of his fellow penguins. In fact, he seemed to mix well. Regarding feeding and mating behavior there is no real way to tell, but I do know that we were all fascinated by his presence and wished him the best for the coming winter season.
Lots of discussion about this photo and this kind of coloring, plus other links, at the National Geographic blog entry about it.
Photography Goals for March and April
03-Mar-10
March: 1 shot a week with lighting (not just available light)
April: CAT A DAY! (Does your cat need a portrait? I might need to visit other cats to keep it interesting.)
Stay tuned to see what I end up making. Or, you know, just to snigger at my failure!
Bat SONAR Beats FUIs
24-Feb-10
“Drunk” bats have no trouble flying under the influence, a new study says.
Tropical bats of Central and South America regularly eat fermenting fruits and nectar. But they can fly and use their built-in “sonar” just as well while inebriated as while sober—even with blood-alcohol contents that would exceed legal limits for people.
“We went into the study fully expecting that some of the species wouldn’t be able to hold their drink,” said study co-author Brock Fenton, a biologist at the University of Western Ontario in Canada.
But “the bats, unfortunately, hadn’t read the proposal,” he said.
Read the National Geographic writeup or the full article at PLoS ONE – rest assured that the female bats were not visibly pregnant or lactating, and all bats got a chance to sober up before they headed home. The National Geographic story also has more pictures of Central American bats, as well as other fun bat links sprinkled throughout its writeup. (Bonus: boozy shrew.)
Cozy
23-Feb-10
Change for the Better
22-Feb-10
I don’t know how your day starts, but my commute’s become awfully pretty, lately.
Caddis Art
15-Feb-10
Hubert Duprat provided caddis flies with flakes of gold and semiprecious stones to use for building their larvae cases. They usually use grains of sand, particles of mineral or plant material, or bits of fish bone or crustacean shell, but they will use whatever is nearby and suitable to incorporate into their silk-bonded cases (although some are more flexible than others in what they will use). Here is a video and more information about the project, including some remarks by critic and philosopher Christian Besson about behavior and intent.
Photo a Day
07-Feb-10
In addition to Thing-a-Day this month, I’m taking a stab at “365 photos,” which is intended to be a photo a day. I’ve missed a handful of days and refuse to feel bad about it. During the week, I’m even using 365 photos as my daily things. SO LAZY. I’m enjoying reconnecting with my environment.
Thing-a-Day
30-Jan-10
It’s on. I registered for Thing-a-Day again. They’re using Posterous this year, so I created a Posterous stream for it. I am hoping that this judgmental cat will help keep me on track.
Is there anything else on Posterous I should be following?
First Snowflake Photos
21-Jan-10
Wilson A Bentley photographed 5,000 snowflakes in his lifetime, beginning at age 19, recording thousands of patterns that would otherwise be lost to temperature and time.
See the gallery at the Guardian site.