Filling a Day of Social Distance – 4/24/2020 - Gleanings

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Finishing Fashion as Design Coursera course. The theme for the last module was Expression. It was a good way to end the course. I have enjoyed both courses I’ve done from MoMA and will probably start a third one – What is Contemporary Art – early next week.

Hearing a piano practice. My husband opted to start up piano practice…not sure why he hadn’t thought to play it weeks ago. What’s not to like about a grand piano? It was tuned last winter just before the coronavirus pandemic, so it is in excellent condition. His playing didn’t last for long, because the cat demanded attention…and has decided that the best place to sleep is under the piano.

Hearing a piano practice. My husband opted to start up piano practice…not sure why he hadn’t thought to play it weeks ago. What’s not to like about a grand piano? It was tuned last winter just before the coronavirus pandemic, so it is in excellent condition. His playing didn’t last for long, because the cat demanded attention…and has decided that the best place to sleep is under the piano.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts  here.

And then there are the gleanings for the past week:

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

How Rain Evolved Its Distinct Scent—and Why Animals and Humans Love It | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The chemical that is the scent of newly moistened soil, geosmin, has been known to scientists since the 1960s….but now we are figuring out its purpose. It is made by 120 of 122 species of bacteria in the genus Streptomyces that have been studied. The scent attracts springtails (tiny arthropods) that eat the bacteria and spread the bacteria’s spores via their excrement or the spores that attach to their body and then fall off. Many other insects, fungi and nematodes are killed by chemicals produced by the bacteria. So – the scent after rain is connected to the lifecycle of bacteria that are one of the most important sources of antibiotics known to science!

Top 25 birds of the week: Terrestrial Birds - Wild Bird Revolution – Enjoying images of birds from around the world.

Long-living tropical trees play outsized role in carbon storage -- ScienceDaily – They used ‘hindcasting’ to validate their model: seeded the model with forest composition data collected at their site in Panama during the 1980s and then ran the model forward to see that it adequately represents the changes that occurred from then until now.  Once that was done…they can use the model to predict what will happen to the forest with climate change. Will the forest continue absorbing some of the excess carbon – or not?

Flamingos in Captivity Pick Favorite Friends Among the Flock | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – 2-4 birds…not limited to mated pairs. Some were together for the whole 5 years of the study! The study found no loners but some bounded between groups.

What do soap bubbles and butterflies have in common? Butterfly breeding gives insight into evolution of iridescence -- ScienceDaily – A 75% increase thickness in the chitin lamina of wing scales turned iridescent gold to shiny blue….the same way a soap bubble iridescence works! And now there is a whole new genetic approach to investigate structural color in butterflies – and may lead to new ways to produce photonic nanostructures for solar panels, paints, clothing, and cosmetics.

How to mine precious metals in your home - BBC Future – Theoretically - the “urban mine” is far richer in high value materials per ton than traditional metal ore mines….but we don’t quite have the way to collect the ‘ore’ or effectively extract the metals.  

Springfield Plateau: Cowbird Eggs – Cowbirds….I’m trying not to be too judgmental. (I’ve included a picture of cowbirds at our bird feeder below. The female is a more frequent visitor than the male.)

Colorful Image Lights Up Microscopic Guts of 'Water Bear' | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Enhancing our view of a tardigrade with fluorescent stain….and done close to where I live at University of Maryland Baltimore County!

Take a Free Virtual Tour of Five Egyptian Heritage Sites | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – These are best viewed on your largest monitor!

Common protein in skin can 'turn on' allergic itch -- ScienceDaily – Turning off the production of the protein periostin in the skin can reduce the itch from atopic dermatitis (in mice). More research needed to see if it works for humans too.

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 3/18/2020

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Going to the grocery store turned out to be a rather overwhelming experience. The store opened an hour later than posted on their website (the decision evidently made last night after I checked) and there were more people that had accumulated by the time they opened. After sitting in my car for about 30 minutes and just before the doors opened, I walked over to the far edge of the parking garage to photograph the sunrise. It was the last calm moment of today’s shopping.

The carts were all lined up outdoors and we entered the store single file….spaced out. More than half the people looked 60+ (like me).  Everyone was wiping down carts, using hand sanitizer and trying to keep 6 feet apart. My plan is to shop weekly to maintain the 2 weeks of food and supplies in the house.

• We were running low on disinfectant for our counter tops because I had not been finding it recently; they didn’t have what I wanted today either, but I did buy something else. I didn’t find disinfectant wipes either.

• No toilet paper. I’m down to about a 1.5 weeks supply in the house…so I need to find some soon.

• I did find buy some boxed flax milk that can be stored in the pantry rather than the refrigerator because keeping 4 cartons of milk in the refrig at all times (which is what is I drink in 2 weeks), takes up too much room.

• The meat counters were bare as was the canned chicken shelf so we are dipping into our two-week supply if we don’t find any at the store we will try tomorrow morning.

• They had cat food but not the kind we were running low on. I didn’t buy any. That could become an issue next week. Hopefully the cat will eat some foods that he typically does not like as well (we pamper him…he’s 19 years old).

• I couldn’t find any dried beans. I cooked what I had in the pantry recently…wanted to restock.

• Medication we would typically use for a cold or the flu….just in case we somehow get sick…was sold out. My husband had bought a small supply before but it’s not enough if we both got sick and needed it for a week or more. We need to find some tomorrow.  

• My husband’s protein shakes were not available in the flavor he likes. I’m not sure what I am going to do about that.

• I found everything I wanted in the produce section (radishes, celery, kale, bananas) – fortunately.

After this experience – I might change to curbside pickup or delivery for next week.

Here are the unique activities for yesterday that helped me recover from the overwhelming start to the day:

• Ordering protein powder (NutraBio® 100% Whey Protein Isolate) based on my daughter’s recommendation – just in case we are challenged to get enough protein at some point. It also has the advantage of being a pantry item rather requiring refrigeration. I’ve enjoyed the beet powder I bought before all this ‘stay at home as much as possible’ started for the same reasons: great nutrition in a small space and long shelf life. They’re both smoothie ingredients! I’m wondering if the combination of the Dutch Chocolate protein powder, banana and the beet powder will be like a ‘red velvet’ smoothie!

• Watching the 5th video in the ‘Life in the Universe Pandemic Series’ from Charles Cockell – Will I ever meet aliens?

• Noticing that my neighbor’s forsythia is blooming…and that the spicebush in the forest is blooming too. It’s not as showy…but it’s a native. There is a butterfly that needs spicebush for its caterpillars too: the spicebush swallowtail. I’ll put on my hiking boots and tuck my pants into socks (to avoid deer ticks and Lyme disease) to troop back into the woods to get some pictures of their flowers someday soon.

• Responding to an email query about tips re cell phone nature photography….and was pleased to provide some links to two blog posts (one and two) with tips illustrated by examples that I did a little over a year ago. It’s nice to have some two-way interaction beyond my immediate family!

• Ordering some bugs from https://www.thebutterflycompany.com/ for a photographic project. My husband is the one that suggested it. We are anticipating needing to supplement the projects we’ve already started for ourselves while we are ‘staying at home as much as possible.’ We ordered: cecropia moth, Luna moth, eastern comma butterfly, question mark butterfly, zebra swallowtail, and eastern Hercules beetle.

• Watching the Cincinnati Zoo’s Home Safari – Sihil the Ocelot.

Previous “filling a day of social distance” posts: 3/15, 3/16, 3/17

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 15, 2020

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

All About Feathers – A tutorial on feathers…lots of great visuals (stills, videos, drawings, photos) from The Cornell Lab Bird Academy.

NOAA Research’ top 5 stories from 2019 – Catching up on some reading…the stories featured were the most popular on their site in 2019.

Capturing CO2 from trucks and reducing their emissions by 90% -- ScienceDaily – Research applicable to making transportation friendlier to the environment…retrofitting of existing trucks.

Rising Temperatures Are Stressing the U.S. Corn Belt - Yale E360 – It’s not just rising temperatures…it’s the shift in rainfall causing hydrologic stress during the summer months. Maybe the ‘corn belt’ could shift northward?

Traveler Special Report: Threatened and Endangered National Parks – In Alaska and beyond…we are losing the natural treasures we sought to protect.

The history of candy canes and why they taste so cool – I am late getting around to including this in the gleanings list. I like peppermint candy year round…even if it’s not in the candy cane shape! I have peppermint candy chips to use in snow ice cream…if it will ever snow enough this winter here in Maryland!

Largest Electric School Bus Program in United States Launching in Virginia | CleanTechnica – Dominion Energy partnering with Virginia School districts…to achieve a 50% electric school bus fleet by 2025 and 100% by 2030. Good for the environment and the lungs of Virginia’s school children. I hope other states will move in the same direction.

These infrared images show just how alive butterflies’ wings are – Surprise! Butterfly wings have living cells not just membranes and scales! The living cells can sense heat and the butterfly responds behaviorally.

 Flame retardants and pesticides overtake heavy metals as biggest contributors to IQ loss - ScienceDaily – There are a lot of things that are toxic in our environment these days…and children are the ones that are hurt the most…and the hurt lasts their lifetime. This study looked specifically at lead, mercury, poly-bromated diphenyl ethers (PDBE…flame retardants) and organophosphate pesticides.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Bird Photography – A little eye candy to end the list of gleanings for this week.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 18, 2020

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Earth at Night – This is an eBook from NASA that was last updated in December 2019….lots of pictures of the earth at night, analysis, and the technology behind the images.

Genomes Sequenced for Every US and Canada Butterfly | The Scientist Magazine® - Work by an evolutionary biologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. 845 butterfly species were studied.

Adding copper strengthens 3D-printed titanium -- ScienceDaily – Current titanium alloys used in 3D printing were prone to cracking and distortion. The copper alloy seems to overcome that problem.

When the best way to take notes is by hand - BBC Future – I like to take notes by hand….it always seemed easier to me than using a laptop (although I tried using a laptop to take notes in meetings during my career). Now it seems that it is better for internalizing concepts too. No need for me to try to change to anything else!

Blue Whales’ Hearts Can Beat Exceptionally Slowly | The Scientist Magazine® - As low as 2 times per minute! The high was 37 beats per minute.

Image of the Day: Ochre Paint | The Scientist Magazine® - Evidently ancient people heated aquatic bacteria mats growing in iron rich water to make a bright red paint which was used for rock art. The paint contains microfossils of the bacteria (Leptothrix ochracea). The red color is highly thermo-stable…something that has applicability to manufacturing.

Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates - BBC Future – Clever crows. Not so long ago we thought humans were the only ones to make and use tools.

Incredible Winners of the 2019 EPSON International PANO Awards – Panoramic photographs…a little eye candy for the week.

Trashed farmland could be a conservation treasure -- ScienceDaily – Interesting idea…but how much land is in this category and what happens to the people that are still trying to eke out an existence on that land.

Future For Silversword Plants At Halaeakalā National Park Dark – Rare plants…have not recovered as well as the Nene (Hawaiian goose) – for several reasons. Plants around the world are having to adjust to changing climate and some will not be able to change fast enough to continue to exist in the same places…some may become extinct. I hope the Silversword survives.

Blog: Insect Collection Photographs – Part II

I remember my own experience making an insect collection during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of high school. I used thin black pins from the local university book store and found some light green Styrofoam that I cut to fit in a rectangular box. One of my friends and I made insect nets: Netting sewn into a sock-light shape with the open end gathered onto clothesline wire that was looped and duct taped to a dowel or old broom handle. They worked reasonably well! Butterflies and moths were my favorites – but I also was very pleased with dragonflies I captured as well. I included at least 2 cicada killers but not captured with the net; I put a jar over the hole I saw them disappear into! It was a memorable experience  from the late 1960s.

I never did see a cecropia moth back then…but my son-in-law has several specimens. The one with the bushier antennae below is the male. The female is the larger of the two.

There are adult and pupae in my son-on-law’s boxes.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

He even managed to preserve a caterpillar with emerging parasitoid larvae! I never developed the expertise to find and preserve anything like that.

Brookside Gardens Outdoors – October 2019

There is plenty to see outdoors at Brookside Gardens during October. I started out looking for fall foliage. This had not been a good color fall here in Maryland overall because of the drought. I started seeing colors right away at Brookside; a little watering means a lot.

View fullsize

View fullsize

I found butterflies in one of the garden ‘rooms’ near the conservatory. Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) – probably migrating toward Mexico – were enjoying the nectar plants: asters and late season cone flowers.

View fullsize

View fullsize

A painted lady (Vanessa cardui) was also enjoying the asters.

A tiny skipper was there too.

It took several tries for me to get a reasonable photo of a Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice). The butterfly seemed to be in motion almost constantly.

After photographing the butterflies, I continued my walk around the gardens…looking for and finding colorful foliage – oaks and maples and dogwoods. Sometimes there seemed to be a spotlight of sun on just what I wanted to photograph!

Last of Wings of Fancy 2019

Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy exhibit ended last Sunday for this year. I volunteered on the last morning….enjoyed some quiet times during the shift to savor the butterflies. When I checked my pictures – I realized that I tend to take my favorite butterflies the most often. The paper kites – because of their size and that it’s easy to see that the forewings and hindwings move independently.

View fullsize

View fullsize

The malachites. I like the creamy green of the underside of the wings the best. They remind me of jade.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The blue morphos – the favorite of many people – because their blue is structural and changes with the way the light is shining on the wings….and that even the underside and body have interesting color and markings.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The monarchs because I am concerned by the decline in their numbers.

And finally – the owls. They have striped eyes…really do have eye spots that make them look like an owl when they fly, and on the other end of the wing (the upper part of the forewing) it looks like a small snake!

I’m already planning to volunteer at next year’s exhibit!

Male and Female Tiger Swallowtails

We’ve had a good year for tiger swallowtails in our area. They seem to be the most numerous butterflies around but maybe it’s just that they are the largest of our native butterflies. Most of the host plants are trees. I like to think that the tulip poplars in the forest behind our house have been full of tiger swallowtail caterpillars this year although I haven’t seen any sign of them. They are big trees and the caterpillars impact the tree very little.

I took lots of tiger swallowtail pictures earlier in the season. Now I have made a game for myself trying to find a male and female butterfly close enough together to be in the same picture. The females are the ones with the blue dust on their hind wings. The males have no blue.

The best of the side-by-side pictures is the one below!

Zooming – August 2019

There are 10 images in this month’s ‘zooming’ post – a selection from places I’ve been over the month: Brookside Gardens, Patuxent Research Refuge, and Mt. Pleasant Farm. I used the zoom a lot on my camera, so I always have a lot to choose from…and the collection almost always is dominated by plants. This month is no exception although there are a few insects (butterflies and a cicada) and a frog.

There is one type of plant that is featured twice. Can you find it in the slideshow?  The answer is below the slideshow.

The hibiscus is the plant featured twice: the red flower and the three green buds!

Wings of Fancy – August 2019

Two volunteer shifts at Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy exhibit stand out this month. The first was a shorter shift before the exhibit was open to the general public. It was two hours for photographers. The shift was low key with not as many people in the exhibit and it was cooler because it was early in the morning. The temperature was low enough that many of the butterflies were still roosting rather than flying around.

It was possible to get close enough for some quick pictures with my cell phone. There were at least two clear wings that were spotted.

Enjoy the slide show! By the end of the 2 hours, the temperature was warming and the morphos were flying. One paid a lot of attention to one of the camera bags.

After my shift I went back into the exhibit and took some pictures with a better camera. My favorite turned out to be a blue morpho that positioned itself perfectly on the ‘do not touch’ sign!

The second shift was made special by a moth! At the beginning of the shift there was an Atlas Moth on the netting at the top of the conservatory…not a good place for a picture. As the shift went on it got hotter and hotter and the moth glided down to the foliage.  We had some time without visitors in the conservatory and I got a great picture. The clear ‘windows’ on the wings look green because of the green plants behind the moth.

Outdoor Butterflies at Brookside

I always walk around a bit before my volunteer shift in Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy exhibit. It’s been easy to see butterflies out in the garden recently. I’ve been able to identify them via my photographs – comparing to the images in the Maryland Butterflies website.

The most numerous butterflies are the tiger swallowtails. I have already posted about them (here) but I did get a good shot of a dark morph (with strips showing in the bright light).

There was a Pipevine Swallowtail that shared a flower for a few seconds with a Monarch butterfly. These swallowtails are smaller than the tiger swallowtails.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Among the smaller butterflies, the Pearl Crescent is plentiful

As are the Silver Spotted Skippers.

I took a picture of a dark butterfly…maybe a Wild Indigo Sooty Wing.

In the walk up to the Caterpillar House of the exhibit there is a Pipevine with Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars. There were so large…I couldn’t resist a picture!

I saw a clearwing moth last time I was cutting flowers at my CSA but I haven’t seen any at Brookside yet this year….and haven’t gotten any pictures.

Zooming – June 2019

So many aspects of nature to photograph in June: flowers and butterflies, frogs and birds…bunnies.

There were photos around home or close to home…and then in Missouri and Ohio. I’ll be learning the route between home and Missouri with two more trips in July…I’ll see how different the places look a month later.

There’s beauty to be found all over if we take the time to look for it!

Brookside – May 2019

I’m just now getting around to posting some pictures I took at Brookside Gardens in May: the butterfly exhibit, the conservatory – and everything blooming outdoors. So many subject to photograph – flowers, immature seed pods, seeds, leaves, garden furniture and fountains….peonies, poppies, magnolias, alliums, maples, dogwood…what’s not to like. Enjoy the big slideshow!

The side of the conservatory not used for the butterfly exhibit always has interesting plants in bloom – or photo worthy in other ways (like giant water droplets on green leaves).

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The door that volunteers and staff use is surrounded by greenery. Somehow it seems bigger this year.

I arrive 15 minutes before my shift in the butterfly exhibit. Sometimes I have a few minutes between the orientation and the arrival of the first visitors arriving to photograph butterflies.

May is a big month in the gardens. I have a series of Brookside Gardens rose pictures that I’m saving for another post.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 30, 2019

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Spring Outlook: Historic, widespread flooding to continue through May | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Check out the map about 1/3 of the way through the article. It looks like quite a few areas along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers are going to have moderate or major flooding through May. Almost the whole eastern part of the US is going to have some flooding during that period.

How Chromosomes X and Y Got Their Names, 1891 | The Scientist Magazine® - A little history. It all begins in the late 1800s.

C. R. PERCIVAL’S MICROSCOPE SLIDE COLLECTION | Ingenium – Browse through some of the images made of slides created in the early/mid 1900s. Click on the larger image to get a magnifier that can be moved over the image.

Food Trends 2019: Fermented Foods, Blueberries, Coconut Products, and More | Berkeley Wellness – How many of these are you already eating?

What oil leaves behind in 2.5 billion gallons of water every day in US -- ScienceDaily – Wouldn’t it be nice to not have oil polluted water injected underground…and sometimes into aquafers? Water is already in short supply in some areas of the country (mostly in the west). We need technologies to never contaminate water in a way that it cannot be consumed by plants and animals…and ourselves.

In Germany, Consumers Embrace a Shift to Home Batteries - Yale E360 – Half of the orders for rooftop solar panels are sold with a battery storage system too in Germany. I wonder when the US will catch up.

Butterfly numbers down by two thirds: High-intensity agriculture reduces number of butterfly species in adjacent areas -- ScienceDaily – It’s not just butterfly numbers that are down either. Agriculture research needs to hone practices that are productive in the short term…and the long term. In other words – all agriculture needs to become sustainable for humanity and the rest of the organisms that inhabit the Earth.

Nitrogen pollution's path to streams weaves through more forests (and faster) than suspected -- ScienceDaily – Nitrate is one of the abiotic tests we do for water quality assessment with high school students. This is a new finding to think about and incorporate in to the analysis of readings after heavy rains. The nitrogen might be moving so fast that the forest can’t absorb it!

Missouri Making Hyperloop Plans - News | Planetizen – A hyperloop between Kansas City and St. Louis! What a boon to the two cities and probably easier to build since there is not the heavy population between the two cities like the route that was originally talked about in California.

China Isn't Recycling Tons of U.S. Plastic Trash Anymore: Goats and Soda: NPR – We’re going to have to show some innovation in dealing with plastics – mostly single use – that we dutifully put in our recycle bins and assumed they would be recycled. Now a lot of them are going to landfills or polluting our waterways.  With a little thought, my family has reduced some….but the next step is tough. Some products we need are only available packaged in plastic.

Zooming – August 2018

Bugs and flowers and butterflies and spider webs and seed pods and bird feet– oh my! I really do enjoy the extra zoom capability of my new camera. I am using the monopod if I can anticipate going to 65x…since it’s too difficult to compost the picture otherwise. I might eventually give in and use a tripod although not when I am going to be moving about. Lugging a tripod is never going to be something I want to do!

Enjoy the show!

Ten Little Celebrations – August 2018

I thought August might be a slow month with the summer camps ending and nothing new starting….but the month developed….not hard at all to pick 10 little celebrations to highlight.

Solitary hike – Usually I hike with other people – most recently with summer campers. Hike my myself at Mt. Pleasant was a change-of-pace and something to celebrate. Getting a artsy picture of two butterflies on Joe Pye Weed with a clear blue sky background was the image to remember of the morning.

Surviving a long hike – Then there was the much longer hike with camper up and down…across a stream and along muddy paths. I celebrated when that hike was done!

Blue Jay feather – A special feather is always a celebration for me…and from several perspectives: finding one on the ground, photographing it, remembering my daughter’s feather collection when she was very young, and realizing that know what kind of bird it came from!

Weekend in State College – Deciding to take a weekend trip – spurt of the moment. And dodging the rain to enjoy every minute! Celebrating family.

Butterflies – August seems to be my peak month for butterflies roosting on me in the butterfly exhibit. It’s special every single time.

Hummingbirds – Last weekend my husband and I attempted to photograph hummingbirds at Brookside gardens for two mornings. We were reasonably successful (a post about our experience is coming) but we’ll both improve with more practice. The birds are fast movers. Both of us are celebrating the photographs we got with the birds in focus!

Blooming bananas – Seeing something familiar but in a little different stage of development….I’m celebrating being in the conservatory at the right time.

Rulers for 25 cents – I celebrated that several stores in our area had wooden rulers for 26 cents. That’s inexpensive enough I can have my own supply for field trips with children just learning to measure sizes of what we find on our hikes.

Dragonflies – I haven’t found dragonflies in the wheel formation (mating) but I did find two at our neighborhood storm water management pond that were half way there! I celebrated the photographic opportunity and an still looking for the wheel.

Sweet potato leaves – Yummy sweet potato leaves. Our Community Supported Agriculture must have harvested part of the sweet potato crop in August so we got leaves in one of our shares this month. I hope there are still some left for later since we normally get them in late September. They are probably my favorite salad green….and I get them a couple of weeks a year….so worthy of celebration when they are available.

Butterflies at Brookside Gardens

August was a good month for butterflies at Brookside Gardens – both in the conservatory and outdoors in the gardens. Volunteering allows me to visit the Wings of Fancy exhibit and bring guests when I’m not ‘on shift;’ I get there just as the conservatory opens to indulge in some butterfly photography.

I challenge myself to capture eyes, proboscis, palpi, and antennae for as many butterflies as possible.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The blue morpho is one I photography a lot so I am always looking for a new and different perspective.

The blue morpho is one I photography a lot so I am always looking for a new and different perspective.

The same is true for true for the malachite. I think I like the underside of the wings more than the upper.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The Julia longwing is the one I photographyed a few months ago moving its palpi across the parts of its eyes.

View fullsize

The stars for August were the big moths. There were male and female Atlas moths – kept separately so they couldn’t mate and lay eggs everywhere in the conservatory creating a containment problem. The males are much smaller than the females and the shape of the scale-less (clear) portions of the wing are different. In the pictures the male’s antennae are forward from the head…both females have antennae positioned back over their heads.

The other big moth was the Africa Moon Moth which looks very similar to our North American Luna Moth.

The Wings of Fancy exhibit runs until September 16….so a few more weeks to enjoy the butterflies in the conservatory.

Butterflies Resting – on Me

While I was manning the exit at Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy the first hour after it opened yesterday, I had 3 different butterflies decide to take a rest on me. The first was a blue morpho that sat on my left hand. It must have felt very secure since it sat still while I got my cell phone out, entered the security code, started the camera app, and braced the cell phone on my arm to get pictures – moving in closer and closer. The butterfly’s wings were tattered but the orange in the upper legs and the palpi (between the eyes) was very distinct. The proboscis is neatly coiled.

The second butterfly was another blue morpho that started out on my sandal. I crossed my leg, so I could get a get a closer shot. The butterfly was very interested in the strap of my sandal and then my ankle with its proboscis. The wings were in better shape that the first butterfly; notice the yellow and orange color toward the outer edges of the wing.

The third butterfly was a malachite that was on my hat. A visitor told me I had a butterfly on my hat and it stayed there when I took my hat off so I could see it! I had to one-hand the phone again but was pleased with the pictures I got of this butterfly. I like the patterning of the underside of the malachite butterflies…even more than the brighter green of the other side of the wings.

I’ve never been so lucky to have so many butterflies resting on me during a visit to the exhibit. They were on other people as well…something special about yesterday.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 30, 2018

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The Mysterious Demise of Africa’s Oldest Trees - Yale E360 – Baobab trees that are over 1000 years old are dying quickly…and there is not yet a definitive explanation.

History and Seaports in Charleston : Image of the Day – I visited Charlestown a few years ago on vacation…this picture from the International Space Station brought back memories and provided a different perspective of the place.

Top 25 Birds of Europe – National Geographic Blog – Last week it was Africa…this week it’s Europe.

New study examines impacts of fracking on water supplies worldwide - GeoSpace - AGU Blogosphere – Maps make it easy to look at complex data in a visual way. My take away from these maps of water supply and shale basin areas is that Texas has a lot of shale in areas that are already under water stress….fresh water is already being consumed unsustainably.

BBC - Future - Why non-smokers are getting lung cancer – I’ve wondered about non-smokers and lung cancer. The numbers are not huge…but they are often diagnosed late and are, therefore, more deadly.

Seventeenth-Century Danish Latrines Analyzed - Archaeology Magazine – Diet and parasites from more than 300 years ago.

Move Over, Monarchs: Another Butterfly Makes a Longer One-Way Migration - Yale E360 – Painted Lady Butterflies from southern Europe migrate across the Mediterranean through the Sahara to tropical Africa!

Discover Landscape Architecture Activity Books – THE DIRT – There are activity books for younger students and then teens/adults. I am reading the adult version and then will try to apply some of the activities when I travel…encourage new appreciation of the as-built landscape architecture of the places I visit.

2018 Lotus And Water Lily Festival At Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens – My husband and I don’t go to the festival but we do go the Kenilworth several times in July…expect lotus and water lily (and dragon fly) posts soon!

Lives before and after Stonehenge: An osteobiographical study of four prehistoric burials recently excavated from the Stonehenge World Heritage Site – Lifestyle rather than ethnicity seems to determine burial practices in this instance.

Butterfly Heads

I am in Texas and missing my frequent visits to Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy in Maryland. The pictures I took right before I left are something to savor. The theme of my photography inside the conservatory was ‘butterfly heads! The blue morphos have orange and white papillae --- nothing iridescent blue about their heads.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Some butterflies have papillae that are very large. The proboscis is between the papillae and extend for feeding on bananas or flowers.

Sometimes the papillae are damaged. I notice the owls often have broken papillae. The brown and black stripes of the owl eyes are different than other butterfly eyes.

Some butterflies have antennae that seem to glow at the ends.

In the conservatory, butterflies are sometimes resting upside down under leaves. Its always a thrill to notice one in the foliage.

Some of the larger butterflies feed on multiple flowers in succession – wings almost always in motion. The last day I was at Brookside was sunny enough that the camera was fast enough to freeze the motion.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

I tell children that the butterfly’s proboscis is like a straw…and they do seem to handle it like one…although the way they coil it under their head is different from straws we use!

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Butterflies feeding on flowers are my favorites, but some prefer bananas (or other rotting fruit). I inevitability decide that all of them are worth trying to photograph.