Posted on February 29, 2008 by Seabrooke
Edit: This post was recently included in the 180th edition of Friday Ark, a weekly blog carnival focusing on animals of all sorts. You can check out the full edition at The Modulator.
One of the downsides to learning things yourself using the internet or reference books as your guide is that it’s pretty easy to [...]
Filed under: bugs, moths, trees | Tagged: caterpillars, egg mass, Gypsy Moth, pupa | 5 Comments »
Posted on February 27, 2008 by Seabrooke
What is it about invertebrates that creeps people out so much? Cockroaches are the stereotype of unclean dwellings, and used dramatically to draw shivers from an audience, but really the insects probably have little to no interest in you personally. A spider crawling out of a drainpipe can prevent someone from stepping into a bathtub [...]
Filed under: bugs | Tagged: arthropods, bugs, centipede, creepy crawlies, house centipede, insects | 17 Comments »
Posted on February 25, 2008 by Seabrooke
This is a familiar sight on public-use trails. Something in the human nature cries out to leave a mark, something to indicate that yes, I was here. Perhaps it’s our subconscious recognition that our life is fleeting, ephemeral? Perhaps it’s lovebirds applying superstition to an emblem of their love: as long as this shall remain, [...]
Filed under: flora, trees | Tagged: arbutus, burl, tree carving, tree growth, tree wounds | 5 Comments »
Posted on February 23, 2008 by Seabrooke
For Christmas, I got a number of books, one of which was Julie Zickefoose’s new book, Letters From Eden. I read it in just a couple of sittings, and enjoyed every page (some day I wanna be just like Julie!). Another one I got was Good Birders Don’t Wear White. It’s a collection of “essays” [...]
Filed under: amphibians, birds, flora, mammals, nature, wildlife | Tagged: American Woodcock, arrival dates, calendar, Julie Zickefoose, listing, make a list, Tommy Thompson Park Bird Research Station | 8 Comments »
Posted on February 22, 2008 by Seabrooke
Wednesday night a spectacular and beautiful total lunar eclipse took place, visible to most of the North American continent. It was, unsurprisingly, a very popular topic on blogs throughout the blogosphere yesterday, with lots of people posting photos of the event. Well, I might as well add my voice to the fray, and my photos, [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: stars, Lunar eclipse, moon, earth, umbra, penumbra | 4 Comments »
Posted on February 20, 2008 by Seabrooke
Between all the gray and white and evergreen of the winter landscape, nature provides the occasional little pop of colour. The deep red of sumac berries is one of my favourites. These particular sumac trees were photographed at the Rouge, but really the tree is so common you could find it just about anywhere. It [...]
Filed under: flora, plants, trees | Tagged: Staghorn Sumac, sumac | 7 Comments »
Posted on February 18, 2008 by Seabrooke
Today was Family Day here in Ontario, a newly-created holiday courtesy of our provincial premiere, who believed that the unbroken stretch between New Year’s Day and Easter was just too long for an employee to reasonably have to suffer through. This was the first year the new holiday has been in effect, and there’s still [...]
Filed under: birds, hiking, nature, trees | Tagged: American Robin, berries, Black Cherry, Black-capped Chickadee, Hermit Thrush, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Rouge Park, Rouge Valley | 3 Comments »
Posted on February 16, 2008 by Seabrooke
Yesterday and today were gorgeous. The sun was out, the sky was mostly blue with the occasional puffy cloud. The sunshine was much appreciated, and I took advantage of the warming rays to go for a short walk. Yesterday on the morning news they said that to that point we’d only had 20 hours of [...]
Filed under: abiotic | Tagged: SAD, seasonal affective disorder, subsyndromal SAD, sunlight, sunshine | 8 Comments »
Posted on February 14, 2008 by Seabrooke
One of the cool things about being a bander (or visiting a banding station, or going out with an independent bander) is the opportunity to see live birds up close, at a distance that you’re only likely to view them otherwise if they crash into your window (and hopefully that doesn’t happen too often). Lots [...]
Filed under: birds | Tagged: banding, heart-shaped, Northern Flicker | 4 Comments »
Posted on February 13, 2008 by Seabrooke
Yesterday we got another dump of snow, a good six inches worth, which piled on top of the foot we got last week, which was on the foot from the week before, with very little melting in between. It’s a shame that I’m not more into winter sports, because it seems the conditions out there [...]
Filed under: abiotic, birds, mammals | Tagged: badlands national park, lark sparrow, upland sandpiper, western meadowlark, black-tailed jackrabbit, prairie dog, spotted towhee, south dakota, badlands | 6 Comments »