I just wanted to share with you one of my newest additions to my flower garden – Nasturtiums. These flowers are low maintenance annuals that come in a variety of colors (bright orange, yellow, red) and foliage (variegated and non-variegated). Check them out at your local nursery!
Nasturtiums
In the early 1900s it was quite fashionable to wear feathered hats. Formal social events were even said to be like aviaries due to the number of women wearing bird trimmed hats. Then in 1918 the Migratory Bird Treaty Act was passed between Canada and the United States making it illegal to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill or sell migratory birds. This act grants full protection to any bird parts including feathers, eggs and nests. Over 800 species are currently on the list. Many other protective measures have been in acted since the early 1900s including the most notable Endangered Species Act of 1973 which protects all plant, mammal, reptile, bird and amphibians species who are on the verge of extinction.
Foot characteristics has been an important feature for classifying birds into different taxonomic orders. Early in the 19th century ornithologist Hans Gadow created a list of 40 morphological characteristics including foot scale arrangement and number of toes (along with many other features) to help define the orders of existing birds.
Oftentimes, students learning ornithology are taught the 34 orders by studying the feet of various bird species. The variation from webbed to unwebbed feet, color and scale arrangement is amazing. Who knew you could identify a bird by its feet!
Today was our second Ornithology lab starting at about 6:30AM and lasting until 3:00PM. We saw many different types of waterfowl including two species of grebe (Horned Grebe, Pied billed Grebe), Hawks, White Pelicans, Sparrows and Bald Eagles. This trip I tried out my new binoculars and found them to be much more brighter and clearer than my other pairs. Below are a few shots I took on my trip.
Eagle nest
Snow Geese
American Coot
Easternbluebird
Eastern Phoebe
Since the fall semester has finished I thought I would share a few interesting tid bits from my animal ecology class. Both inside and outside the classroom we dove into the amazing world of animals and how they interact in their respective terrestrial or aquatic environments.
Wood peckers have barbed tongues that wrap around their skulls.
Missouri Conservationist, March 2007
Red squirrels are nest predators. They sometimes eat bird eggs.
newshugs.wordpress.com
Dragonfly larvae are aquatic until they metamorphose into an adult dragonflies. They are cannibalistic, as we found out in our predation experiments.
6legs2many.wordpress.com
One way ecologists mark salamanders (for mark & recapture studies) is by trimming off one of the digits on the limbs of the larval salamanders. It is common for young salamanders to loose digits while fighting with other larvae. These studies are done to estimate population size.
newswatch.nationalgeographic.com
I finally got from my adviser the photos I took using her DSLR camera from our excursion to Southern Illinois. In the midst of looking for Red Mulberry trees, I took these photos. Hope you enjoy! (Consider these images the photo of the week).
Black-eyed-Susans
Looking into the forest
Bald cypress with cones
Rattlesnake master
As promised I am sharing with you some of the more unique looking flowers I learned about in my field botany class. The flowers I have listed below are from small herbaceous plants ( from such families as irises and mints) to large woody shrubs and trees. Enjoy their variety in color and shape!
Narrow leaf blue eyed grass flower (Iris family)
Orange jewelweed flower
Northern catalpa flower (tree)
Wild bergamot (mint family)
Flower from Paw paw (small tree)
Butterfly milkweed infloresence
Button bush flower
Maypops flower (vine)
Silk tree/ Mimosa flower (has long, thin, stamens)
Tulip tree/yellow poplar flower (in Magnolia family)
I finally put a name to a very thorny tree. A few months ago my husband and I took a hike at a National Recreational Area (Land Between the Lakes in Western Kentucky) and I came across this said tree, needless to say I took its picture and stowed its image away in my memory bank. Well today during class I came across another very thorny tree like the one I saw back in the Spring (see image below if you don’t believe how thorny it is).
Today my professor shared its name the Honey locust, Gleditsia triacanthos. It is from the pea family so it produces a pea shaped fruit called a legume. Its legume actually twists right before it opens up to release its seeds.
Its leaves are as unique as the rest of it being bi-pinnately compounded on older leaves while newer leaves are once compounded. Here are a few images of this delightful, yet very thorny tree.
