Wordless Wednesday: Dragon Fly

This dragon fly is dead. I found it on the lawn of a friend's house, still in great condition.  Dragon flies are wetland bugs. They live near water where the females lay eggs.  The juvenile stage of dragon flies (and the closely related damsel fly) are called nymphs; and these little alien-looking bugs live in the water until they become mature exoskeleton-having, wing-bearing adults.  You can always tell a dragon fly because of its large size and when it lands it holds its equal-sized double wings out, like the pictures above.  And they come is a variety of pretty colors.

Wordless Wednesday: Horizons of Barbados

I had a chance to visit the very beautiful island nation of Barbados on behalf of Outdoor Afro. While I partook in Barbados food, hosptitality, culture and scenery for my friend and kindred outdoor spirit Rue of Outdoor Afro (and blogged all about it), I also couldn't help myself and took in the beautiful nature. I'll be highlighting my wonderful nature and wildlife encounters of the Caribbean Island.

Today, I feature the beautiful landscapes photos of the islands.  I think the pictures give a good sense of not only the naturl beauty of the country but give you a big picture view of the ecology of the island, too.

Dusk - view from the patio of the hotel. That's the Caribbean sea in the distance with various palm trees all around.

Sailing out on the Caribbean sea. That's the island nation of Barbados in the distance.

Beach view. Crystal blue waters of the Caribbean sea.

Row of tall palm trees along the driveway of a former Sugar Plantation. Barbados was once a colony of the United Kingdom and the entire island was basically a series of big sugar plantations.

Though sugar isn't the main export anymore, the legacy of the sugar plantation is not lost. This was once a sugar plantation, with a small sugar mill towwe in the distance on the left. This land now is being developed for residental propoerties. Notice the wide open flat landscape.

Narrow shot of a gully. The island is only 14 miles long  by 21 miles wide, but there are hundreds of miles of gullies - series of small inland streams, sloughs, and water ways.  Lots of diverse species of plant, birds, amphians, reptiles and insects call these gullies home. There are some species that exist no other place on earth. But no snakes. Barbados has no snakes (they were all removed/extripated by the colonists long, long ago)

View from the hilly region of Barbados called the Scotland district. That's the Altantic Ocean in the far distance.

Scotland district, Atlantic Ocean in the background.

Standing in that spot from the previous picture. Don't let anyone fool you. People become scientists (biologists, ecologists, geologists) so that we can travel to beautiful places like this and do research. Aren't you ready to become a scientist, too now?



Geological formation from when Barbados was 'pushed out of the sea'. Barbados is a sandstone/coral island - connected to the seafloor, not a volcanic island.



Beach view of the East side of the island

Beach view of the East side of island, Atlantic Ocean. Notice the plastic trash deposited on the beach. I walked past hat plastic laundry detergent bottle (and thousands of pieces like it) on my brief visit to that beach. No telling how far that plastic traveled before getting washed up on the beach. Learn more about plastic trash in the ocean at my friend's blog. She's doing her dissertation research on the impact of this very issue, link here.

Stay tuned for more Barbados pictures.
In the meantime, check out my posts, to date about the visit to Barbados for Outdoor Afro.
Barbados Bound: An Outdoor Afro Adventure in the Caribbean
Barbados – An Outdoor Afro Adventure (at Jack & Jill Politics)
Outdoor Fun in Barbados: Fun at Sea!
Games Outdoor Afros Play – Dominoes

Wordless Wednesday: Crab apple flowers

I've had this on-going relationship with crab apple trees since my childhood.  In the front yard of my paternal grandparent's house was a crab apple tree.  It was tall and thin and I would often wrap my arms around it when I was a little girl (and I'm drawing memories that go way back to the age of 3 or so).  I remember fat, round crab apple fruits, about the size of a jack ball that hung heavy on the limbs.  The fruits would litter the front yard, which interferred with my grandfather cutting the grass or my boy cousins playing touch football.

That tree was the focal part of the front yard.  I would guess that others thought warmly of the tree, too. I remember for my grandparents 50th anniversay there was a special framed portrait/clock that included individual photos of my grandparents flanking a photo of that crab apple tree in the middle, with the thin gold clock hands originating at the branching part of the tree. Tiny little tics encircled the tree, which represented each of the 12 hours of the day.

A few years later, late 1980's/early 1990's the tree was struck by lightning, bring down the front portion of the limbs and leaving a very bad scar.  It was large and quite dark.  I remember being sad about it. Without its full rounded crown of leaves in the spring and autumn, it just seemed to droop on one-side. It looked like it was slumped over, like a family-member in declining health, feeling sad and awaiting death.  Eventually, the decision was made to cut it down, because it was bad off afterall. I gasped with shock and lost when I saw missing one day.

Sigh....but in all of that, I never really paid attention to the tree in spring, so the memory of flowers isn't as salient for me. And in my fuzzy memory, I don't remember the flowers of that tree in my grandparents' yard being this pink or this colorful.  For some reason, I recall the flowers being white or blush. But now that it's gone, I can't confirm it.

Do you have any nostalgic memories of trees from your childhood?  Do you hold some wild spaces or things as special friends?

Wordless Wednesday: Red buds bloom

Red buds are by far my most favorite flowering tree.  I think I've dedicated more blog posts to blooming red buds than to any other species.  Here are photos I took recently, in St. Louis between the bouts of cold.  Our spring is starting in spurts and fits, but the flowers are still blooming.

I love to photograph young red buds against the bright blue sky.  The contrasts is just aaaah-mazing to me.

Check out my previous posts about red buds, including more pretty photos.

Urban Wildlife Watch - Redbuds (from April 2008)

Wordless Wednesday: Red Buds Blooming (from April 2009)

Have you spotted any red buds blooming in your backyard? What is your favorite flowering treet in your urban nature habitat?

Wordless Wednesday: First signs of spring

Crocus, the first flower of spring

Bi-color Daffodils

tiny white lawn flowers, now identified as Star of Bethlehem flowers.
(thank you, readers)

Yellow pansies

With the exception of the tiny white flowers (whose name I do not know), all of these are examples of cultivated flowers.  Each was once a wild species of flower that a long time ago, people decided were pretty enough to plant by their home and in public spaces.  Over time, people select some traits to be exaggerated, such as color, petal size and size of the flower itself.  All of them are perennials, meaning you plant them once and they keep coming back year after year assuming the roots stay healthy and alive.  Perennials are a great part of the 'urban nature lanscape' in that is something directly related to people, we manage and control it, but it's still pretty and wild, but not so wild.

Happy Valentine's Day, from my backyard to yours.

See how much urban nature loves you. It blooms with heart-shaped leaves for you.

From my heart to yours.



big hearts



little hearts

many hearts

jagged hearts

smooth hearts

I took all of these pictures last summer 2010, at various parks in St. Louis, Missouri.  I flashed away because I loved the unique shape of the leaves. Some are from Catalpa trees, others from weedy vines.  But aren't they all grand?

Spring will soon be here.  Keep your eyes open for heart-shaped leaves in your backyard and share the discovery with me here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

DNLee

demystifying nature, letting everyone experience

First Bird Friday! A Survey & New Nature Blogging Meme

I wish I could say this was my idea. It isn't. (But to my knowledge the title is my idea).  Audubon California has a weekly survey. Each Friday they ask online readers to tell them the identity of of the first bird they see each Friday Morning and let them know your city.  You can submit your answers until 12 noon (PST) and then they share the results on their blog - The Audublog.  That's it.  It's quick, easy, and fun.  Click here.

Me & a fledgling baby goldfinch. Fell out of the tree and one to one of my campers (Summer 2010).  I had to take take some pictures with it...it's like a local urban wildlife celebrity. J

But other than fun, another reason to do is to get you to start to deliberately taking notice of the wildlife around you.  And that's what I inspire you to do everyday.  We can't begin to make our communities safer and cleaner and greener until we take stock in what we have - the good and the bad. And Urban wildlife is all good.

All all bird life counts, as they say:

And if you don't see a Bald Eagle or a California Condor, don't worry. That's not what this is all about. This is about celebrating the common right alongside the rare and unusual.

Don't worry if you don't know the name of the bird you saw. Make note of the bird's characteristics -- size, color, general shape. You can use that info to look up the bird's identity on the Audubon's online bird guide. Then complete the survey.
If you want to follow all of the First Bird Friday! excitement, then check out the Audubon California on Facebook, their blog, or Twitter @AudubonCA hashtag #firstbird.

And yes, I've submitted my answer....American Robin.  I spotted it on a little patch of ground (cause it's snow all over the place here in St. Louis, MO) at Hazelwood East Middle School by a Paper birch tree.

Fellow nature bloggers, help spread the word.  Readers, tell me in comments what you saw and visit their site to submit your answer.

12 Months of Urban Science Adventures! © A Blogging Meme Story

All the cool kids other science bloggers were doing it, so I joined in.  Here is how it works:

Post the link and first sentence from the first blog entry for each month of the past year.

So here goes:

January: Setting My New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year! I know I have been posting less than regularly, but I assure that it is a good sign of my progress on my dissertation

February: Wordless Wednesday: Still Stalking in the Snow

The SnowPocalypse isn't all bad.

March: Honey Bees Buzz with Individuality

I'm going to do something a little extra today - present a research paper to you.

April: It's April no fooling

Wow! It's April already.

May: My Final Commencement Ceremony

I graduate next week.

June: Preparing for summer camp

Oh, I love summer!

July: Blog Book Review: Jack in the Box presents Science Kids Mini-books

I love junk food. 

August: Election Day - Vote for Urban Science Adventures! (c)

It's Election day in many parts of the United States.

September: Making Science Make Sense with Dr. Mae Jemison

On Wednesday, September 8, 2010, THE Dr. Mae Jemison spoke a room of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educators and advocates at the state of Missouri STEM Summit presented by the Department of Elementary & Secondary Education.

October: A Wise Latina Scientist

We met in the Ladies Room near the main Auditorium at Bucknell University.

November: Snakes up close

I've got to make a confession.

December: Wordless Wednesday: Golden Life

The golden hues of autumn leaves make me smile.

It reads like a Mad Libs game. A little funny and choppy. 

But I am very happy about this year.  It's been the best, most blessed year of my life. 

Smooches to you all!

Wordless Wednesday: Simply Red

 

Wordless Wednesday: Golden Life

The golden hues of autumn leaves make me smile.

Living my life like it's golden.

Wordless Wednesday: My Power Color - Autumn Orange

The warm hues of oranges with reds and yellows warm my soul.  These colors also completement the undertones of my skin.  I'm always rocking these colors - all year long.  This time of year, I feel certain Mother Nature is dressing up just for me.

Aaah!

Urban Wildlife Watch: Chinese Chestnut Tree

Looking back on my life and surveying my memories from my present vantage point - as an adult and a biologist with several years of school under my belt - I sometimes realize that I knew I would be a biologist. 

As I stroll along walkways or drive down the street, I sometimes find myself completely entranced by the subtle plots of nature happening before me.  These surreal pauses seem to hit me especially hard when I encounter a tree or flower that for some reason is bookmarked in my mind, but I don't know it until that very moment.

I was literally walking down the street, headed to my car and saw this.

 It is the spiky fruit pod of the Chestnut tree, the Sweet or Chinese Chestnut it is sometimes called.

We had a rather large Sweet Chestnut tree in my front yard back home in Memphis.  These spike pods were the bane of my younger siblings and wandering animals.

Bumping into this young tree was like running into an old friend while on vacation.  You never expected to see them but you stop and visit a while and you feel good for having taken the time to catch up.

I first learned about Chestnut trees at Natural Resources Career Camp.  The American Chestnut is especially rare because it is susceptible to a tree disease, known as blight.  Even if you are lucky enough to see/grow one, it's not likely to grow very long or tall.  Because no one in my family knew what kind of tree this was, I took some of the fallen nuts to the Forestry professor at my university (while I was studying for my Master's).  He seemed surprised to see the nut and kept asking me where I found it.  He seemed to have a hard time believing me when I told him from my yard, from a large tree.  Obviously, foreign Chestnut trees are special as well.

Have you come across a chestnut tree?  If so which kind?