Nature is awesome

On our morning walk with Locksley this morning we came across something pretty amazing.

Behind our apartment is a little woodland area with paved trails that lead to a playground and recreation area. I always tell Sam he's flattering it by calling it a "forest" because it's really more of a "woods" in that it's just a scrap of wilderness. But even so we get some pretty great visitors--fox, birds, deer, snakes, and so on so I'm really grateful to have it so close to home. It's my favorite place to walk the dog.

So we're on our morning walk when all of a sudden we come up on this:


Can you see it? I spotted her first and even when we stopped to observe Locksley was pretty much oblivious. Which is good because you don't really want to annoy a snapping turtle.

I knew immediately what was going on, she was digging a hole to lay eggs! As we stood quietly watching she gave us kind of a dirty look and went on with her business.

Digging with her back legs, a pile of earth behind her.

Watching the turtle reminded me of the turtles that we had growing up. My dad when he was a boy would go out into the woods and find Eastern Box Turtles. They'd keep them for the summer and then let them go in the fall. So when my sister and I were young we did the same. One year we even had a turtle lay eggs, though I don't think they hatched.

Sam's mind was blown from coming across this turtle. It was definitely an educational experience! And it made me really grateful that I had lots of experiences with nature as a kid.

We didn't want to make the turtle too uncomfortable with our presence so we didn't stick around too long. She was doing important stuff, after all! I hope that her choice of a nesting spot is a safe one and that the eggs get a chance to hatch.


I looked up some snapping turtle information and apparently they can lay anywhere from 10-30 eggs! The sex of the eggs are determined by temperature. And they can hatch anywhere between 55 and 125 days later. You can learn more fascinating stuff about snapping turtles here and even more nerdy stuff here.

Also, we managed to get a video where you can actually see her plopping some eggs into the nest:



Nature is awesome! Thanks and Godspeed lady snapping turtle!

Art in Nature: Bower Birds

I love bower birds. They truly have a sense of aesthetic - they know what they like and they go for it. The above is an image of a bower bird nest, who clearly likes the color gray. The nests are meant to attract a mate: if I was a female bower bird I'd be all about this guy.

The nests are all individualistic. One bird might decorate his bower in blue, another red. They decorate their nests according to taste, finding just the right items for their bower. They arrange all of their items just so.

Here's my favorite naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, hanging out with bower birds:


Kudos to Sub-Studio for their bower bird post.
Also, kudos to me, back in the day.

Also, this is the funniest thing I have ever seen. Naturalist Nerd Humor!

Aesthetics: Dark and Shiny

Aesthetic inspirations, thanks to Cabinet of Curiosities.

Buy this stuff at: Catbird, Nervous System, Bona Drag, Etsy, and Bjorg Jewelry.

Grander than a Cactus

Thanks to the good folks at SpiderIdentification.org, we now know what Cactus Spider is!

He's a male Mecnogea lemniscata, otherwise known as a Basilica Orbweaver.

They're named after the structure of the web used to catch prey, which supposedly resembles the "domed ceilings inside some cathredrals." I had no idea our humble cactus spider was an arachnid of the cloth!

Son of Cactus Spider - TRIUMPHANT!

Sad news, everyone. When I went to check on the spiders who live on the cactus this afternoon there was only one. ONLY ONE! Son of Cactus Spider now as the cactus monopoly.

God speed, Original Cactus Spider, where ever you are.

I was also able to witness something I had NEVER BEFORE SEEN. This is kind of a big deal because I have spent a lot of time over the years observing nature. I thought I wanted to be a naturalist. But then I learned that it entailed more than creeping around in the woods, dictating into a microphone, pretending to be Sir. David Attenborough.

What I saw was Son of Cactus Spider shedding. I didn't know that spiders shed! But it makes perfect sense: what else are you supposed to do with an exoskeleton that's starting to pinch in all the wrong places?

It was hard to photograph because he was twirling around the entire time. But here we go:

This is how I found him. What are you up to, Cactus Spider?

He was really twisting around in the "wind" - though I'm pretty sure all that twirling was on purpose to speed along the shedding process.

Here he is, peeeeeling out of those old legs. I imagine it's like taking off panty hose after a hot day.

He's free! and dangling from his discarded exoskeleton. He kind of looks like an octopus or something, I think.

He's finished! No longer floppy and octopussy - it looks like his legs are in full working order.

Good work, Son of Cactus Spider!

Farmers Market

Every weekend there's a Farmers Market in Old Greenbelt, and every weekend I try to remember to go. Like a lot of people who frequent Farmers Markets, I go to support local farmers whose practices I believe make for healthier food.

It's also a more tactile experience. In a typical grocery store I feel like all the offerings are the same - tomatoes, peaches, and so on, all roughly the same size and color. At the Farmers Market there are different booths with food form different farms. The selection process takes more time, checking the variety of offerings, assessing each item. It's a conscious effort.

Look at that color. OM NOM NOM!

I can't get everything at the Farmers Market. I also shop at MOMs (My Organic Market), and a grab couple of basics at the regular grocery store. It does take more time to do the grocery shopping, but I love the way my refrigerator looks afterward.

Autumn Tease

Spied this leaf on our evening walk today, and almost was tricked into thinking Autumn could be near. But no, it's still hot and humid and undeniably SUMMER.

SON OF CACTUS SPIDER!

I came home from work today and checked on Cactus Spider only to find he's got a NEIGHBOR now.

I think they may be the same kind of spider? Maybe one is a female (my guess, original Cactus Spider) and the other male? Or Maybe one is the offspring of the other? Hm..

Original Cactus Spider.

Son Of Cactus Spider - with a tasty morsel!

I wonder how long these two will stick around? Who knew cacti were such swanky digs for spiders?

Nature. And also, Nature

One of my favorite things about living where I do is the amount of nature that happens randomly and all around.

Some selections just from this week:

Bunnies in your Living Room

Flipping through the Dwell Magazine that occassionally manifests on the coffee table I came upon one of the most clever things I've seen in a while: Permafrost "Silence" RugGet it? It's bunny tracks across your newly fallen snow-rug! Such cleverness gets me a little swoony. I'm looking forward to retailers picking this up - it's that blend of nature + design that I heartily endorse.

Aesthetics and the Collector's Cabinet

I am both a scientist and an artist - and while those may seem like two opposing identifiers - there are rare times when I find something that satisfies both of these aspects of my personality. Artfully done biological collections are one of these things.

The Victorian Era gave rise to a fantastic hobby among distinguished gentlemen of the time - that is the collection of various objects of natural history. The measure of a dapper fellow's collection was a social status marker, and thanks to their ego, there are several rather impressive private assemblages of bones, hides, fossils, and preserved specimens across the biological kingdom.

I am shamelessly fascinated by such collections. The Walters Art Museum has a room which, rather successfully, uses the painting "The Archdukes Albert and Isabella Visiting a Collector's Cabinet" to mimic what one of these private hordes would look like. This got me very excited, gentle reader, because I am a huge sucker for natural wonders. Corals, fossils, stones, bones, leopard skins, moose heads, bugs pinned in boxes, microscopes, dried flora, and slimey things in jars! All displayed with the touch of an artist's design.

Not only do these collections satisfy me on a intellectual, scientific level but there's something about the aesthetic of these things that my brain really indulges. The items themselves are beautiful and interesting - the textures of skulls, the construction of insects, the intricate patterns of corals. But the design of the objects that surround them - slide microscopes, various sized bottles with caps and corks, boxes with glass tops, magnifying glasses - makes me pretty giddy, too.

It should be noted that there is a significant difference between this highly aesthetic Victorian Era style of collecting and the more legitimate scientific cataloging of nature. There is a really exciting Naturalist Center that is a part of the Smithsonian Institute that serves as a public study center of such collections. Here there are hundreds of preserved animals - tagged and named and stored in drawers for scientific study and comparison. While this kind of collection lacks the artful presentation, the sort of playful "isn't this cool and gorgeous and fantastic?" aspect, I could still spend about a thousand hours sifting through the collection.

Apparently I'm not the only dork who thinks biology is beautiful. The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History is housing an exhibit called Transitions: Photographs by Robert Creamer. He's also a big fan of the Naturalist Center (using some of their specimens as subjects) and also takes fantastic photographs of flora in various stages of decay. Now that Spring is slowly creeping back into our lives I expect there to be plenty of opportunities to appreciate the aesthetics of nature and to work on a Collector's Cabinet of my own.
(orginally posted 3/16/07 at http://www.antharia.com/blog/)