Pictures and Acknowledgements
September 19th, 2006 by Kelley
Ok Gang,
I have uploaded several albums of photos I have taken (see tab above labeled “Pictures“). Most of these photos were previously located at my other photo hosting site, which some of you were aware of. I will be moving all of those photos over here and shutting down that site. One of the perks of moving the photos here is that I am able to describe the pictures instead of having just a short title on everything. Lucky for you now, you will be able to get your learn on as I explain some of the cool things about the different bugs I take pics of.
Also, some of you may have heard of a thing around the World Wide Web and blog-o-sphere called, “Friday Cat Blogging”. If you haven’t, you obviously have a life that is not addicted to the intranet. Those were the days. Anyway, I actually had never heard about it until my friend, Jay, over at Ocellated started doing it. Nerdy bloggers post a short diddy about their kitty (hehe) every friday…and I will try to join in on the game. So keep your eye out for Gunther.
Speaking of my friend Jay, I owe him a big thank you because he has been helping me set up this site (from complete opposite ends of the US) over the last couple of weeks and kindly teaching me the ropes of blogging and web hosting (if thats what you call it?). I have always been amazed at the kind of people you meet in life and by the ways in which people enter and exit our lives. I met Jay more than a couple years ago during some summer field classes we both took in Puget Sound. He was my first encounter with a Texan…and I haven’t met another one like him since ;). In all honesty though, Jay has an unquenchable passion for birds and for the integrity of science. I admire him very much for that. I would have never guessed that I would be making a life long friend the day I first heard the strange sounds of a texan accent coming from a guy who was wearing a t-shirt with birds on it.
Who’da thunk?
PS- A word of advice about the pics for those who are new to this, once you click on the album you will see thumbnails of the pictures. If you click on individual pictures you will see the larger photo and (in some instances) a description of the photo. This will also give you the opportunity to click on a button in order to view the album as a slideshow.
[…] She also reminisces on how we met. […]
Hi Kelley,
Great web site and great pics. I like the “ask an entomologist” feature. Mom
Hey big Sis! I love your website, I wish I was a genius and had something cool like this! But, the only thing I am really good at is shining boots and making my uniform look so damn good! Heeheehee, I love ya and your website is gangsta!
A few things:
I’m a big fan of Ocellated, so any blog recommended there, I’ll be sure to check now and then… And anyone with BugGuide in their links section is officially OK by me!
One correction: in your beetle photo section, you have a photo labelled “Water Boatman - Corixidae”. If this were true, it would belong in the “True Bugs” area. But the photo is of a beetle, specifically a Whirligig Beetle, family Gyrinidae.
And speaking of BugGuide, I’m pretty sure your unidentified fly, the orange one with the white-flecked black wings, is already ID’d in there somewhere. One of the Tephritidae, maybe? Cannot remember off the top of my head. Too late at night to hunt it down now…
I’m very much a newcomer to the blog world, but I know several bloggers who are invert enthusiasts combine forces for some sort of periodic meta-blog they call “Carnival of the Spineless”. I don’t have the URL handy, but I’m sure it’ll show up on Google.
About my website: I know, it’s horribly out-of-date with many broken links. I’m mostly keeping it up for some of my favorite old photos that are up there.
Cheers!
Josh
Thanks, Josh…
Good call on the whirligig beetle, ha, that was definitely the result of a late night-after long day of work- kind of mistake. I’m sure there are other things in there that may be wrong too. You were also right about the tephritid being id’d in at BugGuide…thanks for the heads up.
As for carnival of the spineless, I have seen the site before (and even have it bookmarked), though I have not been all that impressed with the design/layout.
I haven’t had a chance to check out your site yet…but I will be sure to stop by and visit- especially if there are good photos lurking around in there
Whats kind of research are/did you do at Duke?
Always,
Kelley
Hi Kelley,
My Duke research is decidedly in the past tense. One of the reasons my website is out of date is that, no longer being at Duke, I don’t have as easy access as I used to, and I’m not completely sure if they’ll let me leave that page up there indefinitely or take it down after another year or two.
Anyway, my research was on dragonflies, looking at adult ecology of invasive and native species and comparing across guilds in south Florida, south Texas, and Hawai’i. Fun field work but did not discover anything revolutionary, so haven’t tried to publish yet. By the time I graduated, I cared a lot more about the Duke Natural History Society than I did about my academic work.
Now I live in the LRGV and work for the World Birding Center, which led to my discovering Ocellated (via TexBirds), which led me here to your blog.
I recommended “Carnival of the Spineless” for its content rather than style. I’m very new even to reading blogs, have never tried to set one up, so I’m generally clueless of design issues.
BTW, another correction: I noticed you have a Scorpionfly under the Diptera. Probably belongs in the “other insects” section.
I have a friend who can probably ID your robberflies at least to genus, if not to species. Will try to point him in your direction.
Cheers,
Josh
Hi Kelley, Nice pictures of the eastern bird species. I don’t get to see them that often living in West Texas. It’s hard photographing birds; they keep moving. So I really meant, “nice pictures.”
I believe the wren photograph is that of a House Wren and not a Carolina Wren. But you better ask the fella over at Ocellated. He’s had more experience IDing little birds from photographs.
Ah, love your design and layout. So cool! And the bug stories are interesting, too. I’m glad we have bugs; they’re the staple in most birds’ diets.