I know what many of you are thinking…how come that damn cat hasn’t been blogged about for the last couple of fridays??

Well, its because the damn cat has taken a liking to laying on my laptop like it is some kind of personal heater.

As you might recall from my previous post, I pass a cute little pond every morning on my way to work. Yesterday morning I about caused an accident as I spotted something way cool in the pond and swirved off the road to get out my camera (just so happens I had it with me).

Turns out, camped in the pond were several hooded mergansers. They are not all that common, but not all that rare…I personally hadn’t seen one before though. Unfortunately, there is no good place to park and no way to get closer to the pond from the road AND it was morning rush hour. So my photos turned out crappy, I blame the cars whizzing by, not having a cool camera like a Nikon D50 (hint hint Mom ), and my own photographic skills. The first round of pics were so disappointing that I prepared again this morning for drive-by birding in hopes of getting a better picture. No such luck. The pictures below were the best I could do for being across a road.

These first three pictures are of the male…looks like he has one awesome mohawk.

The female has a brown head and also appears to be sporting the mohawk thing here…

Male and female chilin’ together…

I was engaged in my more recent favorite winter pastime, Call of Duty 2, when something flew swiftly past our window and landed on one of the branches. I think I probably scared Josh (and the cat) as I jumped up quickly and ran for my camara.

This sharp-shinned hawk only sat for a breif moment, only long enough for me to snap these two (unfortunately poor) pictures.

I was really bummed that it didn’t stay for a couple minutes longer.

This dung beetle (Phanaues spp.) is from my pinned collection. The colors are not as vibrant here as they are when the beetle is alive, but the head is yellow, the dorsal thorax is coppery metallic, and the sides of the body green. Males have a horn (aka clypeus). Males and females work in pairs and dig underneath dung to bury portions of it under the ground. Females lay their eggs in the dung and the larvae feed on it when they hatch.

There are a lot of things that affect dung patch preference in these beetles, one being the moisture content of the pile. Some like it juicy…

Dung beetles are not the only insects attracted to feces. Flies use dung for protein (which is needed for reproduction) and then lay their eggs in the dung pats as well. Where you find lots of dung pats you find lots of, well, livestock. Livestock often have parasitic nematodes that, as part of their lifecycle, are excreted out with the feces. The infective stage of the nematode is then in the soil/grass where the livestock is feeding…and as a result the ruminant-ary beasts pick back up the parasitic worms and introduce it back into their system.

Dung beetles have actually been introduced in different places (such as Texas, Hawaii, Australia, and the like) as a means of biological control to clean up and dispose of excess dung pats. The beetles bury the pats and the larvae that hatch feed on the dung, thereby decreasing the amount of flies and parasites from the landscape.

Their tunneling behavior is also good for soil aeration and increased nutrient cycling.

If you’d like to read a little more detail about dung beetle benefits to a pasture ecosystem check out this link from the National Agricultural Sustainable Information Service.

A creationist group is throwing down 27 million dollars to build a ‘creation museum‘ in Kentucky. What a weird concept. Personally, I’m not quite sure what to make of it or even how to verbalize the crazyness of an idea that I think it is, if you have an opinion–do comment. I do think that they could probably find a better way to spend 27 million though.

The article is linked from Discover magazine.

As my sisters would say in their very best Brian Fellows voice, “Thats crazy!”

Lately I have been helping a coworker out with a project. I had taken a picture (see below) of the dorsal view of an emerald ash borer with its elytra (wings) removed. As an aside, the emerald ash borer is an insect that is currently devastating ash trees across the midwest. Anyway, my coworker liked the picture and colors so much he took it home and turned it into some artwork (see picture below). He actually has done a lot of insect art work with real photos making different shapes etc. and drawing/paintings. He has got some really nice work and if you are interested in buying some prints let me know and I will hook you up with his contact info.

Click on the thumbnail to view the larger picture.

We had a visitor outside our window today…a Northern (”yellow-shafted”) flicker. I love all of the different colors and patterns they have on their feathers.

This individual is a female, as males have what is described as a black mustache stripe next to their beak.

I love their call too, which you can listen to here by clicking on the ’sound’ link.