A bit sparse above ground this week. My tomatoes and peppers are flowering well though. Underwater produced:
2 X Southern Stingray;
2 X honeycomb cowfish (these seem to be becoming more and more common);
2 X Green Turtles;
1 X seahorse (the scruffy one again (not that I have an issue with its scruffiness; its just how we differentiate it from the stripey one and the orange one));
Having typed that I didn't see much above ground I just remembered that I actually added a new bird to my national list this week: Roseate Tern, so I should probably not complain eh?
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Sightings
Welcome blotanists!
You'll see a few posts about more modern trees and plants here too; both cultivated ornamentals and wild species.
I'm also a fan of growing plants for their culinary potential - both unusual fruiting trees and more common vegetables. My little vegetable garden here on island is growing well so more posts on that soon. Also look out for forthcoming posts on how to grow terrestrial orchids, the most beautiful tree in the world and perhaps an update on my old garden's breeding barn owls.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Nurse shark anatomy
Here's a little anatomy lesson on nurse sharks:
Big flat head: Ideal for ramming into cracks to get lobster lunches;
Tiny eyes: This is not a visual predator;
Barbules: You can just abou make out two small sensitive barbel/barbule type thingys around its mouth ideal for finding prey buried in sand.
Massive pectorals for sleeping on.Rearloaded fin array: Notice the two dorsals are pushed way back almost into the tail. Ideal for short bursts of speed but not continuous cruising.
Caribbean Herons IIIa - hungover adults
Remember the juvenile little blue heron I posted ages ago? Probably not as it was quite a while back. Anyway here, at last is the adult form:
We don't know what happened or what was wrong with him but he flew off pretty strongly after a little period of recuperation.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Spring has sprung....a month ago. maybe.
and further on with our walk? The ultimate symbol of spring:
...and yes that is afterbirth in one of my pictures again....no gulls this time though.
Irish monkey madness
As a follow up to the recent post on Monkey Puzzles here's a few more images. I mentioned in that post that Monkey Puzzles often develop a somewhat unsightly leggy appearance and here's an example from an Irish hotel just south of Dublin. I don't suppose one can find too much fault with this habit if you consider the evolutionary pressure they presumably came under from Sauropod dinosaurs early in their history.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Arboreal tetrapod puzzler
Another ancient tree species: Araucaria araucana, the monkey-puzzle. The name is totally inappropriate as this species' native range is a monkey-free territory in Chile and Argentina.
Its shape allowed a macro close-up of these cones which I think are male.
The nuts are edible and supposedly it was first smuggled out of Chile by Archibald Menzies (I think) stashing some from a state banquet and fleeing the jurisdiction.


















