Apr
8
2012
Mar
21
2012
Image of the Day: Magnolia 2
Magnolia 2 | Flickr – Photo Sharing!.
“To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.”
~Charles Darwin
Mar
18
2012
Image of the Day: Lotus Bud 1
Lotus Bud 1
Known as the biosphere to scientists and as the creation to theologians, all of life together consists of a membrane around earth so thin that it cannot be seen edgewise from a satellite yet so prodigiously diverse that only a tiny fraction of species have been discovered and named.
‘Vanishing Before Our Eyes’, Time (26 Apr 2000).
Mar
15
2012
Image of the Day: Annie-Momma Shadows and Light
Mar
10
2012
Images of the day: Daffodils
Daffodils 1, processed in Lightroom to resemble a photo taken with Kodak Tech Pan
Daffodils 1–Tech Pan-1 | Flickr – Photo Sharing!.
I have been experimenting with processing the same image several different ways in Lightroom. Above, an image of daffodils has been processed to look as though it were taken with Kodak Tech Pan film, a very fine-grain, low-ASA film. The mood and look are quite different than when the same image is processed to look as though it were taken with some other type of film. The details are different; the tones are different; the emphasis is different.
Daffodils 1--processed in Lightroom to resemble a cyanotype
Daffodils 1--PH
Mar
8
2012
Image of the day: Plum blossom
Plum Blossom 1–Selenium-1 | Flickr – Photo Sharing!.
Photographed in color and processed in Lightroom to resemble a selenium print.
“Biophilia, if it exists, and I believe it exists, is the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms.”
~E.O. Wilson, from ‘Biophilia and the Conservation Ethic”, an essay in The Biophilia Hypothesis, Stephen Kellert, Ed.
E.O. Wilson is easily one of the greatest biologists of our time, the father of sociobiology, and the originator of the biophilia hypothesis.
Oct
16
2011
Today is National Feral Cat Day
Scaredy Cat, a feral cat neutered and ear-tipped by Project Cat Snip. When the building near where he lived in Atlanta was demolished, `Project Cat Snip relocated him to a farm outside of Atlanta.
Today is Alley Cat Allies’s 10th annual National Feral Cat Day.
Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), advocated by ACA is the most humane way of managing feral cat populations–everybody wins with TNR. The cats are healthier; they are vaccinated against diseases like rabies at the time of neutering, which makes things safer for everyone in the area; the cat population shrinks, which is good for wildlife, TNR keeps feral cats out of ‘shelters’ where they would otherwise be killed and is an essential part of the No Kill Equation.
In the Atlanta Metro area, contact Lifeline Animal Project (they have two clinic locations and their Catlanta program is specifically for feral cats) or Project CatSnip (which is cats-only and has a mobile clinic) for spay-neuter services for your local feral cats, or to donate to their lifesaving work. Both organizations also offer affordable spay-neuter services and vaccines for pet cats. nationwide, contact Alley Cat Allies for more information about TNR.
How are you celebrating?
Oct
15
2011
Fall is coming on Red Top Mountain State Park, GA
Looking Into Fall--Red Top Mountain State Park
Sep
1
2011
Imperial Moth
Was surprised by this big guy fluttering around the porch light last week. Obviously a Saturniid, but one I had never seen before. This sighting prompted me to stumble across the Butterflies and Moths website and this wonderful article from 3 years ago: The Butterfly Effect.
These large Saturniid moths are becoming increasingly rare, threatened by something you might not think much about–light pollution, which disrupts their normal behavior, preventing them from reproducing and leaving them vulnerable to predators. This species figured in the books ‘Moths of the Limberlost‘ and ‘Girl of the Limberlost’.
Aug
20
2011
Shoals Spider Lilies, Flint River, GA
Hymenocallis coronaria, a rare and beautiful flower with an unusual habitat–in among rocks in clean, flowing water. To photograph them, you have to wade out into the river with your camera. Because of their specialized requirements, they make lousy garden plants, yet collecting is one of the things that threatens them, that and the loss of their habitat. It is still possible to find rare wonders if you know where to look, and you don’t necessarily even have to travel very far…
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Yesterday CC the sloth (from Staten Island zoo) and I went on the Today show to talk about my new book, A LITTLE BOOK OF SLOTH. I was nervous that the studio would freak her out but she seemed totally at home with all the attention. Even when the make up girls combed her hair so she looked all pretty for the show. But then sloths have very poor eyesight so perhaps she was blissfully unaware of her momentary celebrity.
Massive Bird Nests Built on Telephone Poles in Southern Africa are Home to Multiple Species of Birds
by Christopher @ Colossal
No these aren’t haystacks stuck in a phone pole. Visit the Kalahari Desert in the south of Africa and you’re bound to run into a peculiar animal called the Sociable Weaver Bird. The birds are called “social” not just because they live in organized colonies, but because they build massive homes out of sticks, grass and cotton that are home to several other kinds birds. That’s right, the nests are so large that birds of other species are welcome to setup shop, not the least of which is the South African pygmy falcon which lives exclusively inside the social weaver’s nests that often accomodate over 100 birds at at time. Via the San Diego Zoo:
The sociable weaver’s nest sees plenty of guests—a regular Kalahari Desert inn! The South African pygmy falcon Polihierax semitorquatus relies completely on the sociable weavers’ nest for its own home, often nesting side by side with the sociable weavers. The pied barbet, familiar chat, red-headed finch, ashy tit, and rosy-faced lovebird often find comfort in the cozy nesting chambers, too. Vultures, owls, and eagles will roost on the nests’ broad roof. Why are weavers willing to share the huge nest they worked so hard to make? More residents mean more eyes keeping a watch for danger. And the weavers often learn from the other birds where new sources of food can be found.
Photographer Dillon Marsh has a lovely series of weaver bird nest photographs titled Assimilation that are well worth a look.
The newest tool from the No Kill Advocacy Center: What’s in a Name? As No Kill advocates seek to pass progressive shelter reform legislation in communities and states throughout the country, time and again their fiercest opponents are organizations with names that allow them to masquerade as something they are not. What’s in a Name? from the No Kill Advocacy Center will allow legislators and policy makers to understand why groups like HSUS and the ASPCA oppose badly needed shelter reform legislation. To print or download it for FREE, click here.
For our shelter reform guides, including How Does Your Community’s Shelter Measure Up?, No Kill 101, Dollars & Sense, and more, visit our No Kill Advocate’s Toolkit by clicking here.
Alley Cat Allies
