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Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) feeding in a pond at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in VA

8/14/2015

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There is always someone having fits about animal common names.  A good example is the bald eagle, which is certainly not bald, and the use of the word "common" in front of a name like the common merganzer, because, somewhere it won't be common. 

The word rat, however, it a species or even a group of species, but is roughly defined as "things that look like a rat" making it awfully self-referential in that one must know what a "rat" looks like.  And they can look way different and be in entire different families.  A similar situation occurs with "bats" which also cover a lot of different families but in general, if you see one, you know it is a bat.

A muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) sorta fits this mold of looking like a rat (and hence the name) but for distinction added is the prefix "musk" because they have a gland that releases an odor.

All that said, here is a picture of one eating dinner at a pond at the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens close to Vienna, Virginia.

http://www.nvrpa.org/park/meadowlark_botanical_gardens/
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A muskrat (ondatra zibethicus) at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Virginia
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Borneo pic makes Shutterbug magazine

8/10/2015

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A pic from the Gomantong Caves of Borneo

Shutterbug Magazine is a great bit for folks who want to amp up their photos and either get published or move into the professional market.

Today I got my September copy.

Some time ago, I submitted a photo of Ben Schroeter in Gomantong Caves. 
And...  Today I got the magazine which features that pic on one of the table of contents pages.

Hoo haa!  I am pretty fired up that the editors chose my pic for such a prominent spot.  Here is the original pic, and I want to thank National Geographic for its support in getting me to this amazing cave.


It's a good photo, and glad that the Shutterbug folks published it.
Picture
Benjamin Schroeter at the bottom of a light shaft in the Gomantong Caves
And I hope I am not breaking any copyright laws, but here is a scan of the magazine page, with a bit I added in the corner that shows the caption as it appeared in the Picture This! section of the magazine.


Picture
September 2015 Shutterbug Magazine page 10. Inset in lower right is cropped from page 20 to put the caption in one image
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wild stuff, Huntsman spider in Borneo

8/10/2015

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Borneo seems to be Huntsman central.  I hadn't seen this guy before but likely not a great spider to get bit by.


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Huntsman spider in Malaysia, island of Borneo.
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Borneo cave crab

8/7/2015

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This is to needle my friend Al, who will likely post the species of this crab as I am not doing so here.
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A crab in a cave at the Gomantong Forest Reserve.
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Drones gone wild... again

8/6/2015

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If you watched the drone fail link I posted on 7/27, which was epic, you will probably also like this drone fail.  Not quite as difficult, but quite fun to see how Guy gets the drone back this time.


https://youtu.be/9pfrkkwVEuA

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Lagang Cave, Malaysia, Gunung Mulu National Park

8/6/2015

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Lagang Cave is a fine Borneo cave.  I took this photo solo while setting up my lighting for some other pics (so I guess it is a selfie).
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A selfie in Lagang Cave, Gunung Mulu National Park, Malaysia.
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Woodend Nature Sanctuary bat survey

8/3/2015

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So, why was I taking deer photos at the Woodend Sanctuary?  Oh wait, here is another deer pic, a beautiful fawn.


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White-tailed deer fawn (Odocoileus virginanus) at the Woodend Nature Sanctuary
Okay, I admit that I was there to survey the bats, not the deer
,,,
But we were there to do a bat survey.We set up the nets and caught a bunch of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus).

Picture
Students helped with the bat measurements
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Leslie holds up a bat to inspect its wing joints via back light. This is one way we can tell if a bat is a juvenile or an adult. Ossification of the joints is an important bit to determine age.
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We keep the bats in paper bags. Here is one being released
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White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in profile

8/2/2015

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Because I think looking at bat faces in profile is cool, here is a white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in profile.  Way different photo techniques, as the bat photos are usually taken up close with a 60mm macro lens, while this deer pic was taken with a telephoto lens (450mm equivalent for a 35mm camera).  So not quite as sharp, but really shows the deer's features in the same way I do things with bats.

This photo was taken at Woodend Nature Sanctuary in Chevy Chase, Maryland this evening. 

http://www.audubonnaturalist.org/index.php/sanctuaries/woodend-chevy-chase-md

Note that I am posting this at 2am so the blog date will be the next day.  Why such a late time for posting?  Check the blog tomorrow to see what we were up to.  Yes, think bats, and that always takes well into the night.
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White-tailed deer at Woodend Nature Sanctuary, Chevy Chase, Maryland
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Woodend Nature Sactuary

8/1/2015

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I have one more deer photo from Woodend Nature Conservancy.


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A white-tailed deer at Woodend Nature Sanctuary
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