Well, it may be a stretch to call it misunderstood, but…

Brown morph red-footed boobie,
originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

Tammy and I recently gave Johann his own Flickr account. He’s been wanting one for a while and now that he is taking pictures regularly with me, there was a new reason to consider it. At the same time we are encouraging his use of Flickr as an opportunity to learn, as we do in most things. One thing is that I have taken to making a detective/research game out of each of his requests to add someone as a contact. (almost all are from my own contacts so I am familiar with their work). For Flickr member Aleutian Fox I gave Johann 9 short answer questions about the Aleutian Islands which ranged from fairly easy (What European Nation first settled and claimed the islands) to reasonably hard (how were the islands formed). Encouraging him to continue to use books and cite sources, he also had to use only books for the answers and provide me a list of the books. Once he answered all the questions he could add Aleutian Fox as his contact.

I took off to my evening class after giving him the list and the plan that he and Tammy would visit the library tomorrow. By the time I got home from class he had only two questions left, and he was working on those! Within another 15 minutes he had them all done. All of the answers had come from books in our own private library, three of my books (The Sea Floor, Whales, Whaling and the Ocean Ecosystem, and An Introduction to the World’s Oceans) and two of his own (How People Live and Our Country’s Presidents). So much for going to the town library.

GANSO PATOLA, originally uploaded by sparkyfaisca.

The next Flickr Challenge was Sparky Faisca. I wanted Johann to grab 5 pictures from his stream that represent 5 different orders within the class Aves and provide the complete classification for each (Sparky provides common name and species). Pretty easy, except Johann discovered a problem. Sparky has some wonderful images of a Northern Gannet. He listed the scientific name as Sula bassana, and one of Johann’s books, Smithsonian Institution: Animal, had it as Morus bassana. Johann pointed this genus confusion out to me, so I showed him how to use the ITIS website to verify the current classification. Problem solved!

Ooops! ITIS reports both as being confirmed valid species names. There seems to be a bit of confusion or misunderstanding there…

Ok. The Gannets and Boobies together make up the Sulidae. I remember that much from my trip to Belize… Why? Because for organized conservation in Belize it all began with the boobies. Sula is the genus of the boobies such as the Red-footed boobie Sula sula while Morus is the genus of the Gannets such as the Australasian gannet Morus serrator, and Papasula is the genus for Abbot’s boobie Papasula abbotti which appears to be much older branch than the Sula and may be intermediate to the gannet and boobie genus’. So why is the Northern Gannet in both Morus and Sula at ITIS? For that matter why is the Abbot’s Boobie in both Papasula and Sula?

Northern Gannet in Flight ©Jim Heupel

Johann suggested that the Northern Gannet, being a true gannet, must be in genus Morus with the other true gannets. I had to concur. Just before bed Johann sent me the following classification for the Northern Gannet:

Classification for Norther Gannet

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Ciconiiformes

Family

Sulidae

Genus

Morus

Species

Morus bassanus(Linnaeus, 1758)

And just to be complete… here is the classification for the Red-footed boobie I captured in Belize…

Classification for Red-footed Boobie

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Ciconiiformes

Family

Sulidae

Genus

Sula

Species

Sula sula(Linnaeus, 1766)

Life Photo Meme,

(Update: Dad just sent us a photo of a Northern Gannet in flight from his trip to Iceland. Three shots of Sulidae!! Thanks Dad!!)

Tower, request permission…
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

A good day.

It’s been awhile since I did much photography. A bit here and there but not enough, and I haven’t posted much either. Family, work and school keep me too busy. (Mostly school and work) but I am resolved to make sure to enjoy life more than these last two semesters have allowed me to. So I am going to start dyeing (Shibori and indigo) again and more getting out there for photography and posting at flickr again, even if “out there” is only in the backyard. But then that is where I found my image for the Life Photo Meme…on more than one level. (Thanks Dorid!)

This little critter, is unknown to me. Looks almost like it would be a juvenile stage of a grasshopper, but somehow I don’t think so. Pretty bad for someone who helps run a blog about invertebrates, yes? But then I am mostly into marine invertebrates. Anyways…

He was found in the hydrangea bush in our new garden… one that I hope to spend more time enjoying this year… especially the basil and macro photography opportunities.

If anyone can ID this critter, please feel free to leave a coment.

Here in a controlled environment though the use of synonyms makes tags even more powerful for me. For instance I have a number of Osprey photos and related entries here on Eclectic Echoes. I have tried to be consistant with tagging them all with the tags “osprey”, “raptor”, “bird” and “Pandion+halieatus” (the last being the binomial scientific name of the Osprey). While I have tried, I have often failed to tag them consistently. With synonyms though I have set “pandion+halieatus” and “osprey” to be synonyms, ensuring that any tag search for one will return all the relevant entries tagged with either tag. I still have to work on being more deliberate in taggin entries well as even synonyms doesn’t help if entries aren’t tagged at all or the case of “raptor” or “bird” above. All osprey are birds, but not all birds are osprey, type of thing.

At any rate, I am continuing to work on tagging some older entries a bit at a time, and will put a tag search function in here in the near future, but at this point by clicking one of the tags you can get all entries with that tag easily. Going to eclecticechoes.com/tag/johann/ for instance will bring up all entries tagged with “johann”. I will probably also add links to Technorati, del.icio.us and flickr from the tag archive pages. I say probably, mainly because many tags have questionable carry through to those services:
Osprey: Locally, at Technorati, at del.icio.us and at flickr.
In this particular case the only one that really works (connects to related subject matter) is flickr, Technorati and del.icio.us have more links about the aircraft (civilian and the Navy V-22), backpacks and peer to peer software than the bird.

Solstice Sunset II
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

This image is from the night of the Winter Solstice, a shot for Yeimaya at Flickr. Collecting shots of sunrise and sunset on the equinox and solstice days. A great way to really visualize the travels in our sky as we spin and orbit…

That night and the night before Tammy, Johann and I watched the sun set in it’s glorious beauty as we were on our way back from Stonington. The first night we just pulled over on the side of the road. Tammy and Johann watched from the comfort of the car (it was bitterly cold out!) and I tried to get a picture as the sun set in a ball of glowing orange over the hills between Stonington and Mystic. The next day we timed our outing so we could be at Enders Island in time for the sunset on the solstice. Another beautiful sunset that lasted for well over 20 minutes. Totally different from the night before, and just as magnificent.

Tonight I was out trying to track down some chocolate chips without milk in them. As I pulled into the local A&P and looked to the southwest the sunset was beginning to spread through the sky. Although it would have been much better viewed from Enders Island, it was again magnificent. The light kissing the undersides of the clouds, revealing their structure in whole new ways and making them blush in pinks and reds. Other, higher clouds glowed bright yellow against the deepening blue sky as the horizon changed through a range of reds and purples. Shear beauty in rich palletes which no master painter could ever equal. Completely different from the night before, if any anything, even more magical.

The whole time I stood transfixed in front of A&P barely noticing the cars and people around me. A few asked if I was ok…some wondered what I was staring at… but none seemed to see the beauty as they hurried to and fro in their last minute rush. I feel sorry for them. Somehow I have always been transfixed by the sunset, a magical event that repeats nightly but is never the same. My favorites are the ones I see out west, but in the winter here there are some truely spectacular ones as well.

Yes Virginia…
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

Sorry about the lack of updates…things have been a bit crazy around here lately.

Finally everything is off to Texas for the Show at the 1550 Gallery. We ended up sending 22 items, mostly scarves but also some bags and a pair of indigo shibori pants as well. When I wasn’t working on the show there was (is) school and then spending time with Johann. September is literally a blur. One festival, multiple trips to see parts of the whale trail, science experiments, just for fun outings, school, the show, giving Tammy time to sew…I didn’t get more than about 4 hours of sleep on any given night.

I think I’m going to sleep for a week!

Didn’t have much time for photography either, but luckily on Fridy I caught a few (almost 40!) herons and egrets gathered around a swampy pond during a break in the rain. Best of all there were three black crowned night herons!

Majestic Cheetah
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

The majestic cheetah from the Zoo in Providence, RI. It was a hot and humid day there and he was pacing restlessly. The screen and scratchud up plexi (scratched from the human side!) in the viewing area was a bit of a pain for photography, but I did get a couple of good shots. Surprising how many people were saying “oh, look at the pretty Leopard” especially when there were 2 signs proclaiming the species in 8 inch tall type in white on black. Oh well….

This shot ended up with a nice discussion about cheetahs as well as the role of zoos and aquariums. If you don’t have a flickr account I would be interested in hearing your views in the comments here.

I’ve got my Eye on You
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

The birds that have been at the Aquarium all summer are also making appearances at the Mystic Seaport… This Hyacinth Macaw is a rescued bird that has been rehabilitated and is now being trained to be used to humans again. A wonderful bird, he was being pretty vocal, calling out with a short beatiful call every few minutes. He was wonderful with Johann even though with his long tail feathers he is almost as big!

100% crop from a head shot. I really love the colors and textures on these birds!

Shove Off!
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

A juvenile common tern coming in for a landing on a small rock in the sound, forcing the adult that was occupying the rock off to find a new place to perch.

I spent an hour or so on one of the beaches down in Waterford the other day (the same place and day that the Mystic Whaler shot was taken). I just watched the sound and the shore birds along some of the rocks and jetties. The funny thing about many of these birds is that they see a place where another bird is “perched” and decide that it’s a nice spot to stop. Not that the rock itself is a nice spot – whether the rock is 20 square feet or a half a square foot – no, they decide to land in the exact couple of inches as one of the other birds.

The rock in this photo also was the site of this type of musical chairs game. Over the course of the hour I was there it must have been the temporary perch to at least 30 birds. Some left of their own accord to fly further down the beach, but most, like the adult in the photo, were “pushed” off by another bird landing. I watched cormarants, gulls and terns all displace each other, and even one female duck. It is often comical, especially if the “pushed off” one circles round and reclaims his spot. I watched one pair of cormorants (both juvenile double cresteds) play musical chairs like this with each other repeatedly on a piling in the Mystic estuary. They switched places about 10 times over the course of a 10-15 minute period.

Mystic Whaler
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

The Amistad Mystic Whaler sailing east up the Long Island Sound off the coast of Niantic… far off the coast of Niantic. This is a 100% crop from the 400mm. I like how it looks through the haze…sort of takes ya back in time…

I love it when the various sail ships are visible through haze, fog or mist on the estuary and on the sound. Away from the traffic and sounds of the go go fast world, seeing a sailing ship from another era emerge through the haze and mist almost makes me feel as if I have been trasported to a different time. A time when the pace was slower.

Originally I thought this was the schooner Mystic Whaler which operates out of Mystic doing daysails and charter sails in the Long Island Sound as well as sailing up and down the Atlantic coast for races and events. The more I looked at the photo though the more I realized that it couldn’t be her. This schooner has raked masts, and the Mystic Whaler doesn’t. Fortunately though I have ID’d the schooner in this photo…it is the Amistad, the recreation of the famous ship. The new Amistad was built here in Mystic at the Seaport and spends almost as much time here as she does in her home port of New Haven. She also regularly visits New London where her namesake was first put to port after being captured in US Waters.

This picture was taken about the time that it returned to Mystic from New Haven.