Today I’ll show my own “wildlife” photos just for fun, but keep sending yours in. Click the pictures below to enlarge them.
Feeding wild cats at a nunnery in Mystras, Greece, 2002. I always carry a box of dry cat food in my backpack in places like this.
A rare bloom in Death Valley, California, 2005. I don’t know what the moth is, and I’m baffled about where the many pollinating insects come from in those very occasional wet years. They just appear from out of nowhere.
Me feeding a grape (with permission) to a ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) at the Duke Lemur Center, 2006. Note the baby clinging to its belly.
Another ringtail with child:
Sifakas (lemurs, Propithecus sp.):
Cepea nemoralis snails on a fencepost, Dorset, England, 2006. The riot of colors and banding in this species was subject to a lot of investigation when I was in college, but evolutionary geneticists still don’t have an explanation for why the variation persists:
A butterfly (I don’t know the species) in the garden at Thomas Hardy’s boyhood home, 2006:
Snail and fly near Clouds Hill (T. E. Lawrence’s cottage), Wareham, Dorset, 2006:
Gooseneck barnacle, a rare and expensive delicacy. Galicia, Spain, 2006:
The one above was found on the rocks at low tide. Here are some for sale in the market. You eat the meat underneath the leather skin. It’s very good.
Me feeding a Texas longhorn on David Hillis’s and Jim Bull’s Double Helix ranch outside Austin, 2007:
Groundhog (Marmota monax), Capitol grounds, Ottawa, Canada, 2007:
Greg Mayer’s pet common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina); I believe its name was “Snappy”), Kenosha, Wisconsin, 2008:
Butterfly and orchids (species unknown), Guatemala, 2009:
Statue dedicated to all the lab cats “sacrificed” in medical research. St. Petersburg, 2011:
Gulls, Lake Geneva, Switzerland, 2011
Trees in autumn, Switzerland 2011:
I have many more, and perhaps I’ll post some of them on another holiday (Chanukah, Christmas, and Coynezaa are coming up).
The UK butterfly looks like a Comma (Polygonia c-album).
I agree: Polygonia c-album. And the polymorphic snails are Cepaea hortensis rather than C. nemoralis. Both species show the same kind of polymorphism, but the peristoma (border of the opening) is whitish in C. hortensis and dark brown in C. nemoralis. It’s (almost) diagnostic but to be absolutely sure, you have to dissect the poor beast and look at the dart.
Nice photos – and I was pleased to see that Jerry visited Geneva surroundings !
Thanks for the clarification, Jacques!
I have sent him enough pictures of Commas (including an underside shot that actually shows the comma), you would think he would remember by now :~D
Sorry to let you down!
Coel got the , . The other butterfly is the rusty-tipped page, Siproeta epaphus.
All good shots- thanks
These are all so great photos! The groundhog looks kind of “Snappy” also.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Great photos! Thanks!
My favourite is of you and the longhorn, both respectfully reaching out.
“I always carry a box of dry cat food in my backpack in places like this” – great forward planning (and photos, too).
I love the snails and gulls. More can be more.
Those lemurs are great…I’d never heard of Duke Lemur Center and for some reason, I didn’t think it was in the US, but it sure is. And I’m a fan of “Snappy”.
Beautiful photos Jerry! Thanks!
To be pitied: those who have never eaten gooseneck barnacles. We had them long ago in Chile but never again. They are now rareexpensive there and in Spain (percebes is their name in Spain, in Chile it was Locos, I think.) They taste like the most delicious crabmeat you have ever eaten. and a lot easier to eat than crabs in their shell….they are of course crustaceans and related to crabs. Despite several trips to west coastal South America i have never seen them again. Probably overfished.
The gulls are Black-headed Gulls (Larus ridibundus) in winter plumage.
Nice photo of Death Valley.