Not that kind of Eagles

Road trip 2/3

So, on Superbowl Sunday I hopped into a van with some cool people to go see some eagles (not that kind of Eagles). We hit the road semi-early, and a couple hours and three states later, we arrived at Reelfoot Lake- the only natural lake in Tennessee. After eating lunch and meeting a gorgeous Barred Owl named Shadow (I was dumb and forgot to take a picture of him), we boarded a bright yellow school bus and hit the road again to go find some eagles. I managed to photograph a few.

We also saw two or three snow geese.

Here are some Blurry Bigfoot Pictures of an eagle catching a fish (or something) pulling the carcass of a goose right out of the water:

My name is Blurryeagle and I care what you think.

The temperature dropped 20 degrees while we were there. It was VERY COLD.

Take a moment to appreciate these yellow lichens:

It was so windy that there were whitecaps out on the lake:

These pictures don't do it justice.

We saw lots of Cypress trees with Cypress knees.

Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum).

Swirly water.

We made it back to Memphis in time for the halftime concert.

It was a good weekend

(even if we didn't see any salamanders).

One and Two

Dumb Biology Pun

You're welcome.

Attack of the Klingon Newt!

I have not updated this blog in a while...

Hello.

It's been awhile.

Here is a mad scientist.

He is working on things.

So am I.

Happy Halloween.

Finally, a cover page!

Well... Here's the cover for "Are You Smarter Than a Cephalopod" (finally)!

Also, here is some biology wordplay. The milk snake is in the genus, Lampropeltis, which means "shiny shield". The shield in the picture is covered with a lichen called Ophioparma, which means "snake shield". Therefore... Shiny Shield, Snake Shield.

Snakes and Skinks

This is a handsome skink, either broad-headed or five-lined (probably five-lined now that I think about it), who has recently taken up residency on the side of my house. 

A couple of friends and I went to Waponnoca today to collect lichens, and we ended up finding seven ribbon snakes. This one bit Austyn. She said she couldn't feel it at all. Snake, I'm sorry to say, your defense mechanism does not work on biologists.

Here's one that was a little calmer. They all had a pretty blue tinge to their scales.

We didn't know what this plant was.

It was pretty though.

A funnel spider web!

The skinks were too fast for pictures, and the frogs never showed their faces. The snakes were happy to pose for us though (I think), and we found lots of lichens. It was a productive trip!

It's Good Friday.