PHOTOS:
The Duke Natural History Society is a group founded by some friends of mine and I, devoted mainly to field trips exploring, studying, and cataloguing the biodiversity and natural history of our region (the Piedmont of North Carolina). As I'm rapidly running out of space on my private Duke account, I'm relocating photos I've taken on DNHS-affiliated field trips to the group's web site. There are also species lists from past trips and lots of great nature/biodiversity links!
My dragonfly and damselfly photos , including a few I can't quite identify to species, several that are involved in my Duke Ph.D. research, and a bunch that I just think are cool...The photo below is of a Smoky Rubyspot from the White-collared Seedeater sanctuary in San Ygnacio, TX.
My bird photos , a collection of out-of-range vagrants and interesting (to me, at least) species
Some other reptile and amphibian photos besides the Mexican Treefrog, below.
The rest of my animal photos , any that don't fit under the categories of odonate, bird, herp, or Hawai'i. These include lots of butterflies and caterpillars, miscellaneous other insects, spiders, and various other arthropods.
My plant photos , plus maybe a fungus or three...
My Hawai'i photos , taken during a research trip there in July and August 2001.
Exotic species photos and links (otherwise known as invasive, alien, foreign, nonnative species). Links, hopefully soon to include photos. Kill one today! Your local ecosystem will thank you for it.
LINKS:
Click and Help!:
(And don't forget to visit the advertisers too, they're paying for all this; if we don't link to the advertisers from these web-sites, the funds for these projects will disappear faster than the wildlife and people we want to help!)
The Hunger Site , the original, which I discovered through the "Urban Legends" web-site below, but which is not a hoax; this site exhibits advertisements, charges the advertisers for the space, and donates the profits to hungry people around the world every time you click the "donate" button on their site. And use the link at the top of the page to The Rainforest Site, through which a similar click donates profits to the Nature Conservancy's "Adopt an Acre" program to protect the tropical rain forests! And the latest in this family of sites, The Animal Rescue Site, where clicks provide food for animal shelters and sanctuaries for strays.
The Race for the Rain Forest operates on the same principle as the Hunger Site above: sell space to advertisers, charging them for each time a visitor clicks a button and views their ad. The difference is that this site, instead of buying food for starving people, uses the money to purchase acreage of rainforest and save it from destruction! An associated site, The Race for the Big Cats , sends money from clicks to specific programs protecting Jaguars, Snow Leopards, Bengal Tigers and the like. Make sure you use these links a lot!
Donation Junction , a page which compiles links from all of the above sites and many others.
Dragonflies and Damselflies look kinda like this:
A Beginner's Guide to Dragonflies , for anyone who doesn't already know where dragonfly larva live or what a stigma means to an odonate.
Odonata-L, the international e-mail list devoted to odonates. Most of the discussions are on scientific research. There are also many smaller, less scientific regional odonate listservs springing up, including lists for the southeastern US, the northeastern US, Texas, New Jersey, the Great Lakes region, Iowa, and California. Or you can read the most recent messages from several of these lists, as well as several devoted to Lepidoptera, at The Butterfly Digest.
The Ode News, Jackie Sones and company's amazing site on the odonates of the US, specializing on Cape Cod and the rest of Massachusetts. An amazing archive of photographs as well, and links to odonate-oriented sites for almost every state and several other countries. For an even more extensive and up-to-date archive of odonate links. see Steve Valley's Odonata Links on the World Wide Web.
Digital Dragonflies, many more photographs of assorted dragonfly species.
Distribution of North
American Dragonflies, state by state; part of the Odonate Information Network.
Dragonfly Biodiversity, run by Dennis Paulson, the Pacific Northwest's best-known odonatologist. Includes Rosser Garrison's Synonymic list of the New World Odonata: if it's a dragonfly or damselfly species, and Dr. Garrison recognizes it, and it was in North, Central, or South America as of June 1997, then it's on this list!
Odonatology Home Page, run by Robert Barber at Rutgers. Includes an Identification guide to Northeastern U.S. Gomphids, a particularly tricky family to figure out, and the Dragonfly Migration Project for the east coast of the US (see below for the west coast).
Oregon Dragonfly and Damselfly Survey by Steve Valley. This site includes the Pacific Northwest Dragonfly Migration Project (see above for the east coast) and Odonata Links on the World Wide Web, the largest and most current heap of odonate links there is.
California Dragonflies and Damselflies by Kathy Biggs, author of "Common Dragonflies of California" (among other things). Includes an extensive photo section (some of them my photos!) and dragonfly sighting reports by date since 1998.
Odonata Central, John Abbott's clearinghouse for data on odonate distribution in Texas and adjacent states.
Dragonflies and Damselflies of India. Photos, facts, and folklore about the dragonflies of that country; the photos are all or mostly Libellulids.
Roy Beckemeyer's Odonata page, regional checklists for several states, especially in the Great Plains area.
Odonata of New Brunswick, for a more northerly perspective
Hawaiian Damselflies, information on the unique and endangered endemic species out there.
Birds and Birdwatching
I got my start in birdwatching through the encouragement and tutelage of my eighth-grade Latin teacher, Barbara Drummond. In 1986, her husband Bill - a dedicated birder for over 30 years now - founded Crossbills Birding Tours, leading trips to hot spots all over the US, Canada, and occasionally spots in Latin America. Bill still regularly leads trips within Massachusetts too.
After years as a guide on other people's pelagic birding trips, Paul Guris has founded his own pelagic birding tour company, See Life Paulagics. Presently touring out of New Jersey and Delaware, but I'm hoping he'll return to the Carolinas someday...
Cats Indoors! Sure, you keep your cat well fed, and make him or her wear a bell. And you feel guilty about keeping them inside all day. But do you have any idea how many songbirds even a bell-wearing, non-hungry cat kills in a year? Read this website thoroughly, and KEEP THEM INSIDE! And if you have strays in your neighborhood, don't feed them , take them to the animal shelter! Your little feathered friends - and the furry ones, and the scaled ones - will thank you for it, and your cats will live longer and be healthier because of it...
Real Birds State-by-state and province-by-province, click the place you are interested in and find out the phone number of the local Rare Bird Alert. If recent RBA's are transcribed to the web, or if there are web sites indicating good local birding spots, they are often linked here as well.
Birding Web-sites by State, my own contribution, a little less elaborate than the above site, and much less complete, but hopefully more efficient...
Jack
Siler's Birding on the Net. If you want to occasionally read a few
e-mails from birding listservs like BIRDCHAT, Carolinabirds,
ID-Frontiers, and many, many others, as well as a comprehensive list of
current RBA transcripts from all over the country, without subscribing
and having your mailbox jammed up, the messages from the past week for
several lists are archived here.
BirdSource, the site where the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology runs their on-line bird censuses like the Christmas Bird Count, Warbler Watch, Feeder Watch, the Great Backyard Bird Count, and more. If you know how to identify your local birds, then get involved!
Reptiles and Amphibians look more like this:
Only twenty states have official State Reptiles and Amphibians; only four (Arizona, Kansas, Lousiana, and Tennessee) have both! Does yours? If not, write to your governor today!
Melissa Kaplan's Herp Care, on-line health, care, and feeding tips for those of you who keep herps as pets, or would like to. More herpetological veterinary tips can be found at Exotic Animal Health, or you can Talk To The Vet.
Scientific
Amphibian, links to lots of web pages concerning the recent
worldwide frog population declines and deformities, a couple of on-line
virtual frog dissections, and many other worthwhile anuran sites. For
information specifically about pet frogs, see the Frog FAQ.
The oldest known living being on
Earth (not counting plants) is named Harriet,
and she is a reptile.
Reptile Gardens, the world's largest collection of reptiles in captivity. A fun place to visit in the Black Hills just south of Rapid City, South Dakota, spittin' distance from Mount Rushmore.
Herpetology of the Black Hills, a site dealing with the wild reptiles and amphibians found in the same general vicinity as the above facility. If captive herps just aren't good enough for you...
On-Line Identification Guide to North American Amphibians, supplied by the USGS' Northern Prairie Science Center in Jamestown, North Dakota
The Snakes of Massachusetts, an interactive on-line identification guide.
Science, Technology, Education, and Conservation
At the second annual "Dragonfly Days" festival I met Bill Haley. That led to my leading a half-day workshop on dragonflies and damselflies at Bill's place of employment, the Tennessee Aquarium. It's an amazing place, both for its own exhibits and activities and for its role in revitalizing downtown Chattanooga. Check it out!
The Eno River Association, a group that conserves land in the Eno River watershed near my present home in Durham, NC. They run the Eno River Festival every July 4 weekend, featuring some of the best live music, crafts, and food that this state has to offer. Past summers' performers include Doc Watson, Ralph Stanley, Dar Williams, the Nields, Jim Lauderdale, the Two Dollar Pistols, the Reverend Billy C. Wirtz, and many more. Don't miss the next one!
The Annals of Improbable Research, a scientific journal so cutting-edge it makes Science and Nature look paleolithic by comparison. Their web-site contains, among many other things, details on past and future Ig Nobel Prize ceremonies. The staff of the Annals includes several former editors and staff from the now-degraded Journal of Irreproducible Results.
Biologie Und Naturwissenschaft der Kafer. An electronic journal, somewhat similar to the Annals, but devoted more or less exclusively to beetles...
National Center for Biotechnology Information. Are you interested in molecular systematics? Do you have some DNA that you want to return to its rightful owner? Do you ever wonder what species your sister really is? Just enter DNA sequences in NCBI's software, and you will find all your answers...
League of Conservation Voters Wondering for whom to vote next Election Day? At this site, find out which US Senators and Representatives voted to protect natural places and endangered species and keep the air, water, and land clean, and which ones didn't. Then vote for the ones who did.
The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning, a project designing improved methods of middle- and high-school science education. Founded by Duke biomechanics master Steve Wainwright, the world's reigning expert on frog and toad tongues Kiisa Nishikawa, and Durham's premier origamist-birder Norm Budnitz.
Interesting People
The Durham Food Co-op, my favorite place to buy organic produce, bulk foods, and related stuff in the Triangle. Some of my friends are members, working 3 hours a month in exchange for a 10% discount. If you live nearby, you should join too.
Norm Budnitz, Durham's leading origamist-birdwatcher. Check out the life-size origami dinosaurs (Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops) he made for the 1998 Carolina origami festival in Charlotte!
Brian Smith, guitar-playing herpetological systematist of the Black Hills. He looks like this when he's sober... And this is one of his study organisms, the endangered Antiguan Racer , Alsophis antiguae
Don Bright-Smith, ornithologist, parrot specialist, and ecotour leader for Rainforest Expeditions, Inc. And look at his brain!
Cindi Rose Wylie, one of the country's hottest up-and-coming dressage riders, and one of the best horse trainers around. Also gives riding lessons. Also my big Sis!
Robert Rose, materials sciences editor for the Annals of Improbable Research. Also a professor at M.I.T. No son could be prouder...
Rod Planck, an amazing nature photographer. Lives near Whitefish Point (see below)
Acorn the Nature Nut, my favorite TV show, hosted by the one and only John Acorn
Troy and Marla Hibbitts, married black-belt herpetologists.
Research Stations, Bird Observatories, and Natural Places
The annual "Dragonfly Days" festival - now planning its fourth year of events - is hosted by the Valley Nature Center, an amazing example of an urban wildlife preserve. Despite being located in heavily developed Weslaco, TX, they've created an oasis of native Texas plants and recorded hundreds of bird and butterfly species, including 35 warbler species and rarities such as Clay-colored Robin, Gray Hawk, Cordilleran Flycatcher, Malachite, Emerald Aguna, and Xami Hairstreak!
The Green
Swamp,
a unique place in southeastern North Carolina that hosts at least
eleven
species (that I've seen personally; I've heard some people claim
fourteen)
of carnivorous plants, from the world-famous Venus' Flytrap to more
obscure
species like the Blue Butterwort. Part of it is a Nature
Conservancy preserve.
It used to be called the Manomet
Bird Observatory, but expanded their focus to include much more than
just birds, and so changed their name to the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences.
Point Reyes Bird Observatory, nerve center of much California bird research and conservation and an incredible migrant bird hotspot, especially their station on Southeast Farallon Island just a few miles offshore of the Point. I was an intern on SEFI in 1991.
Whitefish Point Bird Observatory in Michigan's U.P. on the south shore of Lake Superior. Best known for amazing Common Loon flights and pretty good warbler and hawk migrations in May, and huge numbers of migrating landbirds, ducks and grebes in September. I worked there as the waterbird counter in 1996.
Cape May Bird Observatory, the legendary New Jersey hotspot for migrating dragonflies and butterflies. Oh, yeah, and birds too. I haven't worked there yet, but I'm hoping they'll have an opening by the time I finish grad school...
Fairchild Tropical Garden in Coral Gables, Florida (south of Miami); one of the places I am presently doing research on dragonflies. I also do some of my Ph.D. field work at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge and the affiliated, multi-tract Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR. And I even did some in Hawai'i, with a little assistance from the Bishop Museum.
Southwest Research Station of the American Museum of Natural History in Portal, Arizona. I've never worked there, but I have visited twice, it's great.
Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania, best place in the U.S. to see migrating hawks.
Bands and Music
WNCW, my new favorite radio station, broadcasting from Spindale, NC. Yes, you can listen on-line. They play half an hour of Frank Zappa every Friday at noon, an hour of the Grateful Dead every Wednesday, and folks like Greg Brown, Steve Earle, Joe Ely, Little Feat, Taj Mahal, Patty Larkin, Brian Setzer, Chris Whitley, Gram Parsons, B. B. King, and many more the rest of the week!
Tracy S. Feldman probably belongs in the "interesting people" category as well; he's a great naturalist and a great friend. However, he's in the music section because he also plays jaw-dropping acoustic guitar and fiddle and writes engrossing lyrics. His first CD was Standing Room Only; he's now producing a second one, Sea of Lucky Numbers.
Akire Bubar, another great folk-singer and musician who is a friend of Tracy's and performs with him now and then.
If you travel on the MBTA and get off at the right station at the right time, you'll be lucky enough to hear two more outstanding acoustic singer-songwriters, Lisa Housman and Dave Falk, play their music. They played at our wedding, too.
Danielle Howle and the Tantrums, a great rock-folk-county (mostly rock) band from my wife's hometown, Columbia SC. Danielle's a really cool and interesting person as well as great musician.Their original website still works too; so does their spot on Daemon Records.
The Asylum Street Spankers, otherwise known as God's Favorite Band; an all-acoustic 10-piece from Austin, TX that plays blues, ragtime, dixie-style bluegrass and all kinds of other great stuff!
Brave Combo from Denton, TX, blending Latin, European, and other ethnic dance styles into music that NOBODY can sit still through!
The Bad Livers. Not even sure how to describe these guys from Austin, but BOY do they play good music...
The Beat Farmers, the band which included the late, great Country Dick Montana. But the band was great as a whole, so if they get back together be sure to see them.
No Depression, the website of the magazine devoted to the musical style (Y'all-ternative? Insurgent Country? Roots-rock?) somewhere between country, rock, folk, punk, bluegrass, and whatever else the bands feel like throwing into the pot on a given night... FYI, the magazine was named after the style, which took its name from an AOL bulletin board, which was named after Uncle Tupelo's (a great band, now broken up) debut album, which was named after a song by the Carter Family. Now there is both a website and a book named after the magazine!
New West Records, home of (among others) an awesome band called Slobberbone. Go to their shows, I'm tired of being the only one there! Also the label of the Bottle Rockets, Delbert McClinton, and Billy Joe Shaver.
The Ultimate Band List, where I found the web sites for most of my favorite bands and thousands more. You don't like my bands? Go make your own damn web site!
The best place to buy CD's is directly from the band if they play in your town. The second-best is from independent record stores that support local music scenes. Newbury Comics is one of those, a small chain in the Boston area. Down here in Durham, NC we've lost our local independent stores, we have to drive to Chapel Hill and Schoolkids Records. They carry lots of great local and many from other cities as well, check them out, or you might lose your local stores the way Durham lost ours...
Weather
Raleigh-Durham weather radar, to see the weather where I am. This way my mother can see if any tornadoes are in my neighborhood or not. If you are somewhere else, you can find that too, it just takes longer.
The Weather Underground, for more than just pictures. Also has hurricane and tropical storm updates.
I love this woman! Yes, one of these people is me. Guess which one...