Nature Photography

[SPrice]

The many Lemmings I saw were fun and fearless. The boxing rabbits in spring were entertaining as well.  I visited the Arctic Circle when I lived in Rovaniemi and saw the reindeer with the Sami, plus some wild ones in the forest.  I also ice fished on Kemijoki and caught a mate. Matekeito is delicious as is all the Finnish food. Mämmi  was an acquired taste but I ate what ever was served.  And when I lived in Kauniainen, a neighbor family took me to Korkeasaari Zoo, which did have some Finnish wildlife, along with the usual animals.

[North]

58 minutes ago, SPrice said:

The many Lemmings I saw were fun and fearless. The boxing rabbits in spring were entertaining as well.  I visited the Arctic Circle when I lived in Rovaniemi and saw the reindeer with the Sami, plus some wild ones in the forest.  I also ice fished on Kemijoki and caught a mate. Matekeito is delicious as is all the Finnish food. Mämmi  was an acquired taste but I ate what ever was served.  And when I lived in Kauniainen, a neighbor family took me to Korkeasaari Zoo, which did have some Finnish wildlife, along with the usual animals.

Sounds like you managed to experience a lot during your time at Finland. 

And that is very nice.

[SPrice]

I did ...more than you can imagine...I got frostbite in Rovaniemi (the temp got down to -39C) , albeit a less severe case than it could have been. I kept all my toes but have to be alert during the winter weather with proper footwear and wool socks.  A not too close call with Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti who escorted some of my colleagues outside for a private discussion.  Overall...I loved every minute of my time there. The  reserved culture, the history, heroes like Simo Häyhä and Sibelius, the castles, the sisu of the Finns, the beauty of Finland and what I really miss is sauna at a mökki by a lake , even in winter with a hole in the ice. Oh yeah! And more. I still bake pulla, korvapuusti and keep fresh cardamon in my fridge to grind as needed. In just a few years I managed to memorize the pocket Finnish/English dictionary and became fluent in the language, but am now rusty. I was there in the late 70's. Lappeenranta was where the unfortunate incident occurred because the border was visible from the ski jump and some guys took pictures that they should not have taken. Oops!

[North]

2 hours ago, SPrice said:

In just a few years I managed to memorize the pocket Finnish/English dictionary and became fluent in the language, but am now rusty.

If you wish to rememories the language at some point. Feel free to PM.

[digit]

10 hours ago, SPrice said:

Matekeito is delicious as is all the Finnish food. Mämmi  was an acquired taste but I ate what ever was served.

It's amazing the things I learn each morning from TFF. Sometimes even fossil related.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mämmi

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[SPrice]

Ken, you should try some mämmi...at least once. The recipe is in the wiki link.  I only ate it during the Easter Season and when visiting friends who invited me to dinner. So maybe 4-5 times.  The flavor is very unique for those not of Finnish ancestry. With enough sugar and cream and taking a small spoonful with each bite, it's okay.   The eyes say it's chocolate fudge pudding with cream and powdered sugar. The mouth says - nope.

 

A story was shared with me while having dinner during such an occasion when mämmi ( pronounce both m's separately - mam-me -the 'ä' is always as in cat, hat, ran... and the 'i' is always as in be, me, see...Finnish is phonetic with no silent letters) was served.

 

During  the dinner conversation...the hostess shared, while we ate the traditional Easter dessert, that after WWII ended and the members of the Allied Forces, who visited Finland, cried when they saw Finns eating mämmi because they thought (ignorantly) that the people of Finland were so poor after the war that they had to eat their food twice.  The story is probably just Finnish humor of last laughs. 

 

[digit]

9 hours ago, SPrice said:

The eyes say it's chocolate fudge pudding with cream and powdered sugar. The mouth says - nope.

Seems like a cruel joke to play on your eyes.

 

We've been wanting to make a Nordic vacation for some time. Maybe next year we'll make it up that way and I'll have to see if I can track down someone to make me mämmi out of season if I'm not there during Easter.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Missourian]

Cloud palette:

 

 

The variety of colors in the storm last week was incredible

[digit]

Nice!

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[digit]

Happened to be making a late lunch today and while Tammy was assembling the fixings for her wrap she excitedly called me to look out the kitchen window as she spotted the flash of an unfamiliar bird. We have several bird feeders hanging from the eaves in front of the kitchen windows and we enjoy a nice diversity of birds snacking on seeds. I could barely see this one between the leaves on the branch where it had perched but I could see that it was whitish which is an unusual color for the regulars that attend our feeders. A second later this lovely flew up to one of our feeders and it stayed long enough for me to go retrieve my DSLR (which I keep with my birding lens attached). I popped off 10 shots and got one that nicely shows this unusual color pattern.

 

From what we found online a leucistic or non-eumalanic Cardinal is not nearly as rare as the xanthic form that was spotted a few years back on the UF campus near the public display museum (Powell Hall). This still seems to be around a 1 in 2000 rarity so it brought a moment of joy to our afternoon.

 

https://www.sibleyguides.com/2011/08/abnormal-coloration-in-birds-melanin-reduction/

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

[minnbuckeye]

Great photo of a very unique cardinal. I assume this is female? Reminds me of my excitement when a hermaphroditic cardinal spent a week  at our feeder.  

 

[Coco]

Hi,

 

How do you see it as hermaphroditic ?

 

Coco

[minnbuckeye]

@Coco This bird was 100% female brown on one side and red patterned on the other side. There are quite a few articles discussing this on line . Here is a quick description from one.

"But that's not all. Very rarely, cardinals can also be hermaphrodites — that is, half male, half female.

Specifically, a few cardinals have been documented to be a special kind of hermaphrodite called a “bilateral gynandromorph.” The genders of these birds are literally split down the middle: One side of the body is male and has red feathers, the other side is female and has tan-brown feathers."

[Coco]

Thank you @minnbuckeye for these very interesting explanations. It’s amazing !

 

Coco

[Balance]

@minnbuckeye  @digit @Coco

 

While shoeing horses today my mind wandered to this post and the info I read about these hermaproditic cardinals. Specifically the bilateral gyandromorph. 
 

So don’t laugh too hard but I had a notion.

 

Is hermaphroditism a morphology of genetics or an evolution of genetics? 

 

If dinosaurs evolved into birds over millions of years and birds evolved into 10300? species over millions of years that makes bird evolution pretty far ahead of our own. In order to develop that many species there must be a lot of what I call , “hybrid vigor”. Meaning genetics try’s to take the best parts of each cross breeding, and hybrid animals tend to avoid the typical genetic related problems of line breeding. 
 

If hermaphroditism is a mutation, could it be the early attempts of hybrid vigor to remove the need for both sex? If a future evolved hermaphroditic bird can lay fertilized eggs without breeding why would male birds continue to exist? Without breeding in nature there’s no need for rivalries or territory so the need for protection disappears too. 

If evolution takes the best of both sex will it eventually settle into one? 

Is the future single sex existence and has this cardinal shown us the future? 🤷🏼‍♂️🫣🫣😊

 

Jp
 

 

 

[Top Trilo]

52 minutes ago, Balance said:

Meaning genetics try’s to take the best parts of each cross breeding, and hybrid animals tend to avoid the typical genetic related problems of line breeding. 

Genetics don't "try" to find the ideal combination. If anything they do the opposite. DNA replication is designed to make an exact copy, indistinguishable in sequence. However, errors happen, mutations occur which over many generations has the potential to give rise to new species.

57 minutes ago, Balance said:

If hermaphroditism is a mutation, could it be the early attempts of hybrid vigor to remove the need for both sex? If a future evolved hermaphroditic bird can lay fertilized eggs without breeding why would male birds continue to exist? Without breeding in nature there’s no need for rivalries or territory so the need for protection disappears too. 

If evolution takes the best of both sex will it eventually settle into one? 

Is the future single sex existence and has this cardinal shown us the future? 🤷🏼‍♂️🫣🫣😊

Many species do reproduce asexually, that is reproducing without requiring cells from another individual. The drawback to asexual production is it limits the ability to diversify. The only way for a population to diversify by reproducing asexually is through mutations which occur rarely. On the other hand sexual reproduction increases diversity of a population by mixing the DNA of two different individuals creating an entirely different individual. Increasing diversity is important because populations with higher diversity have a higher probability of surviving negative events. For example crop production is frequently cited as an example for the potential struggles a population can face if it lacks genetic diversity. A disease can easily wipe out an entire population if they are all the same which is what caused the potato famine in Ireland. If a population has high diversity there is a better chance at least some individuals will survive a disaster and at the end of the day that is life's goal, to survive.

 

So no, for most species sexual reproduction has the advantage over asexual reproduction and is likely to stay.

[Balance]

@Top Trilo very cool! Thank you. 
 

Didn’t think about loosing diversity. Slightly big deal… Good thing I just shoe horses. 😊 

 

Jp

[Top Trilo]

1 hour ago, Balance said:

@Top Trilo very cool! Thank you. 
 

Didn’t think about loosing diversity. Slightly big deal… Good thing I just shoe horses. 😊 

 

Jp

Questions are good, you learned something you will probably never need to know again for the rest of your life but hey, you learned something. 

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Very interesting! I don’t think nature is moving towards a non-sexual reproduction. I haven’t read anything about it, but does a cardinal hermaphrodite reproduce "normally" ? Can it have offspring and if so, is it viable ? (Can live and reproduce too).

 

Coco

[minnbuckeye]

3 hours ago, Coco said:

does a cardinal hermaphrodite reproduce "normally

@Coco I found this: Hermaphroditic cardinals, also known as gynandromorphs, are rare and are believed to be infertile. However, some gynandromorphic birds have been observed successfully mating and reproducing

 

Apparently these birds have one ovary on the female side of the bird.

[Coco]

Incredible ! Thanks @minnbuckeye

 

Coco

Edited May 17 by Coco

[Yoda]

These are of the photos of the Northern Lights that was quite widespread last Friday night 

We get them occasionally in the north of the U.K.  But very very seldom at the latitude where I live (just north of London) 

 

A friend called me and told me to look out the window. 
Saw nothing. So called him back. He said to me to take a photo of the “nothing”. 
And wow. It was really spectacular. 
One could see a very faint glow with the naked eye. But the camera sensor must be much more sensitive 

 

 

Edited May 17 by Yoda

[North]

28 minutes ago, Yoda said:

Saw nothing. So called him back. He said to me to take a photo of the “nothing”. 
And wow. It was really spectacular. 
One could see a very faint glow with the naked eye. But the camera sensor must be much more sensitive

Cameras are often able to capture northern lights near invisible to the eyes. Purple ones are not common so it was very lucky that so many people were able to see them.

[Collector9658]

Frogs always bring a smile to my face, so I usually like to photograph them when I happen upon them. We have a rain barrel located on the side of the newer residence I'm living at, and for a few weeks around night-time, I've been hearing the lovely chirping from a grey tree frog.

 I was up late last night, so I decided to go out and see if I could find him. Sure enough, the frog was sitting in the same cozy spot I had seen him at last week.

 

[SPrice]

Two things I miss about living in the Southern USA...Magnolia trees in bloom and the song of the cicada.

 

We spent a few days in Nashville, Tennessee for my daughter's graduation from Vanderbilt University and the two broods of cicadas had emerged from their life underground.

 

By the millions!...oops! I just read an article and I should say billions! 

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/cicadas-2024-emergence-periodical-brood-2024-map-cicada-rcna134152

 

 

It was insanely noisy all day long everyday we were there ... as long as the temperature was warm.  I had a few fly into my head or land on me somewhere during my walks around the hotel. Neither victims were injured.  I'm pretty sure I got my dosage of both cicadas and magnolia blossoms while there. 

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 18 by SPrice