Lmst

Texas Tick Project

The National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine is doing a study to determine the risk of tick-borne disease in Texas. We are asking the community to submit any ticks they find in the environment on pets, or on hunter-harvested animals for testing. We will screen the ticks for any pathogens that can cause disease in humans and will let you know the results.

For more information: https://www.bcm.edu/departments/pediatrics/divisions-and-centers/tropical-medicine/research/research-laboratories/infectious-disease-epidemiology/texas-tick-project?fbclid=IwAR0zIxAi6noS-C43yVxkw2T-XE7lRqw0K1PKznfV1dJlv_lkMb-t7F94TrE

In parts of South Australia the pelican is known by its Ngaarrindjeri name, nori.
Tarwin river estuary, near Inverloch, Australia.

3/3

At first glance, they might look like a white American pelicans but, aside from their predominantly white feather colors, their beaks and legs are different colors, their eyes are bigger, and their tail has some black feathers. The Australian pelican has the longest bill of any living bird!

2/3

My Dad's favorite bird is the pelican. White pelicans, brown pelicans, any pelican. So I was thinking of my Dad when this Australian pelican flew from the direction of the beach to the estuary where we were standing, staring at terns, circled, and did a water landing.

1/3

#Pelicans #Birds #Birding #Photos #Photography #BirdPhotography #Nature #NaturePhotography #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography #Travel #Australia #BirdsInFlight #BirdsOfAustralia #SeaBirds

A beautiful walk to the estuary of the Tarwin river, near Inverloch. It was a little chilly in the morning but the weather was great.
On the way back, we saw an echidna. Echidna roll up into balls, exposing their spines when threatened. They are, with their relative the platypus, the only living egg-laying mammals. They do not have teeth but their tongues are 15 cm (~6 inches) long and sticky to slurp up ants, worms, and insect larvae.
October 07, 2023, Inverloch, Australia.

#Wildlife

Christine Beeton boosted:

Acorn woodpecker at work

Christine Beeton boosted:

Mallard in the middle of preening.

#bird #birds #birding #birdsofmastodon #birdwatching #birdphotography #nature #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #photography

A close-up of a female mallard's head with her beak tucked inside her body to preen. The duck is looking directly at the camera.

Terns. Australia is home to several species of terns and I am not confident in identifying those. I was still very happy to see them.
October 07, 2023, near Inverloch, Australia.

#Terns #Birds #Birding #Photos #Photography #BirdPhotography #Nature #NaturePhotography #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography #Travel #Australia #BirdsOfAustralia

@SarahSingsank They make beautiful blue flashes between the tall grasses. Very very pretty!

I spent 10 days in Australia and saw one (ONE!) kangaroo. To be fair, I was in a meeting room on an island most of the time. But that kangaroo was a sight. It was huge and appear up the top of a hill, bouncing along. It stopped to look at us before bouncing away.
October 07, 2023, Inverloch, Australia.

#Kangaroo #Travel #Australia #Photography #Photos #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography #Nature #NaturePhotography

Superb fairywrens. The males have those gorgeous shades of blue. I saw some in Inverloch and some in Brisbane. Stunning little birds!
October 06 and 07. 2023, Inverloch, Australia.

#Wrens #Birds #Birding #Photography #BirdPhotography #Travel #Australia #Nature #NaturePhotography #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography

Christine Beeton boosted:

Passing by ...

I was sitting outside early this morning. There weren't really many birds showing themselves. Except the pigeons, they kind of break the curve. Anyway, a large bird flew over it looked like maybe it was a little pink. I couldn't get a bead on it before it passed over the trees. Maybe it was a spoon bill, it doesn't really matter because I missed it. Later this Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) flew over just as I was getting ready to shoot a smaller bird at my feeder; so, instead I lifted my camera up. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to zoom in but I think it turned out okay.

"A Pileated Woodpecker pair stays together on its territory all year round. It will defend the territory in all seasons, but will tolerate new arrivals during the winter." - allaboutbirds.org

#photo #photography #photographer #photographylovers #bird #birdwatching #birdphotography
#birdsofmastodon

This woodpecker is directly overhead, and its underside is visible to the camera. The background is blue sky. The wood is mostly black, but its head from this angle is white with a short pointed black beak. There is a black line that runs across her cheeks and another that crossed her eyes. A flaming red crest is visible atop her head that disappears behind her wide wings. The front of her wings are a greenish brown then the bottom half of er flight feathers are white the top half/tips are black. Her body is black as well as her forked tail. Black feet are barely visible against her body.

"The Pileated Woodpecker is a very large woodpecker with a long neck and a triangular crest that sweeps off the back of the head. The bill is long and chisel-like, about the length of the head. In flight, the wings are broad, and the bird can seem crow like. Pileated Woodpeckers are mostly black with white stripes on the face and neck and a flaming-red crest. Males have a red stripe on the cheek. In flight, the bird reveals extensive white underwings and small white crescents on the upper side, at the bases of the primaries." - allaboutbirds.org

Both meetings were excellent and very much worth flying that far. I had a great time and came back with new collaborations, new knowledge, and lots and lots of photos. It will take me weeks to sort through them and label them. I will be posting as I go.

At the end of that meeting, I met up with an old friend from my time at UC Irvine, for a walk on the Crystal Cove beach and in Newport Beach Back Bay before flying back to Houston.

#Birds #Birding #BirdPhotography #Nature #NaturePhotography #Travel #Wildlife #California #WildlifePhotography #Seagulls #Pelicans #BrownPelicans

The following day, I flew to Sydney, then San Francisco, and Orange County where I spent two lovely days with friends before relocating to UC Irvine for the Ion Channel Modulation Symposium (https://sophion.com/.../icms-2023-uc-irvine-california-usa/) where I also gave a (different) talk and also met some old and new friends.

#Birds #Birding #BirdPhotography #Nature #NaturePhotography #Travel #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography #Herons #Egrets #California #CaliforniaBirds

After the end of that meeting I spent an afternoon and evening with collaborators from the University of Queensland.
The next day, a Sunday, I met with two fantastic local birders, and they showed me amazing birds I would never had spotted on my own, including the invisible yet gorgeous tawny frogmouth.

#Frogmouth #Kangaroos #Birds #Birding #BirdPhotography #Nature #NaturePhotography #Travel #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography #Australia #AustralianBirds

My last 3 weeks...
I flew out of Houston to San Francisco and then to Melbourne (Australia). I spent a few days in Melbourne and Inverloch with friends over the weekend. We went for walks on or near the beach and saw local wildlife.
We then flew to Brisbane and took the ferry to Moreton Island to attend and give a talk at the 8th Venoms to Drugs meeting (https://www.venomstodrugs.org/) where I met some old and new friends and learned about a lot of cutting edge research. There were birds too.

Christine Beeton boosted:

Last week my sister took me to a fossil site she discovered in McCall, Idaho. It was fun digging up leaf fossils in the sediments thought to be about 16 million years old, when the local flora was dominated by deciduous hardwoods (gingkos!) and redwoods. This was my best find. #Idaho #paleontology #paleobotany #fossils

The fossil of a leaf is perfectly preserved in a piece of sandstone. It resembles a quaking aspen leaf in shape, sort of cross between rounded and heart-shaped.

Christine Beeton boosted:

I laughed far too hard at this, for far too long

A moveable-letter sign for a Wallgreens Pharmacy that says “GET YOUR SHONGLES SHIT TODAY”

Christine Beeton boosted:

Waders, Gulls and Ducks were too distant on the estuary today, but this Stonechat came to check me out.
#birds #BirdsOfMastodon #nature

Client Info