vulture-adventures

Dead stuff is cool.

[wowtastic-nature]

💙 Verdone by Francesco Bettaglio on 500px.com ○  NIKON D2X, f/11, 1/250s, 600mm, iso100, 800-1200 px, rating:99.6

[lifewithdeadbirds]

While getting my degree in ecology and evolutionary biology has definitely helped in how I learn about birds, science, and how to communicate about the natural world, most of my bird knowledge hasn’t come from a class. I’m not saying that my ornithology class wasn’t wonderful (Thanks, Pierre!),...

[lifewithdeadbirds]

Many of our birds were captive in the old university aviary, with researchers watching them every day. Try as they might to stay completely objective, occasionally researchers would grow attached to one of the little birds, sometimes even giving them names. The names could be just like human names of the day, like Peter or Jane, or have tales attached to them like Ulysses, or they could just be cute and a little funny.

Today, we remember Little Toot, and thank him for what knowledge his life and death gave us.

[vulture-adventures]

Long live, Little Toot.

[lifewithdeadbirds]

There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and the same is true for birds. Most of our skins are “study skins”, which are stuffed with cotton and keep some of the bird’s original shape. The ones seen here, on the other hand, are flat skins. Flat skins are not stuffed, and they are positioned with one leg and one wing spread, allowing researchers to better see the wing shape and colors and leg color, which can’t been seen as well in study skins. The skins seen above are Jameson’s firefinches (Lagonosticta rhodopareia). Click on the section below to see the underside of one of these flat skins! The dried skin is entirely visible, as well as some bone from the wing.

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[shadyufo]

•••FOLLOWER APPRECIATION GIVEAWAY•••

It’s that time again! You wonderful people are too awesome and it’s high time I did another giveaway to share the love. :) 

I’ve been making curiosity collections, kits, and grab bags and selling them in my Etsy shop for a few years now. I’ve given away lots of grab bags before but never a full collection like this! You will receive everything pictured which includes:

Small Megalodon Shark Tooth Several Tiny Fossilized Shark Teeth Fossilized Sand Shark Tooth Fossilized Alligator Tooth Fossilized Barracuda Tooth Fossilized Stingray Mouthplates Small Jar Full of Quartz Crystals Amethyst Smokey Citrine Tiny Turquoise Nuggets Moqui Marbles Small Meteorite Fragment Oregon Sunstone Baltic Amber Orange Calcite Green Calcite Chrysoprase Fluorite Pyrite Amazonite Apache Tear Obsidian Crinoid Fossils Fossilized Mollusk Shells Polished Leopard Jasper

Plus the metal tin (from a Fossil Brand watch) and any other random little treasures I come across between now and when the giveaway is over. Each of these pieces will be individually bagged and labelled for shipping.

This collection can be shipped anywhere in the world! Shipping is on me so you don’t have to worry about that.

As per Tumblr’s giveaway policies I must state that Tumblr is in no way affiliated with this giveaway and you must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent’s permission to enter. 

You don’t have to be following me but it would be nice since it is a follower appreciation giveaway after all. ;) Likes and reblogs count. I’ll select a winner on June 1, 2015! Thank you all and good luck!

[vulture-adventures]

another great giveaway, vultures!

[lvnardeath]

Diprosopus is an extremely rare congenital disorder whereby some facial features or the entire face is duplicated on the head

[labbbugs]

These are from April 2014. We had a bunch of towels laid out where we were drying pots after washing them. After a few days we finally finished washing and drying a massive amount of greenhouse pots, we pulled up the towels and found this little guy. He managed to escape one of our cups and tried to pupate under the towels :)

[astronomy-to-zoology]

Silver-breasted Broadbill (Serilophus lunatus)

…a species of broadbill (Eurylaimidae) which is distributed throughout southeast Asia, Indonesia, and India, where it inhabits subtropical and tropical moist lowland and montane forests, which are typically dominated by pine, oak, and bamboo. Like other broadbills, silver-breasted broadbills are both insectivorous and carnivorous, feeding on a range of invertebrates and small vertebrates. 

Classification

Animalia-Chordata-Aves-Passeriformes-Eurylaimidae-Serilophus-S. lunatus

Image: Yiwenyiwen

[fairy-wren]

(via Barred owl by larry tibbet / 500px)

[shadyufo]

Pretty little Savannah Monitor skull I just got! He had some sort of bone disease that caused a great deal of damage to one side of the skull. Love those little teeth. 

[compassandwheel-blog]

Inspired by vintage botanical illustrations, I just finished up this drawing of the life cycle of a peach. Graphite with digital color. 

[design-is-fine]

Berenice Abbott, Light through Prism / Magnetic Field from Recto /Collision of a Moving Sphere and a Stationary Sphere, 1958-1961. Source

[heronskeleton-blog]

Sarchosuchus Imperator compared to a modern Crocodile.

[designvalues-deactivated2016042]

Evolution Cover Art For Scientific American Magazine by Katy Wiedemann

Cover Art commissioned by Scientific American Magazine for September 2014 Evolution: The Human Saga Issue This illustration shows the juxtaposition of a modern human skull with the skull of the Homo erectus fossil known as the “Turkana Boy”.

[vulture-adventures]

11/25/2014 - Ornithology Division Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) What an incredible wingspan! This owl could easily give you a hug but with that fierce look, I don't think it would want to. I included a picture of one of the ventral feather tracts because of the molting going on there. These feathers fall out super easy so they require a delicate hand. Luckily owl skin is fairly thick so it wasn't much of a problem.

[cyberdelic-izzy-deactivated2017]

The wind blows the spores released by the mushroom in similar direction. But no 2 reproductive cells will ever land on the exact same position. Just one of many reasons why the mushroom kingdom is so breathtaking~

[science-junkie]

Video

[vulture-adventures]

11/11/2014 - Ornithology Division Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) This little bird was going to be my first hummingbird skin! I was so excited to finally try my hand at such a small bird but as soon as I got started, I could tell that the skin would not hold. Alas, it was not my day. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to try again soon!