It's a boy!

According to wikipedia, this is North America's largest native moth. Definitely the largest in my backyard. Google "hyalophora cecropia" and you'll find out how impressive the caterpiller for this giant silk moth looks. It is also known as the robin moth. Typical wingspan is from 4.3 to 5.8 inches. This one was about 5 inches, and male, as you can tell by the feathery antenna.

A very impressive 5 inches or so...

A different view

It's a boy!

My First (hopefully only) Snake Bite

Today I got my first snake bite. I had three teeth to pull out of my finger, and they were quite amazing really - like little pieces of glass (with some blood). Here they are:

Don't be scared - they are so tiny I had to use a microscope for these shots

Here's the culprit when he still had all his teeth - an Eastern gartersnake. Not venomous, and according to some webpages, with a painless bite. Maybe that's if they don't leave their teeth behind.

Beautiful Scales



Mmmm - you're tasty!



You can see the tongue opening and some belly scales here

Summer Buddies

Canoe season begins for me today! Today we stopped in a little cove for a sandwich and were lucky enough to drift directly towards these guys enjoying the sunshine. If we had not been drifting we could never have got this close so quietly.

Melting ice

As an engineer I can't help but notice everyday examples of radiation heat transfer and thermodynamics. Here are a couple of leaves (good absorbers of heat from the sun) that melted leaf-shaped holes through the ice (good reflector of heat from the sun) in my yard. Even the stems left their mark. I like how the blue of the ice looks so cold. Lately our weather has been colder than Alaska some days.