birds and the bees

it's summertime and the wildlife is frisky! if you want to know how the birds and the bees do it, try reading about it or even watching an interpretive film about the love life of insects.

and if you are in new york city anytime soon, get out of the cold and take a quick trip to the tropics in the butterfly exhibit at the museum of natural history. after volunteering there for a few months wayyyy back in 2005, i have a new appreciation for insects. apparently i was still a little shocked in this picture to be receiving so much butterfly attention!
so now that i've talked about the insects, on to the birds! my favourite bird at the moment should be pretty obvious, but if you need a hint, it shares it's name with a fruit, it's nocturnal and it can't fly. i spent about 5 hours in the post-mortem room today measuring KIWI embryos. depsite the formalin smell being stuck in my nose and mouth the rest of the day, it was quite fun to see the developmental sequence from only a few days old until the point of hatch. just wait til i get them on treadmills!
p.s. if you click on the kiw link above, and watch the flash animation of a little kiwi hatching and walking and growing - that is my project in a nutshell! hopefully after my work we can make a little more biomechnically correct version of a walking kiwi :)
p.p.s. happy birthday darwin!

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