Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus) are large, widespread raptors which largely hunt at night. They can begin nesting as early as the winter season, and they often make use of old nests made by other large birds when they do. Photo and caption by Cassidy Cooper Edited by Jessica Schaefer
Category: Field Frame
Field Frame Friday: Salmon Alevins
These tiny fish, only a few days old, are newly hatched salmon. They still have their yolk sacs (bright orange in this photo) and are called “alevins.”
Field Frame Friday: Counting Corals
Imagine trying to count tiny underwater creatures through a snorkel mask while ocean waves push your floating body this way and that . . . sounds like a difficult task! To understand how reef ecosystems are changing, scientists survey the abundance and diversity of corals, fish, and other animals present. However, it can be very difficult to accurately count these creatures underwater!
Field Frame Friday: Mosquito
Did you know that different species of mosquito have different tastes in blood? The species pictured above, Culex tarsalis, is native to California and prefers to bite birds, though it will also bite humans and can potentially spread West Nile Virus. In contrast, the invasive species Aedes aegypti is considered an urban mosquito and prefers…
Field Frame Friday: Songs of the Sierra
While conducting field work in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, one encounters a plethora of bird speices. The Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus) is a striking songbird found across much of Western North America. Both males and females sing, and their song is sometimes described as sounding like an extra operatic robin song. This individual certainly chose…
Field Frame Friday: Tern Time
Researcher Kay Garlick-Ott sets up GoPro cameras at a breeding colony of Common Terns (Sterna hirundo) on Stratton Island in the Gulf of Main. Kay is recording the birds’ behavior to learn about the causes and consequences of Common Tern aggression. These birds have a repuration for being nasty . . . which is why…
Field Frame Friday: Panda Personas
Did you know that despite sharing a common name, giant pandas and red pandas are not closely related? They were both given the name panda simply because both specialize on eating bamboo, and the word panda is an adaptation of nigala ponya which means “bamboo eater” in Nepalese. Red pandas are actually in an entirely separate family (Ailuridae) of which they are the sole living…
Field Frame Friday: A Temporary Grouse House
Biologist Nicole Lindenauer developed an automated two-stage pen to gently release Greater Sage-Grouse families into the wild, which will help aid a struggling population’s genetic diversity.
Field Frame Friday: Rural Raccoons
Raccoons are versatile mammals that can adapt to both city and wilderness settings. Contrary to their “trash panda” perception, rural raccoons are cunning foragers, seeking out seasonal diets of worms and insects in the spring, and fruits and nuts in the fall. Encounters with them are invariably special.
Field Frame Friday: Foxes and Food
Island Foxes (Urocyon littoralis) inhabit the California Channel Islands. Over the course of the last 150 years or so, the ecology of each island has changed substantially, leading to different outcomes for different fox populations. The fox above is from Santa Cruz Island, where the population is currently healthy, although the foxes there are famous…
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