Bald-Faced Hornet Wing

A Microscropic Study of  Dolichovespula maculata, 2016


Last fall I found a dead Bald-faced Hornet on the porch and I put it in a small jar for later examination.  Today is that vague later.  I was doing some microscope work anyway, trying to tease some mushroom mycelium free from the dirt it was growing in to try and get a better look at the network of it, without much luck (it kept tearing apart and all I got were shots of fuzzy dirt), so I looked to the hornet wing instead.  These photos are all of the right forewing.  For more information on parts of an insect wing, click here.  What's interesting is the number of hairs, because to the naked eye the wing appears nearly translucent, no visible hairs.  And then also, there is the structure of the wing, that while the venation appears to be a patchwork, this is the regular form.   

Feathers of Blood

Robin Feather with Blood, Pittsburgh, 2016


The other day as we were leaving the yard to take the dog for a walk, we came upon a death scene where, it appeared a small hawk had captured and eaten a robin.  There are significant differences in how birds of prey eat their quarry versus say, a cat.  Most significantly, the hawk will  immediately pluck the kill and eat it on the spot, creating a downy patch, and if there's snow on the ground, you can usually find spots where the hawk's wings brushed over the snow.  It's beautiful, if brutal, but that's nature.  The only thing left at this kill site were the feathers and the beak, all else was gone, presumably consumed.  I pocketed the beak, which had a single under feather clinging to it.  Upon close inspection with the microscope, tiny droplets of blood emerged within the barbules.