Jade, my bughunting protegé

This kitty is amazing. Not only can she catch houseflies on the wing, today she outmaneuvered an enormous aeshnid dragonfly, one of the strongest and most agile fliers among the insects. I wish I had seen it, but at least she brought her catch into the house for me to admire:



The photos turned out well, but still don't do justice to the beautiful colors.

Since Jade seems to have inflicted soon-to-be-fatal damage on the poor critter, I'm taking it down to the lab to do some optic lobe tract tracing.

Vacation

Wow, did I need to get away. Stayed in a cabin near the Canaan Valley Wildlife Refuge for three nights, did some hiking, sat in the hot tub and just relaxed. I followed this up with a couple of days of easy yard and house work at home, reading, and getting mentally prepared for my summer research. Ideally, I need a week like this about once a month, I think.


Took some pictures while hiking; what a beautiful place, with a lot of wildlife of course. Deer everywhere, evidence of bear and coyote on the trails, and all kinds of small critters in the puddles and streams.

Hatched frog eggs and tadpoles in a puddle on the trail:



Strange little fungi:


Water snake (not poisonous)!:



Boy in the wilderness:

The best snus

General Onyx. The taste is very good- salty/peppery/citrusy, the nicotine kick is strong and fast, and the packaging is very metal. I would actually recommend that even non-former smokers try this at least once, it's that good.

Long hiatus

I haven't been feeling well and haven't had much to say, so no posts. I've finally started to feel better over the last couple of days, though; hopefully it sticks.

Looked out the window at the dreary rainy day this morning and saw yet another new bird in the back yard- a yellow breasted chat (the pic above is just one I found online). I really like the diversity of wildlife here in my little Morgantown enclave. It would be nice if the sun, and the bugs, would start coming out, though.