Blunders, Eight-stringed Ukuleles and Random Winged Insects: Voran's blog

[Voran]

I'm starting another one because I like having somewhere to share my thoughts. I swear I'll keep this one family friendly and avoid any politically charged rants.

 

[Voran]

I saw an internet post about how modern society is supposedly too individualistic and selfish and it got me thinking.

I really don't buy that individualism is a bad thing or at odds with collectivism. We need both elements. In order to build a society you need both the bricks (the individuals) and the cement (the bonds and interactions with each other). You can't construct anything much from mush.

Think for a second about all the people who built civilization. Isaac Newton. Ada Lovelace. Nikola Tesla. Marie Curie. People who are the reason we have electricity and heat and computers.

Now imagine if those people had said to themselves 'I'm not going to be selfish. Instead of focusing on me and my career I'm going to get married and have six kids and spend my free time volunteering in the community. Selfishness is bad! Think of others! eleventy-one'

We would still be living in mud huts.

 

[Voran]

And there's another god damn spider in here.

I wish I had the heart to kill spiders but I have a degree of respect for anything that can coordinate eight limbs.

If you have the intelligence to keep track of eight legs...you are a someone not a something. Even if it's only the basest of instincts and motor skills...you still know how to command eight different limbs and not fall over in a confused heap...and to crush you would be closer to murder than pest control.

 

[kkimura]

And they manage without electricity, heat and computers! If you see one about to discover radium, do the arachnid world a favour and firmly discourage it.

 

[ploverwing]

I am definitely a fan of spiders. We have resident spiders that we leave alone in our house. And pseudoscorpions (squeee!). The spiders do a great job keeping our fly population down. I also really enjoy watching them. But I understand arachnophobia. I don't love surprise spiders, so I can completely understand where that could take you to phobic reactions. I'm kind of like that with ticks (lots of screaming and freaking out). I rescue outdoor spiders that find their way inside.

Oh and jumping spiders are freaking adorable. They just are. I accept that there are strongly dissenting opinions on this matter. Maybe don't read Children of Time if you are an arachnophobe.

I have a degree of respect for anything that can coordinate eight limbs.

Yes. I can barely manage to coordinate the four limbs that I possess.

 

[Voran]

It's odd; sometimes I think I come off as a bit nicey nicey and toothless.

Then I remember the actual content of my lyrics:

'Lay still my dear while I inject my venom/I am not yours/I have eight limbs and eight eyes'

'Am I not vicious and terrible? No...not at all - you know exactly what my words meant/I showed you the black of my diamond exoskeleton/I even asked outright if you cared to consent'

'So cry me enough tears to put out Aldebaran'

 

[Voran]

I had this spectacular dream last night.

I dreamed I went exploring this beautiful pool in a rainforest and there were these fine bands of brilliant neon green light in the air...as if someone unraveled yarn but with light rays.

I'm annoyed that this place is not real and I cannot visit it lol. Although we have some beautiful woodlands here. No mysterious neon green lights but there IS the 'Temple of Moss' and in summer we get all the dragonflies and damselflies a nature fan could ask for. Blood red ones...neon blue ones...all the big Boeings come out to play.

 

[TimWilson]

Oh and jumping spiders are freaking adorable. They just are. I accept that there are strongly dissenting opinions on this matter.

I've been meaning to write up for...someplace...my story of a canoe trip through Spider Alley in the Everglades, one of the world's greatest concentrations of social spiders (the Anelosimus family, for those keeping score at home) who set up giant colonoies of webs that crossed the entire opening in the mangroves, which meant that all those thousands of spiders who were knocked out of their webs wound up in our canoe.

Indeed, my job was to hold up a spare oar to intentionally break through the webs so that they didn't blind the scientist who knew where we were going, so the spiders mostly fell on ME.






It's much too long a story to tell here, but let's summarize by saying that I learned a lot about myself on that trip.

 

[ploverwing]

Indeed, my job was to hold up a spare oar to intentionally break through the webs so that they didn't blind the scientist who knew where we were going, so the spiders mostly fell on ME.

OK I do love spiders but not that much. As I said, I'm not a fan of surprise spiders, and even though you fully expected these spiders to be landing on you, that still qualifies as surprise spiders in my book.

Tim, what haven't you done?!?!?!

 

[Voran]

I've been meaning to write up for...someplace...my story of a canoe trip through Spider Alley in the Everglades, one of the world's greatest concentrations of social spiders (the Anelosimus family, for those keeping score at home) who set up giant colonoies of webs that crossed the entire opening in the mangroves, which meant that all those thousands of spiders who were knocked out of their webs wound up in our canoe.

Indeed, my job was to hold up a spare oar to intentionally break through the webs so that they didn't blind the scientist who knew where we were going, so the spiders mostly fell on ME.

View attachment 169172

View attachment 169173


It's much too long a story to tell here, but let's summarize by saying that I learned a lot about myself on that trip.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. NOOOOOPE

 

[Voran]

Oddly I do like the cobalt tarantula.

It's odd how I will have a panic attack from a house spider but appreciate a zonking heavy tarantula. I think it's that I don't really perceive them as being spiders. The combo of the heavy stocky body and the brilliant blue color means I just see them as cool gimmicky plushies.

 

[ploverwing]

Oddly I do like the cobalt tarantula.

That's because they're stunning! I saw one and couldn't believe the colour. Tarantulas look hefty but actually are surprisingly light.

 

[Voran]

That's because they're stunning! I saw one and couldn't believe the colour. Tarantulas look hefty but actually are surprisingly light.

I wouldn't say no to one but on the other hand I don't really want a pet I can accidentally kill if I drop them. I do want a hyacinth macaw some day. A massive UV-blue bird who can accompany me when out running sounds like my ideal life partner lolol

 

[Voran]

I'm dying for my opponent in a daily chess game to get back to me.

I got a vicious lil annihilation sequence I can't wait to use on him. Very forcing and very clean and surgical...once I get a hold of his knight he has absolutely no spare tempos with which to fight me off. Good night. Go sleepy byes now.

 

[TimWilson]

even though you fully expected these spiders to be landing on you, that still qualifies as surprise spiders in my book.

"Expected" is not the right word.

In the mid-90s, I produced a science magazine show for three government agencies -- the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Everglades National Park, and the southeastern region of the Environmental Protection Agency -- and for this segment, I was accompanying an Audobon Society scientist who was monitoring the health of the roseate spoonbill community by tracking their food sources. That is, the spoonbills themselves really, really don't like people, so they're hard to find, even harder to count, but the fish that they eat are relatively easy to find. You can make some correlations that way, a method that has proven itself effective over time.

My role was a combination of field producer, interviewer, and videographer, followed later by video and audio editing, writing the segment, and adding the music and other post-production stuff (maps, graphics, and such).

So, as we're making way across the waters of Florida Bay from the Everglades office in Key Largo to progressively smaller and smaller boats hidden in the mangroves, the scientist asks, "Are you arachnophobic?" I said, "Well, I like spiders okay I guess, but what are you asking me?" He replied, "Let me tell you about Spider Alley." By this time, we're most of an hour from shore, with another hour to go to get to our destination. So my consent was somewhat constrained, and while he set the scene as precisely as you could have hoped, there's no way to contextualize getting RAINED ON BY SPIDERS FOR HALF AN HOUR while lying in a cold, greasy puddle at the bottom of a motorized canoe...while you're also trying to film all of this for television.

I started to write this whole story up a few years ago, and when I did, I discovered that the fish we were going to count spent part of their time out of the water (known to us at the time), but scientists discovered in the interim that they're also hermaphrodites who can change their primary-presenting sex, and are maybe self-fertilizing...? Still figuring that part out, but honestly, I'm not sure it's any of my business.


btw, a similar trip but much less stressful was wading through the Everglades to alligator nests to ever-so-gently move the mother gators to the side so we could count their eggs. While they watched. But the idea was the same. You check the nests twice -- before hatching and after -- so you can get an idea of how many viable young are entering the ecosystem each breeding cycle, how many are lost to predation, etc. Counting eggs, occupied and empty, is much, much easier than trying to count the babies.

Tim, what haven't you done?!?!?!

Once you've been rained on by spiders for an hour (don't forget: Spider Alley was a round trip!) and waded blind through the Everglades literally up to your armpits in alligators, you think differently about those kinds of lists.

Tarantulas look hefty but actually are surprisingly light.

Tarantulas are cool by me, but as Voran mentioned, I'd be afraid of hurting them. Still, I've been around them enough in classroom settings where they lived in enclosures that I came to appreciate their personalities, if you will. They're curious, engaged, and playful, and I absolutely get why some people want them around as companions.

I might have a different story to tell you if thousands of them fell into my tiny boat for an hour.

 

[Voran]

OMG OMG OMG YOU MENTIONED ROSEATE SPOONBILLS

I love roseate spoonbills they're so beautiful

 

[TimWilson]

OMG OMG OMG YOU MENTIONED ROSEATE SPOONBILLS

I love roseate spoonbills they're so beautiful

The Audubon scientist I went out with, Dr. Jerry Lorenz, is THE spoonbill guy, like, in the entire world. Here's an older picture of him banding a young spoonbill who hasn't turned super pink yet.



But yeah, mature, they're stunning.

 

[Voran]

The Audubon scientist I went out with, Dr. Jerry Lorenz, is THE spoonbill guy, like, in the entire world. Here's an older picture of him banding a young spoonbill who hasn't turned super pink yet.

View attachment 169199

But yeah, mature, they're stunning.

View attachment 169200

Oh man lucky you. Must have been epic working with these!

 

[TimWilson]

Oh man lucky you. Must have been epic working with these!

Jerry worked with the spoonbills, not me. I got the spiders. I actually found my write up if the trip (including references; as outlandish as the story sounds, I'm really not exaggerating even a little), so I'll add photos and post it when I figure out where.

In looking for that photo of Jerry and the spoonbill, I came across a story from 2022, that the oldest spoonbills recorded were identified through bands Jerry had placed on them as chicks -- he banded over 2000 of them earlier in the century (talk about epic!!!), and well, the story is pretty wild.

Here she is, age 18...



Check the article out for more spoonbill pics, some great shots of that part of the Florida Keys (I lived there in the 90s, plus a couple of years on either side), and some broader context on spoonbill ecology. Cool stuff!

Oldest Known Roseate Spoonbill Identified Thanks to Lucky Photograph

After closely examining images taken by photographer Mac Stone, experts were able to identify a spoonbill banded as a chick 18 years ago.

www.audubon.org

 

[Voran]

Thanks! I don't actually know much about them other than oooo neon pink