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Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - November 10, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Biology Environment Science Source Type: blogs

The Winter Moth – Operophtera brumata
This unassuming little moth has a suitably unassuming little name. It is known as the Winter Moth. It is one of the geometers, or what is referred to as inchworms in North America, because the larvae seem to measure out the earth as they move inch by inch. The Winter Moth, Operophtera brumata, has internal antifreeze to help it survive the cold The Winter Moth is not to be confused with the November nor the December Moth. It flies at the opposite end of the season to most other moths – October to December and sometimes into January and even February. It is unlikely to ever cross paths with the Spring Usher, the May o...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - November 9, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs

Nudist Snow Buntings
At this time of year, you might spot Snow Buntings pecking about the shingle and driftwood on a remote windswept beach, perhaps in north Norfolk or Dorset. One Studland birder tweeted earlier that this species has now reached their shores. The birds are apparently on the beach edge just north of the nudist beach… The twitter birder was at pains to point out to anyone who fancies seeing these birds that the nudist track is a “Wellies only track”. It’s worth adding that there’s also at least one nudist beach where you might see Snow Bunts in north Norfolk. I have no idea whether Wellies are al...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - November 8, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Birds Source Type: blogs

Emulating Alex Lifeson ’ s Rush guitar tone
Back in the day, I ran a series of Classic Chords for Lifeson, Hendrix, The Manics, Oasis, and many others. I attempted to emulate the various guitars of the artists highlighted so I could demo the chords more authentically. Anyway, with the advent of large language models, such as ChatGPT, there is now the option to utilise their training to find a better way to describe how to get a particular guitar tone. I asked ChatGPT to explain how I could emulate the guitar tone Alex Lifeson uses on one of my favourite Rush song’s Freewill, from their 1980 album Permanent Waves. That was the first tour on which I saw the band...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - November 4, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Classic Chords Music Source Type: blogs

Deathcap mushrooms – Amanita phalloides
What makes the death cap fungus (toadstool or mushroom), Amanita phalloides, so poisonous? Well, the primary toxin present in this fungus is alpha-amanitin. This chemical goes by the following systematic name, although you’re unlikely to see it spelled out in full in the news about the ongoing murder trial that’s in the Australian news at the moment: 2-[(1R,4S,8R,10S,13S,16S,34S)-34-[(2S)-2-Butanyl]-13-[(2R,3R)-3,4-dihydroxy-2-butanyl]-8,22-dihydroxy-27-oxido-2,5,11,14,30,33,36,39-octaoxo-27-thia-3,6,12,15,25,29,32,35,38-nonaazapentacyclo[14.12.11 .06,10.018,26.019,24]nonatriaconta-18(26),19,21,23-tetraen-4-yl]...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - November 2, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Chemistry Health and Medicine Source Type: blogs

A November, or a Pale November, or an Autumnal Moth! Who knows?
This is a November Moth…or a Pale November Moth…or maybe an Autumnal Moth…it’s definitely one of the Epirrita species of moth, but I, and almost nobody else could tell you for sure which from this photo. One of three possible moths, so we record it as Epirrita agg (aggregate) But, it’s is one of those moths that could be any of several different species. You cannot know for sure unless you’ve raised it from larvae and know for sure what species you had, or you’ve done DNA testing but that assumes someone has the genomics for the various species, or you’ve done what lepidopterists...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - October 31, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs

Moustached Reedlings – Bearded Tits
The Bearded Reedling, Panurus biarmicus, is the only known avian species in its genus. It was originally named the Bearded Tit because of its superficial resemblance to the Long-tailed Tit perhaps, but it is definitely not closely related to that bird nor any other tit. Female Bearded Reedlings lack the “beard of the males The odd thing though is that the “bearded” part of its name refers to the facial markings of the males. They have long, droopy-looking black patches either side of their bills, whimsically resembling male facial hair but perhaps sideburns or moustaches rather than a beard. I’ve no...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - October 30, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Birds Source Type: blogs

The Sciencebase musical Top Ten
The current Top Ten of my songs streamed from my BandCamp page 1 Ticking Clocks 2 No Footprints in the Sand 3 Easy come, easy go 4 Festival Friends (Cool as Folk) 5 No symphony for lovers 6 What we have become 7 The people we could be 8 Ebb and Flow 9 Dustbowl 10 Tideline Ticking Clocks – A sort of sequel to “She’s Leaving Home” No Footprints in the Sand – When there’s nobody on the beach Easy come, easy go – Argument for argument’s sake, laid-back funk rock Festival Friends (Cool as Folk) – Acoustic, fingerstyle instrumental No symphony for lovers – The Synaesthe...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - October 28, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Music Source Type: blogs

Audio birding
During the original covid lockdown, you might recall I mentioned an activity known as “noc migging“. Essentially, it’s birding at night with a microphone and a sound recording device. You record the sounds of birds passing overhead, many birds migrate at night, and then process the recording to pluck out the sounds of our feathered friends for identification. Redwing You can do the ID by ear or you can use software that analyses the sonogram and selects out the bird calls from the background noise of foxes and deer, motorbikes, cars, and other sounds of the night, and then passes it to ID software. Brambl...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - October 27, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Birds Source Type: blogs

Mineral Moon
A quick glance at the moon in the night sky and you might imagine the surface is fifty shades of grey. But, take a photo, preferably with a telescope or a big zoom lens and you can process the image to bring out the colours in the surface. These colours essentially represent different regions of minerals scattering sunlight in different ways. So with just the right kind of enhancement you can create a geological map of the moon. I’d heard about this technique some time ago, but hadn’t given it much thought since. But, the moon was lovely and bright last night, waxing gibbous, not full, and I got a quick snap at...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - October 25, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Astronomy Photography Source Type: blogs

Blocking the babebots
Every single thing I tweet these days gets a like from a scam account on twitter. Commonly these accounts purport to be young women seeking a partner. There is usually an attractive photo of the protagonist and a header image showing a tropical beach scene. If one is unwitting, scrolling through the timeline will often reveal various NSFW images or perhaps just one of a woman’s chest clad in a skimpy item of clothing. Either way, I block them immediately. It seems pointless expending the effort to report them as these accounts are presumably being created automatically en masse or by some poor sap in a sweatshop. It...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - October 23, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs

Is a dog ’ s life monochrome?
Do dogs live in a black-and-white world? As a child, I remember my mother telling me something she learned when she was an eye nurse – dogs are colourblind. Now, if I remember rightly, she didn’t mean they could only see in black and white as research in the 1940s had suggested, but that they had limited receptivity to the full colour palate. They were red-green colourblind, like some boys and men. The issue came up after they tested us boys at school for colour blindness with those spotty number colour charts. The red colour of our lab’s collar would’ve looked grey to her However, proof that the ca...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - October 11, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Biology Source Type: blogs

Do dogs live in a black and white world?
As a child, I remember my mother telling me something she learned when she was an eye nurse – dogs are colourblind. Now, if I remember rightly, she didn’t mean they could only see in black and white as research in the 1940s had suggested, but that they had limited receptivity to the full colour palate. They were red-green colourblind, like some boys and men. The issue came up after they tested us boys at school for colour blindness with those spotty number colour charts. The red colour of our lab’s collar would’ve looked grey to her However, proof that the canine world isn’t monochrome didn...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - October 11, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Biology Source Type: blogs

The wonderfully marvellous Merveille du Jour
I saw my first Merveille du Jour (Griposia aprilina) in the autumn of 2019, a year after I started mothing. A couple have turned up to my 20W actinic Skinner trap in October 2023. I photographed the first without props, but this morning, despite my head cold, I cycled to the local woodland to forage for a few lichen-encrusted oak twigs and leaves for a more authentic photoshoot. The moth’s larvae feed on oak (Quercus) flowers and later leaves. Merveille du Jour moth on lichen-encrusted oak twig First appearances for Merv in our garden 2023 – 8th October 2022 – 22nd October 2021 – No show 2020 –...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - October 9, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs

A bullseye for a Deep-brown Dart
Is this a Northern Deep-brown Dart, Aporophyla lueneburgensis or just a Deep-brown Dart, A. lutulenta? Nobody seems to be able to decide definitively, there’s a taxonomic debate raging among lepidopterists. Some record keepers will allow “aggregate”, others accept only the latter for the UK…it’s all very confusing. I’ve only been mothing since 2018, after all. (Northern) Deep-brown Dart? Moreover, some experts cannot decide whether they are two species or one, where either or both lives, and even whether the Northern one is actually predominant in the South. That said, there do seem to b...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - October 3, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs