自然英语

什么是植物艺术？（一）

What is botanical art? （1）

Worldwide Day of Botanical Art celebrates botanical art from 25 countries around the world. At the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, artists will give talks and demonstrations. 

These range from Lucy Smith’s talk on the challenges of illustrating Kew’s rarest plants like Encephalartos woodii, to a discussion by Georita Harriot on her colour-mixing research exploring how to make a staggering 1,000 shades of green.

Botanical art captures the beauty of the natural world in all its intricate detail. It also has an important scientific function; producing images used by botanists to identify plants.

Even more than this, it is crucial in the documentation and conservation of species.

Many of the species that Lucy Smith has drawn are new to science, and her role in illustrating them is ‘so that they can be described to science’ and protected.

Botanical art is an umbrella term used to describe both scientific illustrations and botanical art, which can be defined slightly differently.

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怎么根据捡到的羽毛，找出是什么鸟掉下的？（二）

tips for identifying found feathers（2）

All of the large wing feathers, primaries and secondaries, curve back and down, and the outermost are strongly asymmetrical: The leading edge is narrower than the trailing edge, and the tip is angled. The inner wing feathers , secondaries, are also curved; the shaft is close to the center of the feather, and the tip is squarish.

The outer tail feathers, like the outer wing feathers, are asymmetrical with a narrow leading edge, and the shaft has a slight S-shaped curve. This shape changes gradually to the almost perfectly straight and symmetrical central tail feathers.

All of the body feathers are smaller, symmetrical, flexible, and rounded. They grow out from the body and curve back toward the tail. The size and length of the feathers varies greatly, from short and stiff feathers around the face and at the leading edge of the wing, to relatively long and flexible feathers on the flanks.

Using these simple guidelines of shape, you should be able to determine the placement of a feather, and then use color to narrow down the possible species., said  David Sibley, the author of The Sibley Guide to Birds.

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怎么根据捡到的羽毛，找出是什么鸟掉下的？（一）

tips for identifying found feathers（1）

Occasionally we run across loose feathers on the ground — sometimes a single feather, sometimes a bunch together , which usually marks the scene of a predator’s meal. Regardless of the situation, the same question always comes up: What species lost these feathers?

The best way to begin is to ignore color and instead study the shape of a feather. All birds share a similar structure, and simple rules will help you determine which part of the bird a feather is from. Knowing that, matching a feather’s color and pattern to a species becomes much easier.

Please note that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act makes it illegal to possess any feather or other part of a native, non-game species. If you find feathers on the ground, it’s OK to handle them, study them, and take photographs, but it is against the law to carry any away with you.

All feathers curve toward the tail, and if you find a feather that is essentially straight, it’s likely to be a tail feather. The largest and stiffest feathers are on the wings and tail, and each of them has a distinctive shape that will allow you to determine exactly which part of the wing or tail it’s from, and (just for fun) which side of the bird.

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用翅膀喝水的鸟

Drinking on the Wing

As a Tree Swallow swoops gracefully across a marsh, its long, slender wings glint a deep, iridescent blue. It glides close to the surface, tips its head down, and lightly skims the pond for a second with its beak open. Drinking – on the wing.

Many birds drink while standing: dipping their beaks into a pond or birdbath, taking a beakful, and then tossing their heads back to swallow the water. And most birds can’t pull off a daredevil, in-flight drink because they just aren’t built for it. Swallows are such virtuosos of flight that their skimming the pond almost looks like showing off. 

Drinking on the wing suits swallows best. They walk awkwardly on the ground on rather short legs, and their long wings are pretty cumbersome. So it’s far more efficient to grab a drink on the glide. This adaptation holds true for some other birds, too.  

 Common Nighthawks are much bigger than swallows, with a two-foot wingspan. They take their water in flight, too. While swifts, with an even longer-winged structure than swallows, have such short legs that they never land on the ground, and so a sip on the wing is all but essential.  

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保护珍稀爬行动物，前途光明（第二部分）

A brighter future for rare reptiles （Part 2）
 
It is the only UK lizard to lay eggs (oviparity), as both common lizards and slow worms give birth to live young.

“With their bright, exotic appearance these reptiles would look more at home in a desert or Mediterranean island, but in fact sand lizards are native to the UK. Sadly, their numbers have plummeted in recent decades and they are in desperate need of our help,” continues Coates.

The species occurs on heathland, and is limited to only a few colonies due to habitat loss and fragmentation – the UK has lost almost 80 per cent of its heathland since the start of the 1800s.

 “Habitat fragmentation - in the form of intervening roads or development – can be a real barrier for wildlife so reintroductions are a great way of putting native species back on suitable sites that they would be unable to reach on their own,” says Ralph Connolly, field officer and volunteer co-ordinator for ARC. “If you are lucky you may see the sand lizards basking on south-facing heather banks.”

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保护珍稀爬行动物，前途光明（第一部分）

A brighter future for rare reptiles （Part 1）
 
Sand lizards have been relocated to Farnham Heath nature reserve in a joint project by the RSPB and Amphibian and Reptile Conservation  .
The species was first reintroduced to the restored heathland at Farnham Heath in 2012 but a fire started by an illegal camper three years later destroyed some of the reserve.
The damage has since been repaired and the populations of rare wildlife species are being boosted by relocated individuals, including sand lizards and field crickets.
“In partnership with ARC, we are building a more resilient UK population, by boosting the numbers we have here at Farnham,” says warden Mike Coates.
“Over the past six years we’ve worked to restore and create the perfect heathland habitat for these amazing creatures and we hope this will allow numbers to continue to grow in the coming years.” 
The sand lizard is one of the six native species of reptile in the UK, and one of the three native lizard species.

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为什么灰林鸮不是每天晚上都叫？

Why don’t tawny owls call every night?

The familiar ‘hooo hu huhuhuhooo’ of the male tawny owl, which is often answered by the female’s ‘keewik’, is typically heard from late summer to February.

Tawny calling behaviour varies throughout the year, but is most pronounced in autumn, when owls are re-establishing their territories and newly independent youngsters are settling into their patches. The more neighbours an owl has, the more frequently it calls, particularly if those neighbours are new. This demonstrates that the owls can recognise other birds on the basis of their call structure.

Tawny calling is also influenced by other factors such as temperature and weather conditions. Some years ago, I conducted research into the behaviour using data collected by a network of 3,500 citizen scientists across the UK. I discovered that the birds were more likely to call on warmer evenings and when a greater proportion of the moon was visible (moon phase has been linked to activity in other nocturnal birds). The tawnies were less vocal on cloudy nights, and there were also strong seasonal patterns.

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蜘蛛是怎么吐丝的？

How do spiders make silk

Spider silk starts out in the silk glands as a watery gel of long protein chains, which is funnelled down a gradually tapering tube. As the tube narrows, coatings are applied to the mixture (to provide stickiness and water resistance, for example) before it emerges through tiny spigots (devices that control the flow of liquid) on the spider’s spinnerets.

The gel solidifies only when stretched, so rather than being squeezed out like toothpaste, it is pulled out by a motor-like valve in each spigot.

A battery of silk glands produces a wide array of fibres with different properties used for specific tasks – for instance, a dragline, snare, web support or egg case. 

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蝙蝠飞行时，靠什么导航的？

Some bats can travel very long distances when foraging and migrating between breeding and wintering grounds. A Nathusius’ pipistrelle recently flew more than 600km from Somerset to Holland, for instance, and several European species, such as the greater noctule, can cover more than 1,000km.

How bats safely navigate over these long distances used to be something of a mystery – vision and echolocation are less useful on long migration routes. We now know that bats, in common with many birds, insects and fish, can detect the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field, through iron oxide particles (magnetite) in their cells. This internal ‘compass sense’ is a vital navigation aid, but in order for it to be used effectively, it needs to be calibrated against other navigational cues.

Recent studies on greater mouse-eared bats have found that at sunset the animals use the pattern of polarised light as a clue, even when the sun is obscured by clouds. They are the first mammal species ever recorded to do this. However, how the bats detect the polarised light is as yet unknown. 

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鹿茸和牛角有什么区别？

Antlers are paired, branched structures that are made entirely from bone and are shed annually. Developing antlers have a high water and protein content and a soft, hair-like covering known as velvet, which comprises blood vessels and nerves. As a result of hormonal and environmental changes, the antler ossifies – the growing, spongy bone is converted into harder, thicker lamellar bone – before the velvet falls away altogether. Antlers are usually only present for a few months before being shed and, apart from reindeer, only occur in males.

Horns are unbranched, two-part structures with a bony core and covered by a keratin sheath (the same material found in human hair and nails), which grows from specialised hair follicles. Horns are a permanent feature and, in many species, grow continuously. Pronghorn antelopes are the exception among horned species, having branched, upright horns with a sheath that is shed annually.

Antlers and horns also have different functions. While antlers are mainly used for mate selection during the breeding season (either to attract females directly or to deter rival males through display or combat), horns are generally used for social dominance, territoriality and anti-predator interactions.

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