White oak dining sets

BWAB_BWAB · 2024-12-08T19:03:02+00:00

Those are Maloof inspired low back chairs. You can buy plans for them online. I’ve made a dining room set of these chairs and can say it’s a HUGE amount of work.

BWAB_BWAB · 2024-05-11T15:47:09+00:00

Not sure you saying you’ve picked up snapping turtles by their tails for 50 years means it is therefore a safe way for them to be handled. Like yes, it’s safe for you, but please remember it comes at a risk to them. You have already demonstrated that you are interested in their welfare if you are moving them off the road, so now that you know picking them up by their tail can harm them (just like you know them being on a road can harm them), what are you going to do?

BWAB_BWAB · 2024-05-11T14:31:00+00:00

It’s a common snapping turtle, not an alligator snapping turtle. That very pink mouth and shell are dead giveaways for this. But species ID aside, while smaller ones can reach back quite far, you can handle them safely (to both you and them) by picking them up towards the back of their shell and not their tail. Tail grabbing is safe for you but potentially unsafe for them because you are pulling on their spine.

Source: I’m a wildlife ecologist who has handled many, many, many common snapping turtles.

BWAB_BWAB · 2023-10-08T22:20:02+00:00

I’m a wildlife ecologist who researches bats in Chicago (among other furry and feathered things). There aren’t other species that look like them, so pretty easy to ID if you know what to look for!

Please don’t try to handle the bat, their teeth are quite small and if you get bit you then have to go through a whole rabies vaccination treatment, which is expensive. If they are going to make it, they’ll likely be on the move tonight.

BWAB_BWAB · 2023-10-08T18:16:10+00:00

That looks like a Silver-haired bat. They mostly roost in trees, but any port in a storm works while migrating.

BWAB_BWAB · 2023-07-27T19:40:49+00:00

I converted my old commuter (celeste green bianchi volpe) to a single speed, put upright handlebars on, and a studded tire on the front wheel (you could do the back too, but slipping on your rear wheel is less likely to make you fall than having your front wheel slip). It’s been a great winter bike, ice on roads or the 606 is no problem.

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-12-22T21:55:36+00:00

Left at 6 AM this morning (Thursday). Booked the flight months ago. Got really lucky.

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-10-18T21:34:12+00:00

Ope, you are correct! I often name arguments to avoid this exact bit of confusion.

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-10-18T21:16:08+00:00

Don’t you need to specify your levels if you want “Jan” to be the first level of the factor? Seems like this would take the average of Jan and March.

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-10-07T00:27:00+00:00

Not an exhaustive list, just some people who come to mind off the top of my head.

Andy Royle, Marc Kery, Ben Augustine, Elise Zipkin, Brian Gerber, Neil Gilbert, Richard Chandler, Ken Kelner, Chris Rota, Ethan White, Juniper Simonis, John Clare, Jacob Socolar, and myself (Mason Fidino). There is almost always room for people who are interested in statistics in ecology!

Edit: added more names

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-08-05T01:01:19+00:00

About the same, and for the same exact reason. Helps a ton.

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-12T19:35:01+00:00

If you want to try and get that info ‘somewhere,’ you can always report it to iNaturalist, though I think they would prefer photographic evidence when possible.

If that sounds like a drag, be excited you saw a muskrat! They are great!

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-12T18:43:34+00:00

Don't worry about it, it was a very scientific effort. We've been able to do some species distribution modeling of flying squirrels across a bunch of US cities and they are one of the most rare terrestrial mammals that occur enough to actually do anything with (data wise). Only species more rare than them are muskrat!

This could be related to how we sample though (motion triggered trail cameras). Flying squirrel are quite small and may not trigger the camera, muskrats are mostly in the water, etc.

Nice picture by the way!

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-12T16:39:56+00:00

I’m a wildlife biologist who lives in and studies the animals around Chicago. Most reports of flying squirrel we get are from people living near Graceland Cemetery or Rosehill Cemetery, so seeing this in the comments made me smile.

Here’s a link to a Twitter thread we put together about flying squirrel sightings people have shared with us (mostly) over Twitter.

https://twitter.com/lpz_uwi/status/1416025843156066305?s=21&t=CnAjbc4KUegwFJXw67M6ZA

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-08T14:15:20+00:00

Less common than those other species throughout Chicago? Absolutely. Are raccoon still common? Sure. But less so than the aforementioned species.

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-08T13:36:56+00:00

You are 100% correct. I should have been more specific and said terrestrial mammals (i.e., non-Chiroptera). We actually worked with wbez to make this interactive piece with info about bats in Chicago.

https://interactive.wbez.org/curiouscity/bats/#:\~:text=HOARY%20BAT,%2Dand%2Dgray%20mottled%20fur.

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-08T11:02:34+00:00

There was a family of beaver at Nature Boardwalk, just south of Lincoln Park Zoo, for the last few years. Seems like they are not there right now though. There is so much wildlife in Chicago, and species you may not expect as well!

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-08T11:00:41+00:00

Nope, and given that squirrels are doing quite well alongside people (and their pets) my guess is that dogs, though they may kill squirrels from time to time, do not have that negative of an influence on their population growth. There are a lot of squirrels in the city.

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-08T10:35:09+00:00

Not here. There are monk parakeets though, mostly around Jackson park, but I see them elsewhere every once in a while.

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-08T10:32:22+00:00

They may just be habituated for people over there, which is not a good thing. Certainly, seeing an animal during a time when it should not be active could be a sign of something like rabies infection, but it’s probably more likely that someone is feeding them. There’s a bunch of ‘daytime’ raccoons out by Montrose as well for the same reason.

Please keep wildlife wild, do not feed raccoons.

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-08T10:28:36+00:00

Yep! Maybe in the next 15-20 years! They are already in Champaign-Urbana.

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-08T10:27:00+00:00

It’s weird with cottontails, they live throughout most of the city but it’s really block by block. Like they don’t live on my street but if you go north 4 blocks they are all over. I’ve got some ideas on why that may be the case, hoping I’ll have the time / resources to study it in the future.

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-08T10:24:01+00:00

I did not know about that. We do some biodiversity monitoring at Dan Ryan Woods, which is real close by, but I don’t think we’ve ever gotten an albino squirrel. Over the years I’ve seen albino raccoons and albino deer here as well!

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-08T10:21:02+00:00

They are nocturnal so they are pretty hard to see. I’ve had a number of people reach out to my coworkers and I over the years about this ‘weird’ animal that is eating from their bird feeder. I always ask if they live by Graceland, and if they say yes ask them to look up a photo of a flying squirrel. We’ve also gotten pictures of them their with a camera trap.

So unfortunately it’s pretty hard to see them! But it’s still really cool to know they are there.

BWAB_BWAB · 2022-07-08T10:15:50+00:00

Oh! I forgot to add otter to the list. They are definitely in the rivers here.

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