Diario de joekunk

I have just today, Sep 17 2024 seen a house sparrow with two albino flight feathers seen previously last fall/spring season ...

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/242270161 Sep 17, 2024

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/213657340 May 4, 2024

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/210760682 Apr 27, 2024

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/209333786 Apr 25, 2024

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/208750136 Apr 21,2024

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/206939098 Apr 09, 2024

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/205387357 Apr 04, 2024

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/205128324 Apr 02, 2024

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/204587825 Mar 30, 2024

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/185724365. Oct 1 2023

I took my first photo Oct 1 2023 and viewed the same bird regularly though not photographing it till spring 2024 when I wondered whether I would see the bird again or it might molt the feathers or the bird might be killed or move away. My wife said she saw it again just this past week but today I saw and photographed it again submitting it to iNat with its Sep 17, 2024 URL given above.

This now presents the possibility that the feathers may have grown anew from stem cells of two patches of somatic crossover cells that are now albino. I have not been able so far to find similar observations in the albino literature.

INTRODUCTION

Joe Kunkel participated in 27 NOAA Groundfish Surveys from 1998 to 2022 during which he served as Volunteer Scientist in sorting and analyzing bottom trawl hauls of marine organisms including vertebrates and invertebrates brought to the surface in 20 minute standard trawls in randomly chosen locations on the coastal waters of the Northeast USA and Canada. Joe primarily participated in legs III and IV which ranged from waters off NJ, LI, RI, CT, MA, ME USA and NB Canada. Images for those survey legs taken by Joe are found as links from the following link: Kunkel Fish and Aquatic Invert Site. Many, but not all, of the observations have been registered on iNaturalist and commented on by INat members to augment the original preliminary identifications made aboard ship.

METHODS

Volunteer Duties: Volunteer and NOAA professionals cooperated in processing trawls of organisms at about 100 randomly chosen sites where a 20 minute standard trawl was carried out. The catch was initially sorted into target species of the survey and off survey species to be just recorded/saved as environment food items to be identified.

Photography: While the Watch Chief him/herself would take images of particular specimens that were to be referred to NMFS specialists on-shore, Joe Kunkel took private images of specimens that crossed his experience on-board and often taken when he was off-duty and observing the activity of the other shift. He typically used a Nikon D40 camera with a 50 mm lens and occasionally closeup extenders.

Data Processing: Data from NMFS on the locations and geophysical properties of the trawl sites were available from the database of NMFS subsequent to its submission and processing on land.

I paid little attention to Bally Bugs, terrestrial Isopods, until I went on sabbatical to Linz Austria to study American Lobster cuticle in the lab of Sabine Hild at JKU Polymer Science Institute. The first thing we did after I arrived was go to Ulm Germany to a meeting of a group from Dusseldorf, Ulm and Linz working on Crustaceans. There I met Andreas Ziegler working on a variety of Isopods including some Woodlouse species, particularly on the storage of CaCO3 for cuticle construction. On coming back to the USA he asked that I look into finding a particular Isopod that lived in the USA Northwest coast under seaweed layered on ocean shoreline rocks. That lead to locating and imaging the Oregon Marine Pillbug https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/16378390 , which I did using my brother's hunting ability and his living in Seattle WA to find and photograph this Marine Pillbug.
Subsequently I have become more interested to learn the IDs of the woodlice in my own locale in Maine.
I found out that the three species of woodlice that I found in my yard associated with rotting wood are invasive species, the Common Shiny Woodlouse, The Common Rough Woodlouse and the Common Pill Woodlouse. Even the Common Sea Slater, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/16222338 , which is a coastal high tide rock denizen photographed by me in Downeast Maine, is an invasive species. Lesson: many common things are invasive due to not having their traditional natural enemies around.
These Isopod species are all of interest given their demonstrated storage and utilization of CaCO3 for cuticle construction. You can see some indications of that storage in superficial images of their cuticle surface. I will be checking that out using analytical approaches.