Erik Paterson

Evolution v.s. Creationism

  The following blog WILL upset some people, if you are 'some people' leave now. Alternatively feel free to read on but if you're offended you can't complain because I just warned you – understood?

   Evolution is the process of natural selection whereby the fittest, best equipped member of a given species passes their genes on to the next generation, as each generation with the trait progresses, it becomes stronger and the organisms with said genes are more likely to survive and pass them on to the next generation. This process may result in the emergence of a new species that is better equipped to an environment than it's ancestors.

Types ofevolution:

Divergent: Organisms of the same species which evolve apart, forming new separate species.

Parallel: Organisms not directly related which follow the same evolutionary path reaching the same solution to an identical 'issue'.

Convergent: Organisms of 2 or more separate species evolving one or more of the same traits in order to conquer the same natural issue.

   Convergent evolution can sadly be used by religious people to justify their belief in the existence of a superior being or 'God' – primarily, the Creationists.  They can justify their belief that God created all beings equal by stating that the organisms who look the same or carry the same traits yet are in no way related must have been created by an omniscient being. To have been created equal and perfect, these beings, so similar, so perfectly suited to their environments MUST have been created by someone or something. For example, take the Dendrobatidae and Mantellidae Frogs, small Frogs from South America & Madagascar respectively, each species has evolved to have climbing toe pads, bright colours, deadly poisons in the skin and rarely exceed 2 inches, they have evolved separately yet they are virtually identical and both ideally suited to living in their similar Rainforest habitats.

   On this note however you could argue that as both Madagascar and South America were part of Africa at one time that these small Frogs were probably at one point closely related, but as the continents shifted and they moved apart, they continued to evolve in the same manner, inhabiting virtually the same environments and being at one time related, we can assume that they are likely to remain similar, although through generations of breeding within a small, secluded population, as genetic differences emerged these likely became prevalent very quickly - due to the sheer lack of genetic diversity.  This is, of course, purely hypothetical, I've never actually read anypapers on the convergent evolution of Dendrobatids and Mantellids.

   This fact, in theory, disproves that they were created perfect by a supreme being but were instead subject to a process of natural selection, change and evolution.  Some creationists though argue that there IS evolution, and the only reason organisms are subject to evolution is because Man sinned and was punished with free will, subsequently man has altered the Planet, it is no longer perfect as it was created by God and so God has had to change his organisms in order for them to survive on Man's broken Earth.

   Mind you, they do believe that Dinosaur bones are there to test your faith so I guess there is just no way to win against blind unquestioning faith...  I myself believe in evolution fully and do not worship any supreme being, however I have nothing against those who do, this is not a dig at creationism, simply something I found myself thinking about and now, writing.

   So there you go, if you find my logic questionable do please let me know, if you find my logic offensive then again, do please let me know I'm open to criticism.

   - Erik.

This clutch has been a bad one, I know who laid it and I know who she was mated too but I totally forgot when, and even forgot about the clutch for a while!

I made a rough guess that it should hatch on November 25th so, given that it pipped today (Nov. 23rd) not a bad guess.

Unfortunately, of the 7 eggs that were laid, only 2 remain (probably my fault. )

Anyways, here's what I reckon is a nice pic.

The 1 other remaining egg has still to pip so there will be photos added to this as it hatches etc.

  - Erik.

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Edit: 1 egg hatched (24/11/09)

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Edit #2: The second egg has hatched (morning of 25/11/09)

that makes 2/7 - not great odds but 2 is better than none for sure!

cheers,

Erik

I can NOT get any good photos of Lapwing.

I've been going to the James Hamilton heritage Loch a lot recently where a flock of Lapwing roost over the Winter.  Every time I go, the light fades or they fly away, so very, very irritating.  I just had to rant.

They are very pretty little birds indeed, although very scared of people (or maybe it is just me)

Anyways a couple of photos from the last few Trips.

First trip: ISO 100, 16.9x digital zoom.  TOO DARK! argh.

Second Trip: ISOmax 800, 16.9x Digital Zoom.  Flash activated and, whilst it is unclear here, there is eye shine (also slightly out of focus.)

Third Trip: ISO 200, 16.9x Digital Zoom.  Still a bit dark and blurry, BUT they are at least allowing me to get slightly closer.

I shall be continuing to go and TRYING to get decent photos of these cool little guys so I shall no doubt update this a few times.

 - Erik

This morning was my first friends of langlands Moss (FOLM) meeting, had a blast, although, please do excuse my lack of enthusiasm, i'm knackered!

The day started with a 6 am wake up, still dark!  Got up, and turned on the PC, checked my emails and got showered, by 10AM I was at the Moss meeting the guys from the FOLM team, all nice people!  Colin, George, Richard & myself headed over the board walk and on to the Moss, our duties for the day were to move the material used to build the dams to where they were to be used and, if we managed that quick enough, we'd put in some dams.  With a 3 hour time limit, we thought we would manage.  the material consists primarily of 3 meter long, 5mm thick corrugated plastic sheets which weigh a lot, and when you're carrying those around a half a kilometer on rough, marshy land - it takes it out of you.  Together We hauled a good 15 of those up to the desired spots for dams.

Now, I should explain WHY we need dams in the Bog.  The bog has long irrigation channels throughout it to keep water in the peat.  These need to be dammed at regular intervals to ensure that the water floods out in to the marsh keeping the ecosystem working.  They also maintain a high water level needed to sustain the marshy ecosystem. (That is a VERY basic explanation.)

So, we moved all the plastic up to the desired areas and realised we had used 2 and a half of our 3 hour time limit.  Time to head home, without managing to put in any Dams, saving that for Thursday ;).

Was a good day, saw a lot of Snipe flying off as we crossed the marsh (lifer for me), even saw a couple of Frogs, an adult and some juveniles.  Buzzard flying around overhead too, I think it sensed the fact I was ready to keel over! haha.

Anyways, apologies for this rather short blog, I had a good day today.

Below: The irrigation channel for the bog, this is the one we were working on today, photo taken from the Board Walk.

October 22nd 2009 - 'A Lifer or Two!'

 Chilly morning today, but quite sunny.  I decided to go out and get a bit of field herping in, it's October though and i'm in Scotland - nothing cold blooded would be outside in it's right mind!  There was plenty of Bird life though so I decided to have a go at filming some of them, I was an amateur Ornithologist once afterall...

Bit rusty to start off with I must say, i'm used to staring at the ground looking for frogs, suddenly there were trees and skies and everything! lol

 So I headed down to Langland's Moss towards one of the 'Rotten Calders' many meanders and was about to set up my tripod when what do I hear?  The familiar sound of a Buzzard calling overhead, not all too common to see Buzzards on the outskirts of East Kilbride but I wasn't about to argue with it huh?  The chap landed on top of a telephone pole so I adjusted my position in the hopes to get a good bit of footage, and I did, about 5 seconds of it and he was off.  He and a second Buzzard did continue to hover around over the Langlands Industrial Estate so I managed to get some (very) shaky footage of that.

 Shortly after, I decided to move on in hopes to spot some of the smaller birds I often see in Spring & Summer, Warblers and Blue Tits etc.  Should have realized though that the Buzzards had scared a lot of the other birds in to hiding.  I continued to follow the path along where I came accross a bright red, hairy Caterpillar, quite a nice looking beast although I wouldn't touch him!

 Stopped by the Calder and played about with my tripod trying to get some shots of the area when I noticed 2 'Blackbirds' fighting in the trees, the backlight made it all look like silhouettes though.  Never mind, I decided to climb on up and try to get a better look when out from beside me flew 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, what a thrill, I had never seen a real life Woodpecker before let alone two, should have thought they would have been around the more dense woodland of Calderglen but I was still so happy, I quickly set up my tripod and tried to get photographs but these Birds are so much smaller than I had expected, and really very fast too, unfortunately, they dissapeared throughout the small group of trees and I never got any photographs.

 It was shortly after this that I got the call to go home, annoyingly as I was leaving not only did I spot a little Bullfinch but one of the Woodpeckers, I toyed with the idea of hanging around but by this time I was knackered from all the climbing etc so called it a day.  So there you go, my first blog post about the first time I saw a Woodpecker.

 Here is the Video from the Day

 - Erik