Posts Tagged: Santa Claus
A Visit with Santa Claus on Christmas Morning
Christmas morning and the sights are bright. Santa came in his sleigh last night. He came with a whoosh and a ho-ho-ho. He came with a monarch and a no-no-no. "Don't let them get extinct," he said with a shout. And that's what endangered species are all about. (Read what the...
Santa Claus greets a monarch, which scientists say may be heading for extinction. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
2020: The COVID Chase
In the year 2020, COVID chased us out of our work places and out of our fun places. So we dutifully covered our faces to cover all the bases, washed our hands to meet all the demands, and kept our distance to continue our existence. But wait...we did NOT socially distance from the...
A honey bee buzzing in a patch of catmint. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Gulf Fritillary fluttering toward its host plant, passionflower vine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A praying mantis eating its prey, a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Top Secret: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Is Really a Praying Mantis
Sorry, contrary to popular opinion and Western lore, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is NOT a reindeer. He's a mantis. A masked mantis. And Santa Claus does not DRIVE a sleigh. The jolly ol' gent RIDES a mantis. A masked mantis. Take it from UC Davis Department of Entomology...
Giddy-up! Santa, being the jolly ol' gent he is, drives The Red-Nosed Mantis in front of the Davis home of entomologists Robert and Lynn Kimsey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. (Photo by Lynn Kimsey)
This praying mantis, photographed in Vacaville, Calif., waits to ambush prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What, Santa Didn't Bring You a Tarantula for Christmas?
Doesn't Santa give everyone a Mexican redknee tarantula for Christmas? Oh, you didn't get yours? Well, Delsin Russell, 9, of Vacaville, did, and he and his mother journeyed Saturday, Jan. 12 to the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on the University of California, Davis, campus, to show it...
Mexican redknee tarantula, the new project of 9-year-old Delsin Russell of Vacaville. Santa delivered the much-wanted gift on Christmas Eve. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Delsin Russell of Vacaville, then 8, attended an open house last August at the Bohart Museum of Entomology with his mother, Beth. Here they chat with Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and professor of entomology at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Real Reason Why Santa Is Hurrying Down the Chimney
So, hurry down the chimney, tonight! So goes a line from "Santa Baby." The songwriters (J. Javits, P. Springer and T. Springer) listed all the good presents they wanted Santa to bring: a sable, a '54 convertible (light blue, please!), a yacht, a duplex and a deed to a platinum mine. The late...
Rooftop beekeeping on the San Francisco Chronicle roof. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Queen Turner, head of beekeeping in Botswana's Ministry of Agriculture, holds a frame on the San Francisco Chronicle rooftop. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)