Some Pictures By Stan Sung

The big news of the week: my sabbatical leave for this summer was approved by the Provost. So now I can devote most of my energies to research-related activities, including finishing the writing of various articles.

And I finally have a chance to process some pictures sent to me by Stan Sung from his visit to Alabama two weeks ago. The first is the two of us getting ready to enter Hillabee Creek in Tallapoosa County, AL (Stan on the left, me on the right):

The next photo is one that Stan was able to get by the good fortune of being in the right place at the right time. Stan and others in their tour group visited Collinsville, Alabama, two weeks ago to look for rainbow shiners, Notropis chrosomus. They certainly found them. The following photo shows a spawning aggregation, with the brilliantly colored males forming red streaks with hints of electric blue. These aggregations come and go for a few weeks before the breeding season peters out.

One of the more widely distributed shiners in the upper Mobile drainage is the tricolor shiner, Cyprinella trichroistia. Stan photographed one of his alpha males once he got back to California.

And who doesn't like tangerine darters, Percina aurantiaca? I was surprised when Stan sent me this picture because I didn't think he had been anywhere near the fish's range in east Tennessee. But this fish is on display at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. When in full color, male tangerines can look like escapees from a Max Ernst painting. This guy gives you a good idea of that intense coloration.