Gleanings of the Week Ending July 9, 2016

The machines that run the internet – A short film.

A Murder of Crows: When Roosting Crows Come to Town – We don’t have large number of crows in our area – but we are seeing more than we were a few years ago when West Nile Virus killed so many of them.

Picky Eaters: Bumble Bees prefer plans with nutrient-rich pollen – The protein to lipid ratio makes a difference to bumble bees!

Ocean Acidification and Chemical Signaling – How ocean acidification impacts chemical signally of shell fish…an infographic about research on peptides that are involved in detecting predators, homing, and reproduction.

How one of history’s bloodiest wars eventually saved lives – By the end of World War I, combatant deaths has reached 10 million. Twice as many were injured. Post-traumatic stress disorder was recognized for the first time – called ‘shell shock.’ Blood transfusion, oxygen and treatment on the front lines became the norm. See some of the devices developed and used during that time period in this post or at the Wooded exhibition at London’s Science Museum.

Floating Solar: A Win-Win for Drought Stricken Lakes in the US – Will this idea become reality? It seems that in places where water is scarce that reducing evaporation and producing power at the same time would be a positive thing.

Humans artificially drive evolution of new species – Human drive extinction but also speed up evolution of new species as well. For example – a common house mosquito has evolved into a new species that thrives in subterranean environments – like subway stations; it can no longer interbreed with its above ground ancestor species.

Beyond Sightseeing: You’ll Love the Sound of America’s Best Parks – A project to record the (non-human) sounds of national parks.

Boosting potency of broccoli-related compound for age-related macular degeneration – Macular degeneration impacted the last few years of my grandmother’s life and I still notice articles about current research on prevention and/or remediation…. macular degeneration might happen to many of us as we get older.

Vanishing Act: Why Insects are declining and why it matters – Another example of the importance of biodiversity to our future…and the future of the planet.

Kenilworth Water Lilies

The two dominate plants at Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens during June and July are the water lilies and the lotuses. The sign for the visitor center has a water lily design. The flowers rest at almost the same level as the leaves very near the water surface while the lotuses are above the water – the leaves being a layer that flutters below the flowers that are higher still. I like photographing water lilies – particularly ones that have a lot of color and the background is dark enough to set off the color.

I always wonder what causes the plants to grow only in part of a pond. Perhaps it has to do with water depth.

During our visit in late June there were quite a few geese in one of the ponds that was filled completely with water lilies. They moved through the heavy foliage. They just swim through the foliage and the plants close behind the big birds. I zoomed in (series below) to get a closer look at the geese and noticed that some were juveniles – just beginning to get their adult markings.

As usual – I looked particularly to find flowers that be being visited by bees. Do you think these two bees are the same kind of bee? The lighting makes it hard to tell.

Dragonflies at Kenilworth Gardens

Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in June and July is my favorite place to practice photographing dragonflies. We’ve been twice so far this year and seen at least three different kinds. There are the ones that are powder blue with green eyes – their wings almost clear.

There are darker ones – that look almost black….and their eyes are glossy black.

Last but not least, are the ones with black and white markings on their wings. There were not as many specimens of this particular kind so I only got two pictures.

All of the swoop among the lotus flowers and buds – alighting long enough for photographers. I captured all the above pictures with my Canon PowerShot SX710 HS…. attached to a monopod. I wanted to capture some of them dragging their abdomens in the water laying eggs…but didn’t see any so far. There were some that were defending territory; there was some noisy mid-air collisions!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 2, 2016

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

8 Ways to Protect your Eyes if you stare at Screens All Day – You probably have heard of most of these before….but how many do you actually include in your day to day screen time? I just recently got computer glasses…now wish I would have done it years ago.

The Rabies Vaccine Backstory – A little bit of medical history for the week.

Ten simple rules to use statistics effectively – The report is intended for the research community – but it seems like just about everyone needs to understand these. We are bombarded by statistics at every turn…and many times they are coming from outside our area of expertise; we have to make a conscious decision about how ‘real’ what they reveal might be.

Are your pipes made of lead? Here’s a quick way to find out – With Flint, Michigan’s problems with lead in their water supply being in the news, why not do a quick check to see if the pipe bringing water into your house are made of lead?

CDC to Track Algal Blooms – Evidently algal blooms have become enough of a health hazard to warrant this step.

4,200-year-old Egyptian Temple Discovered to have Remarkably Well Preserved Artwork – Images of the same temple from several photographers. One show half the ceiling cleaned…half still covered with soot. I wondered if the soot actually served to protect some of the pigment from being scoured by sand over the years.

Journey Through the Largest Cave in the World – It’s a cave discovered in 2009 in Vietnam. There are sinkholes that allow light into parts of the cave…a jungle inside the cave.

No association between ‘bad cholesterol’ and elderly deaths – Systematic review of studies of over 68,000 people…questions about the benefits of statin drug treatments for them. Older people with high level of a certain type of cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein) actually live as long, and often longer, than their peers with low levels of this same cholesterol. This implies that what is true for cholesterol for young and middle-aged people is not for older people!

A virtual field trip to the Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland and Siccar Point, Scotland – Some online geology!

Hubble Images of Jupiter’s “Northern Lights” are Amazing! – Something new to know about Jupiter – it has a much stronger magnetic field than Earth…and Aurora’s along with it.

Zooming – June 2016

My favorite topics for zooming are the usual: birds, plants, and insects! Click on each of the six images to see a larger version. It was hard to top at six collages because there were so many images to clip. After I went overboard early in the week with the Mesa Verde post – I decided that 6 was enough already. The first image includes a house finch, sweet bay, iris, strawberry and peony.

Next comes a monarch butterfly, a poppy, a mourning dove, the center of a flower, and a thistle.

Then allium ball, the back of a flower and another center, and hydrangea growing on a rock wall.

Then an all-insect collage: a dragonfly, a monarch caterpillar, a bumble bee, a black swallowtail caterpillar and two butterflies.

Next is an all plant collage: castor beans, datura, day lily, canna.

Finally – a moth, two pictures of southern magnolia flowers (l like the curves of the petals around the forming seed pods), and an Asian dogwood.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – June 2016

June has been transition month – from the flurry of volunteer gigs for spring field trips to settling into summer.

A flock of gold finches were feeding on grass seeds in the meadow during one of the last field trips. The third graders and I just stood and celebrated the birds as they moved around us. There was an indigo bunting with them too.

Progress on cleaning out – I’ve had cleaning out boxes of keepsakes on my ‘to do’ list for quite a long time and am finally making progress that I can celebrate!

Dutch Apple Caramel Cheese Cake – This was a splurge at the Cheesecake Factory. I ate half with dinner and saved the rest for breakfast the next morning….2 celebrations in one piece of dessert. By the way – I discovered that the best way to do this is to request it in a ‘to go’ container from the beginning so every bit of caramel goody stays with the part you are going to eat!

Getting home from a long drive – I was so happy to get home from a 4-hour drive (2 hours longer than I had anticipated) that I celebrated! 

The CSA started the first week of June. I celebrate every week when I fill up my bag with veggies I know are going to turn into delicious meals.

Finding kitchen strainers in the $1 store – They came in package of 2 for $1 (celebrating the bargain!) and will work great when I volunteer for macroinvertebrate field trips in local streams/rivers.

Computer glasses – I finally got some and now wonder why I didn’t get them years ago. I’m celebrating them as a ‘gift to myself.’

Shopping for new flooring – My husband and I have been talking about replacing the flooring in our kitchen (first and then other rooms). I celebrated that we have finally started shopping….making progress toward getting the project done.

Finding Merrell sandals at the thrift store – I found a pair of gently worn Merrell sandals at the thrift store for $5. When I first saw them, I thought – “this is too good to be true, they won’t fit” – but they did! I celebrate the bargain every time I wear them!

A day at home – May and the first half of June were so busy that by the time I did get a few consecutive days at home …. It was something to celebrate. I love photographing birds and the day lilies opening….getting caught up on things that took a back seat when so many other things were going on.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 25, 2016

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

What the rising light pollution means for our health – Circadian disruption from ill-timed electrical lighting (particularly at night) may contribute to poor sleep, obesity, diabetes, certain cancers and mood disorders. The night time lights are shifting to LEDs in our cities which has the effect of shifting that lighting toward the blue wavelengths which are most disruptive to our circadian rhythms.

Vitamin D may not be the great solution to health problems – I remember when the testing for vitamin levels revealed that many people were low and doctors started recommending supplementation – sometimes megadoses of the vitamin. Now the results are being reviewed --- and it is obvious that it is not a panacea and may not be of very much benefit at all.

What if the coolest thing about a 21^st-century school wasn’t technology? – The results of a TED workshop on creating a new healthy school from scratch. What do you think of their ideas?

Lightning Strikes: How to Stay Safe – Hopefully most of these recommendations are familiar to you - we’ve been having a lot of thunderstorms recently so I took a look to refresh my knowledge.

Garlic mustard populations likely to decline – I hope this begins to happen soon in our area. Right now we seem to have a lot of this plant around our area of Maryland.

Ancient satellite busts massive gas storage leak, fracking could be next – I’ve always wondered how we could detect leaks more effectively – conserve our resources by reducing leakage – and maybe this is a solution! It’s another example of a NASA instrument (and satellite) working long after its original mission was complete.

Americans are getting heart-healthier: Coronary heart disease decreasing in the US – Hurray! The study compared 2001 and 2012. The prevalence of smoking decreased during that same time period although high blood pressure and abnormal cholesterol have not (although control rates have improved). Obesity and diabetes rates have increased significantly but overall control of glucose levels has improved significantly.

Meet an Artist with no Hands – A historical piece about Matthias Buchinger – but with discussion about how the brain accommodates physical challenges such as being born without hands and learning to use feet with exceptional skill.

Flow: What is it and how to find it – How much of your day is in “flow”? I think quite a lot of mine is. The key for me is realizing that I often have more choice in the way I want to be…the way I want to do everything.

Study offers explanation for why women leave engineering – I’m not surprised by the results of this study. I was at the peak of women graduating from computer science programs in the 1980s (mine was in a math department rather than engineering) and was surrounded by so many interesting projects early on that I didn’t get into a marginalized (or menial tasks) role until later when I was strong enough to recognize it and get out it on my own – back into a place I wanted to be.

Photographs through a Window – June 2016

The wildlife has been active at the bird feeder and bath on or deck this month. The squirrels empty the seed bowl so quickly that I am not filling it very often. They still come to sniff around periodically – looking for the small windfall from the birds dropping seeds to the deck as the feed at the squirrel-proof hanging feeder.

I like the chipmunks better and cheer when they find the seed first when I fill the bowl. I think the chipmunks have their home under our deck since I see them in that area almost every time I am in the back yard.

The gold finches made a few appearances.

But the house finches are the frequent visitors

As are the chipping sharrows.

I had to be quick to catch the Carolina Wren. This was one was looking for nesting materials so there may be a second brood starting.

There was an occasional white breasted nuthatch on the roof and at the feeder. They are easy to identify at the feeder because they almost always are head down – not on the usually perch.

Not filling the bowl means that the cardinals and the mourning doves don’t get seed as much either since they are too big for the feeder. That caused a particular problem for the cardinal parents. Their baby was very demanding. The male brought it to the deck under the feeder first.

He was looking frazzled from the constant begging by the time they flew away.

The female brought the young bird as well.

The chick was as big as the parents – looked bigger with the fluffiness of the down that had not been quite replaced with ‘grown up’ feathers.

Finally – the young bird appeared on his own under the feeder just yesterday. Do you think it is a male of female? It will become recognizable in the coming weeks. I’ll include the follow up pictures of the bird next month – assuming the young bird keeps coming to our deck.

Brookside Gardens – June 2016

I had guests over the past two weeks and Brookside Gardens is one of the places that just about everyone enjoys. We got their early enough to be part of the first group into the Wings of Fancy butterfly exhibit. The butterflies inside were pretty much the same as we saw in late May that that I posted about early this month. I did get to see caterpillars for the black swallowtail. I had them on parsley growing on my deck a few years back – so many of them that the parsley was demolished!

There were insects in the gardens that were active because the day was already warm: dragonflies like the garden rooms that include a water feature and

Bubble bees seem to be everywhere.

There was a mockingbird that made lots of noise from the pinnacle of a small tree.

Every bush in the rose garden seemed to be blooming.

I like the ones that seemed to glow from within in the bright sunlight.

A succulent has been planted in an urn where it was blooming and spilling over the side.

The early summer flowers were at every turn.

The tadpoles near the Tea Garden pavilion were huge – about 6 inches long. since the tail was still so long I wondered how long it would be before they made the transformation to frogs.

The native dogwoods are already done with blooming for the year but the Asian ones were still in bloom. I liked the soft pink of one so much that I took a lot of pictures of it. My three favorite images are below.

Milkweed Update

A few days ago the milkweed flowers were still only buds. Now they are blooming and the insects are very active around them. The smell very sweet to human noses too!

I have seen several types of bees – the very large bumble bees

And the smaller honey bees and native bees.

There are other insects as well – did you note the ant on the flower in the first picture?

There are bugs on the leaves too. The one I noticed yesterday – and identified via a web search – was a Pennsylvania leatherwing beetle or goldenrod soldier beetle. The yellow ovals on the ends of its legs are aphids!

Unfortunately – I can’t find any Monarch caterpillars. I hope we have some that hatch and survive when the Monarchs arrive from Mexico since the early ones seem to have all perished. I talked to a third grader that had been in a class where they tried to raise Monarch caterpillars this spring and she told me that most of their caterpillars died because they were infected with parasites…and that it seemed that the stripes of the ones that died early were more wiggly than straight (i.e. they looked different than the caterpillars that survived to make their chrysalis and eventual emerge as a healthy butterfly). I don’t have a large enough sample size for comparison but from now on I’m going to photograph every caterpillar I find so I can do some comparisons with photographs.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 18, 2016

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

How dirty is your air? – Based on this article – I am trying to get in the habit of turning on the vent fan when I am cooking….and opening some windows when the outdoors temperature is pleasant.

Serious Putty – A clay with antimicrobial properties…even against resistant strains! More research is needed – but it is exciting that this could be a totally different mechanism for fighting infection that the current antibiotics on the market.

Snow in Vietnam and Other New Climate Patterns Threaten Farmers – This is from the Business Report section of the MIT Technology Review. The article focuses on farmers in Vietnam in an area that got snow for the first time in their life time (and historically) last winter and how weather patterns are impacting their finally honed rhythm for crops. It would be interesting to hear stories from farmers around the world. Climate is changing globally – but not always in the same way.

Sunflower Spirals: Complexity Beyond the Fibonacci Sequence – The results of a crowd sourced look at sunflower spirals: 1 in 5 did not conform to the Fibonacci Sequence. Some of those non-conformers approximated it and others approximated more complex mathematical patterns! Either way – I like the look of sunflower spirals.

Genome Digest – Recent findings of genomic research on giraffes – carrots – zebrafish and gar – herring – Atlantic salmon. A lot has changed since I got my biology degree in the 1980s.

Seeing the Inevitable, companies begin to adapt to climate change – Most companies are aware that climate change is likely to affect their future but are not planning for it with any consistency or depth. Those furthest along are those already dealing with climate change on a daily basis: agriculture and insurance. Ikea and Ford are two companies used as examples in the article.

Tranquil Impressionist-Style Paintings Showcase Beauty of Natural Parks Around America – Eye candy for the week!

Life in the Dark – Photographs of sea and cave creatures that live their whole lives in the dark.

C40’s Executive Director Mark Watts on how mayors are changing the way we think about food – Area of focus are food: procurement, production, distribution, and waste.

Frog, Turtle Species Being Reintroduced to Yosemite Valley – The California red-legged frog (the largest native frog in the western US) and the western pond turtle are being reintroduced to lake, river and meadow habitats.

Monarch Caterpillars

Some milkweed came up in my front flowerbed. It is not the best looking plant around and my husband was lobbying to dig the plants out. I asked him to wait until I got out to photograph them since they were just getting ready to bloom.

Some of the leaves has been partially eaten…and I took a closer look. Sure enough – on the underside of the leave was a monarch caterpillar! The elementary schools in our area raised caterpillars in their third grade classrooms this year – and one of the resulting monarchs must have found its way to our milkweed. That clinched the decision to not dig out the plants at all.

Later I found another smaller caterpillar ---- and then I haven’t found them again in the past few days. Usually they are obvious as they get large because of the amount of the milkweed foliage they eat. Their food generally makes them unpalatable to predators but maybe something else has caused them a problem. We are still leaving the plants for other monarchs that reach our area….something we can do to help the population of Monarchs to increase.

Conowingo – June 2016

I stopped by Conowingo Dam on my way to Philadelphia. It was not a great day for birds. The water was low and the large number of birds we saw last time (probably many newly fledged Bald Eagles and Great Blue Herons) were foraging elsewhere. The picture of the point of rocks that always seems to attract at least one heron illustrates the low water (the white marks are how high the water is normally).

We saw a few eagles fishing. After I looked at one of my pictures on a larger screen, I realized there were more than I thought. Click on the image below to get a larger view of:

• 3 eagles on the abutments (a juvenile and adult on the closer one, an adult on the further one),
• 3 black vultures near the center of the picture, and
• 3 or 4 cormorants on the rocks in the lower right!

We took a few pictures and continued our road trip.

Last of the Spring Field Trips at Mt. Pleasant

It’s about time for the school year to end – even with the elongation due to snow days last winter. The last of the spring field trips scheduled for the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant Farm happened this past week. I took a few pictures before the last few hikes. Many of the formal plantings are blooming: peonies,

Flags, and

Sweet bay.

The gingko is shading the picnic area.

On one hike there was a flock of gold finch in the meadow….and an indigo bunting.

I took pictures of the milkweed plants in the meadow a few days later; they’re getting ready to bloom.

A little further down the path -  I spotted the first monarch I’ve seen this season. Is this one that flew from Mexico or released by the school children that are raised monarchs in their classroom? Maybe it doesn’t matter – because Mt Pleasant has milkweed for the butterfly to lay its eggs and for the Monarch caterpillars to eat.

Monjoy Barn gets a little shade in the mornings but by the time I came back with my hiking group it was in full sun.

The children enjoy seeing the orchard with the still-small apples (and pears too). In the fall, the fruit will be the size they see in the grocery store.

The tulip poplar is mostly done with flowering and the seed pods are beginning to form.

The trees around the farm house are in full summer green. Time for “school’s out for the summer.”

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 11, 2016

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

New Climate Spiral – A visualizing of average global temperatures. Do this little exercise with the graphic – if you live to be 100, how much hotter will the planet be than when you were born? For me – it is about 2 degrees…almost 3 degrees hotter than in 1850.

Climate change poses threat to World Heritage sites - Melting glaciers, rising seas, increasing wildfires and harsher droughts….these could diminish the value of protected sites and even make them unsuitable for World Heritage designation. That would have a domino effect into local economic development, in particular the tourism sector.

Bionic leaf turns sunlight into liquid fuel – And at a higher efficiency than the fastest-growing plants!

Washington grapples with a thorny question: What is a GMO anyway?  and Report: Still lots to learn about GE Crops – The terms GMO and GE are inadequate to describe the complexity of what is happening now. Both of the articles are about a recently released report on the situation.

What’s up with microbeads – Plastic microbeads cause long term health effects in our waterways (streams, rivers, lakes, oceans). There are US regulations that are being phased in over the next few years to require that manufactures no longer make products with microbeads but prior to that individual can stop purchasing the products. I’m going to check packaging to avoid products with microbeads; the key ‘ingredients’ to avoid are polyethylene, acrylate copolymer, and polypropylene.

Top 25 informative maps that teach us something uniquely different about the world – Displaying data by location makes for easy comparison. If you did not already know about the US and paid maternity leave – the map makes if very clear – not something to be proud of.

Teenage brain on social media – It’s always been true that teenagers are better at doing than not doing (i.e. inhibition develops more slowly than other forms of cognition). This study was about how that translates into the social media realm.

Antibiotics from scratch – Drug resistant bacteria are becoming more and more problematic. This research is a ‘bright spot’ in developing antibiotics to stay ahead. No one wants to go back to the time before antibiotics.

Arctic Foxes ‘grow’ their own gardens – From Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Image of the day: don’t eat me – Usually moths are rather drab – not this tiger moth!

Brookside Gardens at the end of May

The overabundance of rain we got in April and May caused the gardens to become lush very quickly as soon at the temperatures began to warm toward the end of May. There were people enjoying being outdoors before we went into the butterfly exhibit…and after we came out.

There were still some azaleas blooming although the peak of their season was well past.

The rhododendrons were full of blooms. I took a cluster through a veil of a cluster closer to the camera.

There were other flowers as well – in small trees.

Mixed with green foliage closer to the ground,

And vines (I think this was a morning glory just beginning to unfurl for the day).

Insects were beginning to make an appearance too. This leaf hopper was using a bridge railing as a highway to the next plant.

There was a moth perched on a poppy.

Sometimes – leaves are spectacular enough to catch attention: the color of these in the shade and sun – layers or

The combination of color and shape (I think these were leaves although I wonder what the flower will be like) or

Huge leaves uncurling (this one reminded me of a scroll with the bumps being writing).

Peonies were blooming the gardens near the exit from the butterfly exhibit. The plants were full of blooms…were lots of buds left to open too.

The alliums caught my attention as I turned to go. They often remind me of the large fireworks that burst into a ball of bright light. The big difference is size and the alliums are more durable!

Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy

Brookside Gardens’ annual butterfly and caterpillar exhibit is going on now - continuing until September 25th. It’s best to go as early as possible since the conservatory where the exhibit is housed is about 10 degrees warmer than the outdoors. It if gets above 100 in the conservatory, they often close the exhibit; the butterflied like the heat but people wilt quickly in the heat and humidity.

The caterpillar part of the exhibit is an entry way before the main exhibit. A volunteer is there to explain the exhibit and point out the caterpillars on the food plants. Can you find the cecropia moth caterpillar in the image below?

If not – I’ve circled it in this thumbnail.

Right after I entered the butterfly exhibit – a blue morpho settled for a bit on one of the walls. Usually they do not sit for long with their winds open like this so I felt lucky to get the picture right away. This one looked very battered – probably near the end of a relatively short life cycle of about 115 days.

The day was warm enough for all the butterflies to be active and one of them settled on my T-shirt; I got a picture before it flew off.

But it came back and landed on the hat I’d tied to the strap of my bag.

Another butterfly liked the back of my pants.

Enjoy the slide show of my photo picks from the rest of my walk around the conservatory. I’ll be going again every time we have guests from out of town this summer!

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 4, 2016

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Exposure to chemicals in plastic and fungicides may irreversibly weaken children’s teeth – Another reason to pay close attention to Bisphenol A (BPA) and Vinclozolin in diets of children. Based on this study – this is not something that fluoride treatments or supplements would overcome.

Identifying Wildflowers: part one, part two, part three, part four – From Elizabeth’s Wildflower Blog. This series include a lot of practical advice for identifying wildflowers in the field (and confirming after you get home). I’ve been following Elizabeth’s blog since I was in Master Naturalist class with her --- learning about wildflowers.

Language of Women versus men – An analysis of language in Facebook messages shows that women use language that is warmer and more agreeable than men. The graphic associated with the study is worth a look.

Mysterious Cave Rings show Neanderthals liked to build – And more than 1,000 feet into the cave where it would have been very dark.

Kazakhstan’s treasure trove of wildly-flavored apples – Forests where apple trees are the predominant species!

Tidal Troubles in the Mid-Atlantic – A place where the sea level is rising at a much faster rate than almost anywhere in the US (except parts of Louisiana and South Florida)…and an explanation that goes back to the last ice age which left the area with a ‘fore-bulge’ – so the land is sinking from that then the ocean is rising too! The net is a predicted sea level rise of 3 feet around much of the Mid-Atlantic by 2100.

Three perfectly blue days at Crater Lake National Park – I haven’t been to this national park – yet. This is an article to look at again when I finally get around to planning the trip.

Swarms of Octopus are taking over the oceans – Cephalopods as ‘weeds of the sea’!

The Cactus Smuggler: Are Desert Plants Being Loved to Extinction? – Not a good trend and very difficult to change.

Low-salt diets may not be beneficial after all – Evidently the prior recommendation for low-salt diets was not based on data – the old recommendation was ‘popular thought’ rather than based on objective evidence! High-salt is still bad….but average (between 3 and 4 grams per day) is best!

Learning Log – May 2016

Most of the learning I logged in May was experiential or in conversations with other people. I went to a lecture on wildflowers – the closest I came to a class. The speaker included a segment on buzz pollination, reinforcing what I already knew about it from my son-in-law about the topic. He also pointed out that the jack-in-the-pulpit flowers look the same from the outside but the male and female flowers are quite different inside – but one has to cut away the outer part of the flower to see the structures. Not something I would do!

One area of experiential learning in May was picking strawberries. Years ago when I picked strawberries, I did so on my knees so I was pleasantly surprised that the mounds of my CSA’s strawberry patch made it easier to just bend over to gather the fruit. I’m still enjoying the strawberries I picked.

The other big experience of the month was using the scanner – primarily for old slides, pictures and Zentangle tiles. I learned to use a can of compressed air to clean the dust off periodically and how to scan multiple items at a time (into separate images). I also raised the scanner on a stand so that I didn’t have to bend over slightly each time I loaded it.

There were a lot of factoids I picked up in conversations with other naturalists before field trip hikes:

• Carolina wrens build multiple nests and then the female chooses one (from a birder),
• Earthworms come to the surface during rains not because they are drowning but because they are migrating (from another naturalist that had been reading about it),
• How the ‘points’ of antlers are counted (from a chaperone of a hiking group),
• Inexpensive wire mesh kitchen strainers work great to capture macro-invertebrates in rivers and streams (from a leader of a field trip to the Patapsco River).

Zooming – May 2016

The zoomed images are more familiar things list month. See how many of them you recognize (click on the image to see an enlarged version of the collage).

Grackle and chives bud

Horse chestnut and paulownia (princess tree) flowers

Sweet bay bud, chives (further along their bloom cycle than the first image), tulip poplar flowers

Toad, lacewing, grass with heavy dew

Mourning doves, strawberries, iris flower