Gleanings of the Week Ending October 12, 2024

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.

Who Was Buried in Spain’s Megalithic Necropolis of Panoría? - More women than men were buried in Panoria, where human remains were interred in collective burials between 4,100 and 5,600 years ago.

On Navajo Lands, Ancient Ways Are Restoring the Parched Earth - Traditional rock and stick structures, similar to those used by Native peoples long before Europeans arrived on the continent, are not only delivering water to crops they are also restoring the watershed and those of neighbors, helping to sequester carbon, and reviving this high-desert ecosystem…. an opportunity to begin developing localized food economies.

Megadiverse flowering plant family on isolated islands – A high number of evolutionary events -- occurred in the aster family (daisies, sunflowers, and asters) within relatively short time periods on many islands worldwide.

Why is Mount Everest so big? New research highlights a rogue river – but deeper forces are at work - Everest is around 250m taller than the other great peaks of the Himalayas. It is also growing by about 2mm each year – roughly twice as fast as it has been growing on average over the long term. The Arun river’s course changed around 90,000 years ago, eroding away rock that was weighing Everest down – and the mountain has bounced up in response, by somewhere between 15 and 50m. However, the “fundamental cause” of the peak’s size is the tectonic processes that create mountains.

Researchers Grow an Extinct Plant From a 1,000-Year-Old Seed - Israeli researchers have grown the seed of a previously unknown species of flowering plant into a mature tree. In the late 1980s, archaeologists excavating caves in the northern Judean desert discovered a well-preserved but mysterious seed that had likely been carried there by animals. The seed could be dated to between 993 C.E. and 1202 C.E. and that it was a unique member of the commiphora family, a flowering plant known for its aromatic resins. Chemical analysis of the leaves shows an abundance of medical properties in the leaves, and its lack of fragrance matches descriptions of the tsori in the Bible.

Rare and Elusive Australian Bird, Once Thought Extinct for 100 Years, Discovered by Indigenous Rangers and Scientists – Night parrots are generally difficult to detect—a fact that has been long recorded in Indigenous culture. The elusive species creates tunnels and nests in dense spinifex bushes and emerges at night to forage for seeds.

5 things to know from this week’s big report on cannabis - A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine finds the disconnect between the states and the federal government is leading to fragmented policies, and risks to the public. 5 takeaways:

1. People consume cannabis more regularly than alcohol in the U.S.

2. Weed and vapes can be super potent and that’s not always disclosed

3. You can get psychoactive hemp products even in states where cannabis is illegal

4. Research on cannabis is stifled

5. Cannabis can be dangerous, but people hear more about its benefits than risks

Biodiversity Becoming a Top Priority - A survey of 300 landscape architects, designers, and landscape architecture educators in the U.S. found that 96 percent of landscape architects are familiar with the impacts of the biodiversity crisis. 45 percent have made biodiversity conservation a top priority of their practice and another 41 percent consider biodiversity as part of their organization’s environmental ethos.

Medical imaging breakthrough could transform cancer and arthritis diagnosis - A new hand-held scanner developed by University College London researchers can generate highly detailed 3D photoacoustic images in just seconds, paving the way for their use in a clinical setting for the first time and offering the potential for earlier disease diagnosis (cancer, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis). What a boon if this could become the new standard…avoiding waiting for an imaging appointment, having to sit still for a long time, and higher cost of current technology!

Incredible Winners of the 2024 Natural Landscape Photography Awards – Couldn’t resist this collection of beautiful images to finish off the gleanings for this week.

Wigeon at Nob Hill Greenbelt

I stopped at a neighborhood park in Carrollton TX on my way from my parents’ house where I had been cleaning up and my niece’s. It was the first foray to find other places that might be worthwhile visiting as alternatives to Josey Ranch. It was called the Nob Hill Greenbelt and included a Carrollton hike/bike trail along a stream (Furneaux Creek) that eventually feeds into the Elm Fork Trinity River…part of the network of greenways in Carrollton built as flood control.

The ponds were not as large as Josey Ranch. I only saw two bird species – a great egret (frequently seen at Josey Ranch) and American Wigeon – which I’ve seen at Josey Ranch but not consistently. Maybe they prefer this park instead…having the ponds to themselves!

Baby Bird in the Grass

The first sad event at our new house in Missouri was seeing a baby bird in the grass of our front yard. It seemed to want to stay cuddled down in the grass…kept looking toward the maple tree and calling; there was an answering call so maybe the nest where it had hatched was in that tree. It seemed too far from the tree to have simply fallen out of the nest. Maybe it did a glide from the high location in the tree and couldn’t return. Unfortunately – the baby was probably too young to survive away from the nest. We checked on it for about an hour and it didn’t budge. Eventually it would starve or be eaten be a predator.

There were too many leaves on the maple to see the nest properly but the blue marking on the wing of the young bird might indicate it was a blue jay. Hopefully some siblings did survive.

A Sharp-shinned Hawk

I spotted a hawk in our red maple tree…managed to take some pictures. My first ID was ‘Cooper’s Hawk’ but then when I looked at the pictures on a large monitor – I decided the head was too rounded….which skews the ID to ‘Sharp-Shinned.’

We see them occasionally in our yard, probably because we have two bird feeders and a bird bath. Once we took our feeders down for a few weeks to encourage the hawk to move on, but the environment is rich enough in the forest behind our neighborhood (the buffer area for the Middle Patuxent River is a wildlife corridor) that they are not frequent visitors anyway.  

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It was a beautiful bird in the morning light…feathers a bit fluffed in the cold….the red eye seeing all. The tree was a great place for the bird to observe the scene and for us to observe the bird! I took my pictures through a pane in the French door near our breakfast area…a lazy bit of birding on a cold morning.

Cape May Fall Festival

Friday through Sunday were three intense days of webinars from New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory (CMBO): the virtual Cape May Fall Festival We enjoyed their virtual festival last spring as well (posts for day 1, day 2); the organization tweaked a few things for this fall one that made it even better; I noticed the roving reporters out in the field and a little bit longer breaks. The days still started at 7 or 8 AM and ended at 5 or 6 (with one evening session after a 2-hour break). I learned to use the breaks to get up and move!

There is a lot of bird monitoring activity (Avalon Seawatch, Cape May Hawkwatch, and Morning Flight Songbirds) in the fall and the CMBO makes it easy to see the results with the buttons for Real-time Counts via Trektellen on their website(near the bottom of the page).

The weather was perfect for a big morning flight of songbirds on Saturday – 27,000 birds in 6 hours! See the Saturday results here – and check out other days going forward. There were huge numbers of warblers. The little bit larger songbirds that we saw (through the great work of the person filming the roving reporters) were Northern Flickers and Blue Jays (3,538 and 1,496 were counted for the morning). The songbirds migrate at night and are funneled down from points north to the Cape May Peninsula where most of them drop down for food and rest before continuing on – most of them working their way back to the north and west around Delaware Bay to then continue their southward migration.

The Hawkwatch also saw a lot of birds on Saturday (results here). These birds migrate during the day. There were 194 Cooper’s Hawks that came through.

The Avalon Seawatch had a bigger day on Sunday with over 1,000 (each) black scoters and double crested cormorants.

There were places featured in the talks and roving reports that we had seen in Spring 2019 (like South Cape May Meadows, Cape May Bird Observation Deck, Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area, CMBO’s Northwood Center) and then the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge which was new to us. So many places we would like to be!

There is a also a CMBO Monarch Monitoring Project that tags butterflies! Even though the large winter numbers of Monarchs in Mexico were found in 1975, it was not until 1998 when 7 of Cape May tagged butterflies were found there that the debate of where the east coast Monarchs migrated was finally settled. The results of the monitoring at Cape May are reported in a table on the website.

Virtual sessions are great for classroom type presentations too. At birding festivals, I tend to always opt for the field sessions, so this year of virtual festivals has been great for the classroom-based skill building. I particularly enjoyed learning more about raptor id (in flight), winter seabirds of New Jersey, ravens, other bird observatories (international), international birding tours, and the bird id game done by 3 NJ Audubon’s Young Birder Club members (wow….they have impressive id skills and are good at sharing their knowledge). The Cornell Lab of Ornithology provided the one evening session; I learned about Birds of the World (a new subscription based resource) and more about resources I already know about/use:

• Bird Academy

• eBird and Merlin

• Birdcast

One of the sessions brought up the topic of some birds eating Monarch butterflies and seemingly not suffering any effects. My husband and I remembered that we saw that on at a previous birding festival…and I looked back through my blog posts to find out where and when and what kind of bird. It was Couch’s Kingbird on Nov. 11, 2017 and I posted about it on Nov. 27th. It was at a woodlot on South Padre Island, Texas during the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. I have two of my pictures from that event below. It’s always great to savor the memories of previous sessions an realize how much we seen/learned over the past few years of birding festivals.

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Another prompt to think about personal history that was brought up in one of the sessions: What was your ‘spark’ bird (i.e. the one that got you interested in birds)? I tried to think back to birds that I remember from early in my life. Northern Cardinal is one – definitely. They were around in Wichita Falls, Texas….and stand out in any landscape because of their color. I remember some coloring pages from 1st or 2nd grade of various bird species and learning about Baltimore Orioles…but not seeing one until I was over 60 years old! Why didn’t the curriculum feature birds that we were more likely to see where we lived? I also remember being thrilled to see a Roseate Spoonbill the first time I went to Florida for a space shuttle launch in the 1980s; I’m not sure when I first learned about the bird but it was one that I knew when I first saw it in the field.

Overall – the Cape May Fall Festival was 3 days well spent. My husband also ordered the t-shirt for me since it is red ---- a good color for me. We ware looking forward to future festivals that we can enjoy in the field…but learned a lot and enjoyed this one. Kudos to the CMBO for doing this!

Tracks in the Snow

Last week we got a little bit of snow. It was an easy snow to deal with: less than an inch, pavement warm enough to melt it. There was no delayed opening for schools or cancelled events. It was pretty on the surface of our deck and the grass in the yard. The juncos were out at our feeder and in the snow. I took some pictures of their tracks on the deck floor. Some areas had been so heavily used that the tracks were overlapping – showing the density of bird traffic for the whole morning. The tracks look a lot like the theropod (dinosaur) tracks I used as a Zentangle pattern with the summer campers! The campers were quick to tell me that birds are our ‘living dinosaurs.’

Of course, I made my own print in the snow when I went out to take the photographs.

By the end of the day, all the snow and footprints had melted away. Maybe the next time it snows there will be enough to make snow ice cream.

Blue Jay at the Birdbath

I was pleased to see a Blue Jay at our bird bath. Back in July, my husband I had found blue jay feathers to the side of our house and we didn’t see or hear them for several weeks. A week or so ago, we started hearing them again and then one came to the birdbath! I liked this picture because it shows the wing feathers so nicely…the blue with white bars on the flight feather, the more down-like feathers covering the top of the wing and the neck.

This week is at the Howard County Conservancy Camps is about flight and I’m going to bring this picture and the feathers for the campers to look at closely….flight feathers up close. It’s a great supplement to the rest of the activity I have planned.

Red-Tailed Hawk

I had a busy June and July…just catching up with some of the things that happened. One was a flurry related to a red-railed hawk in State College, Pennsylvania. We were coming back from dinner the day before the finally packing up and cleaning out of my daughter’s apartment – heading off to Springfield, Missouri.

As we turned into the apartment parking lot a large bird flew low just over the car toward the base of a tree. There was a lot of noise in the underbrush….and the hawk came up empty. The squirrel escaped into a nearby tree and the hawk sat on the ground for almost a minute – seemingly befuddled.

The bird flew up to a light pole and sat long enough for me to get my camera out and take a picture. It still looks a little scruffy (and maybe frustrated) from the encounter!

My daughter had told me about the red-tails she had heard and observed frequently from her apartment window in State College…and I was thrilled to see one in action.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 6, 2019

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.

Older forests resist change, climate change, that is -- ScienceDaily  - A study from the University of Vermont. But there are a lot of other changes in the forest too – the advent of non-native diseases like emerald ash borer and the explosion of deer populations so that there is a lot less understory in the forest (and few young trees). Is the net still that old forests resist change more effectively than younger ones?

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: June – National Geographic Society Newsroom – The always beautiful series of bird pictures.

Expanding the temperature range of lithium-ion batteries ScienceDaily – I’ve noticed the battery in my Prius Prime does not last for as many miles in the winter as it does in the summer. It’s one of the issues I want improved before I buy my next EV.

Chattanooga Becomes First U.S. Airport to Run Entirely on Solar – YaleEnvironment360 – Congrats to Chattanooga on this milestone. Evidently the first airport to do it was Cochin International in Kerala, India which went 100% solar powered in 2015. I’ve noticed a lot of US airports have fields of solar arrays…but maybe they haven’t also installed batteries to make the airport 100% solar powered.

You Can Now Tour the Tunnels Beneath Rome’s Baths of Caracalla – Smithsonian – A little Roman history linked to a place where tons of wood were burned per day to keep the fires going so that the caldarium would have hot water…where 18.5 gallons of water per second were consumed…copper tanks and lead pipes.

Timed release of turmeric stops cancer cell growth – ScienceDaily – Part of the search for gentler treatments for children with osteosarcoma.

A Tale of Contrasting Rift Valley Lakes – NASA Earth Observatory – Lake Tanganyika and Lake Rukwa as viewed from NASA’s Aqua satellite.  Deep and shallow. Salty and fresh. Brown and Blue.

Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument: Holding History in Your Hand – National Parks Traveler – I had to look up where Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument is located. It’s in the panhandle of Texas, north of Amarillo. I might go someday…on the way to somewhere else. The route would probably pass through the small western Oklahoma town where I was born.

Grand Canyon will soon be a dark sky park – Smithsonian – The park service has retrofitted lights to make it happen. This could be a good reason to camp in this national park!

What does the dust in your home mean for your health? – The Conversation – Thought provoking post. About one third of the ‘dust’ is created inside by ourselves and our pets, food debris, fibers from carpet/fabrics, particles from cooking plus chemicals like flame retardants. Are they toxic? There is ongoing research. Re outdoor sources – lead is the one of most concern.

Mockingbird at Belmont

We don’t have a resident mockingbird near our house (the trees are too thick now that the neighborhood is 25+ years old), but I see them every time I got to Belmont. Northern Mockingbirds are year-round residents in Maryland. They pick up ‘songs’ from their environment – most of the time other birdsongs but it can be any noise.

I got to Belmont early on a couple of field trip days to take pictures of a bird in the nature place space. It could have been the same bird both days…or not. The space is surrounded by a meadow so plenty of opportunity for the mockingbird to spot insects for a tasty snack or meal. There are plenty of trees and vines with small fruits that develop over the summer surrounding the meadow to feed the mockingbirds into fall and winter. This is prime habitat for the birds.

See the the mockingbird slide show below – the bird enjoying the morning…before the buses arrived.

Rookery at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School

The rookery in the middle of Dallas – on the campus of UT Southwestern Medical School – is busy this time of year. I was there a little over a week ago and the egrets (mostly Great Egrets but some Snowy Egrets as well) were numerous and somewhat acclimated to people watching them. When we first arrived, there was a Great Egret on the ground retrieving a stick to enlarge the nest. And then we looked up in the trees and saw a lot of birds. I noticed the trees from the window of one of the nearby medical buildings where I’d taken my mother for a doctor’s appoint on a rainy day earlier in the week…and the birds were big enough to be noticeable from across the street. I’d worked in the area early in my career (about 45 years ago now!) and there had been lots of talk of cutting down the trees to expand the medical school; the protests back then saved the birds’ nesting area. The rookery has probably been there since the levies were built along the Trinity River and the trees cut down between the levies. The location of the rookery is not far outside the levies and has been active since the 1940s at least.

There is a lot of bird interaction. I took this series that shows how spiky the feathers on the head can look. Were these Great Egrets having an argument over nest configuration?

Preening is also important for all the gorgeous breeding plumage.

There are Snowy Egrets around too – yellow around the eyes and yellow ‘socks’ on their feet. They are smaller than the Great Egrets but the distinctive features are easy to spot as well. They seemed relatively calmer than the bigger birds on the day I was there.

The Great Egrets provided the best portrait opportunities – with the tree and then zoomed in to almost fill the frame.

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Sometimes they sit at the very top of the tree. Are they in sentinel mode when they do? Or maybe they are getting ready to fly out above the traffic and medical buildings and levy…to the river in search of fish for lunch. Soon the eggs will hatch, and the adults will be busy finding enough to feed the chicks.

There is a small parking area on Campus (off UT Southwestern Drive) and a paved walkway back to a memorial area with a bench – perfect for people that want to enjoy the birds but not walk very far. There is also a loop mulch path that I’ll try next time I am in Dallas in the springtime. There are a lot of birds there from March through May…and some year-round residents. But the egrets – Great and Snow are the most numerous of the birds this time of year.

Through the window….a flicker

With the leaves falling off the trees, it’s easier to see and photograph birds. Last weekend a female Northern Flicker (yellow-shafted) flew into our maple and I managed to get my camera fast enough to take two pictures through my office window. My computer glasses do work so well through the camera viewfinder, so I relied on the camera to focus. The bird turned slightly to show off the red blaze on the back of the head.

I don’t see these birds as frequently as our resident cardinals although the flickers might be here all year. They are hard to spot in foliage and grasses. I’m always thrilled to see them around.

Birding through a Window – March 2018

I was out and about more during March than earlier in the year so I wasn’t around to see birds through my office window as much. I did catch the birds that seem to always bee around: the blue jays,

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The cardinals,

The mourning doves,

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The juncos (they’ll be leaving for their nesting grounds in the north soon),

The titmouse, and

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The Carolina wren.

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There are the ones I see less often – so continue to view them as special:

the pileated woodpecker and

The northern flicker.

There seemed to be more flocks of birds in the yard and around the feeder/bath: cowbirds,

Crows,

Grackles,

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Starlings, and

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Robins of course (I always associate springtime and flocks of robins coming through…some staying for the season and others continuing northward).

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All in all – a good number of birds around in March through high winds and snow….the swings of temperature. It’s been a wild weather month.

Cormorant at Conowingo

We didn’t see as many cormorants as eagles last weekend at Conowingo – but we saw one just as it caught a fish and then focus on swallowing it over the next 3-4 minutes. The fish was probably the maximize size the bird could swallow! But it finally did…letting the river move it downstream as it got the meal down. The last picture shows it moving upstream. Surely it wasn’t ready for another fish!

We didn’t see any Great Blue Herons last weekend. They are probably around but very focused on keeping their eggs warm. This is the time of year that both herons and eagles would be laying eggs and incubating them. I saw an article about one of the eaglets in a nest near Washington DC had already hatched.

I almost always take a picture of the Paulownia tree near the parking lot. The velvety buds have not opened yet. I noticed a larger tree near the water than I had not noticed before. It’s harder to photograph but I might try next time.

Birding through a window – August 2017

Last month, I posted about an America goldfinch that perched on the window frame outside my office. And it’s a goldfinch again for August’s ‘through a window’ post. This male is already in the process changing to winter plumage. He has patches of gray on his head and neck and there are tufts of feathers that the bird was moving around on both sides – like they itched. It was not exactly symmetrical but maybe molting never is.

As the leaf cover of the trees gets thinner, there is always less protection from predators so the drabber winter plumage helps the bird survive. No need for him to stand out when it’s not breeding season!