The 21st Century Matriarch

The weather was cold and mostly cloudy…but I headed to Josey Ranch for a nature fix – and to gain more experience with my new camera (Nikon Coolpix P950). The last time I visited was back in September, but I expected to see a lot of birds that are in Texas during for the winter. The pond between the library and the senior living complex was almost empty. I photographed a feather and a dandelion almost ready to bloom before I headed over to the other pond.

There were a lot of birds: American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Canada Geese, Greater Scaup, American Coot, and Ring-billed Gull (many immature).

There were pigeons and crows on the tall lights over the ball fields.

Surprisingly there were cormorants on the poles as well!

I headed back toward the larger pond and my car…noticing some mistletoe in a tree along the way.

There were a pair of Great Egrets that interacted and then flew away from each other. The breeding plumage is beginning to be obvious.

A group of mallards and domestic duck hybrids were on a small pond. One hybrid was mostly black but had a green head!

Back at the larger pond I saw sleeping Ruddy Ducks.

I got a better view of a cormorant on the pond. It seems to have some characteristics of a Double-Crested (bare skin in front of the eye) and the white line of the Neotropic. I read that there are instances of hybrids in the areas where the two species interact….and north Texas might be one of those places!

The cold and wind had me regretting wearing leggings rather than jeans….it was time to head back to the car.

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.

Massive Arecibo Telescope Collapses in Puerto Rico | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Very sad. It was already being decommissioned which was wrenching….but then the collapse meant that even the instruments that might have been usable elsewhere were destroyed. My husband spent some time at Arecibo during his graduate school studies in the 1970s.

What do slight arm movements reveal about our breathing and health? -- ScienceDaily – Evidently it works best during sleep when there is not a lot of other movement other than breathing!

Hegra, an Ancient City in Saudi Arabia Untouched for Millennia, Makes Its Public Debut | Travel | Smithsonian Magazine – Undisturbed for 2,000 years…once an international trade hub although most of the surviving structures are tombs…a few hundred miles to the south of Petra

Proterra Sells Its 1,000th Electric Bus and New Electric School Buses In Virginia & Massachusetts – Electric buses are very appealing…I’ve always hated the sooty exhaust from diesel buses. Buses operate in situations where many people (and children) are in close proximity, so removing buses as a source of city and school pollution would be a good step forward.

Glyphosate may affect human gut microbiota -- ScienceDaily – A bioinformatics tool to predict if a microbe is sensitive to glyphosate – in the soil…in the digestive system of animals. The compound, widely used as a herbicide, biochemically targets plants but the same pathway is also in bacteria.

Opinion: The Biological Function of Dreams | The Scientist Magazine® - Learning more about sleep…and REM sleep in particular.

The mystery of Siberia’s exploding craters - BBC Future – Gas emission craters. Studies have revealed a 3-5 year life cycle: a mound forms…rising several meters, the gas underneath explodes. They tend to form in areas where there is a thick layer of ice over permafrost…with some areas of unfrozen ground surrounded by permafrost…and very deep deposits of gas and oil. The big challenge has been to identify the source of the gas that builds up – because after the explosion it is already gone.

Forest fires, cars, power plants join list of risk factors for Alzheimer's disease: Airborne pollution implicated in amyloid plaques, UCSF-led study shows -- ScienceDaily and Air pollution spikes linked to lower test scores for Salt Lake County third graders -- ScienceDaily – Studies that show the impact of air pollution on humans….other reasons to step up the pace of the shift away from fossil fuels. Thinking positively – actions to address climate change tend to improve air quality.

Mistletoe: A Natural and Human History – A plant associated with the season! And there are other species of mistletoe from around the world.

Top 25 birds of the week: December 2020! - Wild Bird Revolution – Beautiful birds….at the end of the gleanings list for this week.