The Juncos are Gone

Our juncos left for the Canada (or the Appalachians) last week. They are frequent visitors to our bird feeder here in central Maryland during the winter. It seemed that they did not all leave at the same time…but within just a few days. There were the usual number one day…the only one or two the next…then none at all.

They are only here in the winter and then go to their breeding grounds for the late spring and summer. They overlap with the chipping sparrows for a few weeks in the spring in Maryland – the sparrows coming north to Maryland for their breeding season. The birds are about the same size and do not share the bird feeder gracefully.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 8, 2017

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.

The Skeleton Revealed – Vertebrates! Did you know that the hood of the cobra is created by ribs?

How to Photograph an Orchid – Good ideas for photographing other flowers as well as orchids.

What happens when diagnosis is automated? – As there is more data to consider…as time is of the essence for treatment…automation becomes more important in medicine. An article about the state of the art and the technology.

Deer Culled from Civil War Battlefield Parks Provide 8 Tons of Venison for Food Banks – The parks are in western Maryland (Antietam, Monocacy and Catoctin). Like the area where I life in Central Maryland there is an overabundance of deer. Catoctin has conducted deer management efforts since 2010 and has seen a return of native tree and shrub seedlings.

Our aging scientific workforce raises concern – The aging of the science and engineering workforce is aging more rapidly than the general workforce as a whole --- what impact will that have?

Pinkies up! A local tea movement is brewing – Tea grown in the US!

Hair testing shows high prevalence of new psychoactive substance use -Testing hair samples to detect usage of psychoactive substances by nightclub/festival attendees…and finding a about 25% are using…many unknowingly. Scary finding.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #81 – Two favorites in this set: the American Kestrel and Sandhill Cranes (with babies)

Brave New World of Nanotechnology – It is surprising how little is understood (yet) about the impact of nanoparticles in our environment – at a time when they are becoming more and more prevalent.

Teacher resignation letters paint bleak picture of US education – Teachers writing about what they see as a broken education system. I hope this analysis from Michigan State University will be factored into actions that can make a difference for children in the US.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 1, 2017

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.

Articles on women in STEM, March 2016-2017 (Women’s History Month) – A collection of links to articles that examine gender (in)equality and (in)equality in science.

Embrace Spring with Pictures of Japan’s Cherry Blossoms –  From National Geographic.

Carbon Dioxide emissions are flat for a third year running, but the economy continues to grow – Economic growth doesn’t require an increase in greenhouse gases! The US actually had a 3% reduction in emissions in 2016 and a 1.6% growth in the economy.

20+ Stunning Nature Tunnels – From around the world. The main street in my neighborhood seems like a tunnel with the trees meeting overhead during the summer.

Top 25 wild bird photographs of the week # 80 – Which one is your favorite in this set of bird pictures? Mine is the red-tailed hawk about mid-way through although the green heron is a close second.

World Tuberculosis Day – 1.8 million people died from tuberculosis in 2015. Article and infographic from Compound Interest.

Target Ruin & Ballroom Cave – A hike with young children in Bears Ears National Monument.

How noisy is your neighborhood? – Read the story then check out the interactive version of the map here. If you live in the US – zoom in on an area you are familiar with. Where I live is light orange because of the airport noise.

Rare ‘Super Bloom” Bursts California Desert to Life with Vibrant Wildflowers – A little rain…and the desert blooms.

Plant Evolution & Pollinator Type Much More Intimately Associated Than Supposed – What does it matter that the Earth is losing bumble bees? The article talks about one of the implications.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 25, 2017

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.

Un-sweetened: How a Maryland County Cut Soda Sales Without a Soda Tax – A story from the county where I live…how soda sales were reduced by 20%...fruit drinks by 15% --- via TV, outdoor advertising, social media, health care professionals and a new local law that promotes access to healthier food and drink options on local government property (such as vending machines at parks and other government buildings).

The biggest energy challenged facing humanity – One point that this article makes: in the future, some appliances (like dish washers) will run when electricity is most available/least expensive. I already have that situation with my Prius Prime – I charges in the middle of the night when electricity from our utility is at the lowest rate. If I had solar panels on my house….I would charge it on sunny days!

Painting the National Parks with Wildflowers – Spring is a great time to get out and explore not just national parks…but local natural areas at well. Finding wildflowers is the joy of spring!

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #78 and #79 – Lots of great bird pictures. My favorite in the first set is the kingfisher with the tadpole. In the second set, I like the spotted owlet peeking out from the trunk of a tree

Picturing Birds at Risk – More birds….these are ones that were once common in the US…but have declined dramatically recently.

Should we manage for rare species or species diversity – The challenges of managing ecosystems…species diversity and ecological resilience can be counter to management for rare or conservation species.

The controversial plan to tunnel beneath Stonehenge – Not directly under….but close…and new discoveries around Stonehenge extend the area of the ancient site. It becomes a complicated project!

Twelve Famous Female Chemists – An Infographic that came out for International Women’s Day. How many of these women have you heard of?

1.7 Million Children Died Every Year from Unhealthy Environments, WHO Reports – “A polluted environment is a deadly one – particularly to young children.” 1 in 4 deaths that occur before the age of 5 are not related to environmental problems.

Are you pre-sick? and Do you need an annual checkup? – Both of these articles came out from Berkley Wellness recently. It is worth considering over checking… and then unnecessary treatment…when it comes to our health.

National Aviary – Pittsburgh

We got to the National Aviary in Pittsburgh just after it opened at 10 AM....early enough to find parking very easily in the aviary’s parking lot. It was a good outing on a cold day just as the Phipps Conservatory had been the day before. A few of the exhibits are birds in large cages or enclosures but most the birds are in open areas and sometimes they will walk right up to where you are standing on the walk. It makes taking pictures a lot easier.  I developed a strategy for causing my camera to autofocus on the bird rather than the wire mesh or smudged glass (pick birds further from the wire mesh, point the camera at something else that was about the distance to the bird…then go back to the bird). The snowy owl in the slide show below was photographed using that technique. All the birds were inside except for the snowy owl, bald eagle, and Andean Condor (near the end of the slide show).

Something l learned that surprised me was about penguin’s beaks. They get furrows in them starting at the part closest to the head and extending further toward the tip as they older. This is an old penguin!

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 11, 2017

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.

Making “Kate Tectonics” – A short video about the history of geology.

Melting Glaciers in Canada Now Major Contributor to Sea Level Rise  and Climate-driven permafrost thaw – It’s been so warm this winter in our area….and elsewhere as well.

Elite ‘Dynasty’ at Chaco Canyon Got Its Power from One Woman, DNA Shows – DNA analysis is having an impact on our understanding of prehistory. This is an example from Chaco Canyon.

How Tibetans survive life on the ‘roof of the world’ – The Tibetans manage survival in thinner are differently than the people of the Andean Altiplano.

Could you survive on just one food? – I wouldn’t want to…how boring. But is it interesting to think about the pluses and minuses of single foods. Potatoes turn out to be a viable choice – hence the Irish population boom that busted when the potato blight came along.

Waxwings really have wax wings – We don’t have enough berry producing plants in our neighborhood to attract these birds….wish we did.

Delivering on spider silk’s promise – I’ve been hearing about spider silk coming to the market (shoes, jackets) but it hasn’t happened yet and it may not except for specialty products where cost is not a key driver.

What you don’t know about the Vikings – An article with pictures from reenactments and artifacts – from National Geographic.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #77 – It’s been two years since the #76 was published…I hope they come out with more frequency. My favorite of this group is the Northern Pintail. I like the light on the wings…and the water droplets splattering from the feet.

What happens when a massive redwood tree falls – 10-12 coast redwoods have fallen at Muir Woods National Monument during past two months…lots of work for the trail crew…but also new forest homes in the now horizontal tree trunks.

Photographs through my Office Window – February 2017

Our February has been very mild so far – some cold mornings but generally warmer than usual – and not snow. The birds frequent both our bird bath and feeder. The cardinal likes the maple or sycamore.

The chickadee comes when it can get a drink or a few seeds when the juncos are not around.

The doves are sporting a sheen to their feathers.

I don’t see flickers every day but there was one that must have been very thirsty. It arrived and kept the juncos away from the bird bath --- and I had time to take some portraits. My favorite is the last one of this sequence that shows the feathers fluffed against the cold.

The red-tailed hawk is still around. I first saw him peering from the black walnut tree through the pine. He flew to another tree where I could only see his front and the beak; can you see him in the jumble of branches?

The blue jays are around every day. They have quite an attitude! The second picture shows the varying shades of blue and note the way the feather look on the top of the head (almost like scales).

Starlings don’t come around our deck very often – and I’m glad since they usually travel in flocks. Our feeder is squirrel proof…and apparently starling proof too since it closes down if too much weight is on it (2 or more starlings!).

I observed two different types of sparrows this month…didn’t realize it until I looked more closely at the pictures. The first was a house sparrow.

And the second was a white-throated sparrow which is only in our area during the winter. Note the yellow marking between the eye and beak.

The downy woodpecker comes for very short visits to our feeder. It finds most of what it needs in the forest behind our house.

February was a good month for birdwatching through my office window!

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 18, 2017

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.

Top 10 Winter Warriors – Wild life in winter. The ones I see most frequently are chickadees although most of the ones at my bird bath and feeder are Carolina rather than Black-capped.

When is a black bear actually a blue bear? – Black bears are not always black!

Dynamic Wildlife Duos -  Originally posted just before valentine’s day…liked the pictures.

Experts reveal hidden dangers behind supplements – Over the counter supplements advertised to treat obesity and erectile dysfunction problems were labelled as fully herbal but often included dangerous pharmaceutical ingredients that were not listed on the label…..which are often dangerous and can cause serious side effects. One example: Sibutramine (licensed as Reductil until 2010 when it was withdrawn across Europe and the US due to increased risk of heart attacks and strokes) was found in slimming supplements. These supplements are the 21^st century equivalent of snake oil (or maybe they are worse than snake oil).

National Park Service History eLibary Additions for February – Another online source for documents about National Parks!

A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 miles in the last two months – Stories keep coming about the giant crack in the Larsen C ice shelf. This one is from 2/7 and has a lot of good graphics and explanation.

20+ National Park Portraits Celebrating the Rainbow – Colored Lands in the US -  Beautiful images from the National Parks

New, long-lasting flow battery could run for more than a decade with minimum upkeep – If only half the new battery technology stories turn out to be true….the energy storage needed daily life could change dramatically over the next decade.

How to avoid falling for lieds and fake news and How to spot misleading health news – Two stories from BBC Future. With the easy flow of ‘stuff’ around the internet, the skills for determining validity of stories are more important than ever before.

Don’t call it wheat: an environmentally friendly grain takes root – Perennial grains…still needing further development but the potential to create a more sustainable way to produce our bread!

Conowingo – February 2017

We picked a cold sunny day to trek to Conowingo Fisherman’s Park last week. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center to bundle up: ski bibs and footwarmers inside hiking boots. When we got to the park we added a balaclava, hat, coat, and handwarmers inside gloves. The extra layers of warmth kept use reasonably comfortable. My nose got cold because I couldn’t pull the balaclava up over it without my glasses fogging up. The first think I noticed was that weren’t many birds about. There were icicles on the railing. The churning water creates just enough spray for them to form on the section closest to the dam.

I walked back toward the entrance to see the buds of the Paulownia that grows on the cliff side of the park. They are brown and velvety already. They are an invasive species in our area but this one does not seem to be propagating itself.

The gulls that were so plentiful last time were scarce…but the black vultures were around. They seem to like the view from the top of the dam.

There were very few eagles about (we’re spoiled because there are often so many of them). My husband got a few ‘in flight’ pictures. I decided to just watch the birds rather than trying to follow their flight with my camera.

As we were leaving there was an eagle in a tulip poplar tree on the cliff side. Its feathers were fluffed against the cold. He kept looking toward the river…and eventually flew off in that direction.

Photographs through my Office Window – January 2017

My office window continues to be a great vantage point for photography. The heated bird bath and a usually well supplied bird feeder attract quite a few birds. Some are occasional visitors (or I don’t catch them on their rounds very frequently): Chickadees,

House finches,

Starlings (the sun was just right to catch this bird’s coloring), and

A downy wood pecker (because of the chisel-like bill….otherwise it could be a Hairy Woodpecker).

The cardinals I see more often…but they seem to be more nervous than usual (perhaps because of the red-tailed hawk frequenting the forest behind out house).

The juncos I see all the time – they are the most frequent visitors to our deck.

The mourning doves have been arriving in larger groups this month. They look very fat on cold days when they have their feathers fluffed out.

We do have a hawk that comes to the edge of the forest. The blue jays usually make a big ruckus when it is in the area…making it easier to photograph.

The jays themselves seemed to enjoy the heated bird bath more than any other bird. The stop for water and then fly off to the maple or tulip poplar.

Yesterday we woke up to a dusting of snow (this has been a warm January with less snow than usual for our area). As soon as it was light enough I took some pictures of the bird bath (no bird tracks) and the feeder (a few tracks on the nearby railing.

An hour later – it was obvious that a lot of birds were out and about!

Centennial Park – January 2017

Late last week there was a sunny day…and I accompanied my husband to Centennial Park. He walked all the way around…I was busy taking pictures! The first subject was a red tailed hawk high in a tulip poplar tree. The angle wasn’t great – but the reddish tail feathers were a little visible in one of the pictures and the fluffing of the breast feathers was a good clue to how cold the day was.

There were Canadian Geese of course. They are always at Centennial. I experimented with different angles…reflections, near silhouettes, the awkwardness of the bird on land.

There were two types of diving ducks. Both are winter birds in Maryland. They are a challenge to photograph because the go completely under the water then pop back to the top for few seconds. The Buffleheads were on the other side of the lake from where I was…but the white on their heads make them easy to identify even in a blurred picture. The one on the left is a male; the right is a female….not enough of a side view to tell the one in the middle.

The other diving ducks on the lake were female ruddy ducks. Their tails are a stiff fan. I didn’t see any flipped upward but these ducks were actively feeding…only staying on top of the water for short periods of time.

I decided it was a little chilly to stay out longer so headed back to the car. Along the way, I tried a ‘looking up’ shot of small cones. I like the sharpness of the lines within the cones – light and shadow.

There is always something to photograph at Centennial Park!

Josey Ranch Lake – January 2017

I saw some of the same kinds of birds I saw back in February 2015 when I walked around the lake last week. It was cold --- and the wind made it feel colder. We did not dawdle but I did manage to take a few pictures. As if 2015: There were lots of Lesser Scaup (the first picture is of 3 males and 1 female) but they were all over the lake with their oddly shaped heads. These birds are only in Texas for the winter.

The Northern Shoveler is also a winter bird.

The swans were still around too. They stay on the lake all through the years.

This time I also noticed American Coots. All About Birds says they are in the area throughout the year but I don’t remember seeing as many of them as I did this year.

There were the Mallards too – another year round resident.

I spotted a Cormorant too.

Finally – the tail and back feathers on this duck seem to glow. It was such a gray day that the feathers stood out. There are also water droplets on the head and breast. I don’t know what kind of duck it is.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 7, 2017

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.

Shortest-possible tour of 49,603 sites from the National Register of Historic Places – Who knew there were that many? There is a 38 second movie to show the route for the whole US and then individual state maps. Take a look at your state!

The Scientist’s Year in Review – Links to the cover story and one news highlight for each of the 12 issues.

The Robotic Grocery Store of the Future is Here – Oh no! I enjoy grocery shopping….not sure I want this future. I particularly like picking my own fresh fruit and veggies from the bin.

2016 Year in Science – From Visionlearning. There could be others added…but here are 6 with a succinct description of each.

Vibrant Paintings of Colorful Fish Merged with Their Coral Environments – Eye candy!

Mining 24 hours a Day with Robots – Another example of automation that reduces the need for manpower. The mine where these huge self-driving trucks are used is in Australia….but it could soon be anywhere in the world.

The Best of Cool Green Science 2016: Birds and Birding Edition  and The Best of Cool Green Science 2016: From the Field Edition and The Best of Cool Green Science 2016: Celebrating Nature Near You – Three year end posts from The Nature Conservancy….with great pictures!

3-D Models Capture Endangered Species Before They Go Extinct – A few years ago I too an archaeology course (via Coursera) and they talked about capturing objects with 3-D techniques (notably merging multiple pictures of an object into a rotatable image). This project is doing it with living animals….with a “Beastcam.” There is a link to the slide show about 1/3 of the way through the article.