Gleanings of the Week Ending April 22, 2023

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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.

Home Electrification Incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act – Now to decide what to do first….

How mobile phones have changed our brains – Some research about the impact phones have on our focus.

Drug overdose fatalities among U.S. older adults has quadrupled over 20 years, research finds – Overdose is a problem across the lifespan. Most deaths are unintentional.

Macro Photography Captures the Delicate Dance of Mantises in Malaysia – Wonders of the insect world. We have mantises in North America…but not as colorful as these Malaysian species.

A Plateau in the Heart of Texas – The Edwards Plateau…one of the geologic features of Texas that makes for scenic drives.

The Shaman’s Secrets – A 9,000-year-old burial of 2 people (one adult, one very young child) with 100s of ritual objects. The grave was first excavated in the 1930s…and assumptions were made…the adult was a man, blond hair, blue eyes. But modern analysis tells a different and more complete story.

Winter Rains Bring Mushroom Boom in California – Extra rain….and there are a lot more mushrooms!

Protecting Nēnē, The Threatened State Bird of Hawai'i – We didn’t see in nēnē when we went to Volcanoes National Park in 2015….it was good to see pictures of them.

Want to Improve Your Outdoor Recreation? Try Birding. – Yes! It has certainly been true for my husband and me. There are so many good resources about birding (festivals, birding trails, apps)!

A must-see sunset spectacle at Monument Valley – Wow! We visited in 2013 at midday. Next time I’ll plan to go in late March or mid-September…and stay until sunset.

Older adults with dementia but without close family: Who are they? And who cares for them? – Thought provoking.

Zooming – November 2022

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18 images in the slide show for November – less skewed toward botanical subjects than recent months. Outings to Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, Springfield Conservation Nature Center and Josey Ranch Lake increased my opportunity to photograph wildlife. It was good to see winter and migrating birds…more of those in coming months (probably).

Enjoy the November slide show!

Springfield Conservation Nature Center

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A few days after the first hard frosts of the year in Springfield MO, we took a short hike on the Springfield Conservation Nature Center trails. The morning was cool and sunny – a near perfect fall day to be outdoors. The forest was full of color. One surprise: there seemed to be more green leaves on the ground than usual; perhaps the trees were caught by the frost before they could change color.

We spotted a young turtle sunning on a log…warming up.

A larger turtle climbed up on the same log. It went back in the water rather than joining the smaller one.

There were ducks preening/snoozing on a log in the water. Their legs and webbed feet looked very bright in the morning sun.

I couldn’t resist some macro images of late flowers…a few insects…even at caterpillar!

Our last ‘find’ of the morning was in the parking lot as we were getting ready to leave: a praying mantis making its way across the asphalt!

A morning well spent….

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 18, 2021

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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.

Young female black bears in Asheville, North Carolina, are big, have cubs early – More research needed…it’s still not known what is causing them to be so much bigger and mature early…or if the population is increasing or not. It is clear that there are quite a few bears and lots of opportunity for interactions between people and bears – many not healthy for the bears.

The alarming risks of mixing common drugs – It is a problem that is acute in most elderly patients with good medical care. Their various doctors have gradually built up the medications…and the regime to take them all appropriately becomes daunting. Hopefully it will become best practice to constantly review and minimize drugs that are prescribed.

Work Of First African American Painter With International Reputation Explored – Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937)

Hummingbirds can smell their way out of danger – I was thinking a lot about hummingbirds this past week after my success photographing one at Brookside Gardens.

Praying Mantis – I see these more frequently in the fall…but not every fall. There are so many mantis egg cases, there should be plenty to see; I need to improve my observation skills.

How much energy do we need to achieve a decent life for all? – The most important take away from this study: “energy for eradicating poverty does not pose a threat for mitigating climate change.” That is good news

The lost generation of ancient trees – The ancients are dying….and there are not enough trees old enough to replace them. There are various ways being tried to veteranize younger trees so they can play the role of ancient trees in ecosystems.

Fall Armyworms are Attacking Lawns and Crops on an ‘Unprecedented’ Scale – Hmmm…maybe this is a prompt to reduce or eliminate the grassy portion of the yard.

Mammoth Cave National Park: The World's Longest Cave Is Longer Than Before - 8 more miles mapped bringing the total to 420 miles!

Hand pollination of crops is of major importance – I was surprised that hand pollination is already used for important crops like apple, palm oil and cocoa.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 19, 2020

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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.

Asphalt adds to air pollution, especially on hot, sunny days -- ScienceDaily – Evidently, it’s not just fresh asphalt that pollutes air. In cities, pollution from asphalt is significant enough that it needs to be considered in efforts to reduce pollution. Because it is usually dark in color it also contributes to the heat island effect in cities.

The Peopling of South America | The Scientist Magazine® - Sites along both coasts of the continent…analyzed with modern technologies…teasing out more information about the waves of migration.

The fate of antiques and heirlooms in a disposable age - BBC Future – As we come more conscious of the impact of our lifestyle on the environment….maybe durability of our possessions becomes more important again.

Researchers identify five types of cat owner -- ScienceDaily – In this study…the types are defined in terms of their attitudes toward their pets’ roaming and hunting: conscientious caretakers, concerned protectors, tolerant guardians, laissez-faire guardians, and freedom defenders. My husband and I are in the 1st category although there is a component of the second in our attitude as well. We keep our elderly cat indoors or on the screen enclosed deck.

Think Pigeons Are Boring? Not These Birds – From around the world.

How we sleep today may forecast when Alzheimer's disease begins -- ScienceDaily – The study indicates that the amount of deep sleep (i.e. non-REM slow-wave sleep) is predictive of how restorative sleep is for the brain (as measured by the build up (or not) of beta-amyloid plaques). They haven’t yet done the next step: improving sleep quality and observing the impact on beta-amyloid plaques.

Botanical gardens - where nature meets science and society – A short history of botanical gardens of Europe.

Some of America's favorite produce crops may need to get a move on by 2045 -- ScienceDaily – A third of veggies and two thirds of fruits/nuts consumed in the US are grown in California. In 20 years, climate change will make much of the area hotter and drier. The study looked at 5 crops (lettuce, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, and cantaloupe) that make up 64% of California’s cash value of veggies/melons. In the future, cool season crops (like broccoli and lettuce) will be grown not just in fall and spring…but in the winter too. It will be too warm to continue growing tomatoes during the summer as that they are grown now and it could be challenging to find a 4 month period where the temperature is in a good range for tomatoes. The main message of the study is that planning needs to be done now to maintain food production in the US.

Eat, Prey, Love: Fast Facts on the Remarkable Praying Mantis – Mantises are fascinating insects. I listened to a video  recently about hummingbirds from one of the birding festivals that talked about mantises sometimes eating hummingbirds!

Playfulness can be trained - here's why you should do it -- ScienceDaily – Applying interventions of positive psychology to playfulness. It appeals to me that the study is coming out now when we have so many people in awkward situations trying to stay healthy. Increasing playfulness was found to improve mood!

Chinese Mantis Egg Cases

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Update: This blog post is about a visit to Robinson early in March. Like all Howard County Recreation and Parks facilities it is closed today as part of the strategy to slow the spread of COVID-19. Check the county web site for more information.

The dried grasses near the entrance of Robinson Nature Center seem to have a lot of mantis egg cases. They are easy to spot this time of year when the plants are dried and shriveled. The egg cases themselves look a bit like dried foam – about the same color as the grasses. But their shape is distinctive. It’s a Chinese Mantis egg case. The three egg cases I photographed were within a few yards of each other! There are going to be a lot of little mantises looking for food in that garden this spring since each egg case has 100s of eggs.

The species is not native, but it has been around in the US a long time. It was introduced in 1896 to the US and is now throughout the Northeast. It is the largest mantis in North America. It eats mostly other insects and spiders but has also been known to eat small reptiles, amphibians and even hummingbirds. I saw one eating a tiger swallowtail (dark morph) butterfly last July at Brookside Gardens

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Hike at Mt Pleasant

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A couple of weeks ago – I went on a hike with fellow volunteers at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant. We hiked on some of newer trails that avoid the muddy areas that had developed on some of the older trails in recent years. We headed down toward Hodge Podge Lodge. The stream nearby was frozen, but the Christmas ferns still provided a bit of greenery along the banks. It’s easy to see the stream with so much of the undergrowth in winter mode.

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Some old logs always seem to have new shelf fungus.

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The new trail passed a stand of large black cherry trees – with beautiful bark.

As we walked through an area planted with native trees in the past few years – we spotted some egg cases of mantises.

I always enjoy photographing seed pods too. The dogbane pod (to the right) must have popped open recently….the puff od seeds to be carried away on the next breezy day. The Queen Anne’s Lace seeds have already been distributed.

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There are some non-native grasses that probably started out as ornamentals in someone’s yard….and the seeds somehow got to the meadow.

Finally, we came to the area that I wanted to check for skunk cabbage. I noticed the frost on the plants along the stream.

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And then we saw the skunk cabbage. We’ve had some warm days and then it was in 20 and 30s again. The plants have overcome much of that; they can generate some heat with their chemical processes and draw themselves down into the muck when it gets cold.

But the big new things for me on the hike was skunk cabbage seeds! Most of the time the seeds are down in the muck, but we found some on the surface looking like some odd deer poop at first glance. I’m glad the stand of skunk cabbage is producing seeds…probably expanding.

Another good thing about the hike on a cold day is that the boggy places were frozen. We could hear the crackles of ice in the grass under our feet….and we didn’t come back with muddy boots! We looped around to an older portion of the trail and I saw the 2 logs that crossed the stream have now  rotted enough to clearly not be good ‘bridges.’

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As we made our way closer to the Nature Center, we talked about a stand of paw paws that are popular at least one week of the summer camp (for their fruits). I noticed some ferns that had dried in interesting shapes.

There was also a picked apart seed pod (maybe sycamore?) on a bed of oak leaves….a last picture before checking out the witch hazel before we went inside to get warm.

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Gleanings of the Week Ending October 6, 2018

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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.

BBC - Future - The recipes born from hardship – A little history…and food chemistry.

Fall Foliage: When, Why & How Vibrant Will Maple Leaves Be? – Cool Green Science – A little about the season. Unfortunately our September weather was just opposite of what it takes to get great leaf color from maples.

A mechanism of color pattern formation in ladybird beetles -- ScienceDaily – The Asian ladybird beetle… more that 200 color patterns…from a single gene.

Each Pigeon Painting by Adele Renault Shows the Bird's Overlooked Beauty – Some eye candy of a very common urban bird. Pigeons might be worth a closer look through a birding scope or camera with a big lens.

Praying Mantis Seen Hunting Fish for the First Time | Smart News | Smithsonian – In India…a large praying mantis ate a guppy.

A one-way street for salt -- ScienceDaily – How quinoa gets rid of the extra salt that it absorbs from saline soils.

My Penn’s Woods, Ever Changing – Cool Green Science – A little history about the forest in Pennsylvania (and Maryland too).

Life Thrives Within the Earth’s Crust – We know that there are a lot of living things in soils…but now we are discovering that deeper still – in rocks – there is life where previously we thought there was none. It’s a whole new area of biological research.

The surprising truth about loneliness – Some results from the BBC Loneliness Experiment.

The American Dream is Harder to Find in Some Neighborhoods – Look at the overall US map and read the article…then look at the Interactive: Explore the Opportunity Atlas to look at more detailed map locations.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 8, 2018

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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 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: The LBJs and Top 25 Wild Birds Photographs of the Week: The Cranes and Top 25 Wild Birds Photographs of the Week: Birds in Flowers – Birds and more birds…starting the gleanings off with images of fast moving wildlife!

Natural refrigerant replacements could reduce energy costs and conserve the environment: Implementing replacements of CFCs and HCFCs could help UN signatories to uphold international agreements on carbon emissions. -- ScienceDaily – One of the ways new technology could help sustain the planet.

BBC - Future - How to drink from the enormous lakes in the air – I was intrigued by the variety of ways to collect water from the air coming out of labs and into production. Some are for very poor and rural areas…but others might be popular for home owners that currently buy bottled water because they don’t trust their municipal water supply.

Cake Art Features Realistic Flowers Made from Buttercream Frosting – The decadence of it all….I’m not a big cake eater, but if I was this type of cake would be what I wanted for my birthday!

Ancient farmers spared us from glaciers but profoundly changed Earth’s climate -- ScienceDaily – The advent of farming altered the climate enough to avoid the beginning of an ice age as the Industrial Revolution when the burning of fossil fuels caused the further uptick we are today.  A quote from the article: “we have maybe stopped the major cycle of Earth’s climate and we are stuck in a warmer and warmer and warmer interglacial.”

Two studies that suggest that some common medical practices may not be as worthwhile as previously thought: Widespread use of statins in healthy older people to prevent heart disease not recommended in new study: Any protective effect was limited to those with type 2 diabetes aged between 75 and 84 -- ScienceDaily and Experts advise against routine testing for prostate cancer: But for those men who seek counsel from their physicians, shared decision making is essential -- ScienceDaily

Photo of the Week – September 6 | The Prairie Ecologist – The August installment of the author’s square meter photography project. The two praying mantis shots (Aargh…non-natives European and Asian).

BBC - Future - Five memory hacks to make you smarter – A post well-timed for the start of school!

Roman Basin Recovered from Germanic Grave in Holland - Archaeology Magazine – It is made of bronze and was found in pieces that were put back together. It’s an appealing shape…which the article would have given more information about its size.

Today’s College Students Aren’t Who You Think They Are: NPR – It’s good to see this. I’ve been hearing anecdotal reports from my daughter about college students at the universities where she has been/is. It’s good to see that her observations are wide-spread…that it’s the ‘new normal’ and services provided by institutes need to evolve to support these students.