Gleanings of the Week Ending June 30, 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.

The Mysterious Demise of Africa’s Oldest Trees - Yale E360 – Baobab trees that are over 1000 years old are dying quickly…and there is not yet a definitive explanation.

History and Seaports in Charleston : Image of the Day – I visited Charlestown a few years ago on vacation…this picture from the International Space Station brought back memories and provided a different perspective of the place.

Top 25 Birds of Europe – National Geographic Blog – Last week it was Africa…this week it’s Europe.

New study examines impacts of fracking on water supplies worldwide - GeoSpace - AGU Blogosphere – Maps make it easy to look at complex data in a visual way. My take away from these maps of water supply and shale basin areas is that Texas has a lot of shale in areas that are already under water stress….fresh water is already being consumed unsustainably.

BBC - Future - Why non-smokers are getting lung cancer – I’ve wondered about non-smokers and lung cancer. The numbers are not huge…but they are often diagnosed late and are, therefore, more deadly.

Seventeenth-Century Danish Latrines Analyzed - Archaeology Magazine – Diet and parasites from more than 300 years ago.

Move Over, Monarchs: Another Butterfly Makes a Longer One-Way Migration - Yale E360 – Painted Lady Butterflies from southern Europe migrate across the Mediterranean through the Sahara to tropical Africa!

Discover Landscape Architecture Activity Books – THE DIRT – There are activity books for younger students and then teens/adults. I am reading the adult version and then will try to apply some of the activities when I travel…encourage new appreciation of the as-built landscape architecture of the places I visit.

2018 Lotus And Water Lily Festival At Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens – My husband and I don’t go to the festival but we do go the Kenilworth several times in July…expect lotus and water lily (and dragon fly) posts soon!

Lives before and after Stonehenge: An osteobiographical study of four prehistoric burials recently excavated from the Stonehenge World Heritage Site – Lifestyle rather than ethnicity seems to determine burial practices in this instance.

Texas Vegetation

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Dallas in June – hot and mostly dry. There is some native vegetation that thrives in the heat. Everything benefits from a little water. The red yucca has become more and more popular in recent decades. It looks delicate but is prolific enough to sometimes be used in public landscaping.

Crape myrtles need extra water but do well in the heat. I photographed a crape myrtle with white blooms in the early morning on the day the sprinklers watered the garden.

The desert willows are even more resilient to the heat and dryness since they are native to the desert southwest and have only recently become common in landscaping in Dallas.

The blue run juniper my parents planted year ago to fill in around the other plants in their front yard (replacing grass) is mature and full of blue ‘berries.’

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June is the peak of summer vegetation color in Texas!

Josey Ranch Lake – Other Birds

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I’ve posted about the herons and mallards at Josey Ranch Lake earlier this week. There were some other birds at the lake.

The grackles are probably the most numerous birds at the lake. I like to photograph the birds showing their attitude.

The next most numerous birds are pigeons. Most of them were on the roofs of the senior center or library – surveying the lake or grooming.

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A Great Egret was feeding in the shallows near the Great Blue Heron….the lake seems to have enough food to support quite a few birds.

I saw one swan. I wondered if something had happened to the others. In April I saw two and several times in previous years that have been 3 or more.

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Josey Ranch Lake - Mallards

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When I first got to Josey Ranch Lake, I thought I all I would see was Mallard Ducks and grackles! All the ducks I usually see when I visit Texas in the winter had gone north to their nesting grounds. When I looked closer at the Mallards, I realized that the ones that appeared to be napping in the shade were either molting males or juveniles just getting their adult plumage. I decided that they were probably juveniles – maybe the same ones I had seen as ducklings in April.

A pair of males on the lake also looked scruffy – probably juveniles getting their plumage.

Then I saw a female with a large number of mid-sized ducklings on the lake….probably the second group of the season. The lake is a good place for duck families evidently!

Josey Ranch Lake – Blue Herons

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I saw two types of blue herons at Josey Ranch Lake (along with green herons and a yellow crowned night heron…for a total of 4 different kinds of herons): little blue and great blue. Great Blue Herons are birds I see frequently in Maryland and in Texas. They are large beautiful birds…and I enjoy photographing them. There was one at Josey Ranch Lake – standing serene in the lake shallows.

The  Little Blue Heron is not a bird I see in Maryland, so I was thrilled to see one at Josey Ranch Lake. It was the first heron I saw when I arrived for my walk. It was fishing in the shallows near the senior center. The bird looked a little battered – had some feathered missing in its neck – but seemed healthy and finding edible tidbits in the water.

Josey Ranch Lake – Yellow Crowned Night Heron

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Another heron I saw at Josey Ranch Lank was  Yellow Crowned Night Heron. This heron is much larger than the green heron; in the image below the yellow crowned night heron is on the right and the green heron (adult) is on the left (a ball is in the center).

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Both herons were in the fallen reeds looking for breakfast and both found a crayfish. The pictures of the green heron catch were not clear enough to see the crayfish…but the shape and antennae or evident for the night heron’s catch.

This was a bid I had to look up in AllAboutBirds when I got back from my walk. I’d taken enough pictures from various angles to make the identification. It looked like a heron although the head looked more rounded that some of the other herons. The markings give it a different ‘facial expression’ as well – our minds always jump to that thinking, assigning a ‘personality’ to the bird that overlays assumptions made for our species onto the bird.

Josey Ranch Lake – Green Herons

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Josey Ranch Lake is near where my parents live in Carrollton, TX and I try to make a walk around it ever time I visit. This time I’ve been busy with other things but managed to get over one morning – and saw 4 kinds of heron in less than 30 minutes! The most numerous were the Green Herons. They are only slightly larger than a grackle….so hard to distinguish at a distance. I was thrilled when I zoomed in on some fallen reeds at the edge of the lake and spotted one that hunting. Another bird appeared in the standing reeds. One caught something a gobbled it down – not sure whether it was a small fish or crayfish.

But the thrill of the day was few feet way at the edge of large stand of cattails….2 juvenile green herons! They were hunting on the logs and seemingly finding tidbits to eat. Their wings did not appear developed enough to allow then to fly; they still had a lot of down and coloring more like a starling than a green heron. But look at the legs!

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 23, 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.

Civil War Battlefield ‘Limb Pit’ Reveals Work of Combat Surgeons – History from bones…a different perspective on the Civil War.

Seeing Through the Eyes of Your Camera | The Prairie Ecologist – A little photography tutorial….it’s great to understand your camera well enough to (sometimes) see more than you easily can with your eyes!

Forensic dentistry and how teeth are used to identify a person – Emerging technologies are making it realistic to identify a person from a single tooth.

What Americans Told Us About Online Shopping Says A Lot About Amazon : NPR – Shopping has changed so much….I like the change too.

Carbon Bubble About To Burst, Leaving Trillions In Stranded Assets Behind, Claims New Research | CleanTechnica – A thought provoking article about the inevitable transition from fossil fuels…and the value of these assets.

A new material capable of the adsorption of organic pollutants in water: The organomica C18-Mica-4 eliminates between 70 and 100 percent of these toxic compounds in less than 24 hours -- ScienceDaily – There are a lot of pollutants that the old style water treatment does not remove. I’m glad there is active research on increasing what can be removed from waste (industrial and sewage) water before it is released from the treatment facility.

 2017 set a new record for renewable power, but emissions are still rising — Quartz – I hope we can turn a corner soon – stabilize and then reduce emissions. Otherwise the future is a very different world. Many will not fare very well.

Age-related diseases may be a negative outcome of human evolution – In 1957, evolutionary biologist George Williams proposed a theory: adaptations that made species more fit in the early years of life likely made them more vulnerable to diseases in the post-reproductive years. This article is about some recent work investigating this theory in relation to brain development in humans.

Photography in the National Parks: Adding a Sunburst to your Sunshine – Getting up to photograph sunrise…some ideas to add pizzazz.

Top 25 Birds of Africa – I can’t resist including a ’25 birds’ post in the gleanings for the week.

Butterfly Heads

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I am in Texas and missing my frequent visits to Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy in Maryland. The pictures I took right before I left are something to savor. The theme of my photography inside the conservatory was ‘butterfly heads! The blue morphos have orange and white papillae --- nothing iridescent blue about their heads.

Some butterflies have papillae that are very large. The proboscis is between the papillae and extend for feeding on bananas or flowers.

Sometimes the papillae are damaged. I notice the owls often have broken papillae. The brown and black stripes of the owl eyes are different than other butterfly eyes.

Some butterflies have antennae that seem to glow at the ends.

In the conservatory, butterflies are sometimes resting upside down under leaves. Its always a thrill to notice one in the foliage.

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Some of the larger butterflies feed on multiple flowers in succession – wings almost always in motion. The last day I was at Brookside was sunny enough that the camera was fast enough to freeze the motion.

I tell children that the butterfly’s proboscis is like a straw…and they do seem to handle it like one…although the way they coil it under their head is different from straws we use!

Butterflies feeding on flowers are my favorites, but some prefer bananas (or other rotting fruit). I inevitability decide that all of them are worth trying to photograph.

Familiar Birds in Texas

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Grackles and crows and blue jays….common birds in both Maryland and Texas.

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The surprise for me during a recent walk around my parents’ backyard was a Carolina Wren! There must be a nest somewhere in the yard….maybe the woodpile that is inactive this time of year. When I saw them there were clearly two flitting around the yard. My mother said this was the first year she had seen them. Dallas is close to the western edge of the range map in AllAboutBirds.

They are fun birds to watch…if you can find them on the tree trunk or on the ground rustling through the foliage or on the gutter…staying in one place for a few seconds before flittering away. They aren’t showy birds but have lively personalities.

Hot in Texas

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Coming from Maryland to Texas has been a shock in terms of temperature. It is hot. Most of the time I’ve been indoors – staying with my mom at the hospital and rehab and now home. Every time I venture outside, I move as fast as I can to get to the next air-conditioned place. And this is only June. It will be even hotter in Texas as the summer progresses. At this point the plants are still flourishing if they are watered regularly. I took a few pictures of the plants at the rehab facility when I walked around the place when my mother’s room overflowed with other visitors.

I wondered how well the fern would last as the summer progressed. In Maryland they seem to do best in shady moist places. This plant was in partial shade…and it would take a lot to keep it moist on a 100-degree day.

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Chipmunk Hide and Seek

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Last time I was at Brookside Gardens, a butterfly was an effective blind to photograph a chipmunk. There are many chipmunks at Brookside this year (seemingly more than in previous years); they usually do not allow people to get close before scampering off under foliage and further down the path. With the bench between me and the chipmunk, this one seemed oblivious to me. I got several pictures before I made the mistake of taking a step and the chipmunk startled…scampered away…disappeared.

eBotanical Prints – May 2018

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I am allowing myself one botanical print post in the main blog of this site each month. This is it for May – the books that contained botanical images that I read during the month. I’ll post about individual books in the eBotanicalPrints part of the site: Botanical blog. Also take a look at the Botanical eBooks list to find links to over 1,400 eBooks available free from various sources.

I read 24 botanical eBooks in May. It is always a little surprising that there are so many that I haven’t found before. In May I discovered some recent garden magazines that were made available via Internet Archive. They have great photography of cultivated plants and carry on the tradition of spreading the news about new varieties and planting designs as the books in the 1800s popularized plants from around the world.

The links to the books are below the sample image slide show.

Amaryllidaceae * Herbert, William * sample image * 1837

Les champignons de la France  * Cordier, Francois Simon * sample image * 1870

Flora Parisiensis Volume 5 * Bulliard, Pierre * sample image * 1893

Die Gartenwelt, Vol 5, 1901  * Schmidt, G. (publisher) * sample image * 1901

Historia plantarum rariorum * Martyn, John * sample image * 1728

How to know the wild fruits * Peterson, Maude Gridley * sample image * 1905

Washington watchable wildflowers : a Columbia Basin guide * Camp, Pamela et al * sample image * 1997

Wild flowers of Nova Scotia * Smith, Titus; Miller, Maria * sample image * 1840

Flea Market Gardens 2015 * misc * sample image * 2015

Fine Gardening Jun 2016 * Aitken, Steve (editor) * sample image * 2016

Country Gardens Summer 2016 * Baggett, James Augustus (editor) * sample image * 2016

Country Gardens Fall 2016 * Baggett, James Augustus (editor) * sample image * 2016

Perennial Garden Ideas 2015 USA * Jimerson, Doug; Weir-Jimerson, Karen * sample image * 2015

The vegetable world : being a history of plants  * Figuier, Louis * sample image * 1869

British flowering plants V1 * Boulger, George Simonds; Mrs. Henry Perrin (illustrator) * sample image * 1914

Country Gardens Spring 2016 * Baggett, James Augustus (editor) * sample image * 2016

British flowering plants V2 * Boulger, George Simonds; Mrs. Henry Perrin (illustrator) * sample image * 1914

American country homes and their gardens * Baker, John Cordis * sample image * 1906

British flowering plants V3 * Boulger, George Simonds; Mrs. Henry Perrin (illustrator) * sample image * 1914

British flowering plants V4 * Boulger, George Simonds; Mrs. Henry Perrin (illustrator) * sample image * 1914

The Nature Library - Trees * Rogers, Julia Ellen * sample image * 1926

The New Flora Britannica - Vol 1 * Edwards, Sydenham; Sansom, Francis * sample image * 1812

The New Flora Britannica - Vol 2 * Edwards, Sydenham; Sansom, Francis * sample image * 1812

Fine Gardening May 2017 * Aitken, Steve (editor) * sample image * 2017

Father's Day

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Thinking about father’s today…

So many good memories and anticipation of the future within my own family of my father and my husband as father to my daughter. There are only memories of my grandfathers at this point but those are good too. Over the years I’ve realized that there as many ways to be a good father as there are to be a good mother…good parents always seem able to sync with the needs of their children. I suppose having days to celebrate fathers and mothers are very much reminders to celebrate families too!

I enjoyed a blog post about Wildlife Fathers too.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 16, 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.

Reading habits in the past | Europeana Blog – When I travel, I tend to do most of my reading on my phone (light weight, easy to carry, and ambient light does not have to be good). It’s a recent development for me. This blog post goes back further in history.

Man against machine: AI is better than dermatologists at diagnosing skin cancer -- ScienceDaily – There are still limitations to the AI but it might be close to a tipping point to begin transitioning into system. It seems like it would be most in demand for screening where there were not highly trained dermatologists available….as long as the imaging technology was not tremendously expensive or hard to use.

BBC - Future - Is it really healthier to live in the countryside? – I thought it would be…but it’s complicated because so many factors contribute to ‘health.’

Mapping Modern Threats to Ancient Chacoan Sites : Image of the Day – Posts about places I’ve visited always get my attention. A study using satellite data and projections for population growth/oil and gas exploration in the area shows that 44 of the 123 known Chaco sites included in the study are threatened by development. Of those, 19 are already protected by the National Park Service.

Paper Art Details Similarities Between Human Microbiome and Coral Reef – Nature inspired art!

Researchers Grow Veggies in Space | The Scientist Magazine® - Progress in a technology required for longer space missions…and then colonies on other planets.

Schoolyard Habitats Provide Resiliency in Houston Independent School District : The National Wildlife Federation Blog – Schools in Maryland have similar projects. I hope the monarchs have shown up in Houston…I haven’t seen any in Maryland yet this year.

US Still Subsidizing Fossil Fuels To Tune Of $27 Billion | CleanTechnica – This post included more detail on what subsidies are…how the US compares to other developed countries.

Thank A Rare Fungus For The Sustainable Solar Cell Of The Future | CleanTechnica – It’s a beautiful color…if it really works, it won’t be ‘rare’ for long. It will be come a commercially grown fungus!

Bright warning colors on poison dart frogs also act as camouflage -- ScienceDaily – Learning a bit more about these little frogs.

Milkweed Buds

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June is the time the milkweeds bloom. In our area the buds on the common milkweed are about ready to open in our area. They are turning from green to pink. There is a fragrance around the plants already.

There are no Monarch caterpillars that yet. I have seen any Monarch butterflies (i.e. no eggs either). Hopefully they will start appearing soon. There are plenty of plants in my yard and other places I’ve been recently. People are planting milkweed for the Monarchs, so I hope we have butterflies show up! Other insects depend on the plant as well but none of the others have the cachet of the Monarch.

There are other kinds of milkweed too. I’m not sure how well the butterflies like them – but they are getting ready to bloom as well. I did notice that some of the leaves looked like something was eating them but didn’t see any in action.

Back to the common milkweed – when they start blooming they should be full of bumble bees and butterflies….a great place to point a camera for insect pictures!

Packing for Texas

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I’m in Texas! I bought my ticket less than 48 hours before flying…so this was not a planned trip and I realized as I packed several differences from my usual trek to Texas. First, I don’t know how long I will need to stay so I decided almost immediately to check a bag rather than doing it all in a roll-aboard and a tote bag.

Second, I checked of the weather and realized that it is going to be a lot hotter than I’m used to (I’m remembering why I don’t like to go to Texas during the summer!); on the plus side, lighter weight clothes take less room in the suitcase. Third, since I will be staying for an indefinite time period, taking my regular sized toiletries rather than travel size makes sense (another reason to check the suitcase too).

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Some things are the same as my usual travel…taking peppermints for the travel days,

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Having the electronics (iPad and laptop) where I can get them out easily when I go through security….and an almost empty quart sized Ziploc – mostly hand sanitizer,

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And a zipper case to contain the charging cables – phone, iPad, Fitbit, toothbrush, laptop.

I did not pack the kitchen sink….just all the comforts of home!

Sycamore

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Sycamores are common in our area near rivers and streams particularly. They tend to get their leaves late and loose them early in the fall. Right now – in June – they are about their best looking with their foliage still mostly intact. Later in the season, the many of the leaves will have holes or be partially eaten away. A lot of insects depend on those leaves for food. The leaves keep growing all during the season getting larger and larger…bigger than dinner plates…plenty to go around for the insect company.

Looking up int the tree, the whiteness where the outer bark has peeled way I a little noticeable – not the standout feature that it will be in winter.

This time of year, there are still some very tiny leaves. They are lighter in color than the bigger leaves and from far away look something completely different than a leaf…a little decoration at the ends of all the branches.

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Sharing Wings of Fancy

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I enjoy Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy so much that it’s my favorite place to take guests. This past weekend, my daughter was visiting, and we headed to the exhibit just at it opened. The caterpillars are big enough to see easily – particularly the spicebush swallowtail caterpillars with their eye spots that make them appear more ferocious than they are.

The high point of the morning was when a blue morpho butterfly decided that my daughter’s nail polish was like its own color. The blue (or pink/purple in different light) in both cases is a mechanical color rather than a pigment. The butterfly ‘tasted’ the color with its proboscis on each toenail then crawled up onto the sandal before flying way!

Patuxent Branch Trail

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Sometimes volunteer activities help us find something new close to where we live. That happened to my husband and I recently. I had volunteered us to count pedestrian and bike traffic as a trail near where we live for a community organization. The location on the Patuxent Branch Trail was only about 3 miles from hour house….and I’d never been there before.

The trail crossed the Little Patuxent River on a re-purposed railroad bridge built in 1902 – the year after one of my grandfathers was born! It became a pedestrian bridge in 2002.

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The bridge was still full of sediment from recent rain. Both pictures below taken from the bridge. I was not surprised at how many people (pedestrian and bicyclists) stopped on the bridge to enjoy the view.

My husband is already talking about biking the trail on the next day without rain in the forecast!