October 19, 2019

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 19, 2019

October 19, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

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.

New report deepens understanding of wind-wildlife interactions -- ScienceDaily – This article overviews the report. The 24 page report is available here. The amount of collaboration between the industry, government, conservation, academic and scientific organizations is significant and ongoing.

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park Celebrates Forests – Maybe I’ll go to Vermont for this festival next September – if it’s an annual event.

These surreal jarred fish tell an urgent story of extinction – The Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection – nearly 8 million preserved fish…a window into how 20th century development changed the Southeastern US fish….a record of that destruction.

No bones about it, this protein slows down fracture-healing -- ScienceDaily - Abundance of ApoE may explain why older people have trouble healing broken bones. Turning off ApoE completely causes fat to be deposited in arteries (a cardiovascular problem) so treatment options may involve lowering ApoE for short periods of time.

O Canada! We Like Your Food Guide – Food guides from Canada (and some other countries) … some differences from the US. Canada merges ‘dairy’ in with protein foods rather than featuring it as an independent group.

Scientists Are Getting Better at Predicting Hurricane Intensity – A new algorithm has been developed to include the complicated physical mechanisms of tropical cyclone dynamics and the way they interact with upper-ocean and atmospheric circulation. It may reduce the error of tropical cyclone prediction within a 24-hour period by 16%. Every little bit of improvement in prediction means better preparations when an intense storm is approaching.

Artworks of the Dark Zone – From caves in Tennessee and Alabama. Artwork incised in mud and inscriptions. A slideshow.

How Penn State is Cutting Greenhouse Emissions in Half – and Saving Money – Kudos to Penn State. I wonder how many other universities are doing similar things.

Empty Meditative Landscapes Visualize the Tranquil Beauty of Silence – A visual treat

Ed Hawkins “Climate Stripes” May be the Most Important Science Image so Far in This Century – Effective visualization of lots of data…becomes information. The next step is action.

October 18, 2019

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

October 18, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Back in July, we had adult and juvenile red-bellied woodpeckers on our deck. This month we’ve seen both male and female adult birds near our feeder. They appear to pick out the sunflower seeds from the mix. What a treat to see them at close range! These are larger than most of the other birds that come to our feeder and they seem to enjoy the vantage point from the roof or our covered deck before flying back the forest.

I think their nest is in the red maple that is at the edge of the forest. Maybe I’ll be able to see the cavity once the leaves are off the tree; right now, that tree has more leaves that just about any others around here (it held up better in the recent drought). The birds look very robust going into the change of seasons…better than they looked in the summer when they had their young fledging!

October 17, 2019

River Boot Tangle

October 17, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

I decided to make my river boots (that I use for field trips with high schoolers into rivers and streams looking for macroinvertebrates) unique with a Zentangle®.

I chose the gingo pattern – which has become one of my favorites since it was shared on the TanglePatterns site in late August. These boots are several years old and are scuffed from the river rocks near the foot part of the boots…but the surface I tangled was relatively smooth. I used a Sharpie and only worked on the outer side of the boots…so I still have room for more tangling.

So – even if I somehow take off my boots and they get in the pile of boots we have for the students…I’ll always be able to spot mine!

The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

October 16, 2019

Flowers Unfurling

October 16, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

2019 09 IMG_5686.jpg — Back in September, I enjoyed photographing some late flowers at Brookside Gardens. I found myself more interested in the flowers that were just opening. It’s sometimes hard to fathom how the buds open into the flowers.

Other times there is a concentration of flower parts – smaller and more concentrated than the fully opened flower …like this hibiscus.

Sometimes there are many flowers on the same plant that are in the process of opening…like these angel‘s trumpets. I photographed many of the flowers and tried to order the sequence below to show the unfurling of the flowers.

October 15, 2019

Mt Pleasant in October

October 15, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Last week, I got to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant just as the sun was coming up over the place. There were a few fall colors even with the drought which is causing a lot of the leaves to change and fall very quickly.

We were working with high school students --- assessing the water in the Davis Branch with abiotic and biotic sampling. The water was very low.

We found some macroinvertebrates…but everyone was more enthusiastic than usual with other living things we found that weren’t part of the assessment. This large spider caused quite a lot of excitement!

I took a few pictures of fall plants between the early morning and late morning groups. Much of the meadow is turning brown early. Some of the gardens closer to the building may be getting a little watering and are more colorful.

October 14, 2019

A Sunrise…and Sunset

October 14, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

The day we took our trip to Smith Island, we were up to catch the sunrise from the balcony of our hotel…looking toward the Somers Cover Marina in Crisfield MD.

After the boat to Smith Island, we headed toward home and saw the sunset just before we got to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in the car.

Colorful bookends to a day on the water.

October 13, 2019

Trip to Smith Island – Part II

October 13, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the post about our trip to Smith Island, MD last weekend….

Brown Pelicans were the big bird show of the trip. I managed to get some birds in flight as herring and mackerel were thrown off the back of the boat and the birds flew in to get the fish before it sank below the water’s surface.

I took a series of pictures of a pelican flying away after getting a fish…and landing on the water…feet spread out.

There was another bird – close to the boat that took off from the water – a strong stroke of its wings as it raised the legs and then the big wings fully extended as it gained altitude over the water.

The pelicans use the man-made structures in or near the water like pilings,

Or partially collapsed buildings,

Or jetties. Other birds like cormorants and gulls also enjoy the same structures. But the pelicans were the numerous and the biggest. There were lots of juveniles…the pelican rookery had a good year.

October 12, 2019

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 12, 2019

October 12, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

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.

Climate change may cut soil's ability to absorb water -- ScienceDaily – Climate change impacts everything. The models only model pieces of the puzzle. This study was looking specifically at water and soil – not currently included in models..

The Iguana Invasion – Cool Green Science – They’re a common sight in Florida….and the state is now advising people to kill them. No talk of eating them like they do in their native range further south and the Caribbean where they are farmed.

Sigiriya, the 'Lion Fortress' of Sri Lanka – A Heritage Site that survived by being hidden by forests…and being remote enough to not be marred by modern weapons of war.

Impostor syndrome is more common than you think -- ScienceDaily – Seeking social support outside academic (or workplace) specialization seems to be the best coping strategy.

Pregnant Moms' Air Pollution Exposure May Affect Babies' Health | The Scientist Magazine® - Research is ongoing. The first correlation was between air pollution and low birthweight/preterm birth. Current research is on other health consequences in the early life of the baby and beyond…looking beyond correlation to the underlying mechanism.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: October – The headline picture is of a Green Heron!

BBC - Future - The simple words that save lives – Communication in an emergency…if it goes wrong…tragedy.

Despite growing burden of diet-related disease, medical education does not equip students to provide high quality nutritional care to patients -- ScienceDaily - Researchers call for improved nutrition education to be integrated into the medical curriculum. This makes sense to me…but why hasn’t it been done long before now?

Iceland's Seabird Colonies Are Vanishing, With "Massive" Chick Deaths – Kittiwakes, puffins, murres, fulmars – Chicks die…nests with eggs abandoned. Total breeding failure for many of the birds. For the Puffins it has been happening since 2005. Lots of changes caused by climate change funneling pollution from the North America and Europe to the North Atlantic: mercury ubiquitous and rising fast in some areas, brominated flame retardant, pesticides, PCBs, chemical laced microplastics. A caption under one of the pictures: “In Iceland, levels of PCBs and other contaminants are so high in murre eggs that people shouldn’t eat them.”

October 11, 2019

Trip to Smith Island – Part I

October 11, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

2019 10 IMG_0901.jpg — Last weekend, we took a day trip to Smith Island arranged by Delmarva Birding. We departed from Somers Cove Marina in Crisfeld, MD about 8 AM.

2019 10 IMG_0721.jpg — The day was sunny a very breezy. The temperature was chilly enough that we appreciated the plastic that blocked the wind for us while we were on the boat crossing Tangier Sound toward Ewell. We past Glenn Martin National Wildlife Refuge along the way…lots of pelicans and cormorants.

Goat Island is across from Ewell…and the goat seem interested in boats coming into the marina.

We browsed the Smith Island Cultural Center then walked down Smith Island Road to look at birds in the wetlands there. There were small birds which I didn’t manage to photograph and ducks that were far enough away that they were silhouettes. A Great Egret was close to the road we were walking down.

So was a Tricolored Heron. The bird must have been in one of its favorite spots for fishing since it ignored our group and continued its activity.

Back on the boat we headed around to Tylerton where we had lunch (island made crab cakes and Smith Island Cake) at Drum Point Market. The bathroom had black-eye-susans painted on the walls!

We walked around afterwards seeing the stained-glass windows of the church, heron shutters, and the ‘welcome’ painted on a building.

Several houses had pomegranates as part of their landscaping.

Then we were back on the boat…and more birding. There was a group of Double-crested Cormorants with one in the center…wings spread. I couldn’t resist taking slightly different angles of the birds clustered around that one!

There were some Caspian and Royal Terns on a beach. I think most of the terns in my pictures are Royal Terns.

I’ve saved all the pelican pictures for part II of this blog post…coming out on Sunday!

October 10, 2019

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

October 10, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Last weekend we made a trip to the Eastern Shore of Maryland. We stopped at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge along the way and drove around the wild life loop.

2019 10 IMG_0362 clip.jpg — Blackwater was the first place I saw a Bald Eagle in the wild (back in 1990) and now they are even more numerous in the refuge. This time the eagle we saw was in the far distance. I zoomed as much as I could and got an OK picture for identification.

There were also quite a few Great Egrets. The breeze was enough to ruffle their feathers.

But the big drama was between a turtle and juvenile Great Blue Heron. I saw the turtle first. It seemed to notice our car – which we were using as a blind. I already had the window rolled down.

Then I noticed a heron a little to the left of the turtle….and the heron started walking toward the turtle.

The heron stepped up behind the turtle and the turtle withdrew into the shell.

Then the heron stepped on the turtle and I was holding down the button to let my camera take pictures as fast as possible…doing the best I could to hold the camera steady. Did the heron mistake the turtle for a rock? The turtle must have wobbled and the heron extended its wings for balance. The turtle plopped into the water with a splash…and the heron perched on the snag that had previously held the turtle.

October 09, 2019

Cicada from my Office Window

October 09, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Back in August, I noticed a cicada on the screen of my office window. I was there for quite some time, so I went outside and zoomed to get a picture of it. Several days later, it was still there, and I decided it was probably time to collect it. I opened my office window and took off the screen…gently pulled the cicada from the screen.

It sat on the table in my office – protected in a small box – until a few days ago when I finally got around to taking a closer look and some photographs. It’s not a periodic cicada…but otherwise I didn’t determine the exact kind it is. It’s probably a male because the end of the abdomen is not pointed enough to be a female.

I took some pictures with the macro lens clipped to the cell phone. It’s hard to get the whole insect in focus with the shallow depth-of-field. In the two pictures below the eye and head is focused in one….and the wing joint is crisp in the second.

The cicadas are already silent for this year. The eggs are laid, and the larvae will begin their long development. We’ll have more adults emerge next spring. And in 2021 we might get the emergence of a large periodic cicada brood; that will be a noisy summer.

October 08, 2019

Beautyberry as Zentangle® Prompt

October 08, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

When I was at Mount Vernon in December there was an American Beautyberry growing at the edge of the bowling green. I took a picture of the bush then zoomed in on a stem with berries.

Nature is a great source of prompts for tangle patterns…and the purple clusters of the beautyberry are one of the easier examples. There is not much deconstruction required…the pattern is just some parallel dashed lines for the stem and filling the spaces between the stem lines with the tipple pattern. Easy!

October 07, 2019

Trees with Seeds

October 07, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

2019 09 IMG_5444.jpg — This time a year it’s easy to spot trees with seeds. Some are very colorful like the magnolias (they remind me a little or red M&Ms)

And the dogwoods.

2019 09 IMG_5455.jpg — Others are mostly brown like the golden rain trees

And maples (some trees shed their samaras in the spring…others, like these at Brookside Gardens, wait until the fall)

And red buckeyes with the buckeye nut showing where the mottled brown and green husk has cracked.

2019 10 IMG_5732.jpg — Then there are seeds that are still green…that will take more time to mature and dry…ready to be shed next spring. The tulip poplar seed pods are still closed in the fall…the seeds not yet mature. We always accumulate a lot of tulip poplar seeds in our gutters in the spring.

The sycamore seeds will get softer…the balls feeling almost ‘furry’ by the time they break apart dispersing the small seeds in the spring. Each bump on this immature seed ball will become a sycamore seed! When I show tulip poplar and sycamore seeds to preschoolers on spring field trips, they are always awestruck my how small they are compared to the trees!

October 06, 2019

Birds through my Office Window

October 06, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

The leaves are starting to swirl…but there are still enough on the trees to block the view of birds there. I’ve been lucky enough to catch some coming to our deck for seed or water. There was a Blue Jay with a scruffy head; most that I see are better looking. Sometimes the birds come alone…sometimes with buddies. They seem to like investigating the contents of the gutters.

The Carolina Chickadee was in a rush….I barely got one picture!

My favorite this month was the White-breasted Nuthatch. The birds seemed to be coming to the feeder very frequently. Did they have a late season nestlings they were feeding? They have such distinctive postures….always seem to move with precision.

The Chipping Sparrows also enjoy the feeder. One small one sat at the feeder looking around and I wondered if it was newly fledged.

The juvenile Red-Bellied Woodpecker is still around too. I’ve seen adults but they tend to be faster moving. The juvenile sits for portraits.

Overall – September was a good month for birds through the office window!

October 05, 2019

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 5, 2019

October 05, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

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 desert soil that could save lives – Bioprospecting for antibiotics and industrial biocatalysts from bacteria that survive in extreme environments like the Atacama or Antarctica

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Resident Birds – National Geographic Society Newsroom – ‘Resident’ around the world….beautiful birds.

Global warming may threaten availability of essential brain-building fatty acid -- ScienceDaily – Impacts of climate change go far beyond the climate models…many probably still to be discovered.

Recovery: Restoring the Floodplain Forest – Cool Green Science – I started reading the article since I am always interested in how restoration projects are created and evolve…but the aspect I’ll remember about it was the info about a tree: American Elms. Ones resistant to Dutch Elm Disease are among the trees being planted as part of the restoration. I grew up at a time when the elms were all dying. There were several I remember at my grandparents’ house in Oklahoma and a tree beside the playhouse at the house we moved to in Dallas in the early 1970s. It was already sickly. I wonder if there will soon be enough varieties and availability of elm trees for them to become landscaping trees again.

Interview: Self-Taught Myanmar Photographer Captures People Working – Capturing images of human-made place. Now I am wondering what I would photograph in my part of the world to do something equivalent.

Crying over plant-based milk: neither science nor history favors a dairy monopoly – An article about milk….and the argument about what the word means. The dairy industry wants it to mean milk from cows…but milk has been used more broadly to mean white liquid for a very long time. We even have plants with ‘milk’ in their name (i.e. milkweed)!

Pictures of India's UNESCO World Heritage sites – Rich cultural and natural history…reflected in places selected to protect.

'Report card' on diet trends: Low-quality carbs account for 42 percent of a day's calories: Older people, those with lower income, and those with less education face greater hurdles -- ScienceDaily – With results like this, maybe we should come up with better ways of helping people learn about nutrition. Do our schools help students learn about nutrition? How many adults have logged their food intake into an app and discovered how good (or poor) their food choices are? The current outreach strategies relative to nutrition are not enough. Sometimes even doctors seem to lack any expertise other than knowing that a patient is overweight/obese or their waist is too large.

Create Wildlife Habitat Around Your House – Cool Green Science – I already have a bird bath and feeder, milkweed patch, brush pile and some native trees (maple, sycamore, tulip poplar, oak). Even a spongy compost pile is habitat (this summer I had puddling tiger swallowtails on it)!

Komodo Dragons Have Skin That Looks Like Chain Mail | Smart News | Smithsonian – Four distinct morphologies of osteoderms in the skin of adult Komodo dragons. Another example of the wonderful complexity in the natural world.

October 04, 2019

Mowing Leaves

October 04, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

I am trying a new strategy this fall when it comes to the leaves on our lawn. In previous years I raked and deposited the leaves in piles at the edge of the forest that is in our back yard. I always contort myself in some part of the process and end up with aches and pains. So – this year I am experimenting with mowing the leaves – mulching them into the yard. Mowing does take some effort but the motion is regular and I don’t end up with aches. Mowing must be done frequently enough that the leaves don’t get so thick on the ground that the mower isn’t effective. The yard looks great for a time after the mowing (see a before and after picture below of an area under a sycamore).

The mowing is working great for leaves like oak and sycamore that are large and brittle; the mower mulches them quite well. The smaller and more flexible types of leaves (plum, tulip poplar, and maple), which have not fallen as much in our yard yet, might be another story.

20190929_082339 clip2.jpg — Right now, I am just enjoying the occasional colorful leaf on the maple.

The projection for our area is that the fall will have less color because of the near drought conditions we’ve had since mid-summer. We’ll see. There are still a lot of leaves left on the trees and the leaf mowing experiment still has a month or so to go.

October 03, 2019

eBotantical Prints – September 2019

October 03, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Thirty books added to the list of botanical ebooks collection this month. I am continuing to work my way through the annual volumes of Revue Horticole that I started in August; this month includes the volumes from 1865 to 1896…and there are still more to come in October! The magazine showed plants that were growing or being introduced to gardens in France at the time.

The volumes are all freely available on the Internet. The whole list of over 1,700 books can be accessed here. Sample images and links for the 30 new ones are provided below. (click on the sample image to see a larger view) Enjoy!

Revue Horticole (1865) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1865

Revue Horticole (1866) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1866

Revue Horticole (1867) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1867

Revue Horticole (1868) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1868

Revue Horticole (1870) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1870

Revue Horticole (1872) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1872

Revue Horticole (1873) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1873

Revue Horticole (1874) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1874

Revue Horticole (1875) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1875

Revue Horticole (1876) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1876

Revue Horticole (1877) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1877

Revue Horticole (1878) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1878

Revue Horticole (1879) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1879

Revue Horticole (1880) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1880

Revue Horticole (1881) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1881

Revue Horticole (1882) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1882

Revue Horticole (1883) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1883

Revue Horticole (1884) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1884

Revue Horticole (1885) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1885

Revue Horticole (1886) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1886

Revue Horticole (1887) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1887

Revue Horticole (1888) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1888

Revue Horticole (1889) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1889

Revue Horticole (1890) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1890

Revue Horticole (1891) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1891

Revue Horticole (1892) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1892

Revue Horticole (1893) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1893

Revue Horticole (1894) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1894

Revue Horticole (1895) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1895

Revue Horticole (1896) * Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique * sample image * 1896

October 02, 2019

Birds at Brookside

October 02, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

The last day of the Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy exhibit (Sunday before last) started out with some easy bird sightings. I didn’t have my best camera for getting the action…but I did get some identifying shots. The Red-Bellied Woodpecker really does have a red belly! I heard this bird before I saw it; for some reason it was being very noisy up in the trees along the stream near the conservatory parking lot gate.

There was a scruffy looking Robin. I’m not sure if it was a juvenile or a molting adult. It seemed to be the only bird of the morning that was still.

The Downy Woodpecker was very active…moving about in the trees so quickly I couldn’t tell if it was finding things to eat or not.

All three of the birds were seen in the same area and I heard catbirds and cardinals. It was a good day for birds if you looked quickly. Many of these birds stay around for the winter and will be easier to see after the leaves are off the trees. I continued my walk up to the fragrance garden wondering if there were any hummingbirds left in the salvia garden. I saw one within seconds of arriving…and took a picture. Most of the birds have already left…but this one still seemed to be enjoying the salvia.

And after that…I was ready for the last day with the butterflies.

October 01, 2019

Zentangle® - September2019

October 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

I had plenty of tiles to choose the 30 to feature in this Zentangle-a-day post for September. There were some patterns that came up again and again during the month. The dominant one was gingo. I’ve always liked the trees and was thrilled to see the pattern posted on TanglePatterns.com site in late August. 13 of the 30 tiles I picked for September were this pattern…sometimes as a mono-pattern tile and sometimes with other patterns or a background. The ones with the dark background below were made on the iPad…others were done on square heavy paper/light cardboard tiles of various sizes and colors.

The feather-like pattern that I enjoyed so much with the campers is still one of my favorites…with variations.

I did an experiment with the paradox pattern – making the ‘same’ tile on paper and with the iPad. I love the meta-pattern that paradox creates and made two different ones. I was going to pick a favorite (meta-pattern and media) but I liked all of them.

Periodically I enjoy making a tile with a crazy string and then just filling in. Both tiles below were simply filling in shapes where only a point touched the area I had just finished coloring. For the second one – I made some red dots on the tile after I drew the string but before I started filling in shapes. It is surprising how different they look….so dependent on the scribbled string!

Then there were 8 tiles that didn’t fit any of the above categories. Sometimes it’s just fun to try something different!

September 30, 2019

Zooming – September 2019

September 30, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

The images I selected for this month reflected the season and many of the places visited during the month. Season reminders…

The flowers of autumn like sunflowers and autumn crocus,
Hummingbirds eating to fatten up for migration,
Seed pods of the golden rain, maple, buckeye, and dogwood trees

Reflections of the places I visited:

Patuxent Research Refuge (north tract) – sunflower and hummingbird,
Longwood Gardens – waterlily, sunflower, tower,
Brookside Gardens – insects and flowers and tree seeds,
Mount Vernon – the greenhouse and beautyberry

Overall it was a good month for getting outdoors to capture the beauty of summer and early fall. I am anticipating a lot of leaf photography for October.

Enjoy the September 2019 slide show – hurray for cameras with good zoom lenses!