Evening grosbeaks at Ontario Feederwatch, 15 Dec 2016. Click on the image to watch the live camera at Cornell Lab
Dreaming of a white Christmas?
We won’t have snow in Pittsburgh this Christmas and we certainly won’t have evening grosbeaks but you can watch both — live — at Ontario FeederWatch.
The feeders are located in Manitouwadge, Ontario, a remote town that’s far away in the woods — an 11.5 hour drive from Toronto and 8 hours from Duluth, Minnesota.
Manitouwadge is so far north that it has birds we never see here including evening and pine grosbeaks, gray jays and hoary redpolls. There are also a lot of birds you’ll recognize: black-capped chickadees, downy and hairy woodpeckers, crows and starlings.
Tune in to Ontario FeederWatch and watch cool birds in the snow. (Click here or on the image above.)
Hollow bone (photo from Henderson State Univ Nature Trivia by Renn Tumlison)
On Throw Back Thursday:
Six years ago I ran a series on bird anatomy. Here’s a refresher course on bird bones, the strong, hollow, lightweight structures that allow them to fly: Anatomy: Hollow Bones
A dark colored snow goose, called a “blue goose,” comes in for a landing (photo from USFW via Wikimedia Commons)
The cool thing about science is that it’s open to revision. If new data shows a different solution and the solution stands up under repeated, intensive review, then science changes its stance.
Museums are great places to see this kind of scientific progress in three dimensions.
The Blue Goose diorama at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History is good example. When the diorama was created in 1925, the blue goose was considered a separate species from the snow goose. The diorama was devoted to the unique “blue” species.
The Blue Goose diorama at Carnegie Museum (photo by Kate St. John)
But the blue goose isn’t a separate species at all. By 1961 genetic tests had shown that the blue goose is a dark color morph of the snow goose. According to Birds of North America Online, the color is “controlled by a single locus, the blue allele being incompletely dominant to the white.” Although the blue color is somewhat dominant, snow geese tend to pick mates the same color as their parents so their white color persists.
The plaque next to the diorama explains how we’ve learned new things over time.
Blue Goose Diorama explanation (photo by Kate St.John)
So when you hear a scientist making statements that include words like “may indicate” or “likely,” consider this. Scientists aren’t being vague. They’re speaking carefully from data that’s currently available. When they get even stronger evidence they’ll let you know. Statements like this are truthful: “Scientific studies indicate that extreme weather events such as heat waves and large storms are likely to become more frequent or more intense with human-induced climate change.” It only sounds vague to our society hungry for absolutes.
Meanwhile, we do know this is true: Blue geese are a color morph, not a separate species.
By now everyone in North Oakland is wondering: Why is it so hard to move the winter crow roost out of our neighborhood?
Perhaps it’s because crows are smarter than 6-year-olds.
Back in 2013 researchers presented New Caledonian crows with the same cognitive tests given to children ages 4-10.
All the children passed the simple water displacement tests: Drop pebbles into a water-filled tube to raise the water level and bring a floating treat within reach.
But children ages 4-6 failed the final test in which two of the tubes had a hidden connection. Stones dropped in one tube raised the water in another. Six-year-old brains weren’t mature enough yet.
Children ages 7-10 passed that final test, “Experiment 6, U-Tube” at the end of the video below. Notice that the crow succeeds. He, too, is smarter than a 6-year-old.
Since crows understand cause and effect, simple scare tactics just aren’t scary enough. Crows see through the ruse and innovate around the problem.
So getting the crows to leave North Oakland is a bit like convincing a roomful of boisterous 7-year-olds that they want to choose what we have in mind.
Perhaps we could get some tips from Cub Scout leaders.
Icy trail in Schenley Park, Feb 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
Snow, sleet, rain, freezing rain.
From 5 degrees F on Thursday night to 53 degrees with freezing rain today, we’ve had it all. And there’s more to come. Tomorrow night will be 15 degrees.
This yo-yo weather reminds me of what we learned during the polar vortex in January 2014: Climate change is making the jet stream wobble so we get shots of very cold air and then warm air soon after, as shown in drawing(c) below.
Jet stream Rossby waves (graphic from Wikimedia Commons)
Be careful today! It’s variably icy out there.
p.s. I’ve used an old photo of ice because it’s too icy to step outside this morning!
(photo by Kate St. John. Drawing from Wikimedia Commons; click on the image to see the original)
Uh oh! Blue light, though bright, isn’t better at night.
As cities switch from incandescent or mercury street lights to LEDs they’re saving electricity and money and providing more light. But brighter isn’t better if it’s blue.
The video above shows how the color temperature of light matters to our eyes and sleep patterns. Though the video doesn’t mention it, the color also matters to birds and animals.
It’s possible to buy yellow-toned LEDs but blue, because its bright, has been the default choice for city lights. We didn’t know that color mattered when the world began switching to LEDs and the bulbs have such a long life it’ll be decades before it’s time to replace them. Meanwhile humans, birds and animals will be coping with the change.
It makes me want to close my eyes.
(credits are in the captions)
p.s. Here’s a really helpful video showing the difference between incandescent, compact fluorescent and LED light bulbs in home use (the A19 screw base). You’ll also see the inside of an LED bulb. I was surprised to learn it’s a tiny computer.
While you eat ginger treats this month you probably won’t think of the plant that flavors them, but it has an interesting story.
Ginger root (Zingiber officinale) is used all over the world to flavor meat, seafood, vegetables and sweets. The plant is extinct in the wild yet millions of tons are cultivated each year.
Ginger root (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Ginger is a flowering perennial that grows new stems from its rhizomes each spring. According to Wikipedia it probably originated in the tropical rainforest of the Indian subcontinent.
The plant is two to three feet tall with a pretty orchid-like flower. Though most of us have never seen the plant it can be grown in the garden. It takes 8-10 months for the rhizomes to mature.
Illustration of Zingiber officinale Roscoe (image from Wikimedia Commons)
The spice trade introduced ginger to the western world where it’s been popular since Roman times. Eventually cultivation put it out of business in the wild but made ginger more successful than its cohorts in the rainforest.
Today most ginger is grown in India, China and Nigeria, 2.1 million tons per year.
Wildly successful ginger is extinct in the wild.
(photos from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the images to see the originals)
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