Blog Posts

King Tide

1/16/2021

Storms, king tide, and dangerous sneaker waves were predicted at Cape Disappointment this past Monday, so naturally I had to go there. There is a sense of awe and power, but the danger is masked by the cheerful blue of the skies, and by the crystalline jade and glistening pearl of the waves. It's these cheerful conditions that can fool people into thinking all is well, but they get swept away by "sneaker waves" - a large wave that appears without warning.

All of the waves were higher than normal during the days I was there due to a phenomenon called "king tide" (or perigean spring tide). The king tide is the highest high tide of the year, and it occurs when the sun, moon, and earth are positioned in such a way that their respective gravitational pulls cause the tides to go far beyond the normal high water mark.

This year, king tide was Monday through Wednesday of this past week. The storms on Monday provided winds, dark clouds, and drama. The blue skies on Wednesday allowed the colors and beauty of the ocean waves to shine through.

I hope you enjoy looking at the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

Don't look down!

1/12/2021

This. This is why I love living in Oregon. And yes, that's me on the trail (zoom in). Pure heaven.

Osage Oranges

1/10/2021

I was comparing pictures from my old camera, new camera, and phone, and I came upon some Osage oranges, or what my grandpa calls "hedge apples" - the green things that look like bumpy grapefruits with black hairs. It might look strange, but this is a fascinating plant with a cool history.

Maclura pomifera is an evolutionary anachronism; whatever evolved to eat the fruit and spread its seeds is now extinct. Scientists believe the giant sloth or mastodon might have dined on these tough fruits and spread the fruit through droppings. Some of today's animals have occasionally been seen eating the fruit, but it is not their preferred food.

While this small tree might not have a place in the current food web, humans have found the wood to be every useful and have expanded the tree's range. The Osage tribe discovered that the orange-tinted wood is ideal for bows (thus the name "Osage orange"). Settlers planted the trees in rows to create impenetrable, thorny hedges to protect their gardens (thus the name "hedge apple"). After barbed wire was invented, the hedge apple fences went out of vogue. The wood is still valued for its use in fence posts due to its strength and rot resistance, and as firewood since it burns long and hot. There is also anecdotal evidence that the fruits serve as an insect deterrent when placed around the foundation of a house or in the basement, but that has not yet been proven in scientific studies.

Roosevelt Elk

1/10/2021

I've got a very large but very cute Sunday Squee for you today: Roosevelt Elk.

Roosevelts are the largest of the remaining North American elk species, and they are the third largest land mammal in North America. A mature bull can weigh 1200 pounds or more. The elk were hunted to near extinction with numbers dwindling from the original 10,000,000 to just 100,000. To save the elk, President Theodore Roosevelt took measures to preserve the native habitats of the herds, and the once-called "Olympic Elk" were renamed "Roosevelt Elk" in his honor.

I found this herd at the Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area in Oregon, the winter home of about 200 Roosevelt Elk, and I spent a lot more time there than was reasonable but I couldn't tear myself away. A couple of the mature males got into a tussle while I was there, and a curious youngster decided to come close and see what I was up to.

Jewell Meadows contains over 1,000 acres of ideal elk habitat, and the meadows are reseeded regularly with the grasses and forbs needed by the elk. In addition to the permanent meadows, there are also coniferous and hardwood forests, streams, and seasonal wetlands on the property. This place is a treasure for wildlife enthusiasts and nature photographers!

Lifer! Hutton's Vireo

1/8/2021

Lifer! I spotted a type of bird that I have never seen before: Hutton's Vireo! I could hardly breathe when I realized what it was! I was photographing some Ruby-crowned Kinglets when I noticed that one of them looked a little different than the others. The Hutton's looks almost identical to a Ruby-crowned, but the bill is thicker and it lacks the dark patch behind the white wing bar. The Hutton's can be found along the Pacific Coast and in pockets of the southwest. It's unusual among vireos because it does not migrate.

Side note: the vireo was named after William Hutton, a young naturalist and artist who presented the Smithsonian with samples of the vireo. There were strong objections to naming the bird after a relatively unknown person. The thought was that the young man had not yet proven he would accomplish anything worth noting, but his friend and mentor at the Smithsonian spoke on his behalf and prevailed. William showed the world that his mentor's belief in his abilities was not misplaced. William's early drawings as a surveyor of California include the first known sketches of Los Angeles. He then went on to become the chief engineer for a number of ground-breaking projects, including the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, railroads, the Washington Bridge, and the Hudson River Tunnel.

In 2021, be mindful of your words and actions, and how you are impacting the young people who are watching you. Be a role model, not a cautionary tale. Whenever possible, let young people know you believe in them - they can accomplish anything if they believe in themselves, possess enough courage and ambition, and have the proper work ethic. Like William Hutton, there will be a diamond in the rough who will prove your faith in them was not misplaced.

Nutria

1/3/2021

This adorable little family is the first group of munchkins that I met in 2021. They trundled up to say hello to me on New Year's Day. Yes, I know they are an invasive species, but stop harshing my mellow! Look at those cute faces!

Nutria were imported into the U.S. from South America by fur traders in the late 1800's. When the fur traders realized there was no market for Nutria fur, they released the animals into the wild. These semi-aquatic rodents can now be found in waterways across the United States. A Nutria looks a bit like an overgrown muskrat, but it has a patch of lighter fur at the base of the ears, white whiskers, and orange teeth. They are strong swimmers and they are rarely far from water, so I was lucky to photograph this family in the open.

Thor? Loki? Is that you?

12/27/2020

You know it's a great day when you're standing on top of a mountain and one of your favorite types of birds swoops in and poses majestically with a stunning backdrop! My fellow birders might say this is a Common Raven, but my fellow geeks can debate whether this is Huginn or Muninn.

It's easy to see why Odin would have ravens as assistants. Corvids are some of the most intelligent creatures in the animal kingdom, rivaling apes and even young humans in their problem-solving abilities and their ability to plan for the future. They learn quickly, make tools, remember faces and events, and plan their moves several steps ahead.

Check out this excerpt from a recent study:
"Until recently, planning for the future has generally been considered to be unique to humans... It has been argued that planning in foraging and natural tasks is not the same as planning in a more general way. Kabadayi et al. tested ravens with tasks designed to specifically assess their general planning abilities... We tested whether ravens can make decisions for an event 15 minutes into the future, and over longer intervals of 17 hours. We additionally tested whether ravens can exert self-control when making decisions for the future. Well-developed self-control is essential to planning because impulsivity keeps one stuck in the immediate context. [The results show that] ravens plan for events unrelated to caching— tool-use and bartering—with delays of up to 17 hours, exert self-control, and consider temporal distance to future events. Confirming their forward-planning abilities, the birds performed at least as well as apes and small children in this complex cognitive task." Here's the full study: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6347/202

So there you go - a great New Year's resolution: plan for your future and think several steps ahead, at least as much as a raven does!

Ahoy, matey!

12/20/2020

For today's Sunday Squee, we're essentially looking at Dr. Seuss' Whoville - a whole colony of teeny critters comprising a little blue sailboat. Meet the By-the-wind Sailor. That thing that looks like a blue jellyfish with a clear, gelatinous sail on top is actually a hydroid colony.

A hydroid colony is a group of polyps like sea anemones. They form a tight cluster and appear to be a single organism. Within the colony are different types of polyps with different functions. Some specialize in feeding, others provide structural support, and others protect the colony. There are no polyps that control locomotion; the colony cannot control its travels. The triangular sail catches the wind and the By-the-wind Sailor is blown across the ocean even in a gentle breeze.

All that being said, a couple of people have posted blogs stating that there was a study showing that the Sailor may be a complicated individual rather than a colony, but they did not include any citations. If anyone does have a citation to the research paper, please send me a note.

Moon jelly

12/19/2020

Look! It's an astronaut!

My first excursion after returning to the Pacific Northwest was to the People's Coast - Oregon's beautiful ocean beaches. I was greeted with several interesting surprises, including a Moon Jelly. Unlike the stereotypical jellyfish with long, trailing tentacles, the Moon Jelly has really short tentacles that gracefully sweep in tiny foods, such as plankton and diatoms.

Fun fact: the Moon Jelly got to ride in the space shuttle! They didn't quite get to the moon, but about 2500 went into orbit in a study about weightlessness and its effect on internal organs. The jellies got along quite well with each other. By the time the study was complete, over 60,000 jellies were orbiting Earth.

Jellyfish can sense up and down; they orient themselves to gravity in a similar way that we do. A Moon Jelly has crystals inside tiny pockets at the margin of its bell which are coated in specialized hairs. When a jelly rolls (ha!), the crystals slide around inside the pockets, move the hairs, and that tells the jelly which way is up.

The studies showed that artificial gravity does impact the development of internal organs. The space-bred jellies suffered from vertigo. Although they appeared normal, they couldn't move around very well once they came back to earth. Their ability to sense up and down was impaired.

So what does that mean for future humans who may be born in space? We'll have to consult with Star Trek fans for that answer. Oh, sure, you're thinking scientists would be better experts on this matter. Fine. You're just no fun at all! You ask the scientists, and I'll consult with my fellow cosplayers.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

12/6/2020

I was filling up the bird feeders when this little beauty flew in so close that I had to back up to get it in focus. The Red-breasted Nuthatch is one of my favorite backyard birds. Unlike its cousin the White-breasted, the Red-breasted is more friendly and is usually very comfortable around people. In fact, they've been known to eat out of your hand if you're patient.

So what on earth does "nuthatch" mean? The term refers to the bird's tendency to jam a nut into a crevice to hold it like a vice, then the bird uses its bill like a hatchet to crack open the nut.

Another clever tool in the nuthatch's toolbox is the use of resin. The bird will often collect resin from conifers, and using slivers of wood as a paintbrush, the bird applies the resin to the entrance of its nest cavity. It's believed that the sticky resin deters predators and other birds. Nuthatches dive directly through the hole so the resin doesn't affect them.

To attract Red-breasted Nuthatches to your feeder, put out black-oil sunflower seeds and shelled peanuts. When you see a small, cinnamon-chested bird that creeps along tree trunks upside-down like Spider-Man, you'll know you've got a Red-breasted Nuthatch.

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