Nature photojournal #1

Part of being a naturalist is curiosity. When you look around the forest, field, pond, etc, you don't just take in the view. You let your eyes drift to interesting shapes, colors, animals, or plants. Then you ask, "What is that?" or "Why is that?" Prior to the advent of cameras, naturalists had to be fairly good at drawing the items they wanted to catalog or identify. Some of these sketches have helped natural historians try to figure out what animals and plants are native to a specific area. Take a look at this one:

 

It may be difficult to see the details, due to its small size, but the life-likeness is incredible. Every vein, root, and leaf on the plant is drawn with precision. Some of the pictures give a sense of the objects in 3D. This careful drawing leads to a study of the anatomy, biology, and ecology of the plant or animal being drawn. It really forces you to LOOK and truly see the item for what it is, and leads you to start to wonder about more than just, "What is it?"

Of course, modern advances have led us to the invention of the digital camera, which allows for easy photographing of subjects, yet detaches one from them at the same time. My goal is to get better at sketching nature items, but in the meantime, I will be posting photos of the flora and fauna I find in the areas around me.

Plants are easy to photograph; animals, not so much. So below are two plants and a little bit about their natural history.

American Beech

This tree is fairly common east of the Mississippi, all the way from Canada down to northern Florida. It is easy to spot in the winter because it tends to keep some of its leaves. The leaves are oval-shaped and toothed at the edges. The winter buds look like waxy cigars (that really is the best way to describe it, though I do not advocate and indeed despise smoking). The bark is, for the most part, smooth and sort of gray-white. People often carve their initials into beech trees because of this smooth surface.

 When I lived in New York, beeches were always quite small because of a disease called Beech Bark Disease. It is spread by an insect called a scale. Originally, the scales were thought to be the origin of the tree deaths, but then researchers found that the scales were infested by a fungi. This fungi, Nectria coccinea, is responsible for killing the trees. If you'd like to know more about the details of the infestation, this is a good web site: http://na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/fidls/beechbark/fidl-beech.htm.

Beech trees are used for rough lumber, flooring, plywood, and railroad ties. Beech wood is also used to make tool handles, baskets, and veneer.

Resurrection Fern
I first learned about these neat ferns when I worked in Alabama. We were doing a learning hike, where I taught each student about a part of the forest and then they would teach the others (each one, teach one). At the end of the hike, I always liked to do a learning quiz. I asked them what they remembered. One student raised his hand and said, "I learned about the erection ferns!" I about died laughing.


As their name suggests, these ferns can survive periods of drought by curling up and appearing dead. When it rains, however, the ferns uncurl and become green and lush again.


After doing a little research, I discovered that these ferns are air plants. What this means is that the ferns attach themselves to other plants (like trees or moss) and get their nutrients from the air and water that collect on the surface they are attached to. How cool!

 You can see the shape of the sori (the reproductive parts) on the top part of the leaf. When you flip the leaf over (and use a magnifying glass), you can see that they are indents. This is where the spores will form and mature, to be carried by the wind to another suitable spot.


A little more research revealed that the plant synthesizes dehydrins (those scientists, how clever to name a protein after what it does- dehydrates!), which allows the cell walls of the fern to fold in such a manner as to be easy to unfold when water does arrive. These ferns can lose up to 76% of their water and still survive. Amazing! If we lost that much water, we'd certainly perish.


Well, that's all for today. I have more to share, and I'll try to keep this blog updated more frequently in the new year.

Until then, get out and enjoy nature!

Being a Naturalist

When people ask me what I do, one of my responses is that I'm a naturalist. Sometimes I get funny looks- people often confuse 'naturalist' with 'nudist'! No, I do not wander around the woods nude. For those of you who do not know, a naturalist is:

"a person who studies or is an expert in natural history,  especially a zoologist or botanist."

and natural history is referred to as: "the sciences, as botany, mineralogy, or zoology, dealing with the study of all objects in nature."

Am I an expert? I don't claim to be, although I have a lot of experience in many different habitats in different parts of the world. Here are the places I'm most familiar with:


1. Northeastern Ohio- I grew up here, so I know something about the basic fauna and a few flora.
2. Massachusetts/New Hampshire/Maine coast- Particularly the coast of Massachusetts, a bit about glaciers and geology, and mostly about birds.
3. New York/Catskill region- learned about beech/hemlock forests and the costs of preservation.
4. Connecticut/Long Island Sound/salt marsh- had a great time learning duck identification with a salt marsh in my backyard.
5. Georgia/Tennessee- where I currently reside. Still trying to learn about the native flora and fauna.


So I'm not formally trained. I never took a natural history course in college. But I think I have enough experience to at least categorize myself as a naturalist. I can catalog many objects in nature or narrow down their category enough to identify them in a field guide.


I am lucky enough (I think) to be going back to college to earn a Master's degree. Although I decided to major in Education, I will be able to take undergraduate Biology courses to earn my degree. So I am excited to take Zoology in the spring, and hopefully Botany soon afterward. This will help deepen my knowledge base- I feel like I have a lot of breadth, but not a lot of scientific depth.


I'll write more about being a naturalist in the future. It's a lot of fun, and one of the roles I never tire of taking on. Until then...

Earth Day cleanup

One of my biggest pet peeves is LITTER. I often wonder why people do it. So here are some reasons I think people litter:

1. Stuff falls off their truck on the way to the landfill
2. They have no room in their car trash bag
3. They are LAZY
4. They don't care

I am pretty sure that people are either #3 or #4. It really irks me- I mean, is it really SO hard to take the trash home, throw it in the can, and then have that hauled off to the landfill?

Anyhow, my husband and I decided for Earth Day to go and clean up a roadside near our house. We drive by it every day, and it really bothered me to see all the plastic bottles and other debris. So we spend about 40 minutes picking up- he collected trash, I collected recyclables.

We collected 1 trash bag of each. There was less trash than recycling, but about 90% of what we collected was plastic bottles.

All this for 40 minutes worth of picking up.

It's sickening, isn't it?

It's really not that hard...put your trash in the trash, put your recycling in the recycling bin!!

I like free stuff

It's amazing what you can get for free. We're trying to save money because we're living on one income right now (his, not mine), and we've been trying to come up with alternatives to buying things.

So we take our own trash to the landfill. The landfill is right around the corner (about 15 minutes). It has a recycling station and a place for household trash. Once, we went there and saw a sign that said county residents can get free mulch.

Let me briefly explain about southern soils. They are terrible. Our yard is like a clay brick baked in the sun. We don't have a lawn, we have a collection of weeds that we mow. All the topsoil here has been eroded away unless there were trees in the area. When they built this house (about 5 years ago), they cleared the lot. Hence, all the topsoil is gone. It's like a desert out there.

It's basically a soil that's had all the nutrients sucked out of it by lots of rain and sun.

Anyway, there are a few things you can do about it. One, buy a lot of topsoil and stick it on top of the existing soil. Two, amend the existing soil by adding organic matter and nutrients. We're doing a little of both. The garden bed in the front of the house looks like it had topsoil added to it a few years ago. So we bought a bag of topsoil, dug out some of the clay, and replaced it. It rains a lot here, and then the sun bakes everything, so mulch was essential for adding nutrients and keeping water for our plants.

Soil amendments: manure, compost, lime, etc.

How easy was it for me to get the free mulch? I asked the guys at the 'front desk' of the landfill, and they told me to go ahead and drive on down (despite the fact that the sign says no cars...I always feel like I'm going to get yelled at when I drive past the sign). I followed the signs. The road was paved and passed parts of the landfill that had already been closed off. Basically, they look like a giant grassy hill with pipes for flaring methane stuck out the top. After 2 minutes of driving, I arrived at the brush pile. It was huge, and next to it was a huge pile of mulch- free for the taking!

I don't own a pickup truck, so I put my free mulch into our two Rubbermaid recycling containers. All I had to do was shovel it up, fill the containers, and put them in the car. That's how easy it was! When I got home, I dumped the mulch into the garden bed and spread it around. Granted, it will take several trips to cover everything...but it's FREE!!

Call your local landfill to see if you, too, can get free mulch. Why pay?

Green blogging

Well, it's clear that I haven't blogged much about nature lately. To be fair, it has been rainy and raw outside the last few weeks. I've started thinking about making this blog more green. As in, writing about environmentalism and conservation. I may still throw in some nature moments, but right now I feel I'm being compelled to write about more accessible (and less whiny) things.

So here are some things my husband and I do to help the environment. We rent a house, so we can't do a lot to the infrastructure, but we have been able to do a lot.

1. We compost.
People often associate trash take-out with nasty smells, garbage bags bulging with gross things all ready to bust open the second you snag it on something. Our trash doesn't stink. Pretty much ever. That's because we've taken the food out of it. Banana peels, coffee grounds, apple cores, leftover crusty bread, potato and carrot peelings, wilted salad, tissues, and dryer lint all go into the compost crock. Any meat or dairy products go into a bread bag in the freezer until trash day. This eliminates all smells from our garbage, which keeps away rodents and other critters. Our compost crock is from the Gardener's Supply Company and has a charcoal filter in the lid to prevent our kitchen from stinking up while we accumulate enough food waste to merit a trip to the compost bin. Between the two of us, we take out the crock about 2-3 times a week. Our compost bin is a black 4-sided bin with a locking lid. All we do is take the crock out, dump it in, and maybe throw in some leaves now and then. In the 6 months that we've lived here, we've made about 5 pounds of good compost that we can now use to fertilize our garden. A lot of people would complain about the smell, but the compost bin is located in a spot that is far enough away from the house that it doesn't bother us. Or our neighbors. Also, if you do it right and keep your food scraps and leaves balanced, it won't smell at all until you're standing right next to it.
2. We use Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs. Ok, so everyone can do this. These light bulbs last longer than the traditional ones. My only problem with them is that they contain mercury. I only say this because I dropped one yesterday and it shattered all over the floor. All I could think of was, "I just inhaled a bunch of mercury vapor", because that's what's inside of the bulbs. Great. I followed the steps on the EPA web site to clean the bulb up, and also learned at Earth 911 that you can recycle unbroken bulbs at places like Lowes and Home Depot.
3. We dry our clothes outside. We used to do this in our apartment. We haven't done it here yet because we haven't had the time to buy and build a quick laundry line outside. We have tons of clothespins, and our clothes come in smelling great (albeit full of pollen sometimes). The only downside is that some things can stretch on the line (like wet heavy towels). No dryer required!
4. We use a push lawnmower. The kind that you actually push. Without gas. We bought a Scotts Reel Lawnmower about two weeks ago, and it turned out to be a great investment. Our yard is flat. I wouldn't recommend this lawnmower for anyone who has more than an acre of grass to mow, or a yard that is all bumpy. Pushing the lawnmower isn't hard. It does take some muscle, but even I was able to maneuver it around our yard and mowed the front, back, and sides of the house in about an hour. I let the grass clippings mulch into our yard because it's a barren wasteland, mostly. Keep the blades sharp and the wheel axles oiled, and think about how much gas you're not buying!
5. We have a smart power strip. These cost a little more than your average surge protector, but are well worth it. The power strip has four outlets for things you leave on all the time- like your wireless router or a clock- and six outlets for things you can turn off when you're not using them. Vampire appliances are sneaky- they steal energy even when off! We plugged our TV, Wii, DVD player, stereo, and VCR into this, and we turn it off every night before we go to sleep. We've saved on our electrical bills! And even better, you can turn it off when you go on vacation and save even more.
6. We recycle. This seems pretty obvious to even the least environmentally conscious people out there, but I can't tell you how many times I've gone to the landfill to drop off trash and seen some dude in a pickup truck unloading ten garbage bags of mostly plastic bottles. And the recycling center is RIGHT THERE! Really! It doesn't take much. But I guess some people don't really care. But if you are able to do it, do it! It makes a difference.
7. We fix things instead of buying new. My husband is really good at this. I broke the compost crock lid and got so upset that I left the room, complaining that we'd have to buy a new one. When I came back, I found that he'd glued the lid together using some Gorilla Glue. Good as new. In our throw-away society, we need more of this fix-it-up mentality. Sew up those holes in your socks! Glue broken things back together! Give gently used items away or Craigslist them! Find any which way to keep those things out of the trash, which is basically a big hole in the ground.
8. We buy organic. This is not easy, nor is it always a priority. When you're living on one income, eating organic is hard to do. But we've signed up for Community Shared Agriculture, which is a share of fruits and vegetables we get once a week starting late this month. The farm is organic. It has a great work-share program that I'm participating in. I work 4-5 hours a week for them, and they give us a free share of veggies. Great deal, isn't it? We also buy from farmer's markets and try to buy local or organic when we have the extra cash.
9. We only own 1 car. Granted, this is not feasible for a lot of people, but we make it work. I take my husband to work in the morning and pick him up at night, or let him take the car if I don't need to run errands. We try to make our shopping trips as economical as possible, saving on fuel and time. I would bike everywhere if I could, but we live out in the boondocks and everything is far away.
10. We use green cleaning products. I like Greenworks multipurpose spray and toilet cleaner. Windex now has a natural window cleaner that isn't blue. For mopping the floor, I use 7th Generation soap mixed with a little vinegar in hot water. The 7th Gen dish soap gets our dishes clean and is safe. I particularly like the natural sponges we discovered- they're brown, and they are amazing! They hold up even better than the regular sponges. The scrubbing side saves me from having to use Brillo pads. Best of all, when we're done with it, we can throw it into our compost bin!


More to come...I hope these ideas have inspired you to be more green! Go for it!

Hoot

I love owls. I think it's partly because they're so mysterious, coming out only at night. They fly on wings adapted for silent flight, their eyes are so huge they can't move them (that's why they rotate their heads like something out of Poltergeist), and they have great calls.

My husband and I were getting ready for bed the other night (late) and I suddenly thought I heard something. You know, when it's not any of the normal house noises you associate with safety. We both froze and listened. After a moment, we heard a soft hooting outside. Sure enough, it was a Great Horned Owl. It called a few more times before we managed to get the window open, but by then it was gone. It's probably hunting the chorus frogs that have been calling around here.

I would have loved to see it...but owls are elusive. The Barred Owl we saw was a rare occurrence. I suppose my favorite encounter with an owl is when I worked for the Audubon Society. I was lucky enough to do outreach programs that required me to train with a screech owl. If you've never seen one, they are SO DARNED CUTE. You can hold them on your pinky finger, because really, they are 99% feathers. And if you gently bob your hand up and down, the owl's body will move, but not its head. It's hilarious to watch, but also serves a useful function in the wild if you're trying to hunt prey and a branch keeps swaying in the wind.

So two owls for our list...hopefully, we'll hear a Screech Owl soon and be able to add it, too.

“A wise old owl sat on an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren't we like that wise old bird?”

Owls are beautiful and mysterious creatures. They are nocturnal, so many people don't even think about them being around. There are plenty of myths about owls- owls were good luck in Greek culture, but bad omens in Romans. We were driving home in the rain, when suddenly, a ghostly white shape swooped in front of the car. Startled, I stepped on the brake to avoid hitting it. My husband exclaimed, "An owl! Back up!" I put the car into reverse and slowly backed up to see a bedraggled Barred Owl with a dead mouse in its beak. It stared at us, wide-eyed for a few moments until we decided to leave it in peace and return home.

What an amazing moment! Nature sometimes can surprise us with beautiful (if deadly) things.

Dark day, bright spots

I really miss being outside. I think my subconscious is trying to tell me so, because last night I had a dream about the camp I used to work at in the Catskills. I was running around, trying to figure out what classes I needed to teach. I felt totally unprepared and everything looked different than what I was used to. That's about how I feel right now- living in a new state that is poverty-stricken doesn't provide much in the way of new employment.

Despite the darkness of my feelings, I had a few bright spots today. One was when I decided to go out and fill the feeders. Today was bright and sunny, and I soon took off my hat and gloves. As I finished filling a feeder in the front yard, a daring little junco hopped down and chirped repeatedly about 3 feet from where I was standing. I was afraid to breathe. He got spooked and went into a tree near the house. Too bad he wasn't a chickadee; they've been known to eat seed out of people's hands (I've done it before). Then I went out back to fill the tray feeder and tube feeder. As I finished, a glimpse of something big caught my eye. Looking up, I spied a great blue heron just taking off, flying slowly and majestically near the ground (probably because of the power lines next to our house). It was a beautiful sight, and made me smile. So did the orchids my husband brought home for an early birthday present. They are whitish pink dappled with magenta spots- gorgeous. I hope they make it in our dry house.

So I realized I do miss the outdoors. I have been cooped up inside for far too long, not even regularly going on birding trips or hiking. And a little snow won't stop me; I've got YakTraks to help with the ice. I think going for a walk every few days would help bring my spirits up. Just have to find somewhere to go. It would be nice to have more of those bright spots every day...

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." Albert Einstein

I'm really into nature. I worked outside as a naturalist for several years, and I've seen some pretty amazing things. I've always been interested in the outdoors. It's always changing and has the capacity to teach, to awe, and to heal. This blog is going to be about those things- observations, insights, and maybe some general naturalist knowledge, too. My husband and I love to take pictures, so I'll include those when relevant.

Yesterday, we received about 7 inches of snow. Nothing special, except that when you live in Georgia, people tend to freak out about even the slightest amount of the white stuff. Instead of stocking up on food or water, what did my husband and I stock up on? Bird seed. We currently have 7 feeders up in our yard, including a thistle sock, two suet feeders, and a hummingbird feeder. We filled them all to the brim the day before the storm, anticipating a mob.

In the morning, the feeders were indeed mobbed by various small birds- goldfinches, tree sparrows, white-throated sparrows, eastern towhees, white-breasted nuthatches, titmice, and cardinals. Some birds hopped around in the snow; others scuffled beneath our window feeder for cast-off seeds. I've never seen so many goldfinches. There must have been at least 50 at the busiest.

Amazingly, this was not the most birds we had in the yard. A little after breakfast, we noticed a small flock of grackles and red-winged blackbirds in the backyard. Roughly an hour later, we had a horde of about 1,000 birds descend upon our feeders and proceed to completely eat us out of seed. It was unbelievable. The ground fairly seethed with birds. I watched two grackles face off over our tray feeder, rearing back on their legs and spreading their wings and squawking at each other with voices like rusty hinges. My husband said they were fighting over who was going to eat the seed.

It was then I realized that although we enjoy the pleasure of watching these birds, we were also providing them a crucial service- food for survival. They needed to fight to get the nutrients they needed to live. Nature is a life-and-death struggle. We too, are involved in that struggle, but sometimes we are so far removed from it that we need a reminder.

To end on a cheerier note, nature is also full of beauty; forms cultivated to please the eye or the other senses. I'm including some pictures of our trip to the aquarium. I became absolutely obsessed with orchids while there, and my husband finally had to remind me that there was more to see than flowers. Namaste!