tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74049787907477163612024-03-19T06:22:58.062-04:00Buford Nature's AdventuresBuford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.comBlogger187125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-2528703528410705242023-06-19T09:07:00.002-04:002023-06-19T09:07:16.120-04:00Torrey Squirrels<p>Question: Can the Eastern gray squirrel (<i>Sciurus
carolinensis</i>) be employed in the assisted migration of <i>Torreya taxifolia?</i> </p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Historically, Torreya Guardians have been wary of seed
predation on Florida torreya by the gray squirrel because of their appetite for
its large seeds. However, my brief literature review indicates that the gray squirrel
may be useful to Guardians, as this rodent is known to distribute significant
numbers of the large seeds of torreyas and other species into microhabitats
conducive to torreya establishment, bury seeds to suitable germination depths,
cull seeds containing seed-predator insects & other debilitating factors,
and occurs within a suitable geographical range. Therefore, I have assembled
the information below so that Torreya Guardians can take a closer look at the
roles that the gray squirrel might provide in (1) enlarging the geographic
range of the Florida torreya northward of the presumed range of the torreya
pathogen and (2) significantly increasing the torreya populations within that
enlarged range.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Torreya Guardians already know that the Eastern gray
Squirrel can affect our assisted migration tactics. This rodent (1) raids mother
trees of their seeds, (2) steals potted seeds, and (3) caches seeds in
developed areas and wildlands that can germinate and grow into naturally
occurring individuals and colonies. Although we know this third thing, and we
are happy about it when new seedlings “volunteer,” we have historically focused
on the first two annoyances. In my view, this is because our historical charge
has been to propagate and migrate, and obviously, we cannot increase the
population until we learn how to propagate and nurture it. I believe we have now
done those two things well enough to start looking at natural colonization
strategies.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Being a wildlife biologist who sees mammals as the
natural dispersers of Florida torreyas – not wind or water or birds – I suggest
that wildlife biologists assess the potential for expanding (1) colony sizes of
existing artificially planted trees, (2) leapfrog colonizations near existing
artificial individuals and colonies, and (3) large-scale colonizations within
national and state forestlands. However, as Daniel Boone exhorted, we must be
sure we are right before we go ahead. My literature research indicates that
there is only one good candidate for spreading the Florida torreya in the
Eastern U.S., and that is the Eastern gray squirrel. Ergo, I have focused below
only on that species.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The gray squirrel forages for, among other things, the
relatively large seeds (= fruits, nuts) of trees such as the walnut (<i>Juglans
nigra</i>), hickories (<i>Carya</i> spp.), oaks (<i>Quercus</i> spp.), and
chestnuts & chinkapins (<i>Castanea</i> spp.). Chestnut trees historically
were particularly reliant on gray squirrels, but the pines, beech, hazel, and
oaks also benefit greatly, and so probably does the Florida torreya.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Foraged seeds that contain seed-predator insects are
eaten immediately, whereas pristine seeds are stored for later consumption,
especially as winter food. Seeds are stored individually via burial to depths
of at least one inch, one source claiming below the frost line. Seeds may also
be deliberately cracked before burial, it is said to prevent germination. Seeds
are generally stored relatively closely to the finding gray squirrel’s nest
tree, but can also be dispersed over an area of up to seven acres. One study
revealed that gray squirrels can re-find up to two-thirds of the nuts they
buried.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Gray squirrels employ a mnemonic storage technique called
“spatial chunking” (also seen in rats), where seeds are sorted and buried
according to size, type, and possibly taste and food value. By spatial
chunking, zoologists mean that, for instance, hickory nuts will be buried in
one area and oak acorns in a separate place. It has also been found that gray squirrels
store preferred seeds in wide open spaces, possibly to increase a robber’s risk
of predation when randomly foraging away from cover. Presumably, the storing
squirrel experiences less risk because it knows where its seeds are buried, can
go directly to them, and thus be less jeopardized by predators.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Another way that gray squirrels try to prevent
neighboring squirrels from stealing their stores is the tactic of “deceptive
caching;” that is, they only pretend to bury a nut, especially if they see
another squirrel watching them.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Gray squirrels immediately consume insects they
serendipitously find imbedded within seeds. Furthermore, while nest-caching
squirrel species store pristine and insect-containing seeds together and thus
increase seed-feeding insect populations, the gray squirrel’s habit of storing
only pristine seeds and storing them separately acts to limit seed-predator
insects. This practice could also limit seed-fungi infestations, which is
another potential subject for research.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Gray squirrels are important in forest regeneration, much
more so than other North American squirrel species. Of all the North American
squirrel species, only the gray squirrel stores most of its hoard in individual
caches scattered over a wide area in locations that include those that do not
already have forest tree cover. Studies show that gray squirrels bury 97% of
the seeds they find and immediately eat only the 3% that contain insects. Studies
show widely variable rates of gray squirrels’ re-finding their caches, one
being 70% and another only 36%. The remaining seeds were eaten by other animals
(one study lists 20%) and only 10% germinating. Nevertheless, those that do germinate
are likely to be the ones furthest from the nest tree and thus naturally
disseminated. The net effect of planting so many healthy & insect-free
seeds is that vigorous & genetically superior trees are selected for in the
forest regeneration process.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Other North American species of squirrels tend to use
nest caches. For example, the red squirrel (<i>Tamiasciurus hudsonicus</i>)
stores most of its seeds in tree cavities and buries only 11% of them. Seeds
stored in tree cavities will not germinate nor aid in forest regeneration. The
red squirrel is thus considered a seed predator and not a forest regenerator.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Similarly, the Indochinese flying squirrels (<i>Hylopetes
phayrei</i>)<b><i> </i></b>and particolored flying squirrel (<i>Hylopetes
alboniger</i>) in southern China’s rain forests chew two grooves in the shells
of smooth, egg-shaped or rounded nuts to wedge them firmly between branch crotches.
The grooves hold the nut between the branches much like a sturdy mortise-tenon
joint that carpenters use to attach legs onto furniture. They choose smaller
saplings, placing caches roughly 2 m above the ground and 10-25 m from the
nearest nut-producing tree. This makes sense in their humid environment, as a
seed stored in the ground or dead log would rapidly either rot or germinate, and
a seed falling out of a tree crotch would be quickly found and eaten by other
herbivores. Thus, these two squirrel species are also seed predators.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Answer: Gray squirrels are expected to disperse the Florida
torrey regardless of our intentions, so plant one and just stand back!<o:p></o:p></p>Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-9610070417210575712023-06-03T12:27:00.001-04:002023-06-03T12:27:25.453-04:00The Vertical Forest<p>The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are famous, although no
one knows where they were physically located. There is even some doubt whether
this garden ever actually existed, as it was only the Babylonian priest Berossus
who wrote in 290 BCE from first-hand (?) sightings. Regardless, so many of us
want it to be true, and try to make it true of our own ‘castles,’ even if only
in small part. </p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">I have mixed feelings about it. I love plants. Plants are
gods, replacing wastes with the vapors and substances needed by the living. We
keep small plants indoors for their ambiance, and larger perennials in
landscaping features to hide rude concrete and steel and to provide for wildlife.
But we fear large trees next to our houses and paved driveways, and are right
to eschew them. Only shrubs and small tree species are allowed within
falling-limb and pavement-buckling distance of most abodes. But mirages of
hanging gardens still sway in the whims of my daydreaming mind. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">An Italian architect named Stefano Boeri and his staff designed
two residential towers in Milan, Italy, called <i>Il Bosco Verticale</i>, or The
Vertical Forest. At 80 m and 112 m in height, they host appx 20,000 plants in balcony
containers. This greenery is comprised of perennial herbaceous flowers, shrubs,
and small and medium-sized trees. I think it also includes lianas, but that is
not stated in media articles. The two towers are sweet, if not exactly lush. For
example, the greenery is in spots rather than sweeps and washes, as it appears that
nothing is allowed to grow on exterior walls. Furthermore, gardener pruning
keeps plants well separated.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/riba-vertical-forest-stefano-boeri/index.html">https://www.cnn.com/style/article/riba-vertical-forest-stefano-boeri/index.html</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The carbon footprint of the spectacle has been assessed,
concluding that it would take many decades for its flora to offset construction
impacts and maintenance costs. This is in large part due to the additional
structural needs for supporting the heavy weight of the plants and their
containers, potting media, and water. In addition, the large balconies, being
appx 40% of the total floor space, are quite heavy.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Another limit on the carbon footprint offset is the need
for three gardeners working nearly year-round to clip the flora. Firstly, most
plants really do not need to be clipped. Secondly, this keeps exterior walls
possibly overly exposed to the elements. Thirdly, gardeners are expensive. Are three
gardeners working nearly year-round really necessary? For example, one video
depicts gardeners pruning low-growing flowering plants even though most
perennial cultivars exhibit self-limiting growth simply by dying back in the winter.
Planting small and medium-sized trees also appears to be a mistake, both
because of their weight and the need for artificial irrigation and pruning. Shrubs
grow plenty large on balconies, and annual pruning easily ensures that they do
not grow too heavy.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The videos and articles I have seen do not mention how
the plants get watered. Watering can be done automatically with drip irrigation
systems, or by shunting rainwater into plant containers, or by choosing drought-tolerant
cultivars that are fine when watered only when it rains. Too, water is heavy,
so keeping plants small and maintaining only relatively small plant containers reduces
the load on and size of such balconies.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Thus, the building’s carbon footprint can be reduced
substantially by growing smaller, more drought-tolerant plants in smaller
containers on smaller balconies.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Another weakness of the Milan Vertical Forest is the
value placed on the amenity that the vegetated balconies were supposed to offer
residents. The architect doubtless envisioned residents having breakfast and
dinner there, relaxing outdoors with a good book, or perhaps having a smoke
while enjoying the scenery. However, Milan’s climate is evidently too chilly for
most of the year, so residents remain nearly entirely indoors when home. Conversely,
some cities are simply too hot for hanging out outside during summer.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">After I ran across and enjoyed several Vertical Forest articles
and videos, several people coincidentally posted articles on it on Facebook. A
bunch of sharks on one site piled on the idea in a virtual feeding frenzy,
falling all over themselves to pan the idea. It never ceases to amaze me that
invention is literally always attacked by those who are unable to understand
that prototypes are deliberately designed to find their own flaws so that
future editions can be informed and become better. You can see some of that in
the above text where I mention how some of the invention’s flaws can be easily
mitigated. So, I decided to review the cartilaginous fish attacks to see if
they had come up with any issues that I could not think of potential solutions
for off the top of my head. Here goes:</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">AM: “Structure engineer had their math cut out on this
project…”</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">Buford: Hmm, what does this comment mean, anyway?</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">WS: “I can only imagine the insect problem in this
building.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Buford: Why would the “insect problem” be any different
in this building than in any other city building? For one thing, if this
building were plopped down anywhere that I have ever lived, it would have many
birds and lizards consuming the insects. Whatever, there are more plants around
my single-story house than there are on the balcony of any of the vertical
forest’s apartments. Dumb.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">MO: “When good intentions go bad..roots verses concrete..
good luck if you’re living in that.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Buford: Roots are not a problem in the proper plant
containers. Duh.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">AR: “It may work if it was designed for that purpose the
roots may be controllable with the hydroponic system however all that being
said moisture and concrete are not long term friends…”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Buford: Hydroponic systems are heavy and would have large
labor costs in a vertical apartment forest. FYI, concrete and moisture are
actually lovers – concrete continues to set long after you think it is dry.
Indeed, concrete sets better underwater than under air. And anyway, if moisture
were such a problem with buildings, then why is it so popular as a construction
material all over the world? Do your due diligence.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">PM: “…the cyclic loading from winds going through the
trees couldn't possibly have been accounted for.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Buford: This comment cracks me up. LOOK at the picture! In
the first place, there is no more windage with than without the veggies.
Secondly, PM is evidently not really aware of just how thorough professional
architects are. THEY do THEIR due diligence. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">WL: “In fact it might not even be possible to safely
construct and operate such a building. The water it would require would be
terribly heavy and difficult to manage.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Buford: In fact, it was indeed safely constructed and is
currently being safely operated because it was designed by architects who did
their homework, and it was permitted by professionals who did their due
diligence, too. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">MEW: “This cannot be a good thing.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Buford: What cannot be a good thing? We cannot read your
mind.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">MMB: “Well, you also need to look at the long term side
effects...”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Buford: What long-term side effects? Oh, and can MMB
possibly imagine that one of the purposes of prototypes is to “look at
long-term side effects?” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">BKB: “…it wouldn't last one windstorm in Alaska…”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Buford: This comment cracks me up. BKB apparently thinks
something like this might even be designed for an Arctic or Antarctic locale (!);
or that it is not a good idea for Miami or Houston because it wouldn’t be a
good idea in Alaska, or something…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">You get the picture. These people haven’t a clue about architecture,
irrigation, plants, insects, birds, concrete, windage, logic, grammar… My suggestion
to the OP of the thread is to delete asinine comments and Block dummies. That
is what I do on my FB page. That way, thoughtful, informed, educated,
progressive people could share reasonable information.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p>Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-33621925899639945902023-03-03T11:59:00.000-05:002023-03-03T11:59:29.792-05:00Pipsissewa Wilting<p>After building my house and moving into it, it seemed
worthwhile to rent the adjacent pad where I lived in an RV travel trailer
during the construction process. I signed up with hosting platforms Airbnb and
Hipcamp, prepared site profiles, and then stood back, poured myself a cup of
French roast, and waited for new friendships and income to roll in.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Both hosting platforms provide extensive and helpful
instructions and advice to new hosts like myself. I was particularly impressed
with the ability for prospective tenants to review host sites within
standardized formats for ready comparisons. There also are provisions for hosts
to provide additional information that does not fit into their standard forms’
boxes, and there are several ways that hosts can get further advice on setting
up profile webpages; e.g., phone the platforms and talk to real humans, peruse
competitor site profiles as examples, and join Facebook sites where hosts can
advise each other.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">One piece of advice that I took to heart was to put into
my site profile how tenants could deal with any issues particular to my site. Consumers
deserve fair warnings before plunking down their bucks. One fair warning I gave
was about my driveway. I pointed out it was steep, and in the beginning
surfaced with loose gravel that would make it difficult or impossible for small
front-wheel-drive (FWD) cars to ascend.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">There were two warnings that could have been added, but I
was not experienced enough to know about them. One was that self-contained RVs
or trailer towing vehicles must have strong engines due to the steep driveway,
and the second was that self-contained and trailer-towed RVs both must be
limited in length due to tight quarters. But I had no idea how powerful their
engines needed to be or what maximum RV lengths can be accommodated on my site.
So, what were my options in trying to determine these things? I could (1) get
experience over time – good, bad, and ugly; (2) ask competitors for advice
(right!); (3) seek guidance from RV consultants (but just try to find one in
the yellow pages); and (4) ask the hosting platform companies (but they do not
make site inspections). The last three took me back to alternative #1, so I hoped
that experienced RV owners would know what their engines were capable of and
how to shoehorn their RVs into tight slips. I knew those things when I lived in
an RV.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The first tenants to arrive were able to drive their RV
up to the site; however, they had to park their small FWD car down the hill a
little way, still on the property but not adjacent to the RV. They were
understanding about my newness to the business and gave me a good review, bless
their hearts.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The second tenants never were able to make it up to the
RV site. Their towing vehicle may or may not have had sufficient horsepower,
but that did not matter as their trailer wallowed in the gravel and the towing
vehicle’s rear wheels just spun ineffectually. I tried to refund their deposit,
but my newness conspired to make me unable to figure out how to do so.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Friends and relatives also had trouble getting up my
driveway, so I bit the bullet and paid $14,900 to have it paved with asphalt.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">My third tenants (Evie & Harrison; via Airbnb) have
now come and gone. They intended to stay for 28 days in a “skoolie”
(refurbished retired school bus), accompanied by their minivan. I do not know
how old the skoolie was or how well it had been maintained by previous owners,
but it was long past “new.” These tenants drove here from Jacksonville,
Florida. For the unaware, the Jacksonville School District is (was?) the only
school district in the continental USA that does not own and operate its own school
buses. Instead, the district’s buses are owned and operated by individuals,
some driving their own buses and others hiring drivers, and the school board
contracts with these owner-operators to ferry the kids around. Those buses are
kept in service for many years, and their treatment and maintenance levels vary
widely.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">In the 1970s when I worked at a mountain summer camp for
kids, Jacksonville school bus owner-operators were often hired to transport
campers to local swimming holes, forest trails, and other attractions. I
remember one owner-operators complaining to me that his bus had just blown its
engine when being driven uphill on a mountain highway. He related that the bus
was old, but thought it would have lasted another five years if it had been limited
to flatlands.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">When Evie & Harrison arrived, they were unable to
back their skoolie into my RV site, so they opted to enter nose first. There
were several reasons for that inability, IMO the most important being that
their skoolie’s diesel engine was underpowered. It roared loudly as it inched
slowly up the paved driveway and was loathe to move forward whenever the
steering wheel was turned even slightly away from straight ahead. Another apparent
issue was that the turnaround site had shrubby vegetation too close for easy radial
steering, so I later used a chainsaw to cut the shrubs back another 6 to 8 ft.
A third issue was that we were in the midst of a rainy spell, so the ungraveled
ground at the edge of the site was soft. These three issues prevented the
skoolie from maneuvering effectively during their 10-point turnings, and as a
result the skoolie’s left front tire hit a soft spot and sank into the ground 6
to 8 inches. Because their skoolie had no way to be leveled as typical RVs do,
this caused their floor to be slightly tilted in that position.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">After being here a little over a week, they decided that
the tilted floor was unacceptable. They tried to jockey the skoolie over to
harder ground that was only about a yard away to the side, but the skoolie’s
engine was unable to extricate the tire. Another issue with their skoolie, and
presumably many other school buses, was that its rear axle had neither
double-lockable wheels nor positraction, so gunning its engine when one rear
tire was spinning on soft ground robbed power to the other wheel that was
sitting (and unmoving) on solid ground. As a result, the bus went nowhere, so they
gave up on this attempt and called a towing service.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Two days later, a mechanic driving a lifting-flatbed tow truck
arrived to pull the skoolie out of the hole so that it could then be driven
onto the firmer graveled ground. The mechanic had two ways he could do this. He
could either use the truck’s power winch or pull the bus with a chain. He chose
the latter. In his first attempt, he attached one end of his chain to the back
of his tow truck and the other end to a steel hook welded to the back frame of
the skoolie. This attempt ended suddenly when the chain’s end-hook popped off the
bus hook. Harrison then re-hooked the chain and they gave it another go, slowly
at first, and when that did not provide enough oomph, the mechanic powered up and
suddenly soft-jerked the skoolie backward out of the tire-hole. Success! Or so
we thought.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Harrison then drove the skoolie forward onto firm ground;
however, the bus floor was still tilted. Evie told me the next day that the combination
of the bus being tilted for the week and then winched out meant that the frame
had been bent or other serious damage inflicted to the bus. They planned to
have an insurance claim inspector diagnose it. There were two things wrong with
Evie’s assertions: (1) vehicle frames as stoutly manufactured as school busses
do not warp by sitting on uneven ground, and (2) the bus was "yanked"
backward by the tow truck rather than being moved slowly by winching. Yanking a
vehicle with a second vehicle is well-known to sometimes cause serious damage
to one or both vehicles. Frankly, I am surprised the mechanic did not use the
winch to pull the bus, as he confidently stated that the winch was capable of
it. FWIW, I stood back and watched the operation; I did not lift an
assisting hand due to red flags and liability concerns. The tenants elected to
leave my site sooner than scheduled. I do not know if their plan was to move to
a different RV site or to a garage to have the bus repaired.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Their effort to drive away three days later proved once
again that their bus was underpowered for the mountains, as even on the asphalt
driveway, the skoolie could not move forward even an inch when the front wheels
were even slightly steered to the right or left. Also, with the shrubs now trimmed
well away from the driveway, the skoolie still had turnaround issues, so they
decided to back down the driveway to leave. Their original concern about being
hemmed in by shrubbery was thus a third false claim.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">As they prepared to leave, Evie informed me that the
“damage” was to a shock absorber rather than to the bus frame. I do not know
who made this determination, nor if it was even correct, as she had already
made several false determinations. Relieved that their bus had not been
seriously damaged, I agreed with her request for a <i>pro rata</i> refund, as
they stayed for only 11 nights instead of the originally booked 28. Evie then
said she would not give my site a review at all. I assumed she realized that their
engine was underpowered for the mountains, their skoolie should have had leveling
(and stabilizing) equipment, my shrubbery had nothing to do with their turnaround
issues, flatlanders like themselves have a lot to learn about mountain living
and driving, and they too wanted closure on this event. I therefore reciprocated
the intention to give them no review either. We shook hands all around and they
left.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">However, any relief that I may have felt at that moment was
dashed later that day upon learning that she had about-faced and submitted a
review (her fourth false claim). I then learned that I cannot see her review
until I give her one, kind of like buying a pig in a poke. At that point, my
own angst rose to Code Orange. Evie’s unwarranted accusations that the soft
ground had damaged their RV implied potentially thousands of dollars of
liability, yet she offered no apology upon learning that she misspoke. Now she
has given me a review that I cannot see, one that potentially adversely impacts
my future income. This concern was aggravated by Airbnb rep “Jose,” who tried
to get me to agree with something that Evie told Airbnb. Unfortunately, Jose’s
Spanish accent was so strong that I had great difficulty understanding him, and
had to ask him to repeat several things that he said. When I could not
understand exactly what he was trying to get me to agree to that Evie claimed,
I grew annoyed and instead put my own words into my mouth, after which he “agreed”
with my wording.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Oh, by the way, Evie and Harrison released their pet cat
to wander around outdoors unrestrained. My site profile states that all tenant
pets must always be under positive control. I am a biologist who would rather
have wildlife in my yard than someone else’ predatory pet.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">I am now up in the air as to whether I want to continue
to host an RV site at all. I am gestating on Evie’s misspeaking and failure to
apologize, her telling me she was going to do one thing before asking for a
partial refund and then doing something else after I agreed to the refund, they
deliberately ignoring my pet control rule, Jose’s oft-incomprehensible English
during communications regarding liability, Airbnb’s one-million-dollar
“coverage” not actually being insurance, and my own uncertainty as to what
requirements need to be placed on engine horsepower and RV and trailer maximum
lengths. I think I will take my RV site off the market until I am back to Code Green
and I know the maximum lengths of self-contained RVs and towing-towed combos
for my site. In any case, NO MORE SKOOLIES!!!</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-71277966637047814592022-10-20T09:31:00.001-04:002022-10-20T09:31:48.190-04:00<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; font-size: 18.75px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This 10cm sally was spotted on the exterior of a solar greenhouse at 3400ft msl in Henderson Co., NC, in mid-October this year. iNaturalist identified it as a Blue Ridge Two-lined Salamander (<i>Eurycea wilderae</i>). Note the dorsolateral lines fading into spots halfway along the tail for its specific id. Note the fabulous yellow of the belly for your admiration! </span></p><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">iNaturalist graphs it as most commonly sighted in early October. It is otherwise a shy creature <span style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><a style="animation-name: none !important; color: #385898; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;" tabindex="-1"></a></span>(and my first ever sighting), yet was obvious against the GH wall. iNaturalist was short on reproductive habitats, but did say that it lays eggs in late winter to early spring. Therefore, my guess is that it had come out for mating, and positioned itself well above the ground where its belly would attract attention. Presumably, it is male, but I really dunno.</div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpmVn7-tNgHvLOb2vxwj63oBu4rj4YP6nh510-g5f07pajhXVLI684gtzqVTtiRY6xTsgfAz3CDPQmjbT4_QHYd1BZUmDPQmVePqcL1kjt7GrCBBzLfo4sT16MqXTE7CRr3yQUnXl6lzLoM8KfnRE49DOtcQIrTZtul25y83U8jMx2C-i2yfod_dVo/s738/Eurycea%20wilderae%202.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="738" data-original-width="355" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpmVn7-tNgHvLOb2vxwj63oBu4rj4YP6nh510-g5f07pajhXVLI684gtzqVTtiRY6xTsgfAz3CDPQmjbT4_QHYd1BZUmDPQmVePqcL1kjt7GrCBBzLfo4sT16MqXTE7CRr3yQUnXl6lzLoM8KfnRE49DOtcQIrTZtul25y83U8jMx2C-i2yfod_dVo/s320/Eurycea%20wilderae%202.3.jpg" width="154" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlXsI3zX_HFG--753h053MZeEI1Sm-bTS4Sk0zlWYjugztJ58pYyZ4jeGzMzNIGMLDElsjZ0-IgvjDpwWXsdH3ylT23LS6H7tI1QXJWAtO4FSK-86f3yJVeeLk1JfFMOPAheuraIIpxDUfmD5tjGyTqtC60fYE5SKQKbxqpkf45fRr1cl-AaryiSaq/s540/Eurycea%20wilderae%203.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="540" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlXsI3zX_HFG--753h053MZeEI1Sm-bTS4Sk0zlWYjugztJ58pYyZ4jeGzMzNIGMLDElsjZ0-IgvjDpwWXsdH3ylT23LS6H7tI1QXJWAtO4FSK-86f3yJVeeLk1JfFMOPAheuraIIpxDUfmD5tjGyTqtC60fYE5SKQKbxqpkf45fRr1cl-AaryiSaq/s320/Eurycea%20wilderae%203.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br /></div></div>Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-33103785115449341942022-08-01T10:58:00.000-04:002022-08-01T10:58:23.133-04:00Need Engineering Trade Journals<p>I am a member of
AAAS, and while that organization’s <i>Science News</i> articles
written by its journalism staff are long on who did the research and where they
work, their articles are sadly short on the nitty gritty. Fortunately, AAAS also
publishes the journal <i>Science</i>, which minutely details cutting-edge
research applicable to multiple research disciplines. Good mag, that.</p><p>I love to read
about science and engineering. <i>Science</i> indeed feeds the former, but not the
latter. A long-ago workplace’s engineers used to pass around engineering trade magazines,
which discussed details of the latest applications in engineering research. I
read them as avidly as my engineering colleagues (I am a wildlife biologist). I
miss those mags.</p><p>One article in
particular, I believe in a magazine entitled <i>Civil Engineering</i>, was
written by an engineer who immersed a “hardware cloth” wire grid into saltwater
and applied a small current to it. Over a month-long period, a hard solid that
looked like cement subsequently “grew” on the grid. He initially suspected it was
a marine salt precipitate, but after turning off the power, it did not
redissolve. He didn’t want to pay for a chemical assessment, but opined that
the material might have been some kind of hydrated compound. Because (I think) he
used raw saltwater, I wonder if there might also have been a microbial component.
Whatever, thinking that it had potential as a building material, he patented it
and dedicated the patent to the public. The popular press would never, ever do
articles like that.</p><p>More recently,
there have been a series of vapid articles in the pop press about a Netherlands
architectural firm designing a floating town for Mauritius. Its goal is to stay
ahead of global warming’s sea rise. The new town’s buildings will be on rafting
platforms joined together and anchored in place within an atoll. The architectural
drawings are all pretty faces, of course, but neither pop press articles nor company
PR detail such things as what materials comprise the floats, platforms,
infrastructure, and buildings. Yawn. How are individual floating pods
interconnected? With steel cables? With wooden beams? How will they deal with
fouling organisms that glom onto and weigh down the floats? Seascaping projects
like this one fascinate me, but all the articles I’ve read about it so far (and
I’ve looked hard!) are empty calories to my analytical mind.</p><p>Or how about Elon
Musk’s fantasy about a Mars colony? What EXACTLY does he plan to do about the
physiological impacts to the human body from long-term exposure to low gravity?
There’s not a peep about that issue in pop press articles. Hellooo! Earth calling
Mars!</p><p>So, I plan to
spend a little time over the next few weeks looking at engineering and
architectural trade mags to see if they might take me where I want to go, and
at what cost. Do any of you engineers and architects out there have any
pointers? TIA</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-83730243156380923142020-12-14T17:25:00.001-05:002020-12-14T17:25:43.309-05:00My Florida Torrey 2020 StatusI am a Torreya Guardian, one of a dozen or so people who work to prevent the extinction of one of the most endangered conifers in the world. The Florida torrey, Torreya taxifolia, has an extremely restricted range that is located at the triple point where Florida, Georgia, and Alabama meet. Although it has protected habitat in Florida, especially within Torreya State Park and nearby conservancy preserves, it is there infested by a fungus (Fusarium torreyae) that kills nearly all torreys before they are mature enough to set seed. Connie Barlow reasoned that the best way to save the species was to assist in its migration to cooler climes where the fungus may not be able to survive. She and others collect seed annually for distribution to the rest of us. Hence, my plantings in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina.
So far, I have put 18 seedlings in the ground on my 2+ acres, 14 of which have survived to this day. The other four were killed by voles chewing through taproots blocking their way when digging their tunnels. This blog post documents the status of the remaining 14 as of today.
The single torrey that was planted within the mature mixed forest here has grown the least, and now, nine years later, has grown to a height of only 13 inches:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRrEvZfYG0LcfGJAr1ya1CMJv3Y-AD-1yYNWoNvo0KOXJ17EJ6Ca6QnNl-gomHc8zzc_NhO1B1cmTknIQaxzu-ZoyXbsc-WS-TUgOg_q7P_SUTpBGs7irSAcoZSLOn9248LXhql0In-ag/s1641/Torreya+taxifolia+C+2020-12-14+-+1.3.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="1641" data-original-width="1280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRrEvZfYG0LcfGJAr1ya1CMJv3Y-AD-1yYNWoNvo0KOXJ17EJ6Ca6QnNl-gomHc8zzc_NhO1B1cmTknIQaxzu-ZoyXbsc-WS-TUgOg_q7P_SUTpBGs7irSAcoZSLOn9248LXhql0In-ag/s320/Torreya+taxifolia+C+2020-12-14+-+1.3.jpg"/></a></div>
The largest two were planted alongside my driveway where they get 4-5 hours of direct sunlight a day. Now, eight years later, they are 71 inches tall:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjydkVXK1HkdwY6TNQpE2TpFvNbDsBV0Z6atL4F-j82QWFI-9VgMFZYhSSozgeBVhP1jkhpboGyTgISAZUcAT_Dsy6RZpk9rakATbcDG0jZmcbi2_Ir54xnRszoYBGmUDtjBZp021Ykoy8/s2048/Torreya+taxifolia+K+2020-12-14+-+1.3.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjydkVXK1HkdwY6TNQpE2TpFvNbDsBV0Z6atL4F-j82QWFI-9VgMFZYhSSozgeBVhP1jkhpboGyTgISAZUcAT_Dsy6RZpk9rakATbcDG0jZmcbi2_Ir54xnRszoYBGmUDtjBZp021Ykoy8/s320/Torreya+taxifolia+K+2020-12-14+-+1.3.jpg"/></a></div>
The others are intermediate in size according to the amount of insolation that they receive. Here's a couple of them:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaWqabYtQeuJ4sSUpyo-xXBvjK8HQudcgD9ulMPH-PA5AyxVVb_ZAJ91vTtzLr0KIjvyHpcmldXrCjQnCUn63QjrfkU3qXsikHdeZaMnIZU54DRREVIJ1amev9yBORc8xF7xXkIuTaFN8/s2048/Torreya+taxifolia+E+2020-12-14+-+1.3.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaWqabYtQeuJ4sSUpyo-xXBvjK8HQudcgD9ulMPH-PA5AyxVVb_ZAJ91vTtzLr0KIjvyHpcmldXrCjQnCUn63QjrfkU3qXsikHdeZaMnIZU54DRREVIJ1amev9yBORc8xF7xXkIuTaFN8/s320/Torreya+taxifolia+E+2020-12-14+-+1.3.jpg"/></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlNSMqfKstzLaUR-Cts1Oc2fpm_oun4qCkkN5VW0WQhZuJS-451kpeFr_jjXikfTUhYaSX3c5qYEgAcKuSLDc_J_HZwIrsGqD3_NtGQaMMjLWt6tYKdKBy0OKsjKzeRFW_0XSPIjLUoYY/s2048/Torreya+taxifolia+H+2020-12-14+-+1.3.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlNSMqfKstzLaUR-Cts1Oc2fpm_oun4qCkkN5VW0WQhZuJS-451kpeFr_jjXikfTUhYaSX3c5qYEgAcKuSLDc_J_HZwIrsGqD3_NtGQaMMjLWt6tYKdKBy0OKsjKzeRFW_0XSPIjLUoYY/s320/Torreya+taxifolia+H+2020-12-14+-+1.3.jpg"/></a></div>
Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-91171959729729703992020-12-05T12:32:00.000-05:002020-12-05T12:32:13.973-05:00Solar Greenhouse Thermal Mass Hydroponics<p>Many greenhouses today use thermal mass water tanks. The
26 ft diameter Open Spaces Growing Dome solar greenhouse that I manage for a
friend at 3400 ft elevation in western North Carolina has one that might hold
about 600 gallons. Climate zone maps say it is within zone 7, but I believe it
might as well be zone 6 at that elevation. Whatever.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">I have asked around on Facebook's greenhouse and general gardening groups
whether anyone is using their thermal mass water tanks for hydroponic or aquaponic
cultures, and have received zero responses one way or the other. My suspicion
is that people who do so are doing it on a commercial scale, which is fine as
far as that goes. However, there are many greenhouse gardeners who grow for
their own and friends’ tables, so I think this represents a currently wasted
opportunity. If you have a thermal mass water tank in your greenhouse, or are
thinking about putting one in, consider adding edibles to those tanks. I don’t
think you will find very much directly applicable information out there (and I
could be wrong about that), but perhaps if we who do eat what comes out of our
tanks, we can share what we have learned in Facebook greenhouse and gardening
groups.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">I started out by researching crops to grow on a small
scale in the GH I manage. It turns out that there are few such crops, and many
of them are invasive pests that can be illegal to grow; <i>e.g</i>., watercress (<i>Nasturtium
officinale</i>), which grows rampantly in some of America’s natural streams. Other
native wild species like yellow water lily (<i>Nuphar
advena</i>) and wild rice (<i>Zizania,</i>
four species) are too large and difficult to harvest from small water tanks. I
uncovered no suitable aquatic plants, so I looked for wetland plants that might
be grown on floats.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">One of the most promising candidates is Chinese water
chestnut (<i>Eleocharis edulis</i>). This is
a small wetland plant that can be raised in shallow water in a matrix of
organic mud (I don’t call it soil, as there is no such thing as a true wetland “soil”).
I obtained ten corms of it from a nursery in Florida, then punched five half-inch
holes in the bottom of a closed-cell foam packing tray and placed five corms in
the holes equally spaced around in the tray:</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoU7hVqHieU2Rivl0ZPd23OR2wYHadKbbeFwX8quefynPex-zQ-_r4tPiGmvLUTXc3Xx-RCakNa4_1ldsNTKY9DHomknhm-_RFWiqryl8kq2BRBruApmKykC6qNWl9D6Mc65IKYIpvM6Q/s2048/Eleocharis+dulcis+Week+0+Five+Corms+wo+Soil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoU7hVqHieU2Rivl0ZPd23OR2wYHadKbbeFwX8quefynPex-zQ-_r4tPiGmvLUTXc3Xx-RCakNa4_1ldsNTKY9DHomknhm-_RFWiqryl8kq2BRBruApmKykC6qNWl9D6Mc65IKYIpvM6Q/s320/Eleocharis+dulcis+Week+0+Five+Corms+wo+Soil.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I then added the other five corms and filled the tray
with about two inches of organic mud. They took their sweet time to sprout and
then grew relatively slowly, averaging maybe 14 inches in height by early July 2020
(week 13):<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiErw8CwOU8v-5z9BYXZy-hRnuUooh8-SmuhYb4sxMdqsOpxk2vCivwLmqyvNbrHmuD6bzAz3SuULpXJARO-2k_jhU0b5WNrwgOGbKyzg5gNUvhcs8MdeQWRqqGS1ZfdG7EQ6XWda4sx04/s2048/Eleocharis+dulcis+Week+13+-+2.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiErw8CwOU8v-5z9BYXZy-hRnuUooh8-SmuhYb4sxMdqsOpxk2vCivwLmqyvNbrHmuD6bzAz3SuULpXJARO-2k_jhU0b5WNrwgOGbKyzg5gNUvhcs8MdeQWRqqGS1ZfdG7EQ6XWda4sx04/s320/Eleocharis+dulcis+Week+13+-+2.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />As of last week (week 31), some of the leaves had grown
to a height of about 16 inches and had started to die back for the winter. I do
not know if the original corms have budded new ones, as this is not obvious. They
may have stored enough energy during this past growing season to add more corm/shoot
growth in the coming spring, and I don’t want to retard that possibility by
disturbing them now just prior to winter. About half of the mud is gone,
presumably by decomposition, but possibly also by percolating down into the
tank through the watering holes. I plan to add more mud during early springtime.
In the photo, note the plants’ white roots floating just under the water’s
surface:<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxJIP9RlIq6xFLsU1KWXuueLgCBcrgWiATn8Kgpt-AuB5DDT9XkvrzRQO0vCc8Clo20UqcCufNmWlMCnQiUVYPiEkXqr6KeKy_SjAjlZU-bMm4yo9Qclm2kZGPUcukIyKOxYPLQGhfyoU/s2048/Eleocharis+dulcis+Week+31+-+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxJIP9RlIq6xFLsU1KWXuueLgCBcrgWiATn8Kgpt-AuB5DDT9XkvrzRQO0vCc8Clo20UqcCufNmWlMCnQiUVYPiEkXqr6KeKy_SjAjlZU-bMm4yo9Qclm2kZGPUcukIyKOxYPLQGhfyoU/s320/Eleocharis+dulcis+Week+31+-+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />There are a few small fish (unknown species) in the tank
to keep mosquito larvae at bay. I was afraid the fish might eat the roots, but
that does not seem to be a problem. There is a thick layer of algae growing atop
the mud, and I wonder if it will adversely affect the plants, but that remains
to be seen.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Despite the water chestnut’s slow growth, I was
encouraged by the successful proof of concept, wherein the floating wetland bed
remained afloat, the water chestnuts flourished, the mud acted as a wetland
substrate, and nothing bad happened over the five-month experiment. However,
further internet searches turned up no other suitably promising floating wet
mud crops, so I turned my attention to drier floating substrates, and it being
autumn becoming winter, settled on peas - specifically snow and sugar snap
peas. I had already successfully raised those in outside beds nearby, so I knew
they would work with the potting soil that was available.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">This time, I used Styrofoam packaging material, again
punched half-inch holes in the bottom for irrigation, and placed 1- to 2-inch
rocks above the holes to elevate the potting soil above the water level and
hopefully to keep most of the dirt from dropping through the holes. This is
what it looked like one week after planting (late September 2020):</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwWhejTq1umO4rJHFboAqvugQbEcO_1RQfTxpQAnUkCHE36hzUzWFGGH7eKRpS5X1j0FtMGG49q7tXB0sb1t_HciH41y3ynxY1Yy-GHywjQ4a47pXuebBcDnlWUfBF3cO1a3Ib6JsXhjA/s2048/Styrofoam+Float+2+Week+1+-+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1609" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwWhejTq1umO4rJHFboAqvugQbEcO_1RQfTxpQAnUkCHE36hzUzWFGGH7eKRpS5X1j0FtMGG49q7tXB0sb1t_HciH41y3ynxY1Yy-GHywjQ4a47pXuebBcDnlWUfBF3cO1a3Ib6JsXhjA/s320/Styrofoam+Float+2+Week+1+-+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />The pea seeds fairly leapt up out of the ground! Over the
following weeks, the plants (vines) grew eight inches up and over the edge of
the tank, another four feet down to the greenhouse floor, and then back up
another two feet. That’s almost seven feet over 11 weeks, which was easily twice
the length of pea vines grown outside in the garden bed during the summer. I
don’t know if they grew faster in the greenhouse because peas are a cool season
crop, but I also must admit that they have yet to flower and set seed. There could
be a nutrient deficiency in the water tank, but that is hard to determine
because water nutrient analyses are expensive and the county extension agency
is oriented toward determining fertilizer levels in dirt, not water.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQwtgQ-R9LSJqsmy0HHhRbgqlunp8XLyUVgWHpeiMVMGIR87G2W_6EMF7Q2GaQEpXlyEYzmVzU0Odpn720zerj00U0xpwfECjuyRCHkn_J7-vLRcS6cqajJCaYAOgujkInukQiuQT-Fz4/s2048/Styrofoam+Float+2+Week+12+2020-11-2+-+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQwtgQ-R9LSJqsmy0HHhRbgqlunp8XLyUVgWHpeiMVMGIR87G2W_6EMF7Q2GaQEpXlyEYzmVzU0Odpn720zerj00U0xpwfECjuyRCHkn_J7-vLRcS6cqajJCaYAOgujkInukQiuQT-Fz4/s320/Styrofoam+Float+2+Week+12+2020-11-2+-+1.3.jpg" /></a></div><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><br /></o:p></p>I like the idea of raising vines rather than bushes in
the tank, because vines can grow over and down the sides of the tank whereas
bushes (<i>e.g</i>., beans and tomatoes)
could easily topple over if their substrates have no side support. I may try strawberries
this coming spring.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-83015075129779716672019-03-19T14:28:00.002-04:002019-03-19T14:28:17.953-04:00Red Wolves?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Kimo Brown’s story today on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/y6rxenfs) of his
encounter with mustangs and rez dogs during morning yoga reminded me of a similar
experience I had at Padre Island National Seashore off Corpus Christi, Texas, I
think in the 1980s. It happened when a client organized a workshop attended by
several members of our environmental consulting company, another consulting
company, local university scholars, and state and federal agency staff. The
group was primarily composed of wildlife biologists.</div>
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We met daily at the university over a week, did our workshop
thing, and then retired at the end of each day to a local pub for chips, Tex-Mex
salsa, and beer. Problem was, there was one big round table that most of the
group sat at, but it wasn’t big enough for us all, so I wound up at a smaller table
with grad students. The Big Table continued to talk about the project, but the
grad students only talked about school funding inadequacies. After a couple of
days of barroom boredom, I decided to investigate the Padre Island wilderness.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I drove across the causeway and parked, walked the
seaside trail to a fine Seton spot, and sat down in the atmosphere created by wind
in the sea oats, Gulf of Mexico small surf, and colorful sunset. I was totally
alone. Despite the thriving city only a few miles away, I was the only person in
the coastal barrier landscape. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The first evening I was there, and almost as soon as I sat
down, Eastern Meadowlarks began singing. Theirs is a relatively monotonous, strident
and reedy song, but I grew up with it in North Florida and find it familiar and
comforting. This lasted for about 15 minutes. Afterward, there was about a
five-minute interval carrying only the sounds of the breeze and the sea, and
then Western Meadowlarks began calling. Their songs were far and away more
melodious than their Back East brethren. It was my first experience hearing this
species, and I was enthralled. I listened to it until they ceased singing,
finished watching the sun go down, and drove back to the motel.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The second evening, I again went to that sweet spot and
waited for the meadowlark opera to begin. As I sat there, however, I got the
strange feeling that someone was watching me despite mine being the only
vehicle in the parking lot. Turning around to investigate, I saw three large
canids about 20 feet away staring at me from the sand dune ridgeline above... three
pairs of wild, yellow eyes evaluating this lone potential prey victim sitting
in a most vulnerable position. Not daring to even gulp, much less budge, I stared
back. Two of them then turned and nonchalantly trotted away, but the third
continued to meet my gaze for a moment longer and then also slipped off.<o:p></o:p></div>
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These animals were the size of large German shepherds,
but the grad students the next day concluded I had merely seen coyotes. However,
I have seen coyotes Out West and in the Southeast, and individuals of both populations
are significantly smaller than shepherds. Furthermore, there was a small population
of red wolves on that island back then. Perhaps I did just see coyotes, but the
coyote is descended from wolves and their hybrids are fertile, so I prefer to
believe that I saw wolves. Whatever, after they left, I listened again to the
meadowlarks. East meets West sometimes inscrutably. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-6090872309779696072018-12-23T20:42:00.000-05:002018-12-23T20:42:39.690-05:00A Solar Greenhouse to Play In!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I have been helping a friend repair and put back into
operation a 26 ft diameter geodesic dome solar greenhouse that was designed and
sold by Colorado-based Growing Spaces.</div>
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She bought the greenhouse over ten years ago as a way to
get her family to spend quality time together on a project. Her family
scattered to the four winds over the years, and not having a green thumb she just
‘let it go.’ More recently, she decided to rehabilitate it as a way to grow her
own organic veggies and provide a place for herself and her Buddhist group to
meditate. I constructed a solar greenhouse in the late 1970s that followed the
guidelines of the New Alchemy Institute (now called The Green Center), so now I
get to play in a solar greenhouse again after all these years!<o:p></o:p></div>
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My friend flatly refuses to employ power from the local
utility (Duke), instead relying on three small solar panels that came with the greenhouse:
(1) a 12" x 24" panel powering a ventilation fan, (2) a 12" x
24" panel powering an under-soil heating system, and (3) a 12" x
12" panel powering a (bilge) pump intended to circulate water in the
thermal storage tank. All three solar panels function fine and provide appx 12 vDC
current, which obviously varies according to the amount of solar insolation
available during the diel cycle as modified by weather.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj56SR2ixdMswY8FCMHrrIgDnr53tMleLdOopbtLZPuPF_MVL3g9vjGbx3BKHiTXddcgpf63aAaAXJJVJxlPGiUuTS4XBsraV0FtuEXd-df9FcZaw8ladmk_BYsJKKOcJ9HAJSP6xUQ2_k/s1600/Ventilation+Fan+Housing+n+Thermostat+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1158" data-original-width="1543" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj56SR2ixdMswY8FCMHrrIgDnr53tMleLdOopbtLZPuPF_MVL3g9vjGbx3BKHiTXddcgpf63aAaAXJJVJxlPGiUuTS4XBsraV0FtuEXd-df9FcZaw8ladmk_BYsJKKOcJ9HAJSP6xUQ2_k/s320/Ventilation+Fan+Housing+n+Thermostat+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a>The ventilation fan also works well; however, I am a bit
confused about its thermostat. Currently, the fan turns on and blows outside
air into the GH when inside air temperature drops to about 65 <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">°</span>F,
and then turns off when greenhouse air rises to 80+ <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">°</span>F. That is obviously backwards
from what it should do, and the manufacturer confirmed to me that the
thermostat was probably wired backwards, but after reversing the thermostat’s
internal wiring based on a diagram he sent me, it still turns on and off
backwards. Maybe I only thought I rewired it correctly but actually didn’t? I’ll
revisit this in the spring, but the fan is now disabled and shuttered for the
winter.</div>
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The greenhouse’s two-foot-high internal raised beds are enclosed
by concrete block walls, at the bases of which are layers of eighth-inch wire
mesh (so-called ‘hardware cloth’) to ward off burrowing rodents. The beds
encircle the greenhouse interior perimeter except at the door and water tank. The
bottom halves of the beds are filled with native dirt, which is a rocky sandy
clay that provides good enough drainage. The top halves of the beds are filled
to an appx twelve-inch depth with potting soil (mostly pine bark with a little
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humus and very little Perlite).</div>
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There are two four-inch diameter ribbed plastic pipes
running the entire length of the perimeter beds at the interface between the
native dirt and potting soil. The pipes lead from an air intake box near the
center of the GH’s south side (the warmest place in the GH):<o:p></o:p><br />
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I replaced the seized-up original soil heater fan with a
$10 computer cooling fan and hooked it up to the second 12” x 24” solar panel. When
the sun is shining, the solar panel now powers the new fan, which sucks air into
and pushes it through the two plastic pipes to heat the soils in the raised beds.
Warm roots support veggies better than cold roots! This pic shows the exhaust
end of one of the pipes emerging well above the raised bed to keep potting soil
from falling into the pipe:</div>
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The water tank's bilge pump was seized up when I came on board, so it
was discarded but not replaced. My friend said it never worked (!) and she didn’t
miss it, so there are no plans to replace it. The electric wires from its solar
panel are still in place but not connected to anything. I harbor thoughts of eventually
installing a new bilge pump and using the water tank (pictured below) for more
than just thermal storage, but that is a subject to write about on another day.
In the spring of 2019, I plan to move the bilge pump’s solar panel to the
southwest side of the roof and the soil heater solar panel to its southeast side.
I will then wire the two solar panels in parallel to power the soil bed heating
fan, which together should provide power for a longer diel period and heat the
raised bed soils even better than originally designed.<o:p></o:p><br />
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The water supply for the greenhouse was originally a
stop-and-waste valve spigot located outside the greenhouse about four feet away
from the southwest ventilation panel. This had several undesirable results,
including (1) having to run a hose from the spigot into the greenhouse through
the SW ventilation panel, which was inconvenient and in the way of gardening
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because the hose was kept there, causing warm greenhouse air to escape to the
outdoor winter environment, and (3) the spigot was destroyed twice in freezing weather
after being left on due to forgetfulness. I convinced her to let me and her
handyman move the spigot to the inside of the greenhouse, which was done in
December 2018, and I then attached a four-way brass water distributor (and a
plastic wye) to it to provide five protected tap water sources inside the
structure.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinNSMSKTJNy8A6PBeEmCE6jzx4Xk4UkkmNSAo4OB3QWhjzT9_uE_aixOyT0K9Vh8Q7DXQ2upeVH3Y9DTMX7i_JV9_3Zkzyt5uI6Tf3lhb5uk1t-OY3-gS_drebnqnvChAggBXnb5QsULs/s1600/Hose+Passing+Door+Going+to+W+Raised+Bed+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinNSMSKTJNy8A6PBeEmCE6jzx4Xk4UkkmNSAo4OB3QWhjzT9_uE_aixOyT0K9Vh8Q7DXQ2upeVH3Y9DTMX7i_JV9_3Zkzyt5uI6Tf3lhb5uk1t-OY3-gS_drebnqnvChAggBXnb5QsULs/s320/Hose+Passing+Door+Going+to+W+Raised+Bed+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a>Next, I connected two soaker hoses to the distributor.
For the short raised bed located along the greenhouse’s west side and beyond
the door, I cut a short section from a garden hose, added male and female
connectors to the severed hose ends, and ran the short hose to the short bed to
connect into a 25 ft long soaker hose. This photo shows the hose running
vertically along both lower sides of the door (the hose is also buried four inches
under the floor sand).</div>
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The second soaker hose, 50 ft long, was attached to the
water distributor and then run out and looped back to irrigate the long raised
bed. Soaker hoses have small pores that deliberately leak water for irrigation,
but some of the pores are large enough for water to squirt out several feet beyond
the raised beds and be wasted. Therefore, I buried both soaker hoses 2-3 inches
deep in the potting soil to capture all of the irrigation water. These two soakers
irrigate nearly the entirety of the raised beds, excluding only the end of the
long bed which is not yet completely filled with potting soil or contains any plants.
That location will be topped up with potting soil and vegetated in the spring
of 2019, at which time I will add another 25 ft long soaker hose to irrigate it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The greenhouse has a lot of air leaks, allowing air to
somewhat freely pass in and out of the structure. This undesirably cools the
interior in winter, although probably also helps to beneficially reduce
overheating in summer. Leaks are caused in several ways, and I have plugged
some of them, but much more repair will be needed next year. As mentioned
above, one leak was stopped by moving the water spigot inside the greenhouse,
thus eliminating the need to run the irrigation hose through an always-open
vent panel. A second leak was closed by replacing a rotted structural 2x4 that a
vent panel was attached to. A third leak was fixed by reseating weather-stripping
that had become loose and sagged away from a vent panel over time. A fourth
leak was mostly closed by replacing two rotted structural 2x4 boards that were
fitted horizontally to the outside Hardy-board wall. Finally, several vent
panels did not close completely because the aluminum strips that cover and
protect vent panel junctions were too long; these I cut shorter with tin snips.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The fourth leak mentioned above was difficult to repair,
as the weight of the greenhouse’s transparent panels was upon the two rotted
2x4 boards. Furthermore, additional 2x4s atop the Hardy-boards are rotten and still
need replacing, which will be a two-man operation that will be done during 2019.
The greenhouse owner is somewhat sensitive to pressure-treated wood, so the
original construction used untreated redwood or cedar 2x4s. While redwood,
cedar, and some other woods are naturally rot-resistant, they certainly are not
completely so, and we will be looking at alternatives come spring.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUF0FUL5tXc7Xw34Oe9G-mCKkW7fwt7QJC4dIImZ_Z7RRr-zYxHDXuFz9z7HgqN128JiAxjbbpPjD6jxf9ec8LiiIB8OmNNctAbYRO8aUX2fe2DER0EAJBtzKzJ1GVj1plh6v8gWj4Tno/s1600/Red+Russian+Kale+Grazed+by+Varmints+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUF0FUL5tXc7Xw34Oe9G-mCKkW7fwt7QJC4dIImZ_Z7RRr-zYxHDXuFz9z7HgqN128JiAxjbbpPjD6jxf9ec8LiiIB8OmNNctAbYRO8aUX2fe2DER0EAJBtzKzJ1GVj1plh6v8gWj4Tno/s320/Red+Russian+Kale+Grazed+by+Varmints+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a>We have also had to learn a lesson in varmint control. The
entire floor of the structure is underlain by eighth-inch wire mesh to prevent
rodents from burrowing into the greenhouse. This includes under the raised
beds, as mentioned above, and under the central floor’s four-inch-thick layer
of coarse sand. However, today I spotted on the bottom of the water tank a
drowned mouse that evidently fell in and could not climb out. We had been
wondering what was eating the leaves of the parsley and red Russian kale, and were advised by neighbors that it was probably slugs,
so we were planning to install beer traps. However, the mouse could also be the
culprit, as a cursory search has yet to turn up a single slug and there are
still many holes in the walls that need to be plugged. What do you think?<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJZk92DveTd2fsuEJx4yhdBDPHJgEgTk5zsLmEeBmdYFyLx_pHwNVUXa3iJF5KOxMLX5aLIWdjKUOIIYnMjOfSfi1uJZBCnE6Ng4Jb0EWN1W4SHhQWIZ_w__OpHVlUM37dYqfLniK8UcI/s1600/Parsley+Grazed+by+Varmints+by+W+Vent+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1201" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJZk92DveTd2fsuEJx4yhdBDPHJgEgTk5zsLmEeBmdYFyLx_pHwNVUXa3iJF5KOxMLX5aLIWdjKUOIIYnMjOfSfi1uJZBCnE6Ng4Jb0EWN1W4SHhQWIZ_w__OpHVlUM37dYqfLniK8UcI/s320/Parsley+Grazed+by+Varmints+by+W+Vent+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Lastly, the photo below of the center of the greenhouse
should give you some idea of how much room there is inside. It is large enough
to add a central raised bed, but we will probably not do so since she wants the
space for meditation sessions. I hope to be able to show you more pics over
time as we finish topping up and planting the existing raised beds, adding the
additional soaker hose, adding hanging baskets, and allowing warmer weather
over the upcoming spring and summer to create a lush indoor green space. I might
even install some solenoid valves to completely automate the irrigation system.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9eAamMp8MUJx-tB91wyj_ZWBSKIR4gUWfilrysMpHUG61sjtJoXLss5woP8-t0-4j1eXkivcPl5ssFGc0bF9UJP7Tsf8Kc7wAbKLXm3nUjMg1yHdA8I4CsJ1LhLGIdl6Q0bw2UIgOyA4/s1600/Center+of+GH+from+W+2.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9eAamMp8MUJx-tB91wyj_ZWBSKIR4gUWfilrysMpHUG61sjtJoXLss5woP8-t0-4j1eXkivcPl5ssFGc0bF9UJP7Tsf8Kc7wAbKLXm3nUjMg1yHdA8I4CsJ1LhLGIdl6Q0bw2UIgOyA4/s320/Center+of+GH+from+W+2.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-17420982306719202012018-05-09T22:00:00.000-04:002018-05-09T22:00:11.708-04:00Carolina Wrens in the House<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A few days after I returned from Florida to my place in
North Carolina at the beginning of March, a pair of Carolina Wrens (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thryothorus ludovicianus</i>) built a nest
on top of an electric outlet box in my house. The house was (is) still under
construction, so they could easily get in and out at will. Over the next week,
the female laid five eggs in the nest. I didn’t want to quit working on the
house and didn’t want to evict the birds either, although I had already run off
four or five flying squirrels (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Glaucomys volans</i>)
from the eaves and a major nest of house mice (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mus musculus</i>) from the basement. So, I just left the birds alone
and went to work on the house.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The wrens and I puttered around each other, they warily
and me deliberately. I tried to give them as much personal space as I could,
but house construction went on regardless. Over the next two months they
incubated the eggs and fed the hatchlings in the nest until yesterday, when the
nestlings fledged. I don’t know how many of the original five survived, but I counted
at least four. This photo shows three of them in the house:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgydQDdMJSCJVoF4MW8AcRtaf-7ftXEXjH6KU7G45Ty_o0RzOvVaw3DFGmJZbZBshA6X510CH3ytbyU3903FJtu5YVvmNjiU3aQ3L-_anFLhCdci0NShBSTR2sGKgnaOayfR6ws4A9-02c/s1600/Thryothorus+ludovicianus+Three+Juveniles+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1261" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgydQDdMJSCJVoF4MW8AcRtaf-7ftXEXjH6KU7G45Ty_o0RzOvVaw3DFGmJZbZBshA6X510CH3ytbyU3903FJtu5YVvmNjiU3aQ3L-_anFLhCdci0NShBSTR2sGKgnaOayfR6ws4A9-02c/s320/Thryothorus+ludovicianus+Three+Juveniles+1.3.jpg" width="252" /></a></div>
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The four young-uns and their parents freaked out when I arrived
that morning, but three of the nestlings were able to fly from the nest area up
to the soffit and then across and down into a mountain laurel bush (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kalmia latifolia</i>) outside where they
remained and rested for a while. The fourth nestling, apparently the runt of
the litter, was too weak to make it up to the soffit. It tried to hide from me
and then escape my gentle clutches, all to no avail:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9S0vaiHeKrbJotugY-bbCqFvECQrAtO_tlsrxbjlSnR1q_eZk2nDsIn9C_0RZcSm5jN9MoPzcNjRc-JFRz-OZ3O17yXNWyUwqXODOJo9XhoBWrhrlszTIKbnZqgC2QIM1MlUFo8F1hqI/s1600/Thryothorus+ludovicianus+Runt+Juvenile+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1530" data-original-width="1600" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9S0vaiHeKrbJotugY-bbCqFvECQrAtO_tlsrxbjlSnR1q_eZk2nDsIn9C_0RZcSm5jN9MoPzcNjRc-JFRz-OZ3O17yXNWyUwqXODOJo9XhoBWrhrlszTIKbnZqgC2QIM1MlUFo8F1hqI/s320/Thryothorus+ludovicianus+Runt+Juvenile+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I easily captured it and placed it outside in the shrubs
where I had seen the others, but by then they were gone. Hopefully, its parents
heard its weak chirps and came to rescue it, but it was no longer there when I
checked on it later.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, I immediately removed the nest from the house,
and they have not since replaced it. If they try to do so, I’ll delete it
before they can lay more eggs in it. However, my guess is that they have built
a second nest elsewhere outside away from the Big Bad Buford.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I am amazed at how many species of wildlife have already
tried to move in on me this year. Besides the flying squirrels, house mice and
wrens, there are mud daubers, paper wasps, a scorpion, and numerous spiders. I
am not alone.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-16679111166436475772018-03-10T19:38:00.001-05:002018-03-10T19:38:56.482-05:00Flying Squirrels in My Corner<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Every now and then a flying squirrel has been spotted in
the house I’m constructing. Yesterday, I noticed that the volant rodent was
using a spot on the outside of the house as a urinal. Pretty ugly. Today, I went
on a squirrel nest hunt and found it in a boxed-in corner soffit just under the
roof. I opened the wood face of the box and things got uglier. This pic shows
the wood stained by urine, and to its left below you can glimpse the nest:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIo9IQi7l5bysfV_u8dgxyb_WwiFMFvXNpf_DM1EbKie8hTQMF4KGmN82c4aON8gxFtDOspB6Fg6H6hZHs4SxYgDUYi1wnH_q6-OKyTP9TZd0QTTDocvd2lcHWygvI2xmfIw2eAjKLoe8/s1600/Geomys+volans+Nest+n+Feces+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1201" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIo9IQi7l5bysfV_u8dgxyb_WwiFMFvXNpf_DM1EbKie8hTQMF4KGmN82c4aON8gxFtDOspB6Fg6H6hZHs4SxYgDUYi1wnH_q6-OKyTP9TZd0QTTDocvd2lcHWygvI2xmfIw2eAjKLoe8/s320/Geomys+volans+Nest+n+Feces+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Peeking inside the box, you can see the nest a little
clearer. It is composed of wheat straw I bought for the yard and shredded paper
towels from inside my pickup. I am not just their landlord:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigEijeCUpCYowhMM0haNIMSeTkebs5lq70nBNCpMZwf48XhisTtyWJFEJpT7r8haGgKNO1mbE2JLmwdQqkeUSSwNFeI6bgZ0xfsEgVdU3elfcq5Fl3FIrGWOQRgqqpdA_hFyWDtC0LS_g/s1600/Geomys+volans+Nest+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigEijeCUpCYowhMM0haNIMSeTkebs5lq70nBNCpMZwf48XhisTtyWJFEJpT7r8haGgKNO1mbE2JLmwdQqkeUSSwNFeI6bgZ0xfsEgVdU3elfcq5Fl3FIrGWOQRgqqpdA_hFyWDtC0LS_g/s320/Geomys+volans+Nest+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Looking a little closer, here’s one of the culprits:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdO0UcQ5xMVTdDa4phoz3X11pHsqCRzKj34CG23pkOQPWxfSVFwloasKx6rjCW8WdRBxNI5c9Ho6rdJchammGFR8QOhnxlcPVrRZ3weBimyZUs1N8Em1RKyJPOYxgaRVrC1S6MWP4eoyo/s1600/Geomys+volans+in+Nest+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1121" data-original-width="1495" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdO0UcQ5xMVTdDa4phoz3X11pHsqCRzKj34CG23pkOQPWxfSVFwloasKx6rjCW8WdRBxNI5c9Ho6rdJchammGFR8QOhnxlcPVrRZ3weBimyZUs1N8Em1RKyJPOYxgaRVrC1S6MWP4eoyo/s320/Geomys+volans+in+Nest+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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All four corners of the roof have such “box.” The other
three each had a single access hole, all of which I immediately covered with
new wood plates. The corner nest box had three access holes, however, one being
significantly larger than any of the other access holes and probably the reason
they went for this particular abode rather than the others. I constructed three
wood plates to cover the nest box’s access holes and sat back to wait for dusk.
The idea is to fasten the wood plates in place so they can’t get back in after
they leave their nest for their nightly foray. The squirrels cannot get
into the other three corner boxes either, so they are forced to find a home away from
my home. Hopefully, opening the face of the box and exposing the squirrels to
predators will encourage them to skedaddle.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But wait! There’s a winter storm coming. Cold rain is
expected and we could get sleet or even 1-3 inches of snow. Without an
insulating nest to protect them from the coming chill, the squirrels could be
killed if I evicted them just before the storm. They mate in Feb-Mar and give
birth 40 days later, but this being a relatively cold location gives me hope
that this animal will not drop her pups until April.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I guess waiting until several days of good weather are
upon us would be the humane thing to do. That might give them time to construct
a new nest elsewhere before I pull the old nest out and clean things up.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-66429887242430861952018-02-25T11:21:00.001-05:002018-02-25T11:21:57.953-05:00Fish Dispersal to Isolated Waters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKR72IcrDqn1VXHV6fwWTkJg4uU-vTUbnOGT8tjTUc5lRYjZWSkcRJRFE7RyG4IkhG2sFPILsQLJOfvKq9Eb3uG212VP8OdUzxTuPFfsaML8hI6zgHkYRkJFXjAQpcQd_7hpN97oSzYc/s1600/Shady+Cavern+n+Waterfall+Panthertown+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1094" data-original-width="821" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKR72IcrDqn1VXHV6fwWTkJg4uU-vTUbnOGT8tjTUc5lRYjZWSkcRJRFE7RyG4IkhG2sFPILsQLJOfvKq9Eb3uG212VP8OdUzxTuPFfsaML8hI6zgHkYRkJFXjAQpcQd_7hpN97oSzYc/s320/Shady+Cavern+n+Waterfall+Panthertown+1.3.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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I have never liked the notion that fish eggs get
dispersed via birds. The idea is that water birds somehow acquire fish eggs
when they wade around in fish spawning areas and then transport the eggs to
further water bodies. Sticky eggs allegedly adhere to bird feet and/or become
trapped under feathers. It’s not hard to come up with other mechanisms, either,
such as eggs being released from a dead fish when it is regurgitated by an
egret feeding its young.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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But none of those ideas wash with me. Sure, the eggs of some
fish species are sticky, but lots of other species’ eggs are not and yet
isolated water bodies can still have fish, even live-bearers. Indeed, the
mosquitofish (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gambusia affinis</i>),
which is found in more aquatic habitats and more isolated surface water bodies
than any other fish in the Coastal Plain, is a live bearer.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And the feathers of birds in the water are so tightly
appressed that it is hard to see how eggs could get under them and hitchhike
around. It is certainly reasonable to presume that some fish eggs get
transported by birds, but it must be rare compared to the innumerable isolated
water bodies out there harboring multiple fish species.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then there’s the inconvenient fact that many small mountain
streams and their little manmade reservoirs do not contain fish. This is because
fish cannot pass tall waterfalls (and is the reason that salamanders are
abundant and species-rich in the Appalachians). Furthermore, many reservoirs constructed
here have existed for decades and are frequently visited by water birds, yet
they do not have fish.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
Thus, I welcomed the publication of research focusing on a review of the scientific
literature that concluded there is no evidence for fish eggs migrating via
birds (<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">tinyurl.com/ya3m4whv</span>). Fortunately,
a lit review like this often sets the stage for experiments to prove or disprove
a theory. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can hardly wait!<o:p></o:p></div>
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The notion that fish themselves hitchhike rides on birds
is even less likely than their eggs doing so. Water birds are largely
fish-eaters and have excellent eyesight. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And then there’s the notion that fish can disperse via
underground conduits. Sure, that can work with manmade culverts and to a lesser
extent where streams running through vadose caves connect surface water bodies,
but fish are much less likely to get around through phreatic cave passages.
Nonetheless, the vast majority of isolated water bodies are underlain by dirt,
which fish are totally unable to migrate through. Overall, the underground
dispersal of fish must be trivial.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I believe that fish disperse almost exclusively by
swimming. Many surface water bodies that today are isolated were connected in
the past, which would explain how fish reached them. Less obviously, a
connected wetland can fool the casual observer into wrongly thinking that it is
isolated today; however, any competent civil engineer, geologist, or field biologist
can spot tiny channels called “drains” that flow only during and immediately after
storm events. Having been out in the woods in the rain numerous times, I can
attest that many wetlands and ponds that look isolated are actually connected
by tiny temporary surface streams during strong rain events during wet seasons.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I have personally seen several kinds of fish swimming
upstream in such natural drains, including the mosquitofish and its taxonomic live-bearing
cousins the least killifish (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heterandria
formosa</i>) and sailfin molly (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Poecilia
latipinna</i>), plus bowfin (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Amia calva</i>)
and various bream species (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lepomis</i>
spp.). I have also seen small fish swimming overland in the inundated ruts of a
trail road that imitated forest “drains” during a downpour. Fish were coming from
a river and going uphill to a series of small ponds. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Thus, I can think of numerous ways that fish can disperse
by swimming, instances when apparently isolated water bodies are not actually
isolated, and instances where fish do not exist in truly isolated places that
are frequented by water birds. Case closed? Naw, now gotta prove it!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-66483063987042504432018-02-20T16:09:00.000-05:002018-02-20T18:53:11.716-05:00San Felasco Vine Cutting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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There was a recent interview with
Bob Simons in the Gainesville Sun (<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">tinyurl.com/y856guk2</span>)
concerning an area in San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park where someone had
cut and killed woody vines (lianas). Bob said that the vine cut area was
extensive and the cutting alarmingly thorough. The discovery caused quite a
stir on a Facebook group that I belong to, so I phoned Bob to learn where the
cut vines were located and last Friday went out there to see for myself.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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I easily found the affected
area that Bob pointed out thanks to his excellent directions and my own familiarity with the park.
To map the impact area, I walked around its perimeter while recording the route
on a GPS unit. Much of the cutting was obvious, with square-cut vines out in
the open, whereas other cuts were hidden by a cover of detritus. After some
exploratory prelims, I learned to (a) scan for large trees, (b) check their
bases for accumulations of wrack (dead limbs and living and dead lianas), (c)
walk over to each big tree wrack pile and look for cutting, and (d) look for
cut vines along the way. Veiled cuts were unmasked by pulling on intact-looking
vines to see if they were loose (some of the veiled cuts produced adventitious
roots that made it to the ground and rejuvenated the vine).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Afterward, the route and
waypoints were imported into Google Earth (GE) and I did the best I could
photointerpreting the area’s habitats from GE imagery, county topos, and my GPS
route and notes. It is very difficult to map San Felasco’s upland plant
communities based on aerial imagery, but I think the approximate impact acreage
I got is close enough for current purposes. However, I only looked at the one area that Bob directed me to, and there are many such impacted locations at San Felasco. The red polygon is the area impacted and the white polygons are appx wetland edges:<o:p></o:p></div>
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The cutting was done along
the side slopes of the multiple-sinkhole blind karst valley in the mid-south
region of the park on the north side of Millhopper Road. I estimate this single
affected area at appx 22 <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">± </span>5 acres. The impacted slopes are dominated by a mature mesic
oak-hickory-magnolia-sweetgum forest, whereas the karst bottoms are wetland and
aquatic habitats that are essentially absent of lianas. The highlands immediately
surrounding the impact area are also occupied by mesic forest, much of which is
mature, but there is an earlier sere to the southeast. Only rarely did vines appear
to be cut in the highlands and only occasional vine cutting was spotted beyond
the core area. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Within the core area, nearly
all the lianas that had made it up into the canopy were cut. It looked like the
cutter wanted to kill nearly all of the large wild grapes (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vitis aestivalis, </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">vulpina,</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rotundifolia)</i>, about half of the large
trumpet creepers (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Campsis radicans),</i> and
none of the large poison ivy (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Toxicodendron
radicans)</i> and peppervines (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ampelopsis
arborea)</i>. All four of the encircled stems in this photo were grapevines:<o:p></o:p></div>
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There were not as many vines in
San Felasco’s undisturbed mature mesic forest as I had imagined, there being so
few that it would be easy to count every single liana stem that made it up into
the canopy. I counted in the impact area only five trumpet creeper vines and
two individuals each of poison ivy and peppervine, although I could have missed
some, and I counted only the large vines that ran up trees. Some of the areas
peripheral to the impact area appeared to have no lianas or cut wrack whatsoever,
either in wetlands or highlands. Were they naturally without vines or had their
lianas been cut long ago and by now completely rotted away? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Cut vines were in variable
states of decomposition, with some stumps looking like they were cut a year ago
and others up to several, so the cutting appeared to have been done over a multi-year
period. It is possible that the low density of lianas in adjacent highlands is
an artifact of having been cut away so long ago that their remains have completely rotted
away. If so, then the impact area could be significantly larger than my acreage
estimate.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I wonder if the cutter has
(had) a plan. First, deliberately leaving some individuals of all species
indicates that the cutter was not trying to (a) eliminate lianas altogether or
(b) extirpate any species. Rare canopy achievers (poison ivy and peppervine)
were not cut at all, the more common trumpet creeper was occasionally cut, and
grapevines were abundant and slaughtered. That is exactly what one might do if
one wanted to reduce the impacts of lianas and increase their species diversity
without decreasing their species richness. Secondly, liana thickets were left
untouched, which could be due to either wanting to preserve a specialized
wildlife habitat or just not wanting to tackle such a big job. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Third, possibly the healthiest
large trumpet creeper I have ever seen was within the core area but not harmed.
This one vine also provides a protective doorway at the fork of its two main
roots for a small animal burrow. A man with a plan might deliberately spare
such resources:<o:p></o:p></div>
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I wish now that I had paid more
attention to the tree species that the trumpet creeper grew on to see if the
cutter selected for or against vines based on the quality of the tree infested.
For example, although the massive vine pictured above is clearly stressing a
sweetgum, it does not cross over and encumber any other trees and I think many
Florida naturalists would agree that this particular vine is more valuable than
that specific sweetgum. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Clearly, more field work is
required! In addition to looking further at the trumpet creepers, mature mesic
hammock elsewhere in San Felasco needs to be scrutinized to see if the cutter
has more than one haunt. I can justify one more day at San Felasco before
migrating back to the mountains for the muggy hot months. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-27721016901954712542017-10-24T11:58:00.000-04:002017-10-24T11:58:24.632-04:00Evolution of Wolf and Dog Behavior<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih1WHPx-TeXgFnCKp4Z0_UD7VoijjT4-gTumkKiKP1DJFOZqisbhR2v8ik18wJHYsFoXucguHcN3v4pWMTiVN_8gNrlo_G0UUsLKiBS-qvZea-8P6x_5uZdppNrwNZw5brCBHapJGe7PM/s1600/Canis+rufus+USFWS+Greg+Koch+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="660" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih1WHPx-TeXgFnCKp4Z0_UD7VoijjT4-gTumkKiKP1DJFOZqisbhR2v8ik18wJHYsFoXucguHcN3v4pWMTiVN_8gNrlo_G0UUsLKiBS-qvZea-8P6x_5uZdppNrwNZw5brCBHapJGe7PM/s320/Canis+rufus+USFWS+Greg+Koch+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Image by Greg Koch, USFWS<br />
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Wolves are said to hunt in cooperative packs, but that generalization
is not necessarily so. First, Farley Mowat (<i>Never Cry Wolf</i>, 1963) taught us that wolves in the Far North
of Canada and Alaska hunt singly when raising pups. Secondly, the coyote hunts
singly when raising pups and sometimes doubly as a mated pair, but also as a
family pack when pups are large enough to join their parents to learn how to
hunt. The latter assumes (as I do) that we accept the coyote as a subspecies of
the timber wolf because their hybrids are fertile.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Similarly, domesticated dogs are often said to hunt
singly, but that is also an over-generalization. Stray dogs are known to band up
and hunt in packs, attacking people and other animals. Furthermore, feral and stray female dogs take their young on
hunts.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It is commonly written that dogs evolved from wolves that
hung out at the edges of human camp-firelight. The idea is that the friendliest
and most cooperative wolves were favored by early hunter-gatherer humans,
creating a positive feedback mechanism that augmented natural lupine sociability.<o:p></o:p></div>
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However, suppose that early wolves were more like their
Far North siblings and lived in mated pairs. Then suppose that the early wolves
that found human subsidies irresistible were forced to become more sociable in
order to survive at the campfire perimeter. This is not an unreasonable
scenario for at least two reasons:<o:p></o:p></div>
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First, dogs have been called neotenic (immature) wolves
due to the dog’s physical and behavioral characteristics being very similar to those
of the young wolf.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Secondly, the fossil record does not obviously record ancient
dog and wolf behavior, so we do not know what either actually did. It is often said
that bones fossilize but behavior does not. However, at least some of the
consequences of behavior actually can be evident in fossilized bones. For example,
a research project (tinyurl.com/lgpw6du) evaluated injuries to the preserved bones of California dire wolves and
saber-toothed cats and found that wolves were more prone to head and neck injuries
whereas saber-tooths were more prone to spine and shoulder injuries. The researchers
then concluded that this was because dire wolves hunted in packs and attacked
large hooved ungulates from behind and thus were occasionally kicked in the
head and dragged by their prey like modern wolves. Saber-tooths, on the other hand, ambushed and then manipulated
prey with their powerful back and forelimbs into such positions that their long
teeth could deliver precisely aimed wounds to carotid and jugular blood
vessels. Another finding was that saber-tooths sustained more injuries, leading to the opinion that they attacked larger prey and did so alone.</div>
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Thus, some behavioral patterns can indeed be teased from old bones. Similarly,
research shows that food items can be deduced from tooth wear patterns, food
sources can be determined from element isotope ratios, migratory patterns can
be concluded from isotopes and wear patterns, and care for the injured and aged
can be demonstrated in nursed skeletons. It is only a matter of time before there
are enough skeletons and sufficient interest and funding to shed light on
ancient wolf and dog behavior.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Today, I read of an interesting paper (tinyurl.com/ybwf4pyn) in BBC News (tinyurl.com/y9lssctg) that expanded on
canine cooperativeness, which demonstrated that living wolves will cooperate
with each other more than dogs will. I was not really surprised at this finding.
I have read numerous technical reports on wolf-dog behavior in preparation for
the second book I started writing, so I already believed that young wolves and adult
dogs were less sophisticated socially than adult wolves. However, in reading this
research, I have for the first time been struck by a more radical set of questions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Instead of dogs alone evolving toward a human-associated
existence and away from a lupine culture, is it possible that ALL wild wolves living
in close proximity to humans have evolved more sociability and that the dog and wolf are both evolving alongside and toward human acculturation? Are wolves more social now than before
humans evolved? Are wolves more social now than before dogs evolved? Is the Far
North wolf culture the primitive state and the wolf pack culture a derived
state? Did the wolf pack culture evolve as a consequence of single and doublet wolves gathering
around human campfires where they had no choice but to become more social? We know
that humans created the modern dog, but did we also create the modern wolf?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-73459964062076601132017-06-12T14:01:00.000-04:002017-06-12T14:01:28.455-04:00Stone Mtn Dupont State Forest Trek<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In my peregrinations to find interesting geologic
features of the state’s granitic gneiss high elevations, Sunday I set off for
the north side of Stone Mountain where Google Earth depicts a line of steep
exfoliation cliffs, rugged terrain below the cliffs, and a mature hardwood
forest. Unfortunately, the park has no official trails leading to the cliffs,
but I hoped that rock climbers had some guerrilla trails I might stumble on and
follow. Nope. Ain’t. The best I could do is hike up Rocky Ridge Trail (#75)
from Old CCC Road and then strike out off-trail. It was an easy start, only
about a 30 degree slope, and I headed a little east of north up to a saddle.
From there, I wanted to angle off more to the east, but thick rhododendron
contraindicated that so I continued on the previous direction to skirt it and
followed the contour. Still pretty easy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The rhododendrons soon forced me to alter direction
toward the southeast and uphill, although still only a 30 degree slope. I was
at an elevation of 2900 ft at that point, which was about what I thought would
be the base of the cliff line. I tried to follow that contour but the rhodos
kept pushing me slightly uphill for a quarter-mile until I encountered a low,
wide rock shelter along the 3000 ft contour. This feature was at the base of a
talus field that was about 100 ft in elevation below the cliff-base line. I
stopped there for a moment and discovered that, alas, I had forgotten my
flashlight, so I bellied down and waited until my eyes were accustomed to the
dark to see what I could see. Not much. The shelter just got lower and lower
from its entrance, which itself was only about 2 ft high.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I continued to hike slightly uphill on the by now 45
degree slope. Talus fields are hard to negotiate. The ground around these
boulders ranges from a relatively easy 45 degrees to almost vertical, the talus
fields support dense rhodos with intertwining branches, dead twigs want to jab
your eyes, rhodo leaves are large and block your vision of the ground you walk
on, the terrain is dark and snaky, holes between the boulders are covered with
leaf packs that do not always hold your weight, and greenbriar vines are common
to abundant.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Time out. My Florida friends do not understand mountain
greenbriar (<i>Smilax</i> sp.). Florida has
much, much more greenbriar than these mountains harbor, but… Florida greenbriar
will prick you and draw a drop of blood or two, but if you are careful, you can
walk through infested landscapes receiving only a few minor scratches from
their flexible little (eighth- to quarter-inch) spines. Mountain greenbriar,
however, has up to half-inch long inflexible rakers that are flattened laterally,
the tips of which are way sharper than Florida greenbriar and their edges are razor
sharp. All you have to do is barely touch a mountain greenbriar and you have a
cut that will bleed profusely for several minutes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Whatever, I scrambled up another 100 ft in elevation and
tenth-mile through that crap to the base of the first cliff and immediately
spotted an Eastern box turtle (<i>Terrapene carolina
carolina</i>). As the photo vaguely shows, there were some dings on the
chelonian’s carapace that looked like teeth marks from a mammal larger than a
canid or bobcat. I’m guessing the turtle was attacked by a bear, but don’t really
know. It seemed to have healed from the one-sided battle. I ate lunch (not the
turtle) and moved on.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQPDjdyv8nB6tXaSlMKhD_hV4ixE-vi9KfvrgdSzhNqc_mR1QMx_WvzCvdvTpXEHZ9Yt5uBgmb7W64QVS3s9ois_2UO15YruB5HR0pfKcAKj8rgUsKmRGg2v6PGh-rewdnmvsh2M8p608/s1600/Terrapene+carolina+carolina+Stone+Mtn+Dupont+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1421" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQPDjdyv8nB6tXaSlMKhD_hV4ixE-vi9KfvrgdSzhNqc_mR1QMx_WvzCvdvTpXEHZ9Yt5uBgmb7W64QVS3s9ois_2UO15YruB5HR0pfKcAKj8rgUsKmRGg2v6PGh-rewdnmvsh2M8p608/s320/Terrapene+carolina+carolina+Stone+Mtn+Dupont+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Continuing more-or-less along the 3000 ft contour, I
inspected several more exfoliation cliffs, always seeking the path of least
resistance through the rhodo thickets. At that point I was pretty tired, but
determined not to return the way I came. You cannot go back the way you came,
it’s a Rule, so when I came to a non-rhodo-covered 45 degree slope I began
angling uphill toward a low lateral ridge that I hoped would take me to the
Stone Mountain ridgeline where an official trail would take me to my ride. It
almost did, but things changed after another tenth-mile to a horrid 60-70
degree slope covered with boulders, rhododendron, mountain laurel, wild azalea
that didn’t have the courtesy to be blooming, highbush blueberries that didn’t
have the manners to offer fruit, and greenbriar that was even more abundant
than before. Sigh. Furthermore, galax grew lushly and obscured the ground, and
I just knew that I was passing close by invisible timber rattlers and
copperheads. Man! In places like that, you’d better not reflexively stick your
hand out to the ground to steady yourself when you stumble. Grab the rhodo
stems instead! I spent an hour-and-a-quarter thrashing my way through 0.8 miles
in that horrible place. I could only think of my goal. Ridgelines are supposed
to be drier and support shorter trees and a more open understory, and that was supposed
to be my salvation. Nope. Wasn’t.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse… I couldn’t
yet make it to the ridgeline, specifically up a knob along the ridgeline,
because that awful knob was worse than anything I had gone through so far.
Steeper terrain, denser rhodos, more greenbriar, downed logs and limbs, and everything
covered with slimy lichens and slippery sphagnum moss. I had no choice but to
continue through the lesser of the two evil rhodo thickets. I was out of water.
I thought I was gonna die there and be found only by hungry scavengers, my
wasted bones scattered amongst the rocks and rhodos, and eventually overgrown
by sphagnum.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But no! After only another fifteen minutes and a tenth of
a mile, I broke out of the thickets growing on and surrounding Hateful Knob and
onto the ridgeline and AN OPEN UNDERSTORY!!! Hallelujah! And to make matters
even better, there was a vague trail leading along the ridgeline exactly in the
direction of my parked pickup. I followed the trail west for another half-mile
and 20 minutes to the official mountaintop, gaining another 600 ft of
elevation. There, I was rewarded by scenic views that I could not have cared
less about and lowbush blueberries sporting a few ripe fruit, which I gobbled
down to quench my thirst. Wild blueberries are sweeter than ag blueberries
despite being smaller. Heh, most of the people I run into on the mountaintops
are afraid to eat them, and I shamelessly pander to their fear (“No! Wait!
Don’t eat that wild fruit! Let me save you!”)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUVwKkiSrx4t621uyhqx9rO0__QX4nnMyLwmJoFHTGr9X6zEUKTUwQLwVVt55GkeI3DBzm6tKFPiz2DwAbT_g4jXR3T_qwajUQXpPfqJcMgyOiuCg4iObF48jZdj-EIwrsDj-2xy7Odeo/s1600/Vaccineum+sp+Stone+Mtn+Dupont+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUVwKkiSrx4t621uyhqx9rO0__QX4nnMyLwmJoFHTGr9X6zEUKTUwQLwVVt55GkeI3DBzm6tKFPiz2DwAbT_g4jXR3T_qwajUQXpPfqJcMgyOiuCg4iObF48jZdj-EIwrsDj-2xy7Odeo/s320/Vaccineum+sp+Stone+Mtn+Dupont+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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After that, I grudgingly took the well-beaten trails back
down the hill, but <b>only</b> because you can’t
go back the way you came. Seriously! Total time was 5:25 and total mileage was
5.9. It was not a death march like some of my off-trail hikes, but it was hard,
maybe the hardest trek I have done since moving here. The friend who
accompanied me last weekend wearing a 40 lb pack will doubtlessly be glad that
she was not with me today and wearing another heavy load.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So Tom, bring Jimmy and the gang up from Florida sometime
and we’ll go out and play!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Note: I would have added a Google Earth pic of the route
I took, except that for some unknown reason my Garmin software won’t hand off
the track to GE. It used to do so easily, so I’m going to call Garmin soon and
see if this can be remedied. If so, I’ll update this missive.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-20294367501951909902017-05-23T10:11:00.000-04:002017-05-23T10:11:56.695-04:00Snakes as Cockroaches<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKNgVjoYU-RbzqUOgJC3K3ETUGbFwi0_OC4_Y8wI71xTXcIfXzsp4RZ-WDZlYaIMLrbql_p73Dh0pbYQCglXprOws_FOSivs1NB9EuUWoE2im9k3rOpCK2wZRpj-eNakukJ00XunnU_RQ/s1600/Girls+Reaction+Upon+Seeing+a+Roach+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKNgVjoYU-RbzqUOgJC3K3ETUGbFwi0_OC4_Y8wI71xTXcIfXzsp4RZ-WDZlYaIMLrbql_p73Dh0pbYQCglXprOws_FOSivs1NB9EuUWoE2im9k3rOpCK2wZRpj-eNakukJ00XunnU_RQ/s320/Girls+Reaction+Upon+Seeing+a+Roach+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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My main phobia is katsaridaphobia,
the fear of cockroaches. Can’t stand ‘em. Heart goes all a-flutter. I become a
drama king.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Oh, I know they are among the cleanest of animals and
they certainly won’t contaminate me. Too, they don’t carry diseases that can
affect me. And I am fully aware that they do their darndest to help clean up
the kitchen and my hairbrush – without eating too much of the <i>good</i> food, either – and are thoughtfully
discreet enough to come out only when I am in bed and blissfully unaware. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is my mom’s fault. She would get platter-eye syndrome
at the very sight of a roach and try to corner it so it could be more easily
smashed with a rolled-up newspaper. And then, having no alternative escape
route, the poor little bug would take flight and head directly for momma’s
face. It could have been funny but for the blood-curdling screams. After all, I
was young and impressionable, but come to think of it, momma never did learn
not to corner them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I do the best I can to overcome this great tragedy in my
life. I once thought that catching and handling cockroaches barehanded would do
the trick, but no… Learn to accept them? Tried that, but no… Fumigation? Admittedly,
that has become a sad fact of my life.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Reactions to my katsaridaphobia vary widely. Some people –
generally my fellow sufferers - fully support me. Bless them. Conversely, roach
lovers get all agitated up, remind me of things I’ve known for 50 years, forget
that I am sensitive, hassle me, and even try to save me. Roach scientists
just patiently wait for me to calm down and then eagerly ask if I collected a
sample. Sierra Clubbers rant on my foggers. The Cockroach Fuhrer comes out of
the woodwork and threatens my mice (how many of you remember the Cockroach
Fuhrer?). The horror.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Snakes are the cockroaches of a dear friend of mine, so I
fully sympathize with her feelings. She will always have my support.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-75050327773472208532017-01-24T08:25:00.000-05:002017-01-24T08:25:06.893-05:00Cottonmouths are not what they sometimes seem!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoTm1-2DgByc5_zlXSvgRyXhcZdPU-ByYurwKsUAkXrO8bu29AM-LN_NyKnzexzyLiUIQFXoTzhHhQ3kYjsfPMkmKiGfzCgA2jjC00NVuXBJESaQweidvpkC92FTY5SsjDrolQ69yJ8bs/s1600/Ancistrodon+piscivorous+01b+060709.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoTm1-2DgByc5_zlXSvgRyXhcZdPU-ByYurwKsUAkXrO8bu29AM-LN_NyKnzexzyLiUIQFXoTzhHhQ3kYjsfPMkmKiGfzCgA2jjC00NVuXBJESaQweidvpkC92FTY5SsjDrolQ69yJ8bs/s320/Ancistrodon+piscivorous+01b+060709.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In one of herpetologist Dr. Bruce Means’ books – I forget
which one – he details how he deciphered what actually occurs when it appears
that a water moccasin, or cottonmouth (<i>Agkistrodon
piscivorous</i>), attacks a person on shore. It is too longish a little story
to place within a <i>Facebook</i> reply, so
I am going to paraphrase it here for ready reference. Obviously, you should
read Bruce’s books rather than rely on this or any other second-hand account of
his adventures, not just to keep the facts straight but also because his books
are fascinating!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While walking along the edge of a lake one day, a cottonmouth
suddenly came downhill straight toward Bruce moving about as fast as a fat serpent
can go! Startled, Means jumped back and watched as the snake dove
into the water and disappeared. Whew! THAT was a close call! But Bruce had <i>beaucoup</i> experience with snakes in
general and water moccasins in particular, so the appearance of an attack didn’t
wash. Giving the situation some thought, he concluded that the snake was
actually just trying to escape but that he was inadvertently blocking the route
to its refuge. Hmmm… How to test this?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ahah! He got it! He began wearing snake boots – just to
be safe about it! – as he took his walks around the lake, and being also intellectually
armed for the next encounter, he sacrificed his body as bait to test his
hypothesis in the finest tradition of inquiring minds. Sure enough, the same
thing happened on another day, but this time he was scientifically prepared if
not emotionally detached, and this is what he saw on this second rodeo:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The cottonmouth suddenly found a giant predator
(Bruce) standing directly on top of its well-worn path leading from its comfy sunning
spot to its aquatic habitat. Panic set in! Desperately, the snake launched
itself toward safety, blundering right between Means’ legs. Paying no mind to
the giant’s snake-booted limbs, it continued pell-mell into the water and had its
escape. “Whew! The giant didn’t get me THAT time!” </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-49730213092618146382016-01-15T11:59:00.001-05:002016-01-15T11:59:54.883-05:00Detection of Advanced Fusion in Distant Planet Atmospheres<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz6BtoeE2-g3jHtlBL67RB9n57IQkJoEDX0jiBHDS1RGiSwiNSgjw1jnc1rA-NszILFlHt94Ph1Q7DQZ1Ym1qxq7pqKjtxeC9oDDBLE8Pbg-quspYJ0v7cEJCNYVa10Rj6piC08o8iGnE/s1600/Super-Earth+NASA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz6BtoeE2-g3jHtlBL67RB9n57IQkJoEDX0jiBHDS1RGiSwiNSgjw1jnc1rA-NszILFlHt94Ph1Q7DQZ1Ym1qxq7pqKjtxeC9oDDBLE8Pbg-quspYJ0v7cEJCNYVa10Rj6piC08o8iGnE/s320/Super-Earth+NASA.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Consider the possibility that a sentient species on a
planet in another star system acquires advanced fusion technology. That is,
they can not only fuse hydrogen atoms together to make helium and useable
energy, but also gold for self-enrichment or rare and heavy metals for machines
like cars, planes, and space ships. After some period of time, their fusion
industries might overweight their atmosphere in these heavier metals relative
to pre-industrial background levels. If we construct sensors that can measure
elements in distant planetary atmospheres, then would this be a way to detect
advanced alien civilizations?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-39272511058952135702015-07-28T09:05:00.000-04:002015-07-28T09:05:02.441-04:00Seahorse Key Rookery Abandonment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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There’s a mystery a-cooking in the cays of Cedar Key. </div>
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A
long-time major seabird rookery on Seahorse Key was suddenly abandoned this
spring and the cause is currently unknown. It’s all over the north Florida online
news. Now comes word that seven raccoons have been trapped and relocated from
the island, and the trapper believes that eight or ten raccoons were on the
island when the birds fled. However, raccoons are not known to be a serious predator of rookeries, and broken eggshells found under the nests showed no
sign of destruction by raccoons.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The trapper noted that these raccoons were sleek and
robust and just sat and looked at him from the cages, whereas in his (and my)
experience, trapped raccoons are snarling, snapping, lean wild beasts. This
indicates that these particular raccoons were subsidized by humans, and together
with the eggshells, were not the cause this avian catastrophe.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I camped at a state park in west Florida in the late 1970s
and saw about 20 (maybe 30) raccoons and feral cats come out of the woods when
the sun set and a full moon rose over the campground. Laying in my sleeping bag
in the pickup truck bed, I looked out the windows of the camper top and watched
them forage around the campground, kind of like watching an African savannah wildlife
show on TV. Unabashed pilferers, each worked the campsite independently,
investigating every camper nook and cranny like a regiment of army ants
blanketing and repeatedly gleaning a patch of ground. I watched as a raccoon
broke into a neighbor's ice cooler (park signs gave fair warning). One animal
even tried to dig up through the steel bed of my pickup truck as I lay above it
admiring its tenacity while at the same time being astonished that park staff
didn't trap them out. It would have been easy to trap them out. Alas, I didn't
get out and see what these scavengers would do if I walked through them; maybe
they would have just sat there and watched me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It doesn't take long to trap 10 campground raccoons and
run them over to an island in the middle of the night. My best guess is that
some dingbat finally got tired of them stealing from a backyard zoo (county
park, farm, shelter, trash dump, hoarder...), and not wanting to kill the poor
wittle things, got a holding cage and a couple of traps and a boat. <o:p></o:p></div>
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OTOH, if you like raccoons and collect them over a period
of a few years in a big backyard cage, and then get tired of having them around
but can't bear to kill the poor wittle things, well then, dumping them on an
island where they can't find their way back home might seem to be an option to the
thoughtless.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We found a set of raccoon tracks on nearby Atsena Otie
Key in 2010:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmYSFKnaay-C6ZEo52o2KeGWO_0yTW0DTTlZkY06OGme_5g3-loiC-hQIgx_FehALyrBOXAQcdmqx39pEmxKDRf7SEnd6GF3ATbcMC1ssdJB3xbWFg6FJG5l6joxCvjFUi_rpX0MsTYdo/s1600/Mammal+Tracks+Unkn+Atsena+Otie+A2%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmYSFKnaay-C6ZEo52o2KeGWO_0yTW0DTTlZkY06OGme_5g3-loiC-hQIgx_FehALyrBOXAQcdmqx39pEmxKDRf7SEnd6GF3ATbcMC1ssdJB3xbWFg6FJG5l6joxCvjFUi_rpX0MsTYdo/s320/Mammal+Tracks+Unkn+Atsena+Otie+A2%25281%2529.jpg" width="313" /></a></div>
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How did that raccoon get there? I just assumed it swam
there, or accidentally drifted over during a storm. Seahorse Key is much
further from land than Atsena Otie, so a raccoon would have to like swimming
over feeding shallows against tidal currents at night. Raccoons swim just fine,
although they are not strong swimmers. But I don’t know…</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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What if some backyard zookeeper is periodically trapping
a mess of raccoons and dumping them, first on this island and then on the next?
Heh, even the Seahorse Key trapper is relocating the ‘coons somewhere. I wonder
where? Another island? Another stewpot?<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-76255004251913864972015-06-27T12:03:00.001-04:002015-06-27T12:03:03.010-04:00Are Texas Warthogs Coming?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoJYcAAJuluRljQR1aO-CDLW_QGjhQZ_EfOzCN_98aKeaUTyPYz5row_xYIVCOiHfvyFBHWFlXPkDHcDyqraSpcJVCh3raQ_B2OWYHK9RsGFpxzoF0YIulFvuOgC_Aa_aGB-T4skQuYg0/s1600/Warthogs+Pixaboy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoJYcAAJuluRljQR1aO-CDLW_QGjhQZ_EfOzCN_98aKeaUTyPYz5row_xYIVCOiHfvyFBHWFlXPkDHcDyqraSpcJVCh3raQ_B2OWYHK9RsGFpxzoF0YIulFvuOgC_Aa_aGB-T4skQuYg0/s320/Warthogs+Pixaboy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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As you may know, the USDA has been working on a national
plan to control feral swine (hogs, pigs), and I did my civic duty and gave them
my two cents worth. Now comes a blurb from the news media that warthogs are on
the loose in Texas and, oh by the way, that’s old news. Here’s one example: tinyurl.com/ncpgwa8.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Well, maybe in Texas it’s old news. I follow the feral
hog situation because of my involvement in the Emerald Pendant project, but
never once ran across warthogs in my literature review. Evidently, most if not
all of these burrowing barrows escaped from high-dollar sitting-duck hunting reserves,
although a few may have also been released by exotic-pig faddists. Apparently, it
is not common enough to be widely perceived as an invasive-exotic threat, and
may not even be reproducing in Texas yet. What is its potential to become an
over-abundant pest? Well, the leopard and the lion and the Lango have all been
unable to control them in Africa, and their cousin, the Eurasian boar, well,
you know… <o:p></o:p></div>
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The common warthog is a savannah grazer, which means it
prefers grasslands to forests and focuses on eating graminoids, but also eats
roots, tubers, berries, nuts, crops, insects, eggs, and carrion. For sure, it
will eat any herp it runs across. These are exactly the same foods that feral
hogs eat. The warthog lives in sounders, like feral hogs, but unlike them is
said not to occupy territories. If the latter is true, then warthog sounders could
be more difficult to trap with the whole-sounder approach than feral hogs. One
obvious biological error in the article cited above is the idea that warthogs
are not nocturnal like feral hogs. Actually, hogs are indeed naturally diurnal,
but become nocturnal where humans hunt them. There is no reason to believe that
warthogs would not similarly adapt the shroud of the night. The warthog can
occur in densities of up to 77 per km<sup>2</sup>, or 1 per 3.25 acres, but a
more typical density is 1-10 per km<sup>2</sup>, comparable to American feral
hogs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The warthog’s gestation period is 5-6 months, far longer
than that of the feral hog, so while the latter can have two or more litters
per year at 4-8 young each, the warthog has only one litter of 2-4 young per
year. If warthogs become established and strong control efforts are used on
them, would the number of litters per year and number of young per litter
increase in the face of significant control pressure? Research shows that feral
hogs become more fecund when hunted and trapped, so warthogs could easily follow
suit. The genes are almost certainly present in warthogs, as humans have bred
super-fecundity into domestic pigs, dogs, sheep, and chickens, among others. Warthog
birthing occurs at the start of the rainy season, which happens at variable
times throughout the warthog’s native range in Africa, so it would probably adapt
to American rainfall seasons. <o:p></o:p></div>
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On the bright side, drought and hunting with dogs can
extirpate the warthog locally. Furthermore, the warthog does not have
subcutaneous fat and its hair is sparse, so the warthog suffers in the cold; hence,
the burrows. However, sparse hair and absent fat layers are possibly controlled
by a single or few genes each, and if one (set) is the only thing keeping warthogs
from breeding in the US today, then a single mutation could be a game-changer.
Environmental stresses can force mutations.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are two species of warthogs in Africa: the common and
the desert, or Ethiopian. I don’t know which one is on the hoof in Texas, but
the native landscape of the desert warthog is arid brushland and thickets,
which sounds a lot like the Texas Hill Country. Regardless, there appears to be
potentially suitable habitat in Texas and Mexico for both species.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The prospects for extirpating warthogs from Texas appear favorable.
First, outlaw their importation, breeding, keeping, and hunting. Second, send
in specially trained professional exterminators/hunters using every reasonable trick
in the book (<i>e.g</i>., hunting with
warthog-trained hunting dogs, Judas warthogs, whole-sounder trapping, and
aerial surveys and shooting). Third, fold warthog concerns into national and
state monitoring and public education campaigns. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Perhaps the USDA should focus a sufficient chunk of its national
swine control resources on warthogs <i>before</i>
they become as abundant and destructive as feral swine. USDA could fund genomic
research on the potential for mutations that enable subcutaneous fat and/or
denser hair. Research into the likelihood of warthogs acclimating to a
nocturnal lifestyle may be warranted, although I think that can be assumed. Cage
experiments could be done to see if warthogs can over-winter and reproduce in
parts of America that rarely if ever freeze, such as north Mexico and the
southern-most tips of Florida and Texas. Would warthogs burrow more deeply in
American freezing zones than in no-freeze African zones, and if so, would that
protect them sufficiently here? How deeply does fencing have to be buried to
keep warthogs from successfully digging under and out? Even if the warthog is
not territorial in arid and semi-arid environments, perhaps it would become so
in wetter climates like east Texas and south Florida. Are there any other
non-African locales where warthogs have been released, and if so, what has been
the experience of local control efforts? The Mexican government might want to
participate in any or all such research. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I reject the argument that their current status in Texas indicates
that we should not make a meaningful effort to extirpate warthogs right now. I
believe that their shaky toehold plus our experience with feral swine give us reasons
enough to nip warthogs in the bud.<o:p></o:p></div>
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USDA spent a million bucks on an experiment to control
feral pigs in New Mexico. Let me say that again, “A million-dollar experiment…”
I think it was worth it, too, and believe that a program to eliminate warthogs
from Texas costing less than a million bucks might be a bargain in the long run.
I would also support passing the cost of warthog control onto Texas sitting-duck
hunting reserves, as they are certainly the fount of the problem.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-46849418256663475192015-06-16T13:16:00.000-04:002015-06-16T13:16:25.072-04:00From Ditch to Creek<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I previously posted two reports about erosion control
measures taken on my North Carolina house lot driveway. One was to this blog on
September 12, 2010, about the stream
crossing culvert<b> (</b>tinyurl.com/pt82u5r) and the other to my <i>On Rappe</i>l blog on October 29,
2013, about the driveway ditch efforts (tinyurl.com/omgb8ve).
The goals were to control erosion while simultaneously creating potential
landscaping water features. I really won’t have time to do any serious landscaping
until the house is built, but my efforts seem to have paid off. I hope this is
apparent in the following before-and-after photos.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is what the stream
culvert crossing looks like now:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja7ejXgf3kk6YDDsiwOmYXCTv9ovnVUIjvtiohwRWCpFAvAYtF9xtC9Opzn_iRilCJDz7xiCrOZSde-iuRBjoeazvSKDTc0hNYDLBeA3Jwlhyphenhyphen0rTj8hq23MvcCy7nzX85BuXwRs6Pxz8k/s1600/Culvert+Overgrown+2015+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja7ejXgf3kk6YDDsiwOmYXCTv9ovnVUIjvtiohwRWCpFAvAYtF9xtC9Opzn_iRilCJDz7xiCrOZSde-iuRBjoeazvSKDTc0hNYDLBeA3Jwlhyphenhyphen0rTj8hq23MvcCy7nzX85BuXwRs6Pxz8k/s320/Culvert+Overgrown+2015+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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But this is what
it started out looking like:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiojLK-WjDz-SjqMdFksWdeQ89-B-Vumv1iOel8jDZO6Vwh3z9h8UOZoITBBJr2-5-vJeWZAs9rWGM2-dYWgXAT8zwmqyRLsUrqSPUlFfbYt2K08zoxcO4kW7HOaR8eRNT2Q3R7JY_3A14/s1600/Culvert+After+Construction+2010+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiojLK-WjDz-SjqMdFksWdeQ89-B-Vumv1iOel8jDZO6Vwh3z9h8UOZoITBBJr2-5-vJeWZAs9rWGM2-dYWgXAT8zwmqyRLsUrqSPUlFfbYt2K08zoxcO4kW7HOaR8eRNT2Q3R7JY_3A14/s320/Culvert+After+Construction+2010+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Ugly! You can see
a lot of dirt exposed, with stream banks cut nearly vertical. I used a shovel
to “bevel” the sides a little by removing the loose dirt and taking the
overhanging root mat back away from the stream a foot or so on each side to
reduce erosion. (Incidentally, there were a couple of ringneck snakes in the
undersides of the root mat). I then placed small logs along both banks in the
hope that not only would they retard the tendency to wash out the culvert but
also provide a substrate upon which ferns, mosses, liverworts, and other plants
could take root in and armor the ground:</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ErYn8JKBa93j4CC_faEOmodlRQpZxdM6HwwuXaUohBdUtcAXStM_rPcAH8THnmDKbp8iW2uVRa7ZTzzlzk_z6vW7z9M4CRoP5dXDZvy_2k2DRETWiYClYwJp_FoRzlJzTardaJmGnxE/s1600/Culvert+Mitigation+NC+Lot+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ErYn8JKBa93j4CC_faEOmodlRQpZxdM6HwwuXaUohBdUtcAXStM_rPcAH8THnmDKbp8iW2uVRa7ZTzzlzk_z6vW7z9M4CRoP5dXDZvy_2k2DRETWiYClYwJp_FoRzlJzTardaJmGnxE/s320/Culvert+Mitigation+NC+Lot+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The idea was that
plants would grow on and between the rotting logs and form a web of roots extending
back into the creek bank dirt. Indeed, the first photo shows that the plants
readily took root in the logs.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Driveway ditch
erosion was of equal concern, and since the driveway runs straight up the hill,
so do its flanking ditches. This is part of the west ditch right after I added
short split logs to create riffles and pools (and after a rain):<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxovpIDNqRsZ1wUpGcmQhboclpLtPtkw3rtsHfCj3a99lzgsGBPRy-nPiglz-O4xYCCYIm9E1uhIu8SZofKJDruUVEdDj00Ryes5VwJTqfO70nISJIPBvL1PSUZguo_W3frYHObBHTS08/s1600/Drive+Ditch+W2+2011+1.3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxovpIDNqRsZ1wUpGcmQhboclpLtPtkw3rtsHfCj3a99lzgsGBPRy-nPiglz-O4xYCCYIm9E1uhIu8SZofKJDruUVEdDj00Ryes5VwJTqfO70nISJIPBvL1PSUZguo_W3frYHObBHTS08/s320/Drive+Ditch+W2+2011+1.3.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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And this is what
it looks like today:</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUYLW-ypTh2EV18mgyOCEcDHBMVK11AfC2GqpyEYt2AQh5K7mEWyVpk7xFwPMFCrVQcfPcqpiqDPqolW3JbZfP1d8DlDdKH91ZIzn_vq3LNVrQr3vb6D8wdlFeBgL0waWB9mH-J4d2uC8/s1600/Drive+Ditch+W2+2015+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUYLW-ypTh2EV18mgyOCEcDHBMVK11AfC2GqpyEYt2AQh5K7mEWyVpk7xFwPMFCrVQcfPcqpiqDPqolW3JbZfP1d8DlDdKH91ZIzn_vq3LNVrQr3vb6D8wdlFeBgL0waWB9mH-J4d2uC8/s320/Drive+Ditch+W2+2015+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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You cannot hardly
even see the ditch anymore, as it has silted in and the split logs are
completely buried. Much of the initial storm water now sinks into the grassy, sediments
in and beside the ditch, and what does runs off will sheet flow until reaching
an open-top culvert (bottom of photo).</div>
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This is the east ditch right after construction:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOPArrhoXn_3vqs4urqVxhcleqt5A6CbTMUucpg2jvP66MLKkbm16kXBVWqREZCLpjWUCSUR9Wz90zn5JbCBVQr3JbjAWEFuX4mhWczi-K2QsiCWWyyqECDyeGLQ4V0viOT0Npja6QeXQ/s1600/Drive+Ditch+E2+2011+1.3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOPArrhoXn_3vqs4urqVxhcleqt5A6CbTMUucpg2jvP66MLKkbm16kXBVWqREZCLpjWUCSUR9Wz90zn5JbCBVQr3JbjAWEFuX4mhWczi-K2QsiCWWyyqECDyeGLQ4V0viOT0Npja6QeXQ/s320/Drive+Ditch+E2+2011+1.3.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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After several years of vegetative growth, the east ditch
looks even better. It gets more runoff than the west ditch, which keeps silt
from clogging the ditch, although leaf litter sometimes has to be cleaned out
as is evident in the foreground:</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj53F3cjtkm6UO6A2g-JbX71PIfGFYbzZf9YUXyRWsrJkgo7lynZ027Ff1ojNmlgEJQU7pZ-iAb07XkbIDPDsmhRMqEZV4Lh5FmcDrLadhLeYb2G_yvc4EZVZoBTKS7j9Ip48Rttqy2FZg/s1600/Driveway+Ditch+E2+2015+1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj53F3cjtkm6UO6A2g-JbX71PIfGFYbzZf9YUXyRWsrJkgo7lynZ027Ff1ojNmlgEJQU7pZ-iAb07XkbIDPDsmhRMqEZV4Lh5FmcDrLadhLeYb2G_yvc4EZVZoBTKS7j9Ip48Rttqy2FZg/s320/Driveway+Ditch+E2+2015+1.3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;">Overall, I’m pretty happy
with the results. </span></div>
</div>
Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-85374968382841324512015-05-30T12:50:00.001-04:002015-05-31T11:25:59.650-04:00Northern Red Salamander<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I am back in North Carolina for the warm months and
preparing to start construction on my mountain house. While clearing the house
pad of trailers, tools, and trash over the last few days, I have run across
some cool critters. Scrap boards were set on the ground next to the portable
sawmill so Uncle Ralph and I could mill logs without slipping in the mud. These
had to be moved. I knew from previous experience that untreated wood set an
inch or two in the ground was good resting/hiding habitat for the northern red
salamander (<i>Pseudotriton ruber ruber</i>),
so I kept an eye out for them. Sure enough, a 6-7 inch long specimen had
burrowed under a grounded board, so I snagged it and this is the best pic of
the lot:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
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After wrestling with an unsatisfactory photo setup with
the last red salamander I caught here, I had been giving some thought to
upgrading my salamander photo setup. But, having done nothing so far but
cogitate, this new Sally required immediate construction. First, I drilled
small holes in the bottom of a $2 plastic salad bowl and then lined it with a
mat of sphagnum moss scalped from a rotting log:</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Placing it in the bowl amongst the moss, new Sally
settled right down and let me take a dozen or so pics. The previous Sally squirmed
around throughout its photoshoot, but that was probably because the bowl was
bare glass and Sally had no place to hide. Perhaps Sally feels more secure in
its native element of leaves and moss. Whatever, this time was different. After
the photography was completed, I placed the bowl in the ground within an old
stump hole in the heavily shaded forest:</div>
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And then camouflaged the blue plastic with detritus:</div>
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The plan is to leave the bowl in the ground where it will
incubate in a natural Appalachian forest environment. Hopefully, the sphagnum
moss will live and grow in the bowl well enough to look like a moss-covered hollowed-out
stump and be good for small-animal photography.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Also note, while disassembling and burning a cord or so
of sawmill scrap, two copperheads, a ringneck snake, a blue-tailed skink, a slimy salamander, and
an American toad were uncovered and released unharmed. Only the smaller copperhead was
photographed but technical issues prevent me from retrieving the pic, so this
older image of a copperhead on that wood pile will have to do:<br />
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-64278918064388409052015-04-13T10:34:00.000-04:002015-04-13T10:34:28.974-04:00Terror Lizards<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One of my fav jokes when hanging out with my friends next
to the lake is to tell them, “Don’t turn your back on the water.” It’s an
African saying of gaily dressed people who live in mud-and-wattle
huts in crocodile country. I, of course, am far more sophisticated wearing drab
polyester in a trailer park and doing my best to turn as many trailers into
beer cans as possible. Heck, I don’t have to worry about stepping outdoors into
a flock of Terror Parakeets or Terror Muslims!<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, on this cloudy morn after breakfast, I stepped outside
to drink the last dregs of my first cup of coffee while standing on the banks
of the dinosaurian Orange Lake. One of the pair of moorhens that lives right
outside my door immediately spotted me, let out its worried cut-cut-cutting
call, and swam slowly away toward the more varied habitats to the east. I think
these moorhens have their nest at the east end of the levee that extends from
my lot, based on a false-wound theatrical ploy the two gave me last week. So, I
imagine the second moorhen was on the nest this morning.<o:p></o:p></div>
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No big deal, just a nice daybreak in cool weather without
the sun in my eyes, veg omelet in my stomach, and delicious coffee (ask me to
make you a cup some time) on my lips. Then I looked down at my feet at the lakeside
floating mat:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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Good thing it’s only three feet long!</div>
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-40432192578856658422015-04-12T15:44:00.000-04:002015-04-12T15:44:28.666-04:00ACT - Saarinen Preserve<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Arthur and Phyllis Saarinen donated a 78-acre tract to
the Alachua Conservation Trust, a non-profit land conservancy, for conservation
purposes. Today was the preserve’s grand opening, attended by 30-40 people
including the Saarinens and ACT personnel Hutch Hutchinson and Mark Larson.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Now called the Saarinen Preserve, it has 2.6 miles of
trails open to the public, all of which are used for hiking, horseback riding,
and bicycling. I walked 2.3 miles of them today.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Preserve trails are well-worn and have been recently bush-hogged
to widths of 6-12 feet. Other trails connect into the Saarinen Preserve trails
from adjacent properties that have been developed by neighbors over the past
several years. I don’t know about the access policy for off-preserve trails,
but there are markers along the trails where they exit the preserve.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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The property is almost entirely forested. There is a
small area adjacent to the parking lot dominated by planted slash pine in the
overstory and laurel oak and live oak in the understory. Most of the site is
cloaked in hammock vegetation dominated by laurel oak and live oak, with a
small area in the southeast having abundant sweetgum. The central and southern
parts of the preserve’s hammock also have longleaf pine and the remainder of
the site has loblolly pine mixed in with the hardwoods. Other species of upland
hammock trees are rare. I saw only one small Southern magnolia, one Southern
red oak, and a couple of mockernut hickories, but there are also a few small sugarberry
and winged elm trees. Interestingly, Carolina buckthorn (<i>Rhamnus caroliniana</i>) is common in the preserve’s southern reaches; I
see this shrub only rarely, so it was a treat. Ebony spleenwort is common.
Several species of invasive exotic plants also occur, Ardisia and camphor being
abundant in certain areas and Japanese climbing fern occasional. The Ardisia is
loaded with berries:<o:p></o:p></div>
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The soils are derived from the Miocene-aged Hawthorne
formation rather than the usual Plio-Pleistocene sands in this region. This does
not surprise me, however, because the preserve is on the same ridge that
Warrens Cave, Dead Man’s Cave, and Breath of the Rock Cave are located on and
they too have the dark Hawthorne clay soils. ACT representative Mark Larson
told me that every time they dug a hole for a fence post, they hit rock about
18 inches down and the rocks were boulders, not bedrock. What I can’t figure
out is how those boulders got themselves imbedded in the Hawthorne formation in
what Mark basically described as a layer of rocks. Curious, that.</div>
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It will be interesting to see what ACT comes up with in their
land management plan for the preserve. I imagine they will figure out how to
replace the laurel oaks with quality hardwoods. The cave properties mentioned
above indicate that the Saarinen Preserve historically supported a species-rich
mixed forest dominated by live oak, Southern red oak, Southern magnolia,
mockernut hickory, redbay, sugarberry, American ash, and winged elm, among many
others. But 78 acres of laurel oaks will be tough to battle!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404978790747716361.post-52808408320395945942015-03-02T18:42:00.002-05:002015-03-02T18:42:57.843-05:00Birdsbesafe Collar Covers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLsH3NxNtouENVkxuU1kTAB7rQwM9U-oqyzl1A_lUXc8ZkSmmfFjfaE6909GaeLd9uarXPzsn__exv4IB4RzsFYgaZO_DLQBSWe-covTN70C_W9a5BNuo7Z-ftyYbZdFz4a3qkkGjCwSk/s1600/Cat+Catching+Bird+Pablo+Picasso.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLsH3NxNtouENVkxuU1kTAB7rQwM9U-oqyzl1A_lUXc8ZkSmmfFjfaE6909GaeLd9uarXPzsn__exv4IB4RzsFYgaZO_DLQBSWe-covTN70C_W9a5BNuo7Z-ftyYbZdFz4a3qkkGjCwSk/s1600/Cat+Catching+Bird+Pablo+Picasso.jpg" /></a></div>
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A so-called conservation biologist at St. Lawrence
University in Canton, New York, named Susan Willson has five cats, two that
live outside and three indoors. One of the outdoor cats, named “the Gorilla,”
is an admitted “serial killer” cat, one that is “especially adept at killing
birds.” She tried but decided not to keep this cat indoors because it gets into
“a peeing war” with her three indoor cats, so she is willing to accept her cat
killing a lot of birds because she does not want to euthanize her cat. All
things considered, she would fall under what many conservation biologists call
a “cat lady.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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But she evidently feels at least some guilt over the
needless loss of wildlife at her hands because she bought a Birdsbesafe Collar
Cover that is claimed to reduce bird kills, and then conducted a study to at least
partly justify the collar cover as adequate mitigation for those wildlife kills.
Her study is reported in <b>Birdsbesafe:
Can a novel cat collar reduce avian mortality by domestic cats (<i>Felis catus</i>)?</b> S.K. Willson, I.A. Okunlola,
and J.A. Novak. <i>Global Ecology and
Conservation 3(2015) 359-366</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Birdsbesafe’s product consists of a tube of brightly
colored cloth enclosing a break-away nylon collar and having a reflective edge
trim to make it easier to see by motorists at night. Collar covers are brightly
colored so that birds and some other prey species can more easily spot cats stalking
them. Reds and oranges are used extensively along with yellows; however, they noted
that reds, oranges, and yellows can match autumn leaf colors and thus might camouflage
cats somewhat and be responsible for the increase observed in autumn bird
predation. Many mammals, including nearly all nocturnal mammals, cannot see red
colors, rendering Birdsbesafe’s product of little value to them. Conversely,
reds and yellows possibly come across as camouflage to color-blind mammals
under certain conditions. Also, collar covers reflecting ultraviolet could provide
additional visual warning to some wildlife, but this was not addressed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Willson et al. found that 71% of tested cats got used to collar
covers within 5 days. That means the collar covers will be problematic for 29%
of the kind of cats they tested. Since all tested cats were fully domesticated
human-owned animals, it is probable that feral cats would exhibit significantly
lower collar cover acceptance rates. In combination with the difficulty in
trapping and then re-trapping feral cats to install and replace lost break-away
collars, effective use rates are likely to be quite low and thus ineffective
mitigation. This point was not reported by authors or noted by Birdsbesafe on its
website. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Birdsbesafe collar covers are made of an unidentified
“fabric” and designed to enclose a nylon collar, both of which will absorb and
hold water and other liquids. If the product is never washed, such as with
feral cats, cat hoarders, and other low-quality cat owners, collar covers can
become stiff with embedded algae and dirt (and age). This could result in open
sores on the cats from abrasion and could snag on brush and fencing when running
from predators. This may not be an issue in a fenced-in suburban back yard, but
both issues could constitute cruelty when applied to feral cats whose collars cannot
be replaced due to trap-shyness. Willson et al. and Birdsbesafe do not address
this issue even though authors suggest that collar covers be used on feral
cats.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Willson et al. tested the successfulness of collar covers
only on serial killer cats like “the Gorilla.” They placed collar covers on 54
cats in the fall and 19 cats in the spring for twelve weeks each, and claimed that
collar covers reduced bird kills by a factor of 19 times in the spring and 3.4
times in the fall and decreased small mammal predation by about half in the
fall but had no effect in the spring. In comparison, belled collars were shown
by a second research group to reduce bird and mammal kills by 50%, although a
third study revealed that cats can compensate for the bells and develop
different hunting strategies. A fourth study showed that the CatAlert product,
which produces a beeping sound every seven seconds, resulted in cat kill
reductions that were not significantly different from bells. The CatBib is a
large piece of colored cloth attached to a collar that not only visually warns
birds and color-vision enabled mammals but also places a physical barrier
between cat paws and wildlife victims. A fifth study found that 81% of
CatBibbed cats stopped catching birds and 45% stopped catching mammals, but
noted that owner acceptance would likely be small because the CatBib is bulky
and appears awkward.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The serial killer cats that were employed in the
Bridsbesafe collar cover study habitually brought home killed but allegedly “intact”
prey. Obviously, this protocol does not account for kills that were simply left
in the field, stolen by other predators, or eaten. This could be a significant
flaw in the data because large numbers of uncounted kills could go unreported:<o:p></o:p></div>
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Assume that an uncollared cat over
a week’s time kills 10 birds, eats 2 of them, and brings 8 home. Assume that a
Birdsbesafe collar cover is then put on that same cat and it then kills only 2
birds but eats both of them over the next week. Willson et al.’s conclusions
would then be that collar covers reduced kills from 8 to 0, or by 100%, when
the real rate would be 80%.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Alternatively, assume that the
uncollared cat over a week again killed 10 birds, ate 2 of them, and brought 8
home, but a collar cover used over the following week resulted in only 4 bird
kills, 2 of which were eaten and the other 2 brought home. This would result in
a calculated 75% reduction in kills when the actual number would be only 60%.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Birdsbesafe and Willson et al. can play with the numbers
and come up with any success rate they want, but any way that I look at the
numbers, authors’ results are optimistic and may actually be gross
overestimates of success because they do not contain a correction factor to
account for kills not brought home. Has any research been done on quantifying
such a correction factor? I did a lot of literature reviewing on this subject a
few years ago and do not remember any such correction factor being published in
the scientific literature, but if a correction factor does exist, I am sure
that a scientist like Willson at an institute of higher learning like St.
Lawrence University would have applied it. If a correction factor does not
exist and if it is potentially important, then why do Willson’s and other
research groups not ascertain it? It would clearly be a significant gap in our
knowledge of cat kills and cat prey mitigation. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Willson et al.’s data collection occurred during two
seasons, spring and fall. There were no reasons cited for those seasons nor for
not sampling during other seasons. I suspect it had to do with summer college
vacations and winter cold, but authors should have addressed whether these two
seasons are representative of a full year or else should have pointed out that
their results may not be indicative of an annual period. Birdsbesafe’s 87%
reduction claim implies an annual basis, which I think is misleading.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Willson et al.’s tested cats brought home 19 species of
birds from 12 families and 11 species of mammals from 8 families, totaling 50
birds and 136 mammals. Unfortunately, authors did not include a raw-numbers table
of before-and-after kills, so we cannot scrutinize the actual data ourselves. The
only raw data provided by authors was a list of kill numbers by species, and
the only reduced data provided is a bar chart of average kill numbers per cat
per week. They then report their results in terms of reduction multiples,
stating that uncollared cats killed 19 times more birds in the spring and 3.4
times more in the fall. Similarly, uncollared mammal kills were twice as high
as collar-cover kills in the fall but were equal to collar-cover kills in the
spring. In other words, if I have done my math correctly in the absence of raw
data, collar covers reduced bird kills by 77-95% and mammal kills by 0-50%.
However, considering the uncounted-kills flaw, those numbers may be overestimates
by 10%, 20%, or even more.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Willson et al. reported that only one herpetofaunal
(herp) prey item was brought home, a spring peeper frog. They claimed that the
reason for this low number is that the study was done in northern New York,
implying that this locale has low herp populations. I am not sure if that is
true, but even if it is, the implication should have been clearly stated as a
fact and should have been referenced. <o:p></o:p></div>
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They quote a sixth report that free-ranging cats wearing
kitty-cams caught more herps than any other type of animal. Additional reports have
found that cat owners are more likely to bag and freeze certain animals than
others. Owners (1) readily collect small birds and intact (non-bloody) mammals
and lizards, (2) are less likely to handle shredded carcasses, (3) are unlikely
to even see, much less collect small herps half-eaten and left by the cat in
the lawn, and (4) snakes of any kind or size. Therefore, it is likely that Willson
et al.’s tested cats did bring home more herps than owners were willing to
collect and report, so authors were correct to eliminate herps from their
study.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The generally accepted and most often way in the
biological literature to convey before-and-after changes is to report percent
changes, whereas Willson et al. reported only reduction multiples. The latter
are indeed fine to impart, but only if percent changes are also reported. Authors’
peers cannot otherwise confirm the original findings, which is important if
herps or other prey items are left out of the equation. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Willson et al.’s data is based on kills that were
collected by cat owners and saved for seasonal pickup, thus relying on the cat
owner claims that they saved all the brought-home kills. It is known from other
studies that many prey items brought home are in varying states of intactness
and that owners will leave a particularly stinky mess on the lawn rather than
bag and freeze it. This was not mentioned by the authors even though it is a
known flaw of owner-based data collection and will underestimate predation
rates.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Willson et al. initially used collars that easily broke
away and were lost approximately 50% of the time. They replaced that model with
one that broke away less than 10% of the time. Obviously, different break-away
rates will produce different efficacy rates, but authors neither gave different
efficacy rates for the two collar models nor reported whether the two data sets
were determined separately or lumped together. This should have been clarified.
Regardless, authors did not name the brands/models of the tested collars, contrary
to standard methods. This failure means that their experiment cannot be
independently repeated by others.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Willson et al. did not address whether any of the tested
cats learned how to open a break-away collar or if the broken collars were
accidentally separated. Although not integral to their study, cats may find it
easier to learn how to disengage some collar models than others, and this might
be why one of their two models broke away so often. This is yet another reason
why authors should have listed the collar models tested.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Only 26% of Willson et al.’s participating cat owners
said they would buy and use cover collars in the future. Their reasons were
break-away losses, cat comfort, and owner dislike of the product. It is good to
note that Birdsbesafe developed a new break-away collar from stretchy nylon
fabric in order to lessen the break-away issue.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Willson et al. focus on bird kill reductions and discuss
mammal kill reductions but little. This is perplexing, since mammals are as
ecologically valuable as birds and cats evidently kill more mammals than birds.
It is obvious to conservation biologists that it is at least as important to
protect mammals as birds. True, Birdsbesafe collar covers are only claimed to
reduce bird predation, but the correct goal is to protect all wildlife from
free-roaming cats, so a birds-only mitigation device is woefully inadequate. It
begs the question of why authors expended resources on a product with such
limited value.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In summary, Willson et al.’s report is flawed in terms of
(1) its reason for being, which was to assuage guilt, (2) non-standard and misleading
methods of reporting kill reductions, (3) failure to admit to probably low
feral cat use rates, (4) failure to recognize potential cruelty to feral cats
from dirty, stiff collars, (5) failure to compensate for uncounted kills in
efficacy rate estimates, (6) failure to justify projecting results from two
seasons out over the entire year, (7) inadequate reporting of raw data, (8) failure
to justify using a product designed for bird protection even though it is
evidently unsuitable for other taxonomic groups such as herps and mammals, (9)
failure to list the tested collar models despite very different loss rates, and
(10) failure to admit that low owner acceptance means that collar covers can
mitigate only for relatively small numbers of prey items. The cat kill
reduction values reported by Willson et al. and highlighted by Birdsbesafe are therefore
unwarranted at best and deliberately misleading at worst.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Buford Naturehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14657555328626398940noreply@blogger.com2