Ecology- MMG

Home of groups, cadres, circles, teams, ...
OutOfTheBlue
Posts: 294
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2022 9:59 am

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by OutOfTheBlue »

Image

Roots, branches, or trunk? Some deep imagination going on there.

Edit:
Ficus benghalensis, commonly known as the banyan, banyan fig and Indian banyan, is a tree native to the Indian Subcontinent. Specimens in India are among the largest trees in the world by canopy coverage. It is also known as the "strangler fig" because it starts out as epiphyte, that is, leaning on another tree that it ends up suffocating.

theanimal
Posts: 2622
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2013 10:05 pm
Location: AK
Contact:

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by theanimal »

Low tide lined up with my walk home from class this week so I took to the beach instead of the trails. The first couple days of the week had a low pressure system, with some serious wind. The bay in this area is usually dead calm, but there were some serious wind waves and white caps, even in the protected areas. The system changed after Tuesday and the rest of the week went as before. There are river otters in the ocean around here (not sea otters, I'm not sure why?) and I saw one playing in a tide pool on Tuesday. Birds weren't too varied, mainly some gulls and herons. And the beach offered endless opportunities for observation: a dead bird's carcass, a starfish, all kinds of tracks, driftwood, mollusks, sea shells among other things. It made for an excellent commute. ~Two more weeks and the tides will be in my favor again!

Image

jacob
Site Admin
Posts: 15859
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:38 pm
Location: USA, Zone 5b, Koppen Dfa, Elev. 620ft, Walkscore 77
Contact:

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by jacob »

If you look up at the sky (to the west) right after sunset, you'll see Jupiter and Venus getting closer and closer to conjunction. Look up semi-regularly and it quickly becomes clear that the planets really do wander.

User avatar
mountainFrugal
Posts: 1117
Joined: Fri May 07, 2021 2:26 pm

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by mountainFrugal »

The past two mornings there has been a murder of crows gathering (~75) in the neighbor's tree around 8 am. They make experimental noise rock bands sound good by comparison. It is fun to watch. The weather has been warmer before an incoming storm later this week. Presumably the crows are looking to find some mates as the weather will eventually warm up? Maybe they are establishing a pecking order?

User avatar
grundomatic
Posts: 411
Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2021 9:04 am

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by grundomatic »

Vermillion flycatcher was cruising around my compost bin two days in a row--a real bug buffet. So cute and brightly colored! Wish I could have captured a picture worth posting.

Couple doves flew in to drink water that had collected in a newly dug basin.

User avatar
mountainFrugal
Posts: 1117
Joined: Fri May 07, 2021 2:26 pm

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by mountainFrugal »

1.2m of snow in the past few days! Avalanche danger is very high and has been for almost a week. This is going to be a great spring skiing season. Crows still hanging out in the neighbor's tree, but have not been aggregating during the snow storm.

shaz
Posts: 417
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by shaz »

We've had a good streak of above freezing days, and now have roughly a 50/50 mix of mud and remaining snow drifts. This should be a good spring for the pasture.

The birds have started making springtime noises and I saw a bluebird yesterday. It's time to clean up the cross country skis and pack them away.

User avatar
mountainFrugal
Posts: 1117
Joined: Fri May 07, 2021 2:26 pm

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by mountainFrugal »

Snow. Snow. More snow.

This recent storm has me watching all the neighborhood cats. They are the only animals out and about right now. I have seen three new cats today. They are walking on top of the fence lines to stay out of the deep snow. Usually they are on the ground out of sight, but from my living room window I catch movement out of the side of my eye along the fence lines. Cat. O another cat. Here a cat, there a cat, everywhere a cat, cat.

One shit in my driveway before the snow really started yesterday. I am hoping the driveway does not become a catbox like our side yard.

theanimal
Posts: 2622
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2013 10:05 pm
Location: AK
Contact:

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by theanimal »

I arrived home yesterday after 5 months away and noticed that it was remarkably more quiet than I remembered both inside and outside our house. I couldn't figure out why for a few hours until it hit me. Birds! I had gotten used to the abundance of bird songs in Port Townsend. Still being winter here, there are only a handful of birds, few and far between. On my drive up I passed the earliest migrators. Northern extent of geese in Grand Prairie, Alberta and northern extent of the snow buntings around Kluane Park in the Yukon. The buntings will arrive first in about 2 weeks, followed by the geese 2 weeks later. For now the landscape remains snow covered and silent, the silence only broken every so often by the sound of a red squirrel chattering away on a tree, a raven passing by overhead, or the chickadees that flit about in the morning.

User avatar
mountainFrugal
Posts: 1117
Joined: Fri May 07, 2021 2:26 pm

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by mountainFrugal »

Compost is cooking. It has started melting out first. I am assuming it is saturated under the snow blanket and might be anaerobic. I will turn it once it is completely melted out so it is ready to add to the garden (still under multiple feet of snow).

theanimal
Posts: 2622
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2013 10:05 pm
Location: AK
Contact:

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by theanimal »

Lex Fridman recently interviewed Paul Rosolie about his extensive experiences in the Amazon jungle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPfriiHBBek There are some excellent stories in there, especially one in particular about learning from the behavior of a jaguar from its tracks and other clues within the immediate environment. There are a lot of good ecology tidbits in there from him as well as some of the native people he interacts with and has come across in that region. Recommended!

A couple highlights
Just like, you know, for instance, we were walking up a stream a few months ago and I went, hey, look, Jaguar tracks. And he went, oh, and I was like, what? Jaguar tracks. And he's like, no, look, look harder. And I was like, the toes are deeper than the back. And he was like, ah, and where are they? And I was like, by the water. And I was like, the Jaguar is drinking. It was leaning to drink. And he was like, that's right. He's like, now look behind you. I look behind me.

And there's scat, there's a big log of Jaguar shit sitting there. And it's got butterflies all over. Fresh? Pretty fresh. And then there's another one that's less fresh. And so he's teaching me as he does, he's going, look at this, like at this. Is that one as fresh as this one? No. And then he goes, now look up, look up. There's three vultures above us. The kill is near us. The jaguar has been coming multiple times to the river to drink as it's feasting on whatever it killed.

And he's going, it's within 30 feet of us right now. And it's like, I'm like, oh look, impression's in the sand. He's like, I just drew 19 conclusions from that. It's like watching Sherlock Holmes at work. It's just like constructing the crime scene.
I think that most people don't think outside of the human framework. You know what I mean? Like just driving around, for me, living outside of the jungle, even just for a few weeks, I get, you don't even think about the fact that there's other species around us. We really don't day to day. You look at TV and you listen to the radio and it doesn't, it's not very consequential to the average person living in a city that there are these, you know, islands covered in walruses and that there's rainforests filled with birds and frogs and all these things happening and that, you know, the salmon are contributing to our fresh water and that life is literally given to us and made possible by these ecological systems. To me, that's where like the whole, you know, essence of my existence comes from.

User avatar
mountainFrugal
Posts: 1117
Joined: Fri May 07, 2021 2:26 pm

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by mountainFrugal »

@theanimal I will check these out! Cool stuff. From my limited time spent in 2 jungles, I am not cut out for that.

Locally the thaw has begun in earnest. The bird chorus in the morning is an excellent way to drink coffee and draw. The woodpeckers are back! Unfortunately so are leaf blowers. The leaves were trapped under show for most of the winter because they were late to fall this year. So we need to do a big spring rake to add to the garden beds.

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2102
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by AxelHeyst »

The wind is ripping. It always rips in April here. It took down another truck on the highway a few days ago. "The first truck of the season to go down" is neighborhood talk here.

A few days ago a bird came up to the windowsill of the studio. Bright yellow breast, black wings and head, white linear markings on the wings. Yesterday when I was on the pass I saw the same sort of bird in LOVE with its reflection in the passenger mirror on a Tesla parked there. It was getting all up in the mirror, then would go to the window glass, and back to the mirror. I approached it slowly, and it flew up to do the same thing to a mirror of an F150. Earlier, I think I heard a call I haven't heard recently, and saw this bird on top of the studio. I can't reproduce it, my birdsong memory is atrocious and if I don't intentionally lock it in when I hear it and then write it down, I lose it. Something to work on.

My humanure pile is a reverse cornucopia. I filled it over the winter and thought I'd have to build a new one shortly... and it has been at the brim for the past months, and I keep adding to it, but it keeps being within four inches of the brim.

Sometimes the sky looks like this here:
Image

shaz
Posts: 417
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by shaz »

@axelheyst possibly a western meadowlark.

theanimal
Posts: 2622
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2013 10:05 pm
Location: AK
Contact:

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by theanimal »

There were a few warm days above freezing in the beginning of the month that had us thinking we'd have an early spring. Not so fast, back to temps in the teens for the past couple weeks with more snow. Today we are finally welcoming spring in full force. Hit 40 F for the first time at our house and some of the birds have returned. We had a red breasted nut hatch joining the chickadees at the feeder today. I also noticed the first insect of the year, a fly buzzing around. Temps are forecasted to be sunny and in the upper 30s, low 40s next few days so the snow should begin to start melting rapidly. I'm forecasting the snow to fall off our roof this weekend.

avalok
Posts: 277
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2021 4:42 am
Location: West Midlands, UK; Walkscore 73

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by avalok »

I have cycled rather than walked to work for just over a month, and walking in this morning I instantly regretted having missed so much life return to the canal. The nettles and hemlock were well into new growth, I saw two herons fighting, heard a woodpecker, and found a dense spot of wild garlic along the towpath. I'm surprised the garlic has grown in that spot: it isn't particularly shaded, no dense tree canopy, but there is a stone wall that must emulate well enough the conditions it likes. Anyway, I have made a note to pick some for dinner this evening on my way home.

theanimal
Posts: 2622
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2013 10:05 pm
Location: AK
Contact:

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by theanimal »

Snow came thundering off both sides of the roof on Friday. Yesterday I heard the first sandhill crane of the year and there was a butterfly on the window this morning. I anticipate more insects and birds day by day. We are probably about 1 week from break up and 2 weeks from green up. If i remember correctly, green up was May 8 last year, one day behind historical average.

Western Red Cedar
Posts: 1200
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:15 pm

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by Western Red Cedar »

We've had a bit of an ecological mystery up at my family's property. We have a series of trees along the property line, and in the last year or so it appears that a bird has targeted the trees on the south side. This is directly exposed to sun, and doesn't seem to correlate with a particular species. It includes both Tamarack and Douglas Fir trees. We've seen woodpeckers (likely pileated) target living Western Red Cedar trees, but haven't seen them target other living species. A neighbor that lives a few ridge lines away recently mentioned he noticed something similar on his property.

A couple of theories are new/higher insect populations or a change to habitat for the pileated woodpecker due to some heavy logging on neighboring properties. Maybe the bird just prefers foraging in the sun? Maybe the insect activity is higher along the line because it gets a lot more sun, or because temperatures have been higher in recent summers?

We've also seen a lot of Flicker activity on the property in the last few years, which followed the logging.

Any birders out there with other theories?

Property line:

Image

Douglas Fir:

Image

OutOfTheBlue
Posts: 294
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2022 9:59 am

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by OutOfTheBlue »

Yesterday, I went to the park and talked to the body of water living there.

Its murkiness is of the same quality as that of a recent dream I had.

I read repeatedly David Whyte's poem "What to remember when waking", and with each round, I felt my voice deepening, not in tone, but in presence. I then followed that recitation with a telling and revisiting of my dream.

During that time, big water monitor lizards took turns and closed in as if curious, listening.

In the end, I spent a good 20 minutes sitting with one that was cooling its body in a "pool" a few feet from me, and tried to mirror its head movement and expression, blinking after it. I wonder how it felt, to see another being blinking with it, like that. Did it notice I did that in response/dialog?

But before that, once I had repeated the poem and told my dream to the water, I found that I had entered a more attentive state myself, and asked the water if it had a dream it'd like to share with me as well.

My eyes danced on the water surface, changing focus, following along its wavelets, shadows and reflections. Then it hit me. This was a dream story that was unfolding in front of my eyes. Yes, a dream, and I was in it, participating, present at its emergence, my eyes, catching sight of the "light fishes" swimming on its surface.

Then it hit me again, and David Whyte's verse took new meaning:

To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.

The water too, becomes visible while carrying the hidden treasures of its depths to anyone willing to see and listen. The visible face of its surface is in harmony, not at odds with its profundity. The visible and the hidden carry each other.

"There is another world. This one."

To belong to this one and only/other world, to find my soul-place, to reclaim true membership and inheritance. Yes. I want to remember

theanimal
Posts: 2622
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2013 10:05 pm
Location: AK
Contact:

Re: Ecology- MMG

Post by theanimal »

"The Forest Unseen" and "The Songs of Trees" (both by David Haskell) are both excellent books centered around ecological observations. In the first, the author shares some of his thoughts from observing one square meter of old growth forest on his property in Tennessee. The second looks at 12 different trees around the world and their connections with the environment and other organisms around them. Very good!

Post Reply