I woke up to this early this morning. At 2 PM it appears to be finally stopping. I can assure you the hummingbirds are not very happy about this. As we always say here, we can use the water.
Author: Reid Farmer
Quote
Jefferson grinned. “You strike me as a ‘glass half-empty’ kind of guy, sir,” he said. “I’m a ‘the glass is half-empty and filled with poison’ kind of guy, actually,” Wilson said. – John Scalzi, The Human Division
Recent Arrivals
I saw our first lazuli bunting of the season yesterday and our first broad-tailed hummingbirds arrived last Sunday (these are recycled pictures, not the actual arrivers). So maybe we will have summer this year after all. Of course they are predicting a foot of snow for Sunday.
City Birds Make Do
Crows living in Tokyo use coat hangers for nesting material. Reminds me of a nest made out of wire that Steve saw near Magdalena a few years ago.
Petrified Wood
I have been working with a local land conservancy, the Cherokee Ranch, to help them develop a research and education program for archaeology. They already have a geology program started, and the geologists invited me to go on a field visit to look at petrified wood on the ranch property a few days ago. They …
Stupid Science Questions
These sorts of things can be really sappy, but I often find I get sucked in and can’t help enjoying them. Examples: How did the thesaurus survive the dinosaur extinction? We’ve long known the speed of light, but what is the speed of heavy? My neighbor said he’s an “acidic Jew”. Are there basic Jews? …
Farming Makes You Weak
I know I’ve mentioned a number of times here, that as prehistoric peoples moved from a hunting-gathering economy to agriculture, in general their health declined. This was apparently due to a number of factors, including eating a more limited diet, living for long periods in one place increases the spread of disease, etc. I just …
More Ivanpah
A few days ago I posted about seeing the Ivanpah solar plant from the air. A commenter mentioned that it was killing lots of birds. I just saw in the Palm Springs newspaper that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a report calling it a “mega-trap” killing birds. This picture is of a …
Mississippi Flyway
I was back in Arkansas in January visiting my father and it occurred to me it had been years since I had been there during migration season. I thought I’d use this post to put up a few pictures I took. I was amazed at how Snow Geese have taken over the flyway. If you …
Ivanpah
Back in February, Connie and I flew from Denver to John Wayne Airport in Orange County to visit our kids. Shortly after we crossed the Colorado River into California, we saw flashes of light out our window on the north side of the plane. Knowing solar energy as we do from our work, we quickly …