A common form of prehistoric rock-art here in California is the cupule. These are shallow round depressions ground into a rock face, usually in no particular pattern. Here is a picture of my colleague Bryon Bass next to a rock covered with cupules. This location is in Kern County in the foothills of the Tehachapi …
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.. and Wolf Eagles
Here is Manai, with his eagle…. …and a wolf pelt, taken by this eagle, hanging on his winter house. Eagles do not take wolves in the wild as a rule, though a biologist friend has seen one kill a coyote here, and they regularly take pronghorn here (see American Pronghorn : Social Adaptations and the …
A Ghost of Evolution
A fascinating book that Steve introduced me to is Connie Barlow’s Ghosts of Evolution. The essential biological truth that forms the book’s basis is that many plant species evolve in concert with “partner” animal species that serve as agents to disperse the plants’ seeds. The evolutionary strategy is that the plants evolve fruits that appeal …
Eagle Huggers
You’ve all heard of tree huggers. But some of my best friends have been eagle huggers. Golden eagles are long- lived, life- bonded, top- of- the- food- chain predators. This can make them very hard to train, but if they are bonded they are REALLY bonded. They are intelligent and playful– I know Konrad Lorenz, …
Iola Reid, RIP
My maternal grandmother, Iola Wilkinson Reid, died on October 1, in Jonesboro, Arkansas. She was 97 and had been in a nursing home, mentally lost and physically declining for the last five years. She really had been miserable and suffering in the home and though I was very close to her and miss her, I …
Landscape blogging
Just for fun. We had our (late) first hard frost last night. Usually we have gotten our first snow by about now. Here are a morning and evening shot of our town on a snowy day, looking south from near our house on our (still dirt except for its bottom end) main street, for those …
In which two of my interests meet
That is, the evolution of disease organisms and the new drive to control all animals. I have been watching the progress of bird flu with attention if not exactly alarm. Being I hope a prudent sort, and one who believes in self- sufficiency, I have laid in a supply of Tamiflu and have Relenza on …
Cascade effects in Yellowstone
This fascinating NYT article on the cascade effect of the Yellowstone wolf introduction may prepare our imaginations in just a small way for the effects if “ReWilding” starts. The change in the plant ecology and species composition of the Plains and Southwest alone is going to be amazing. “Where willows and cottonwoods have returned, they …
Jackson’s Wedding Pics
As promised. This isn’t exactly a “diary” blog, but these people aren’t just family– they are fellow bloggers. Besides, what could possibly look more magnificent than an Eastern Orthodox ceremony? The linked flower crowns in the Orthodox ceremony will be hung on the wall above the couple’s bed. Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Jackson Frishman– or …
Doom and Gloom
Another in the continuing series. “Of course, the end of the world has been promised by Jews, Christians, Muslims and assorted crazies with sandwich boards for as long as there has been a human world to end. But those doomsdays were the product of faith; reason always used to say the world will continue. The …