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| Older shot of meteor from NASA |
It’s mild but very icy outside. I like how the snow we get is quickly melted
away rain but I don’t like the ice that follows. I’ll even take mud over ice. I will definitely take ice over meteors
exploding overhead though. Did you know
that similar, but not as large meteors exploded over the Bay off California,
over Cuba and Florida in the last few days?
Since meteors generally occur in “showers” this is worrisome. I got up yesterday and saw a bright light- I
was worried for a minute then I realized it was a rare glimpse of the sun.
I have some daffodils blooming inside right now. Last year I dug up a flowerbed that had been
choked by daffodil bulbs and I literally removed hundreds while still
replanting hundreds in that spot. I went
around planting the bulbs I removed everywhere in the yard, I should have
daffodils everywhere this spring. I gave
lots of bulbs away. And then I still had
bulbs left in November so I planted a few large hanging baskets very thickly
with smaller bulbs and stashed them in the herb bed to get a winter chill.
A couple weeks ago in one of the thaws I removed a basket of
daffodil bulbs and brought it into the porch where it was a bit warmer than
outside. When they had sprouted a few
inches I brought them inside to a south window.
The development after that was amazingly fast. In about 3 days I noticed they were 8 inches
high and tiny buds were forming. I moved
them closer to the window and overnight the buds plumped and were showing
color. Later in the day I noticed the
buds had started to open. By midday the
following day they had fully opened.
Most of them are white- for some reason a lot of the daffodils I have
are white. It sure is nice to have a bit
of spring to look at. I’ll have to get
the other pots inside soon if I want to have them before they bloom outside.
Today arguments start in the Supreme Court involving the
case of the small farmer, Vernon Bowman against Ag giant Monsanto. The case will have important consequences for
both patent law and GMO groups, pro and con. In a simplified version, Bowman,
who farms in Indiana and is now 74 years old, bought some Round-Up Ready
Soybeans in 1999. The next year he
either saved seeds to re-plant or bought some contaminated seeds from a co-op
to plant, depending on whose side you believe.
Anyway Monsanto sued him because he signed an agreement not to save
seeds. Monsanto patented the seeds and
collects a fee each time they are sold.
This case has worked its way through the courts for over ten
years. It is a case that has provoked
much interest for a variety of reasons.
It’s also a case that illustrates how we have become a nation that sees
only black and white and only notices gray when it comes in the form of a sexy
book.
It’s hard not to take sides and since we are now bombarded
by information both good and bad from so many sources today it is really
difficult to remember that almost nothing is totally good or bad. If we are open to new ideas our own ideas may
– and should- evolve with new information.
I am interested in both plants and animals and many of you have heard my
thoughts on a number of things. But I
find it fascinating that sometimes new information will give me a radically
different insight into things and shake up my thinking.
I am reading two books right now, one on plants- What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz and one on animals- Tempel Grandin’s Animals Make Us Human. Both are really
making me re-think what I thought I knew and I recommend them to everyone. New research I came upon this week is also
changing my views on some things. I will
talk about the cat-songbird and methane gas research below.
Aloe vera makes a
good tooth paste
Did you know that aloe vera gel is now manufactured as a
tooth gel and it has been found to be as effective as any other toothpaste on
the market for oral hygiene? A report published in General Dentistry, May /June 2009 on research using aloe gel to kill
bacteria in the mouth encouraged several companies to develop aloe tooth
gels.
Properly prepared aloe tooth gels contain anthraquinones, a compound
in aloe gel that soothes inflammation and pain as well as having antimicrobial properties.
The gels have no abrasive ingredients and are great for those with sensitive
teeth or sore gums. Aloe is used for a
number of medicinal and cosmetic products but not all aloe products are
manufactured equally well. If the
product is not handled correctly most of the healing properties will be
lost. The International Aloe Science Council tests
and certifies aloe products and you should look for their seal of approval on any
aloe gel products you buy. You can go to
their website at http://www.iasc.org/ and find a list of certified products and
also see a video clip of how aloe is processed for medicinal and cosmetic use.
Back yard birds
The 2013 annual Great Backyard Bird Count ended
yesterday. The bird count is sponsored
by the Audubon Society and Cornell University and encourages citizens across
the US to count and record the birds they see over a 4 day weekend in
February. The data is entered into an on
line site that allows people to access a lot of fascinating information about
wild birds. Yesterday as people entered
data into the system you could watch a map that showed in real time where the
data was coming from. You can look for
yourself at http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/. People are still entering data as they have
until March 1 to do so.
As of this morning 105,046 surveys had been entered with
birds from 2,973 species and some 21,992,866 individual birds counted. In 2012 the most numerous bird reported in
the US was the snow goose, but that was thought to be somewhat of an anomaly
due to an unusual migration pattern last year.
The Tree Swallow was the second most numerous bird, followed by Red Wing
Blackbirds, Canada Goose, Common Grackle, Starlings, American Robin, American
Goldfinch, American Coot, and the Mallard.
The Northern Cardinal was the
bird that was reported by the most number of people.
In Michigan the most numerous bird species was the Canada goose,
no surprise. Other top bird species were Black Capped Chickadees, Mourning
Doves, and American Goldfinches. Three
Golden Eagles were sighted in Michigan last year as well as 374 Bald Eagles. Only 30 Ring Neck Pheasants were counted and
6 Meadowlarks, which is sad because it shows we are rapidly losing some species
which used to be common. Of course the
Ringneck is not a native bird. For the second year in a row the bird count
showed that Blue Jays were in serious decline across the US. Interestingly even though it was winter and
you would expect them to be further south, 703 Eastern Bluebirds were counted
and 1,031 Robins were counted in Michigan.
Recent bird counts have shown that the pattern of bird
migrations are changing due to changing weather patterns, many birds are
staying year round, leaving later or returning earlier than in earlier
decades. Also a new “exotic” species the
Eurasian Collared Dove that was first seen in Florida in the 80’s is spreading
rapidly north and west and has been spotted in the far South Western corner of
Michigan. Unfortunately bird counts have
also revealed that most bird species are declining in number and some species
are critically endangered.
If you are interested in wild birds you can enter the birds
you see all year and see birds that other people are watching at www.eBird.org .
You can keep a private birding list there as well as participating in
other bird activities.
Because February is National Bird Feeding Month, wild bird
research and news stories are frequent.
Somewhat related is the Kitty Cam research released by Georgia State
University and the National Geographic Society.
Researchers put tiny cameras on housecats and watched as they prowled
outside. They recorded the cat’s
activities and found many of the cats spent a lot of time hunting, which should
have been no surprise. Many reporters
were putting out sensational stories about killer cats this month using that
data. However if you truly pay attention
to the research and also read other research on cats, song bird predation and
related issues as I did this week you’ll find much more ambiguous results.
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| We are mighty killers. |
I wrote an article on Examiner about this which you can read
at http://www.examiner.com/article/are-cats-killers-pets-or-both
and I encourage you to go to the kittycam web site at http://www.kittycams.uga.edu/
and watch the video that the researcher made to explain her research.
Mustard seed may
control weeds
Another environmentally friendly weed control product has
been discovered. When mustard seed is
squeezed to produce mustard oil, which is used in a variety of products from
condiments to cosmetics, a paste or meal is left. Researchers used mustard seed meal on the
soil in container plants and found the meal quite effective in controlling the
weeds that typically grow in containers, both grassy weeds and broad leaf
weeds. The mustard meal also contributed
about 5 % nitrogen to the soil. More research is continuing on the mustard seed
meal with the biggest factor in commercial use being the cost to transport the
meal.
Trees contribute to
global warming
We love our trees and environmentalists have always told us
that trees are important because they sequester, or store carbon, and help
prevent some of the bad effects of greenhouse gases and global warming. While trees still remain important in carbon
storage, some rather surprising new research has found that trees also
contribute to greenhouse gases which may offset some of their carbon
sequestering qualities.
Methane gas is an important part of the noxious greenhouse
gasses that warm the climate. Methane is
produced when organic matter is broken down in wet areas and we have long known
that methane gasses are produced in wetland areas, and released as “swamp gas”. However because the amount of methane
released in wet areas has always been measured by capping areas of ground to
capture the gas it seems we may have
seriously underestimated the amount of methane that wetland areas produce.
A research team was studying wetlands and methane production
in South America when they linked the difference in the structure of trees that
grow in wet areas with how methane gas escapes the soil. Trees that grow in wet areas have to have
larger “veins” in their roots to get enough oxygen and they also have larger
pores in trunks and leaves to vent moisture and gases. It seems that these larger pores and
conductive vessels are also a great way for methane gas to escape the
soil. When the team set up ways to
capture methane from trunks and canopies of wetland trees they were amazed at
how much methane was escaping this way.
Now studies are underway to capture methane from other places around the
world in this new manner and to re-evaluate how much methane gas is excreted
into the atmosphere through trees.
But wait- there is more methane news. New research done by the Yale School of
Forest and Environmental Studies found that certain fungi that hollow out the
inside of trees also produce massive amounts of methane gas that is vented out
through the tree. On the outside these trees
may look healthy until they fall in a storm and the hollow core is found. You can often identify when these fungi are
destroying a tree because they produce large shelf like fungal growths on tree
trunks. These are the reproductive organ
of the fungi working inside.
These tree hollowing fungi are found throughout the
world. Researchers are now estimating that
as much as 18 % of the methane gas found in “greenhouse” gas is produced by
these tree fungi. With these two new
sources of methane emissions identified maybe the burping cows will catch a
break.
Keep your eye on the sky; either meteors or falling trees may
get ya.
More Information
Managing Your Property to attract
Wildlife
The natural
landscape of Michigan consists of a number of types of habitat. Each type of
habitat attracts different species of animals from birds to deer. If left alone
nature is constantly maturing her habitats in the process called succession.
Both land and water habitats go through succession over time, with the plant
and animal species changing. Read more by going to the article below.
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