Grosbeak!

Our goldfinches left several weeks ago.  The cedar waxwings came through in at least three big waves, starting in February (and the last just over a week ago).  House finches moulted, and the breeding males have bright red heads. Migrating robins left us by the end of January, but a lot more residents stayed with us.

We have at least one, and maybe three cardinal families.  A black-capped chickadee family stuck around.  Haven’t seen a titmouse in a month, but I think they’re still in the neighborhood.  The black-chinned hummingbird family is back, and maybe a few other hummers.  The resident blue jays and white-winged doves duke it out every day.  Carolina wren stayed, and may have already fledged; but there are too many wrens for one family — is that a Bewick’s wren?

What’s THAT?

White-winged dove, left, can’t scare away the rose-breasted grosbeak from the songbird feeder. Photo by Ed Darrell

Look closer. Photo by Ed Darrell

It’s a rose-breasted grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus.  It seems late for migrating birds, but only because so many migratory species migrate earlier these days.

Haunts of the rose-breasted grosbeak, from Cornell University’s ornithological laboratory.

Would love to have a grosbeak family, but the Cornell ornithologists say this is fly-through territory.  Maybe that explains why it won’t scare by the white-winged dove, Zenaida asiatica.  Dallas is the western edge of the grosbeaks’ migratory path, but the eastern edge of the dove’s territory.  They probably don’t see much of each other.

We don’t even advertise clean restrooms.

More:

• Gorgeous Grosbeaks (georgiabackyardnature.com)
• The long flight home (toledoblade.com)
• Bird Songs for Bird Lovers (onegodnews.wordpress.com)
• Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks (naturenotesnow.wordpress.com)
• Grosbeaks and chimney swifts coming and going (heraldtimesonline.com)
• Beedie Bird Photo: Bewick’s Wren (mentalhealthed.com)
• More Signs of Spring…More Birds! (sewingforlife.wordpress.com)
• 294 Species and One Shattered Record on “Almost Perfect” Big Day (birds.cornell.edu)
• spring exploding on Snake Mountain (snakemountainmuse.wordpress.com)

Annals of global warming: No, polar bears are not “fine” — suffer from loss of sea ice

Press release from The Journal of Animal Ecology (links added here):

For polar bears, it’s survival of the fattest

One of the most southerly populations of polar bears in the world – and the best studied – is struggling to cope with climate-induced changes to sea ice, new research reveals. Based on over 10 years’ data the study, published in the British Ecological Society‘s Journal of Animal Ecology, sheds new light on how sea ice conditions drive polar bears’ annual migration on and off the ice.

Led by Dr. Seth Cherry of the University of Alberta, the team studied polar bears in western Hudson Bay, where sea ice melts completely each summer and typically re-freezes from late November to early December. “This poses an interesting challenge for a species that has evolved as a highly efficient predator of ice-associated seals,” he explains. “Because although polar bears are excellent swimmers compared with other bear species, they use the sea ice to travel, hunt, mate and rest.”

Caption from EurekAlert: An adult female polar bear wearing a GPS-satellite linked collar with her two 10-month-old cubs waits for the sea ice to re-form onshore in western Hudson Bay, Manitoba, Canada. Photo Copyright Andrew Derocher, Univeristy of Alberta.

Polar bears have adapted to the annual loss of sea ice by migrating onto land each summer. While there, they cannot hunt seals and must rely on fat reserves to see them through until the ice returns.

Dr. Cherry and colleagues wanted to discover how earlier thawing and later freezing of sea ice affects the bears’ migration. “At first glance, sea ice may look like a barren, uniform environment, but in reality, it’s remarkably complex and polar bears manage to cope, and even thrive, in a habitat that moves beneath their feet and even disappears for part of the year. This is an extraordinary biological feat and biologist still don’t fully understand it,” he says.

From 1991-97 and 2004-09, they monitored movements of 109 female polar bears fitted with satellite tracking collars. They tagged only females because males’ necks are wider than their heads, so they cannot wear a collar. During the same period, the team also monitored the position and concentration of sea ice using satellite images.

“Defining precisely what aspects of sea ice break-up and freeze-up affect polar bear migration, and when these conditions occur, is a vital part of monitoring how potential climate-induced changes to sea ice freeze-thaw cycles may affect the bears,” he says.

The results reveal the timing of polar bears’ migration can be predicted by how fast the sea ice melts and freezes, and by when specific sea ice concentrations occur within a given area of Hudson Bay.

According to Dr. Cherry: “The data suggest that in recent years, polar bears are arriving on shore earlier in the summer and leaving later in the autumn. These are precisely the kind of changes one would expect to see as a result of a warming climate and may help explain some other studies that are showing declines in body condition and cub production.”

Recent estimates put the western Hudson Bay polar bear population at around 900 individuals. The population has declined since the 1990s, as has the bears’ body condition and the number of cubs surviving to adulthood.

Caption from EurekAlert: This is a subadult polar bear on a lake on the shores of Hudson Bay in Manitoba, Canada in November waiting for the sea ice to re-form. Copyright Andrew Derocher, Univeristy of Alberta.

Because polar bears’ main food source is seals, and these are hunted almost exclusively on sea ice, the longer bears spend on land, the longer they must go without energy-rich seals. “Climate-induced changes that cause sea ice to melt earlier, form later, or both, likely affect the overall health of polar bears in the area. Ultimately, for polar bears, it’s survival of the fattest,” says Dr. Cherry.

He hopes the results will enable other scientists and wildlife managers to predict how potential climate-induced changes to sea ice freeze-thaw cycles will affect the ecology, particularly the migration patterns, of this iconic species.

###

Seth Cherry et al (2013). ‘Migration phenology and seasonal fidelity of an Arctic marine predator in relation to sea ice dynamics’, doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.12050, is published in the Journal of Animal Ecology on Wednesday 20 March 2013.

More:

• Journal of Animal Ecology site
• An abstract of the study (which study  is, alas, behind a paywall)
• Seth Cherry’s academic page
• Dr. Andrew Derocher’s academic page
• Cherry’s work highlighted in Polar Bears: Proceedings of the 15th Working Meeting of the IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group, 29 June-3 July, Copenhagen, Denmark
• For polar bears, it’s survival of the fattest (esciencenews.com)
• For polar bears, it’s survival of the fattest (sciencedaily.com)
• More evidence that polar bears and brown bears have exchanged genes in the past (retrieverman.net)
• Polar bears ‘hit by warm climate’ (independent.ie)
• For polar bears, it’s survival of the fattest (eurekalert.org)
• Fox And Friends: Polar Bears Prove Climate Change Is ‘Not Really Real’ (thinkprogress.org)
• Bid to ban polar bear trade fails (bigpondnews.com)
• Starving polar bears. (loe.org) (This site has a good, but very sad, interview with Dr. Derocher; it also links to an audio of the Living On Earth radio program from which the interview is excerpted.)
• Obama Administration Finalizes Polar Bear Extinction Plan (earthfirstnews.wordpress.com)
• Bid to halt polar bear trade fails (guardian.co.uk)
• Anthony Watts leads denialist charge; a second disinformation site; a source of the incorrect propaganda, and another site pushing it.

Hog wild in Texas: Ranchers, guns, and science working against environmental disaster

Unusual?  No, this is really a typical marriage of agriculture, government agencies, science and hunters, working on problems of wildlife management, feral hogs in this case.

Notes from Texas Parks & Wildlife:

Feral hogs are running wild across Texas, at great cost to farmers, ranchers, and native wildlife. Hunters are helping, but science may prove critical to controlling the invasion on a broader scale. For more information on feral hogs and feral hog control, visit: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/…

When it comes to feral hogs, every Texan turns environmentalist.

More:    

Sign for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department headquarters – Wikipedia image

• Central Texas city trying to cope with feral hogs (reporternews.com)
• Feral hogs cause havoc in neighborhood (wtvr.com)
• Central Texas city trying to cope with feral hogs (star-telegram.com)
• Some Texas landowners profiting from feral hog invasion (southeastfarmpress.com)
• Beaumont cemetery gets state help against hogs (star-telegram.com)
• CNBNEW Hunting and Fishing: Hunters Permitted to take Feral Hogs (gloucestercitynews.net)
• Pennsylvania boar hunting ban nears approval (triblive.com)
• Beaumont cemetery gets state help against hogs (kfdm.com)

Sounds of the Yellowstone in winter will haunt you, lovingly

This is a heckuva research project: What is the sound ecosystem of the Yellowstone?

Film from Yellowstone National Park:

The film was produced by Emily Narrow for NPS, with financial assistance from the Yellowstone Association.

From NPS:

Published on Jul 13, 2012

Many people come to Yellowstone to see the fantastic landscapes. Wise visitors also come to experience the amazing soundscapes. This video provides some insight into the value of natural sounds in wild places and how the park is monitoring those sounds as well as the sounds created by humans.

Nothing matches the sound of a western river, to my mind.  I love the sound of the tumbling waters, and it was on one of those roaring creeks that we scattered the ashes of my Yellowstone-loving oldest brother Jerry Jones.

Classic, vintage poster for Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming/Montana, USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Other sounds will captivate you.  The rush and gush of the geysers, and the gurgle and plop of heated pools rivets you for a while.  Once you hear the chuff of an interested grizzly bear, you don’t forget it.  And while it can be scary if you’re relatively alone on the trail, the howl of the wolf tells you about the wilderness in a way no other sound ever can.  The honks of the geese, the trumpets of the swans, the grunts of the bison, the scolding of the many different squirrels and chipmunks, the slap of a trout jumping out of the river — these are all worth making the trip.

After you go, these sounds will lovingly haunt your life.  You’ll smile when you remember them.

I hope you can go soon.  (I hope I can go, soon.)

Sad note:  Only 1,553 people have watched this video since last July.  Can you spread the word a bit?

More:

• Project to improve access to Yellowstone Park through Gardiner entrance (billingsgazette.com)
• Should National Parks Offer Wifi and Cellular Coverage? (blogs.smithsonianmag.com)
• Out of Bounds: The Death of 832F, Yellowstone’s Most Famous Wolf (outsideonline.com)
• Lawsuit to Help Stop Harassment of Bison Activists (earthfirstnews.wordpress.com)
• What real public information about wolves looks like (thewildlifenews.com)
• Yellowstone Association teaches in nature’s classroom (billingsgazette.com)
• Research sheds new light on wolves’ impact on Yellowstone ecosystems (phys.org)

Eagles! We reduced DDT, and the eagles recovered

Love this photo, from the great folks at Yellowstone National Park:

From the Yellowstone NP Facebook site: An adult bald eagle perched along the Firehole River on New Year’s Day, near a trumpeter swan that it had either killed or was scavenging. Adult bald eagles usually remain in or near their nest territory throughout winter provided they have access to sufficient prey. Photo courtesy of Chris Daniel. (kd)

It’s a reminder of progress we’ve made in environmental protection.

While bald eagles may not have been the most endangered animal protected under the Endangered Species Act, or any other law, they became the most famous.  In the late 18th century Congress voted to designate the bald eagle as our national symbol.  At the time, the continent was still lousy with the creatures.  But from the arrival of Europeans after 1492, eagles had been hunted mercilessly.  By the early 20th century it was clear the animal was bound for extinction, like the great auk and other species (see here for technical information on the auk).

Ben Franklin complained the eagle was a dirty carrion eater, in a smart and funny polemic favoring the American turkey as the national bird.  Franklin couldn’t know how hunting and in-breeding would suck the nobility out of even wild turkeys over the next 200 years, until species protection laws and hunters pushed governments to invigorate stocks of wild turkeys again.  Compared to the eagle’s troubles, though, the turkey’s genetic torpor and limited habitat was almost nothing.

Americans tried to save the eagle.  After 1890, and during the run on great bird feathers that excited the fashion world and led to the senseless slaughter of millions of America’s most spectacular birds, we passed a federal law against hunting and shooting eagles for sport or no reason.  It was a toothless law, and the decline of eagle populations begun in the early 16th century continued unabated. Migratory bird treaties, providing more legal heft to bird protection, didn’t help the eagles either — not enough of them crossed borders, at least not that hunters and law enforcement could see.  The Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940, kicking into action in 1941, provided teeth to eagle hunting restrictions, and hunters stopped shooting them so much.  Between 1940 and 1950, eagle populations stabilized, with a good bunch in Alaska, and a few nesting pairs spread from Oregon to Maine, Lake of the Woods to Florida Everglades.  There were so few eagles, and they were spread so far apart, that most Americans could not see one without major effort and travel.

Bird watchers noticed trouble in the 1950s.  Young eagles stopped showing up for the Audubon Christmas bird count, and at the Hawk Mountain migration counts.  Adults went through the motions, migrating, hunting, building nests, laying eggs for all anyone knew, and hatching young that had been seen, sometimes, to fledge — but then the young birds died.  Between leaving the nest, and returning to mate up and breed, the young birds simply disappeared.

Research showed deeper trouble.  On careful observation the birds were seen to be frustrated in hatching and raising chicks.  Sometimes the eggs wouldn’t hatch.  If they did hatch, the chicks died.  The few who lived to fly out, died soon after.

Rachel Carson called attention to the trouble in her 1962 claxon call on pesticide and chemical pollution, Silent Spring (50 years ago in 2012).

Doctor Science at Obsidian Wings wrote a paean to seeing bald eagles in the wild, with a brief and kind mention of this blog. You should go read it there.

Protecting birds?  The Steve Milloys, CEIs, AEIs, Heritage Foundations, CATO Institutes and other dens of smug cynicism and bad citizenship have it all wrong.  It’s not about power for environmentalists.  It’s nothing so cheap or mean.  Heck.  Often it’s not even about protecting the birds so much.

It’s about protecting our own dreams, and places we have to inspire those dreams.  Frederick Jackson Turner postulated that there is something mystical and magical in a frontier that helped form the American character and make us hard-working, smart, and noble.  He was right, of course.  Those frontiers are not simply frontiers of settlement in the wilderness anymore.  We have to work to find them, to declare Alaska the “Last Frontier,” or government reform and Cold War enterprise as the “New Frontier.”  But we still need frontiers.

Eagles still soar there.  Wherever eagles soar, in fact, we find those frontiers, those places to dream and inspire.  The Endangered Species Act isn’t about saving animals and plants.  It’s about saving our own souls.

More:

• Biodiversity: Yellowstone bison get more room to roam (summitcountyvoice.com)
• Eagle viewing is worth the trip (omaha.com)
• Opportunities to watch eagles soar this year (jsonline.com)
• Best of Fish & Bicycles: Consider The Bald Eagle (fishandbicycles.com)
• Volunteers Needed to Count Bald Eagles (joanmoseley.wordpress.com)
• Runner-up (nextdoornature.org)
• Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey counts thousands of bald eagles in Iowa (iowaenvironmentalfocus.org)
• Bald eagle hunts near downtown Denver in City Park (denverpost.com)
• “DDT blamed in chimney swift decline,” January 19, 2013, Charleston, West Virginia, Saturday Gazette-Mail
• William Souder’s biography of Carson, and DDT, On a Farther Shore, hit bookstores on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Silent Spring; review in the Christian Science Monitor; New York Times’s Sunday Book Review; Washington Post review; hour long interview of Mr. Souder, on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show

Occasional Tuesday tweet: Wren on the rose, Bewick’s or Carolina?

I’ve been calling these guys Bewick’s wrens (Thryomanes bewickii) for a couple of years, based on an identification I made a couple of years ago — but checking today to be sure, I’m thinking this is a Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) instead.

In any case, a couple of days ago it paused for a few minutes in our backyard rose arbor, long enough I could try to get a good shot with just a 200mm telephoto, and with colors dulled by the window.

Wren in the rose arbor — ruddy color suggests it’s a Carolina wren, but I’ve been calling it a Bewick’s wren; pausing for its photo on Inauguration Day – Photo by Ed Darrell

Bewick’s wrens probably have more grey on their bellies; this one looks ruddy enough to be a Carolina wren.  (I just learned “Bewick’s” is pronounced like “Buicks.”)

Wrens stick around all winter now; they didn’t just over a decade ago.  This family has been with us for at least three years — two young this year successfully fledged.  By now it’s almost impossible to tell which are the young, which the parents.

Gulf fritillary butterfly on blue porterweed — a few feet from the rose arbor where the wren posed, but months apart. Photo: Ed Darrell

On our patio we have a saga continuing with Gulf fritillary butterflies (Agraulis vanillae), their larva, and passion vine.  It seems our neighbors eradicated passion vine, so when the frits start moving north in the spring, they find our passion vines as the only ones in town.  The females go nuts laying eggs, and at some point we have a surplus of larva who denude the vines in a week.  Late hatching larva probably die off.

The butterfly books suggest that we cull the larva, but we don’t have the heart.  At some point in the spring the wrens wake up to the issue, and they cull the larva for us.  The vines recover, a new wave of frits hatch out, and the cycle begins again.  From June through September, the passion vine loses any leaves it puts out within 48 hours, usually.  But the wrens probably eat well.

The wrens seem never to perch where we can see them when they sing.  I suspect these little guys of having a much better voice than most wrens, but the great arpeggios I hear may be another bird, perhaps a warbler, that I just don’t know (good reason to go spend time at the local Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center, yes?).

More:

• All About Birds bird guide, from the Ornithology Lab at Cornell University
• Carolina Wren at National Geographic site;
• Bewick’s wren vs. Carolina wren, article at Cornell
• Nature Writers of Texas, “Bewick’s Wren, our Second Breeding Wren”
• Tom Munson’s wren gallery of photographs

Montreal baby experiences terror of being ‘lifted up by eagle’s wings’ (hoax?)

East Coast son Kenny sent this video, noting his reaction was the same as the guy in the film; an encounter with a golden eagle in a Montreal park:

You can take the eagle out of the wild, but you can’t take the wild out of the eagle.

Looks mostly like a golden eagle to me — anyone want to make the case it’s a different bird?

What’s going on in Montreal, I wonder, that would make a golden eagle think a human baby might make a good meal?  (No, I don’t think the bird was trying to give the kid a thrill.)

Other reports of similar incidents around Montreal?

Update:  WHAT?  IT’S FAKED? Thoughtful reader Luisa in comments refers us to Chris Clarke’s Original Blog™ Coyote Crossing, which updates from expert birder Kenn Kauffman who says, as I wondered, it’s not a golden eagle, and other things look hoaxed. (While you’re looking around, check out Luisa’s Crow and Raven; bird photos that will make you jealous.)  You’d think an incident like that would have made it to the newspapers and television stations in Montreal, but I’ve found nothing — have you?)

Update, December 19, 2012:  Now the CBC covers the tale,  noting that it is most likely a hoax.  The film’s maker or YouTube poster has not defended it that I can find.  Watch carefully — the “baby” doesn’t move during the time it’s on the ground, through the bird’s plucking it up and dropping it.  There’s plenty of time to swap a dummy out with a real kid in the stroller while the camera is pointed away.  CBC found a Montreal ornithologist who claims it looks more like an osprey than an eagle.  I’ll buy that.

More:

• At The Atlantic blogs, Adam Clark Estes provides a smattering of history of similar events, but avoids saying it means it’s the End of Days only barely.=

Rachel Carson biography, On a Farther Shore, one of best books of 2012

Kirkus Reviews listed as one of 2012′s top 25 books William Souder’s biography of Rachel Carson, On a Farther Shore.

William Souder, author of On a Farther Shore. Minnesota Public Radio image

Rachel Carson often gets credit for starting the modern environmental movement.  In highly cynical political times, Carson is under cruel smear attack from people who wish the environmental movement did not exist, and who appear to think that we could poison Africa to prosperity if only we’d use enough DDT, contrary to all scientific work and medical opinion.

Souder’s book, issued on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Carson’s best-known book, Silent Spring, lays out the facts.

Nice to see that book lovers like Souder’s work, too.  Carson’s work was painstakingly accurate as science, but also a wonderful read.  Silent Spring has a larger following among lovers of literature than science, a tribute to her writing ability.  Souder’s book plows both veins, science and writing.

Cover of On a Farther Shore, by William Souder

In circles serious about science, the environment, human health, and literature, Souder’s book is the book of the 50th anniversary of Silent Spring.  There is irony there.  Pesticide manufacturers mounted a campaign against Silent Spring and Rachel Carson calculated to have cost $500,000 in 1962, when that book was published.  Souder’s book fights propaganda from Astro-turf™ organizations like Africa Fighting Malaria, a pro-DDT group that collects money from chemical manufacturers and anti-environmental political sources for a propaganda campaign that costs well over $500,000/year.  Despite all the paid-shill shouting against Rachel Carson and her work, it is the voice of On a Farther Shore that stands out.

More:

• William Souder commentary on Silent Spring at Minnesota Public Radio
• Souder in Slate:  “Rachel Carson didn’t kill millions of Africans”
• New Rachel Carson Biography (Book Acquired, 11.13.2012) (biblioklept.org)
• “The Poisoned Earth,” by Elizabeth Royte,  New York Times review of Souder’s book; NYT also named the book one of their “100 notable” books for 2012
• Amy Stewart’s review of Souder’s book in The Washington Post
• Christian Science Monitor review, by Emily Cataneo (Jim Bencivenga, Ron Preston, where are you guys?); also see the CSM blog piece about the campaign against Carson, “Smearing Rachel Carson”
• William Souder’s “On a Farther Shore” Scores NYTimes Nod (thesamerowdycrowd.wordpress.com)
• REVIEW: On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson (macleans.ca)
• Birders talk about Rachel Carson (billingsgazette.com)
• Silent Autumn (whattheducks.com)
• “DDT chronicles at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub,” a chronological index to stories here on Rachel Carson, DDT and malaria, and the pseudo-controversy

Note to hikers in Provo Canyon: This is not Bigfoot

Not Bigfoot:

Bear on the Misty Falls Trail, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks – photo by Spencer Darrell, rights reserved

Assume that thing in the brush is a bear if it looks vaguely like a bear; if you’re filming, do so as you back up, and only through a very long telephoto lens (bears can sprint up to 30 mph; you want a 300-yard head start).   A bear can do more damage to you than Big Foot; don’t mess up the bear’s thing with tourists looking for cryptofauna.

Tip of the old scrub brush to Spencer Darrell, one of Our Men in California.

More:

• Alleged Big Foot Sighting Goes Viral (abcnews.go.com)
• Is Bigfoot lurking around Provo? (abc4.com)
• Bigfoot-like beast has hikers running scared in Utah (myfox8.com)
• Cryptozoology – Re: Provo Bigfoot Encounter (disclose.tv)

“Who you calling a squirrel?”

Ground squirrel at Camp Cris Dobbins, BSA:

13-lined ground squirrel, Ictidomys tridecemlineatus, photographed by Ed Darrell, at BSA Camp Cris Dobbins, Colorado

Here’s an ass you’ll really like, if you have room

Wild burros on the range – Wikipedia photo

If you’re in Lubbock this weekend, and if you have a corral that needs an equine inhabitant, you can buy an ass — a burro — from the Bureau of Land Management.  Or a horse.

Do a favor for some ass today, if you can:

From the coolly-named Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (some links added):

Wild horse, burro auction set at Panhandle-South Plains Fairgrounds

More than 50 animals are expected to be adopted.

Posted: July 11, 2012 – 11:13pm  |  Updated: July 12, 2012 – 12:32am

By ELLYSA GONZALEZ

AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

The United States Bureau of Land Management will host a wild horse and burro adoption at the Panhandle-South Plains Fairgrounds today through Saturday.

More than 50 animals are expected to be adopted.

According to a news release, animals are periodically removed from the range to “maintain healthy herds” and protect the land. It says more than 225,000 wild horses and burros have been adopted since 1973.

The animals are described as “iconic symbols of America’s western heritage.”

Adoption fees will start at $125, as set by law.

The age requirement to adopt an animal is 18. Buyers must have no animal abuse on their records as well as room for the animal to dwell.

Buyers’ records will be checked at the time of adoption.

At least 400 square feet of corral space is required per animal as well as a 6-foot corral fence for adult horses and a 5-foot fence for yearlings. Animals must also have access to food, water and shelter.

Buyers must load animals in covered stock-type trailers with swing gates and sturdy walls and floors, according to the news release.

People who adopt horses at least 4 years of age will receive a one-time care-and-feeding allowance of $500 from the bureau after one year upon receiving official ownership titles.

The news release states that no younger horses, burros and trained animals are eligible for the allowance.

Adoptions will be from 2-6 p.m. today, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m.-noon Saturday. Animals are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Bureau staff will be available at the site to help with loading, questions and applications. The fairgrounds are located at the northeast corner of Broadway and U.S. 87.

For more information, call (866) 468-7826 or visit http://www.blm.gov/nm/oklahoma.

A formerly wild burro after adoption. 2005 photo from Wikipedia

By the way, you’re qualified to participate in discussions here, right?  I mean, you do know the difference between a burro and a burrow, don’t you?

More: 

• Thoughtful Thursday – The Horse, Crescent City, California(seapunk2.wordpress.com)
• BLM adoption program in Sacramento will offer 14 horses, 5 burros (sacbee.com)
• Wild Horse Auction in Sacramento Offers 14 horses and 5 burros (community.teskeys.com)
• Mustang rescue organization raising funds to save mustangs from slaughter truck, (Nevada mustangs in Pennsylvania)  (examiner.com)
• Wild mustang advocates seek to preserve Western icon (Plant City, Florida) (tbo.com)
• Experts Urge BLM to Halt Massive Arizona Burro Roundup in High Desert Heat (Sonora Desert, Arizona) (rtfitchauthor.com)
• Wild mustang advocates seek to preserve Western icon (Florida) (tbo.com)
• Federal officials round up wild Calif. burro herd (sacbee.com)
• Wild horse adoption set for Tooele (Utah) (abc4.com)
• Adopt a Burrow (Tucson, Pima County, Arizona) (faircarnivals.com)

Turk’s Cap, native Texas flower in 90 seconds

Short piece from Texas Parks & Wildlife:

Turk’s cap is a native Texas shrub that attracts hummingbirds, butterflies and moths. This easy-to-care for plant is named for the shape of its small blooms. To learn more about Texas native species and habitats, see http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/

Must admit I was unaware it’s a Texas native, though Kathryn has had it in all of our Texas gardens.  I love the blossoms.  I wish our local hummingbirds loved it as much as the photo in the video shows, but we have other plants they love and a feeder.  Butterflies like it, too.

Few other plants equal the intense red of the flowers.  Turk’s cap requires less water than many less spectacular, non-native plants.  Ours keep coming back year after year.  What more do you want in a good garden plant?

I wish my photos were so good as those used in the film.

More, and related material:

• To add great summer color and beauty, look to hibiscus, althaea and Turk’s cap (miamiherald.com)
• Common Flowers in Texas (proflowers.com)
• Flying Flowers: The Beauty of Butterflies (showmeoz.wordpress.com)
• How to Attract Butterflies to Your Garden (proflowers.com)
• Small world: part 2 – mysteries of the lantana (natureofphotography.wordpress.com)

Possibly more ‘possum

More shots of our rather tame, wild neighbor.

S/he may have been trying to reach the safety of the area under the heat pump -- but the dogs caught on, and "treed" it on the fence. I worried about rabies, but it seemed healthy.

I’m torn, really — are they cute, or really ugly?

Walt Kelly would have been pleased at its familiarity with the idea of a mugwump, as it demonstrates, here.

The hairless, "rat" tail is one of the least attractive features. How much cuter would it be with a furry tail?

He does have a very cute, pink nose, however. You could get used to dealing with these little guys.

Playing with the ‘possum in the backyard

No, not “playing possum.”  Playing WITH the ‘possum.

The mostly-dachsund harasses any animal that may wish to take up residence under our shed — or, in some cases, under the heat pump.  The animals usually stick around for a while, though, because there is so much good stuff to dig up there.  For our part, we don’t mind when they dig up and dispose of the grubs, most of the time.

But these creatures — a possum, a raccoon a couple of years ago, armadilloes from time to time, or even rats (before Smokey the cat took them out, one by one) — eventually wander off, mostly unseen by us because they’re nocturnal.

Yesterday morning both dogs went nuts, and when I looked out, I realized they had something treed.  Between the mostly-dachsund and the border setter, they average out to a couple of beagles, and they can tree something if they want to.  Can’t get it, but they can tree it.

It's an election year, so why shouldn't one of Pogo's cousins be on the fence?

It’s probably the same one I saw a few weeks ago when taking coffee grounds to the compost pile (maybe the caffeine is keeping this guy up days, eh?).  Kenny caught him crossing the alley late one night, in the headlights, of course.

I brought the dogs in, and turned them out an hour later, thinking the guy had plenty of time to get to his daytime hiding place.

They treed him again. (Actually, that’s the second treeing, pictured above.)

Later they got him on the fence in a different part of the yard.

Possum caught in the early morning, peeking through the Chinese photinia (not red tip). Flash photography confuses the little guys, I think.

By this time I worried that the critter might be suffering from an illness — like rabies, which tends to make nocturnal animals come out in daylight, and be mean.

But there are no other symptoms.  I was relieved this morning to find new digs from the critter.  If he, or she, is digging for food, it’s probably not rabid.

In his jaunts around the world last year Kenny mentioned how ugly possums are, to one of his friends from Britain, who immediately took issue.  Cute?

Turns out Kenny’s friend was referring to the Australian possum, which is quite cute.

Australian ring-tailed possum, photo by kookr. Australia has 27 different species of possum, all of them cuter and more cuddly than their American cousins.

Ours is not an Australian import.

I hope the bob whites come back, too.  Maybe it was just the drought that discouraged them last year.

It’s been a good year for wildlife, at least those with wings.  One day last week we had a tree full of cedar waxwings, passing through.  Blue jays and white-winged doves flew around them, and into the same tree.  There were a bunch of robins out — making eight weeks of sightings of the things, which leads me to understand some sizable population is staying in the Dallas area now, instead of just migrating through as they would, formerly.  On the live oak, the yellow-belly sapsucker probed for new grubs.  And on the trunk of the red oak the waxwings gathered in, another woodpecker, wholly oblivious to the cacophony, looked for emerging insects itself.   On local roads I’ve seen a bobcat — first for Texas, for me — and a few coyotes (while cousin-in-law Amanda has video of what looks to be wolves, in California!).  We haven’t gone out to look at the snowy owl in Rockwall, but there’s a chance of adding a rarity to the life-list.

With luck, we’ll get the toads, soon.  We should do well — Kathryn’s worked hard to make the yard a refuge for wildlife.  We’re mostly organic, so there should be no poisons to accumulate in any insect-eating critters.  We feed birds, several different species, and we have water for animals in front and back yard.  The National Wildlife Federation will certify your yard as a backyard wildlife habitat.  Working to get there is most of the fun; watching the wildlife is the gravy.

Backyard wildlife study is great fun.

More:

• Possum (writing26letters.wordpress.com)
• Woman Busted For Trying To Sell Flying Possums On Facebook (laist.com)
• Aupossum Bon Pain (cuteoverload.com)
• Golden Brushtail Possum Is The New Cuteness (buzzfeed.com)

Can the Houston toad survive Texas wildfires and droughts?

New short from the Texas Parks and Wildlife people:

The smoke may be gone but the Bastrop fires of Labor Day weekend are still a smoldering concern for biologists. They’re keeping tabs on the Houston Toad. And with only an estimated 2,000 left in Texas, this endangered species is facing its next challenge as the drought continues. More on Houston toads at http://www.houstonzoo.org/HoustonToad/

For background, see this earlier reel from TPWS on the fires at Bastrop State Park: