tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218Sat, 05 Oct 2024 02:06:20 +0000birdsevolutionflowersclimate changeentropyinsectspredationTWRAairplanesconsumptionfisheriesflightfoxesgullshuntingmagnoliasmushroomsreptilesseashoreseedsspringtreesNature, science and Southern Appalachian lifehttp://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)Blogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-6118427738859802728Sat, 16 Mar 2013 12:23:00 +00002013-03-16T08:23:42.075-04:00A couple weeks ago I pruned the saucer magnolia in the front yard. The pruned branches now bear defiant flowers. Life is powerful and spirited. Though doomed, these branches retain water and even draw some in when humid air sits over these hills. Death can be sudden, but only after taking its time. We all get a fair allotment of life to use wisely. I can not keep the spirit down when I see a cuthttp://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2013/03/beautiful-defiance.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-5277669555945437006Sat, 09 Feb 2013 16:23:00 +00002013-02-09T11:23:55.748-05:00National Geographic News asks, "Did your seafood feel pain?" It is an interesting question that really can not be answered. "No" is not a legitimate answer, mostly because you can not prove a negative. Animals, even invertebrates, have the types of neurons that signal tissue damage, nociceptors, so the null hypothesis has to be that they can feel pain. From there, the question only gets more http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2013/02/painful-interpretation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-1417962383261706980Sat, 11 Aug 2012 01:01:00 +00002012-08-10T21:07:53.742-04:00According to this article in Nature News, University of Utah researcher Nalini Nadkarni has been devising and carrying out conservation projects that put prisoners to work. At one women's prison, inmates have released 800 endangered butterflies and are rearing 3600 caterpillars for next year's release. They also conducted egg-laying experiments and determined what science had not yet learned: thehttp://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2012/08/prison-science.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-5188308565791299088Mon, 06 Aug 2012 15:23:00 +00002012-08-06T11:23:29.494-04:00Several recent sightings in Costa Rica have firmed up the likelihood that clapper rails are residents in mangrove swamps along the Pacific coast. First documented in 1998, the birds are now being seen often enough to make residency likely, as opposed to clapper rails being transients or stray birds. The country's ornithological union has just added the rail to its list of residents. It is alwayshttp://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2012/08/connecting-rails.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-5351024247558575418Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:23:00 +00002012-03-12T15:34:52.330-04:00To understand the coal industry, you must understand a bit of history. Part of that history goes back millions of years to the time when the Mississippi River Basin was an inland sea bordered by vast swamps. Those swamp beds compacted and petrified into layers of coal, some thick, some thin. As the North American plate lifted above sea level, much of this coal eroded away. In Tennessee, coal http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2012/03/on-coal.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-7519405738971509222Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:42:00 +00002012-02-16T17:42:23.678-05:00Once someone asked me what the next form of life to evolve would be. I said a bacteria that can live in landfills and feed on plastic. I was close. Midwestern pig farms have begun to explode. Mysterious foams have started forming atop waste pits, and with poor ventilation, gases can accumulate. In several barns these gases have ignited, killing thousands of pigs and injuring farm workers. Hog http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2012/02/porcine-foam.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-8940425324707954909Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:12:00 +00002011-12-19T22:12:00.986-05:00Birdwatchers at the crane refuge on the Hiwassee River spotted a black crane with a white head among thousands of grey sandhill cranes December 13. Soon it was identified as a hooded crane, an Asian species rarely found in North America. In fact, the Tennessee sighting is only the third known occurrence in the U.S. The second was this spring in Nebraska, and the first the prior spring in Idaho (http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/12/hooded-crane-hubbub.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-3662559907104916274Thu, 01 Dec 2011 03:58:00 +00002011-12-01T02:12:58.659-05:00The most abundant butterfly on Caribbean islands is likely the gulf fritillary. Its wings from above are rich orange with black spots, from below a dirty orange mottled with white spots that glimmer silver in sunlight. Medium-sized, these butterflies reproduce all year long on Caribbean islands and along the gulf coast. Each year they spread northward as spring warms into summer, each generation http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/11/watching-fritillary-evolve.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-5498794186278032035Thu, 18 Aug 2011 04:04:00 +00002011-08-18T00:04:20.357-04:00A trove of fossils in China from around the time birds were evolving continues to yield insights into how feathers and flight evolved. Science still does not have a good story for the evolution of birds, but the cast of characters has gotten bigger. With so many new clues, Archaeopteryx has now been dethroned as 'oldest bird'. Birds came off the dinosaur family tree near Archaeopteryx, but not http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/08/not-bird-no-more.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-5561633197420441844Sun, 12 Jun 2011 06:31:00 +00002011-06-12T02:31:58.205-04:00 Right about now, your tomato vines need you to pick their first fruit so they will grow a dozen more. It is tempting to wait for the first red fruit, but foolish. A green tomato harvest is a must for a bountiful year. Do not succumb to red's seduction. Instead, harvest a handful or two of the ripest blackberries you can find, toss them in oil with a chopped onion or leek, salt and a dose of dryhttp://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/06/blackberry-season.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-1830431377201691308Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:41:00 +00002011-06-02T21:41:28.697-04:00This morning the blue-headed vireos were vigorously defending their territory from a blue jay. Though it was much higher up in the trees than their nest, the pair was scolding and dive-bombing the jay, hoping to drive it off. Unfortunately they may be protecting a young cowbird. The noise overhead roused a hungry nestling, just one, its eyes still closed. It seems too large already. Cowbird http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/06/nest-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-7443375284440723985Tue, 31 May 2011 15:41:00 +00002011-05-31T12:25:40.115-04:00consumptionfisheriesIf you've read anything about commercial fishing in the past decade or two, you know that industrial fishing practices range from irresponsible to appalling. The worst practices cause major seafloor destruction and grotesque slaughter of "by-catch," marine life ranging from rough fish to sea turtles. Over the past century, countless fisheries have collapsed under the strain of unsustainable http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/05/science-for-fishies.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-1062265231719690858Mon, 23 May 2011 00:53:00 +00002011-05-22T21:40:06.597-04:00Red-eyed vireos nest in my yard every year. They are wonderful birds and welcome guests, but this year a different vireo seemed to be settling in the yard. I had heard it singing for a week, longer than migrants stick around, but I still did not tell anyone for fear of jinxing it. I thought a blue-headed vireo might be taking up residence!Both species are common in the eastern U.S., but red-eyed http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-yard-nester.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-920834402467061989Thu, 05 May 2011 12:51:00 +00002011-05-05T09:19:15.192-04:00History is full of scientists who are heroes: savers of lives, solvers of mysteries, builders of the future. They are, however, a pretty nerdy lot, achieving great feats of the mind like wrestling with mathematical equations, dismembering molecules and exploding paradigms, but rarely performing physical acts of courage and strength. Then there is Ken Sims, volcanologist from the University of http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/05/most-courageous-scientist-ever.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-5758420532240469146Mon, 02 May 2011 01:30:00 +00002011-05-01T22:50:11.130-04:00The white spot near the center of this photo is proof of a successful journey. It is an egg. The female that laid it flew some 1500 miles to get to the meadow behind my house, where she and at least one other monarch butterfly have been fluttering around for a week or two depositing eggs, one at a time, on butterfly weed and common milkweed plants.Their earliest eggs have already hatched. This http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/05/successful-journey.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-3468430747622416187Sun, 17 Apr 2011 02:22:00 +00002011-04-16T22:33:43.383-04:00Don't hate me because I infest your cherry trees. Don't hate me because I may eat every leaf on the tree. I will not touch a single flower, you watch.The tree will grow a new batch of leaves and produce a full crop of fruits all the birds will love. Some of those birds will even eat me after bashing me to death on a twig to knock off my hairs.If you burn my tents, everyone suffers, especially thehttp://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/04/spare-tent-caterpillars.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-595691598669015823Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:46:00 +00002011-04-05T21:41:59.835-04:00My friend Andrei noticed a link under one of the National Geographic photos that I had overlooked. It described a similar phenomenon at a park in Texas in 2007. During a wet period and an outbreak of midges and other aquatic and semi-aquatic insects, a tree near Lake Tawakoni became completely enmeshed in spider silk.An arachnologist collected about 100 spiders from the webbing and identified http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/04/post-flood-spider-web-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-8312846595158521236Sat, 02 Apr 2011 02:13:00 +00002011-04-01T23:12:44.628-04:00National Geographic published this photo of trees covered in spider silk in Pakistan. This area was ravaged by major floods last year, and as waters receded, these trees became one giant web.According to the article, floodwaters "drove millions of spiders into the trees," but this is highly unlikely. For starters, most spiders are not at all social. Another spider is just something to attack and http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/04/post-flood-spider-webs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-1102555255354482752Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:14:00 +00002011-04-01T10:45:18.179-04:00I've long suspected that exhaust from airplanes, by virtue of being released high in the atmosphere, is more problematic than exhaust from cars and trucks. A new study in the prestigious journal Nature confirms that air travel causes more climate disruption, but not for the reason I imagined.It turns out that condensation trails, or contrails, trigger formation of cirrus clouds much like those http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/04/luxury-jets.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-3942658375705512294Wed, 30 Mar 2011 01:09:00 +00002011-03-29T21:40:04.777-04:00Though spring has just arrived, winged elms are already in seed. Orangish when they flowered in February, elms are now encased in a vaguely pinkish gray. When the seeds mature, they will dry and grow brittle enough to break from the twig in a wind. A shape not unlike a boat's propeller makes the oval seeds spin as they descend, keeping them aloft good distances from the parent tree.Elm seeds alsohttp://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/03/pinkish-gray.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-7379736992086151145Fri, 04 Mar 2011 04:38:00 +00002011-03-04T08:38:16.701-05:00When cutleaf toothwort pokes through the leaves, falcate orangetip butterflies are not far behind. They are the primary native pollinator, a small white butterfly whose orange is but a blur. Falcate orangetips rarely spread their wings while perched, showing only the mottled grey underwings.A glimpse of their orange is a treat, and sitting amid toothworts for a few minutes is your best approach. http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/03/when-cutleaf-toothwort-pokes-through.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-3619659841540001242Sun, 27 Feb 2011 02:13:00 +00002011-02-26T21:24:41.424-05:00flowersspringToothworts sprouted today. Most have a good bit of growing left before they flower, but that will not take long while the days are as warm and bright as today. Soon our woods will be sprinkled with a pinkish white that is the starter's pistol on the wildflower bloom, cutleaf toothwort.Sure, bloodroot and hepatica can emerge earlier, but their appearance does not foretell spring like Dentaria http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/02/theyre-here.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-8834042233121351821Mon, 21 Feb 2011 01:32:00 +00002011-02-21T22:04:07.874-05:00Ten Mile Creek runs through the heart of West Knoxville's sprawl, accompanied in segments by a paved greenway. Today I hiked there, and I found it clogged with privet and bush honeysuckle to the point that little else grows. The canopy is native trees, but much of the understory is invaders. Native vines have been crowded out and replaced by honeysuckle and bittersweet.Recent construction has http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/02/unexpected-nature.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-3619377048978694825Thu, 03 Feb 2011 02:06:00 +00002011-02-02T21:29:52.987-05:00After a delicious lunch at Sweet P's BBQ on the Stock Creek embayment, I wandered over to the water to see what was around. A song sparrow lurked in the weeds, but mostly I saw great blue herons, about a dozen. Most had staked out a hunting spot, and the few that had not were squabbling over turf with swoops and squawks.Then the gulls moved in, at least a hundred ring bills. They glided over the http://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/02/fooling-heron.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20827218.post-1408097802224172878Thu, 27 Jan 2011 01:43:00 +00002011-01-29T18:49:20.843-05:00No native tree is as easy to recognize as the sycamore. Its bark peels in unique ways, leaving smooth white branches and trunks that can not be mistaken. Sycamore trunks and branches curl and twist. In moonlight sycamores glow; in sunlight they offer odd shapes and shades of of green and brown.An animal you would never suspect of using camouflage: huge, mint green luna moths, wings edged in thickhttp://sourpersimmon.blogspot.com/2011/01/sky-behind-sycamore.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rikki Hall)0