Black Bears in the Twin Cities Metro

This is a photo of a black bear that showed up at the feeders a few years back at the nature center where I work. On any given day I assume there are black bears in the woods but it isn't something I think about that much or worry about. Just today the kids asked me, "Are there bears in the woods here?" I told them that there sure are bears but we never see them because they are much too afraid of us. That's true. The only time we see bears at the nature center is long after all the screaming kids have left and no one is outside. They know when we're out and about and keep far away. The only reason I was able to get this photo was that I was inside and the bear couldn't see me. I think that bear is just gorgeous.

There was another story in the news last week about a bear being shot in the two cities metro. A black bear wandered into North St. Paul. For those readers not from the Twin Cities, North St. Paul is a city to the north of the capital city, St. Paul. It isn't just the north part of the city of St. Paul. Still though, this is not a rural area. North St. Paul is a fairly typical suburb.

To get an idea of how developed this area is check out this map. The bear no doubt came from less developed areas to the northeast but there's a lot of developed area out there it had to cross. This bear somehow crossed Interstate 694!



View Larger Map

According to the Associated Press story, DNR officers shot bean bags at the bear to scare it down from a tree. This seemed pretty unsuccessful as it took 90 minutes for the bear to decide to come down to the ground where the animals with guns were shooting at it. Apparently, the bear was near an elementary school so state policy is to shoot the bear as it could be a public threat. I was able to dig up that the bear was near the corner of 13th and Margaret Street and was surprised when I read that. The elementary school in question is one I go to every year to do classroom outreach. There are a number of other schools very close by as well.

The bear was shot and killed. The DNR says they didn't have time to prepare tranquilizer equipment before the bear came down from the tree. I'm not sure I buy that story since they say that they were shooting bean bags at the bear for 90 minutes before it came down. I don't have a lot of experience with tranquilizer guns but I'm assuming they don't take more than 90 minutes to load.

Still, I'm not saying they made the wrong decision. Many people think bears that wander into suburban neighborhoods should be simply moved and not killed. It isn't so simple though. Where should they be moved to? Suitable bear habitat is likely already taken up by other bears That is exactly why young bears wander into the suburbs, the suitable habitat nearby is already taken and they are looking for new territory. Transporting them further away doesn't change this equation. It causes me sadness to admit this but they probably did the right thing. I hate the idea that there is a "right" and "wrong" place for nature and that we can't tolerate wildlife living near us but that ignores the real habitat needs of the bears as well.

Bears can't really be left alone in the suburbs. A suburban landscape of backyards, shopping centers and schools is not appropriate habitat and a negative human-bear encounter will eventually happen. The bears are fine out here at the nature center even with our 15,000 visitors a year because they have many square miles of woods where they can go to be alone and as far from us as possible.

Unfortunately, there are more of us every year and less habitat for bears. I expect we'll be seeing more of this in the coming years.

~Kirk

Read More

First of the Season Junco!

Just a quick phonology note here. The bird banders at the Lee & Rose Warner Nature Center caught the first-of-the-season Slate-colored Dark-eyed Junco while banding this morning. For those not in the know, these birds are also called the "snow birds" as they are the harbingers of winter. When the Juncos arrive from their breeding grounds to the north, you can be sure winter and snow are not far behind. With today's driving wind and a high temperature in the mid-fifties that isn't too hard to imagine. This is early for Juncos though. I usually don't see them in any numbers until mid-October.

~kirk

(photo Credit: Ken Thomas)

Read More

International Blasphemy Day

Today is International Blasphemy Day, originally created to celebrate free speech in the wake of the flap over the danish cartoons back in 2005. So, here's my contribution this year.


In the next week I'll be posting up a four part story detailing the dinosaur dig I went on a few years back so if you are offended by, well, reality, then be sure not to read those posts.

~Kirk

Read More

Bark Beetle Larva

As promised, a few more photos from the fungus hike. While hiking down the trail we noticed this interesting tree. There seemed to be a sort of powder covering the ground under the tree. You can see it in the photo below. Since we were in fungus mode we began to speculate on a fungal origin to the powder.


Could it be a mold? Many times molds will form a dusty looking power on leaves or the ground. People on the hike were leaning toward that explanation until I took a closer look at the trunk of the tree. I noticed bark beetle holes in the exposed trunk wood. Many of these holes had a fine powder of sawdust sticking out of them. The beetle larva are hard at work gnawing at the tree and leaving behind a super powdery trail of sawdust. It was incredible to see such a covering of dust on the ground from the action of these tiny larva.

So, not a fungus but really cool none the less.

~Kirk

Read More

Fungus Hike

I had the pleasure this week to go on a fungus hike at work with a former president of the Minnesota Mycological Society.

Fungi are not my strong suit as a naturalist so it was fascinating to go on a hike with her and learn more. Here's some of what we came across on our short hike.

First up is Ischnoderma resinosum. If you're not familiar with fungi I should point out here that many of them don't have common names. This is a polypore mushroom that grows on the sides of fallen dead trees in the woods. It is a saprobe meaning it feeds off of and helps decompose dead wood.


If you're not at all familiar with mushrooms, what you are looking at above is considered the fruiting body of the fungus. Most of the fungus is actually inside the wood of the tree. When the fungus is ready to reproduce it creates the "mushroom" we're familiar with who's purpose is to create and spread spores.
Here's a view of Ischnoderma resinosum growing on the same log but in a grouping.


Here's one with a human hand for size reference.



Just above this grouping was something strange on the log. Take a look at the photo below.


According to our guide, this is also Ischnoderma resinosum. Size wise the sticky clump on this fungus is about the size of a quarter. In order to release the spores from the mushroom they must be very dry. According to our guide the mushroom excretes resin as a way to get rid of excess water. I hope I understood that correctly.

Up next was slime mold. Slime molds are one of the most fascinating things in the woods and I really need to take some time to learn more about them. They are not molds as their name suggests. They are not even fungi. Mycologists study them out of tradition but technically they are in their own special group distinct from fungi. Much of the time, slime molds are plasmodium. A plasmodia is a mass of protoplasm without a cell wall. It is sort of amoeba like in this sense. Slime mold plasmodia can actually move! They slowly move over the surface of a given material such as a log and surround bacteria, protozoa, etc. and using them as a nutrient source. eventually, the plasmodia undergo a change and turn into a structure to produce spores. Unlike fungi which penetrate trees and then just produce a fruiting body on the surface, slime molds spend their entire time at the surface. What you see is what you get. What you get can very wildly in appearance though.

Check out this cool photo. That's a red oak leaf in the foreground for some size reference. These were very small. These are the spore producing sporangia (spore cases) of the slime mold Stemonitis sp. It is sometimes called chocolate tube slime.

Here's another slime mold in spore bearing mode. This is the insect-egg slime mold. If you click to view the full size image you can see that they are not perfect spheres. They have a little elongated section where they attach to the tree.


Venturing deeper into the forest we came upon this vey large specimin of Hypsizygus ulmarius growing on a box elder. This is a really fun fungus as it smells like a really nice perfume. It is subtle but nice. Who would have thought?


Up next was Turkey Tail. A common fungus I thought I knew. I turns out though that there is also a false Turkey Tail. The one pictured below is a true turkey tail. The true form is a polypore fungus. On the underside are thousands of little pores all packed together. If you have good eyes you can see them with your naked eyes but a 10x loupe does wonders. The underside of false Turkey Tail, by contrast, is smooth.


Toward the end of our hike we passed an area with a lot of oak bark woodchips. This is the site where we set up a portable sawmill to deal with all the downed trees after a tornado swept though the nature center last year. The ground is covered with decomposing bark and it was a great place to look for fungus. We couldn't help but notice this huge fawn mushroom. You can see why it is considered a "gilled" mushroom. The top of these mushrooms are fawn colored which gives them their common name.


My camera ran out of batteries so there were many fungi we found that I was not able to photograph. I did get a photo of one more though. It was actually growing at the base of the large red oak in the background of the above picture. The fungus below is one of three Peziza sp. that I found. It is a cup fungus.

That's all for the fungus. Stop back in the next few days. I have a couple of photos of something else fun I found on the hike.

~Kirk

Read More

Top Ten Tips for New Birders

This post was featured in the October 1, 2009 installment of I and the Bird. If you like this post please become a follower or consider sharing it with the "share" button up above.

---

These are my Top 10 Tips for new birders or those getting into bird watching. Add yours to the comments if you think I missed something!

1) Look at the whole bird
There are two parts to this. First off, take in the gestalt of the bird. Is it finch-like? Does it strike you as a type of falcon? How is it perching? Is it on the side of the tree or on a branch? Does it hold its tail up in the air as it feeds? Taking in the whole picture can help you with your identification when you are unsure. The other meaning of take in the whole bird is to look at ALL of the parts. Often when people begin birding they only look at a few key aspects of the bird. Beginners may note that it was a red bird with black on it. Depending on where it black is located though is the difference between a Northern Cardinal and a Scarlet Tanager. When trying to identify a bird you need to look at everything from the color and shape of the crown to the color of the feet.

2) Record field marks to study later
This plays nicely into the above tip to look at the whole bird. When I started out birding I would look at the bird and as soon as it flew off I would open up my field guide and start paging though it. Within a few minutes of staring at all the drawings though I found my memory became contaminated with what I was seeing in the photos. Was the breast yellow or was it the back that was yellow? Was that white stripe on the head above the eye or below the eye? It helps to stop and write down everything you remember before you ever open a field guide. Good notes are a must. One of my favorite tools is a little digital pocket recorder. I have this one. I can turn it on and dictate into it while I am looking a a bird, I can record a little running commentary of what I see. i.e. "Small bird. Uniform gray crown with no streaking. White line above the eye, yellow throat but not bright yellow. No streaks or bars on breast. Yellow extends up to base of bill. No wing bars. Short bill. Pale back, maybe slightly olive, no distinguishing marks on back." Anyone care to guess in the comments what bird that is? With notes like these a birder can make a more certain call on ID later without confusing the details and relying on memory alone.

3) Invest in a good pair of binoculars
You need to actually see the bird to make an ID. This may seem like an obvious statement but believe me that not all binoculars are created equal. Some are simply horrible and you can see more detail with your naked eyes. There are lots of just so-so binoculars out there though. These are ones you can pick up for somewhere between $20 and maybe as much as $100 depending on where you shop. They are decent and will show you a closer view a birds. The thing is though, that once you move beyond telling an American Robin from a Northern Cardinal, you may find that a slightly higher priced binocular is worth the investment. Whereas a cheap pair of binoculars will let you see the color of the bird, a really good pair of binoculars lets you see the detail of individual feathers. Sometimes that is the difference between making an ID of a bird and not making an ID. I'm not saying people need to run out and buy $3,000 binoculars. If you have the means, congratulations. There are some great binoculars between $180 and $250 that will serve most birders well for decades. Do your research. There are gems and dogs at all price points. You do generally get what you pay for though. I know birders who have had the same binoculars for 40 years. Ask yourself if you would willing to pay $20 a year for a pair of excellent binoculars you love. $20 per year over 40 years is $800. You can get one hell of a pair of binoculars for far less than $800. Binoculars are an investment in your future happiness. Probably one of the best deals out there are the 8x42 Nikon Monarchs. They are simply outstanding and the best binoculars you can buy in the $250 range. They are even better than some that cost more.

4) Practice Finding Birds in your binoculars
Many people seem to think that using binoculars is as simple as putting them up to your eyes and looking. The truth is not so simple. Learn how to set the diopter on the binoculars and you'll see an incredible amount of detail you'd miss otherwise. Once you have the binoculars set to work for you, practice using them. What I really mean by this is practice finding birds in them. It is one thing to spot a bird in a tree with your eyes, it is another thing to then raise up your binoculars and hit that exact spot. You need to take in the location of the bird in your mind and notice features that will guide you to it once the binoculars are up to your eyes. Chickadees are excellent practice targets as they constantly move and make you learn how to follow birds, refocus and catch them. The more you practice the more you will be able to bring up your binoculars and find that that lifer bird is right dead center in your field of view.

5) Pay attention to habitat
Speaking of chickadees, pay attention to habitat when you bird. Here's a cautionary tail. While doing some casual birding on Mt. Rainier years ago I saw a flash of movement in a tree. I searched around for a few minutes trying to get a view of the secretive bird though my binoculars. Finally the bird popped into view and I thought to myself, "Oh, just a chickadee." I immediately stopped looking at this common bird and went on my way. It was months later that it dawned on me that it may have been a Mountain Chickadee and not one of the thousands of Black-capped Chickadees I see at home every year. If I had been paying better attention to the habitat I was birding in I would have been able to make the correct ID and I'd have a Mountain Chickadee on my life list. In a more general sense, knowing what birds to expect in given habitats can help you find birds and make the ID. If you are birding in a sedge marsh there's a good chance that wren looking bird you just spotted was a sedge wren and not a house wren.

6) Learn to bird by ear
Sometimes even with the best observations, seeing the bird is not enough. Take Willow and Alder flycatchers for example. Even when holding one in your hand they are virtually indistinguishable. Their calls are different though. If you have your ID narrowed down to one of the two and the bird suddenly gives a clear call the ID becomes obvious...but only if you know the difference in the calls. Knowing calls is especially important when you can only see part of a bird. The bird will not always present itself in perfect conditions to make an ID by sight alone. Another advantage of knowing calls is that it can alert you to the presence of things you want to see. I saw my first Blackburnian Warbler because I had my ears open in the woods and suddenly heard a call that stood out in my head as different. I searched out the source of the call and discovered the bird.

7) Pay attention to seasons
Birding is different every month of the year. Do some reading, talk to other birders and learn what each month and season brings in your area. Different birding areas are best at different times of the year. Knowing where to go is part of the challenge to finding birds. Knowing when to go to each spot is just as important. Knowing what birds are in your area at any given time can help with ID as well.

8) Learn via multiple intelligences
Different people learn though different methods. Some people learn best by reading field guides. Some people learn well though videos or audio recordings. Many people learn best by going out in the field and trying things for themselves. Personally I find birding by ear type CDs and tapes are really hard to learn from. After a while all the bird songs run together in my mind. However, learning bird songs in the field burns them into my brain. Find out what works best for you and then do it. Try flash cards, web sites, drawing birds, in short, any method that works.

9) Study Common Birds
This is a huge hidden weakness for many people. We grow tired and accustomed to the birds we see every day but the truth is we never actually take any time to study them precisely because we think we know them so well. Here's some sample quiz questions about common birds. Is the American Robin's eye ring complete or broken? What color are the edges of the secondaries on a black-capped chickadee? Does a female purple finch have an eye ring? These seem like pointless questions until we find ourselves away from home. Wait, is that a female Purple Finch or a female Cassin's Finch? If you know that the female Cassin's has an eye ring but the purple finch does not then you can tell them apart and you know when something looks different. Same goes for the Chickadee. If you're from up north and you know that Black-capped Chickadees at home have white edged secondaries you might notice that when you're down south the chickadees have grey edges to their secondaries and are actually Carolina Chickadees. This is also useful when you run into rarities. If you know that immature American Robins have a gray tail then you wouldn't mistake a rare Fieldfair with a black tail in a flock of robins as just another juvenile American Robin.

10) Find a favorite field guide
Everyone has a favorite field guide. I favor Sibley in most situations but I have more than a handful of other guides. The Sibley Guide to Birds is nice because it shows both flight and perching poses for most birds and the pages are laid out to quickly compare similar species. The full guide is a massive tome but the Eastern Guide and the Western Guide are more pocket sized and will become your best friend. One thing to avoid as a beginner is field guides organized by color. I know they are extremely tempting. They can be handy for beginners but these guides often don't put males and females of the same species together (which can be handy as males and females hang out together in the wild) and they usually only show the most common birds. Once you can name all the really common yard birds this type of guide will actually slow you down as it will not contain all the birds you want to see and you won't learn how to identify types of birds as quickly. Being able to look at a bird and know that it is a vireo or a thrush or a sparrow, etc. is an important first step in identifying a bird and having a guide laid out by family groups will speed your learning of these groupings. Once you have a favorite guide, always take it with you. Birds you can't identify sneak up on you when you least expect it.

Get out there and bird!

~Kirk

Read More

Acorn ID

There seems to be a huge crop of acorns this year at the nature center. Acorns seems to come in boom or bust cycles and it is thought this is an evolutionary survival strategy. If the tree just makes a few each year they will all be eaten by squirrels and turkeys. If, however, they produce thousands all at once then the animals cannot possibly eat them all and some will survive. This abundant production is called masting.

The white oaks have been dropping acorns like mad right over hte lat few weeks. The woods are alive with the sound of acorns falling. When they hit the tin roof of our sugar shack it makes an impressive sound. Acorns can get big. Check out this large one. White Oak acorns can get even larger, up to about 1.25 inches.

Average size seems to be somewhere between a nickel and a quarter though they can be much smaller as well. Here's a white oak leaf with a hand full of various size acorns. The ones still attached are small as they were still growing.


~Kirk

Read More

Take Democratic Action for Climate Change

Today is the first day of autumn and also the day of the United Nations’ day-long Climate Summit so why not consider taking some action to help preserve our planet?

There is currently an proposed rider amendment to an Interior Appropriation in the senate that would exempt greenhouse gases from the Clean Air Act. It was put forward by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. It is important to contact your senators to let them know that you oppose this amendment. The amendment would block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases from stationary sources such as coal-fired power plants. This is completely unacceptable as regulating greenhouse gases is the only way we are going to reduce global warming. This would be like passing a law telling the police they cannot stop crime. The Clean Air Act works and must be protected.

Here's how you can help in just a few minutes.

Get out your cell phone and call your senator's office. Don't just send an email, calling speaks louder and is actually faster. With cell phones you've already paid for your minutes so long distance calls are part of your plan already.

If you're from Minnesota, Call senator Franken at 202-224-5641 then call Klobuchar at 202-224-3244. All you have to do is say the following. "Hi, I'm one of Senator Franken's constituents and I'd like him to vote to oppose the Murkowski amendment on Interior Appropriations." They'll put a little tally in the "oppose" column on their spreadsheet and voila, you're done. Just so you know, Klobuchar's office will ask you for your zip code. It takes about 30 seconds to take part in our democracy. Franken's staff has told me that he is already planning on voting against the amendment but still call. Klobuchar's staff did not tell me what her stance was on the amendment.

If you are from outside Minnesota you can find the phone number for your senator's office here.

~Kirk

Read More

Twin Cities Naturalist Podcast: September 2009

The Twin Cities Naturalist Podcast is back! We did out pilot episode last spring and now we hope to be starting up regular monthly episodes. This episode features the Phenology roundup, a special guest interview with Amy Rager of the Minnesota Master Naturalist program, calendar of events and of course, the trivia challenge. If you subscribe to our feed through facebook or some of the other services you might have to actually click though to the blog to hear the podcast.

Guest Link:
Minnesota Master Naturalist Program

Calendar of Events
These are the events listed on the podcast. If you would like your natural history based event advertised on the Podcast or Blog you can send an email with details to kirkmona (at) yahoo.com.
St Croix River Association Fall Members and Friends Event September 25 in St. Croix Falls Wisconsin
Audubon Minnesota and Friends of Lilydale Park It's for the Birds Paddleboat ride, September 27
Minnesota Naturalists' Association Fall Conference: People and the Prairie will be held November 6-8

Thanks for listening! If you know the answer to the trivia question be sure to post it in the comments section. Please let us know what you think about the show and how it can be improved!

~Kirk & Paul

Read More

Swainson's Thrush Migration

I taught a fall migration class today at work and wanted to look up some information about migrating Swainson's Thrushes for the class. I stumbled upon this interesting scientific paper from 2002 about the genetic connection between migration patterns in Swainson's Thrushes and the expansion of their range in the late pleistocene. Not as the crow flies: a historical explanation for circuitous migration in Swainson's thrush (Catharus ustulatus) is thankfully available as a free pdf.

Be forewarned, the paper contains bodice ripping passages such as, "To survey the distribution of these clades in migrating and overwintering birds, we amplified the 800 bp fragment of control region using the primers described above and used restriction enzyme Sfc I to assay a variable site in which cleavage is diagnostic of the coastal clade. Five microlitres of the digest reaction were electrophoresed on an 6% polyacrylamide gel and restriction fragments were stained with thidium bromide and visualized under ultraviolet light." Try to control yourselves people, I know this is exciting stuff.

While the section on methodology may not be your cup of tea, the conclusions are fascinating. The authors conclude that in the late pleistocene the Swainson's Thrush population was divided into two refugia as glaciation wiped out habitat in the center of the continent. These two populations remain relatively distinct today as the coastal (western) population and the continental (eastern) population The eastern population eventually spread north-westward as suitable boreal forest habitat emerged post-glaciation. When it comes time to migrate south, the continental population, which has spread as far wet as Alaska, follows their genetic heritage and first flies thousands of miles east to get back to their ancestral grounds before turning and heading south. The birds essentially re-trace their ancestral expansion route. This points to a strong genetic component to migration.

Many similar findings are discussed in Scott Weidensaul's excellent book on migration, Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere With Migratory Birds.

~Kirk

(photo credit: US NPS)

Read More

Cellulosic Ethanol

A little interview about Cellulosic Ethanol with some peeps from my alma mater.




~Kirk

Read More

Sphinx Moth Caterpillar

I took a break today at work and got outside for a short hike to stretch my legs and enjoy the beautiful weather. The only active birds were a flock of Blue Jays calling back and forth with some fun vocalizations. The trees were starting to change color and the first fallen leaves of the year crunched underfoot. There is one thing I'm happy didn't go crunch underfoot however. I happened upon this beautiful and large Sphinx moth caterpillar. I had my phone with me so I shot some photos and video. It was a beautiful green with black and yellow slash marks along the sides. The head is on the left in this photo.


Check out the "horn" on the tail! These are sometimes called "Horntails" because of that (harmless) appendage.


Here's the video I shot of the caterpillar crossing the trail.

My best guess is that it is a Laural Sphinx Moth Sphinx kalmiae. The tail is blue with black markings. This one was close to four inches long and as big around as my finger! I'm doing an overnight program this weekend so I'll have to keep my eyes open for the adult stage of this moth. Even though this is called the Laurel Sphinx and they do eat Laurel, the most likely food it would eat at the nature center is poplar. Being so late in the year this is likely from the second brood of the year. It will likely pupate and overwinter. If it survives, we'll have a Laurel Sphinx moth flying around in the woods.

~Kirk

Read More

A Green End

I've given some thought to end of life decisions in my life and I have to say I'm not particularly fond of our cultures options for our bodies when we're gone.

Personally I have no use for my body and I hate to see it go to waste. I'm all for burial in theory but not when you are dressed up in your finest clothes, pumped full of chemicals, stuffed into an ornate box with a mattress, (seriously, a mattress? I'm dead, I can't get a sore back.) That is then lowered into the ground into a concrete bunker and then sealed up. Then, non-native grass seed is planted on top and polluting two-stroke lawn mower mows over me once a week. Ah yes, and because I'm not allowed to decompose and be productive, they come by twice a year and put on a petroleum based fertilizer to keep the non-native grass nice and green.

Yeah, no thanks.

Of course, the other option that seems to be out there is cremation. I'm not too keen on my big goodbye contributing to the consumption of fossil fuels and adding to global warming like that.

Every winter at the nature center we find dead deer on the side of the road and we carry them out to the prairie where we let crows, eagles, mice, opossums, raccoons and coyote do their natural work of taking care of the body. We do this for educational purposes. When kids come though we take them out to see animals, study tracks and learn about the cycle of life. It is very natural and I've often though it would be a pretty good way to go. I should point out though that the thought of me being picked apart by animals is not something my mother ever wants to picture. So, being a good son I should advise her, since I know she is one of my readers, to not watch the video slide show below.

These are photos of a Tibetan Sky Burial. Absolutely DO NOT watch this if you are the slightest big squeamish. In these photos a deceased person is cut up and offered to vultures. The body is first cut to help the birds gain access. Once they have picked the bones clean the people then smash up the bones, skull and brains and mix it with food to put out for the vultures to finish up. Some people will find this incredibly disturbing. I happen to find it fascinating and not disturbing at all. What could be more beautiful than going outside and thinking of your cherished loved one every time you see a majestic enormous bird fly by? I see this process a couple of times every year with the deer at work so I don't see a human as being any different. Many people would disagree.

(Note: The video has now been removed. I'm trying to find a replacement, bear with me. The original source photos are located here but be forewarned there are quite a few porn ads on that site so if you are more offended by naked bodies than dead people being eaten by birds then don't click the link.)




Now clearly this is not something they are going to allow in Minnesota any time soon. It makes the folks over at A Green Goodbye Blog seem like their goals are far less daunting. If you support a sensible burial option in Minnesota, or wherever you happen to live, hop on over to their blog and check it out. They basically want the right to open natural cemeteries where bodies can simply be placed in the ground and planted over with native prairie grass. It seems that radical idea is too much for some people too.

~Kirk

Read More

The new layout

Hello everyone. First off thanks for being regular readers of The Twin Cities Naturalist. There are a couple of announcements to make. As of today I've changed the blog to a new layout design. I hope you all enjoy it. There may be a few glitches as I make the transition but I think it will go fairly smoothly. Let me know that you think of the new design.

The new format shows the blog followers on the left hand side. Many people have already subscribed though the Facebook application NetworkedBlogs. There is now also the option to follow through your Google account. Email subscription though FeedBurner is still an option as well in the upper right hand corner. There will be a post shortly called "about" that some of the subscribed readers might see. This is a page I need to publish for the new "about" button. You can ignore it.

The other big news is that the Podcast is coming back soon. We've already recorded some interviews and I hope to throw the first episode together this week.

~Kirk

Read More

Solar House in St. Paul

I just found out about an really cool opportunity on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. The solar house designed and built by students at the U of M as part of the Solar Decathalon will be on display and open to the public September 16-18, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. The house will be located at the University of Minnesota St. Paul campus on the north side of Buford Place just east of Gortner Avenue.

According to their website, the tours are practice for the public tours the U of M team will give during the Solar Decathlon competition in Washington, D.C. in October.

You can watch a video about the solar house on their website but they do not have an embedding function. I'm a little disappointed in my alma mater on that note. While the U of M does have a youtube channel that allows embedding of video they don't have this particular video on there.

~Kirk

Read More

St. Croix River Association Fall Event

Here's another event opportunity I'll just pass on to you gentle readers. Sounds like a great event. There are only four days left to register.

~kirk

St Croix River Association Fall Members and Friends Event
Friday, September 25, 2009
St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin

Here is a singular opportunity to preview an upcoming public television production about our national parks and meet the authors of a new book about the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway! Please join us for our 2009 fall event – open to everyone but registration and RSVP required by September 15, 2009.

Board Secretary, Sally Leider, along with members of our volunteer board and the staff at the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, has prepared an exceptional program and schedule of events for what promises to be a wonderful evening. Join current and former members, friends, and potential new members at the National Park Service Visitor Center (and site of our new office) on the banks of the St. Croix River.

Come early for a tour beginning at 5:30 pm for a tour then enjoy the following:

“North Woods River: the St. Croix in Upper Midwest History”
Theodore Karamanski and Eileen McMahon will present a short overview of their thoughtful biography of the St. Croix over the course of more than 300 years and the larger lessons offered about future management of this wild and scenic riverway. This will be followed by discussion and book signing.

The National Parks: America’s Best Idea – A preview of the new Ken Burns film
(Premiering on tpt2 and WPT on Sept. 27)

Delicious heavy hors d'oeuvres featuring local, organic ingredients

It is important to return the registration form no later than September 15, 2009 so we can make final arrangements for food, seating, etc. for this special event. We look forward to seeing you or hearing from you.

Read More

Early Bird Registration for Midwest EE conference

There are lots of great conferences coming up this fall, the next one to tell you about is the Midwest Environmental Education Conference in Champaign, Illinois. The event runs from October 14-17.

Here's a sampling of some of the 90 plus workshops, concurrent sessions and special events they have planned.

• Geological Secrets of Illinois' Fossil Rain Forest
  
• How to Construct Exhibits on a Shoe String Budget
  
• Stemming the Tide of Sustainability Information
  
• Growing Hope: Strategies for Countering Environmental Pessimism in Middle School Children
  
• Speak with Confidence
  
• Agriculture and Energy: Turbines on the Prairie
  
• Fund Development-Raising Money from the Grassroots
  
• Wind Farm Tours

Speakers:

• Keynote Speaker for the Administration/Leadership Strand - Dr. Ed Kesgen
• Kickoff Speaker for the Sustainability Strand - Chad Pregracke
• Special Guest Speaker for the Interpretation Strand - Brian “Fox” Ellis
• Special Guest Speaker for the Natural History Strand - Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini

Registrations after September 14th will cost an extra $40 so sign up soon. You can find out more about the conference at www.EEAI.net.

~Kirk

Read More

Volunteer at Hawk Ridge

Julie O'Connor, Volunteer Coordinator/Naturalist for Hawk Ridge has put out a call for volunteers to help out between September 1 and October 31. The first training is already over but there is one training date still left. Here's her message:

We ask that our volunteers commit to at least 24 hours of service between September 1 and October 31. This gives our volunteers the knowledge and comfort to be very effective with our visitors. The majority of our volunteers spend MUCH more than 24 hours at the overlook each fall--it becomes addicting! Our volunteer average is 45 hours, which averages out to be 5 hours per week during the 2 months of fall migration.

ANYONE can be a great volunteer! You'll assist in duties such as: greeting visitors, selling merchandise, pointing out birds to visitors, office work, running errands, construction projects and more.

You don’t need to be a raptor pro to be an effective volunteer! We’ve designed a training program that will give you the confidence and knowledge to be effective, friendly and confident when you come for your first ‘shift’. We offer two training sessions for new volunteers:

Session #2:
(attend both meetings)
Tuesday, Sept 15; 6:30pm-9:00pm (at NRRI in Duluth)
Wednesday, Sept 16; 6:30pm-7:30pm (at Hawk Ridge)

Both of these training sessions will be held at NRRI, the University of Minnesota's Natural Resources Research Institute on Hwy 53, north of the Miller Hill Mall.

Directions to NRRI: Hwy 53 north to Cirrus Drive (new stoplight at that intersection). Right onto Cirrus Drive; left onto Airport Road; Airport Road to NRRI entrance.

Feel free to call my cell phone (see number below) if you need better directions or if you can't find us at meeting time. We'll have a greeter at the door to get you into our conference room.

Looking forward to meeting you!--Julie

Julie O'Connor
Volunteer Coordinator/Naturalist
Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory
www.hawkridge.org

218-348-2291
joconnor@hawkridge.org

Read More

Last Day to Register for Metro Naturalist Training

Greetings! Hola! Nyob Zoo! Soo dhawoow!

The Minnesota Naturalists' Association Presents the September Naturalist and Volunteer Training. If you have never been to one of these trainings you owe it to yourself to check it out. They are open to professional naturalists, volunteers, interns, teacher and administrators. You do not have to be a member of MNA but your membership dues make these trainings possible so why not consider joining this fine organization?

Tips for teachers working with students who have special needs or are English language learners.(ELL)

Monday September 14, 2009

Hosted by Valley Branch ELC @ Belwin Conservancy
Co-hosted by Carpenter Nature Center
1553 Stagecoach Tr. S, Afton MN 55001
651.436.5243

8:30 – 9:00 – refreshments/visiting/coffee
9:00 - welcome
9:15 – 10:30 – 1st session
10:50 – 12:00 – 2nd session
session A – ELL specialists from SPPS
session B – Special needs tips with Jim Rue
12:00 – 12:15 wrap up and so long

You are welcome to bring a lunch, stop to see the
bison or take a hike on the teaching property.

Please RSVP by September 9, 2009 to the co-host:
Mayme@carpenternaturecenter.org or call 651.437.4359

Los esparamos! tuaj koom nrog peb! oo ha moogaan!

Read More

Book Review: Savages

I've had the paperback of Savages sitting around in my "to read" pile for ages. Actually, it went from my old house to my new house to my car and finally to my garage where it sat for two years. I finally had some time this week so I sat down and plowed though it while I sat in the last warm rays of summer sun. Author Joe Kane spent time with the Huaorani, a tribe living in the deep Amazon in Ecuador while oil companies were closing in on their ancestral lands. The Huaorani are nomadic hunters and gathers who still live mostly as they have for centuries. Kane follows along as they work to hold onto their identity while they face pressures of modernity, big oil and even missionaries who vie for their souls.

The book is clearly a story about the struggle of the Huaorani people and not an anthropological study but the window Kane opens to their world is simply fascinating. Some have directly criticized the work on anthropological grounds saying his work wasn't up to their standards but he did not set out to write an anthropological treatise on the Huaorani. Joe Kane is a journalist. Complaining that Savages is not a good anthropology book is like complaining that Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods is not a good guide to hiking the Appalachian Trail. Kane follows the ethical rules of journalists not anthropologists. Had he been an anthropologist he likely would not have been given the access he had to their lives. The oil companies used people they called "anthropologists" to divide and control the various Huaorani groups and they have grown to deeply distrust anyone claiming to be an anthropologist.

The book isn't perfect, some parts get a little confusing and in other places we are left wanting more information but it is an enjoyable if not slightly disturbing read. The oil we consume daily has many prices and this book helps open our eyes to one of them. Kane talks not just to the Huaorani but also executives from the oil companies who sit behind their desks and claim that they follow the highest environmental standards. When Kane reveals to them that he has just come from their sites with almost unimaginable pollution they tell him they'll have to get back to him and have him escorted out of their office. Savages is a short book and does not answer all the questions the reader has about the subject but it is marvelous at opening eyes to a world we largely choose to ignore. ~Kirk

Read More

Here Comes Science

They Might Be Giants has a new kids album coming out on September 8th. Just two days to go. It is called Here Comes Science. I'm really excited to get this one as they have so many great songs and what better topic? The album even includes the track, "Why does the sun really shine?" which is a follow-up to their classic rendition of "Why does the sun shine."



So far I love this song, "Science is Real." It is far more catchy than the above one.

Check it out for yourself.



~Kirk

Read More

Recycling Food

Whenever I travel to other states I am shocked by the lack of recycling. I take for granted that blue bin out behind my house. Many weeks I have more recycling than trash. It is jarring for me when I visit relatives out west where everything (plastic and all) goes into the burn barrel. Out of sight out of mind I guess but all that pollution blows east to Minnesota. There is a great story on Minnesota Public Radio's NewsQ about the next step in recycling, curbside food waste pick-up. Duluth has a program but apparently the Twin Cities are still looking at the logistics of such an operation. I'm all for it. Food waste, including paper towels and pizza boxes, makes up a large part of the waste stream. I have a small compost pile but properly maintaining a home compost pile with sufficient heat, mass and oxygen to create a good end product actually takes work. You can't just throw in all in a pile and let it rot. My pile is mostly a rot pile right now. Even if it did work properly, what am I going to do with 50+ gallons of compost every year? Curbside compost pick-up would be far superior. I currently take my yard waste to the Ramsey County Yard Waste Site to be composted but they probably wouldn't appreciate a pizza box in with my petunia clippings.

I'm happy our cities are setting an example to look into these ideas, I just wish the rest of the county would do something as simple as recycling aluminum cans.

~Kirk

Read More

Welcome I and the Bird Readers

If you landed here from this month's installment of I and the Bird, welcome!

I hope you enjoy the Twin Cities Naturalist Blog and Podcast. The blog is updated regularly with articles about natural history. The posts are usually pretty bird heavy but other topics come up including fossil hunting, dragonflies, astronomy and weather. There is a podcast associated with the blog as well. So far we only have our pilot episode online but we're planning to do a monthly natural history based podcast companion to the blog starting in the fall. Be sure to bookmark us, subscribe with Networked Blogs or add us to your blog reader.

Thanks for stopping in!

~Kirk

Read More

Book Review: Life List

Last month my blog post, South Dakota Road Trip won a contest co-hosted by the Nature Blog Network and 10,000 birds.

The prize was a copy of Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds. The book came straight from the publisher and I immediately dove into it. I love books as much as birds.

The story chronicles the incredible birding career of Phoebe Snetsinger, the first person to have a life list with over 8,000 birds. It is so much more than that however. Phoebe was not just a lister, she was a world-class birder with a fascinating life story. Author Olivia Gentile pulls together the narrative of her life in a compelling story in which every birder is likely to see some aspect of themselves. We grow with Phoebe as she discovers birding as an escape from the drudgery and tedium of being a housewife. We see her blossom into a respected birder and we watch too as her obsession with birds takes a toll on her health, family life and some would even say her ability to make rational choices.

Since Phoebe went through so many stages as a birder, we can examine different styles of birding or listing as she goes on her journey. I am certainly not anywhere near the same class of birder as Phoebe was. In the grand scheme of the roughly 10,000 birds out there, my life list is a mere pittance. Reading about her quest though makes me happy to not be so fanatically caught up in listing. I enjoy listing and I love the thrill of a new lifer. However, I don't plan of letting my birding destroy my marriage or put me in the middle of war zones. Phoebe's incredible life journey at the extreme edge of birding gives the rest of us perspective. If she could go though all she went through to become what some would call the greatest birder of all time then maybe the rest of us mere mortals can survive a few more mosquitoes, a little more mud and a little longer hike.

One aspect of the book I found interesting was the repeated references to the Golden Age of birding. I have to admit that I haven't been engaged in the birding world all that long. I really started birding back in the winter of 2006. As I read the book, I found myself thinking that the Golden Age of birding didn't sound all that great. People died on poorly organized trips, there were few to no field guides for much of the world, optics weren't as good or as light as they are now, the internet didn't exist making it harder to get information on locations of birds, guides, etc. It seems the one thing the "Golden Age" had going for it was less habitat degradation but that can't be the only criteria. I was pleased to see similar thoughts from fellow blogger, The Drinking Bird. I was also pleased that author Olivia Gentile covered some of the same observations in the epilogue. It is far too easy to gloss over the past as some hallowed ground.

It would be easy as well to look at only the positive side of Phoebe Snetsinger's story. She blossomed as an individual as a birder, was diagnosed with a fatal melanoma, fought it off multiple times and devoted herself to living her life to the fullest though birding. There is a darker side to this story however and Olivia Gentile examines the cost Phoebe's quest took on her family, friends and her own happiness. I found the book fascinating and even my non-birder wife has asked to read it after I shared some passages with her.
Phoebe Snetsinger's life is an example to us all of how to be a top notch birder, a thoughtful friend, an adventurous and fearless traveler, an optimist but also her life has lessons for us all when it comes to moderation.

There are also some interesting social class issues raised by her story. She was the daughter of a wealthy ad man and had she not come from such a financially privileged place her story would likely have been much different. It is one thing to say you are going to live life to the fullest and see as many birds as possible. It is another thing completely to set such a goal when you have essentially unlimited financial resources. Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds, is an incredible personal story of struggle and journey as well as a history lesson on women's changing role in modern society. There is something in this book for every reader and I hope everyone has a chance to pick up a copy. ~Kirk

Read More