March 05, 2024

(Mengshin Lin / Associated Press)

Inside the back section of my local newspaper was a new spin on the perils facing the Pacific Ocean.  The wildfire that decimated Lahaina, Hawaii, last August was the deadliest US fire in a century.  More than 2,000 buildings burned and there were 101 confirmed fatalities.  The fire also left behind piles of toxic debris.  Now there is concern that runoff could carry contaminants into the ocean where they could get into the coral, seaweed, and food chain.  Scientists say there has never been another instance of a large urban fire burning next to a coral reef anywhere in the world and they are using the Maui wildfire as a chance to study how chemicals and metals from burned plastics, lead paint, and lithium-ion batteries might affect delicate reef ecosystems.  The research is already underway in the waters off Maui, and could help inform residents, tourists, and coastal tropical communities worldwide as climate change increases the likelihood of extreme weather events of the kind that fueled the wildfire.  It is too soon to determine how the fire will affect Lahaina’s coral reef.

When I looked online, I found a coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals.  Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate.  Most coral reefs are built from stony corals (order, Scleractinia), whose polyps cluster in groups.  Coral is in the class Anthozoa in the animal phylum Cnidaria, which includes sea anemones and jellyfish, but unlike sea anemones, corals secrete hard carbonate exoskeletons that support and protect the coral.  Most reefs grow best in warm, shallow, clear, sunny, and agitated water.  Coral reefs first appeared 485 million years ago (Early Ordovician) displacing the microbial and sponge reefs of the Cambrian.  Coral reefs are sometimes called the “rainforests of the sea” and are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world.  The reefs are a crucial indicator of healthy oceans.  The reefs are made up of stony corals, which are hard skeletons formed by thousands of individual living coral polyps that symbiotically host algae.  Fish, crabs, and other species find refuge in their midst.  Scientists say one-fourth of the ocean’s fish rely on healthy coral reefs for habitat, and a coral reef protects shoreline communities from powerful waves during storms.

Lahaina’s coral reef faced challenges before the fire from overfishing, abuse from kayak and stand-up paddleboard tours, warm ocean temperatures, and sediment from fallow fields and construction sites flowing into the ocean.  Much of the coral reef offshore of the burn zone was already degraded prior to the fire but there were still patches of nice reef, like in an area north of Lahaina Harbor near Mala Wharf.  In the past, Sea Maui, a whale watching and snorkeling tour company, would take snorkelers to the Mala Wharf reef to see turtles and occasional monk seals.  Phil LeBlanc, partner and chief operating officer, said, “We’re not into disaster tourism”.   The company’s boats now avoid the reef because of concerns about toxic runoff and out of respect for the town.  They now send their tours south to Olowalu or north to Honolua Bay.

THOUGHTS:  One of Hawaii’s oldest stories is the centuries-old chant called The Kumulipo, which reflects the central role of the coral reef in the island chain.  The chant tells how a coral polyp was the first living being to emerge from the darkness of creation.  Starfish, worms, sea cucumber, and other species followed, and humans came last.  “So the first form of life is a coral polyp.  That is your foundation.  The foundation of life is a coral,” said Ekolu Lindsey, a Lahaina community advocate.  This chant reflects the attitude and relationship the indigenous Hawaiians have with the coral reef.  The coral reef as the basis for much or marine life is also being understood by scientists.  Collapse of the reefs reflect the eventual collapse of oceans.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

March 04, 2024

Credit: Maayan Harel

My NY Times feed reported on a lesser known group of humans that split from the Neanderthal line and survived for hundreds of thousands of years before going extinct.  While Neanderthals may have vanished 40,000 years ago, they are still a part of our popular culture in museums and TV ads.  The humans that split from the Neanderthal line are relatively unknown as few of their bones have been located.  Since the first discovery in 2010, the list of fossil remains total half a broken jaw, a finger bone, a skull fragment, three loose teeth, and four chips of bone.  What the group lacks in fossils they make up for in DNA.  Geneticists have been able to extract bits of genetic material from teeth and bones found in cave dating back 200,000 years, and billions of people on Earth carry Denisovan DNA inherited from interbreeding.  The evidence offers a picture of remarkable humans who were able to thrive across thousands of miles and in diverse environments, from chilly Siberia to high-altitude Tibet to woodlands in Laos.  This extinct line is called Denisovans.

When I looked online, I found Denisovans (Homo denisova) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic.  The Denisovans get their name from the Denisova Cave in Siberia named after Denis (Dyonisiy), a Russian hermit who lived there in the 18th century and where their remains were first identified.  The cave was inspected for fossils in the 1970’s by Russian paleontologist Nikolai Ovodov, who was looking for remains of canids (dogs).  Fossils of five distinct Denisovan individuals in the cave were identified through their ancient DNA.  These remained the only known specimens until 2019, when a research group led by Fahu Chen described a partial mandible (Xiahe mandible) discovered in 1980 by a Buddhist monk in the Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau.  Janet Kelso, paleoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and other researchers offered to search them for DNA.  A molar tooth’s (122,700 and 194,400 years old) DNA was distinct enough to suggest it had come from a separate branch of human evolution.  The Denisovan fossils date from 200,000 to 50,000 years ago demonstrating the line existed tens of thousands of years, and a 90,000-year-old bone fragment from a Denisovan-Neanderthal hybrid, shows that the two groups interbred. 

Other researchers are surveying the Denisovan DNA inherited by living people.  The pattern of mutations suggests several genetically distinct Denisovans groups interbred with our ancestors.  The most intriguing results have come from studies on people in New Guinea and the Philippines which show signs of repeated instances of interbreeding with Denisovans that were distinct from what occurred on mainland Asia.  These findings suggest that Denisovans thrived in vastly different environments.  That flexibility stands in sharp contrast to Neanderthals, who adapted to the cold climate of Europe and western Asia but did not expand elsewhere.  The Denisovans’ versatility may have helped them last for a long time, and people in New Guinea may have inherited Denisovans DNA from interbreeding as late as 25,000 years ago.

THOUGHTS:  After the Denisovans disappeared, certain genes of Denisovans have become more common as they provide an evolutionary advantage in modern humans.  Emilis Huerta-Sanchez, a geneticist at Brown University, and her colleagues found a Denisovan gene that helps people survive at high altitudes in Tibet, and DNA from Native Americans carry a Denisovan gene for a mucus protein, though its benefit remains a mystery.  Humans are not just related to each other but have genetic links to several hominid kin.  Or we can discard genetics and declare our supremacy over others.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

March 1, 2024

From Astrobotic

Inside the back section of today’s local newspaper was an article on questions raised by landing human remains on the moon.  Peregrin I launched on January 8, 2024, and was set to be the first commercial lunar lander and the first US built lunar lander on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.  Shortly after the lander separated from the Vulcan rocket a propellant leak developed that prevented completion of its mission.  The spacecraft was redirected into Earth’s atmosphere after six days in orbit where it burned up over the Pacific Ocean on January 18th.  Peregrin I was built by Astrobotic Technology and carried payloads for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.  Other payloads included a library (microprint on nickel) with Wikipedia contents, Long Now Foundation’s Rosetta Project, and cremains space burial companies Elysium Space and Celestis paid Astrobotic to carry to the moon.  The decision to include human remains was criticized by President Buu Nygren of the Navajo Nation, who said the Moon is sacred to the Navajo and other Indigenous peoples.  The remains never made it to the moon, but they did spark controversy about appropriate burial.

When I looked online, I found burial (interment or inhumation) is a method of final disposition where a dead body is placed into the ground.  This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objects, and covering it.  Evidence suggests some archaic and early modern humans buried their dead, seen as a demonstration of respect.  Burial has been used to prevent the odor of decay, to give family members closure, and to prevent witness of the decomposition of kin.  Many cultures see burial as a necessary step for the dead to enter the afterlife or to give back to the cycle of life.  Methods of burial may be heavily ritualized and include natural burial (“green burial”), embalming or mummification, and the use of containers (shrouds, coffins, grave liners, and burial vaults) to slow the decomposition of the body.  Objects or grave goods may also be buried, and the body may be dressed in fancy or ceremonial garb.  Depending on the culture, the way the body is positioned, and the associated grave goods may have great significance.  There are alternatives to burial, like cremation, burial at sea, and cryopreservation (freezing).

Peregrin I’s attempt to use the lunar surface as a burial site is not the first.  Eugene Shoemaker is still the only person whose remains have been sent to the Moon.  Shoemaker enjoyed a celebrated career combining his discipline of geology with astronomical applications, helping to create the field of planetary science.  Shoemaker studied craters on Earth, and founded the Astrogeology Research Program within the US Geological Survey in the early 1960’s.  Shoemaker used his knowledge to train Apollo mission astronauts on what the terrain would be on the surface of the Moon.  Shoemaker died on July 18, 1997, in a car crash while exploring a meteor crater in Australia.  Carolyn Porco, a close colleague of Shoemaker’s, decided to try to get the ashes of the deceased scientist to the Moon.  NASA liked the idea of honoring Shoemaker and called Celestis.  On January 6, 1998, NASA’s Lunar Prospector blasted off for the south pole of the Moon, looking for ice and carrying an ounce of Shoemaker’s ashes.  The mission ended when NASA deliberately crashed the craft on the surface of the moon on July 31, 1999, making him the first and only person to be buried on the moon.

THOUGHTS:  Celestis has been helping people send their loved ones into space for over 20 years, with four different levels of burial.  Earth Rise will launch into space and then return to earth starting at US$2,995.  Earth Orbit launches into orbit around the earth starting at US$4,995.  Luna launches to lunar orbit or the surface, and Voyager launches into deep space, both at US$12,995.  Certificates and apparel are also available.  As space exploration increases, burial customs will be one of the many traditions that will be challenged.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

February 29, 2024

The BBC news caried an online story today about an 84 year old man who was celebrating his 21st birthday.  Ronald Mustard, of Sunderland, England, is 84 years old but has only marked the exact day of birth every four years.  The staff at the dementia-friendly care home Archers Court in the city decided to throw Mustard a party to mark this milestone 21st birthday with a surprise celebration themed around 1961, or the year when he was actually 21, to help him remember his younger days as part of his care.  Ronald’s daughter Sharon said her father suffered through the pandemic, but since moving to the specialist care home last year he had “come out of his shell”.   Sharon helped arrange the surprise, which included residents and staff dressed up as hippies while dancing to music from that era.  Mustard was born in 1940, a leap year.  So-called “leaplings” are rare and there is about a one in 1,461 chance of being born on 29 February. 

When I looked online, I found a leap year, also called an intercalary year or bissextile year, is a calendar year that contains an additional day (or for a lunisolar calendar, a month) compared to a common year.  The 366th day is added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year.  Since astronomical events and seasons do not repeat in a whole number of days, calendars having a constant number of days each year unavoidably drift over time.  By inserting (intercalating) an additional day or month into some years, the drift between a culture’s dating system and the physical properties of the Solar System are corrected.  An astronomical year is slightly less than 365-1/4 days.  The historic Julian calendar has three common years of 365 days followed by a leap year of 366 days.  This is done by extending February to 29 days rather than the normal 28.  The Gregorian calendar is the world’s most widely used civil calendar and makes further adjustment for the Julian algorithm.  Each leap year has 366 days instead of 365, but this leap day occurs in each year that is a multiple of 4, except for years evenly divisible by 100 but not by 400.  That greatly restricts the number of times leaplings can celebrate on their actual birthday.

While the Julian and Georgian calendars are based on the time it takes for the earth to travel around the sun, other calendars are based on the phases of the moon.  Both Chinese and Hebrew calendars are lunisolar, so during a leap year there is an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it.  In the Chinese calendar, the leap month is added to ensure the 11th month always contains the northern winter solstice, and the intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month i.e., if it follows the second month it is called “leap second month”.  In the Hebrew calendar this extra month is called Adar Rishon (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheini (second Adar).  According to the Metonic cycle, a period of almost exactly 19 years after which the lunar phases then repeat.  This is done to ensure that Passover (Pesah) is always in the spring as required by many verses in the Torah (Pentateuch).  Counting your age as leaplings appears to be the opposite of considering your pets age in “dog years”.

THOUGHTS:  Technically, leaplings will have fewer birthday anniversaries than their age in years.  This can be exploited for dramatic effect when a person declares themself only a quarter of their actual age by only counting their leap-year birthday anniversaries.  In Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance, Frederic (the pirate apprentice) discovers he is bound to serve the pirates until his “21st birthday” (i.e., 88 years old) rather than his 21st year.  For legal purposes, legal birthdays depend on how local laws count time intervals.  It seems like you need to be a little crazy to grasp how this all works.  Tracking the passage of time (not seasons) is one of the advances that occurs with the rise of human civilization.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

February 27, 2024

AP Photo/David Goldman

The back page of today’s local newspaper carried an AP article on Singapore’s cutting edge water solutions.  Singapore has combined technology, diplomacy, and community involvement to help one of the most water-stressed nations in the world secure its water future.  There are no natural water resources in the country, and it relied on importing water from nearby Malaysia through deals for the inexpensive purchase of water from the Johor River.  The deal is set to expire in 2061 and there is no certainty over its renewal.  Across the island, seventeen reservoirs catch and store rainwater which is treated through a series of chemical coagulation, rapid gravity filtration, and disinfection.  Five desalination plants produce drinking water by pushing seawater through membranes to remove dissolved salts and minerals and are creating millions of gallons of clean water every day.  The country’s innovations have attracted the attention of other water-scarce nations seeking solutions.

When I looked online, I found Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia located just north of the equator.  The country consists of the main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet, with a total area of 281 miles² (734 km²).  Around 25% of this area is the result of extensive land reclamation projects since the country’s independence from Malaysia in 1965.  It has the second highest population density of any country in the world, although urban planning has resulted in green and recreational spaces.  There are four official languages (English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil) that represent the multicultural population, although English is the lingua franca.  Multi-racism is enshrined in the constitution and continues to shape national policies in education, housing, and politics.  In recent decades the island has transformed into a modern international business hub with a rapidly developing economy.  The economic boom has caused Singapore’s water consumption to increase by over twelve times since the nation’s independence, and the economy is expected to keep growing. 

In 2006 Singapore launched the Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters Program, which transformed the country’s water systems into more public areas.  Residents can now kayak, hike, and picnic on the reservoirs, and several water facilities have public green spaces on the roofs where the public can picnic on lush green lawns.  Children are taught in school about best practices for water use and conservation and the schools hold mock water rationing exercises where water taps are shut off and students collect water in pails.  Water technology developed and used in Singapore, like portable water filters, water testing technology, and flood management tools, have been exported to over 30 countries.  The country has become a global hub for water technology, as home to nearly 200 water companies, over 20 research centers, and hosts a biennial International Water Week.  Despite the progress Singapore has made toward water security, Harry Seah, deputy chief executive of operations at Singapore’s National Water Agency, warns that continued progress is essential for the island.

THOUGHTS:  Another innovation in Singapore is a massive sewage recycling program to purify wastewater through microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet irradiation, adding to drinking supply reservoirs.  The treated wastewater (called “NEWater”) provides Singapore 40% of its water with the hope to increase capacity to 55% of demand in years to come.  To help build confidence in the safety of Newater, Singapore’s national water agency collaborated with a local craft brewery to create a line of beer made from treated sewage.  Singapore has become innovative out of necessity, but that necessity may not be far for other countries if we do not conserve and innovatively reform use of the resources we now have.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

February 26, 2024

It has been warm over the last several days (+70F/+20C) and Melissa has taken to keeping the patio doors open to allow the dogs free access to the yard and house.  While we do have a “doggie door” in the kitchen, it was installed for a toy poodle (Canis familiaris – all domestic dogs) and would hardly provide access for our 75 to 85 pound (34 to 38.5 kg) pups, although Loki does try and stick his head and front feet through the door.  While working this morning melissa noticed two house sparrows (Passer domesticus) had taken advantage of the open door and decided to check out the succulents stored on the porch.  Melissa quickly shut the kitchen door, and then chased the sparrows back outside, then closed the outside door to prevent more birds coming inside.  After sitting back at her work chair, she heard a loud bang as a Eurasian collared dove (Columba decaocto) struck the patio glass.  The bird fluttered away, unhurt but obviously dazed.  I found this ironic as opening my browser it featured another article on the apparent bird strike that killed Flaco last week. 

When I looked online, I found one of the major problems in the interaction between humans and birds is the occurrence of window strikes.  Most strikes are associated with tall skyscrapers with reflective windows, but nearly 50% of bird collisions occur at homes.  It is estimated between 365 and 988 million birds are killed annually in the US by building strikes.  Approximately 56% of these deaths occur at low-rise buildings, 44% at residences, and only 1% at high-rise buildings.  This is second only to mortality from feral and free-ranging domestic cats when considering types of human-caused bird mortality.  The problem exists because birds cannot see glass and only see the reflections of their surroundings or the interior of a home or building if the light inside is brighter than outside.  Birds’ bodies are fragile, and they seldom survive a first collision to learn from their mistakes.  Even birds that can fly away after a collision may die from internal injuries or from predation due to their wounded state.  Birds are especially vulnerable when seeking escape cover after being frightened by predators (real or perceived) or by loud noises.  Window strikes by males their reflection to be a rival for territory or a mate are usually more of an annoyance to the homeowner than a threat to the bird.

One suggestion to avoid window strikes is to make the glass doors and windows more visible.  When you put something on the outside of the window it can make it more visible to birds.  The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Bird Collisions Program of the American Bird Conservancy provide a few suggestions.  Creating patterns or designs on windows help break up reflections and can appear as a barrier to birds.  However, these markings must be applied to the outside of windows as any reflections on the outside of the window may obscure markings on the inside.  You should also use white or light colors to maximize contrast and visibility.  The markings should be visible from at least 10 feet (3 m) away to give birds time to see them and react.  Grids of dots or lines are very effective if they are placed no more than 2 inches (5 cm) apart over the entire window surface.  Wider spacing will create apparent gaps that smaller birds may still try to fly through.  Stripes should be at least one-eighth inch (.5 cm) wide, and dots at least one-quarter inch (1 cm) in diameter and bigger is better.  Hmm, I just installed large picture windows on the porch and bay to let in the light.

THOUGHTS:  There are commercially available films that can stop strikes when applied to the outside of a window that appear solid from the outside but cannot be seen when looking out.  Many of these products and do-it-yourself ideas are discussed on the American Bird Conservancy’s website.  Although the male eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis) has attacked the window, the collard dove was the first actual strike.  There are always decisions and tradeoffs with any human improvements .  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

February 24, 2024

My NY Times feed shared the sad news that Falco, the Eurasian eagle-owl that I blogged about earlier this month died Friday night after apparently striking a building on the Upper West Side in New York City (NYC).  The Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the zoo that had housed Falco, said the owl had been found on the ground after apparently hitting a building on West 89th Street.  Building residents contacted a rescue organization who retrieved him and declared him dead a short time later.  Zoo employees took him to the Bronx Zoo, where a necropsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.  Flaco had escaped when vandals shredded his mesh enclosure in February 2023 and spent his last year as a free bird.  One sad aspect of the freedom Flaco obtained was as a nonnative species he was destined to never find a mate.  Still, he could be heard hooting into the post-midnight darkness to establish his territory and declare his interest in breeding.  Flaco’s last reported hoots were heard from a water tower on West 86th Street at 3 am last Sunday.  On Friday, Flaco was found just a few blocks away.

When I looked online, I found Eurasian eagle-owls (Bubo bubo) like Flaco are strictly territorial and will defend their territories year around, but territorial calling appears to peak from October to early January.  Territory size averages 5.8 to 30.9 miles² (15 to 80 km²).  Territories are established by the male who selects the highest points in the territory to sing, allowing their song to be heard at great distances.  Nearly as important in territorial behavior as vocalization is the white throat patch.  When stuffed specimens with flared white throats were placed near an owl’s territory, males reacted quite strongly and often attacked the stuffed owl, while reacting more mildly to a stuffed owl with a non-flared white throat.  In January and February, the primary function for vocalization is courtship.  Eagle-owls often pair for life but usually engage in courtship rituals annually, most likely to re-affirm pair bonds.  

After his escape, Flaco settled in Central Park but around Halloween began to venture into the city and embarked on a tour of Manhattan where he would turn up on the terraces and air-conditioners that resembled the cliff ledges Eurasian eagle-owls are accustomed to.  He would spend the day sleeping out of the wind and then fly out at dusk to hunt.  Each day Flaco spent outside his zoo enclosure was risky.  Striking a building, especially a window, could have (and finally did) proved lethal.  Flaco also faced threats from the rodenticide in the rats that he ate, and a fatal collision with a vehicle.  He was able to avoid vehicles by sticking mostly to rooftops, water towers, and other elevated elements of his new environment.  The risk of being killed by a building strike was serious.  The National Audubon Society says as many as 230,000 birds a year die in New York City from window strikes.  This is especially hazardous at night when lights illuminate indoor vegetation and can confuse birds who navigate by starlight.  While Flaco never found a mate, he may have been defending his territory against his own reflection in a window.

THOUGHTS:  Flaco caused concern for a variety of reasons when he escaped.  Flaco had hatched in North Carolina and had never lived outside of his small enclosure prior to his escape.  Some worried he would not be able to feed himself or even know how to fly.  Instinct quickly took over and he fed on the numerous rats which also call NYC home.  Others feared the owl might feed on native bird populations.  Attempts to recapture him proved futile and were finally abandoned.  Flaco appeared to do well in his foreign environment, even if only for one year.  It may have been the best year of his life.  While we cannot gauge the thoughts of Flaco, living twice as long in captivity may have seemed more like an eternity.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

February 22, 2024

I cannot believe it.  I missed this year’s Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC).  I found out about this event from my mom in 2021.  She had come across an article in her newspaper saying the weekend was approaching.  With her heads up I was able to find the links that lead me to the Cornell Labs eBird site.  Since then, I have been participating in the weekend and submitting lists of the birds I have spotted in my backyard feeders.  I submitted one list in 2021, three in 2022, and two in 2023.  These 15-minute snapshots (or longer) are short enough to not distract from other activities yet still provide an accumulative look at the health of bird populations in my area (Arkansas, US).  The participants to the GBBC extend around the world, meaning bird populations in other areas are also tracked and recorded.  The lists are combined and submitted to help researchers at the National Audubon Society, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Birds Canada learn more about how birds are doing, and how to protect them and their environments.  The 27th annual GBBC was last Friday to Monday (16^th to 19th).

When I went online, I found the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) was launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society.  The count was the first online participatory-science project, or called community science or citizen science, to collect data on wild birds and display the results in near real time.  Birds Canada joined the project in 2009 to expand capacity to support participation in Canada.  The GBBC became a global project in 2013 when it began entering data into eBird, the world’s largest biodiversity-related participatory science project.  In 2015 nearly half of known bird species worldwide were reported.  The data collected annually during the event is subject to verification by experts to overcome potential shortcomings in the abilities of amateur participants (i.e., misidentification).  The tally as of today is a total of 294,900 completed checklists from 253 subregions across the globe.  A total of 7,834 species were observed.  The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World identifies approximately 10,906 bird species globally.  Species observed in this year’s count represent 71.8% of the world’s birds.

This year’s GBBC checklists come from 209 of the 253 subregions.  There were 323 checklists reporting 30 species from Antarctica.  The US (165,623), India (51,352), and Canada (24,546) submitted the most lists.  Columbia (1348), Ecuador (1118), and India (1030), and Brazil (1000) reported the most species. This is not surprising due to the diversity found in their tropical forests.  Neoh Hor Kee of Malasia observed the greatest number of species (409) with only 23 completed checklists.  Second place went to Juan Lopez (a bird tour guide) of Columbia who observed 295 species with 13 checklists from around the world.  In the US, Eric Piage completed the most checklists (45) and reported the greatest diversity of species (161).  The checklists are still arriving and can be submitted until March 1st.

THOUGHTS:  While I was chastising myself for not participating in the GBBC this year, I found I was not the only one who was lax.  I was not alone as no checklists had been submitted from 44 subregions, and one checklist had reported no birds.  I have had times when I sat at my window watching the feeders and not seen a bird, and it is always disappointing.  The highest bird counts come from areas where birds thrive, while the lack of checklists are generally associated with desert environments.  There were 95 checklists with 93 species submitted from 14 of the 27 provinces of Ukraine and 200 checklists with 94 species submitted from 19 of the 83 provinces of Russia.  Even in strife there is common ground.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

February 21, 2024

The front page of today’s local newspaper carried a USA Today article on how last year’s drought has affected butterflies.  This year’s eastern monarch butterfly population wintering in Mexico is the second smallest on record.  The survey taken by the World Wildlife Foundation measures the area they cover in their winter grounds rather than a true census.  This year’s estimate found the eastern monarch population only took up 2.2 acres (8903 m²) or 59% less than during the 2022-2023 season.  To put 2.2 acres in perspective, it is less than two football fields.  The lowest footprint occurred in the 2013-2014 season with 1.7 acres (6879.6 m²) covered.  This information has just been released in an article sponsored by Okies for Monarchs, an education and outreach initiative to raise awareness of monarch butterflies and increase monarch habitat in Oklahoma.  Oklahoma represents critical habitat along the flyway from Wisconsin to Mexico.

When I went online, I found the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae.  The monarch is regionally known by other names, including milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown.  The species is one of the most familiar North American butterflies and an iconic pollinator.  Monarch wings feature an easily recognizable black, orange, and white pattern, with a wingspan of 3.5 to 4.0 inches (8.9 to 10.2 cm).  The eastern North American monarch population is notable for its annual southward migration in late-summer or autumn from the northern and central US and southern Canada to Florida and Mexico.  During the fall migration, monarchs cover up to 3000 miles (4,828 km) which is repeated with a multigenerational return north in the spring.  The western North American population of monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains generally migrates to sites in southern California, but individuals have also been found overwintering in Mexican sites. 

Monarch populations are extremely sensitive to high heat and drought, and both are becoming more prevalent as the climate continues to change.  The major contributing factor for the species decline is loss of habitat.  Even though the annual survey is taken in Mexico, the loss of habitat affects the monarch all along the migration route (hence Okies for Monarchs).  Karen Oberhauser, founder and director of the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project in Wisconsin, says, “We need habitat everywhere -— where they breed, where they migrate and where they winter.” Oberhauser said. “But right now, the biggest correlation with monarch numbers is the amount of breeding habitat that’s been lost up here (Wisconsin).”  Last year severe drought covered much of the US, and this makes milkweed (genus, Asclepias) less nutritious.  The monarch depends on milkweed to lay their eggs on and to eat.  Oberhauser said conservation efforts to build habitat and restore breeding grounds will be key to preserving the monarch population, even as climate change makes extreme weather more likely.

THOUGHTS:  I mentioned several years ago that as director of a rural camp I tried to improve habitat along the monarch flyway by transplanting milkweed plants out of mown areas and into an area where I had seen the butterflies congregate.  While the transplant did not work (drought), it was worth a try.  Restoration of critical habitat is essential for all endangered species.  In February 2015, US Fish and Wildlife Service reported nearly a billion monarchs had vanished from overwintering sites since 1990 due in part to a loss of milkweed caused by herbicides.  Some may argue it is just a butterfly, but that ignores the monarch’s role as a prolific pollinator.  We might say if the monarch cannot eat, we will not be far behind.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

February 20, 2024

I have mentioned how my local newspaper has been cutting back on delivery.  This began in earnest during the pandemic as the Saturday edition was stopped but the price was the same (shrinkflation).  The next move came as Holiday editions were either not printed or came out the day before.  This was disconcerting as I never knew if the paper was not printed, or my carrier had not delivered the paper.  I eventually found the front page would carry a disclaimer (in small print at the bottom) explaining when the paper would not be delivered.  Correspondence from the newspaper office suggested I could still receive the paper (including the Saturday edition) online and tried to convince me to switch to this reduced priced edition.  When I finally switched to online only, the carrier continued to deliver the hard copy edition to my driveway.  Last week the publishers decided to forego carriers and have the newspaper delivered by the US Postal Service.      

When I went online, I found switching newspaper delivery from costly carriers to the US Postal Service is becoming the norm as the decline of print journalism has left publishers with fewer ways to cut costs.  Newspapers have been delivered by mail in the US for centuries.  The earliest second-class mail began in colonial times, and many weekly newspapers have relied on the postal service for their entire existence.  Many small dailies in rural areas switched to mail delivery after the financial crisis of 2007-08.  For major metro dailies it is not uncommon to provide postal delivery for readers outside primary circulation areas.  Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, makes all 400-plus of its titles available for postal delivery, primarily for readers who relocate but want to maintain connections to their previous communities.  Some newspaper executives who have relied on postal delivery for decades wonder why the change is taking so long. “It’s high-quality delivery at predictable times,” said Tim Price, senior vice president at Boone Newsmedia Inc.  “If our primary goal is to get the printed product in the hands of the readers, we can do that with the post office.”

One of the problems with receiving your printed copy of the newspaper by mail is it no longer covers breaking news.  Tim Franklin, senior associate dean at the Medill School of Journalism, Media at Northwestern University, said he expects more local news organizations to at least explore a moving to postal delivery, “because the potential cost savings are huge, and it eliminates the headache of carrier turnover”.  This also raises an existential question of what a printed newspaper should be in the digital era.  “What’s breaking news at press time may be old news by the time it hits the mailbox.  So, the printed newspaper needs to be relevant in other ways.”  That means feature stories that are in-depth, contextual, and personal.  I have read print newspapers are primarily read by Boomers like me who like the tactile feel of paper.  Whether the publication is delivered via carrier, postal, or digital means in depth coverage of relevant local events is what keeps me a subscriber.

THOUGHTS:  My two brothers and I cut our respective teeth in the business world becoming newspaper carriers when we were in Grade School.  While our small town did not have a daily paper, the Big Town in our mostly rural area of Kansas distributed one.  My older brother got the job of delivering 100+ newspapers to our community of 600 and subbed out smaller routes to my younger brother and me (I later learned these were the parts of town he did not like delivering to).  In my lifetime the walking paperboy has shifted to adults in cars traversing wide areas.  The shift to postal delivery eliminates the job of carrier which often supplied a secondary income.  A technological shift is always accompanied by the loss of one job and the creation of many others.  We cannot bemoan the past, but rather adapt for the future.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.