𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 18, 2021

After watching a movie app last night, Melissa and I turned our viewing back to the regular lineup of cable TV.  One of our go-to shows (aside from sports) is PBS, and we were able to catch the last half hour of Secrets of the Dead, “A Samurai in the Vatican.”  In 1613, feudal lord Date Masamune sent a Japanese diplomatic mission to Europe to negotiate with the Pope and the King of Spain in hopes of opening a trade route with the new world.  The delegation was led by samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga and Franciscan monk Luis Sotelo.  The expedition lasted seven years and traveled one-third of the globe. 

When I looked online, I found that Date Masamune (September 5, 1567 – June 27, 1636) was a regional ruler of Japan’s Azuchi–Momoyama period through the early Edo period.  He was heir to a long line of powerful daimyō in the Tōhoku region and went on to establish the modern-day city of Sendai.  Masamune expanded trade in the backwater Tōhoku region and encouraged foreigners to come to his land.  Masamune showed sympathy for Christian missionaries and traders in Japan and allowed them to come and preach in his province.  Masamune also released the missionary prisoner Padre Sotelo and allowed Sotelo and other missionaries to practice their religion and win converts in Tōhoku.  Masamune funded and backed one of Japan’s few journeys of diplomacy and exploration in this period when he ordered the building of the Date Maru using foreign (European) ship-building techniques.  While the envoy was to establish relations with the Pope in Rome, Masamune was likely motivated by a desire for foreign technology.  Hasekura Tsunenaga, Sotelo, and an embassy of 180 people did establish relations with the Pope, but the trade agreement was never realized.  At least five members of the expedition stayed in Coria (Seville) of Spain to avoid the persecution of Christians in Japan.  Six hundred of their descendants surnamed Japón (Japan) still live in Spain.

From 1613 to 1620, Hasekura headed the Keichō Embassy mission to Pope Paul V and visited New Spain and various other ports-of-call in Europe.  Samurai Hasekura is considered the first Japanese ambassador in the Americas and Spain, despite other less well-known and less well-documented missions preceding his mission.  Although Hasekura’s embassy was cordially received in Spain and Rome, it happened at a time when Japan was moving toward the suppression of Christianity, and the European monarchs refused the trade agreements Hasekura had been seeking and he returned to Japan in 1620.  Hasekura died of illness a year later.  Japan’s next embassy to Europe would not occur until more than 200 years later, following two centuries of isolation, with the “First Japanese Embassy to Europe” in 1862.  Much like Columbus, being “first” has a lot to do with advertising.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:  Having two advanced degrees in history, with one centered on the European Reformation, I am always surprised to learn what I do not know about the past.  By the 17^th century my emphasis shifted to America, and European politics and culture were only a background to what was now my expertise.  Exploring new (to me) ideas and concepts is what makes it fun to be alive in our globalized internet connected world.  There is no way to know everything, but when we browse the surface, we can decide whether of not to delve deeper.  I can find out about a Japanese samurai who made a visit to the pope and how after his death, his wife, son, and even servants were killed for their Christian faith.  With so much information at our fingertips, I am glad we have experts to help direct us.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 17, 2021

Melissa has a Lark Sparrow that has been showing up at the bay window most mornings throughout the summer.  While it seems to be attracted by the feeders, it quickly leaves the food and flies to the bay window that projects into the patio.  Since it is morning, the bird is not attracted by the lights.  Rather than attacking the reflection in the pane, the bird will hang onto the screen that covers the bottom half of the window.  He will stay hanging from the screen for several moments.  At times he will flit down to the brick sill below the window, but mostly he just hangs on the screen.  It is a puzzle why the bird participates in this activity.

When I checked online, I found birds fly into windows for three reasons.  The first is they fly into a reflection of a tree or plant thinking its real.  When birds see the reflection of vegetation or they see indoor plants through the glass, they may fly toward at full speed.  Second, male birds attack their own reflections to defend their territory.  These attacks often occur in spring (breeding season) or fall (with migrating birds).  Scientists believe birds attack their reflection in the glass thinking it’s a rival bird.  The third reason is when night-migrating birds become disoriented by lighted windows.  These birds navigate by starlight and artificial building lights can confuse them and divert their migration patterns.  Birds may either collide with the windows or hover around lighted windows until they get exhausted.  A single lighted city building can kill thousands of migrating birds in just one night.

Approximately 1 of every 3 birds migrating through the US in spring, and 1 of every 4 birds migrating through the US in the fall (nearly two billion birds) pass through Texas.  That means protecting birds in Texas promotes conservation of bird populations across the Americas.  Houston Audubon manages a long-running suite of programs to address urban threats to birds, including collisions and lighting.  An estimated one billion US bird deaths occur annually from collisions with buildings and structures, with migratory species at most risk.  Early data collection efforts began ten years ago in Houston, but a major bird collision event involving 400 birds in Galveston in 2017 resulted in a partnership to save the birds.  The effort was aided when Cornell Lab of Ornithology developed their BirdCast migration forecast maps to predict when migrations would occur and identify the greatest risk of collision.  During periods of high-risk, Lights Out Action Alerts are released on social media to government officials, businesses, and homeowners encouraging them to participate in Lights Out.  The Lights Out for Birds program has grown to encompass cities and corporations throughout the state.  This saves birds and electricity.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:  The Lights Out for Birds program encourages building owners, businesses, developers, and homeowners to help protect migrating birds by turning off all non-essential nighttime lighting on buildings and other structures from 11:00 pm to 6:00 am each night.  Birds are not only essential to our planet’s ecology, but also support local economies.  Birds provide ecosystem services, act as benchmarks for environmental health, increase livability, and connect people of all ages and abilities to the natural world.  In the Rio Grande Valley alone, Texas A&M found that nature tourism (primarily bird watching) contributes $300 million to the economy and supports 4,407 full and part-time jobs annually.  It is estimated there are 45 million “birders” in the US, and 16 million of those traveled at least a mile to see birds (ecotourism).  That means 18% of all Americans are “birders.”  Yet another reason to protect the bird populations.  Follow the Science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 16, 2021

I experienced a classic fail today at work.  I spent hours working on a project that needed to be done by Sunday and had finally gotten it to the place where I just needed to make a few final revisions.  I brought up another file I had open and clicked on the closure X in the upper right-hand corner.  Much to my surprise both files closed and even though I had made changes, neither asked me if I wanted to save them.  No problem.  This is the reason we spend money every month for extra storage in the Cloud.  I also knew from experience that my file History would have earlier copies of the file I could bring up and replace if I needed.  When I opened my History it only showed one version of the file, and that was the one I opened when I began work on the document.  To make matters worse, the AutoSave for the document had somehow turned off and the updates I assumed were being copied did not exist.  After trying several other ways to access the deleted document I finally closed my computer and left the office.  I figured I could be frustrated later just as easily as I was now.

I had several errands that needed done so I took a leisurely trip back to the city.  I mailed a package at the shipping store, returned some batteries I no longer needed, and then made my way to the box store to get gas.  Since all these stops were on the same street it made a nice loop as I checked off one item after the next.  Since I was at the box store, I decided to go inside and browse and then pick up a hot dog on the way out.  I meandered around the store not finding anything I “needed”, and finally stopped at the counter for my dog.  Rather than taking the dog to my car I decided to sit at one of the tables.  I remembered they had changed the brand of hotdogs served to another brand that is not as good, and this one had set in the bun for too long waiting to be eaten.  I felt like this was another fail.

As I drove home, I passed one of the lakes I like to fish and decided this might be a good time to try my luck.  The weather had turned warm into the 70’sF and I thought it might have gotten the fish moving back along the shore.  I broke out my fly rod and tied on one of the trout magnets that have been so effective lately.  As I prepared to cast, I noticed a man staring at several birds in the top of a tree.  I identified him as a birder by the binoculars he had around his neck.  When I asked, he said while he had not seen many birds, he was from Florida so just being in a new place was interesting.  His comment was, “It is never a bad day when you are in nature spending time looking for birds.”  When he asked how the fishing was, I told him I had not gotten any bites, but “It is never a bad day when you are in nature spending time fishing.”  Both of us had experienced a fail, but somehow it did not matter.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:  When I was growing up the way you wore your hair identified you as part of a group.  There were crew cuts, neatly trimmed longer lengths, and the long hair popularized by the Beatles.  Seeing someone with the same length of hair created an affinity and brought a willingness to engage in conversation.  Now that I am older, I have other markers that identify me with a group.  The man with the binoculars identified him as a birder and my fishing pole identified me as a fisher person, and this sparked a willingness to engage in conversation.  While I never learned his name, in a short span I learned where he was from and why he was here.  Both being birders created a quick bond and something to talk about.  We can find similar bonds with strangers if we look for them.  Finding those bonds is what creates unity rather than division.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 15, 2021

Several weeks ago, Melissa went to visit a friend of hers in the Ozark Mountains.  The friend lives just outside of a small town in a secluded house on a bluff above the White River.  Melissa’s friend also has a key ingredient for Melissa to continue to work from home, highspeed internet.  Over the last several years the friend has begun to focus on preparing and eating nutritious gourmet recipes that are also simple to make.  Melissa enjoyed the solitude and the meals and brought back several recipes to share with me.  We went to the market on Friday and purchased the ingredients to make both dishes.  The first was crispy carnitas and the second was Greek meatballs.   I was looking forward to the weekend.

The gourmet feast began on Saturday with Carnitas Tostados.  Melissa put a 4-pound (1.8 kilogram) pork roast in the slow cooker for 4 hours.  This was simmered with a medium onion, a glass bottle of coke (real sugar), a cup of orange juice, lime juice, and herbs (garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes, cumin, and bay leaves).  By the time it was done it was so tender it was hard to get it out of the cooker without falling apart.  We fork shredded the meat and broiled it for ten minutes with a ladle of the juice to help it crisp.  This was served on a fried flour tortilla with the usual tostado toppings.  A form of this dish used to be my go-to meal at a local Mexican restaurant until they changed the recipe and stopped broiling the pork.  While this made the dish easier to make for the restaurant, I missed the crispiness of the broiled pork.  It was nice to enjoy the taste again.  Especially since there was leftover pork.

Now I was psyched to try the meatballs on Sunday.  Rather than making our own, Melissa purchased fresh meatballs from the butcher (not frozen!).  These were sprinkled with a variety of Greek spices and then browned in the skillet along with a thin sliced lemon.  While this was happening, I chopped scallions and green Greek olives to use as garnish.  Then I combined feta cheese, Greek yogurt, and olive oil into a soft paste in the processor.  The next step was to remove the meatballs and lemons and cook the orzo in the same skillet, finally returning them to the orzo mixture with a little more lemon juice.  A layer of feta paste was spread on the plate, the rice and meatball mixture layered over it, and then the olives and scallions as garnish.  Another simple gourmet meal.  I suggested to Melissa that she could make a return visit to her friend anytime she wanted.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:  I have mentioned that I rarely use recipes except to spark ideas for dishes I would like to make.  These (almost) always come out tasting good.  I also realize the difference between my simple concoctions and the gourmet offerings we tried over the weekend is the subtly of spices.  While I do get creative and try some spices, things like cumin and cinnamon are rarely on my list.  The expert chefs spend a lifetime learning how to blend the spices to provide the unique flavor that makes the dish gourmet.  Perhaps I should pay more attention to the experts who contrive the recipes.  It is interesting what listening to the experts can reveal.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 13, 2021

One of my ulterior motives for driving to see the leaves this week was because it is near the outlet tube I like to fish.  The level of water coming out of the tube varies with the amount of rain and downstream needs, so I never know what to expect when I arrive.  When we pulled into the reservoir the lake was up but not high.  We took the winding two-mile road leading down to the tube.  When I got out and checked the water was still down and there was only a small flow from the tube despite the rain we have received.  I went back to the car, and Melissa and I were talking when I looked up and noticed a small brown animal crouched near the fence guarding the tube.  I did not know what it was but as I studied the critter, I realized this was a groundhog.

When I looked online, I found the groundhog (Marmota monax), is a rodent of the family Sciuridae belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots.   The groundhog is a lowland creature of North America that is found through much of the eastern US, across Canada and into Alaska.  The name “thickwood badger” was given to the animal in the Northwest to distinguish it from the prairie badger.  Young groundhogs may be called chucklings.  Being a lowland animal, the groundhog is different than other marmots who live in rocky and mountainous areas.  Groundhogs play an important role maintaining healthy soil in woodland and plain areas. The groundhog is considered a crucial habitat engineer when distanced from humans.  Both their diet and their habit of burrowing make groundhogs serious nuisance animals around farms and gardens, as they eat many commonly grown vegetables, and their burrows can undermine building foundations.

The groundhog is considered the most solitary of the marmot species.  Although they live in groups, their social organization varies across populations.  Groundhogs do not form stable, long-term pair-bonds, and during mating season male-female interactions are limited to mating.  Groundhogs in Ohio are different, as adult males and females instead associate with each other throughout the year and often from year to year.  The groundhog is an extremely intelligent animal forming complex social networks, able to understand social behavior, form kinship with their young, understand and communicate threats by whistling, and work cooperatively to solve tasks like burrowing.  The groundhog we saw was a solitary individual away from any grouping.  I watched him for several minutes as he slowly worked his way up the side of the mountain.  He was also watching me to make sure I did not venture too close.  After the groundhog left, I ended up catching six bluegills.  Another good day.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:  In the US and Canada, the yearly February 2 Groundhog Day celebration has given the groundhog recognition and popularity.  The most popular of these groundhogs is Punxsutawney Phil, kept as part of Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.  The 1993 comedy film Groundhog Day references several events related to Groundhog Day and portrays both Punxsutawney Phil and the annual Groundhog Day ceremony.  The repetition or reliving the same day finally came to an end when Bill Murray’s character learned from the experience and changed his life for the better.  During the height of the pandemic, it seemed we were caught in the repetitive cycle of the film.  Each day was like the last as we quarantined at home.  As life reopens, I hope we learned something to help make life better.  Do the work.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 12, 2021

Since yesterday was a bank holiday (Veterans Day) we decided to take a drive up the mountains to see the fall colors among the leaves.  Two different friends of Melissa’s who live in the mountains recently commented on how beautiful they were.  We started our journey at an elevation around 450 feet (138.5 meters) and over the hour-long drive climbed to the top of Blue Mountain at an elevation of 2687 feet (819 meters).  That meant while the leaves had not begun to turn in our area, they did as we climbed.  Some areas at the top of the mountain had even dropped their leaves after the storms we have had this week.  We ate lunch at a table overlooking the beautiful leaves that adorned the trees on the mountain slope below.  We were glad we had made it to the leaves in time.

When I looked online, I found there are three main things that give leaves their color.  These are the chlorophyll (green) which is necessary for photosynthesis, the carotenoids (carotene and xanthophylls) which produce the orange and yellow colors (role not entirely understood), and the anthocyanins which give the shades of red and purple.  During summer the plant continually produces chlorophyll to aid production of glucose, and this sugary sap is what feeds the tree.  As the day length decreases in the fall, the tree gradually starts to decrease the production of chlorophyll, causing the veins to the leaves to close off.  What is left in the leaves is the carotenoids and any produced anthocyanins.  Anthocyanins are produced by glucose trapped in the leaves.  These sugars break down in sunlight and produce the red and purple pigments.  Depending on the species of trees and other environmental factors, we end up with a dazzling display of leaves.

While most trees will not leave much glucose in the leaves before completely closing the veins, some do.  The formation of anthocyanin pigments from glucose left in tree leaves is somewhat of an oddity in nature.   It is not known why these trees waste food in the leaves and wasting produced food is rare in nature.  Some botanists believe it helps the trees keep the leaves longer as the anthocyanins lower the freezing point of the leaves.  Others think it is because when the leaves with the anthocyanins fall to the ground and are composted into the soil it helps prevent certain other plant species from growing where the leaves fell.  This makes sure the tree does not have later competition for nutrients in the soil around the tree.  It also makes for great fall displays of leaves.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:  During High School and entering college I planned on becoming a wildlife biologist and my Senior year in High School and Freshman year in college focused on biology and science courses.  I found that while I was very good at science and biology, that did not include chemistry.  Having struggled through the first two courses and still facing Organic Chem, I changed goals and graduated in sociology and anthropology.  I have come to realize that like the different leaves, each of us are blessed with different gifts and potential.  My niece is good at Chemistry and that was her degree major.  I drifted into the study of people and relationships and that has been my focus.  While I still love science, the intricacies of chemistry are still beyond my grasp.  Like most in the US, I will never truly understand the chemistry behind the vaccines (smallpox, diphtheria, polio).  I have gladly received them all as the risk of disease outweighs the rare likelihood of side effects.  I am not sure why this is different with covid.  Follow the science. Change is coming and it starts with you.

𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 11, 2021

The trending news over the last week has concerned a pill developed by Pfizer that is reported to slash the risk of being hospitalized or dying from covid-19.  To be effective, the pill needs to be taken within three days of developing symptoms, according to results released Friday by the pharmaceutical company.  In a study of more than 1,200 COVID-19 patients with a higher risk of developing serious illness, people who took the Pfizer pill were far less likely to end up in the hospital compared to people who got a placebo pill and none of the people who received the real pill died.  Ten of the people who got a placebo pill died.  Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in prepared remarks that the data suggest that if authorized the pill-based treatment could “eliminate up to nine out of ten hospitalizations.”  Infectious disease specialists stressed the pill was not a replacement for the vaccine

When I looked online, I found Pfizer is the leader when it comes to coronavirus vaccine prevention.  The company recently said it holds 74% of the US vaccine market and 80% of the European market.  With the pill, now Pfizer may be about to claim leadership in coronavirus treatment.  Pfizer reported quarter after quarter of billion-dollar vaccine sales ever since the product launched last December, and recently, lifted its annual revenue forecast for the vaccine to $36 billion, up from $33 billion.  Pfizer shares vaccine profit with partner BioNTech, but that still leaves the company with significant revenue.  According to advance purchase agreements signed so far, Pfizer expects to generate $29 billion in revenue from the vaccine next year.  Those are profits before the pill.

Paxlovid is Pfizer’s investigational coronavirus pill that has been found to cut the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% in the clinical trial.  Paxlovid acts by interfering with viral replication early in infection and that is why it should be prescribed for patients as soon as they are diagnosed with covid.  The pill can then be taken as a treatment at home.  Pfizer is not alone in development of a covid pill.  Merck presented positive data from a study of its investigational coronavirus pill last month and the FDA plans to hold an advisory committee meeting on November 30 to discuss Merck’s submission.  Merck’s investigational pill reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 50%.   While that is not as effective, it is still better than the odds without the pill.  Paxlovid is estimated to generate over $10 billion annually.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:  I found it interesting the information on both Pfizer and Merck where not on a government, news, or health advisory site, but instead were provided as some of the hottest stock picks for the coming year.  At least 223,944,369 people (68% of US) have received at least one dose of vaccine and 194,001,108 people (59% of US) have been fully vaccinated.  Those figures are for the US, and do not include figures worldwide.  All these vaccinations have been delivered as no cost, but that does not mean they were free.  Each shot costs around $40, not including any cost to deliver the shot.  This is paid for through a combination of government and private insurance plans.  Big Pharma is making huge profits during the pandemic and will do so for years to come.  Even now they are fighting with the government over patent rights the government helped them obtain.  Amid a global pandemic, it seems a tough pill to swallow.  Do the work.  Follow the science. Change is coming and it starts with you.

𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 10, 2021

I got news about a big win for endangered birds from the Cornell Lab site this week.  In May 2021 it was discovered that a small barrier island known as Deveaux Bank near Charleston, South Carolina, was a stopover site along the bird’s arduous journey.  Whimbrels congregate on the island for a month or more in spring, pausing in their migration to feed on fiddler crabs in the rich tidal marshes.  Whimbrels are considered by some birders to be the big game of shorebirds.  They are large, powerful, wary, and usually in small and scattered numbers.  Like all the world’s nine remaining species of curlews (a large wading bird of the sandpiper family, with a long down-curved bill and brown streaked plumage), they are in serious decline.  Some 20,000 Whimbrels gather each night on Deveaux Bank during this migratory stopover.  This is the largest such gathering known anywhere on the planet.

When I looked online, I found the Hudsonian whimbrel (Numenius hudsonicus) is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae.  It is one of the most widespread of the curlews, breeding across much of subarctic North America.  This species and the Eurasian whimbrel have recently been split, although some taxonomic authorities still consider them to be conspecific.  The whimbrel is a migratory bird, wintering on coasts in southern North America and South America.  It is also a coastal bird during migration, as the stopover on Deveaux illustrates.  It is sociable outside the breeding season.  In the mangroves of Colombia, whimbrel roost sites are near feeding territories and away from potential sources of mainland predators.  Sadly, they are not far enough away to escape human disturbance.

There are two main populations of Whimbrels in North America.  The western group breeds from the Northwest Territories along the Mackenzie River delta into western Alaska (Numenius hudsonicus rufiventris), while the eastern group nests south and west of Hudson Bay (Numenius hudsonicus hudsonicus).  Some experts consider these two groups to be separate species.  It is thought the bulk of the Whimbrels passing through Deveaux are the Hudsonian birds.  In autumn, the whimbrels head south through the Great Lakes to the coast of South Carolina or Georgia, staging together in much smaller numbers than in spring, and then follow the arc of the Bahamas and Antilles to the northeastern coast of South America.  That means they fly through the region known as Hurricane Alley, and many of the birds are forced to rest and recover on the islands of the Lesser Antilles.  In French-controlled oversea isles such as Guadeloupe and Martinique, the largely uncontrolled shooting of shorebirds remains legal.  Guadeloupe is advertised internationally for its shorebird “destination hunts.”

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:  While the discovery at Deveaux is a marvel, the Whimbrel as a species has declined by more than half since 1994, and this trend shows no signs of reversing.  Like so many threatened species, the whimbrel’s decline is a direct response to human destruction of habitat and predation.  The fact that so many birds gather on this one small island highlights a previously underappreciated aspect of Whimbrel biology that could reveal a key to a conservation strategy to save them.  We need to provide the birds a safe place to spend the night.  Follow the science. Change is coming and it starts with you.

November 09, 2021

When I was driving to work this morning I passed the human-made water fall along the road near my house with the wandering deer statures I have mentioned.  With the recent rain the water was flowing and even standing in the ditch below the fall.  What initially caught my eye was an odd looking black and white duck standing beside the road.  I had first seen this species last April with what appeared to be a breeding pair.  Now there was a flock of seven of the birds in the same area where I had seen the pair.  I wondered if these may have been the original pair and their surviving offspring.  I still find it an odd-looking duck.

The Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) is a large duck native to the Americas.  Small wild and feral breeding populations have established themselves in the US as well as in many other parts of North America.  Feral Muscovy ducks are found in New Zealand, Australia, and in parts of Europe.  The Muscovy is a large duck, with the males about 76 cm (30 in) long and weighing up to 7 kg (15 lbs).  The females are smaller, and only grow to 3 kg (6.6 lbs), or half of the size of the male.  The bird is mostly black and white, and the amount of white on the neck and head is variable.  The bill can vary from yellow, pink, black, or any mixture of these colors.  The ducks may have white patches or bars on the wings, which become more noticeable during flight.  Both sexes have pink or red wattles around the bill, although those of the male a larger and more brightly colored.  The Muscovy is the only domestic duck not descended from the wild Mallard ((Anas platyrhynchos).

Although the Muscovy duck is a tropical bird, it adapts well to cooler climates, thriving in weather as cold as −12C (10F) and able to survive even colder conditions.  The domestic subspecies (Cairina moschata domestica) is commonly known in Spanish as the pato criollo.  They have been bred since pre-Columbian times by Native Americans and are heavier and less able to fly long distances than the wild subspecies.  Their plumage color is also more variable.  The strange, warty-faced Muscovy causes confusion for some bird watchers (including me), as it’s very distinctive and quite commonly seen, yet does not appear in many field guides.  Truly wild individuals are restricted to south Texas and below, but domesticated versions occur in parks and farms across much of North America.

Thoughts:  A group of ducks has many collective nouns, including “a flock”, “a brace of ducks”, “flush of ducks”, “paddling of ducks”, “raft of ducks”, and a “team of ducks.”  Most waterfowl are unsociable during the breeding period but are drawn together for the remainder of the year.  As waterfowl migrate south toward their wintering grounds, the birds become more social, foraging, and roosting in great numbers on traditional staging and wintering habitats.  As a group, waterfowl are more likely to detect predators and other threats than a single bird.  Large numbers of birds may also confuse predators by presenting them a variety of targets, increasing the odds of survival for an individual duck.  Group migration also has the advantage as they fly in a characteristic V formation helping each duck conserve energy.  This allows a young duck to benefit from the experience of more seasoned adults who are familiar with migration routes as well as good places to feed and rest along the flyways.  While humans evolved grouping together for protection and food acquisition, this no longer a necessity.  Adaptation now allows me to go to the market on my own.  Still, we are innately a social animal and need contact.  Do the work.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

November 08, 2021

I ran across a story in my NY Times news feed concerning the immediate impact of climate change in Canada.  Churchill, Manitoba, prides itself as the Polar Bear Capital of the World.  The problem is the polar bears are in decline.  One impact of global warming is the bears are spending more time around Churchill as the sea ice forms later in the year and melts earlier.  Polar bears lose about 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of their weight each day they spend on land.  As the ice season shrinks, the bears face fewer days of hunting and more days fasting.  Between 1980 and 2019, the weight of the average pregnant polar bear in the Churchill region declined by 15 percent and new births are in decline, according to Nick Lunn, a Canadian government scientist.  The number of polar bears in western Hudson Bay fell by 30 percent from 1987 to 2016.  Some experts believe the bears are already in terminal decline.

When I looked online, I found the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is a hypercarnivorous (diet more than 70% meat) bear whose native range lies largely above the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean and its surrounding land masses.  It is the largest extant bear species and largest extant land carnivore.  A boar (adult male) weighs around 350–700 kg (770–1,540 lbs.), while a sow (adult female) is about half that size.  The polar bear is a sister species of the brown bear but has evolved to occupy a narrower niche.  This evolution includes body characteristics adapted for cold temperatures, for moving across snow, ice, and open water, and for hunting seals, which make up most of its diet.  Although polar bears are born on land, they spend most of their time on the sea ice, and their scientific name means “maritime bear”.  Polar bears hunt their preferred seals from the edge of sea ice and live off fat reserves when no ice is present.  Because they depend on sea ice, polar bears are classified as marine mammals. 

The expected loss of habitat caused by climate change results in the polar bear being classified as a vulnerable species.  The polar bear has been a key figure in the material, spiritual, and cultural life of circumpolar peoples for thousands of years and remain culturally important.  Historically, the polar bear has also been known as the “white bear” and is sometimes referred to as the “nanook”, based on the Inuit term nanuq.  Nanook became the fictional name of the Inuit hunter in the 1922 silent film, Nanook of the North.  This film which combines elements of documentary and docudrama, in the tradition later called salvage ethnography.  The film follows the struggles of the Inuk man and his family in the Arctic, and is written, directed, filmed, and produced by Robert J. Flaherty.  Some criticized Flaherty for staging sequences, but the film is generally viewed as standing “alone in its stark regard for the courage and ingenuity of its heroes.”  It was the first feature-length documentary to achieve commercial success, proving the financial viability of the genre and inspiring many films to come.

Thoughts:  In Churchill, climate change is not a looming danger, it is daily life.  It is also the fear that Americans will not come visit to see the bears.  While climate change is destroying the old way of life, many in town are focused on the opportunities global warming and the opening of the sea ice could bring to this small town.  The polar bear is in trouble, yet the people dream of the possibility of building a maritime city.  As the ice melts the future could be as an outlet for the grain grown on Canada’s western plains and the minerals that will be mined from its thawing northern expanses, representing an economic boom for Churchill.  Not so much for the polar bears.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.