The First Day of Spring ... Semester 2012

Today was the first meeting of BIO 255: General Ecology and my students impressed me with their background knowledge of natural history on and near campus. They walked in early morning grayness through a falling sleet that one woman aptly described as "slushies from the sky."

I challenged them to consider a camelia blossom I collected just outside the classroom moments before class. They brainstormed a variety of explantions focused on anthropogenic microclimates associated with the building (i.e. warm thermals and artificial light) as well as referencing the fact that late December was unseasonalbly warm (which might have triggered blooming). They also came up with the idea that the plant may have evolved to bloom early to reduce competition for pollinators and with a with a bit directed questioning came to consider the likelihood the plant evolved somewhere other than the Willamette Valley.

It was pleasing to later read the NYT at lunch and see that my prompt was in perfect alignment with a question to the Science Times "Flowers in Winter"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/science/what-pollinates-flowers-that-bloom-in-winter.html?_r=1&ref=science . Our campus has a pretty interesting variety of ornamental plants with Asian origins in bloom or ready to bloom that I hope to profile in coming days.

Great story of bird men of the past

http://www.booktryst.com/2010/12/strange-case-of-britains-audubon-and.html

indomitable spirit with a black-cap

We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit. Tom Brown, Jr.

The Crow, Bird Citizen of Every Land

Early images of Hall's Violet

Type Description for our Violet

Forest for the Trees

The fine art photography of Myoung Ho Lee seems like particularly apt for a post today as

my students and I are critically writing and discussing about the purpose of a liberal arts education using two phrases "Don't miss the forest for the trees" and "a picture is worth a thousand words" as prompts. The following interview with Lee gives context to deeper meaning in these photos.

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/forest_for_the_trees/03fftt.php

Always in Its Element, No Matter the Weather

This story reminds me of the potential of doing some sort of great landscape art at Zena Farm and Forest. I think the intentional planning of the groundwork to "degrade" through time might be of particular value in teaching ecological time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/arts/design/07storm.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=storm%20king&st=cse

Hardworking Landscapes Tame the Storm

This story made me think about all that could be done with the Mill Race on Willamette University campus. It would be great to find ways to add some plantings stream side in order to slow water down in storms.

Hardworking Landscapes Tame the Storm

Urban tree survey in UK a great idea for WU

I would love to start implementing these procedures in Salem OR in the area around Willamette University.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/british-natural-history/urban-tree-survey/index.html

A Bird in the Hand and the Bush

This is the first fledgling crow I have seen in Salem this year and unfortunately it was not doing very well. I ran to the lab to get a George Bush mask so that when I picked it up and the parents spotted 'me' they would not associate my face with the handling of their chick. You can tell it is a hatch year crow because the eyes are cloudy blue and the mouth is pink. When the mouth is closed you can still see a pink gape flap at the base of the bill. The naked patch on the lower abdomen and relatively large legs and feet are also typical. The resting on the wrist joint is also typical at this stage and the youngster in fact can not yet walk. Although this youngster could flap a bit it can not yet fly. This is very common among crows that they fledge before they can really fly and it is important that you leave them alone so the the parents can continue to feed them as they get stronger and develop the leg and wing muscles to truly escape. It can be a week on the ground for these early fledglings and the most successful ones stay hidden under bushes and in thick cover with the occasional contact call to their parents. In the few minutes I photographed this crow and moved it to safety a flock of 9 crows starting mobbing 'George.' This is the first time I have worn a mask during something that the Willamette University crows would treat as an enemy. George Bush had been a neutral mask in our experiments with benevolence over the last year, but now his reputation is made!

If you want to learn more check out

http://willamette.edu/people/archives/2010/02/crows.html

Pregrine Falcon crossing campus in crepuscular light

It is the Monday before Thanksgiving and the campus is unpacking itself of students and faculty who are heading home early. Feeling a bit left out of the transition to fun and relaxation, I had my spirit lifted to catch the dark and distinct silhouette of a Peregrine Falcon in a long slow glide from over the Capitol Dome across the Star Trees and banking slightly SSW toward the University Apartments. The cross-like form cutting through the crepuscular light of a 430 PM in November was a moment of thanksgiving for me.

Ground Work for Long Term Bird Survey at Zena

22 November 2009

1030 AM - 1:30 PM

Zena Farms of Willamette University

I spent the late morning and mid-day working with Mary Lugg, Jeffry Kitts, and Ben Gutzler to start laying the ground work for a long-term set of points from which to survey birds at the Zena Farm. Mary was coordinating our efforts today as part of her Behavioral Ecology term project which is also contributing to her senior thesis.

The weather was broken clouds with a few showers that made for lots of mud during our hiking, but otherwise wonderful field time. We spent our survey efforts in the 'House' and 'Savanna Restoration' blocks and were in the constant company of birds including:

American Kestrel - 1

Red-tailed Hawk - 1

Cackling Goose - 22 (high fly over)

Northern Flicker - 1

California Quail - 5

American Crow - 8 (high fly over)

Western Scrub Jay - 9

Black-capped Chickadee - 2

Red-breasted Nuthatch - 1

Bewick's Wren - 3

American Robin - 90

Varied Thrush - 1

European Starling - 180 (high fly over)

Yellow-rumped Warbler - 5

Song Sparrow - 18

Lincoln's Sparrow - 1 (best bird of the day)

Golden-Crowned Sparrow - 13

White-crowned Sparrow - 3

Dark-eyed Junco - 3

Spotted Towhee - 7

House Finch - 2

Pacific Tree Frog (3) and chipmunk sp (1) were also heard during our ground work.

Most of the time was focused on trouble-shooting the use of the hand held GPS units and learning the lay of the land between the points we were trying to lay out. Today's points were 'draft' points until Mary can place them in GIS to allow us to better judge their relative merits. In general I think our points were too close together and we might need to create some sort of a 'buffer' rule so that the survey spot is surrounded with at least 80% of the target habitat type. I was a bit concerned that many of the points were on ecotones instead in core zones, but the landscape and management plans are still new to me.

We marked putative points with pink flagging tape on land marks that had some chance of remaining stable for the next 6 months, but the eventual goal would be to also add some longer-term stakes and durable tags.

The single best bunch of birds was a huge mixed species flock of sparrows and thrushes along the low road between Willamette's property and Anne Cupich's hich included the diminutive mountain breeding sparrow named after Lincoln. It has been a couple of years since I have seen this bird and it made my day. It was the least common bird of the day being an 'occasional' species for this part of the Willamette Valley.

what is nature...

For several class discussions we talked about the difference between nature and natural. To answer this question we decided to spend a full 24 hours outside, with no food and only a water bottle full of water. The night started off all right, we climbed trees, laid out in Jackson Plaza, and played a few games, finally we decided to go to sleep under the star trees. Later in the night we were disturbed by a stranger who had decided to circle us, we quickly left and wound up spending the night in the basement of Belknap, breaking our 24 hour goal. When we went back outside Sunday morning I really started to notice the difference between nature and natural. We spent the day lounging in our sleeping bags by the Mill Stream watching passersby stare and give us strange looks. I came to find that while the area we were in was natural, there was grass, trees, flowers, plants, it was by no means nature. Nature, to me, is an environment completely free of modern day conveniences. Nature is a place where you can go and not hear the constant roar of traffic, but instead hear the faint trickle of a stream, birds singing, branches creaking in the wind, or the soft rustle of grass. I think that for a habitat to actually be nature there can be no human manipulation, plants and trees grow on their own accord in one giant ecosystem of symbiosis. The Willamette campus has none of these qualities, you will always be able to hear the train no matter where you are on campus, there will always be the temptation of a warm dry building instead of the outdoors, and plants do not grow of their own accord, but instead have been manipulated to grow in gardens that we may or may not find aesthetically pleasing.

Planet Willamette Nomads

Rose: What is (N)nature? This is a question I have been asking myself ever since our discussion in class a few weeks ago. At first, in attempt to answer this limitless inquiry, me and a few friends were planning on spending a night exclusively in the outdoors, not going to get food, or even going inside to pee. We were attempting to live off the land for a day, in a completely urban environment. After this experiment, I realized that all together it was more of a journey and process of developing my answer than an answer to the question itself. After freezing in my sleeping bag, starving of hunger and nearly getting beaten by a bum, I came to the conclusion that it goes against nature to intentionally slide so far against basic needs. We were attempting to live a completely natural way of life in a completely unnatural setting and this is not nature. Nature is all life forms working together, manipulating and changing to fit one’s own basic needs. Humans have taken this manipulation of the environment into the age of industry and technology and however unnatural, this is still part of natures creation and development.

Eloise: I believe that our campus and the surrounding area can be considered nature, because everything there came from nature at some point. However, while it is nature, I do not think that this way of living is completely natural. A natural way of living would be living completely off the land, and being able to provide for ourselves. As we discovered, it is very difficult to live off the land in the setting of our campus and the city. If we had stayed outside longer than twenty-four hours, we probably would not have been able to find enough of the right food to stay alive. It would also have been near impossible for us to find shelter and warmth without our sleeping bags and clothing. In a more natural setting, we would have an easier time living off the land, however, I still consider our campus to be nature.

Tyler: During my natural (?) immersion experience, I had a lot of time tocontemplate the questions, “what is nature, and what is natural?” It wasinteresting to attempt to carry out an immersion experience in such anunnatural setting. Despite being outdoors, we always knew that we hadcomforts such as food and shelter in case of an emergency, such as thesecurity of a building in the case of a creepy stalker staring at us whilewe sleep, or a meal in Goudy awaiting us after our time was up. Thus,although I believe we stayed in Nature, we were not by any means natural. I accepted the idea that all things derived from Nature are a part of it;however, I drew a distinction between Nature and what is natural. To me,something that is natural is something that would endure without humanmaintenance. We were surrounded by preserved gardens, bright lampposts,and large buildings, all remnants of human influence. To be in a trulynatural setting, we would have to be surrounded by the true, naturalassets of Nature. I also was able to observe how unnatural we humans are. While we were outside curled up in our sleeping bags, various peoplepassed us by. They were always trekking from unnatural building tounnatural building, only braving the outdoors to go be served a mealprepared by intensive human manipulation, or study or go about their dailylives in unnatural, heated, secure buildings. It is evident that humansno longer act naturally. However, the danger of this unnaturalness isthat we will neglect our natural settings, allowing them to be destroyedby our manipulation and apathy.

Emma: I believe that nature is a place free from significant influence by man,like a forest miles and miles away from civilization. While what we havearound campus, like the trees and grassy areas, is natural, it is notnature. Nature has true ecosystems and is not tended or cared for byhumans. So, during our staying outside experiment, the outside settingalmost worked against us. Because we were in man-made nature there wasnothing to forage and no where to burrow, where as in true nature boththose things would be somewhat easier.

17 November 2008: Spiderweb

Rose Dickson

17 November 2008

2100 – 2120 hours

On the main stage of Kresge Theatre on Willamette University campus, Salem, OR, USA

42 degrees, clear

            All this week I have been staying up late having dance rehearsal in preparation for the dance recital coming up this weekend. We are working in the Kresge Theatre and the booming lights create indescribable heat that is almost unbearable. As I was waiting for my piece to begin I looked up onto the ceiling and noticed right next to one of the radiant lights was a spider on a spiders web. If I can barely stand the heat from this distance, how can a being so much smaller and more fragile than I handle that kind of heat? Is the spider even alive? How long has it been living up there, watching all the shows go in and out of production stage? The web looks new and perfectly in tact, not at all like an ancient cobweb so I assume the spider is alive and well. I wonder how it gets its food? Are there really that many bugs available in this kind of space? Will the spider die soon due to lack of food? I wonder if by performance time he will still be there, as an extra audience member! 

15 November 2008
all day
around the Willamette university campus
It has been sunny for the past two days. It is unexpected and weird. I no longer know hat to do with myself. This is Oregon, I have already dealt with the fact that the sun does no live here. I cannot reprocess something like this!! But I do love it, I can wear dresses for a few days and it is not trompy mud for a few days. Unfortunately humans cannot photosynthesize, that would be really nice and probably solve world hunger.

Tyler Starr: 11/16, UPS Arboretum

Tyler Starr

16 November 2008 from 1340-1355

Location: The Arboretum of the University of Puget Sound

Weather: 53 ̊ F, slightly hazy, partly cloudy skies, no wind

General: The Arboretum is very similar to the Quad, but with a greater diversity of trees, including coniferous and deciduous trees. All of the deciduous trees have changed colors, and many have lost most or all of their leaves. Leaves scatter the ground, and in many places have been raked up into large piles. It seems that the process of fall is farther along here than at Willamette. I wonder if the north-south difference between the two would actually cause a distinct difference in phenology between the two regions. There was a group of perhaps 5 crows cawing in a tree a little ways off. At one point, one took off, and all of the other crows in the tree followed. I wonder if they were frightened off for some reason, or if they all just choose to stick together. I can hear the twitters of what seem to be small birds, but other than that, wildlife is pretty scarce at this time. There is moss growing on many of the trees, and several of them have a white residue on them, but I do not know what it is or what it is from.

(Sorry it's posted after sunset. I had it typed up before sunset but I didn't have Internet all day because I was traveling)

9 November 2008
1600-1615
On the grass between the mill stream and the University Center.
Luckily these are our classes’ last nature observations. The mill stream looks the same as it always dose. Where there is water in it at least. To be honest it was not really that interesting after the first made second post. So there are rocks and the ducks that have not gone south yet. It is interesting, that these ducks are not in Mexico or something like that yet. Perhaps the just don’t want to or are helping along natural selection, I really don’t know. Anyway as usual there are a few people also on the bank of the mil stream with me. And all the trees around the mill stream are now completely leafless. It is quite sad and skeletal looking but there will be leaves in the spring so no real issues here.

November 11, 2008
1100-1200
All around the Willamette university campus.
The nicest part of my outdoor experience this week was yesterday night I tromped around in my rain boots for more time than most other people my age. It was absolutely fabulous. The ground was incredibly wet and sloppy from the two days or rain we just got. There was also and abundance of large puddles especially in the sparks parking lot. It was really nice to be around in that time of night just appreciating the aftermath of rain. Usually I do not wear rain boots, therefore the mud and puddle are usually just an obnoxious burden. But last evening it became a time of glorious mud trudging.