Purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) are in full bloom now. On Monday, when I kicked off our ecoblogging study at Mt. Pleasant Farm, I saw a patch covered in bumblebees and butterflies, like this Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucas).
July 25, 2007
Summertime and the living is easy
July 24, 2007
Open access and Data sharing
A couple of interviews this week indicate that Web 2.0 technologies are still hot for discussions on
open access literature and scientific data sharing. John Wilbanks of Science Commons and Timo Hannay of Nature Publishing Group vie for the title of who is doing more, or at least who is getting credit for leadership.
July 10, 2007
No territoriality = no double caws?
The American crows in my neighborhood have been successful so far in raising a fine crop of youngsters. There are at least seven crows now wandering around, at least a few of whom are fledglings.
Here in Santa Barbara the crows are a little different. They are still American crows, but another subspecies with some obvious behavioral differences. At 6:30 a.m. this morning I was captivated by a large group foraging peacably on a baseball diamond across from my hotel. At first it was ten birds — that would be a very large family group by eastern standards. As I watched, two of them flew off towards a distant cawing bird. In the east, at this time of day, this would have been the beginning of a territorial spat, with chasing and highly stereotyped and rhythmic vocalizations like double cawing. Crows in California are much more laid back, however (Carolee Caffrey’s work documents this). About half an hour later when I came back there were 16 crows all apparently happily scanning the field.
Another week in California without hearing double caws.
(backdated because I wrote it but didn’t post it that day)
Chicory and lace
On our road trip last week, I noticed all up and down the northeast corridor the chicory and Queen Anne’s Lace flowers are in bloom. I always associate these with fond memories of summer, so seeing them makes me smile.
Note, an observation like this requires a location polygon and a time window, whereas the Spotter form only allows points.