Breeze

We knew it was going to be hot for today’s holiday, and we wanted to go for a hike, so we headed to the East Bay this morning in search of cooler temperatures. We went to Wildcat Canyon Regional Park and hiked up along the crest of San Pablo Ridge. It was sunny but not hot and especially on top of the ridge there was a nice breeze coming up from San Pablo Bay. It was lovely to stretch our arms out and cool down after the climb. Good birds too — we saw a horned lark and numerous lazuli buntings and grasshopper sparrows.

It got to be 102 degrees F today in Davis. No wind either.

Bats And Bats

One of the enjoyable things about baseball is that a team that is generally not very good can still have great days. This makes the games worth following, even if we know that the team statistically is not bound for overall success. Today the Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 13-0, the Giants’ rookie pitcher Tim Lincecum striking out 12 and walking nobody.

The Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate the Tucson Sidewinders didn’t fare so well either tonight. They played the Sacramento River Cats and we went to the game this evening. We saw a superb performance by River Cats pitcher Kazuhito Tadano who went eight innings, striking out five and allowing only four hits, the River Cats winning the game 5-0. It was very nice to see Tadano do so well tonight since on our last trip to the River Cats, on June 21, we saw Tadano give up eight runs in 3-plus innings as the River Cats lost 7-13.

It was a short game, lasting only 2 hours 8 minutes, and the sun was setting when we drove back to Davis. Heading over the causeway over the Yolo Bypass, we saw a flight of bats — the mammalian kind. There is a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats that lives under the causeway, and we were lucky enough to see them as they headed out for their evening foraging.

Our Oldest Friends

A DNA study just published in the journal Science suggests that domestic cats split from their wild progenitors in the Near East perhaps 100,000 years ago. This well predates the archeological evidence for cat domestication, which goes back 9500 years.

A Ride, a Wedding, and a Win

There is a ribbon around the front handlebars and stem of our tandem. It was left over from our wedding. Our plan was to ride the tandem home from our wedding, suitably bedecked. Alas, owing to the calamité at the wedding, this excursion never happened. But we finally got to ride the tandem to and from a wedding today. This was for our friends Andrea and Steve, who got married out on Putah Creek Road at the Center for Land-Based Learning farm. This is an educational farm and walnut orchard dedicated to teaching about wildlife-friendly and sustainable agriculture. All had a good time at the wedding, and the food was excellent, catered by the happily-named Magpie Caterers of Sacramento, whose t-shirts Pica was coveting.

Another auspicious event occurred today — the Giants broke up an eight-game losing streak with a win at home today in extra innings against the Yankees. We were following the game by radio on the ride out to the farm, and the Giants were down 4-1. Not so good. After the ceremony, having found a spot at one of the reception picnic tables, we started following the game again, joined by our baseball co-conspirator Barbara. The game was tied 5-5 going into the bottom of the 9th. The Giants were in fact leading 5-4 at the top of the ninth, but the Giants gave up a mammoth home run to Alex Rodriguez. It was not until the bottom of the 13th that the Giants won on a squib hit by rookie Nate Schierholtz. Barbara let out a whoop, and a fine day was made complete.

Pipevine Swallowtail

Late this afternoon we saw a pipevine swallowtail butterfly ( Battus philenor ) getting nectar from a evening primrose patch just outside our kitchen window. This species is an extreme specialist, breeding on just one species of plant here, the California pipevine ( Aristolochia californica ). I know of no pipevines in the immediate vicinity, so perhaps the butterfly flew over from Putah Creek?

Bees And Bugs

Yesterday we discovered that a swarm of bees has settled on the nectarine tree in the front yard and has built a hive. When our landlord’s son the beekeeper learns of this it will be collected for sure but for now it is quite the edifice.

This morning Pica found these handsome bugs on the kale. She thought they might be eating the aphids but I was able to find a picture of one in the new Kaufman insect guide and no, they feed on cabbages and their relatives. The bug is a harlequin bug, Murgantia histrionica.

Balloons Of Spring

I have yet to figure exactly where these balloons are based, but they seem to launch from near Woodland which is about 12 miles from here on clear, calm early mornings in spring and early summer. I think there are four balloons in their fleet. Usually they drift south. Yesterday they landed nearby, one of them landing in the field directly to the south.

Santa Fe

Well, I’m back. The Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop was all I hoped for and more — a gathering of interesting, interested people. I hang around such types often but it’s been a long time since I found myself with fifty people who were so very curious about everything — from the instructors to the full gamut of freelancers, public information types, journalists, and students (including one undergraduate).

Our time started out at the Santa Fe Institute, a hotbed of interdisciplinary brilliance. We heard (not necessarily understood, you understand) talks by Bette Korber on a vaccine for HIV and Eric Smith on the origin of life and then attempted later on in the day to come up with an article lede for one of them. Our small groups numbered about ten; my group was facilitated by the inimitable Charlie Petit, formerly of the San Francisco Chronicle, now of Knight Science Journalism Tracker.

Santa Fe is a beautiful small city, but I was eager to get into the surrounding countryside. We took a trip to Bandelier National Monument, an archeological site where we ran into the bear I mentioned a couple of days ago.

It was lush and green after a wet spring in New Mexico. Birds were singing. I kept confusing warbling vireos with one of the red finches — Cassin’s at this altitude? (managed to leave my binoculars at home in the rush to get to the airport) — but had no trouble with the abundant and gorgeous violet-green swallows.

Our intrepid reporters climbed in and out of holes by means of ladders while others of us took photos or sketched them doing this.

The final night was spent at the home of one of the instructors, where we got the chance to watch the sun and Venus go down and the moon and Jupiter rise. This is a good state for skygazing.

Finally I spent a night with my cousin in the Jemez mountains, about eight miles above the town of Jemez Springs. She lives very near the Valles Caldera Numenius visited last year. We were able to catch up and go for a couple of hikes. The storm brewing pictured here spawned a couple of tornadoes and I was glad to get out of Albuquerque in a different direction than the storms were heading…

Fire Season

It has come early here, it would seem. In addition to the fire downstream from Lake Berryessa on Saturday that changed the route of the Double Century, today there was at least three grass fires around the Davis area. One was to the west of Pica’s office, somewhere near I-80, which drew a fairly massive response but was quickly contained. Another was to the north of town — I saw the smoke plume being blown south. We are now in a period where we will have several days of strong warm breezes from the north.

Wiki Across The Causeway

A couple of Davis transplants over the causeway to Sacramento were inspired by Davis’s best online institution, the Davis Wiki, and have started the Sacramento Wiki. It’s still young in its life — let’s hope it grows to be as successful as the Davis version.