9 August 07
Secession
There is now a bee swarm in the almond tree, and the hive in the nectarine tree is looking a bit depopulated. We wonder what honey bee affairs of state lead to half the hive heading off to a new tree fifty feet from the old hive. Perhaps a second queen leaving the premises? At any rate this afternoon there were definitely some confused bees flying about — which tree do I fly to now?
24 July 07
Landing Gear
I’ve been home for two days, having finished the new Harry Potter book on the way home. (I only know one other person who’s finished it and am biting my tongue.) The okra’s continuing to be devastated by pocket gophers; I’ve harvested most of it to make a bindi masala tomorrow in the solar cooker. We won’t get much more, I don’t think.
I’m acutely aware of how far away the rest of my family is. Mostly I don’t pay attention. But these kids are growing fast, and seeing them once a year, briefly, doesn’t really work. I had a lump in my throat embracing my sister, my mother, my niece…
Flying over beautiful blue Lake Tahoe (at least until the first rains of the fall turn the fireswept mountainsides into mudsloshes), and into the parched Central Valley, I was reminded how much I like to see green, yet how quickly it becomes oppressive, too much. Perhaps it’s what you’re used to. My palette is still ochre/sienna/ultramarine…
18 July 07
Grousing
Philadelphia vireo? Yes. No spruce grouse, though, despite many hours of looking and six moose and about eight snowshoe hares. Many species of warbler I haven’t heard for over ten years and whose songs came back to me in a blinding flash. My buddy Linda joined my mother and I in the spruce caper.
I’m now in Brunswick again having collected my brother in Boston this morning. We’re heading back to Norway, Maine, tomorrow; the Harry Potter festival is in Portland on Friday.
It’s raining. It’s heaven. Numenius tells me there was the unheard-of rainshower this morning in Davis; I’m sorry to have missed it!
6 July 07
Why Chilis Are Hot
Coturnix sums up the evolutionary reasons for this here. Short version — this is a mechanism by chili peppers to deter mammal herbivory in favor of bird herbivory, since seeds that pass through avian digestive tracts are fertile, but seeds that pass through mammalian digestive tracts are not. It turns out birds lack nerve receptors for capsaicin, the chemical that makes peppers hot.
5 July 07
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.
1 July 07
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.
29 June 07
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.
23 June 07
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.
19 June 07
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?
16 June 07
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.