26 February 04
On Alert
In 1953 a cargo ship named the SS Jacob Luckenbach sank off the entrance to the San Francisco Bay. Mystery oil spills in the 1990s were eventually traced to the Luckenbach and a costly removal of some 100,000 gallons of fuel oil was undertaken in 2002. There’s plenty left, though, and every time there’s a big storm—like the one we had yesterday—some of this fuel oil escapes and wreaks havoc on wildlife in the general area.
My new colleagues at the Wildlife Health Center are standing by for notification of the first oiled wildlife, most likely to be Common Murres. They will then coordinate a vast network of volunteers who will most likely give up their weekend and converge on San Mateo to start cleaning and rehabilitating these hypothermic birds.
There were 40-foot swells out there yesterday. The likelihood of the Luckenbach sitting peacefully at the bottom ignoring the currents seems small. Let’s hope we’re wrong.
25 February 04
The Execution Of A Baseball
An unfortunate baseball is being destroyed tomorrow in an attempt to relieve the Chicago Cubs of a curse. This would be the foul ball that a Cubs fan reached out for in Game 6 of last fall’s League Championship Series that would have been caught by the Cubs’ outfielder. The Florida Marlins then went on to win the game, and then go to the World Series. The ball was bought at auction by the owners of Harry Carey’s restaurant (named after a famous Cubs announcer) who immediately announced plans for its demise. The event will be televised nationally, and don’t expect any clemency.
But will they go on to win the World Series they’ve been waiting for since 1908?
24 February 04
Anchoring in Gaia
A pair of great egrets flies overhead. About eight horses negotiate the puddles and mud, seemingly quite happy in the mire (as long as they’re fed). A black phoebe sings and flycatches from a perch. A red-tailed hawk moves right to left pursued by a crow; the California ground squirrels are emerging from a long hibernation.
This is the view from my new window at work: a meadow, then a paddock. A friend came by yesterday with some congratulatory marigolds and thought it was great that the office was on the ground floor. There were good vibes, she said; it seems good to be anchored in Gaia.
And so it is.
23 February 04
A Break In The Clouds
We had a clear evening for the first time in five days, which meant it was time for some more astronomy. Having recently acquired some astronomical observation planning software, I am back in the game of trying to see all the Messier objects.
A brief bit of explanation. Charles Messier was an 18th-century French astronomer and comet-hunter who made a catalogue of some 110 deep-sky objects that one might mistake for a comet. These objects are some of the most spectacular telescopic sights in Northern Hemisphere skies. Indeed, amateur astronomers have their own equivalent to a birder’s big day. In mid-to-late March it is possible to see all the Messier objects in a single night, an activity called a Messier marathon.
I am hardly fanatical enough to try to do a Messier marathon (or a big day birding event, for that matter), but February is a good month to start trying to see these over the period of several months. Last week I managed to sight M74, a galaxy which is very difficult to see in light-polluted skies. This evening I went the easy route and looked at the Orion Nebula (M42 and M43) and the Pleiades (M45). But high clouds in the west stopped me from trying to find the difficult galaxy M77 in the constellation Cetus.
I looked over towards the east at rising Jupiter. All four of the Galilean moons were in a line on one side of the planet—spectacular!
22 February 04
Invasives Get a Boost
The Glory Hole at Lake Berryessa is spilling over again, especially with all this new rain we got today. I went with a friend to Calistoga for some hedonism (mud baths) before starting my new job tomorrow morning; our route took us over the ridge into Napa Valley and we stopped to take a photo of the overflow mechanism for this reservoir.
The tiny New Zealand Mud Snail has been spreading in this part of the watershed. It is believed to have been introduced on the boots of fishermen. The worry is that, since the Glory Hole has been overflowing for well over a week now and flushing the snails from the muddy bottom, they’re well on their way to the Delta.
They have no predators here, and are very likely to end up causing environmental havoc. What to do? There’s apparently a species of fluke that feeds on them. But nobody knows what introducing this fluke might do to the rest of the ecosystem. Look at what happened on Hawaii when they introduced mongeese to extirpate the introduced snakes: mass extinction of native birds. Copper might control them, but what would it kill in the process?
We may have to live with this one, folks.
21 February 04
Truck Driver’s Gear Changes
A truck driver’s gear change is a musicological term for modulation of a song up a key, generally just before the song’s end in a “repeat-until-fade” section. This effect has been termed an “odious time killer in much commercial music.”
This site is a catalogue of some of the most egregious examples of the genre, complete with clips from the songs. The site’s definitive example—“fearsomely sickening in its intensity, and yet somehow inspiring in its audacity”—comes from Michael Jackson’s 1987 song Man In The Mirror. The site warns that the clip may make you physically sick.
20 February 04
Feasting On Blossoms
This white-crowned sparrow has been chowing down on almond blossoms along with his buddies. (Numenius took this photo yesterday morning.) Most of the sparrows, which spend the winter here in the Central Valley, have now moulted into adult plumage. They will be heading north over the next six weeks or so. The storm system that put so much water in our vicinity was warm and this, along with the increasing light, will be triggering the various synapses that cause birds to get up and go.
I think they like almond blossoms the best, not just because they’re the first ones. The blossoms smell just like honey.
My last day of work in Graduate Studies was today. I’ll be starting my new job at the Wildlife Health Center on Monday…
19 February 04
Creek In Flood
Putah Creek has turned into a lake. It’s as high as I recall seeing it, and would be in our living room if it weren’t for the levee. And there’s more rain on its way.
18 February 04
Runnymedians in California
A former schoolmate-from my school in Madrid (and Jenny’s over at Mulubinba Moments)-lives not far from here. Although he was in the class above me, our mothers both worked in the school library.
Ian and his wife Katrin met us in Bodega Bay this weekend; we had brunch at the Seaweed Cafe and then went to look for whales on Bodega Head. It was fun to reminisce and to talk politics. Some people seem to have the hobby of reading, researching, and memorizing facts and figures. Ian is one of these, and he regularly spends time with elected officials making sure they know what he thinks. (I have no time to do this and am thankful some do!)
He doesn’t look the same; he used to be blond (I used to be brunette). My mother, he thought, looked EXACTLY the same. (I now look more and more like her.)
We all bemoaned the loss of wild space and a simpler, saner lifestyle.
17 February 04
The Drafting Pencil Museum
Fountain pens are not the only writing instruments to have their ardent devotees. Leadholder.com is an online museum on the history of drafting pencils, and includes many images and catalogue entries.
The thin lead mechanical pencil is only reluctantly included in this site. As the author says:
I’ve been ranting since long before this site began about the evils of thin lead pencils and the corruptive power they have over impressionable youth. Although these impure drawing implements are now represented in the collection, thin lead mechanical pencils and their use are in no way endorsed by leadholder.com.