All My Blogs

An idea I once had for a series of t-shirts involving spider facts. My wife tends to have a much more balanced view of life and the realities of how things work.  She has also borne witness to the fact that I am always coming up with new ideas on how to do things, ranging from unconventional to downright odd.  And we have discovered that half of my ideas have merit and the other half are out-to-lunch.   One of my ideas involved making a t-shirt line with spider facts.  I would take the photos (the above one is mine), use the "Spider Fan" logo (obviously an adaptation of a certain Marvel character), and provide an interesting fact on the species.  While I was excited about the idea, the simple fact is that it would probably never work out.  The cost to make the shirts, having enough variation, finding people or companies that may be interested in the idea, and not ticking off the big-wigs at Marvel, as I have encroached upon their bread and butter, were...

Three of the dogs Dave has owned since I have known him. I am 18 in dog ears.  Notice the lack of the letter "y".  I have had 9 of the beasts, starting at two years of age, all the way up to right now.  All of them were an important part of my life, a part of my family's lives.  If you haven't made the connection yet, 2x9 = 18:  Nine dogs means 18 ears. I have had the privilege of knowing my friend, Dave, for 6 of his dog ears.  Zeek (bottom), Zoey (top), and Charlie (right) have all been important animals in the Schmidtke household.  Of course, there have been cats too, but we don't measure in cat years because the number easily gets into the thousands (nine lives x #ofcats = huge numbers).   Silliness aside, it is important to me to mention my great love for my friend, Dave.  Right now, at this moment in time, as I am typing, he is lying in a hospital bed, having just had open heart surgery, recovering from that and issues with his lun...

American wigeon, Barrow's goldeneye, Redhead, American coot Red-winged blackbird, Song sparrow, Hooded merganser, Mallard duck Buffelhead, Western pond turtle (not a bird), California quail, Red-tailed hawk One of these things is not like the others ....  Yes, it's true, there is a turtle in there; I had 11 birds and wanted a 12th, so the turtle channelled its inner bird for one photo.   I have been wanting to visit Carney Pond for some time.  It turns out you can't get there by driving directly to it.  Instead, you have to park near an access point to the Okanagan Rail Trail and walk or ride a bike the rest of the way.  See the map below for access. Access to Carney Pond I will be returning shortly.  I hope they keep the area free of construction - the land adjacent the pond could easily be converted into housing or become part of UBCO.   Thanks for reading. Eric Svendsen      www.ericpix.com

Mining bees are important pollinators for spring flowers like the arrowleaf balsamroot plant. I have written blogs on mining bees recently (click here to see), so I won't be going into their life history, but rather on their importance to flowering plants, especially ones that bloom early in the spring.  Here in the Okanagan, the plants of economic importance are the fruit trees. Mining bees are considered "sloppy" pollinators.  While honey bees are better at collecting pollen (using pollen baskets on their legs), mining bees are better at moving pollen around between flowers.  This has the advantage of increasing the likelihood that a visit results in pollination.  Carpenter bees and mason bees are even better from what I have read, and these native bee groups have a significant impact on fruit success. Honey bees have the advantage of sheer numbers; a large hive may have 50,000 workers, which means that the insects can travel a large area and have numerous visits p...

American wigeon ducks (center and top).  Green-winged teal for comparison (bottom). There are birds that I can identify immediately (I nail robins every time), there are birds I don't know at all, and then there are birds I may be able to name if I have enough time (a year is usually enough).  And then there are birds that I mix up.  For me, I used to mix up American wigeons and green-winged teals. Although they look quite different, the reason was due to the green teardrop shape that starts at the eye and runs backward, curved to a point.  There are a hundred other differences, but that was the one that I seemed to focus on.  And therein lies the problem.  It's the similarities that allow you to group birds by type and the differences that allow you to tell them apart.  I had become accustomed to using a narrow band of criteria to aid in identification. This is where two things come into play.  Experience and knowledge.  Experience can only ...

Western pond turtle sunning itself on a log at the Mission Creek Park Ponds in Kelowna It was estimated that, at one point, 40% of all the birds across North America were passenger pigeons.  There were upwards of five billion of them.  That is five thousand-million birds.  When they migrated, a cloud of them could darken the sky for several days.  Then, in the mid 1800's, they were hunted, by the millions.  They became extinct in 1914.  It took only 60 years to do.  You can read about their decline here . Why bring up a story about passenger pigeons when I am writing about turtles?  Because in the early 1800's, no one would have thought that passenger pigeons would be gone in just over 100 years.  Yet, here we are, with so many other species, doing the exact same thing.  Removing habitat.  Building roads.  Pollution.  Allowing invasive species to compete.  And doing it all with money or popularity in mind.  And t...