Posts

Sanderlings - a small sandpiper with black legs

Image
Non-breeding sanderling sandpipers photographed in Galveston State Park, Texas. I love shore birds.  They are a fascinating group, many of which have particular feeding niches due to their particular morphology - long, sometimes curved bills, long legs, and a wide range of behaviours.  One of the smaller species is the sanderling. While visiting Texas a number of years ago, I came across a group of small shore birds darting along the edge of the surf.  They were stopping momentarily to probe the sandy shoreline for any invertebrates unfortunate enough to be discovered by their explorations.  Then, another wave would encroach upon their foraging, and they would run to another area where the water was receding back into the deep from where it came.  With every new wave they would relocate and continue their feeding. Their non-breeding range is unlike most birds in that they are ubiquitous along Pacific and Atlantic shorelines with little presence intercontinentall...
Post a Comment
Read more

The masked shrew - a new superhero?

Image
  Masked shrew I found near Leduc, Alberta You've heard of the Masked Avenger, the Masked Marvel, perhaps a pelagic bird called the masked boobie, well, this miniature mammalian marvel outdoes them all - meet "The Masked Shrew".  Although tiny, it possesses a terrific appetite.  Due to its incredible metabolism, it must consume somewhere between one and three times its body weight in food a day.  Imagine a human doing that (besides a teenager).  A 150 pound person eating 450 pounds a day - amazing! The menu is no less incredible (oops - I already used that word) - astonishing.  Insects, slugs, snails, spiders, earthworms, and even small vertebrates such as salamanders, moles, and mice.  A shrew that can attack and overwhelm another mammal larger than itself, kind of like a mink overcoming a rabbit.  Indeed, another superhero trait. If you thought the unbelievable properties are done, imagine such a tiny creature, a mammal at that, having venom....
Post a Comment
Read more

Making dong. What's Dong?

Image
Kathryn, Nora, Chanelle, and Leanne, making dong. What exactly is dong?  For me, being 0% Chinese, it is a boiled, wrapped leaf containing rice, meat, preserved egg yolk, mung beans, and mushrooms.  But for others, it is much more than that. Google tells me that the name for the wrapped staple is  Zongzi (粽子).  Regardless of what you call it, I'm sure it tastes the same.  I have had it from the store (T&T), made by relatives, and even made by my own hand, with the supervision of my wife (first in the photo above).  They all taste about the same.  The dish itself lacks much in the way of vegetables, but does contain plenty of carbohydrates in the form of rice and protein in the form of meat and mung beans.  Besides that, there is Chinese 5-spice powder, soya sauce, and sesame oil.  You can also add other stuff, depending on what you want or have. The partly cooked rice and soaked beans are combined with the other ingredients and then wrapp...
Post a Comment
Read more

Oregon grape - not a grape at all.

Image
Red leaves and blue berries in the fall of the Oregon grape plant. During the summer, the dark green foliage of the Oregon grape plant is reminiscent of holly. If you happen to brush against its leaves, the similarity is remarkable.  The berries are a different story, though. Oregon grape berries are edible; I made a jam/jelly from a batch growing in my backyard earlier this year.  They are very bitter and have more seeds than fruit.  The amount of fruit I picked was reduced by more than half after removing the skin and seeds.  I needed a tremendous amount of sugar/sweetner to make up for the bitterness.  The berries are packed with vitamine C and antioxidents and have some value for immunity.  They don't taste like grapes at all, and for a good reason, they don't belong to the grape family. The great thing about Oregon grape is that it doesn't need a lot of light - it is very shade and drought tolerant.  Large plants produce hundreds, if not thousands...
Post a Comment
Read more

Male moths and pheromone detection - finding females

Image
Male polyphemous moth showing its large antennae While butterflies are known for their daytime activity and slender antennae, moths are known for the polar opposite.  With broad, feathery antennae and nocternal behaviours, they stand apart from their Lepidopteran relatives.  However, another difference lies in antennae differences between males and females.  Butterflies show no significant difference, while in moths, the males' antennae are much larger than the females'.  Why? It is all about pheromone detection.   Females release specific chemicals called sex pheromones from abdominal glands whose sole purpose is to aid in attracting males.  The chemicals may be specific to the species or may be a unique combination of several agents.  The pheromones are released into the air and are dispersed through diffusion and air currents.  The tiny filaments (sensilla) composing the male moths' antennae have receptor sites for that/those specific chem...
Post a Comment
Read more

Christmas is a time for family

Image
The Svendsen Clan - Missing are Jennifer, Katie, Josh, and Chanelle The above photo was taken in 2017.  That was eight years ago, and a lot has changed.  My dad passed away three years ago, and my son and his wife now have two children.  That's the thing about families; they change. Everyone is busy.  School, work, just life in general.  As we get older, there seems to be less and less time for family.  The fact that people move away makes getting together even more difficult.  The family we knew as children has changed drastically as we move into adulthood and eventually old age.   The three things affecting that change revolve around the very nature of life.  Birth, death, and health.  While there is life, there is the opportunity to connect, to be involved in the lives of family, and possibly to make a difference.  It's not just about keeping in touch; it's really about loving, supporting, and building up.  Family means...
Post a Comment
Read more

The common candy-striped spider

Image
 ( Enoplognatha ovata - ovata morph) This spider is endemic to Europe, but it has been unintentionally transplanted to North America.  It originally settled on the east and west coasts somewhere around 1900 and, in 125 years, has managed to populate almost every state and province.   There are three varieties or morphs of the candy-striped spider.  The one I photographed above is the ovata morph, which possesses a broad red stripe across the abdomen.  The rest of the abdomen varies from cream to yellow in colour.  It is the least common of the three.  The redimita is similar, except instead of the the single, broad stripe, two thinner stripes parted by the midline are present.  The third variation has a pale green/yellow abdomen with dark spots present. Many spiders have a bit of red on them and are not terribly poisonous.  The candy-striped spider belongs in this category; its bite is mildly annoying at the most, unless you are al...
Post a Comment
Read more