Backyard Biology

The Mystery Caterpillar has, once again, made me aware of how little I know about my own backyard.

Thanks to nature shows, I know more about the Monarch Butterfly (which does stop here) and the African Elephant (which does not) than I do about the denizens of my own, city backyard.

Loving accounts of English hedges (nowhere near here) and the New York Central Park (also somewhat distant) are fairly easy to find.

But that isn't what I'm after. What I'm wondering about is what happens in a fairly average backyard--oddly broken up, often cement paved, but with enough flowers and herbs to attract a fair amount of small folk, bees, butterflies, wasps, moths, toadstools, small brown birds, doves, the occasional small hawk (though that was more common when we had bird feeders out).

At this point, I don't even care if the animals are native or not (actually; that's not quite true; I'd really rather not have to listen to someone's indignant account of how the little brown bird I happen to be fond of doesn't belong here, really). I want to know what they are and how they react to each other. Do wasps (and were they wasps or yellow jackets? Is there a difference?) drive off bees? Does the wasps' nest account for the fact that we had far, far fewer fritillaries than normal on the passion vine? Do fritillaries prefer one kind of passion vine over another? Does the presence of regular wasps make it more or less likely that the Orange Dog caterpillar on my lime tree be parisitized? Would they be territorial toward other kinds of wasps? Would they ignore them? What sort of small hawk hovered in the area?

Where do I even start on this mess of tangled questions?

I mean, yes, I have a couple of very interesting books on butterflies out, and one on bees, but I know from past experience that authors tend to be vastly less interested in backyards than in tropical jungles; the butterfly book I just read talked a lot more about Costa Rica than California (which did get briefly mentioned as a spot the migrating Monarch might stop in, so that's something, I suppose).

What do you know...

The bookcase really is named Billy.

I don't get to Ikea much, but today my sister & I stopped there so she could pick up some meatballs and lingonberry jam.

And Billy the Bookcase says hello.

Chrysalis

 

Here's my little Orange Dog caterpillar, safely tucked away for the winter.

I realized the other day that my knowledge of caterpillar metamorphosis came largely from The Very Hungry Caterpillar and exceedingly hazy memories of high school Biology, so I'm trying to do a little reading up on what it is that caterpillars do to become butterflies.

I still need to make a trip to the library, where I hope to find a really good book that details the process, but so far, net searching has given me two new facts (That is, facts that are new to me; others probably know perfectly well):

1) A cocoon is not a chrysalis, and a chrysalis is not a cocoon. Cocoons are spun from silk, the chrysalis is a layer of skin hardened; moths do cocoons, butterflies form chrysalises, so that's what this guy was doing all those days he seemed to just be sitting there shrinking.

2) Butterflies--some? all?--spend some of their time in the chrysalis as a sort of biological soup. No one is really sure how the creature gets from caterpillar to DNA soup to butterfly. That is pretty amazing!

V, the 2009 show

Pre-Thanksgiving housecleaning plus three birthdays and Christmas coming up means no real review on this.

Just wanted to weigh in and say this is one fun show. So far, they're getting all the good parts of the 80's miniseries and adding depth and flair of their own.

If you haven't caught it on TV, there's always hulu (my thanks to the CrystallinEntity for introducing it to me a while back). I haven't been waiting though. It's good to have a show I want to see the night it airs.

Alex & Me by Dr. Irene Pepperberg

It's no secret that I loved Alex, the Grey Parrot, and followed his doings with interest. I still follow the Foundation's news, and wish they updated their website more often.

So Alex and Me was welcome; less dense and scientific than The Alex Papers, it is a dual autobiography, telling of both Alex and Dr. Pepperberg, recounting how Irene Pepperberg found her way (and worked extremely hard) to the combination of biology and psychology that the Alex Studies represents, and how Alex came into her life. It is a much more personal story than usually makes it onto the website or the news, which usually feature Alex's achievements, and it makes clear how extraordinary both of its subjects are. It also allows for Pepperberg to talk more openly of her love for Alex, something which, when she started the study, was a forbidden topic (animal subjects were supposed to be treated with the same dispassion as atomic particles).

My only gripe, and it's a contrary unfair sort of gripe to have, is that the focus is so tightly on Alex we learn little of the other birds, and little of what is happening now. Alex is dead (and much mourned). What is Griffin up to? What happened to the hyper Kyaaro, the grey parrot who drank coffee to calm down? Not fair complaints for a book on Alex, perhaps more a request for a sequel?

Edit: Oh, I do see there is now a video of Griffin learning. Hurray!

Corvus: A Life with Birds by Esther Woolfson

More a meditation on birds and life with birds than a nature book, Corvus is well worth the time spent reading.

It is partly the tale of Chicken, a rescued rook living with Woolfson and her family in Aberdeen, and partly the story of humans learning to live with a whole succession of birds, from the author's initial dovecote, through a handful of parrots, a handsome jay, and, of course, Chicken herself.

I repeat: This is not a nature book; I was initially disappointed in the book because it failed to follow in the footsteps of more scientific studies of crows and their kind, limiting itself to brief quotations from the larger studies.

Once I realized that, however, I loved the book for itself, for its account of a life spent observing the birds in the house, for Woolfson's own love of the birds, and for her own quiet, constant, and intense observation of the world in her house and yard. That intensity and the ability to communicate it makes the book a winner.

And I still want to know more about Chicken!

Sheer Folly: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery by Carola Dunn

She's back!

One of my concerns was that the combination of Black Ship and Manna from Hades meant that Dunn had gotten tired of Daisy. Sheer Folly ends that concern: Daisy is back with her optimism and curiosity intact. The mystery is back, too, without the contrived secrecy that made Black Ship problematic.

And 1920's England is back, too, just as crazy as ever.

Definitely a book worth curling up with (or reading under a nice shade tree by the bay, which is what I did).

Manna from Hades: A Cornish Mystery by Carola Dunn

Hm. Can't believe I haven't reviewed this already, but apparently I haven't!

Manna From Hades was Dunn's departure from Daisy Dalrymple mysteries. This one features Eleanor Trewynn, an older widow who runs a thrift shop in Cornwall. One day after a round of collecting donations, she finds a suitcase full of valuable jewelry and assumes it is an especially generous donation. As it turns out, it is not, and the people who left it in her car want it back rather badly.

The question of who owns the jewels, how they ended up in Eleanor's car, and who is willing to kill for them forms the main question.

I enjoyed the book, overall. "Aunt Nell" is a lively, enjoyable character, and the people she surrounds herself with are an eclectic bunch. The Cornish setting is well-described and makes the village worth a literary visit.

If I have a complaint, it is that Eleanor currently reminds me a bit too much of Mrs. Pollifax, complete with unexpected martial arts abilities. I like Mrs. Pollifax, but one was enough, and I hope future books will bring Eleanor more fully into focus as her own character.

The Trouble with the Book of Job

The trouble with Job is that it is one long argument, best read in one sitting.

The trouble with Job is that it is one long argument.

Stargate Universe, a really short review

So I finally caught up on SGU.

I could, and maybe sometime will, give a long, disappointed review of the show so far, but the short, disappointed review of Earth pretty much sums it up.

The ship Destiny is in another galaxy, unimaginably far from earth. There are limitless possibilities of danger and excitement. So, in Earth, three members of the crew body-swap back to earth where . . .

. . . we learn that Chloe's ex-boyfriend was cheating on her with her best friend.

In the course of the rest of the episode, we also learn that Eli is the Nice Guy who never gets the girl, and that Colonel Young once had an affair with T. J. (There went any hope of her secret being something interesting).

Oh, and Stargate Command seems to have become Starfleet Command--out of touch and slightly stupid. The presence of Jack O'Neill does nothing to dilute this.

To be fair, we also got to see Rush pull some highly sneaky stuff around Telford (whom the SG folk keep sending back to the Destiny; see "Starfleet Command" above), and it was good to see them finally taking advantage of the body-swap stones to bring on some scientifically trained folk who might help matters, so the A plot wasn't a total waste of time, but really!

***
Longer aside here: Gotta love those body-swap stones. They mean that everyone is spending far more time on earth in really interesting places like nightclubs than they are on the boring old Destiny, the Ancient starship currently exploring the depths of an unknown galaxy. I mean, who watches science fiction to see strange new worlds, anyway?

I don't know. I'm giving the show more chances because it is Stargate and I loved SG-1 & Atlantis, but then again, as the producers keep reminding us, this isn't Atlantis or SG-1, and I'm not any too fond of whatever it is.

The Creature from the Deep

Yesterday's long walk on the beach was supposed to be a photography walk.

It didn't quite work out the way I planned because I failed to take the tides into account: I'm currently focusing on found-item pictures and sand patterns, both of which are best done at low tide, after the ocean has had its chance to give up its treasures.

It turned out to be mid-tide, neither high nor low; most of what was on the beach needed to be thrown away, not photographed (Though I did save a couple of intriguing bits and pieces).

So, I enjoyed the lovely day, watched the pelicans and seagulls, and played around a bit from the Creature from the Deep:

The Broken Hourglass: Atmosphere Work

Been a slow couple of weeks, writing-wise, due to stuff like having to battle Trojans on my mom's computer (I'm still not sure how they got there). Got them off thanks to help from good friends & a couple useful antispyware programs.

I have been working on and off, though, and just finished another area in The Broken Hourglass.

No quests in this one. Or, more accurately, none by me. This one was an "Everyone who isn't involved in the quest area.

I think the bit that took the longest was deciding which sprites to use and where everyone can stand. I now know enough coding to put those bits in on my own (and am ridiculously pleased to have mastered those bits). The rest is up to Qwinn to take care of--and he is currently working on a good-sized quest.

Actually, I still need to proof the area I "finished," but I think it's good to go.

Next up?

Mystery Caterpillar (3)

Not such a mystery any more. The Giant Swallowtail caterpillar has now coccooned himself.

It took much longer than I thought it would. Three to four days ago he stopped moving around the tree at all and sat near the base of the tree. He shrank a bit, and since there were only a couple of threads between him & the tree, I wasn't sure what was going on--was he spinning his cocoon? Dying? Dead? Were those his threads or Something Else's? I've never watched a single caterpillar this way before.

This morning, I found out what was going on: After the days-long delay, he finally finished the job over night & is tidily waiting for spring. I shall continue to check on him & still have some hope of seeing him emerge.

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