Tales of the Heliosphere

From In The Macroverse

This spider worked non-stop for about 20 minutes wrapping a bee that had gotten stuck in its web. Once the bee was completely encased in webbing, the spider dragged it into the bottlebrush tree for dining later.

From In The Macroverse

Meanwhile, in a nearby web off-camera another bee struggled for the duration and escaped. There is no mercy or justice in nature. Only survival or death contingent on circumstances.

To see more photos of the bee wrapping the spider sequence, click the links above, which take you to the In The Macroverse album at picasaweb.google.com/tdavera. Scroll to the end of the album. And thank the gods you're at the top of the food chain. So say we all!

-tdr

Labels: Insects, Nature, Photography

Two weeks since he first made an appearance in the backyard, the escaped Zebra Finch is still coming around. He seems to be acclimating to the outdoors.

From Saga of the Zebra Finch

Not sure how long he'll survive, what with this neighborhood cat stalking the feeders every day. "That's right, cat, you'd better keep walking away, you damn furry little serial killer!"

From Cats

But he's doing fine for now.

From Saga of the Zebra Finch

-tdr

Labels: Birds, Nature, Photography

From Pigeon Sumo

From Pigeon Sumo

From Pigeon Sumo

From Pigeon Sumo

From Pigeon Sumo

-tdr

Labels: Birds, Nature, Photography

Competition among birds isn't only over food. Sometimes, birds fight it out for territory. Here two mockingbirds harass a crow to drive it off the top of their telephone pole.

From Birds

From Birds

-tdr

Labels: Birds, Nature, Photography

What do you get when too many pigeons try to fit in the same food bowl? Here it is. As always click on the photos to zoom in.

From Birds

From Birds

From Birds

From Birds

-tdr

Republished to change images size.

Labels: Birds, Nature, Photography, San Diego

While some of us spent Sunday morning relaxing in the yard, at the insect level it was just another day of working to survive. Here's a pollen-laden bee hovering among the branches of a San Diego Sunflower. This fierce-looking spider sits on another San Diego Sunflower bush nearby. Click the photo for a closeup of the spider's face. Its fu manchu mustache-like markings alone are worth the look.
I have no idea what this flying insect is or the flower it's resting on but they're both strikingly beautiful. The flower's beauty is obvious to the naked eye. The insect is so small that to the naked eye it appears to be nothing much. Only under magnification is its beauty revealed to the human eye. Do other insects notice? Who can say? As far as we know, the aesthetics of a thing is appreciated only by human beings. These creatures live lives of unobserved grace and beauty.

To see more, go to my photos page at picasaweb.google.com/tdavera/InTheMacroverse and scroll to the end for the most recent additions. (Here.)

-tdr

Update: The flower in the bottom photo is a Tidy Tips and the insect is a hover fly.

Labels: Insects, Macrophotos, Nature, Photography

The woodpeckers at Mount Laguna this weekend worked nonstop pounding on the pine trees and storing their nuts in the bark. The trees didn't seem to complain but nobody would blame them if they did. Here's an example of the woodpeckers' work.

And here's an oozing wound in the bark from all that pecking. That's gotta hurt.

But it's not all pain and destruction. Here's a pretty sapfall hanging from the bark.

For more closeup photos of a pine tree's skin, go to my picasaweb photos page at picasaweb.google.com/tdavera, open the folder labeled In The Macroverse, and scroll to the end. (Here.)

-tdr

Labels: Nature, Photography, Plants, Trees

This weekend's shots of birds were taken at Mount Laguna about 50 miles east of San Diego. Saw 14 different types of birds. If I were a real birder I'd give you a list. But I'm not. So, here's a picture of a Steller's Jay, instead.

For more pictures of this and other birds go to my picasaweb photos page at picasaweb.google.com/tdavera and open the 2009 Laguna Mountain Folder. (Here)

-tdr

Labels: Birds, Nature, Photography, San Diego

Here's a chubby little California Towhee standing by the patio, oblivious to the cat about 20 feet away.

The cat, Kimba, rests among the native plants next to the laughing Buddha.

Meanwhile, this Black Phoebe waits on the utility wire for the cat to vacate the yard.

Just another wild day in the urbs.

-tdr

All shots taken with 10.1 megapixel Canon Rebel XTi and EF 75-300 telephoto lens. My new toys.

Labels: Animals, Birds, Nature, Photography, Plants

Southern California is a dry land. Okay, all land is dry land, but Southern California's land is especially dry. We don't get a lot of rain and we don't have much of our own water. Well, there is that giant ocean just to the west, but it's got all that salt in it, and don't get me started about the lack of desalination plants in this region. So, let's pretend the Pacific Ocean isn't there. That's what San Diego's City Council is doing.

Water supply is so bad that San Diego, thanks to the City Council, is going to start recycling waste water into drinking water. So, if you live elsewhere and have thought about moving here because you see how wonderful the weather is every time you watch a Chargers or Padres game from San Diego, think again. You'll be drinking cleaned up toilet water. Yummy, yummy toilet water. Not quite Tang but just like NASA!

Anyway, all that's a round about way of getting to the point. Those beautiful green lawns that define the suburbs consume way too much water for this region. That doesn't stop everybody from having one. But if the consequence of everybody having a lawn is everybody getting to drink toilet water, well, maybe it's time to go native and start replacing our lawns with native plants. You know, the plants that evolved to thrive in San Diego's low water ecology. Don't buy that argument? Then how about this one: the plants that God in his infinite wisdom perfectly created to grow here.

So, here's the home in the suburbs the week after moving in last February. And here's the same home today, two days after putting in all native plants. And here's a side angle shot.

Not too lush or green just now. (Clicking the photos to enlarge them helps.) But the picture doesn't capture the slight fragrance of sage, either. And the plants just went in. There are close to 100 new plants in the yard and each one produces either flowers or berries. Once the yard is established there will be an abundance of reds, and greens, and blues, and yellows, along with butterflies, hummingbirds, and other seed eating birds.

The best part is, once the yard is established, it won't need watering, except for the occasional sprinkle with the hose using the beer can method. The beer can method, for those not in the know, is this: grab a hose, grab a beer, and water the yard until you're done drinking the beer. Sounds like the perfect Southern California lifestyle to me.

-tdr

PS: Props to Clayton Tschudy of Tschudy Ecological Designs for the design and the plant selection of the yard. He's got the right vision. The plants came from Las Pilitas Nursery, a native plants nursery, north of Escondido. Here are the names and links to the nursery's website for the plants in the yard. (You're going to have to cut and paste to see the pictures of the plants fully grown and descriptions.)

Galvezia "Firecracker"--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/321.htm
Viguiera laciniata--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/1426.htm
Eriogonum umbellatum polyanthum--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/527.htm
Eriogonum arborescens--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/277.htm
Eriogonum grande rubescens--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/288.htm
Mahonia nevenii--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/422.htm
Salvia "Pozo Blue"--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/607.htm
Iris douglasiana--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/352.htm
Muhlenbergia rigens--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/446.htm
Ribes viburnifolium--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/586.htm
Diplacus puniceus--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/247.htm
Zauschneria californica--http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/3365.htm

Labels: Aesthetics, Birds, California, Environment, Nature, San Diego

Life hangs on and does what it can to survive. There have been a lot of spiders this Fall. This web in the front lawn is outlined by the morning dew about a month ago. The lawn is gone so the spider will have to find something else to build on. This snail used to drink from the bird bath every day. Today, I went to water the plants in the back yard. This praying mantis was resting on the wand and refused to give up its spot. It remained on the wand the entire time I watered. It got so complacent it took to grooming itself. Isn't that cuuute!? -tdr

Labels: Animals, Environment, Insects, Nature, Photography

To be honest the only reason for this post is to bump the gruesome dead possum post down from the top. So, here's a picture of a passel of Lesser Goldfinches feeding from a nyjer seed sock. Aren't they cuuuute? I've replaced the sock with a metal mesh feeder. Much cleaner.

Now here's a shot of Kimba sitting behind the Lemonade Berry Bush. The old sock feeder is devoid of birds. Hmmm, I wonder why. The Lemonade Berry Bush is a California native that will get to about 6-8 feet tall and thicker. It's still small because it's a juvenile that hasn't gone through a rainy season yet. Birds love the bush for the small sour berries it produces. I've been told that mixing the berries with water and sugar produces a passable lemonade. (Here.) We'll see.

-tdr

Republished once to add link for making lemonade berry lemonade.

Labels: Animals, Birds, Food, Gardening, Nature, San Diego

Went birding again this weekend. This time to Old Mission Dam at Mission Trails Regional Park in a suburban neighborhood of the City of San Diego. The park is at the end of a large nature corridor that stretches from the mountains east of the city. These nature corridors are one of the reasons why rural brush fires in San Diego County can find there way into the city and nearly all the way to the coast. But that's another topic.

There wasn't a whole lot of activity when I went. All good birders are supposed to list what they saw. I'm not too keen on being shoulded on, but here's my list anyway.

Common Yellow Throat (first time for me)
House Finch
Cooper's Hawk
Black Phoebe
California Thrasher
California Towhee
Bewick's Wren (first time)
Mourning Doves

There's another consequence of the nature corridors in San Diego: wild four legged critters can be seen in backyards and on streets. My house is on a street that dead ends at an undeveloped canyon. As you may remember, a possum has been living in my backyard off and on for about a year now. Well, no longer. The other day, I found the little guy dead and partially eaten on my front walk. It looked very much like it had been killed by a coyote. Coyotes apparently often consume only part of their kill.

I didn't want the possum's carcass to lure the coyote back for more. So, I buried the possum in my backyard. No such luck. The coyote came back again the other night and came right up to my front porch where it made some scary wild noises. I turned up the TV really loud. It was Keith Olbermann bombasting away. The coyote ran off and I haven't heard it since. I've read before that coyotes are pretty smart. Seems right to me.

Not to be ghoulish, but here's a picture of the dead possum. Okay, I guess that was ghoulish. Sorry about that.

Not to be maudlin, but here's the possum's grave in my backyard. Rest in peace, little guy. Yeah, that's a fake Mt. Rushmore in the background. So?

-tdr

Labels: Animals, Birds, Nature, San Diego

Went on a guided birdwalk this morning at Lake Murray in San Diego. Sorry, no pictures but here's the list of birds seen today.

Lots of hummingbirds, 3 varieties:

Black Chin
Annas
Costa's

Red-tail hawk --- sitting on a telephone wire with half a dozen small birds on the wire above.
Turkey Vulture --- circling on a thermal.

Mourning Doves
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinches
Black Phoebe
Song Sparrows
Red-Winged Blackbirds --- family groups with the colorful males, the drab females, and several juveniles.
Cassin's Kingbirds ---- another family group perched at the very top of a tree. Raucus, kind of plain but with a yellow belly

Forester Terns

Mallards
American Coot --- black w/ white stripe down forehead, and the strangest looking, green, leaflike feet. I'm thinking, a genetic experiment gone wrong.
Domestic Geese

-tdr

Labels: Birds, Nature

So about a month ago I was a panelist at a local science fiction convention. Our panel’s topic was the ethics of killing. I guess they figured a lawyer would have something to say about that. I was the moderator so we did not discuss the ethics of killing lawyers. Which reminds me, did you hear the one about the difference between a dead skunk in the road and a dead lawyer? There are skid marks in front of the skunk. Ba da boom.*

One topic that day was genocide. A vegan panelist proposed --- “in jest,” so he said, "truth in humor," I said --- that it would be ethical to kill off all of humanity in order to save the planet. Surprisingly most objections to this plan from the other panelists and the audience were practical ones: "Who decides, how do we decide it's necessary, and who gets killed" not "it's wrong to kill most or all of humanity to save the planet." People accepted the premise that the rest of life on Earth had greater moral worth than humans.

I’m in the "it's just wrong" camp. First, because it's anti-humanist to elevate the environment to a level superior to humanity, and, second, because there's no way to know with sufficient certainty that such genocide would be necessary to save the planet. Anyway, I was struck at the willingness of people to be utilitarian about it and accept that it would be okay to do it.

Some will say that it's speciesist to give humans privileged moral status. So be it. The vegan panelist used the term when he explained why he believed it would be acceptable to kill off all humanity to save the planet. The irony is that humans are the least speciesist beings on this planet. There is no animal that even tries to look out for other animals or plant life in the way that humans do.

With some insignificant exceptions, animals look out for their own and that's it. Humans on the other hand often look out for nonhuman lifeforms. So why should humans step aside through an act of genocide or mass suicide to make way for creatures who don't look out for species other than their own? We don't deserve that fate and the rest of the biosphere doesn't deserve the benefit of that kind of sacrifice by us.

I suppose killing off humanity would save the planet. I'm sure the Earth would get along very well without us. But I don't think science can tell us it's necessary to kill off humanity to save the planet. Besides showing that the only future scenario is the worst case scenario, science would have to show there are no alternatives to human self-extinction in order to save the planet. If other options could save the planet then self-extinction is not necessary.

But I admit my main objection to the idea is the humanist one.

The fact that the idea of humans having less moral worth than the rest of nature seems so non-controversial to people surprises me. I've heard of the humans as virus notion before but I always figured it was a fringe view. Apparently, it's not.

I found a statement recently by ethicist Peter Singer, who refused to sign one of the versions of The Humanist Manifesto because he said the manifesto suffered from speciesism. He objected to the manifesto's language making the welfare of humanity the purpose of humanist ethics. He called this speciesism and said it was a remnant of Christian thinking because in his view, “[t]here is no nonreligious reason why the pains and pleasures of nonhuman animals should not be given equal weight with the similar pains and pleasures of human beings.” (Here.)

I wonder if the belief, espoused by people like Singer, that maintains it's morally wrong to privilege humans over animals is a greater threat to humanism than Christianity. Christians and humanists may agree on the primacy of human beings but their fundamental disagreement over the supernatural makes them more rivals than allies. People like Singer may fundamentally disagree with humanists over the primacy of human beings but they share humanism's rejection of the supernatural. Humanism is therefore more likely to be influenced by people like Singer than it is by religious people. I wonder if that's likely to cause humanism eventually to reject the moral primacy of human beings.

-tdr

* Lawyer jokes are the price we pay for running the world. It's a small price to pay.

Labels: Animals, Environment, Ethics, Humanism, Nature, Religion

More backyard birds. The Cooper's Hawk looks skyward. On the alert for the gang of crows that torments it ceaselessly. Speaking of crows, here's one of them flying by carrying some takeout. Finally, this little scrub jay standing on a feeder rounds out this vertical triptych of the more aggressive birds that come by the yard.
-tdr

Labels: Animals, Birds, Nature, Photography

So, it's not just birds that live on my property. Bugs make their home here, too. Some pretty and some not so much. This mama spider has set up her maternity ward in the electrical box. Here's a fly sunning itself on the bottle brush tree. It was a hot weekend. Here's one posing for its closeup.It's not all ugly or scary. Here's a pretty ladybug on a rosebush.When dusk rolled around the flying beasties swarmed the bottle brush tree. Nice wings on this one.
-tdr

Labels: Animals, Insects, Nature, Photography

Went birding this morning at Cabrillo National Monument overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We saw 14 different types of birds. This is a California Quail This is a bold little Spotted Towhee walking toward our group. Here's a Western Gull pecking at its reflection in the window of a pickup truck. And this is an attempted closup shot of a lizard hiding in the brush. Foiled by the twig!
-tdr

Labels: Animals, Birds, Nature, Photography