My dog loves it when I take my food scraps out to the compost bin in the backyard. As soon as he sees me grab it from under the sink, he races ahead of me and waits by the door. When I head outside, he bounds over to the fence to first see if the neighbors’ dogs need to be reprimanded and barked at, then heads directly to the compost bin. As I approach, he stares intently at me, eagerly waiting for me to remove the lid. He doesn’t get to eat any of the old produce remains I’ll be dumping in there, but instead, he is waiting for me to stir the pile around to see if any mice come scurrying out. If they do, he’s on them in a flash, trying to nab them before they escape into the boards and rubble piled around the bin.

If he does indeed catch the mouse, he’ll walk around with it for a while in his mouth, the little tail sticking out between his whiskered lips. No doubt he’s harkening back to his ancestral urges and enjoying the mouth feel of the little warm furry body in his jaws. Eventually, after licking his mouse-pop for a while, he’ll slowly consume it, eyes slightly closed, savoring the delicate crunchy insides. I know there are some of you cringing right now, but from my perspective as a naturalist, waste not want not. Besides, it seems like a nice treat for him, not so much for the mouse.

But hey, the mice get their treats too, as it’s quite the banquet in my compost pile. Banana peels, peach pits, avocado rinds, carrot tops, squash ends, apple cores, coffee grounds, tea leaves, and much more are added to the pile, along with dead leaves from my trees. It’s not hot compost, and it takes a while for the red worms (little protein snacks for the mice) and other microbes to break everything down. It’s quite the little ecosystem in there. I find springtails, millipedes, tiny centipedes, and even larger animals like legless lizards and moles that sometimes feast in there. I’ve put wire mesh around the bin, but to no avail; the little rodents always find their way in. At least the opossums, raccoons, and rats are excluded, though. Eventually, it all breaks down, and twice a year, I can collect a couple of wheelbarrow loads of great soil for our garden.

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In our county, we also have green waste bins for disposing of food waste. Most of my bones and eggshells end up there, along with any greasy napkins, chicken bones, citrus rinds, and curdled or moldy dairy products, as these items don’t work well in backyard setups. All that material, along with any yard waste, is taken to a facility operated by Kanadevia Inova, which features a remarkable Anaerobic Digester.

Once at the A.D., the organics are ground up and fed into a monstrous, slanted tube, where they are mixed with FOG (fats, oils, and grease collected from local restaurants). It’s kept at a constant temperature of 131° and slowly mixed to a slurry with the consistency of runny oatmeal. It’s a perfect habitat for bacteria to break down organic matter and produce methane gas (I guess you could call it bacterial farts). They use that gas to generate electricity. Their “waste” product is compost. The whole digester process, start-to-finish, takes about 2 weeks. The compost is then dried, cured, and screened, and sold to local vineyards, farms, and orchards! Plus, twice a year, they give tons of compost away to the community*. Anyone who shows up with a bucket, truck, or trailer can haul away as much as they like, for free.

So, instead of taking all that organic waste and dumping it in the landfill, where it takes up space, doesn’t decompose, creates greenhouse gases, and doesn’t even help other living things, we’re instead getting energy and compost. That seems sensible. It’s an efficient use of our natural resources and a great addition to our community. This is another excellent example of technology helping us to move into a smarter, greener future.

*On Saturday, September 5th, the Fall Compost give-away at the SLO anaerobic digester will happen. The event will be held between 9:30 AM and 2 PM at the facility located at 4300 Old Santa Fe Road in SLO. This is a free event for the general public to pick up some certified organic compost. Just bring a pickup truck or a trailer, a car with buckets, or even a motorcycle! Please make sure to bring a tarp to cover the load when you leave the compound.

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Last winter I walked into our garage and saw mouse turds. Dammit! It had been years since mice were in our garage. Primarily because that’s where the cats slept at night. We’ve always had one or two cats in our family for years, but our last cat died in the fall, and no stray had arrived to fill the vacancy as had happened with the previous two cats.

Knowing full well the damage domestic cats can cause to wildlife, it was still eye-opening to see our yard become more active with lizards and birds after the demise of our last cat. If we ever got another, it would strictly be an indoor beast or only go out on a leash. We were in no hurry to get another, but then seeing the mouse turds that day was just the impetus for us to seek a replacement mouser and feline companion.

We decided to get a kitten. Both my wife and I had raised kittens many times in the past, but as time passes, one forgets the extras that come with adopting a young predator into your family and trying to tame it. For the first several weeks after adopting it, I found myself asking my wife, “So, why did we get a kitten?”

It seemed like a good idea at the time, and we were lured into adopting the cute, 4-month-old, black and white kitten by his deceptively mellow, friendly disposition. Little did we know he was still coming out of the drug haze and side effects of being neutered, wormed, and injected with vaccines since arriving at the shelter only 2 days prior.

When he emerged from his lethargy, regained his senses, and acclimated to his new home, we realized we had our work cut out for us. First off was the dog. He too seemed to be asking us the same question, “Why did you get a kitten? Especially since you won’t allow me to chase it!” We had to let him know it was a protected cat. It was not for pursuing; he had to be nice to it. This empowered the little devil,… er… kitten into thinking his hissing and puffed-up body was the sole power stopping the dog.

For a couple of weeks it was touch and go with the two of them. The dog wanted nothing to do with it. He seemed almost scared of it because the little cat would take any opportunity to stalk and viciously attack the dog, spitting and hissing the whole time. I wasn’t entirely certain they would ever find a peaceful coexistence.

But over time the cat realized he didn’t need to ramp up to Defcon 1 every time he saw the dog. And the dog realized he could mostly ignore the cat. Well, except for the times the feline would innocently walk by, then suddenly turn and launch half a dozen furious bats with his paws (claws retracted) at the dog’s face, then spring away. Leaving the dog looking at us as if to say, “Why did you get a kitten?”

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Some people say you can’t really train a cat. I disagree. You can train a cat; it’s just that the training isn’t always 100% operational and can be subject to the cat’s whims and moods. When raising and training a kitten and seeing the trouble and situations they can get into, it becomes blatantly obvious where the term curiosity killed the cat comes from. I can also see why many cultures say they have multiple lives due to the situations they get themselves in.

But by and large, our new feline is learning. In no particular order:

• To use his designated scratching ramp, not the couch, chairs, or window screens.

• To tolerate us trimming his claws.

• To not attack or hang on clothes in the closet.

• To not chew on electrical cords.

• To stay off the dining table.

• To not eat house plants, nor dig in their pots.

• To not go on precarious railings (aluminum foil helps with that)

• To stay off the kitchen counters.

• To not pull the drain plugs out of the sink and then drag them off to who knows where.

• To not go into the pots and pans cupboards.

• And not to bite or scratch the hands that feed you. Well, we’re still working on that, as my hand and wrist scars can attest.

We’ve learned that having an indoor-only kitten is much like having a border collie. They need stimulation or novelty, or a job like chasing a feathered lure until they are panting and exhausted at least once a day.

But finally, at 10 months of age, we’ve seen progress. We even get times when he’ll snuggle up to us while we’re sitting on the couch, then look up with slightly squinted eyes, give us a contented slow blink, and start purring as he lets us stroke his soft fur. For a little bit, at least, … he’s still a work in progress.

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It seemed like it went on all night long, over and over with the same repetitious songs. My roommate hated it, but it didn’t really bother me; I can sleep through most anything. The music didn’t come from next door but from the thick tangled hedge bordering our two houses. The culprit was a medium-sized gray, black, and white bird. Unfortunately, the Northern Mockingbird is famous for its nighttime singing. Some think they do that because there’s less competition from other noises and bird songs at night; others think those are the lone males still calling for a mate. Whatever the reason, it drives some folks crazy.

I’ve always enjoyed mockingbirds and love having these characters as my neighbors. In fact, many people do; President Thomas Jefferson was a known lover of mockingbirds and kept a famous pet mockingbird named “Dick”. And in the South, mockingbirds hold the title of state bird for Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas.

Not only do I like their versatility in songs, but also their bold plumage pattern and their aggressive way of protecting their territories. I’ve observed mockingbirds swooping and diving on known egg-stealing birds like crows and jays, but also on cats, dogs, and sometimes people. They are prolific breeders, making multiple nesting attempts in a single year (one female set a record of laying 27 eggs in a single season!)

Landscaped neighborhoods are perfect habitats for them as they like to nest in dense hedges and thickets and search for food in open areas like lawns where they can spy insects. If you’ve ever watched one hunting, they do a thing called “wing-flashing” where they walk a few steps, then flick their wings out over their back, walk a few steps, and flick again. The white patches and movement hopefully produce a startle effect on insects trying to remain still to avoid the predator. If the insect is startled, its movement betrays its otherwise camouflaged body and the mockingbird will dart in and grab it with its bill.

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It is their songs, however, that make the mockingbird stand out. The mockingbird’s scientific name is Mimus polyglottos, which literally translates to “many-tongued mimic” (a polyglot is a person who speaks many languages). While mockingbirds are known to sing hundreds of different songs throughout their range in North America, they are not the only birds that can mimic other birds. Lyrebirds, mynas, parrots, and even crows and jays can mimic other birds. In fact, scientists have compiled a database of known vocal mimics that comprises 339 species from 43 families. When the mockingbird really gets into his singing, he’ll stand on an exposed perch to perform. There he’ll babble away his various songs, flapping and jumping into the air to add a physical element to his concert.

What I find fun about listening to mockingbirds is trying to decipher just what they are mimicking. Most of the time, they are just making up their own creations, but if we listen closely, sometimes we can parse out some things they are imitating. An individual mockingbird can imitate over 150 different sounds, and they do not stop learning once they mature; male mockingbirds continue to add new songs to their collection throughout their entire lives. Some of the ones around my home have surprised me with their choices. Many of their songs are their own creations, but I’ve heard them imitate kestrels, titmice, woodpeckers, blackbirds, California quails, Red-shouldered hawks, and other birds. I have also heard them mimic treefrogs, phones, and even car door chimes.

Due to the mockingbird’s vocal talents, back in the 19^th century, there was an illegal trade in these impressive singers, so much so that their populations were depleted along the East Coast. The best singers were worth up to $50 in 1828; that’s over $1,000 in today’s dollars.

To me, they are one of our many priceless neighbors, enriching our neighborhoods with their striking plumage, character, and songs. Even if they do sing until the wee hours of the night.

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Just a quick reminder to all my subscribers: some of my posts here on Substack also appear in my Estero Bay News column, Natural History Nuggets, where I stick to natural history. I chose the title of my Substack, Ruminations of a Naturalist, for its flexibility. Not only can I ruminate on natural history, but also on other topics. Sometimes those thoughts stray down the political aisle of my brain. I know some prefer that I not share those thoughts. But I feel we are living in unprecedented times, and we all need to be accountable for how we respond to some of the unprincipled things being carried out by those in power.

I choose not to be complacent, to avoid or ignore it, or to sit quietly in resigned acceptance. It may not be much, but this is my way of speaking out and being accountable. Thank you for accepting my work and for sticking with me. Be assured that strictly political posts will be rare, as I will always favor natural history, like for today’s post!

Thanks again,

DT

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Back in 1985, I was sitting in the Morro Rock parking lot monitoring the peregrine falcons who nested on the cliff high above me. Bundled up in a flannel and my old down vest, I sheltered myself on the leeward side of my van from the northwest winds coming off the ocean. Suddenly, I heard the female falcon, who at the time was brooding her young, uttering guttural “Chup! Chup! Chup!” sounds from the eyrie. She launched herself out of the pothole and, with strong, purposeful wingbeats, quickly flew high into the air above the harbor entrance. Ahead of her, I saw another falcon, beating south towards the sandspit. When I found the bird in my binoculars, I realized it was another female peregrine, but not a full adult. It was a subadult vagrant bird wandering around looking for an open territory. This was not it. The old resident female wasted no time pursuing her and harassing her for several minutes before returning to her cliff face and back to her young.

Seeing that vagrant bird made me happy because, back in the early 80’s, we were doing our best to rebuild the peregrine falcon population after the crash caused by DDT. The knowledge that there were “floaters” out there looking to fill in open territories or replace deceased birds was an indication that our efforts were successful. Peregrines were on their way to being an environmental success story.

Birds, and particularly top-of-the-food-chain predators like falcons, eagles, and pelicans, can serve as the proverbial canary in the coal mine, warning us if something is wrong in the ecosystem. After Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was published, people became aware that persistent organochlorine pesticides like DDT were the culprit, affecting not just bald eagles and falcons but many other species as well.

It was back in the late 1800s when people discovered that a buildup of toxic gases such as methane or CO2 was responsible for many mine blasts. John Scott Haldane originally conceived the canary method for detecting these dangerous mine conditions. He proposed using animals that are more sensitive to poisonous gases as sentinel species. Canaries are particularly sensitive to carbon monoxide because their respiratory systems are so tiny and highly efficient. They show hints of distress before humans do, swaying and fainting as they fall ill. Many miners, who so appreciated their little birds, carried their canaries in a special cage designed to revive them with oxygen after exposure to toxic gases.

Today, there are electronic “noses” that can detect hazardous gases in mines. However, we still have “canaries” out there helping to warn us about other possible dangers to our health and ecosystems. One of these “canaries” or indicators of ecosystem health is birds themselves. They are excellent indicators of ecosystem condition because they are so responsive to environmental change. They fulfill important ecological functions such as seed dispersal and insect consumption, plus people like watching them. They are among the best-studied families of animals on Earth and a sentinel for the health of other species.

Unfortunately, bird numbers in the US and around the world are in decline. A recent study published in February in the journal Science showed declines in populations were most evident in warm and warming areas, suggesting that climate change may play a role. Also, correlations were found in areas with intensive agriculture. This mimics a 2023 study on European birds that found that intensive agriculture, involving heavy pesticide and fertilizer use, was the main driver of most population declines, especially among birds that eat invertebrates such as insects. But here’s the thing: most terrestrial bird species depend on insects at some point in their life cycles, often when they are young. I wrote previously about the decline in insects, and it appears this could be creating trouble for birds.

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I see these declines as a ripple effect from society’s focus on economic growth and the desire to maximize production. Through that lens, the natural world is viewed as merely a resource to be used for human benefit, and anything that gets in the way of resource extraction, production, and profit must be minimized. This includes agriculture’s desire to grow lots of perfect-looking, shelf-stable produce. To achieve those results, companies like Cargill Inc., Bayer, Corteva Agriscience, Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), and others encourage the use of poisons to kill weeds and “pests” that might hamper harvests or damage the appearance of the produce. This results in unintended consequences, where non- target species and ecosystems suffer as well.

Peter P. Marra, an ornithologist and dean at Georgetown University who specializes in bird populations, is referring to these very costs to the natural world when he says, “The American dream turns into the American nightmare as we start to look at what we’re doing to biodiversity and systems that we depend on as humans.” Even back in 1911 John Muir wrote about this phenomenon of unintended consequences when he said, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”

Climate change is also affecting insects, birds, and the timing of natural cycles. Plus, birds face other pressures, like being eaten by cats, slamming into glass windows during migration, and habitat loss, all on top of the decline in insects that I mentioned before

Which brings us back to vagrant peregrine falcons. Falcons are bird eaters, and within the last several years, falcon watchers have noticed a disturbing phenomenon: nest sites have become less productive. They’ve been seeing some sites with only 1 falcon in attendance during the breeding season. Indicating that the population is declining once again because there are not enough “floaters’ around to fill the vacancies. In other sites, the birds are simply gone.

Bud Anderson, director of the Falcon Research Group in Washington State, stated recently in 2025, “The Peregrines in the San Juan Islands have experienced a calamitous drop. We used to see 16 to 18 pairs there, but this year we only located five active eyries, and only two of them produced young.”

When they have been able to find dead birds (not an easy thing to do), Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has been a recurring factor. According to the USDA, avian influenza was confirmed in more than 50 dead Peregrines nationwide since 2023, but this is certainly much lower than the actual figure.

Added to the mix, a recent study of wild peregrine falcon eggs found concentrations of commonly used fire retardant chemicals 400 times higher than in captive eggs, some of the highest levels ever found in wildlife.

These chemicals, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), are flame retardants ubiquitous in consumer products like electronics and furniture. They have been shown to migrate into the food chain, ultimately accumulating in apex predators (FYI, we’re apex predators and traces have been found in human milk). The health effects of these compounds in mammals range from weakened immune and endocrine systems to neurological effects and potential carcinogenicity. In birds, PBDEs throw their hormones out of whack and can lead to thinner eggshells or chicks that are either much smaller or much larger than normal.

Fortunately, in a bid to phase them out, the production of many of these flame retardants in the U.S. declined sharply from the end of 2004 to 2013. But the compounds can last for decades, meaning it could be generations before these long-lived chemicals truly go away. Added to the mix are their cousins, PFAS, a group of 4,700 substances known for their role in everything from non-stick cookware pans to rain jackets. Scientists are beginning to suspect these, too, can be endocrine-disrupting hazards for living things. So, yeah… we got that going for us too.

Personally, I don’t like to dwell too much on the negative aspects of our world; it’s easy to do and can send one spiraling down dark paths. Instead, I am always looking for a silver lining. Despite the current administration’s blatant pursuit of environmental ignorance and obfuscation, I can see that silver lining glinting in the shadows.

It’s out there among the scores of devoted bird watchers participating in citizen science, using eBird to document and census our bird populations. There’s something auspicious about their efforts. FYI, the word auspicious means “favorable or promising success”; it comes from the Latin auspex, which translates to "bird seer". In ancient Rome, these bird-observers were augurs or priests who studied birds’ flight paths and behavior to read omens and determine conditions for important events. 

There are dedicated teams of wildlife watchers out there monitoring birds and apex predators, our proverbial “canaries in our coal mine”—our sentinels who can warn us of impending danger. We just need to be smart enough to heed their warning.

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July 4th is tomorrow. It will be the United States’ 250th birthday. I was ruminating about what that means to me. How should I feel?

When I was a kid, July 4th was always something to look forward to. Weeks before the date, the fireworks stands started popping up around the neighborhoods: Black Cat, Red Devil, Freedom Fireworks, and others, all advertising they had the best displays. We’d usually buy the family pack, a slightly disappointing but reasonable purchase considering us kids were longing for the huge box of pyrotechnics labeled Block Party. They were all “safe and sane” because in California anything that exploded or went airborne was illegal. Unsafe and insane sounded so much more fun. Occasionally we had proof of that belief when someone who visited Mexico or Wyoming came back with firecrackers, bottle rockets, or something larger.

Finally, the day of the 4^th came. An exciting day. A day that it was okay to play with matches and lighters. Early in the day, we were allowed to light off the snakes or smoke pots, maybe a Piccolo Pete or two, but we had to wait till dark for the main event. We carefully strategized amongst ourselves which pieces we would start with, and which would be our finale. After the BBQ and homemade hand-cranked ice cream, darkness descended and it was time for the show to begin. Cones, fountains, bloom-flowers, and sparklers were ignited one at a time as we sat in our lawn chairs and enjoyed the show. In the background, we could see the glow and hear the distant booms of the municipal displays throughout the city. But too soon it was over, and it was time to go to bed. As a kid, that’s all that the 4^th of July meant for me.

Rarely did I think about our founding fathers or the struggle for independence from a tyrannical monarch. But in eighth grade that changed. We studied the American Revolution and read Johnny Tremain, and my interest in history sparked. At the same time, in 1972, I became aware of alternative viewpoints from those of my parents, staunch Republicans. I was intrigued by some of the opinions stated about our current President, Richard M. Nixon. A big driver broadening my political perspective was comics. The political cartoonist Paul Conrad irritated my father, but I looked at his works, and they resonated with me. But it was Garry Trudeau’s comic strip, Doonesbury, that really made an impact.

Following his cast of characters through the narrative of the 70’s (and beyond) provided a progressive outlook of many events and social phenomena. Watergate, the Vietnam War, oil spills, the oil embargo, the first Earth Day, women’s liberation, gay rights, all served to increase my awareness and perspective of my country’s policies and its standing in the world. That was the beginning. I’ve been interested in politics and history ever since then.

Now we come upon our nation’s 250^th anniversary, not bad for a country, but also not that impressive if you look at other countries or civilizations. Japan, England, Iran, Vietnam, Egypt, and China, among others, have existed for thousands of years. We have a ways to go to match their records.

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How should I feel about our country at 250 years old? If you had asked me that question ten years ago on our 240^th birthday, the answer would have been easy. I would have said proud and optimistic. We were the longest-lived modern democracy in history, and I saw no reason why we couldn’t keep it going. We just had 2 consecutive terms of an articulate, intelligent, African American president, the first ever elected.

We were (and had been for years) the leading country offering foreign aid to other nations. We had good relations with our allies and agreed with them about the need to address climate change. Land was conserved, and renewable energy was growing. We were the top destination for students from other countries to learn about cutting-edge science and business. Millions of previously uninsured people had just gained health coverage. Our country served as a beacon of hope, shining for the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Now however… it’s a different story. We have a convicted felon in the White House who sees his position as all-powerful and a means to an end; and despite what he promises to his legion of marks, that end is to enrich himself and his cronies. It’s not surprising; that’s been his goal his entire life. By bypassing historical ethics rules and blurring the lines between the presidency and personal business, the Trump family has leveraged his position and amassed billions of dollars in profit while in office (it’s true; here’s a great summary).

But Trump, and other leading figures in the MAGApublican party are concerned. They know if Democrats get control of Congress, they will be held responsible for their actions. When talking to MAGA donors, Steve Bannon warned: “…if we lose the midterms, if we lose 2028, some in this room are going to prison – myself included”. Trump told MAGApublicans: “You gotta win the midterms ‘cause, if we don’t win the midterms,…I’ll get impeached.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson warned a crowd at the Faith and Freedom Coalition, “If we were to lose the midterms, heaven forbid, these Democrats—y’all, impeachment’s not even the big concern. They will turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body, and they’ll go after the president’s family, the Cabinet, his donors, and friends—half of you in this room will be targeted. I run the protection program. I’ll take care of you. Ok, we’re gonna win. We’re gonna win the midterms.”

We are entering a critical point in our country’s 250-year history as a democratic republic. The administration is exploiting its power and not even trying to hide the corruption. They have record-low approval ratings with the American people, and they know it. They will desperately try to retain power in any way possible. We can see their desire to control elections. To eliminate mail-in ballots and any other convenience that allows people to easily register and to vote. We know what they are capable of; we all saw what happened on January 6^th.

How do I feel on our nation’s 250^th birthday? Concerned. But also thankful that many people are striving to be on the right side of history. Among them are lower court judges holding the line and select few Republicans who didn’t drink the Kool-Aid. There are dedicated government employees in National Parks, refuges, and other natural areas doing their best despite the neglect of their agencies and parks. Journalists and legal organizations like Democracy Forward, and the many citizens who are standing up for a return to decency. And I am thankful to you readers (especially my paid subscribers!). What shall we do? What are our birthday wishes?

Be vigilant and informed, not apathetic or complacent. Don’t let them divide us; encourage dialogue among one another. We can all hope that the American people will work to elect a government that doesn’t just cater to the top 1%. Instead, we can wish for one that looks ahead to supporting and empowering future generations of ordinary Americans. I anticipate the time when I can once again look at our country with pride and optimism.

Happy 4th of July, everyone. We’ll get back to natural history on the next post!

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When I was a kid, during family vacations, one of the more entertaining actions I liked to watch was my father loading his pipe with tobacco as he drove. Using his knees to steer, he would deftly scoop the pipe into his tobacco pouch, load it up, and tamp it down. Then, with the window cracked, he’d light it up and start puffing away. I never minded, as the pipe tobacco was not nearly as harsh as cigarette tobacco, and the aroma reminded me of him and my grandfather, who also smoked a pipe. My mother tolerated it.

Invariably, though, after he was done and the pipe tucked away, he’d need to spit. He’d snarf up a loogie, roll down the window a little way, and “patooie!” That loogie would sail out the narrow space of the window neat as you please. One time, I figured I could spit just like that, so I rolled down my window the same distance and attempted the same feat. However, due to my novice technique and low mucus viscosity, my attempt to clear the gap to the outdoors did not go well. Then I compounded the problem by immediately trying to clean my failure off with my hands. Decades later, my sister often resurrects this story as one of the funniest and grossest things she has ever witnessed. Loogies can be that way.

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That must be why, in the late spring and early summer, many people are fascinated with the blobs of what look like white loogies all over bushes and plants in the chaparral or in their gardens. Despite their appearances, they are not produced by mucusy humans but by the nymphal stage of a little insect called a Froghopper.

Frog hoppers, not to be confused with leaf hoppers, are cryptically colored with a compact winged body, shaped like a miniature wedge. What’s impressive about them is the ability of their legs to launch them over 100 times their body length; they are truly champion jumpers, better than fleas. For comparison, most athletic humans can jump roughly their own height. Froghoppers, 100 times their body length! Their legs are not muscular but instead more like elastic catapults. During the initial part of their jump, just after the trigger snaps them into action, they will generate a force of over 400 Gs. Astronauts experience a G force of about 5 Gs when blasting off into space.

Adult froghoppers, or spittle bugs as many call them, are long-lived for an insect and can survive for 6 months or so. Before they perish, however, they look to mate. When done, the females will use their knifelike ovipositor to lay one to several dozen eggs inside small stems, spines, shoots, or plant crevices. After overwintering, the eggs will hatch, and the nymphs will emerge to feed on the xylem juices in the plant stems.

This is different than most other sap-feeding insects, which use the “sap” from the nutrient-rich phloem flowing back down from the photosynthetic leaves. The xylem is a much more dilute sap that flows upward from the roots. Normally, insects can’t survive on a diet so low in nutrients, but the froghoppers’ digestive system contains symbiotic bacteria that provide them with the essential amino acids. But they still need to deal with all the excess water they are consuming, and this is where the “spit” comes in. Plant pathologist Joan Allen describes the formation of the spittle,

“The excess [fluid] is expelled through the anus as a watery waste product. It mixes with a mucilaginous fluid produced by glands on the abdomen, and air bubbles are introduced from a special canal by abdominal contractions.”

This creates a white foamy mass that benefits the nymphs by keeping their soft bodies moist and hiding them from potential parasites and predators. A single mass of this mucilaginous spittle can sometimes harbor multiple nymphs. Sometimes they will move to other parts of the plant as they grow through four increasingly larger instars. Eventually, the nymphs will metamorphose into the spectacular leaping adult forms.

So, if you’re out walking and it looks like some kids have been hocking loogies on the bushes, do a little closer observation, maybe even delve into the spittle and move the bubbles around, and you may be able to find one of those cute little spittlebugs hanging out in their home of foam.

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Springtime in the Sierra Nevada foothills can be delightful. The grass is green, the flowers are blooming, birds are singing, vernal pools are filled with water and life, and all the little creeks are burbling over rocks. As the season progresses and the days lengthen and warm, the grass starts to produce seedheads, and the late-season flowers bloom. But, at the same time, a small tannish fly will emerge to seek out bare flesh to feed upon. You rarely feel it, as its legs are deft when it lands and you don’t feel it until right before it begins to feed in earnest. The pain is sharp and sudden, and you look down and see its little butt in the air, eagerly seeking your blood. These deerflies are just one of the insects that can turn a lovely picnic in a foothill meadow into a bad idea.

Those flies are just one of the many arthropods that most humans find annoying, irritating, or painful. Arthropod means jointed legs, and outside of crustaceans, many of the critters in the phylum Arthropoda, like insects and arachnids, are capable of “bugging” us in a big way. Things like ticks, chiggers, mosquitoes, black flies, no-see-ums, biting flies, face flies, eye gnats, ants, termites, cockroaches, bed bugs, fleas, and lice can all cause us grief. Plus, there are things like caterpillars or beetles that eat our crops, or thrips that scar our fruit, and spiders or wasps that are just plain creepy, and could be dangerous.

We, humans, spend a lot of time and money hating and trying to get rid of these “pests”. But when we try to eradicate them or disregard them as just “bugs”, people fail to see that, despite their nuisance, they can be an integral part of our world, and impact many of the things we cherish and love. Everything is connected.

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Years ago, back in the 80’s, I forgot to fill up my windshield wiper fluid while driving across the Central Valley in my 1963 Rambler Classic sedan. The number of insects that quickly accumulated on my windshield became a safety hazard, and turning on the wipers, not realizing I had no fluid, only made it worse as smeared bug innards obscured my view. I had to pull over and use my water bottle to clean off the mess. At the next gas station, I filled up the fluid and noticed house sparrows and blackbirds hopping up and picking dead bugs off all the cars’ grilles. It was like they had their own Uber Eats delivery service.

I couldn’t tell you the last time I had an experience like that; these days, most drives across the valley don’t accumulate such quantities of insects. This trend of reduced bug splats has been studied in several areas and has been named “The Windshield Phenomenon” (or “Windscreen Phenomenon” for those in Europe). Some researchers are now strapping nets to the tops of their cars, attempting to quantify the numbers and diversity of insects present (or not present) as they drive along various corridors.

Some people are thankful for the reduced mess on their cars, but they are oblivious to the meaning of such a change. For example, scientists estimate that around 75% of the world’s crops, which produce about 35% of global food volume, depend on insect pollinators, including bees, beetles, butterflies, moths, and other insects. This doesn’t include the 80% of wild flowering plants out there that need those pollinators, feed wild animals, and provide a feast for the eye in spring blooms.

Unfortunately, insects and other arthropods are experiencing a dramatic decline in numbers worldwide. Exactly how much of a decline is difficult to quantify because nobody thought to measure the vast numbers of insects in the past; there’s no baseline. One study from Germany in 2017 documented a 76% decline in insect biomass over a 27-year period. Another study, this time in Puerto Rico, found that since the 1970s, the biomass of insects and other arthropods in one rainforest had declined by as much as 60-fold. This reduction, in turn, impacted the local populations of insect-eating lizards, frogs, and birds, showing how interconnected ecosystems can be.

Why is this all happening? Indications are that the causes are multifaceted. In tropical areas, factors such as deforestation and conversion to agricultural land play a significant role, and climate change in these warmer regions can shift seasons, disrupt life cycles, and affect the timing of insects and their food sources. The use of pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids, can directly kill the insects, and herbicides can remove the wildflowers and plants necessary for larval development. Then there are things like habitat loss, light pollution, and invasive pests that can also play a role.

What can we do? Surprisingly, there are a fair number of actions that we can all do to help.

• Get rid of your lawn. Plant a diversity of native species that are more friendly to insects. It’s pretty, you’ll have more flowers, and it will also save on your water bill.

• Plant pollinator-friendly plants.

• Reduce or eliminate your use of pesticides and herbicides

• Don’t rake up all your leaves. Leave some leaf litter around the garden after the fall to provide a place for insect larvae to overwinter.

• Get rid of your Bug Zapper or don’t even think about buying one (PLEASE). They indiscriminately kill all flying insects, even good ones.

  

• Limit the amount of outdoor lighting you have.

• Put up a bee house for native bees.

• Change your attitude regarding all those flying, creeping, and crawling critters.

Sure, they bug us, cause irritation, and damage our gardens and crops. But when we focus our attention on more glamorous species like falcons, whales, lions, tigers, and bears (oh my), we lose sight of the interconnectedness of our world. As insect ecologist Scott Hoffman Black says, “We worry about saving the grizzly bear, but where is the grizzly without the bee that pollinates the berries it eats or the flies that sustain baby salmon? Where, for that matter, are we?”

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For more info on how to help, a great resource is the book How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard, by Douglas W. Tallamy. He has other great books as well, including Bringing Nature Home and Nature’s Best Hope. He’s inspired millions to see their own yards as part of the solution to the biodiversity crisis. Check out his website, Homegrown National Park.

For a more in-depth look at this topic, check out this article on the Insect Apocalypse.

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Before the sun crested the horizon, they took off in mass. Thousands of them, rising from the marsh in southern Uruguay. Ancient instinct guided their little, streamlined bodies on quick, tireless wings north over Paraguay and Bolivia, towards the Latin American land bridge connecting North and South America. After their nightly rest, groups of hundreds to thousands of birds continued by day toward their nesting grounds, feeding on flying insects as they made their way northward. This 7,000-mile annual migration of cliff swallows to North America has been made by countless generations. Their single purpose: to find a suitable place with cliffs, water, mud, and insects, to raise the next generation who will continue the ritual.

Traditionally, cliff swallows built their mud nests in the western part of our continent underneath horizontal rock ledges on the sides of steep canyons or on rocky bluffs and escarpments. But as people built buildings, roads with bridges and culverts, the swallows exploited the suitability of these structures for nesting and expanded their range east.

Occasionally, they will nest solitarily, but more often they nest in colonies that can range from several hundred to 2-6000 nests in size. The swallows make numerous trips to their nest sites with mouthfuls of mud from nearby wetlands. These mud pellets are attached to vertical cliff faces, cave entrances, under eaves of buildings, in highway culverts, on dam overhangs, and under bridges to form enclosed, gourd-shaped nests.

Where I live, close to Morro Bay, there is a bridge that has served as perfect habitat for cliff swallows for 60 generations. Right next to the salt marsh, the bridge spans the muddy Los Osos Creek channel. It is prime real estate for the little birds. That is, until this year. The old bridge has reached the end of its lifespan and needs to be replaced.

The new bridge will be built adjacent to the existing structure. Unlike the old bridge, it will have bike lanes and pedestrian access. Once it’s built, the old one will be demolished. The whole project is expected to take almost 2 years to complete and will be a vast improvement. There is one wrinkle, however, the swallows.

Cliff swallows are protected by law under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. It is illegal for any person to take, possess, transport, sell, or purchase them or their parts without a permit. The term “take” means killing, but also includes “harm,” such as “significant habitat modification or degradation” that results in death or injury. Or, by significantly impairing the wildlife’s behavior, such as breeding, feeding, or sheltering.

The construction and demolition of the bridges fall into this category. So, the way to get around impacting them for the 5 to 6 months they are here is to use exclusion measures. Earlier this year, before the swallows arrived, barriers were installed on the existing bridge. They wrapped the whole underside, where the swallows normally nested, with plastic. They also hung wind chimes and plastic owls to discourage the birds and prevent new nests from being built. It worked.

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But there is always a ripple effect on anything done in nature. When the 1000 or more cliff swallows arrived in April from their long journey north, they discovered they had been locked out of their ancestral homes. Instead of being able to nest where generations before them did, they now had to seek new places to raise their families.

It turns out some of those places just happened to be where many of us have raised our families, our houses. For the first time, many people living on the North-east side of Los Osos near the bridge have been beset by swallows seeking eaves to build their mud nests. My house had almost 20 pairs trying to set up residences.

As a naturalist, I found it fascinating and wished in some way I could accommodate them. It would be cool to watch them go through their cycle, watch the food deliveries, and the young fledge. But as a homeowner AND a naturalist, I knew about the mess, smell, ectoparasites, damage, and future ramifications of allowing colony nesters to use my home as their home. Their young would be imprinted on my house and be back next year to add to the colony. Alas, I decided they are not allowed to stay.

I know the rules; it is illegal to interfere with nesting native birds. Completed nests during the breeding season cannot be touched without a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But the keyword is “completed.” So, if you are like me and have swallows trying to move in and you don’t want them, you need to follow the USFWS guidelines: “Wash away mud nests frequently, in between nest construction. They may eventually give up on that site if they are not successful in building a nest. You may only destroy nests that do not have eggs or chicks within.”

Again, if they have eggs or chicks in the nest, you need to let them carry on and fledge young. Enjoy the cycle, notice their interactions. Wonder at the downy babies as they turn into clumsy fledglings. Once they are gone, and the nest is vacant, and you feel like you’ve had enough, then you can take it down. But be prepared for their return next year.

The good news for the South Bay Bridge swallows is that once the new bridge is complete, there will be plenty of nesting spots for the birds. They just need to weather the homeless period, do the best they can, and hopefully find their way back to their home on the bay.

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Hey! If you’re in the neighborhood on June 13th and would like to enjoy an afternoon of music and stories, come to our encore performance of Storytelling with Music in Cambria at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Details below, or visit Cambria Concerts Unplugged for more information and tickets.

Many springs ago, I was leading a group along a trail up one of our coastal peaks. The hills were a soft emerald green, and the grasses were heavy with seed heads, undulating in windwolves loping across the hills with the onshore wind. Lupines, poppies, buttercups, owls’ clover, milkmaids, and other flowers dotted the hillsides. The chaparral was also in bloom with black sage, deerweed, and sticky monkeyflower, adding to the color fest.

I was rambling on about how lucky we were to spend time in such a beautiful place, especially when everything was in full bloom. I stopped, turned to the group, and remarked that I believed Emerson was right when he said, “The earth laughs in flowers.” Several people smiled and nodded, but one woman was not on the same wavelength. Her eyes were watery and red, and as she wiped her nose, she looked back at me and said, “Others may like it, but this is the worst time of year for me. I’m allergic to pollen.”

As I had never really suffered from any allergies, it never dawned on me that where some saw beauty, others saw an assault on their immune system. I immediately felt sorry for her and others afflicted by the curse of tiny airborne packets of sperm cells.

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Reproduction in living things usually means that two separate organisms must meet up and exchange reproductive material. The problem plants have is that they can’t really get up and wander around to find their partner. As a result, their workaround is to produce highly motile, lightweight male gametes, or sperm cells, that can be delivered to their partners by wind or by animals.

Around 80-90% of plant species use animals to distribute their pollen. These can be insects like bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, moths, and beetles, as well as birds and some mammals such as bats and lemurs. Only around 10-20% of plant species use wind, but here’s the rub for all you allergy sufferers: those wind pollinators account for almost 90% of all individual plants! So, when we have those high-pollen count days, we must blame it on the grasses and trees that inhabit our grasslands, meadows, and forests. They’re the ones pumping out their airborne male reproductive material in the hopes of finding a receptive female stigma to stick to, and it’s the pollen’s stickiness that’s the issue.

When I’ve looked at microscopic photos of pollen, I figured it was all their spikes and protrusions that irritated our eyes, noses, and throats. But that’s not the case. It’s the proteins that form the sticky covering found on the surface of pollen grains (called a pollenkit) that make our immune system overreact. The pollenkit surrounding the pollen grain is a signature blend of chemicals and proteins that enable the female structure to instantly recognize a pollen grain from its own species and allow fertilization, and in some cases, prevent self-fertilization.

The bad news for allergy sufferers is that in a warming world with higher atmospheric CO2 levels, scientists are seeing longer pollen seasons and plants producing vastly more pollen than when grown in atmospheres with less CO2.

But let’s end with good news. Our wildflower displays and color fests, seen every year on our hills and in our gardens, are largely not to blame for high pollen counts. Plants that are insect-pollinated have particularly sticky and heavier pollen. That way, it will adhere more readily to the visitors they have enticed to their blooms by their fancy colors, scents, and secretions. The real culprits are those inconspicuous grass and tree flowers that produce those lightweight airborne packets of sperm cells.

So, it turns out we can continue to trust Emerson every spring. The Earth does indeed laugh in flowers.

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A while back, one of my friends asked me what my biggest green footprint was. An interesting question. I’m aware of what a carbon footprint is, but I’ve never considered a green footprint.

As a quick review for those a little fuzzy about this concept, your carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases, that are released into the atmosphere due to our actions. It has become a way to measure the impact human activities have on climate change.

We all impact the earth in some way, and we always have, but in our modern society, the level of convenience offered to us in the Oil Age has seriously ramped up our carbon footprint in so many ways. From our personal transportation and heating needs to indirect things like emissions associated with the production, packaging, transportation, and disposal of the goods and services we consume.

Despite attempts by The Felon’s administration in Washington, D.C. to deny the abundant evidence that humans are impacting our atmosphere, people, organizations, and companies are paying attention to the experts. They are becoming more aware of these impacts and making efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. These efforts are what I think my friend meant by a green footprint. In other words, what actions do I undertake that reduce my carbon footprint and foster a more “green”, lower-carbon future?

There are many things that we don’t have much personal control over, like overfishing, deforestation, pervasive plastic packaging, and our overall reliance on fossil fuels. But each of us, in our own way, can start making greener footprints in how we conduct our lives and how we consume our resources.

We will always kill things, no getting around it. Even the most strident non-violent, conscientious animal rights advocate kills animals in their daily existence. Driving a car from place to place kills hundreds of insects, sometimes thousands, depending on the season. The harvesting, packaging, distribution, and disposal of vegan food items in stores kill animals as well. Without death, we can’t have life. Even Simba’s dad in The Lion King echoed this truth, and we can’t evade it.

We can, however, try to minimize the killing, and that can go a long way to increasing our green footprint. Numerous studies have shown the benefits of a plant-based diet not only for atmospheric carbon emissions and the natural world, but also for the health of the person following it. So, in general, the less meat you consume, the bigger your green footprint.

But if you are like me and still enjoy dining on flesh once in a while, chicken is greener than beef or pork, and one can always look for sustainably raised, organic, grass-finished beef to eat. Note, not “grass fed”, because that can mean cows raised in a pasture but still finished with grain in a feedlot.

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Plus, there are other, simple things we can do. Here’s a list of ten simple things in no particular order.

· Drive less: Can you bike, walk, take the bus, carpool, or combine trips to maximize the efficiency of your trip? Can you afford an E.V.?

· Reduce your food waste: Be conscious of what you buy so as not to have food spoil. If it does, compost it, or put it in the green waste so it can be composted by your local green waste facility, rather than being buried in a landfill where it will release methane into the atmosphere.

· Reuse as much as you can, as opposed to utilizing single-use, disposable items or buying new items.

· Just buy less stuff. Use the mantra I heard my grandmother tell me: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without, which was probably the way folks operated during the depression

· Buy in bulk: This helps reduce packaging and avoid, as much as you can, single-use plastics!

· Bring reusable bags to the grocery store, or any store for that matter.

· Wash your clothing in cold water. The enzymes in cold water detergent clean better in cold water. Doing two loads of laundry weekly in cold water instead of hot or warm water can save up to 500 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.

· Turn the lights off when you leave the room and unplug your electronic devices when they are not in use.

· Recycle, especially aluminum. Maybe we’ll talk a little more about that in another post.

· Pick up litter. It is a policy of mine to pick up at least 1 piece of litter every single day; sometimes I do more than that. When was the last time you picked up a random piece of litter? How often do you do it? What if everyone did that?

But, back to the original question, what is my biggest green footprint? I would have to say my career choice is probably my biggest green footprint, teaching children AND adults about nature and the environment. I think understanding science and nature is the first step to respecting and caring for the natural world, and wanting to do good by it. Ecological ignorance breeds indifference. I don’t want people to be indifferent to the natural world on which we all depend. I want people to make a difference.

Finally, I encourage you all to look a little harder at your lifestyle, your carbon footprint. What’s a change you can make that will help increase your green footprint and reduce your carbon footprint? I gave you some suggestions, but that’s not all the choices out there. If you can think of any others, feel free to note them in the comments.

At the bare minimum, just talk to people about climate change. Include it in your conversations because it’s happening, it’s a reality. It’s something we all will be dealing with as the years go by. Don’t be shy or apprehensive about bringing it up around people who may be skeptical or hostile about the concept. They are the very folks who need to be engaged on the issue. But don’t barrage them with facts and doomsday scenarios. Instead, find common ground. Find out why they are anxious about climate change policies, and what they are concerned about, and try to understand their point of view so you can better frame your points to address those issues. Katharine Hayhoe’s book Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World has great info towards that end, or subscribe to her Substack.

The solutions to reducing humanity’s carbon footprint will only come about with cooperation and understanding. Let’s use our green toes to help grow that effort.

See what I did there? Green toes, as opposed to green thumbs….

Okay, we’re done here. Happy Earth Day.

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During the annual community compost giveaway this spring, I was talking to a couple of long-time gardeners from Northern San Luis Obispo County. They remarked that this was the first year in their memory that they had tomato vines from last year still in the ground, alive and budding with new growth. “Usually the frosts kill them”, they said, “But this year it never froze. It was weird.” I can concur; in our coastal location, we barely dropped into the 30’s this winter. In fact, it’s been decades since I’ve seen a hard freeze in our area, whereas 30 years ago, there were many evenings when we’d be watering and wrapping plants to protect them from frost. Only to wake up in the morning to see melted and burned plants we had overlooked.

Those of you old enough, think back in your own life, in your own area, has the weather changed from the past? Are heat waves more frequent, weather patterns more persistent, and overall temperatures just not as cold? Have the ecosystems and landscape changed? If you’re observant, you can’t help but say yes.

Take this March, for example, it was far different than anything we’ve experienced in recorded history. Dr. Daniel Swain, on his fantastic Weather West blog, comments,

“Preliminary data suggests it was likely among the most statistically anomalous extreme heat events ever observed in the American Southwest–not just in March, or even the cool season broadly, but at any time of year. In other words: there has never been, in all of recorded history, a Southwestern U.S. heat event that yielded departures from typical seasonal temperatures as large as what were observed during the March 2026 event. And it’s not even close, as this striking visualization from Nahel Belgherze below illustrates.

We are seeing changes in our local environments accelerate. Glaciers are diminishing worldwide. Record-high ocean temperatures are being observed around the globe, resulting in mass coral bleaching. Storms are more intense, and forests are burning at an alarming rate to the point we have added another season, “Smoke Season”.

The reason for all these changes has been known for decades, and the consequences predicted for years. We are now seeing them come to fruition in our lifetime because people in power in the past chose to focus on profits, hide the truth, obfuscate the evidence, and lie to the public.

Let’s go back to the 1970’s to see what I mean. A group of researchers wanted to find out whether the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, as shown in the famous Keeling Curve, came from fossil fuels.

Carbon comes in many forms, and a tiny fraction of naturally occurring carbon is radioactive and decays into other atoms over time. All living things absorb both regular and radiocarbon into their tissues, and when they die, the tiny amount of radiocarbon in their bodies begins to decay away. This is the principle behind carbon dating. Fossil fuels are the remnants of life that existed millions of years ago; they contain no radioactive carbon atoms because they decayed long ago. When we burn fossil fuels, it adds carbon, but not radiocarbon, to the atmosphere.

Living things absorb both types of carbon from the atmosphere during their lives, and the ratio in them reflects the atmospheric fractions when they absorbed them. All the scientists had to do was find some biological material whose age and growth conditions are accurately known, then measure the ratio of radioactive carbon to non-radioactive carbon it contains to determine the contribution of fossil fuels. It turns out the perfect material that had these documented parameters was well-aged, vintage French wine. That was probably a pretty entertaining study.

This same group of scientists also outfitted a large ship with sensors to measure the dynamics of atmospheric and ocean CO2 gas exchange. Their conclusions from these studies were solid; the atmosphere was indeed accumulating carbon dioxide and not the radioactive kind. It came from fossil fuels.

What’s interesting is who funded these scientists, paid for the wine, and provided them with the ship. It was Exxon. In the 1970s, it made sense for an energy company to understand the science and facts behind energy resources. So, Exxon built a robust, impartial science program to leverage federal science funding. After the studies were completed, the information was shared with the board of directors, and the implications became obvious.

Continued production and use of fossil fuels would cause warming temperatures, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels. If policymakers found out, then regulations on emissions would follow, and their entire business model would have to change. So, what to do? Let the world warm of course.

An internal memo from 1988 made their strategy clear: “emphasize the uncertainty”. The American Petroleum Institute created a global “climate science team” to not do science but propaganda. In a leaked memo, they said: “Victory will be achieved when average citizens understand uncertainties in climate science and when recognition of uncertainty becomes part of the conventional wisdom.”

Kate Marvel, a widely known former NASA climate scientist and author of the book Human Nature, where I read about this story, says, “We are just as sure that Exxon and its ilk lied about climate change as we are about the reality of climate change itself.”

I wish I could say that was all in the past and we’ve moved on to trusting our own eyes, experiences, and the scientific studies done by experts, but sadly, it’s not so. The Felon’s administration has taken a chainsaw to anything scientifically related to climate change, like eliminating the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and defunding projects to protect communities from the consequences of climate change. They plan to terminate 2 satellite missions that measure atmospheric carbon dioxide and crop health. They want to shut down atmospheric data collection from Mauna Loa and three other observatories, and repeal virtually all greenhouse gas regulations.

They’ve also changed the EPA's mission from protecting human health and the environment to pursuing “energy dominance,” speeding the approval of new oil and gas pipelines, bolstering the automobile industry, and pledging to “make the United States the Artificial Intelligence capital of the world.”

When it comes to climate change, Brigit Hirsch, a spokeswoman for the EPA, said, “The era of E.P.A. as a vehicle for radical ideology is over.” She further stated that they intend to return the agency to… “gold standard science, not doomsday models designed to scare the public into compliance.” I wonder how they will accomplish this “gold standard” when 95,000 workers have left federal science agencies through layoffs, and of those, an estimated 10,000 held doctorate degrees in the sciences. Kate Marvel herself has resigned from NASA, stating the administration’s actions made it impossible to remain at an agency that she loved. “It wears you down after a while.”

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Just like Exxon in the 70’s, this administration is trying to hide the evidence, lie to the public, and create uncertainty about climate change, but I don’t think it’s going to work. The evidence is all around us. We can all see it, with our tomato vines surviving through the winter, and we can smell it with the increasing number of smoke-filled days, and feel it with warmer ocean temperatures, and with each bead of sweat rolling down our temples, the climate is changing.

The science behind climate change isn’t “settled” (it never is, that’s the nature of science), but as Dr. Andrew Dressler, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Director of the Texas Center for Extreme Weather, said,

“I would note that, because of its economic implications, climates science has been one of the most scrutinized and reproduced area of science in history, and it has held up remarkably well under that scrutiny. That alone means it deserves to be taken far more seriously than the E.P.A. appears to be taking it.”

Yes, the climate has changed in the past, but we understand exactly what is causing present-day climate change: human beings burning fossil fuels. It’s good to have this knowledge because that means we know exactly how to stop the warming. As Kate Marvel says in her book:

“Imagine if greenhouse gases were not the culprit: imagine if climate change was caused by a force beyond our understanding or control. That would be a far more terrifying world, if a less shameful one. But the same science that establishes that greenhouse gases are responsible for climate change also shows us that when we cease to emit them, the global temperature will stabilize. When we accept our own responsibility, we gain a powerful truth: how bad it gets is up to us. The future is still in human hands.”

The good news is that despite the attempts by the Felon’s administration, people are taking action. Check out The Anti-Doom Initiative from Crooked Ideas, which highlights “the projects already moving towards solving the climate crisis, and those in the pipeline that we need to get over the finish line.”

If you want to read more Kate Marvel, I recommend her book Human Nature, Nine Ways to Feel about our Changing Planet. It’s a witty, wise, inspiring read.

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We hate them. Except for a few birds that eat the plump, juicy ones, most mammals, reptiles, and birds probably wish they didn’t exist. They do not run, hop, jump, or fly, and they are blind. All they do is sit on the ends of grasses and other plants, forelimbs extended, patiently waiting for a warm body to pass by. Once one comes within an limb’s length, they’ll grab the animal’s fur, feathers, clothing, or scales and climb up, always up, to a spot where they can dine on the host’s blood. Ticks. Patient as a tick, I always say.

In Coastal California, we can find ticks year-round, but I always associate the beginning of the rainy season with the start of tick season. During the dry seasons, we occasionally find a dog or deer tick on the trails, but once the rains start, the western black-legged ticks emerge in force.

One of my good friends, John, is a fantastic naturalist and perceives the world through a lens shaded by that perspective. I’d like to share an email I received from him describing the walk he regularly does in Montana de Oro State Park.

Subject: A fine morning or 9,736 legs

I hike the 3 mile Coon/Rattlesnake loop on a regular basis. I noticed tick abundance picked up around mid-November and I’ve given friends doing that trail a heads-up that I’ve been seeing at least 40 to 50 every time I do the loop lately. Did the loop today and it was fine tick weather - upper 50’s, overcast, misty - so they stayed out on the ends of the grasses and vegetation. I got a wild hair to count them. Had never done a tick survey before and it sounded fun to me today. Usually that loop takes me about 60 minutes going at a brisk enough pace to get my heart rate up and get sweaty. Today my slow tick survey took over 4 hours. Every time I noticed ticks I’d break off the vegetation they clung to, to count them, then toss them at least 5 feet off the trail. I’d love to do a mark recapture study to see how many end up back on the edge of the trail after that treatment. Their non-random distribution interests me and I’d bet it’s more sophisticated than they are just dropping off hosts along the trail. Anyway, my grand total of ticks tossed ended up at 1,217. I bet I missed a few hundred. For example, they’re very hard to see on deerweed at the trail’s edge. A few times I’d grab some deerweed just to see if any were on it and I often found ticks. I passed a lot of deerweed.

Probably 90% of them were within one foot of the trail and virtually all were within two feet (but of course that’s where I focused). I’d periodically survey farther than two feet and rarely saw any. If a large grass clump with last year’s seed stalks radiating out in all directions had ticks, they’d almost all be on the trail side.

Elevation distribution: On the low end, almost all were higher than a brush rabbit’s torso (but many would catch a rabbit’s ears) and on the high end they’d hit a deer’s belly with most just right to latch on to a coyote or bobcat or deer legs. I’m no tick expert and I didn’t try to ID them, but my gut feeling was by far the most abundant species was the western black-legged tick but there also seemed to be a lot of Pacific Coast ticks.

I did feel a bit of guilt. I took 1,217 ticks from prime host encounter locations and tossed them into the hinterlands. Bad tick karma.

John

So, be aware out there, everyone, it is indeed tick season. Pay attention to where you walk, tuck your shirt in, and wear light-colored clothing, which makes it easier to find the ticks when you stop for your periodic tick checks. Some like to tuck their pant legs into their socks to prevent ticks from getting inside the pant legs and crawling up to… well, you get the picture, it’s a bad place to get a tick.

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If you do get a tick embedded in your skin, extract it as soon as possible, but take your time doing it. Don’t rush; if the tick has been in there for a while, it has secreted a substance that cements its mouth to your skin, and it will take a while to get it out. There are several good tick removal tools out there, or fine-tip tweezers work well to pull the tick up and out of your skin, slowly. Most experts recommend against using nail polish, alcohol, petroleum jelly, or heat to get them out. These methods could make the tick vomit into the bite site, exposing you to any potential viruses or diseases they may carry.

If you are really concerned about ticks and possibly contracting Lyme disease, consider using a repellent, like DEET for your skin and Permethrin for your clothes. Lemon Eucalyptus Oil is also an effective deterrent, and there are several natural sprays available, but you will need to reapply them more often. Just don’t let those little arachnids (they’re not insects) prevent you from getting out and enjoying our wonderful parks and trails. It’s beautiful out there this time of year.

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The other day, my wife came home perplexed by an older couple who freaked out about seeing our dog on the boardwalk in the nearby nature preserve. The woman screamed, and the man cowered in the bushes until she walked by. It was very strange. Obviously, they’ve had a bad experience with dogs in the past, and despite our dog being well behaved and super friendly, especially to old people (they move more slowly, and are more predictable than kids), they wanted nothing to do with him.

Almost all the dogs I’ve owned had some sort of herding dog in them. Usually a mix of either border collie, Australian shepherd, Queensland heeler, or all of the above. These breeds are working dogs, and I love watching YouTube videos of them working sheep, cattle, or even ducks or little kids. But since my dogs never had the opportunity to work livestock, they needed another job of some sort to expend their mental or physical energy. The easiest way to do that has always been playing fetch with balls or frisbees. If they can go out and get physically exhausted chasing the orb or disc several times a week, if not once a day, they’re happy.

But they can also have other “jobs”, too. Herding the cat, getting the paper (when there were papers to get), helping to unwrap presents, or deconstructing cardboard boxes are also “jobs” my dogs have engaged in. My current dog has decided that his job when we go out on walks is to greet other people and get them to give him praise for how handsome he is and how beautiful his coat is. Then he needs to get them to pet him and cap it off by having them give him a good butt rub. After that has been accomplished, it’s on to the next person we meet. He also remembers who it is who likes him, and if we see them again, he gets pretty excited. He’ll woof and wag his tail in greeting.

Luckily, we live in a town with lots of walkers who either have dogs or like dogs, so this “job” works out for him. Then there are the occasional folks (like those my wife encountered) who, as we get close, become obvious that they are not comfortable or are inexperienced around dogs. When that happens, I tell him to go to the other side of me, so I am between them and him. He’s a little disappointed, but they’re relieved. Many of them don’t know how to interpret his woofing, believing it to be aggressive despite his loose, wagging tail and relaxed ears. Then there are some who want to greet my dog (and other new dogs), but it’s obvious they do not understand how to do it.

I greet new dogs much like I greet small children I’ve never met. I do not immediately get enthusiastic and bouncy wanting to play; that’s a sign of immaturity or instability. Nor do I go up to the child (or dog) and look them directly in the face, loom over them, and try to touch them. In any animal language, that is an aggressive, dominating move.

Instead, it’s best to just confidently stand your ground with relaxed positive energy, and avoid eye contact with them while you talk to the parent or dog owner first. Then greet the dog or child. The dog (and the child, too) will be looking to see how their parents respond to this new stranger and judging what their response should be as well.

Once the dog realizes you pose no threat, talk to them in a friendly voice, and ask the owner if it is all right to pet them. They may be training the dog and don’t want you to interfere. If it’s okay, then let the dog come to you.

There is no need to stick your hand out to let them sniff you; by now, they’ve already smelled you and interpreted much about your condition. (Plus, if the dog happens to be nervous or a biter, you’ve just presented some nice, tender fingers to nip.) By this time, you’ll be able to tell if the dog wants to be touched by its demeanor and body language (tail wagging, relaxed ears, open mouth, etc.) Reach out with a loose fist, not over their head, but under the chin or chest, and then give them a scratch or two. If they’re receptive, they’ll lean in for more. When that happens, then you can get low and really get to know your new friend.

If you have kids, especially smaller kids, I like the recommendation the AKC gives for them to use, the “Be a Tree” technique.

“…standing still, with your arms tucked into your sides and your hands folded in front of you, while you look down. This is the safest posture for kids around a loose dog because they aren’t doing anything to threaten or spook the dog like making eye contact or triggering the dog’s chase response with movement. Practice this posture with a friendly dog until it comes naturally to your child.”

Once they can pet the dog, remind them that most dogs would rather not be patted on the head or face, nor do they like to be hugged by a stranger like a stuffed animal.

Once you know all the rules and techniques for greeting a new dog, you (and your child) can safely and confidently greet any new furry friend you may encounter.

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When I drive in L.A, I’m a different person. Having grown up in the area, I find myself reverting to a more aggressive, hyper-vigilant, defensive driver, especially on the freeways. It’s necessary. One must adapt to the ribbons of asphalt, 10 lanes filled with metal and plastic compartments streaming along at high speed, all containing humans habituated to suicidal behavior. Stopping distance? Ha! That’s a pipe dream. It isn’t until I’m heading home and get north of Santa Barbara that I find myself relaxing, especially this time of year when the hills, green with grass, welcome me back to the Central Coast.

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Back when native Americans were the only folks around this area, the hills didn’t quite look like this. Instead, botanists think they had a more textured, bumpy appearance from the native bunchgrasses that grew over the area. These grasses didn’t produce prodigious amounts of seeds. It wasn’t necessary; they were perennial with extremely deep roots, perfectly adapted to the dry soils in which they grew. Some individuals lived as long as 200 years! The space between the bunches was filled with bulbs and wildflowers, creating the colorful quilt-like appearance of flowers and grass reported by early California explorers and settlers.

The arrival of the Europeans with their cattle, horses, and sheep changed all of that. Unlike the native elk and antelope, which only ate the tips, the domestic livestock grazed them to the ground, often uprooting them. To add insult to injury, the imported livestock deposited European grass seeds either stuck on their coats or, more often, dropped in their dung from the imported European feeds. Having a longer evolutionary history with these grazers, these grasses, like oats, rye, foxtail barley, and bromes, were genetically superior to the bunchgrasses in dealing with these new conditions. They produced more seed and outcompeted the natives so that now our green hills are largely composed of annual grasses and “weeds” from the old world.

Around Los Osos and Montana de Oro, another grass from another part of the world has also made its impact. It is a native of the Veld grasslands in the southernmost part of the African continent, Ehrharta calycina, otherwise known as African Veldt grass. It is all too present in our central coastal communities. It was originally imported for erosion control and fodder for cattle in our area, but also imported to Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, India, and several other countries. It especially likes disturbed areas and sandy soils. In many of these locations, it’s become a major invasive plant pest.

When the veldt grass moves in, it takes over, and the diversity of plant species plummets. This has a ripple effect on the habitat suitability for animals, so their numbers decrease as well. Take a walk into the dunes north of Spooners Cove in Montana De Oro State Park, and one can see that the area is predominantly veldt grass with a few tenacious native shrubs scattered about. Without the grass, the area would house numerous other species of shrubs and wildflowers.

Unfortunately, eradicating it is a never-ending labor-intensive task. Just ask the folks who maintain the El Morro Elfin Forest. Only through diligent hand-weeding efforts year after year have we been able to maintain the preserve relatively free of this invader. Every spring, a legion of “Weed Warriors” spreads out through the preserve to search for and uproot these plants; after all, just one plant can produce thousands of seeds. Yes, some grasses can cause us aggravation, but many grasses are essential for our survival.

Trees can make paper and give us fruits, bushes can provide berries, herbs, and flowers, but when we look at the big picture, grasses are actually unsung heroes. Grasslands cover 20% -40% of the world’s land area, and there are over 10,000 species of grass. Not to mention, ten of the top 15 food crops are grasses. One would be hard pressed to find meals that don’t rely in some shape or way on grass seeds like wheat, corn, rice, rye, oats, barley, and more. Whether eaten directly, or as food for animals we use, grass indeed feeds the world; it can cause us frustration at times… but does give us our green hills of spring.

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Years ago, before what he used to call “Outlaw Nights”, my friend Zak introduced me to the phrase “Everything in moderation, including moderation”. It makes sense, moderation is important, but every once in a while, you need to go wild and just indulge. Get out and enjoy yourself, and don’t stress about it. Just remember to pull back to moderation when you’re done. That’s the philosophy I take during the winter holiday season. I’m going to eat, drink, and indulge in whatever I want for those couple of weeks. It’s feast time. Then, when it’s over, and the calendar flips to January 2^nd, I’m back to being good, mostly.

That’s the concept of Dry January, something people practiced for years until it became an official thing in 2014, developed and delivered by UK charity Alcohol Change UK. Since then, it has spread, and estimates are that up to 13-15% of Americans participate in this tradition of abstaining from alcohol in January. Although I don’t normally participate in Dry January, I commend those who do.

Unfortunately, I was forced to participate in Dry January this year, though. Joining me in this abstention from drink were the rest of the plants and ecosystems throughout Central and Southern California. And the fluid we didn’t get wasn’t alcohol, it was rain. We had a wonderfully wet November and December; the rivers rose, reservoirs gained water, and the hills turned green, but come January, it stopped. The tap from the Pacific turned off, and it’s been dry ever since. Well, to be truthful, there was a ¼ inch of rain that fell one night just in Los Osos and Morro Bay, but other than that, it’s been dry, dry, dry, and unseasonably warm with temperatures in the 70s and even 80s.

People are constantly remarking about what lovely weather we’re having. While I understand what they mean, it irritates me. If it were April or May, I would agree with them, but we are in the middle of our rainy season and need to be banking water and snow. Rainy days are lovely weather this time of year.

Those warm “lovely weather” days also have a dark side. The plants are confused, and many native plants and fruit trees around the area are budding or blooming weeks or months ahead of schedule. This has implications for wildlife, especially birds. Many insects time their breeding and egg-laying with the plants' peak growth, which is before blooming. That way, their larvae/caterpillars will have lots of food. These, in turn, are a critical food source for nestlings of neotropical migrant birds that breed in California. Unfortunately, these birds stand a chance of missing out on this feast because they have yet to migrate back to our area. This is just one of the impacts of a warming world.

Now, I know some of you may be thinking, wait, how can we talk about global warming when there is snow falling in Florida, and most of the eastern half of the country has been in a deep freeze for weeks? Good question, I’m glad you asked it. Let’s nerd out on some weather basics for a bit.

The east is cold because the west is warm. The West is warm due to a blocking ridge, or bubble of high pressure. Look at the map at the beginning of my post, and you will see the omega-shaped jet stream that results from being blocked by the high pressure over the west coast. This pushes the upper-level air up over the Arctic and Canada, where it cools, then shoots that frigid air into the Midwest and south, causing ice, snow, and record low temperatures. These undulations are what scientists call atmospheric Rossby Waves. There’s a cool video below from the NOAA website showing them.

Rossby waves naturally occur in rotating fluids. Within the Earth’s ocean and atmosphere, these planetary waves play a significant role in shaping weather. This animation from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center shows both long and short atmospheric waves as indicated by the jet stream. The colors represent the speed of the wind, ranging from slowest (light blue colors) to fastest (dark red).

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So, yes, record lows have been set in the United States and other areas. But most of the planet has seen a strong decrease in extreme cold events, most notably in the high-latitude northern hemisphere regions. The worldwide trend is that record highs currently outpace record lows by a 2-to-1 ratio, and that ratio is rising rapidly. See the chart below.

This ratio disparity ties into our Dry January because one of the drivers of our jet stream is the temperature difference between the cold air over the Arctic to the north and the milder air to the south. As the Arctic warms, it loses sea ice, which normally reflects energy from the sun. Instead, that energy is now absorbed by the ocean, causing further warming, which reduces the difference between the regions' temperatures.

Theories indicate that as the Arctic warms, it could alter the strength, position, and duration of these blocking events in the northern hemisphere, making them more frequent. We’re already starting to see that happen in weather patterns around the globe, with stationary air masses that sit around creating extended periods of heat or cold.

Some researchers claim this is no different from situations in the past, but time will tell how this all plays out. Especially as we humans continue to conduct this long-term experiment of increasing carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere to levels never before seen in human history.

Thankfully, we’re not having a dry February! As I sit here, I’m watching the white-crowned sparrows take baths in the waterdrops left on the grass blades by the recent storm. We’re having “lovely weather,” wonderful, lovely, cloudy, rainy weather.

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My current dog is spoiled. He’s the first dog I’ve owned that gets to sleep inside on a custom dog bed. All my other dogs slept outside in a doghouse. The doghouse was nicely furnished with soft bedding and pillows, and if it got down to freezing, we’d let him sleep inside. Otherwise, they slept outside. I always felt they were in charge of perimeter defense, my early warning system. We never had issues back then of critters getting into our garden or messing with our rabbits. The dog took care of that.

I remember nights lying in bed, listening to my first dog sprinting across the yard, growling a woof, woof, woof, then slamming into the fence as he lunged to catch a critter scrambling along the top. I always listened carefully to hear if he might need backup if he tangled with a raccoon; they’re tough customers. Most of the time, he handled himself pretty well; rats, ground squirrels, and gophers were his main prey. He’d dispatch them and eat them, crunching up the bones. One morning, I went out to feed him breakfast, and he was in no mood to eat. That was unusual. Upon further investigation, I found that he had eaten half an opossum overnight! So that’s what the noise was. I felt bad about it. I like opossums.

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While opossums may look like big, scary rats, they are actually pretty cool creatures. There are over 125 different species of opossum in the Americas, but the only one that lives here in North America is the Virginia Opossum. It’s the only animal in our area representing the marsupial order Didelphimorphia. Didelphimorphia comes from the Ancient Greek words for “two” (di) and “wombs” (delphus). Because the female opossum does indeed have a bifurcated reproductive tract, meaning they have two uteri and two vaginal canals. Which may lead one to wonder how that matches up with a male opossum’s reproductive system, and the answer is perfectly, because male opossums have a two-pronged penis. We don’t need to get into the details of that arrangement, but suffice it to say it’s worked quite well for them for millions of years.

Sometime between February and June, the opossums will mate, and after about 12 weeks, the female will give birth to 20 bee-sized young. These clawed, embryonic-looking babies will crawl their way from the uterus to the mom’s pouch, where the first joeys to arrive get to latch onto one of her 13 nipples. The rest are out of luck.

The joeys will stay in mom’s pouch for about 2-3 months before they emerge to hang out with their mother for another 100 days. They literally hang out, or maybe I should say hang on, their mother, hitching a ride, clinging to their mother’s back as she scavenges for food.

As far as food goes, opossum’s diets are pretty wide ranging, they’ll eat pretty much so anything they can get their little paws with opossable thumbs on, fruit, insects, worms, birds, eggs, snails, rats, mice, carrion, small reptiles, even rattlesnakes; and if they get bit by a rattlesnake, no worries, they’re immune to the venom, plus they have a naturally high immunity to many diseases

The more famous attribute of opossums is their ability to “play dead,” which scientists call “tonic immobility”. Opossums don’t have the monopoly on this skill, as many invertebrates, reptiles, birds, and other organisms display this behavior when confronted with a threat. The opossum will enter a catatonic state, becoming limp, with its mouth open, showing its teeth (50 of them, the most of any land mammal), and sometimes foaming at the mouth. Their breathing slows, and they may even release a foul-smelling liquid to make it seem like they’re rotting, discouraging the predator from trying to eat them. It’s usually a pretty effective deterrent, except when they’re scavenging a roadkill and they try it with an oncoming car, or a dog as persistent as mine was.

Overall, if you don’t mind losing a few pieces of overripe fruit, having opossums in your yard isn’t a bad thing. They don’t make permanent nests or burrows; they just want to stay out of sight and come out at night. I always appreciate critters that add a little wildness to our suburban existence.

For more information about these critters, there is a National Opossum Society (of course there is) or the Opossum Society of the United States (OSUS). Check them out, they both have all sorts of good info about these critters and how to deal with orphans if you find one.

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You may have noticed that lately I’ve been ruminating and writing about the topics of (Diversity, & Migration, Immigration, Emigration). With the recent events in Minnesota and the comments and posts I’ve seen from some of my more conservative acquaintances, I’ve been motivated to express my view on the issue. Especially when they say we should show more respect towards the federal “law enforcement” officers, who are just trying to do their job, and we shouldn’t do anything to hinder that.

I think context matters.

So, let’s look at this situation in Minnesota, and go back to why ICE officers are even there in the first place. Were there problems that the local authorities couldn’t handle, and they needed the help of federal agents? Did the mayor, police chief, Governor, or any local authorities ask for help from the federal government? Did they want them there? No, the fraud cases people made a big deal about in that state had already been investigated and handled by federal agents, with over 60 people convicted.

When they did arrive, against everyone’s wishes, the local authorities asked them to leave, and they’re still asking them to leave. They don’t like their agenda or tactics and have encouraged their citizens to document their actions peacefully. Some people contrast that attitude with other states where ICE operations have been conducted without as much outrage. Great, send the agents there to the other places where the local authorities, and apparently some of the citizens, want them.

ICE was sent to Minnesota for one reason: intimidation. Because Steven Miller and the Trump administration wanted to send a message to a blue city in a blue state that has the highest Somali immigrant population in the nation. These are people (many of whom are citizens) whom Trump has repeatedly called out as being “dirty”, “filthy,” and “garbage”.

One of the more frightening aspects is that this is being conducted by a “police force” created by the federal government that is, as V.P. Vance says, protected with “absolute immunity” from prosecution over their actions. I think all Americans need to ask, do we really want a federal police force with “absolute immunity” working for a volatile leader who might one day feel things are not going his way? That’s an incredibly bad precedent.

By the way, equating ICE officers with city police or sheriff deputies is insulting to the police. ICE officers get 4 to 8 weeks’ worth of training before being sent to work. Police training typically lasts 8 – 12 months before officers are sent into the field, during which they receive extensive instruction on how to de-escalate situations and effectively interact with people. The results of the lack of training and professionalism among many ICE agents are evident.

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Look, I believe we need secure borders with big gates, with a well-funded, well-staffed, legal immigration infrastructure. I also believe that if ICE were only deporting violent or convicted criminals, there wouldn’t be such outrage, but that’s not the case. By D.H.S.’s own records, last year only 5% of individuals detained had violent criminal convictions. In fact, only 27% had any convictions at all. 73% of the immigrants detained had no convictions. They’re just people seeking a better life. Many were even arrested while in courthouses or offices attempting to do the right thing and go through the proper channels to renew their green cards or validate their paperwork.

For example, last spring, Heidy Sánchez, a Cuban immigrant who works as a nurse’s assistant in Florida, went into the immigration office with her daughter for a routine check-in. Agents told her she better call her husband (an American citizen) to come and get her 17-month-old daughter, because she was being deported back to Cuba. She did not sneak into the country; she played by the rules, presented herself at the border, and applied for asylum. She missed a hearing because of safety reasons, which resulted in a deportation order and nine months spent in detention. In the end, she was released in the United States. Now, years later, she’s in Cuba, heartbroken, and her daughter and husband are not with her.

In May, the White House further ordered ICE to stop focusing on criminals or even specific people and just go out on the streets and arrest people, which has led to demographic and racial profiling. There have been native Americans in Minnesota forcibly taken off the street because they looked like they might be illegal. Oh, the irony.

Now in our country, there are people of color who feel they need to always carry their papers (birth certificate, etc.) with them, even if they are American Citizens! That’s not normal. Additionally, there have been instances where even having proper documentation didn’t prevent interrogation and detention of American citizens.

And just yesterday, January 21st, it was revealed that, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo, federal immigration officers have been told they have the power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant. This directly collides with the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable search and seizure.

So yeah, with all of that going on, it’s pretty easy to see why people are upset that innocent, good people (sometimes even American citizens) are being harassed or swept up in Trump and Miller’s war on immigrants. But I guess, according to some people, there would be no problems if we just “let them do their jobs”. Submit, don’t obstruct, don’t protest, bow down, and let them have their way. When we see masked men in unmarked cars, with no written warrants, swoop in and abduct parents picking their kids up from school, or gardeners working in our yards, vendors selling shaved ice, workers at restaurants or construction sites, farm workers picking produce, we should turn away, ignore it, and let them “do their job”.

Or maybe we are supposed to applaud what’s happening and think those people deserve that callous treatment. They deserve to be put into detention centers** without due process, and a right to call a lawyer or a loved one. Those people deserve all that hardship because they left their home, took a risky journey, and might have sneaked in over our border. How dare they! How dare they try to achieve a better life for themselves in OUR country! … Like our ancestors did.

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First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

~ 1946 postwar confessional by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller

*Note: As hardcore S.W. fans know, Luke’s aunt and uncle probably never stood a chance, even had they complied, as Darth Vader harbored resentment towards the Lars family, blaming them for failing to protect his mother (Shmi Skywalker) from the Tusken Raiders years earlier…just so you know.

**By the way, over 90% of those detention centers are run for profit by private companies and do not allow lawful inspections by congresspersons, unless they give a 1-2-week notice. I’m sure they have nothing to hide...

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Hi readers and listeners, in my post from December 12 (Migrate, Emigrate, Immigrate), I ruminated about the movement of animals, including people. I mentioned that one of the most beneficial aspects of these movements, immigration in particular, is their impact on fostering diversity and providing us with our rich tapestry of life. I concluded by saying we would ruminate about that maligned term, diversity, another time. Well, time’s now, let’s do it.

Hey, did you hear about the San Marcos Gambusia? This one-inch-long fish ate small invertebrates and gave birth to live young instead of laying eggs like other fish species. It once lived in the clear spring headwaters of the San Marcos River in Texas, but it has since been declared extinct.

As I was sitting in my seat on the airplane while we were taxiing to the runway, I happened to notice a screw loose on the seat in front of me. I attempted to push it in and turn it back into place when it dropped off and rolled out of my view. Oh well, I tried. It was just a seat screw, so no big deal; it’s not like it had anything to do with keeping the plane in the air.

I recently read that the Bachman’s warbler, a small yellow and black songbird that once bred in swampy thickets in the Southeast, has been declared officially extinct. This isn’t surprising; it hasn’t been seen since 1962, and the thickets down there don’t seem to have missed it too much.

Well, look, a stray bolt is on the restroom floor in the plane. It probably came from some fixture. Everything else seems to be in place and working, though.

Hey, did you hear? The State of Illinois has declared the Tubercled-Blossom Pearly Mussel extinct. It lived in the shallow sand and gravel shoals of the Ohio River system. Although it hasn’t been seen in decades, those rivers are still flowing, so it looks like their absence hasn’t affected the rivers too much.

Wait, what? There’s another loose bolt rolling around the floor of the plane by the emergency exit. What’s going on? How many more loose nuts and bolts are on this plane? I mean, sure, most of them have nothing to do with keeping the plane aloft and safe, but if this trend of losing screws, nuts, and bolts continues, we’re going to start thinking about parachutes.

The species of our world are like the rivets, nuts, and bolts of an airplane; there are a lot of them, and redundancies are built in, but over time, if you keep losing these things that keep our spaceship functioning and safe, we’re going to start operating at a less-than-optimal status. Systems will be impacted; safety may be an issue, and there are no parachutes.

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Various models have estimated that the worldwide species extinction rate could be anywhere between 24 to 150 species a day, some say less, and some say more. It’s a hard number to get an accurate handle on due to the variability of habitats and species out there. Regardless of the number, caring about endangered species isn’t just an exercise in saving pandas or whales because they are cute, or saving some obscure fish or plant just to stop development. It involves maintaining the variety of animals, plants, and fungi (or even microorganisms) that make up our natural world.

This is called Biodiversity. A host of species and organisms all working together in an intricate web to maintain balance and support life in an ecosystem. A basic tenet in biology is that diversity aids in stability and strength.

Diversity in nature is important for ecosystem health. For example, if conditions change from wet to dry or from cold to warm, having a variety of species available to adapt and respond to those changes can keep the ecosystem productive and resilient.

Let’s say a rancher wants to maintain plant production for cattle across several years on land that may vary in average temperature and precipitation. Having a diversity of plant species can stabilize the ecosystem if the species vary in how they respond to environmental fluctuations. An increase in one species can compensate for the decrease in another. (Check out the graphic below)

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Unfortunately, the word diversity has recently been politically and culturally maligned. That’s unfortunate because nature is not the only thing that benefits from diversity. As Maya Angelou wrote, “In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”

Diversity makes things more interesting. Who wants to repeatedly walk the same route, listen to the same music, see the same sights, watch the same show, read the same thing, or go to the same restaurant and order the same thing over and over and over again? It dulls the senses. It’s boring; diversity keeps us interested, aware, and gives us perspective.

It’s been found that eating a diversity of foods like fruits, nuts, greens, grains, and protein sources is healthier for us. Plus, it’s so much more fun having choices of food to eat. One of the things I enjoyed so much about New York City was the diversity of food choices available. Most definitely not boring.

I realize that in the workplace, a diverse staff could potentially cause some discomfort, maybe a lack of trust, and other problems. However, the upside is that it provides viewpoints, attitudes, and perspectives we might not encounter with a homogeneous staff. As a result, we get better problem-solving skills and enhanced creativity. Being exposed to diversity enhances and expands the way we think and the way we feel.

Diversity provides strength in sports. In football or basketball, a diverse playbook allows a team to exploit the weaknesses of various opponents and makes it harder for the opposing team to stop them from scoring. Diversity among players is also vital. As great as they are, we don’t want our whole football team composed of players like Patrick Mahomes or a basketball team of all Steph Currys. Diversity is vital for success.

Economically, it’s recommended that we diversify our portfolios to protect, grow, and save our assets. Instead of investing in one thing or just having a savings account, we can optimize our money by combining stocks, bonds, holdings, mutual funds, and cash. If one thing tanks, the others can be more resilient. This makes our investments more secure and stable and can provide better growth opportunities.

I think one of the many reasons our country is so fantastic is due to its incredibly diverse population. Thank God we’re not a melting pot of boiled-down homogenous factors. We are a delightful, ever-refreshing salad of colorful, different cultures, races, backgrounds, religions, diets, music, and perspectives. This diversity provides us with excitement, strength, resilience, perspective, and creativity.

And we are only one of the many countries in this diverse world, or spaceship if you will, hurtling through space with the aid of all the other non-human species we share this vessel with. We need to remember that they are the nuts and bolts that keep this spaceship running. Our job is to ensure we provide our craft with proper maintenance and avoid losing too many parts. If we can do that, there’s no reason we can’t keep this home cruising for many more generations.

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One of the curses of being a naturalist, or someone who is biologically literate, is that when watching movies, we tend to overthink the natural phenomenon we’re seeing on the screen. I’m constantly thinking things like: That’s the Alabama Hills, not Afghanistan, or that’s the scream of a red-tailed hawk, not a bald eagle. Or wait. They’re supposed to be in the Main woods, why am I hearing a Varied Thrush?

This ended up being the case when I watched Disney’s film, Finding Nemo. In the movie, Marlin and his wife, Coral, are clownfish who live happily in their sea anemone on the Great Barrier Reef. While they’re waiting for their eggs to hatch, Coral is killed by a barracuda. That leaves Marlin alone to care for their one remaining egg and subsequent son, Nemo. What follows is an entertaining adventure. Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks did a great job with the voices in a wonderful movie that ended up being Pixar’s first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

However, if Disney really wanted to have fun, they could make a biologically correct version of Finding Nemo. You see, if it were real life, following his mate’s death, Nemo’s father, Marlin, likely would have switched sex and turned into a female (Marlena?). Then he (I mean she) would have paired up with a different male.

All clownfish are born males. A clownfish group consists of a dominant male and female and several juvenile males. When the female dies, the dominant male changes sex to become the female of the group, and then one of the juveniles becomes the dominant male. Oh my, just think of the plot lines they could write with that knowledge!

This gender-bending strategy is not that unusual; researchers have identified over 500 different species of fish that utilize this sex-changing strategy. This is called sequential hermaphroditism. It can be like the clownfish changing from male to female, or it can go the other way, where a fish can change from female to male, or still others can go back and forth depending on the population’s gender ratio and what’s needed. This is possible because fish gender is based on enzymes and hormones rather than chromosomal genetic markers like birds and mammals.

In our local waters, there is a type of wrasse called the California Sheepshead. It’s a beautiful fish with bold orange, black, and white patterns. It’s easy to see why they call it a sheepshead, as the large male’s head looks rather sheep-like. They have big, protruding canine-like teeth useful for prying hard-shelled animals from rocks like crabs, mollusks, sea urchins, barnacles, and other hard-bodied critters. After they crush the prey with their strong jaws, modified throat bones (otherwise known as a pharyngeal tooth plate) grind the shells into small pieces. The females have slightly similar teeth, are much smaller in size, and lack the sheep head profile, that is, until they mature and change their gender.

All Sheepshead’s are born female and will change sex due to a gender imbalance in the local population, or when they reach about 7-13 years old. Then, over the course of a month or two, the smaller, more slender females transition into a male, complete with a different color pattern, bigger forehead, testes, and attitude to go with it.

There are many more examples of fish out there that do this, so I’m thinking there’s no lack of material. Disney needs to get on board, hire an ichthyologist, get their writers together, and start working on the next installment for the Nemo series. I think it would be a hit. At a minimum, it would be fun to see the reviews and reactions!

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Back in the 1980s, on my third day in Australia, I was standing on a Queensland beach, looking out at the azure water and perfect little waves, just right for body surfing. I had no bodyboard; it wouldn’t have fitted in my backpack as I hitched around. I couldn’t resist the water that day and waded out and started playing in the surf. The water was warm, and I had the break to myself; the only other person was the fisherman down the beach. After a couple of dozen or so waves, I came in, toweled off, and walked over to the fisherman. I was puzzled why such a nice spot had no one else out surfing or playing in the water. He looked me up and down and simply said, “Too many stingers and sharks, knew right off you weren’t from around here”.

Oops.

That’s one of the things I enjoyed about Australia; it was wild. Unlike New Zealand, Australia has dangerous snakes, spiders, plants, stingers, and even saltwater crocodiles. I found that out when I went north to Port Douglas, and by then I learned to quiz the locals.

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I never saw a Crocodile up there, I wish I did... from a distance. Crocs are amazing, as opposed to other crocodilians, they can tolerate saltwater for long periods, sometimes spending weeks in the ocean traveling hundreds of miles. That’s why they’re found all over the world. Animals are always on the move. For example, somewhere around 1877, cattle egrets emigrated from Africa, riding March winds across the Atlantic to arrive in South America for the first time. They were immigrants from Africa seeking a suitable place to settle and raise a family.

Animals have engaged in immigration, emigration, and migration since the dawn of time. There are subtle differences between the terms. Immigration is the movement of individuals into a population or habitat and living there permanently. The opposite would be Emigration, the departure of individuals from a population or habitat. Not to be confused with just migration, which is the seasonal movement of individuals from one region to another.

Why do organisms decide to undertake a journey away from familiar territory and into the unknown? It’s complicated.

There can be push factors like drought, famine, resource scarcity, persecution, and overcrowding. In general, individuals are pushed out by poor living conditions, which create hardship and strife. They are pulled to other areas in the hope of finding greener pastures. Things like resource abundance, a chance to increase quality of life, or a better chance to find a mate. In general, it’s the pull of freedom and opportunities to be successful, and finding a place to allow their progeny to flourish.

Once the individuals have made the journey and established themselves in this (hopefully) better habitat, they begin to colonize the area, sometimes (but not always) at the expense of the indigenous inhabitants.

Humans are no different than other animals; our populations, tribes, clans, and societies have practiced these basics of population dynamics throughout our history. Plus, we added the factor of slavery into the mix, moving individuals against their will to new areas, which is a whole other ball of wax that has shaped societies.

Humans have always been on the move. Look at the human history of any continent or ocean, and you will find patterns of movement. The Galls, Goths, Barbers, Huns, Romans, Vandals, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Slavs, Croats, Normans, Danes, Scotti, and others. They were all immigrants, emigrants, and colonizers within Europe. In Asia and the Americas, there were the Scythians, Aryas, Vedic, Thais, Turks, Arabs, Mongols, Spanish, Portuguese, Aztecs, Incas, Lakota, Navajo, and Polynesians, and many others. All of them were immigrants, emigrants, and colonizers at some point in their distant history.

My point is, it’s a natural thing that’s been going on for centuries, and it will never cease. These movements of living things are a natural consequence of living on a dynamic Earth with a changing climate, fluctuating resources, shifting populations, and evolving social orders and cultures.

Plus, the pull factors can be particularly strong in an area rich with resources, freedom, opportunities, and a tradition of welcoming the “…tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free”.

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Although I feel that over the last eleven months, America has lost its luster for people seeking freedom and opportunity. That’s most likely the point of what we’ve been witnessing with DHS’s “Operation Charlotte’s Web, Operation Gatekeeper, Operation Catahoula Crunch, Operation Sentinel”, and others. It’s to let migrants know they are not welcome here. Not just anyone can enter this country anymore; they must be allowed in by the gatekeepers.

That sounds reasonable, right?

That way, they can check their background and screen them for their possible criminal history, alliances, religious faiths, income potential, social media history, beliefs in traditional family values, beliefs in gun rights, animal rights, women’s rights, climate change, abortion, vaccinations, environmentalism, what are their tolerances for non-cisgender individuals, and can they afford the non-refundable $15,000 processing fee and a donation of a millon dollars to get the Trump Gold Card expidited Visa? Oh, and while they're at it, their skin color can be checked out as well.

That way, they can ensure only the “right kind “ of people are let in… Wait, this is the land of freedom and opportunity? The land of reduced government oversight, individual rights, privacy, and private property? Hmmm, something’s off here.

Without immigration, we miss out on so many things. It’s literally what made this country. We, ALL of us here in the U.S., are the product of the emigration, immigration, and migration activities that our ancestors undertook.

There’s a middle ground out there. I acknowledge there can be problems with immigration, and I agree that we need to have secure borders. However, at the same time, let’s build large gates with numerous gatekeepers and other officials to quickly screen and process these future Americans, along with the others already in our country who have been waiting for months, sometimes years, to have their cases heard and papers approved. These are people willing to seize the opportunities to create a better life for themselves, their children, and our country. People seeking that fabled “American Dream”.

Immigration isn’t bad. It’s a fundamental biological factor in population dynamics. It’s responsible for generating new genetic variations and driving changes in populations. It plays an important role in species’ and communities’ abilities to adapt to environmental and social changes. It’s what gives us such a diverse, rich tapestry of life.

That’s probably the most beneficial aspect of these movements: their impact on fostering diversity, and that’s a concept that has also been maligned.

We’ll save ruminating about diversity for another time.

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