Circling Vultures

They didn't photograph as well as I hoped

Since it was sunny on the long weekend, my significant other took some time to wash the car. I came out to check out what he was doing. In the still damp and shiny clean back window, I saw the reflection of a mass of black birds circling the house, an scene reminiscent of a horror movie. A nice thermal must have formed above the house as I’m not about to expire any time soon.

Looking up, I saw that each individual had a bald head. Identifying them was easy - they were turkey vultures, common to my area and a bird I’ve been able to identify since I was a kid. There were too many birds to accurately count, my best guess was there was more than thirty.

More vultures joined the group as they shifted their spiral slowly away until the mass was out of sight. This time of year they migrate south in groups. I had no idea they did so in such a large group. Turkey vultures migrate down to southern California or even as far as South America.

There was a time, when I was growing up, I was fascinated by the idea of birding. I’ve never been a serious birder as the hours don’t agree with me and I think going to extremes over a life list of birds can get a little silly, but I still like to identify the birds I see. I scraped together allowance money and bought the ‘Birds of North America’ in the early 80’s. It is still my only bird field guide. Every time I don’t bring my bird book out on a hike with me I see an interesting bird and regret not having my book.

My bird book doesn’t have a lot to say about turkey vultures. It describes them as “ a common carrion eater, scavenging in fields and along road sides.” Carrion eaters have many benefits. According to the The Turkey Vulture Society, these birds prevent spread of disease by cleaning up dead things - no food is wasted in nature. Since they might have to stick their head inside a carcass to get a tasty morsel, being bald means they don’t have to mess up their feathers for a meal.

Turkey vultures don’t make the haunting cry of a hawk, or even the peep of a chick. They have to resort to hisses and grunts as they lack the vocal cords other birds have. I’ve never hears a turkey vulture make a sound. 

As a tangent: I'm always amazed that there is a society for everything.

The book I haven’t read

my copy looks exactly like this

This week marks 50 years since Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ was published.

I care about the environment in part because it's the only environment we have to support us, thus it's our lifeline. I agree with Carl Sagan when he wrote “the simple fact is that we are performing unprecedented experiments on the global environment and in general hoping against hope that the problems will solve themselves and go away.” I’ve been aware of Rachel Carson’s book and how it is credited with starting the environmental movement since I was in high school - yet I’ve never read it (yes I should read it - as soon as I find a copy in a used bookstore I’ll pick it up).

I can’t comment on ‘Silent Spring’, I have however, read another book by Rachel Carson, ‘The Sea Around Us.’ My grandfather gave me his copy of the book when I switched into oceanography for my undergrad. In the front cover the inscription says ‘this book is presented to H.B. Hunt as an award for excellent meteorological observations carried out in S.S. Lakemba on a voluntary basis during the year 1951.’ He must have been presented the book when it was brand new as it was published in 1951. By the early 90’s, it looked slightly ratty on my book shelf and I didn’t read it then, but I kept it. A few years ago I realized who the author was, so I decided to pull it out and finally read it.

The acknowledgments read like a who's who of early oceanography - all names of people who made major contributions to the field. In addition to her background in marine biology, she did her homework. I found it an easy read that made the ocean seem magical. Consider her description of the tides:

There is no drop of water in the ocean, not even in the deepest part of the abyss, that does not know and respond to the mysterious forces that create the tide … no other force that affects the sea is so strong.

Or surface waves:

It is a confused pattern that the waves make in the open sea – a mixture of countless different wave trains, intermingling, overtaking, passing, or sometimes engulfing one another; each group differing from the others in the place and manor of its origin, in its speed, its direction of movement; some doomed never to reach any shore, others destined to roll across half an ocean before they dissolve in thunder on a distant beach

What I also enjoyed about the book is what she didn’t mention. Places like hydrothermal vents hadn’t been discovered yet - so the belief at the time was that the abyss was barren of life. Ideas like plate tectonics were not yet widely accepted so, the ocean floor was presented as static. We have learned so much in the time since the book was published.

Note: the picture came from Wikipedia

Aliens for dinner

Not the alien I mean

Sounds like I invited some extraterrestrials over to share a meal but, what I really mean is eating invasive species as a form of revenge against the damage they inflict on our native species.

As people move around, we tend to take critters (and plants - which I’m not going to discuss) with us. Rats and cats have been introduced across the globe, both of which have been known to decimate bird populations - especially on islands where birds have lost their ability to fly. Pigs were deliberately left on tropical islands by passing sailors to provide future food.

Sometimes animals are intentionally introduced as a means to fix a problem. For example, Australian sugar cane crops were being decimated by cane beetles, so in 1935 just over 100 cane toads were introduced to control the cane beetles. The cane toads adapted well to their new environment, now there are over 200 million - however they didn’t control the cane beetles. Instead cane toads caused all sorts of other problems as they are toxic to the animals that try to eat them.

Want to make a buck? 
How about introduce a critter that produces a luxury product, like beaver fur. In 1946, 50 beavers from Canada were introduced to the southern tip of South America for just this reason. It turned out great for the beavers as there were no predators to worry about. The beavers went on to do what beavers do - gnaw down trees and build dams. Unfortunately, the forests in that region can’t handle beaver damage like North American forests can, so the damage is extensive. Active programs are still underway to remove the beavers.

Not all introduced species create these kind of problems, however there is always a risk that a local species will be displaced by the newly arrived animals. The result is a loss to our global biodiversity as our world-wide ecosystem is becoming more and more homogenized.

In my part of the world, we have lots of introduced species (tropical areas often have more - Hawaii and Florida are perhaps the hardest hit with alien invaders). There are green crabs, manila clams, carp, house sparrows and grey squirrels to name a few. Another that has become ubiquitous in North America is the European Starling. These noisy birds like open country - like orchards and grain fields. They often flock together in massive flocks where they scour the area for fruit and insects to eat. They indiscriminately eat crops intended for human consumption which has put them on the hit list of many farmers. They also out compete local birds, for instance swallow species like the purple martin, for nest sites.

Why would anyone introduce starlings? 
In the late 1800’s, Eugene Schieffelin decided to introduce every bird mentioned in Shakespeare's works into North America. As part of this odd plan, 60 starlings were released in 1890 into New York’s central park. Now, there is an estimated population of 200 million.

So what can be done? 
One option is to eat the invaders. I was at an event recently put on by the Penticton Museum and Archives for the opening of the traveling ‘Aliens Among Us’ exhibit created by the Royal BC Museum. The exhibit highlights alien species in BC. At the opening, breaded and fried starling breast was offered - the meat was dark and gamey, reminiscent of goose, and was quite good. For Okanogan fruit growers, eating starlings must be a delicious form of revenge.

It would take a lot of effort to harvest enough starling breast to make a full meal. I’ll just keep the idea in the back of my mind in case there is a zombie apocalypse and starlings are all I can catch.

As a tangent - people are not considered ‘aliens’ in this context because people tend to move themselves around (i.e., natural dispersal) - although governments might label people as aliens for various reasons. By this same logic, extraterrestrial aliens would only be considered aliens if they hitched a ride to earth on a space shuttle instead of their own spaceship.

Examples of iridescence from the fall fair

I caught these two beauties showing off their iridescent plumage at the fall fair. It always amazes me that such a range of colours can be produced from an optical trick.

Frustrated with technology

He looks just as frustrated

Recently, I’ve experienced another version of the ‘technology trap’. Warning: rant ahead.

I flirt with three different operating systems - Mac, Windows and Ubuntu (linux based).  I wish I had the skill to customize my own operating system, but I don’t and I don’t have the time (or will) to gain them. Mostly I use my Mac, however there is always something I need another operating system to do. My older laptop is a Ubuntu/Windows dual boot machine which I use regularly.

I now have data from up north (Ice cleared enough for the ship to get into Cumberland Sound). The data is in a hex format that needs to be converted by the instrument’s software into a format I can look at. This software only runs on Windows - no problem, as I have a Windows machine. I started up the old laptop (which is only about 3 years old), ran some updates and the machine hung up. I let it sit for a few hours and nothing happened, so I turned it off and back on. All I get is 7 beeps - it doesn’t even go far enough for me to use a boot CD. After some hunting around on the internet, I found out that 7 beeps on my make of laptop means that the motherboard is toast. Based on the age of the machine it isn’t worth fixing - essentially, my laptop is now garbage.

Along the same vein, I got a call from my cell phone provider. My cell phone contract is up and they want me to sign up again. To entice me I was offered a new phone. My current phone works just fine, so why do I need a new phone? The woman, who was trying to sign me up, just didn’t get that I didn’t want to throw out perfectly good technology. She went on to suggest I could keep the old phone, while using the new one. That just sounds like adding clutter to my life and ultimately creates more technology garbage. Phones are easy to come by, when my old phone dies I’ll get a new one.

The short life span of technology is perhaps good for the manufacturers of this technology - but it is terrible for the planet. Like it or not, my occupation and lifestyle requires me to use these gadgets - I can’t think of a way around it as I live in this society and times (if I was using Victorian era gadgets, I could adapt gadgets to my needs and fix them as required). Still, I get frustrated whenever my technology dies a few years after I got them and I won’t be replacing things until they die.

Note: the picture came from here.