1826 watercolor by John James Audubon

Lasers, dark mysterious wilderness, extinct species … almost sounds like a sequel in a well-known series of movies in which dinosaurs eat people. But no, this is real science!

In June a research aircraft flew over delta regions of the lower Mississippi River to track possible areas of habitat suitable for the ivory-billed woodpecker [Campephilus principalis], one of the largest and most regal members of the woodpecker family. The project is supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and the University of Maryland used NASA’s Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) onboard the aircraft. The instrument uses lasers that send pulses of energy to the Earth’s surface. Photons of light from the lasers bounce off leaves, branches and the ground and reflect back to the instrument. By analyzing these returned signals, scientists receive a direct measurement of the height of the forest’s leaf covered tree tops, the ground level below and everything in between.

…

LVIS project researcher Ralph Dubayah, a professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Geography [said]. “Lidar technology like LVIS measures the vertical structure of the trees and ground, setting it apart from other remote-sensing systems that provide detailed horizontal information that tells us little about whether a green patch of forest is short or tall, for example. When identifying habitats, the vertical structure of the vegetation is of paramount importance to many species, including a bird like the ivory-bill.”

Thematic map showing the survey area in the White River Wildlife Reserve.
Credit: NASA.

Satellite image of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas. The White River, the focus of this summer’s survey, is at the left of the image.
Credit: NASA image by Robert Simmon, based on Landsat 7 data provided by the Global Land Cover Facility.
Image acquired December 23, 2001 from NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite

Links:

• Wikipedia
• Cornell Ornithology Lab
• Nature Conservancy
• NASA Earth Observatory

I picked up this story through the Birding News Feed. It was variously reported by

• MongaBay: NASA helps search for “exinct” woodpecker
• NewsWise: Researchers Use Laser Sensor in Search for Ivory-Bill
• PhysOrg: NASA Assists Search for Woodpecker Thought to be Extinct
• AScribe: University of Maryland and NASA Researchers Use Laser Sensor to Map Possible Habitat for Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

Sidebar: Why I hate ads on the Web. The following were all ads displayed on the various story items:

• Woodpecker Control: Helpful links for woodpecker control.
• Woodpecker Deterrent: The Attack Spider scares them away. Sound-activated, fast. It works!
• Get Rid of Woodpeckers: Wide Variety Woodpecker Deterrents Affordable Woodpecker Repellents

This is why there are no Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers, people: You’re scaring them all away!

On a more positive note, it seems that, after I’ve scared them all off, I could still buy one of my very own:

• Ivory Billed Woodpecker: Browse a huge selection now. Find exactly what you want today. [I just want one standard plumage male Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, please. Gift-wrapped.]

I’ve just reorganized the sidebar to this blog:
– Separated blog tools and links to their own section.
– Added ALL-CAPS headers to each section: EXPLORE (this blog), LINKS (resources) and NETWORK (Blog Rolls, back-links, and so on)
– Moved EXPLORE (this blog) to the top, just under the profile, followed by LINKS (resources).
– Added a del.icio.us tag “cloud” labelled Categories to the top of the EXPLORE section.
– Labelled the Technorati splot as “Search”.

Please let me know what you think of the new tools and organization. In particular, let me know of any categories you would find useful. I’ve only just started tagging the entries, so it’s going to take me a while to catch up. Trying to find an entry you read on this blog? What keywords would you search by? Those would make good categories for me to add to the “cloud”.

We’re prepping for record heat this week. Wednesday, our local forecast is for the actual temperature to hit 102F. The apparent temperature – the temperature humidity index, or THI – will reach 114F. No chance of rain until Thursday, and then, only minimal unless we’re lucky enough to catch a thunderstorm. No real relief until Friday, when the high is predicted to be back in the 80s.

For the next two days, at least, I’ll be packing a water bottle in my bag and leaving early and coming home late from my air-conditioned office in Manhattan. Today, I’m waiting for it to cool down this evening before I go out and water the garden. Beyond that, the garden will have to fend for itself. It will be too hot to water.

Yesterday afternoon and evening I was in the East and West Village in Manhattan. I was having some fun with my camera phone (phone camera? floor wax? dessert topping? dating myself?).

On East 11th Street (I think) in the West Village (Greenwich Village) was this lush and perfect container garden on the front steps of a townhouse. The photo cannot do it justice. I would have to do some major retouching to recreate the total effect and the subtely of the colors and shades. To get an idea, the steps were not in the sun when I took this picture. The chartreuse sweet potato vine is washed out because my phonecam (ah, that’s it!) can’t capture the full dynamic range from dark to light. I hope I can get back with my real camera to share it with all of you.

Nothing to be proud of, but I just got my first spam comment.

When I frst started this blog, I had full shields on: word verification *and* comment moderation. I’ve been experimenting with running with them disabled. I disabled moderation because I like the immediacy of people being able to leave their own comments without having to get me involved to “accept” their comments. I disabled the word verification because it’s not accessible: vision-impaired readers will find it difficult or impossible to read or view the CAPTCHA graphic.

The first problem I had was finding where the spam comment was placed. The email notification I get from blogger doesn’t tell me to which blog entry the comment was added.

The second problem was figuring out how to delete the wretched thing. I found an old post in one of the blogger help groups which suggested that, if I select “Post Comment” I would have the opportunity to delete any comment. That worked, and I was able to delete it permanently.

A long-standing problem is that all of the icons I would usually see – edit, delete, and so on – on the blog entry page are missing. I suspect it’s a template problem. I may have to re-generate my template to ge back the correct URLs for the icons, then edit the template to add back my changes.

I’ve put back the CAPTCHA word verification for now. I don’t know if that or the moderation is better, but clearly I need to keep some protections in place.

As if I didn’t have enough to distract me online, I just discovered BlogThings. It’s all those mini-assessments of questionable validity we see everywhere. Questions like:

• What flower are you? (Daisy. Whatever.)
• What’s your EQ, your Emotional Intelligence Quotient? (107. Disappointingly low.)
• How abnormal are you? (28%. Whew!)
• How cynical are you? (40%. Too low.)
• How open-minded are you? (36%. That’s more like it.)
• What age will you die? (I don’t want to know …)
• What animal were you in a past life? (Now this one is definitely invalid. No questions, just my birthdate!
• How boyish or girlish are you? (50/50. BIG surprise!)
• What’s your dosha? (Kapha: “Calm and grounded, you are not prone to mood swings or anger. However, once you do get angry, it takes a lot to cool you down …” It goes on. Except the part about being “not prone to anger”, this one was pretty on the mark! Okay, I have no idea what a “dosha” is …)

And so on. The list page has 280 entries and suggests that you still might not find what you’re looking for. Here’s my favorite, “What should you major in?” Right on the money:

Your Scholastic Strength Is Developing Ideas

You can take a spark of inspiration and turn it into a full fledged concept. You are talented at brainstorming, visualizing, organizing, and independent thinking. You should major in: Natural sciences Computer science Creative writing Math Architecture Journalism

What Should You Major In?

Leptonycteris curasoae yerbabuena, Lesser Long-Nosed Bat, the USDA’s July 2006 “Pollinator of the Month”, visiting Carnegiea gigantea, Saguaro cactus. Each Saguaro flower blooms just one night. The shape of the flower and the muzzle of the bat have co-evolved to adapt to each other. The Lesser Long-Nosed Bat is an endangered species.
Source: Bat Pollination
Photo by Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International.

This past Monday, July 17, the USDA Forest Service launched a new section on their Web site:

Celebrating Wildflowers is a season-long series of events for people of all ages who love our native plants. Activities include wildflower walks, talks, festivals, slide programs, coloring contests, planting events, and seminars that emphasize the values and conservation of native plants. – Home Page

USDA Forest Service botanists and other specialists around the country have contributed to the editing, content, construction, and maintenance of this website. The site is dedicated to the enjoyment of the thousands of wildflowers growing on our national forests and grasslands, and to educating the public about the many values of native plants. – About Us

I haven’t had time to but glance over the material. The site is visually attractive and very well organized, encouraging exploration and browsing. For example, the home page provides links to Forest Service Regions, states, and specific National Forests and Grasslands.

(However, the Eastern Region page doesn’t list any “Wildflower Viewing Areas” in New York State! Perhaps the explanation is that there is only one National Forest, Finger Lakes, in New York. But still …)

The menu includes links for both native gardening and invasive plants. There are sections with activities for children and resources for teachers. Language is clear and simple while not “dumbed down.”

Props to the Native Plant Conservation Campaign for bringing this to my attention.

Links:

• USDA Forest Service, Celebrating Wildflowers
• Native Plant Conservation Campaign
• Bat Conservation International

The closest I’ve ever knowingly been to a clambake was seeing photos years ago of an über-bake in Martha Stewart Living magazine. Nonetheless, as best I can determine from this map I live and garden in Clambake Nation. (I think the Cape, Long Island, and NYC are in the little “nose” at the southern end.)

Image: Gary Nabhan and the RAFT project

To document, preserve, and celebrate the incredible diversity of America’s edible plants, animals, and food traditions, seven of the most prominent food, agriculture, education and conservation organizations in the United States came together under Slow Food USA in 2005 to launch RAFT, the country’s first eco-gastronomic conservation project.
– RAFT: Renewing America’s Food Traditions

Gardeners can help preserve the horticultural and cultural treasures of heirloom foods by growing some of them in their own gardens. Choosing open-pollinated varieties of fruits and vegetables over hybrids (eg: “F1” and such) and harvesting your own seed is economical, sustainable, and lets you select those which perform best in your garden year after year. And planting native fruits such as pawpaw, persimmon, and plum also provide food (if you’re willing to share), shelter and habitat for native species of birds and other critters.

But I really wish I had the room for some Navajo-Churro sheep. They’re so beautiful!

Links:

• ARK of Taste: list of endangered foods.
• Slow Food USA (Why “slow”? What’s the opposite of “fast” food!?)
• Slow Food NYC

This is very cool. Be sure to follow the link to the NOAA site to view the animated GIF of this.

Large Mayfly Hatch Caught on Radar Friday June 30th

A large mayfly hatch occurred along the Mississippi River Friday evening, June 30th. The hatch began just after sundown, around 9 PM, and continued through the early morning hours. Those with plans outdoors Friday evening on and along the Mississippi River certainly noticed the huge swarm of mayflies, and their attraction to light. Some roads across the Mississippi River in and around La Crosse were covered with bugs, piling into “drifts” on bridges over the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Local businesses with high intensity lighting soon found large piles of dead mayflies accumulating under the lights by midnight. Below is a radar loop from the National Weather Service’s WSR-88D Doppler Radar in La Crosse. Notice the rapid increase in radar echoes along the Mississippi River channel…occurring simultaneously the entire length of the channel. The ambient wind flow was from the south on Friday evening, with the entire swarm of mayflies drifting north with time. The radar loop starts just before 9 PM CDT and ends around 1030 PM CDT.

Props to Unhindered by Talent and Pharyngula for bringing this to my attention.

Students at New York’s High School for Environmental Studies … are among 31 students and mentors participating this year in The Nature Conservancy’s Internship Program for City Youth. One hundred fifty students from the High School for Environmental Studies and the Brooklyn Academy of Science and Environment have participated in the program since it launched in 1995.
…
The program provides hands-on experience in conservation work, fostering knowledge about environmental issues and encouraging students to consider conservation-related careers. In addition to completing four 40-hour paid work weeks, students visit area colleges.
The interns are expected to arrive July 10, and will work on projects related to The Nature Conservancy’s native plant nursery until Aug. 1, when they depart to visit three Massachusetts colleges.
…
Much of the work the New York interns will undertake on Martha’s Vineyard centers on The Nature Conservancy’s efforts to restore native ecosystems in order to bring back species that have declined or disappeared as a result of habitat destruction or degradation.

Links:

• The Nature Conservancy
• High School for Environmental Studies
• Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment High School