...Bring May Flowers

Flowering Plants are Science.

The rain is great for the flowers (and weeds) but sure cuts into the ability to run outside and take bug, herp and bird pictures.

Here are some of the flowers that are blooming this week. You can see water on some of these, and they may seem a little beat down. that is because I did run outside between rainstorms to get these pictures yesterday.

Plants and Animals

Behavior is Science. When I climb on the ladder to get a picture these baby Robins now open their mouths wide thinking Momma is here with food.

But when Momma and Daddy Robin notice I am there and start squawking the babies shut their mouths and flatten out so the supposed predator might not notice them.

Medicinal plants are science.

Foxglove is Digitalis purpurea and is the plant from which some cardiac glycosides such as digitoxin and digoxin are derived.

Roses that change color are Science. Mutabilis is a rose from prior to 1894 (about the same age as our house). It opens a peachy yellow, changes each day, first to a light pink and then to a dark pink. The change is caused by sunlight acting on the pigments. The fragrance changes daily too.

Columbine (the flower)

Incubation is science. Ms. Robin seems to have stopped at three eggs, as there has been no change since Saturday. Sunday she was spending more time on the nest, so possibly incubation began then.

That would put hatching to be expected on 4-19-09.

Momma keeps the eggs warm from her own body temperature. A robins's body temperature is 104F. Feathers insulate her body and keep the heat in, so to keep the eggs warm, the feathers on her belly fall out creating a "brood patch" of bare skin.

Picture credit Bill Hinton, Jr. http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/BroodPatch.html

You would notice if you watched Ms. Robin return to the nest that she might turn the eggs with her beak and then when she sits she wiggles around a bit to get the brood patch exposed and making contact with the eggs in just the right way.

Receptors in the brood patch allow the bird to monitor the egg temperature and she will adjust her incubation accordingly. Pretty neat, huh?

Columbine is Science. If you have followed my other blog in the past years you know that Columbine is one of my favorite flowers. The wild variety, Aquilegia canadensis, is common in our yard, and possibly in the woods nearby, but more likely north of here and into Canada.




The European Columbine, A. vulgaris, is nice also, and is common in our yard. I suspect the former owner of the house, who was very cosmopolitan, they say, introduced these. They come in several colors and the pink ones are what we have.



They are tall and just dance in the wind. They might be doing the jitterbug this afternoon, from the looks of the weather report.

From the Woods

These pictures were taken at Fig Leaf Farm.

The habits of mammals are science. Whatever did this to this small tree must have really enjoyed it. The tree was in the west Jefferson County of Alabama area, close to, but not adjacent to a pond.

Unfortunately this photo is a little blurry, but from it you can see that the damage goes from the ground up to eight feet or higher.

Here's a close up.

I need your help. What did this? Email me or leave a comment if you know.

Trilliums are science. Trilliums are one of my favorite wildflowers. These could be Red Trillium or Toadshade (Trillium sessile) or Sweet Betsy (Trillium cuneatum). In either case, the flower is sessile, or stalkless, as opposed to many other trilliums which have their flowers on a short stem.

Can't you just imagine a little toad sitting under one?

Climate Change

Climate Change is Science.

Susan Solomon, senior scientist at NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and former co-chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the one that won the Nobel Peace Price along with Al Gore) will give the 2009 Ireland Distinguished Visiting Scholar Lecture at UAB. The lecture will be free to the public and is Wednesday at 5:30 pm at the Alys Stephens Center.



From the video:

“We have to think about it much more like nuclear waste than, like say, smog or acid rain. What we're doing with carbon dioxide is forever.”

She says her job is to do good science, not to convince people to adopt any particular political agenda, as reported here, in the Birmingham News.


Flowers are Science

Eleven days ago I took a picture of a flower and it was featured on this blogs initial posting.

Yesterday it was still hanging in there, and looks like this. Beauty is fleeting, I guess.




But other tulips have opened their blooms, and the focus shifts to the fresh perfection of the new.

Isn't that the way life is? For instance...oh, wait, I was about to go on a philosophical journey of sorts. That's not what I do here.