Happy Earth Day

Earth Day is Science. Today is Earth Day. Read my essay on Human Responsibility As Part of God's Creation if you haven't already.

See the movie Earth. Here's the trailer.



I've been trying to get pictures of the baby robins and they all turned out fuzzy, then I realized that the babies are fuzzy.



Daddy Robin was not happy with me hanging around for so long, and tried to distract me. What was very interesting was that as Momma and Daddy Robin were calling to lure me away from the nest, a male cardinal showed up to assist. I guess they feel they were successful, because I went on about my business in another area of the yard.

Big Momma

Protecting kids is science. Well at least protecting baby robins is. During the storm yesterday momma robin stayed on the nest, and spread herself into a wide bodied robin to keep her babies dry. She covered the entire nest.

After the storm (between storms, I should say) when the sun came out for a few minutes, momma robin left the nest to go find worms. The babies were dry and safe from harm (but not from a marauding photographer).

Hatching

Hatching is Science. Yesterday I noticed poppa Robin on the nest with momma Robin. If you look closely, you can see two birds in the picture. Momma's sitting and Poppa is behind her.


I thought he was just bringing her some food (they did exhibit some beak to beak action) but his interest may have gone beyond that. The eggs hatched yesterday, two days earlier than I predicted. Here two have hatched and there is one egg that has a hole in it and the baby inside can be seen.

Later all three eggs had hatched and now they are hungry. They are pretty much all beak and eyes at this point (though their eyes are not open). I can't get a picture looking straight down into the nest because of the way it sits in the Camellia bush, so one hungry mouth is all we see.

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.

Robins and Recycling

Egg laying physiology is science.

Ms. Robin laid another egg yesterday. She is probably laying another one this morning. Robins are said to wait until mid-morning to lay their eggs, having spent the early morning eating worms and such. Some other species of birds lay their eggs in the early morning, and eat afterward.

Female Robins have just one ovary. This helps to reduce their weight for flight. The ovary consists of multiple ova, one of which develops as a yolky egg each day, and "drops" into the funnel like opening of the oviduct. It is fertilized and moves down the oviduct where layers of albumin and finally the blue shell are laid down covering the yolk.

In this diagram, it seems that the item labelled "ovary" is actually the ovum ready for shedding, and the ovary is the whole conglomeration of ova, but finding a diagram to display was not easy. Maybe I should have drawn one myself, but...

Picture credit: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Anatomy_and_Physiology_of_Animals/Reproductive_System

Recycling is Science (update).

As Jo pointed out the other day, at Publix we can recycle plastic bags, foam trays and egg cartons, and paper bags. These are the containers in front of the Publix at Tannehill.

We have really reduced the amount of garbage that the city has to pick up. Three things contributed to this. 1) My daughter moved away. Twenty something year old females produce a lot of trash. 2) Composting with the Nature Mill Indoor Composter. The Nature Mill composter accepts lots of things you don't put in the compost pile, like meat scraps, along with veggies, peanut shells, egg shells, coffee grounds and everything else but liquids and bones. Your scraps are made into compost in just a few days .

3) Increased recycling efforts.

We have gone from having two trash cans at the curb twice a week to one trash can every other or every third pick up. That's the "Reduce" part of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle."

Robin Update

Egg laying is science.

Ms. Robin is spending more time on her nest, but she is not there full time. That led me to suspect egg laying had begun.



Two eggs. I would expect one or two more. Then she will get down to the business of setting for sure. After that 14 days until hatching.

Birds and Bees

The birds and the bees are science. This is the part of the birds and the bees that your mother never told you.


First, an update on the robins. They were scarce yesterday. I saw robins in the yard, but they were not on the nest. However, she was at the nest this morning. I will have to see what they do today.

Yesterday I was just in the right place at the right time for these shots. I was about to leave to go on an errand, and walked around the garage to close a gate, and a black blurry glob fell from the sky right beside me. It was a trio of carpenter bees.

Remember I said that the male carpenter bees have a white cuticle on their face. Here, a male is hovering in flight, intent on the male and female on the ground below him.

The male bee that is mounted on the female bee stayed put for about two minutes, making thrusting motions that one would associate with such an act.

The male who was hovering decides to make a move. Never mind that another male is already in position.

They stayed this way for about a minute, with both males thrusting somewhat. Then the second male, probably frustrated, flew off a few feet and returned to hovering.

Here is the female afterwards. She acted exhausted, and spent a couple minutes cleaning herself, it appeared.


Here the persistent number 2 male is about to make his move again.


When he did, the female would make a fast and furious escape, or, if he mounted her, she would try to shake him loose. This went on for several minutes and then they flew off, the male in hot pursuit.


I don't know if they ever hooked up or if she lost him. But I do know that if things proceed as expected, there will be more carpenter bees soon.

Robins - The Beginning

Robins are Science. And very common in Bessemer.

Outside the porch window is a Camellia bush in which a Robin is intent on raising a family. From inside the house, I can photograph. I hope to improve my technique over the next few weeks. I have a difficult time focusing on the dark subject in the shadows. but I have an idea. Until then, these less than excellent pictures will have to do.

Right now the mom is working on the nest. She's in the center of this photo, with a beak full of grass.

The next three shots are just of the bird sitting on the nest, sort of trying it out for size. As I've watched, she brings straw or grass and places it in the nest, then hops in and sort of packs it down. she will shift a little, then content, it seems, head out gather more supplies just below the nest. These pictures were taken Saturday, and today she is continuing in the same manner.

Robins are often called the first sign of Spring, but they were here during the depth of winter, being recorded here in Bessemer during the Great Backyard Bird Count.


Robins are not innocent backyard birds, however. Over the next few weeks I will share what one source calls "the dark side of Robins." In this picture she is sort of flapping it seems to press the grass down into the nest.

Check back often to follow the Robins, and to learn more about their natural history. Fact for today: Robins, like many common birds, suffer a mortality rate of about 80% per year. Source: The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds. 1977 Edition.