It's.... The Bishop!

(with apologies to Monty Python...)


Yesterday morning we heard a new bird calling in our front yard. We looked around and located the source - a beautiful bright reddish-orange bird with a black face and belly, perched high overhead on the telephone wires. I had never seen this bird in person before, but I immediately recognized it (thanks to time spent aimlessly perusing my N.G. Bird Field Guide).

ORANGE BISHOP (top line, above House Finches)

It was a male Orange Bishop.

He was "loosely associating" with some House Finches, who were waiting for us to fill the bird feeders. I ducked back into the house for the camera, and took 2 really bad photos before he and the finches spooked and flew off together.

The pics were super-zoomed and pretty blurry, unfortunately. We filled the bird feeders with hopes he would come back.





Orange Bishop is native to sub-Saharan Africa. They are a member of the weaver family (Ploceidae), so-named because of the intricately woven nests they build. Orange Bishop is smaller than a House Finch (~4" vs. 6"). As previously mentioned, the breeding male is bright reddish-orange and black. Female is very plain, and is often compared to Grasshopper Sparrow in bird field guides. Orange Bishop has a thicker, conical bill - black in males and fleshy pink in the females. Their tails are short and blunt.

Orange Bishop prefers open areas, especially tall grasslands near water. The species has become established in the Los Angeles area (1980's) and Phoenix (~late 1990's).

This morning I went out to get the newspaper, and I heard the bird calling again. He was up on the phone line, in the same place as yesterday.


I went back inside and got the camera. I took another bad picture, this time through a window and 2 trees.

ARRRRGHGHGH!!!

Here's how they actually look.
They are really handsome birds.

    --------->>>>> 

Image credit:

National Geographic
Field Guide to the
Birds of North America

Sixth Edition, page 528-29




New Life Bird.
New Yard Bird.

Pretty darn cool.
:-)











ANNOUNCER: "And now for something completely different..."
~ Monty Python's Flying Circus

Autumnal Equinox

Today is the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of Fall here in the Northern Hemisphere.

The sun's path across the sky has been moving steadily south since the Summer Solstice, the first day of Summer back on June 20th. 

It has been easy to notice lately that days are getting shorter. The sun is rising later and setting earlier than it did during the summer months. Temperatures are cooling off too.

The shorter days and cooler temperatures mean lots of birds are on the move now. Our summer bird visitors have headed south for the winter. The White-winged Doves and Hooded Orioles left our yard a couple of weeks ago, headed to their winter homes. They will be replaced by our winter residents: White-crowned Sparrows and Yellow-rumped Warblers are the two most numerous in our yard.

We will be keeping all of our feeders well-stocked, to welcome the snowbirds back and to help the travelers as they pass through.

Back in June we posted a picture of sunset on the day of the Summer Solstice, when the sun is at its farthest point north in the sky. Here is a photo of the sunset today, looking due west. The sun's movement to the south is definitely noticeable. It will continue moving south until the Winter Solstice in December.

Looking West - Sunset on 09.22.12  (Autumnal Equinox)

Sunset on 06.20.12  (Summer Solstice)

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air."
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Ahoy ye lubbers!

Today be International "Talk Like a Pirate Day".

If ye'd like to channel yer inner Captain Jack Sparrow, sail on over to the official TLAP Day website:


www.talklikeapirate.com


-- Learn the history of TLAP Day!

-- Take the Pirate Personality Test!

-- Use the English to Pirate translator!

-- Read the Pirate Advice column!

-- Learn how to celebrate TLAP Day in your workplace!

-- Listen to Pirate Music!

-- Get Pirate ring tones for your phone!

-- Subscribe to the Poopdeck newsletter!

-- Find links to lots of merry mayhem and Pirattitude!

Whose Whoo is Whose?

We were up before sunrise this morning, and noticed that a Great Horned Owl was calling from somewhere nearby. As we stopped to listen, we realized there were actually two owls calling back and forth to each other. The first voice had a slightly higher pitch, and the second was noticeably lower.

It was still rather dark, as I quietly went outside into the courtyard.

Looking in the direction of their calls, I saw one of the owls perched on a telephone line, silhouetted against the pre-dawn sky. It was the owl with the deeper voice and I could see its movements each time it called.

The other owl remained hidden, but continued to call in its higher voice.


I was able to watch and listen for a few minutes, before the high-voiced owl suddenly appeared. It took off from its hidden perch and silently flew south toward the big trees on the golf course. The owl on the wire followed a few seconds later.

Pretty neat way to start the day.
We're hoping they come back again for another visit.
:-)


"O you virtuous owle, The wise Minerva's only fowle."
~ Sir Philip Sidney - A Remedy for Love

A Milpa Garden

Our milpa garden planted with Corn, Squash and Beans

Earlier this year we decided to experiment with planting a small, traditional-style milpa garden.

A milpa is a plot of land planted with a number of different complementary food crops.

This efficient agricultural technique was developed thousands of years ago in ancient Mesoamerica. It is still in use today in many areas of Mexico and Central America.

Squash blossom in the milpa

The milpa garden has many advantages over modern single-crop plantings:

-- multiple crops can be grown in the same plot simultaneously
-- very low maintenance
-- reduced water usage
-- the different plants provide various benefits to the garden and to each other





We chose to plant the "Three Sisters" of Native American agriculture: corn (maize), beans, and squash.

Corn and beans can be planted close together, saving space in the garden.
The corn stalks provide a natural trellis for the beans to grow up.

Corn and beans provide complementary amino acids, for a nutritionally complete diet. 

The squash were planted in between the rows of corn/beans.

The low-growing squash plants help cut down on growth of weeds.

The taller corn provides cooling shade for the squash plants.

The roots of the bean plant restore nitrogen to the soil.

Our corn ripened about a month ago, just as the 120 degree weather hit. The ears got desiccated and we were not able to harvest fresh corn. So we left the ears to dry on the stalks, to eventually be ground into meal. The dried corn stalks are providing a natural trellis for the climbing beans, which are just beginning to flower.

Climbing beans using dried corn stalks as natural trellis

Butternut Squash

The squash was a different story. Protected in the shade of the corn stalks, there was enough squash for us and to share with friends.

We have enjoyed it steamed, mixed into stir-fry, and as a delicious vegan soup.

In the future we plan on experimenting with planting more heirloom and desert native varieties of traditional plants in our garden.


The milpa "is one of the most successful inventions ever created."
~ H. Garrison Wilkes, maize researcher at the University of Massachusetts, Boston
Quoted in the book  1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus,
by Charles C. Mann

More info:
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/milpa_agriculture

Dragonfly

A couple of evenings ago, we found a dragonfly that had crash landed in our pool.



We though we were too late when we fished it out of the water.

It sat motionless in my hand for a few seconds, then grabbed onto my finger and fluttered its wings slightly.

It was rather large, with a blue-ish green body and beautiful rusty brown markings on the hindwings.

We were able to watch it for nearly 15 minutes as it perched calmly on my finger and dried itself off.

It spent a lot of time running its front legs across its face and eyes, as it preened and recovered from the unexpected swim.


Dragonflies have been living on this planet for over 300 million years. Fossils dating back to the Carboniferous Period, reveal giant species with wingspans of up to 30 inches!

Dragonflies are fast and agile flyers. Their wings are criss-crossed with multiple veins, which give them structure, shape and strength. Dragonflies are able to fly forwards, backwards, up, down and sideways, as well as hovering in place. Kind of like an insect version of a hummingbird!

When you see an adult dragonfly, it has already lived most of its life. Mated females lay their eggs in wet areas. The eggs hatch into a nymph form which lives underwater. The nymph will molt many times as it grows in size, eating small aquatic invertebrates, fish and tadpoles. The underwater nymph form lasts from 2 months to 6 years (depending on species).

For its final molt, the nymph crawls up out of the water. The old skin splits and the adult dragonfly emerges. The adult will only live another 5 or 6 months after this.

If you have dragonflies in your yard, they will help by eating mosquitos, flies, gnats, wasps and other small insects.

Dragonflies catch their meal in the air, aided by their keen vision. Their huge eyes cover most of their head.

The eyes are compound and consist of nearly 30,000 individual elements. Over 3/4 of the dragonfly's brain is devoted to processing visual information.

Their strong legs are covered with stiff hairs that help hold their prey.


Dragonflies themselves are eaten by lizards, birds, fish, frogs, spiders and even other dragonflies. Their agility in flight and their huge eyes help them to avoid becoming someone elses' meal.

I was looking for a safe perch to put this little guy, when it took off on its own. It hovered above my head for a few seconds before streaking off to chase a smaller dragonfly out of our back yard. A few minutes later it reappeared, chasing a hummingbird into a tree.

Apparently, the recovery was complete.  :-)



"This dragonfly came up to me. He was hovering right in front of my face, and I was really examining him, thinking, How does he see me? I became enlightened."
~ Ziggy Marley


For more info:
Odonata: Dragonflies and Damselflies
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/uniramia/odonatoida.html

Curiosity Has Landed

The rover Curiosity landed safely on Mars this evening, after an 8 month journey through space.

Curiosity's First Image from Mars

NASA-TV provided a live feed from Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which we watched online.

All of the complicated steps needed to land Curiosity safely on the Red Planet were orchestrated flawlessly.

As each critical maneuver was accomplished, applause and cheers erupted from staff in the control room at JPL.



Curiosity touched down on the Martian surface at 10:32pm PDT, and within a few minutes the rover's first image (above) was transmitted back to Earth. It shows the rocky soil with one of Curiosity's wheel in the foreground

NASA websites were overloaded by people trying to access the images online (including us).

The United States now has two operational science rovers on Mars: newly-arrived Curiosity, and its much smaller cousin Opportunity - which landed on Mars 8 years ago and is still functioning!

It is astounding to think that within minutes of safely landing a man-made craft on a different planet, we have these images available on our home computers.

Wow.


Web site for the Mars Science Laboratory mission
www.nasa.gov/msl

Curiosity's Twitter feed
http://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity

Curiosity's Facebook page
www.facebook.com/MarsCuriosity

"7 Minutes of Terror: Curiosity Rover's Risky Mars Landing Video"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2I8AoB1xgU