Local raptors on the move.

My poor dog has bad hips so we only go around the block these days. So local birding has gone way down. Yesterday I lucked about and picked up a Cooper's Hawk, Sharp-shinned, and a Red-tailed Hawk.

Today I had my first campus Common Raven while eating in the cafeteria and a Bald Eagle back at the office. 

Moving tropical mammals

It's been a good two weeks for tropical mammals. 

There's the report of El Jefe, a male jaguar roaming in Arizona. 

And now there's a report of bush dogs in Panama and apparently their number are up. 

I hope these are trends and not just more detections from a huge number of game cameras. 

Urban ecology: potter wasps

Found this on Ruby the red maple I planted last year between the sidewalk and road. Something very cool about critters colonizing these trees that are no more than a few cm in diameter and maybe 3 m tall. 

Potter wasps are a huge group so I won't venture a species here but this nest is about 1.5 cm wide. I would venture that something like a chickadee pecked away at it. 

Confession of a hard-core ecologists

I'm addicted to The Bachelor.

On deck for the week

For the week of Feb 1, 2016

• I've been putting off letters of recommendation until tomorrow. Need them for pharmacy school (1), student ornithology awards (2), and graduate school (1). 
• Meeting with the provost tomorrow to outline responsibilities for the study abroad directorship. 
• Moving biostatistics lecture material from OpenOffice docs to Google docs (easier to share and collaborate). Ditto for the lab material 
• Need to remember what Ned said to do with the student workers
• Figuring out how I'm getting to Auburn-Montgomery to do their program review
• Work on the math/stats/CS skill document (what we want our bio majors to know when they graduate)
• Need to firm up the Ecuador trip to Wildsumaco research station

Notes on Voyage of the Beagle: Chapter II

Students are supposed to be reading Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle for the class and taking notes. Tonight we're covering Chapter II. We're also supposed to be reading a text on tropical biology but my text hasn't arrived yet. 

To give some perspective on time, they left Devonport on December 27, 1831. Darwin was two months shy of his 22nd birthday and never left England before. 

Chapter II starts April 4, 1832, a year and five months after leaving England. This chapter primarily covers a side trip by Darwin while the ship charts the area around Rio de Janeiro. He meets up with a fellow Englishman and rides off to explore the countryside. 

The first striking passage is about a village of runaway slaves. They were discovered and soldiers dispatched yet "one old woman, who, sooner than again by led into slavery, dashed herself to pieces from the summit of the mountain. In a Roman matron this would have been called the noble love of freedom: in a poor negress it is mere brutal obstinacy."  I know Darwin as a champion of antislavery. Perhaps not yet or maybe he's giving a third-person opinion on the matter. 

Darwin and his party continue to ride along the shore also described here. There is an entertaining exchange when he camps along with way and asks the local property owner if there's anything to eat. The owner responds that he can have anything Darwin desires but he's out of everything that Darwin asks for except for a chicken that they beat to death with a rock. 

Moving on into a coastal forest he sees wonderfully tall forests with parasitic plants, including many orchids, egrets, herons, gastropods, and "ants' nests, which were nearly twelve feet high." These are actually termite mounds and there's an example here. There is a brief mention of vampire bats, which harass horses. 

Coffee is grown in this region and each tree produces about two pounds of coffee beans. And Darwin gives a brief description of mandioc or cassava. All the parts of the plant are eaten save the toxic juice, which much be removed from the root before tapioca and farinha are produced. Apparently slaves work these farms and "I have no doubt the salves pass happy and contented lives."  Oy vey Darwin. 

The next story about slavery was "I was crossing a ferry with a negro, who was uncommonly stupid. In endeavouring to make him understand, I talked loud, and made signs, in doing which I passed my hand near his face. He, I suppose, thought I was in a passion, and was going to strike him; for instantly, with a frightened look and half-shut eyes, he dropped his hands. I shall never forget my feelings of surprise, disgust, and shame, at seeing a great powerful man afraid even to ward off a blow, directed, as he thought, at his face. This man had been trained to a degradation lower than the slavery of the most helpless animal."  Maybe it's sinking in. 

He's then off to Socego, a beach and popular destination. There he encounters an incredible forest, where one man is making a 70' canoe. SEVENTY FEET! The trees are huge and the lianas (woody vines) are also huge being 2' around. 

And this I understand about the rainforest "the attractions are so numerous, the he is scarcely able to walk at all." 

Of all the critters, he focuses on the planarians (flatworms) and fireflies. There's also a paragraphs on the local climate (that's all I'll give it... you can tell meteorology isn't my schtick - unless you're talking very local effects - then I'm very interested). There are so many insects that "It is sufficient to disturb the composure of an entomologist's mind, to look forward to the future dimensions of a complete catalogue." He notes the work of leaf cutter ants and army ants and has a description of a fight between a large wasp (tarantula hunter) and large spider. 

We goes on to describe many spiders and habits, including social spiders. I've encountered these in Manaus. The stuff of nightmares (not really... but if you imagine being tiny and falling into these immense unorganized webs...). 

He commonly messes with invertebrates and cannot just watch. He saves insects from spiders' webs dispatches them so they don't suffer and put them back in the web.

What a curious mind. 

New job!!!! (kinda)

Yesterday I received a phone call from our provost offering the Study Abroad Director position. I accepted. 

Should be a fun challenge learning the ropes and raising money to get students and faculty outside of the U.S.