BeePeeking - Blog

Pollinator Week 2020

6/22/2020

Pollinators I have loved,
and this t-shirt seems especially poignant these days.
How many different pollinators can you find in your backyard and neighborhood?

Want to know more about migratory pollinators?
specifically nectar-feeding bats and Monarch butterflies... Me too!
The Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides is offering a free webinar on
Monday, June 29 1pm PDT---
see you there!

LockDown Lunacy: the thinking Person's Guide

6/5/2020

It's June and here in Seattle we've been in quarantine since mid-March...
yesterday (while shopping outside by appointment only at my local garden store) I was asked to pay for a purchase by placing my credit card in a butterfly net--in order to stay 6 feet away from the masked and gloved employee who would run it inside to be processed. I did not make this up.

As an inquiry biologist, it is in my nature and training to be curious, to think for myself, and to use my common sense when approaching a problem. Lately, I see very little of the latter.

If you have also been wondering about the state of things and questioning the response to Covid-19/ the SARS-CoV-2 virus, you will appreciate this excellent article by JD Handley from the Children's Health Defense website.

Then, Swiss Policy Research is a treasure chest of fully referenced facts about Covid-19 that counter the mainstream media narrative.

I am taking a bit of comfort in knowing that there are others who question the current paradigm. I do think it is important to be careful, to make informed decisions, and to always always keep in mind the consequences of any action that is taken. My biggest concern at this point is for our parents, people who are over 80 and who have comorbidities. Young healthy people do not need to be using butterfly nets to process credit cards! That kind of thinking is what truly scares me.

Brew yourself a cuppa and prepare to settle in.

Rhubarb Cake

5/29/2020

Tracey’s Rhubarb Cake
Step 1
Preheat Oven to 350 F. Grease and flour 8x8 square baking dish.
Step 2
In large bowl mix:
3⁄4 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1⁄2 tsp salt
1 cup white flour
1 cup ww flour
Stir in:
2 beaten eggs
1 cup sour cream
Then fold in:
3 cups chopped rhubarb
Spoon into baking dish, it is thick!
Step 3
In small bowl stir together:
1⁄2 cup brown sugar
1⁄2 cup softened butter
1 tsp cinnamon
2 T of ancient seeds or chopped nuts
1⁄4 cup rolled oats
2 T rye flour
Spread mixture over top of cake
Step 4
Bake at 350 F for about 50 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean)
Enjoy!

42 North American Butterflies :: Animated!

5/24/2020

Eleanor Lutz, of Tabletop Whale, created this animated butterfly chart in 2014. I think she is brilliant, and love her application of art and digital technology to science illustration. Be sure to click the link to watch the butterflies in motion!

Then, pop over to Pacific Horticulture to find my inquiry research on "Where Are the Butterflies?" Plus, tips on how to make your garden butterfly-friendly with these Eight Essential Elements.
Enjoy

~illustration by Roger La Borde

Birds in my yard :: Mother's Day 2020

5/11/2020

Stellar's Jay

Spotted Towhee

This year we have spunky Bewick's Wrens nesting in the side of our garden shed (they totally ignored the birdhouses we have installed for them), a reclusive pair of Spotted Towhees nesting in the hedgerow underbrush, and some riotous Stellar Jays have built their nest in a neighbor's conifer. We are enjoying getting to know these three bird couples. It's been fun to observe their quirky personalities and how they interact with all the other songbirds who visit throughout the day.

Since I recently donated my cameras and lenses to Peter Pearsall, wildlife photographer, I was compelled to go looking for images of these avian parents. I am very pleased to have discovered Whatbird.com. It is a nice compliment to my favorite site :the Cornell Lab's All About Birds.

Bewick's Wren

A group of towhees are collectively known as a "tangle" and a "teapot" of towhees.
A group of wrens may be called a "chime", "flight", "flock", and "herd" of wrens.
A group of jays is a "band", "cast", "party", and "scold" of jays.

Quarantine Fermentations

4/29/2020

Back in my new/old house, I am enjoying baking and brewing in my updated kitchen. These last two weeks I’ve been nurturing three different sourdough starters, as well as taking my SCOBY out of hibernation and brewing my own continuous green tea Kombucha. I have to say that all my experiments have been tasty and successful. My ferments are as happy as me to inhabit this lovely new space.

My sourdough pancakes have been getting a kick out of the daily feedings and these have been the lightest and most complex pancakes in quite some time. Whiskey=Irish coffee...also a quarantine-blues buster.

Wild Sourdough Project

4/15/2020

My stay-at-home project this spring is to join Rob Dunn and his crew in their Wild Sourdough Project and also to participate in Michelle Jewel's 20 minute Fermentology Seminars to learn about "the applied ecology, evolution, history and culture of cultured foods". Both of these activities have open invitations from North Carolina State Public Science Lab.

As a Wild Sourdough participant, I will be comparing ferments from three types of flour. I mixed my pastes today and in two weeks will be posting photos and data to the site.

Meanwhile...meet the new babies in our fermenting lab (joining our kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, and my Seattle sourdough).

Want to join me in a Zoom seminar every Thursday afternoon through August? See you there!

On the verge-so much has happened

4/10/2020

I am excited to share the link to my article, published Spring 2019 in Pacific Horticulture.

With everyone quarantined and staying at home, this is a wonderful opportunity to dig into your soil and to nourish your relationship with the flora and fauna in the neighborhood.

Now, get outside and enjoy that spring sunshine!

Great Backyard Bird Count 2020

2/14/2020

Valentine's Day Bird Count began with two black-capped chickadees at my feeder.
Join me in getting out and counting birds this weekend?
Cornell Lab of Ornithology and E-bird make it easy!

Guess WHO?

1/14/2020

I love waking up and finding evidence that wild animals have been exploring our backyard while we are not looking. This fresh dusting of snow let us see how the local raccoons circumnavigated our house and also that they were hoping to dip their paws in the birdbath.

Do you ever wonder about how these wild animals survive in the city?

First, why is this animal called raccoon (wikipedia):
The word "raccoon" was adopted into English from the native Powhatan term, as used in the Colony of Virginia. It was recorded on John Smith's list of Powhatan words as aroughcun, and on that of William Strachey as arathkone. It has also been identified as a reflex of a Proto-Algonquian root *ahrah-koon-em, meaning "[the] one who rubs, scrubs and scratches with its hands".

Hill Raccoons are more than Bandits, 10/15 Brendan McGarry: REPOST from CHS blog

"Despite their nocturnal tendencies, we know they are around, scampering across intersections when we come home late at night or when they blunder beneath our tires. The main reason they’ve become so common in our urban world is that they’re incredibly intelligent and this is very adaptive for the variety of nuances they face in the city. Their common name is merely an english settler mangled Powhatan word for the animal; their latin binomial is telling. The genus designates them as before, “Pro,” dog, “cyon,” intimating that raccoons are indeed carnivores (though more closely related to bears than dogs). The second notes a common behavior, as lotor literally means “washer,” and raccoons are well known for their habit of “washing” their food using dextrous forelimbs.

Unlike us, raccoons don’t have very good long distance vision but instead rely on a suite of other senses. Based on their anatomy, raccoons do see better than us at night, because they possess tapetum lucida, tissues behind their retina contributing to superior light gathering, which many mammals have. You’ve seen this before in your dog or cat when at night a beam of light reflects in their eyes. Despite this nocturnal augmentation, both a sense of smell and hearing, much more acute than ours top vision in importance to raccoons. However, one trumps them all, and that’s their sense of touch.

Though raccoons don’t have opposable thumbs on their forepaws like primates, they are only slightly less dextrous. raccoons have one of the most highly developed senses of touch for a vertebrate, with an inordinate amount of brain power devoted to the tactile. Their habit of “washing” is not related to a desire for clean food but instead related to the fact that they can feel more when wetting their paws, softening their footpads. I’ve routinely seen raccoons search about in the water with their paws (they love frogs, fish, clams, and all manner of invertebrates that habituate them to habitats with nearby water), and upon finding something, manipulate it throughly as a blindfolded person would an object handed to them for inspection. This is a prime way they see the world, so different than how most of us see things."

Thanks for your interest in our backyard visitors.
Cheers, and enjoy the wild side.

Author

Tracey Byrne~
I spent most of the 1980s and 90s in Alaska
flying airplanes, floating wild rivers, winter camping, raising a wild child, and living off the grid :^)

With my MAT in Advanced Inquiry for Biological Sciences, I've taught K-12 students from north of the Arctic Circle to the Puget Sound Ecoregion, garnering over thirty years experience as a classroom teacher, learning mentor, and private tutor.

Here in Seattle, I am an advocate for environmental stewardship, place-based education, and outdoor play. I share my enthusiasm for birds, bugs, and backyards as a writer/photographer for Pacific Horticulture.

All photographs © T. Byrne unless otherwise noted.

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