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Winter Honey & Pollen Harvest

1/27/2015

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It was pretty easy to see where the orange pollen was coming from...the crocuses were tricked into thinking it was spring already.
There was a lot of action in our apiary over the weekend, and with temperatures in the 60's, it was time to take a peek inside our hives and see how our bees were faring.

Only one of our three hives had any bees flying, and WOW, the bee-girls were bringing in loads of pollen. A quick check inside let me know that they also had plenty of honey as the super was heavy!
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Checking in the two bee-less hives, I discovered three mediums full of beautiful clover and herb honey. Yum! We harvest about 25 pounds (or six of the above frames).

If you are wondering why we would be harvesting honey in January, it is because we do not take honey from our bees in the fall (well, maybe a comb or two); instead our bees go into winter with the stores of honey and pollen that they have accumulated over the summer. Our hope is that this will give them the extra bump needed to survive the damp cold Seattle winter. Their honey certainly helps us to get through the winter! Thank you bees.
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Pine Siskin Irruption

1/24/2015

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©Kathleen Bartels/GBBC
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©David Smith
Over the weekend we experienced not only record-breaking warmth (64 F. in Seattle), but also a steady stream of pine siskins in flocks of 20-60 birds! The top photo shows a segment of our Katsura tree, which was decorated with this many birds throughout. They arrived each morning to crunch seeds for about 20 minutes, then move on to another tree. Wild seed party!

We usually see one or two pine siskins throughout the winter, flying in a mixed flock with the junkos and chickadees. They are fond of suet, and a tell-tale ID is that the pine siskin won't land on the suet, but instead flutters in front of it and pecks. Pine Siskins look a lot like the female finches that they fly with and they also look deceptively like a song sparrow-from the front. The best way to ID a pine siskin is to note the  yellow patches on the tail and the wings. They also have a really pointy bill (compared to the finch wives).

What is causing the irruption of pine siskins?  Audubon states that the irruption is a 2-year cycle, and is most likely driven by a shortages of seeds in spruces, pines, birch, and alder in the Canada and western US states.



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Celebrate Urban . . . dinosaurs?

1/18/2015

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    Common backyard dinosaurs have been appearing in the news lately as genetic studies have led to the revision of the bird family tree. The January issue of SN (Science News) features an article that discusses current research into avian evolution; we can now say that birds are dinosaurs (rather than birds evolved from dinosaurs) based on the findings!
    Patrick, on Paleocave blog, sums it up nicely, "
Birds are dinosaurs not just because they evolved from dinosaurs, but because they are more closely related to some of the extinct dinosaurs than those dinosaurs are to each other! So next time that someone tells you that dinosaurs are extinct, you can tell them that, actually, there are probably more species of dinosaur alive today than there were in the Mesozoic!"
    Another interesting tidbit from Kent University's BioScience department: chickens and turkeys
have the most similar overall chromosome pattern to its avian dinosaur ancestor (a great conversation-starter next Thanksgiving). This, of course, leads me to Jack Horner, renowned paleontologist, and his TED talk Building a Dinosaur from a Chicken.

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It appears that reverse-engineering a chicken could result in a dinosaur. Sean Carroll, author of Endless Forms Most Beautiful, and molecular biologist at the UW-Madison, states in a WIRED article (2011), "Every cell of a turkey carries the blueprints for making a tyrannosaurus, but the way the plans get read changes over time as the species evolves".

This leads to the question:
why would you want a chicken with teeth?

The revised Avian Family Tree

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Avian Family Tree by Erich Jarvis et al. "Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds"; Science, Dec 2014
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Bumble Bees of North America

1/17/2015

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    When I first began keeping bees (almost ten years ago)  I also began taking more notice of the diversity of native bees that visited our yard, especially the extremely photogenic bombus. What was frustrating is that it was very difficult to ID the bees, and there was no North American guide to bumblebees available.
    Xerces society offers handy pocket ID charts as well as these information packed guides for Western and Eastern United States (free pdf downloads).
   News Flash: Princeton Press just released the first comprehensive guide to all 46 North American bumble bees. It's jam-packed with color photos (of live bees too! not just bees on pins), color pattern variation diagrams, distribution maps, taxonomy, and latest molecular research. The introduction includes photos of insects who mimic bumble bees, habitat and foraging facts, and how to use the guide.
   Bumble Bees of North America is a wonderful resource for all backyard beepeekers and gardeners.

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Bird Song Hero

1/1/2015

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New Years Resolution #1:
Learn the bird songs of the regular avian visitors in my backyard.

Our Katsura trees are bird magnets this winter; thus we hear bird song every morning as soon as the sun rises. It is such a lovely wake-up call.
in addition to the seeds and berries from our trees and grasses, we augment with a bit of suet-which attracts many species of birds, especially during the cold snap.

To assist with my resolution, I will be using Bird Song Hero by the Cornel Lab of Ornithology. It is a fun instructional video because it shows you how to "see sound".

Another helpful resource is What the Robin Knows;  Jon Young explains what we can learn from the different bird songs, and has made available the multiple songs of twenty-two of our common backyard bird visitors. Enjoy!
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bird ID: northern flicker, black-capped chickadee, Bewick's wren, song sparrow, spotted towhee
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    Author

    Tracey Byrne~

    I taught K-12 students from north of the Arctic Circle to the Puget Sound Ecoregion, garnering  40 years of experience as a classroom teacher, learning mentor, and private tutor. 

    I spent most of the 1980s and 90s in Alaska flying airplanes, floating wild rivers, winter camping, teaching, parenting, and living off the grid. 

    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 and have been a featured writer and photographer for Pacific Horticulture. 
    ​

    All photographs © T. Byrne unless otherwise noted.

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