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 and who are suffering from isolation. Young healthy people do not need to be using butterfly nets to process credit cards! That kind of thinking is what truly scares me.

Fear is causing people to stop asking important questions. Why I am being scolded for wondering: "why should healthy people wear masks (especially when cloth face coverings are at best ineffective and at worst cause harm)?" and "how can they possibly create a vaccine for this novel coronavirus in six months when they've been working on a vaccine for SARS for seventeen years and still have not had success--and crucially: why will there be no mandatory trials for safety and efficacy?" 
​
Brew yourself a cuppa and prepare to settle in.

"The birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees"...
Ah yes, spring! One of the questions many people have is how exactly do birds make babies?

Bird sex: to begin--most male birds do not have a penis
There are almost 10,000 species of birds and only around 3% have a penis. All of our male songbirds, eagles, hawks, gulls, cranes, owls, pigeons, hummingbirds and woodpeckers do not have a penis. Flamingos, penguins, and albatrosses have also completely lost their penises. Birds with penises include ducks, geese and swans, and large flightless birds like ostriches and emus.

In the kingdom of aves, 97% of male and female birds have what's known as a cloaca; the cloaca is a multipurpose internal chamber that ends in an opening used for discharging sperm or eggs. It is the only opening for the digestive, reproductive, and urinary tracts.

Springtime antics of songbird mating may include the male showing off his clever dance moves,  singing repertoire, and feather displays, along with loop-de-loops, gifts of food or trinkets, and general lovebird tom-foolery. If the female is receptive, eventually she will land, shift her tail feathers to the side, and the male bird will swoop in for a swift tail-to-tail "kiss" as their swollen cloaca bump together for the transfer of sperm (above photo). If you have ever been lucky enough to witness the cloacal kiss, you know that if you blink you will miss it.

Our backyard birdhouses have housed many families of songbirds over the last 20 years, and this year we have a birdhouse full of tiny chickadees. YAY!

Chickadees usually lay 6-8 dime-size eggs in a soft downy nest constructed by the female. Mother birds sit on their eggs for 12-13 days, and then for two weeks after they hatch, both parents work long hours to feed the voracious nestlings. We enjoy watching the adults fly in with a beak full of food, perch in the Stewardia tree and call, wing in to the "bee-peep" of the babies to deposit the grub, and then leave with a white fecal sack-keeping the downy nest clean and tidy. 

Kristen Martyn, from Wild Birds Unlimited reported that "Research by Doug Tallajmy (entomologist at the University of Delaware) found that one pair of chickadees delivered food once every 3 minutes to their nest. Estimating that they forage during the hours of 6 am- 8 pm (entirely realistic during nesting season) means they make approximately 390-570 trips with insects to the nest each day. Hatchlings are in the nest for approximately 14-18 days. This number does not include the insects required once the young ones fledge, but are still cared for by their parents for another 1-2 weeks." That is a lot of worms, bugs, berries, and seeds! No wonder the parent birds are looking raggedy. 

I am guessing that our nestlings are almost two weeks old, as we can see their tiny black heads as they peek out of the birdhouse. They will be fledging soon. 

Can you spot our birdhouse nestled in the bay laurel?
Chickadees prefer a home that is 65% shaded and has an unobstructed flight path to the entrance. 

Every morning for the month of May, Grow Wild is sending me a sweet botanical illustration 
of a common weed along with articles regarding our ever-changing relationship with these remarkable (and mostly unappreciated) species of the plant world. 

Sign up here to receive your own stunning botanical illustrations plus links to weed-related topics such as: weeds in literature and history, weeds as food security, why weeds matter to pollinators, and perhaps most importantly: what weeds mean to gardeners.

June update: all weedy blog posts can be found here: https://www.growwilduk.com/wildflowers/learn-about-wildflowers/what-weed-anyway/can-weeds-be-beautiful

This encyclopedic 656-page tome is available here as a paperback or kindle...
​(and it will certainly keep me from weeding my front slope of dandelions for another week or two!)   

2018 is starting off strong for moon-gazers: tomorrow, January 2, we'll have the chance to enjoy  the year's first full moon/super moon; then, on January 31st, it's a blue moon, super moon, and a lunar eclipse! According to Space.com, along the U.S. West Coast, the total phase will begin at 4:51 a.m. PST. The farther east you go, the closer the start of the partial phases will coincide with moon-rise.

When is a full moon called "blue"? It turns out it has nothing to do with color, but rather it is thought to come from an old English term meaning "betrayer"; this term is used to describe two full moons that occur in one calendar month, and usually happens on average every 2.7 years. There will be no shortage of full moon/blue moons this winter season, as we'll have another double in March (no full moon in February).

In 2015, we were treated to a Super Moon Lunar Eclipse, and I captured the above image from my backyard. This YouTube re-post from 2015 explains the celestial clockwork behind the magic.

Enjoy!

In the past decade, the plight of the honey bees has become a very important issue, and rightly so, as they play an essential part in the growth of crops and produce. Many do not realize that bees aren't just there to produce honey. They also play an important part in pollinating surrounding crops. One way in which we are detrimentally affecting the bee population is through the use of chemical pesticide. As tempting as it is to use such a method to eradicate pests in your backyard, it should be noted that not only is pesticide harmful to the bees, they are also harmful to you as well. If you are a gardener who wants to use a natural control method instead then consider the use of beneficial insects.

As the name implies, beneficial insects are bugs that can help eradicate common garden pests without doing any damage to your garden produce. Not all insects are bad. There are many such as the examples listed in the infographic that can be very effective at getting rid of common pests like aphids, caterpillars, and spider mites. Who knew the beautiful ladybug could be so effective at getting rid of aphid infestations in the garden? Other than the benefit of keeping things organic, using these insects can also be a great way to save money. Chemical pesticide is only going to get more expensive moving forward so why not use a method that takes advantage of the natural resource around you? If you are lucky then some of the beneficial insects could be native to the area you live in so all you have to do is to make your garden an attractive area for them to roam. One last thing to keep in mind is that there really isn't a way for pests to resist these bugs. According to the Pesticide Action Network, more and more insects and weed species are developing resistance against pesticide. With beneficial insects, however, the pests are being eaten so they really have nowhere to go.

If you are a gardener with a backyard then start taking action now. Help sustain the local population of bees in your area by sticking to a natural pest control method.

Whether it be with bonfires, candles, or eggnog, northerners have been celebrating the return of the light on the winter solstice for centuries (this year solstice is on December 21 in the northern hemisphere, below the equator, the winter solstice falls around June 21 :^)  On this date, the earth's axis tilts away from the sun in the Northern Hemisphere, and the sun reaches its greatest distance from the equatorial plane. Though we in Seattle are closest to the sun on the shortest day of the year, it is our longest night!

How could this be? Deb Byrd explains "because Earth doesn’t orbit upright, but is instead tilted on its axis by 23-and-a-half degrees, Earth’s Northern and Southern Hemispheres trade places in receiving the sun’s light and warmth most directly. The tilt of the Earth – not our distance from the sun – is what causes winter and summer. At the December solstice, the Northern Hemisphere is leaning most away from the sun for the year."