The Little Bird’s First Flight

The eaves of our house are covered with netting to keep birds out, but some enterprising couple has picked their way through the netting and built a nest about where the blue arrow points.

Besides the droppings down below, the intrusion has been minor, and I decided to wait until the little ones were all gone to clean it out and re-attach the netting to keep the birds out next year.

So far, so good.

When little birds first fly the nest, they kind of wobble around, eventually, hopefully tumble to the ground without breaking a wing. Dazed and disoriented, they try and try again until they figure out how to use that incredible gift of wings and they are on their way.

Unless the parent birds didn’t plan very wisely and there is a body of water three horizontal and ten vertical feet from the nest and the tumbling flight of the fledgling ends abruptly in water.

We had to scoop out a dead little bird a couple of days ago.

How Big is the Solar System?

Recently I had a conversation about the relative size of the solar system. If the sun were the size of a basketball, how big would the earth be and how far away from the basketball would it be?

The earth would be about the size of a pinhead, and it would be about 90 feet (or about a third of the length of a football field) away from the basketball.

I was about to create a spreadsheet to stretch this out to the rest of the solar system and beyond, but I had a hunch that somebody probably already did that. I found John Silveira did a great job, so rather than just rehashing things here myself, I recommend you read his article and walk away in awe.

Griffis Sculpture Park

Norbert at Griffis Sculpture Park

Last week an old friend and I went to back to visit Griffis Sculpture Park in Cattaraugus County, New York. I was there almost ten years ago. There were many new sculptures, or perhaps I had forgotten much.

It’s way out in the boonies. Here is a map:
View Larger Map

The park now has its own web site. The site just got “upgraded” in July, it seems, and sadly, most of the content of the sculptures is now gone (or not there yet) so it’s of little use other than for promotional purposes.

Many years ago a sculptor started placing his metal statues in the woods. There are many acres of terrain, and as you walk the hiking paths, you’ll encounter a giant spider with ten foot long legs, a life size giraffe, all manner of animals, but also humanoid figures of giant size. There are surprises everywhere, and I am sure I have not seen 10 percent of all the sculptures.

Being an artist myself, I admire the founder and his successors. This is how art should be done. If your art are giant metal sculptures weighing thousands of pounds, this is the gallery to display them.

Here I am, posing with one of the statues right by one of the main roads into the park:

And here looking through the belly of another one:

Norbert Through the Belly

If you find yourself in Western New York with a few hours of extra time, visit Griffis. Chances are you are the only one there, you get in a nice walk and you leave inspired.

Nasty Weather in Iowa

Our company does a lot of business in Iowa, so we have lots of contacts.  Somebody sent me this picture taken in Orchard, Iowa.

 

I have to say: Send me a good old California earthquake any time.

No Funding for Wildlife Refuges

We can’t fund our Wildlife Refuges:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24788485/wid=18298287 

This article states that we need $765 million to properly fund our wildlife refuges, but this year we’re only allocating $434 million. We’re $331 million short. That’s about $1.10 per person in the US.

Where can I send my money?

However, we continue to spend $12 billion on the war in Iraq per month, that’s $12,000 million in 30 days. That’s $400 million a day.

I say let’s stop the war for one day and fund the shortfall for the wildlife refuges.

Nobody is going to notice that we’re not doing the war for a day!

How about Memorial Day next Monday. Let’s just not fight that day, and use the money for a good cause. Some people that would have died on Monday won’t die, either, so that too will be a good outcome. All their families will continue to have their kids.

Better yet, maybe we can put a “no war” day in every month.

I am so creative, it’s frightening.

 

Forest Giants

The world has a new tallest tree, based on an article in the New York Times.

This article references Steve Sillett, the main character in the book The Wild Trees that I reviewed below. 

Read Preston’s book “The Wild Trees” and learn how these guys find and measure the trees. You will be amazed how complicated this endeavor is. Fortunately, there are only very few people privy to where the trees are, and they keep it a secret. This will keep me from seeing the world’s tallest tree, but that is ok with me. I have seen General Sherman — and that counts.

An interesting blog entry by Vicky speculates about Steve Sillett’s intentions when he kept the locactions of the trees he researched secret. She changes her mind at the end. My thought, of course is: Steve found and measured the trees in the first place, which took, including his experience and learning, decades. Anyone else wanting to become a tall tree expert is welcome to put on a backpack and start hiking and measuring. I think Steve is in his right to conceal the locations for one thing, and being a responsible scientist, working in a field where the subjects of his study are highly fragile and endangered natural treasures, I would say he even has a responsibility to protect the locations.

And finally, don’t miss Robert Van Pelt’s website www.forestgiants.com for some neat pictures.

Hummingbird Abandoned

The Hummingbird finished her nest a few days ago, laid an egg that looks like a white gumdrop, and has abandoned her nest. Or so it seems. She has not been back for days. Did she not like the egg? Did she die? What eats hummingbirds?

A hummingbird is the one creature that seems like it should be outside of the food chain. Nothing should harm hummingbirds.

But then, I am sure there is something wrong with that idea, too.

Hummingbird Planning

Right by our front door, between the door and the garage door, we walk around a ficus tree. On a protruding branch, a hummingbird has decided to build her nest. We have to watch out that we don’t run into this branch. It’s about at eye level, literally 18 inches from where we walk. I guess  we’ll have a great view of the little hummingbird babies growing up this year.