ANP's Vegetation

Photo of the Roosevelt Arch at the north entrance to America's first national park, Yellowstone, courtesy 123rf.com

Today's topic was requested by Peter Hitt from Oak Grove, Kentucky, @pahitt on Twitter:  vegetation.  Since tomorrow is the Fourth of July or Independence Day celebrations here in the U.S., we'll consider the vegetation in America's National Parks.

To find out about ANP's vegetation, many people go to one of the Frommer's Guides, which are some of the most popular guides in the U.S.  Started by Arthur Frommer in 1957, who, as a corporal serving in the U.S. Army in Germany, wrote a travel guide to Europe for G.I.s.  Click here for Frommer's information about the vegetation in Yellowstone National Park.

The National Park Service is involved in taking inventories of the vegetation in all the national parks.  For more information about the Vegetation Inventory Program click here.

Click here for more information about ANPs.  Click here for more information about Frommer's.  Thanks to Peter Hitt, @pahitt on Twitter, for today's topic.  What did you learn today?

Giraffes Dropped Five Feet At Birth

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

Giraffes give birth standing up, and the baby giraffe falls about five feet to eath usually unharmed.  Within about 30 minutes the baby stands, and can begin running with the giraffe family within ten hours.  For more information click here.  What did you learn today?

Giraffe's Blood Pressure

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

The giraffe's blood pressure is highest of all animal species.  For more information click here.  What did you learn today?

Fireproof Trees!

Photo of redwood tree courtesy 123rf.com

The bark of the redwood tree can be up to a foot thick, and contains tannins that help the tree be virtually fireproof.  For more information click here.  What did you learn today?

The Pressure's On!

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

The giraffe has the highest blood pressure of all animals.  For more information click here.  What did you learn today?

Live Stream Inside a Red-Tailed Hawks Nest!

Photo of Red-Tailed Hawk courtesy 123rf.com

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has fascinating live stream of a Red-Tail Hawk's nest.  I've never seen one so close.  For more information click here.

What did you learn today?

Consilience & World Ants

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

Two days ago I reviewed a wonderful documentary about origami I saw on Sunday.  One of the premises of this documentary reminded me of a wonderful book I read, which was published in 1998, "Consilience" by Edward O. Wilson.  In the documentary the relationship of origami to other fields of study was explored; in Wilson's book consilience is the unity of all knowledge bases from science to the humanities.

Dr. Wilson is from Alabama (as am I) and grew up near Washington, D.C. (I did not, although I visited several times in my youth) and near Mobile, Alabama (as did I).  As a young man he was very interested in natural history and entomology.  He has won several awards for his research and writings primarily in science. 

What I didn't know is that as a young man he attempted to survey all the ants of Alabama.  For a website that will give you information about ants in any region of the world click here. 

What did you learn today?

March Migration Madness!

Photo of male Northern Cardinal courtesy 123rf.com

The Great Back Yard Bird Count is in:  for more information and to find out why a picture of a Cardinal is included in this post click here.  The category most interesting to me is "Localities Reporting the Most Species".

Now get ready for March Migration Madness:  click here and vote for your favorite North American bird.  I may vote for the humble House Finch because I love their song so much.  Or I may vote for the Bluebird because they are so pretty, and I like their song, too.  Or I may vote for....oh, so many choices!

What did you learn today.

15 Sedona Vortexes

Photo of Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona courtesy 123rf.com

Iron ore, silicon dioxide, and sandstone content in rocks can cause rocks to have a magnetic field.  In Sedona, Arizona there are 15 locations that exhibit intense positive or negative magnetic fields, powerful enough to cause the human body to react.  These areas are called vortexes and are sought out by people for physical-health and spiritual reasons.  For more information click here and click here.

Muscle-Head!

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

Soon it will be caterpillar and butterfly time in the garden.  In arming myself with knowledge-tools to make sure I can have both flowers and butterflies, but not let my flower-garden be decimated by caterpillars, I learned that caterpillars have about 248 muscles in their heads!  For more information click here.  What did you learn today?

"Grapes" For Every Garden

Photo of The Blue River courtesy 123rf.com

The Muscari blossomed in my garden this morning.  It's beautiful and fragrant, and one of my favorite garden bulbs.  I have the common Grape Hyacinth, species name Muscari armeniacum.  They can be planted just about anywhere except for swampy areas, especially swampy areas that can freeze.

There are 30 species of Muscari.  In the Keukenhof Gardens in Holland there is a very famous planting of Muscari called The Blue River.  This dense and wide planting of Muscari winds throughout the gardens, and is the most photographed area of the gardens every year.  For more information click here.

What did you learn today?

Differences Between Moths and Butterflies

Photo of male Gypsy Moth's feathery antennae and flat resting wings courtesy 123rf.com


Photo of  Silver-studded Blue Plebejus' clubbed antennae and vertical resting wings courtesy 123rf.com

I know one difference between moths and butterflies is when at rest moths' wings lie flat and butterflies' wings are held vertically; but when I look at pictures of them where all wings are displayed flat I haven't been able to tell the difference between the two.

Three other differences between moths and butterflies are:
1.  Butterfly antennae are clubbed on the ends, moth antennae are thin or feathery on the ends.
2.  Butterfly bodies are thin and smooth, moth bodies are thick and fuzzy.
3.  Butterflies are active in the day, moths are active at night.

By the way, butterfly pupal stage is called chrysalis, moth pupal stage is called cocoon.

For more information click here.

Frozen Seed Now a Thriving Plant

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

The seed of a plant frozen in Siberia for possibly 30,000 years has been discovered, thawed, planted, and now grows in Russia.  For more information click here.

Parrotlets' Unique Calls

Photo courtesy ParrotletPictures.com

Parrotlet parents (wild parrots in Venezuela) teach their own chicks unique calls, so these calls are different from the calls of other parrotlets.  For more information click here, click here, and click here.

Back Yard Bird Count 2012

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

Are you participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count 2012?  It's going on through Monday, February 20.  For more information click here, click here, and click here.

The Days of the Crows

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

Right now about the only birds I'm seeing regularly in the yard are American Crows (of course, in addition to our House Finches, Chickadees, and House Sparrows seem to be hiding out a bit more than usual).  What I didn't know is that American Crows are monogamous cooperative breeding birds.  They do not reach breeding age for at least two years, so offspring from a previous nesting season will usually remain with the family to assist in rearing new nestlings.   For more information click here and click here.

Snowy Owl Migration 2011-2012

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

The snowy owl winter migration has reached much further south than usual this year.  Only two states in the U.S. haven't reported sitings of a snowy oil in any winter migration:  Arizona and New Mexico.  For more information click here.

Flooding of the Kalahari Desert

Map showing Botswana in blue, courtesy 123rf.com

Every year from June through August the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, South Africa is flooded with water.  Prior to June, the rain in the Angola highlands causes the Okavango River to flood.  Since this river has no outlet to the sea, the overflow rushes down to the desert land and stalls, saturating more than 4,000 square miles (10,359 square kilometers) of the desert floor.  Then the rains stop, and the desert sun dries up the flooded desert again.  During those three months, that area of the desert becomes a lush green, and animals come from miles around to drink and eat and breed.  For more information click here and click here.

70,000 Spiders!

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

There are 70,000 types of spiders in the world.  Spiders are venomous, not poisonous.  Click here to view a really great spider website.

Ancient Bug Repellent

Flowering Quince Photo courtesy 123rf.com

The earliest bug repellent bedding was possibly the river-wild quince.  For more information click here.