Woody seed pods of trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. In flower, this plant looks like this.   Click for high-res photo

Woody seed pods of trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

In flower, this plant looks like this.  

Common reeds (Phragmites australis), at Back Bay.  I find it hard not to like this plant. I sat for a half hour watching a raft of canvasback ducks and coots at the refuge this morning, and listening to a light breeze sussurating in the reeds. Is it possible to hate a plant that makes such sweet sounds? I know it is an aggressive invader, and as an informed ecologist I am supposed to be Concerned and Alarmed about its proliferation, but I am in the process of studying and rethinking my stance on invasives and their roles in ecosystem dynamics, and I am conflicted. As a member of what is possibly the world’s most disruptive invasive species isn’t it hypocritical to label another organism invasive and reflexively campaign for its eradication?  Click for high-res photo

Common reeds (Phragmites australis), at Back Bay. 

I find it hard not to like this plant. I sat for a half hour watching a raft of canvasback ducks and coots at the refuge this morning, and listening to a light breeze sussurating in the reeds. Is it possible to hate a plant that makes such sweet sounds? I know it is an aggressive invader, and as an informed ecologist I am supposed to be Concerned and Alarmed about its proliferation, but I am in the process of studying and rethinking my stance on invasives and their roles in ecosystem dynamics, and I am conflicted. As a member of what is possibly the world’s most disruptive invasive species isn’t it hypocritical to label another organism invasive and reflexively campaign for its eradication? 

Cattails (Typha sp.), at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The image below is a dichotomous key from eFloras.org for identifying North American cattails to the species level. I leave this thankless task for better botanists than I. 

Crime Scene: The mortal remains of a white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), found under the hydrangea canes. The neighbor’s cat has been identified as a feline of interest in this tragic avicide.  At least one billion birds are thought to be killed by domestic cats in the United States each year. Allowing free-ranging house cats to roam the neighborhood is likely the the third largest anthropogenic cause of bird deaths, exceeded only by habitat loss and bird collisions with reflective structures and windows. Love your cat, but have it spayed or neutered, and please keep it indoors. Read more here and here.   Click for high-res photo

Crime Scene: The mortal remains of a white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), found under the hydrangea canes. The neighbor’s cat has been identified as a feline of interest in this tragic avicide. 

At least one billion birds are thought to be killed by domestic cats in the United States each year. Allowing free-ranging house cats to roam the neighborhood is likely the the third largest anthropogenic cause of bird deaths, exceeded only by habitat loss and bird collisions with reflective structures and windows. Love your cat, but have it spayed or neutered, and please keep it indoors. Read more here and here.  

Misogynistic Vintage Coffee Ads

“Tastes like something you’d sit in to remove a tattoo!”

Tree Biomass Distribution in the Continental United States, 2011. Map by Robert Simon for the NASA Earth Observatory, based on data compiled by Joseph Kellndorfer and Wayne Walker of the Woods Hole Research Center, in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. Dark means more. Please click image for expanded view.  Bonus Ogden Nash: I think that I will never see / A billboard lovely as a tree. / Indeed, unless the billboards fall / I’ll never see a tree at all. [From Song of the Open Road, 1941] Click for high-res photo

Tree Biomass Distribution in the Continental United States, 2011.

Map by Robert Simon for the NASA Earth Observatory, based on data compiled by Joseph Kellndorfer and Wayne Walker of the Woods Hole Research Center, in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. Dark means more. Please click image for expanded view. 

Bonus Ogden Nash:

I think that I will never see / A billboard lovely as a tree. / Indeed, unless the billboards fall / I’ll never see a tree at all.

[From Song of the Open Road, 1941]

The Purist by Ogden Nash I give you now Professor Twist, A conscientious scientist, Trustees exclaimed, “He never bungles!” And sent him off to distant jungles. Camped on a tropic riverside, One day he missed his loving bride. She had, the guide informed him later, Been eaten by an alligator. Professor Twist could not but smile. “You mean,” he said, “a crocodile.” [Only this is my photo of an alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), because I am feeling snappish and cranky today, and I don’t have a crocodile picture to post. Please click the photo for an enlarged view.] Click for high-res photo

The Purist by Ogden Nash

I give you now Professor Twist,

A conscientious scientist,

Trustees exclaimed, “He never bungles!”

And sent him off to distant jungles.

Camped on a tropic riverside,

One day he missed his loving bride.

She had, the guide informed him later,

Been eaten by an alligator.

Professor Twist could not but smile.

“You mean,” he said, “a crocodile.”

[Only this is my photo of an alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), because I am feeling snappish and cranky today, and I don’t have a crocodile picture to post. Please click the photo for an enlarged view.]

Bison bison. Blurry blurry.  At Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Jasper County, Iowa.  Click for high-res photo

Bison bison. Blurry blurry. 

At Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Jasper County, Iowa. 

Seeds, at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge.

Tall thoroughwort (Eupatorium altissimum) and Round-headed bush clover (Lespedeza capitata).

Volunteers and children on school field trips participate in native plant propagation by gleaning seeds from the prairie, and cleaning and sorting them in the refuge’s seed lab.

Prairie sunflower seedhead (Helianthus sp., either H. pauciflorus or H. petiolaris), at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge.  Click for high-res photo

Prairie sunflower seedhead (Helianthus sp., either H. pauciflorus or H. petiolaris), at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge. 

Canada thistle seedhead (Cirsium avernse), at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge.  Click for high-res photo

Canada thistle seedhead (Cirsium avernse), at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge. 

Restored prairie, at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Jasper County, Iowa.  Click for high-res photo

Restored prairie, at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Jasper County, Iowa.