Five Easy Bobcats (Part 1)

by Tim Homan

        Spring 1975, my first canoe trip in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.  I had signed up for a Sierra Club trip to the swamp, an introductory one-nighter from Steven C. Foster State Park to the designated campsite on Cravens Hammock.  Our group of five would begin paddling at the park well within the western boundary of the refuge.  Our three canoes would glide half the length of Billys Lake, follow the Suwannee River to the dredged canal butted up beside the Suwannee River Sill, a long and low earthen dam.  We would turn right onto the canal and head north beside the sill, then follow the North Fork Suwannee River to Cravens Hammock.  Ten and a half miles out, the same distance right back in: simple, nearly impossible to become lost, the swamp water deep and tea dark all the way.

FINE Things No. 18

This week I'm bringing to you an uncensored collection of things I found this past week. Usually I take a second look and prune from the list items that I think will not appeal to the majority of Nature Ramblers. But, today, I'm letting you decide for yourself. There are a lot of videos on various subjects, some not directly nature related.

Note: I added this link on 10/29 so Ramblers could get information on the upcoming "Micro Blue Moon" on October 31, Halloween.

1. This beetle's stab-proof exoskeleton makes it almost indestructible
2. High-jumping beetle inspires agile robots. Machines could get themselves out of a sticky spot, thanks to an insect that can right itself without using its legs.

A Hard Penance Part 2

by Tim Homan

        The forecast for the following two days called for cold and rain, with a chance of sleet or snow showers in the mountains.  By the time the next decent day rolled around, I was sick with a sore throat and severe cold.  I didn't hike again until mid-December.  I read the weather forecasts in the newspaper every day, watched the weather on TV every evening.  The mountains were becoming colder and receiving steady precipitation, a bad combination.
        Rain fell off and on for two days just before I was well enough for hard hiking, so I opted to walk and work the first half of Section 2 of the Bartram Trail-the segment from Rabun County's Warwoman Road to Sandy Ford Road-rather than risk West Fork's ford at higher water.  I left home under starlight, fully expecting to walk nearly 14 miles of empty trail and lonely road.  I pulled onto the shoulder of Warwoman Road and started walking in the soft gray and gauzy light of early dawn.  Rhododendron leaves drooped down and curled inward against the cold and frost flowers crunched underfoot as I passed through the Warwoman Dell Recreation Area.

FINE Things No. 17

1  Why Borneo's trees are the loftiest on Earth
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02911-3
You might enjoy reading the original research paper, in particular, the abstract and Introduction. 

2  Satellites could soon map every tree on Earth
An analysis of satellite images has pinpointed individual tree canopies over a large area of West Africa. The data suggest that it will soon be possible, with certain limitations, to map the location and size of every tree worldwide.

3  Leading scientists say we should rewild to mitigate the climate crisis.

4  Fossil footprints record a fascinating story behind the longest known prehistoric journey.

5  Grapefruit, the weirdest fruit in the world?

6  Digging into the mystery of why covid19 is running amok in some places  and not others.

7  Most of us, at one time or another, have attempted to make sourdough bread.
This entertaining virtual discussion looks into what is going on in the sourdough starter. It is fascinating and will encourage you in your attempts to produce sourdough. It was created by Knowable Magazine and Annual Reviews and was available live last week. Now the non-interactive video is available! I highly recommend this one!
Watch The Science of Sourdough for free here.

8  How can trees be so tall? And where do they get the matter to grow?

9  Dying birds and the fires: scientists work to unravel a great mystery

10  Down on the farm that harvests metal from plants. Hyper-accumulating plants thrive in metallic soil that kills other vegetation, and botanists are testing the potential of phytomining.


 

A Hard Penance (Part 1)

By Tim Homan

        By Thanksgiving of 1980, I had hiked all of the eighty-nine trails or trail sections save one - the longest one, Section 1 of the Appalachian Trail, Springer Mountain to Woody Gap (1) - to complete the field work for my first guide: The Hiking Trails Of North Georgia.  In mid-November I had walked the last half of Section 2 of the Bartram Trail, about 10 miles from Sandy Ford Road to Georgia 28.  The otherwise easy route forced hikers to ford the West Fork Chattooga River with 0.4 mile remaining (1986 measurement) to its Highway 28 end.  On that November 16th the ford had been almost as bad as anticipated: the current pushy, over crotch deep, and painfully cold after the first few steps.
        Now, with that last impediment past and rapidly fading from memory, I had only one more weekend's worth of hard hiking.  To save Linda from driving her car on dirt-gravel forest service roads, I had agreed to backpack from Amicalola Falls State Park to Woody Gap-about 30 miles in two short-light days.  If I started very early on Saturday morning and had decent weather, I could make it to Woody before sunset on Sunday, the last day of November.

FINE Things No. 16

1 The real estate economy in Florida is beginning to react to the implications of Climate Change and the numbers show it. And it's not just those with beach front property that will bear the cost. Communities of color will be displaced by gentrification, not the sea.

2 The Arctic is warming at a faster rate than the rest of the world. A geoengineering solution is to use strategically placed glass beads to slow the rate of melting.  

3 Blue carbon: the climate change solution you’ve probably never heard of.

4 Remember the Saharan dust that appeared in our skies earlier this summer? Read how it can influence health all the way in Florida.

5 ‘Hyper urban’ coyote genomes are evolving apart from their city and rural cousins

6 Why the hidden world of fungi is essential to life on Earth -- Merlin Sheldrake

7 Atlantic magazine article: The Molecular Biologist Who Exposed the Soviet Union

8 Mending Coastal Marshes; Recycled plastic bottles get a new life as artificial islands.

9 Just for fun: The South Pointing Spoon 

10 Barking up the right tree.

11 Can plants actually take care of their offspring?

12 The Lord Howe screw pine is a self-watering island giant.

13 The Amazon Rain Forest is near the tipping point of switching to a savannah.

14 Warning: Don't Touch this hairy-looking caterpillar.

15 The value of Squirrels and Chipmunks in our Garden

Two Big Bears and a Boor (Part 3)

 

(Continued from Part 2)

         A few minutes after James' mac and cheese began to boil, a medium-sized man who looked a few years shy of forty entered the shelter, glanced around with contempt, then slung his heavy pack against the wall closest to the sidepath.  He didn't bother to return our heys and hellos and started unpacking without a word.  James nodded yes to our silent inquiry.

FINE Things No. 15

1  Brainiacs, not birdbrains: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute

2  Nature Milestones in Vaccines An interactive history of vaccine development. Vaccines have saved more lives than any other medical innovation, says Nature.

3  First Fossil Feather Ever Found Belonged to This Dinosaur

4  White-throated Sparrows in the SF Bay area changed their songs during the pandemic shutdown.

5  When people stay quarantined animals are free to roam.

6  In this video Dr. Scarlet Howard tells how she showed that honey bees could do simple arithmetic -- addition and subtraction

7  Lee Finley recommends this NYT Magazine article: When Invasive Species Become the Meal.  If you don't have a subscription to the Times you may not be able to read it -- they allow non-subscribers a few articles per month.

8  Global data shows that 40% of world's plant and fungal species are at risk of extinction. 

9  Thursday, Oct. 15, 12 Noon, ET: Webinar on the Science of Sourdough. Details here. You'll need to register; If you can't see the live session, it will be available later to those who registered. 

That's it for this week.