I am soooooo ready for spring! My NE flora class is just waiting to see wildlflowers. Our "garden" looks like a dead leaf compost pile and my cat has spring fever in a big way. I'm also starved for blossom colors!
Okay, Earth. I'm ready for some warmth and singing bluebirds! My favorite spring "bird song" is actually hearing woodpeckers drumming on the trees. The pileated woodpeckers are really good at it!
I can't wait to try out some new iced tea combinations - I like using licorice, rosemary, and berry herbal teas like strawberry and raspberry. I also tried using cranberry juice to make ice cubes - that kicks it up to a whole new level! We're learning about edible flowers in the flora class, and I'm just waiting to go out to the beaver pond for another one of my classes. I'll bring my home made iced tea and drawing materials for sketching.
Now I just need nice weather! What will you be doing for spring, Voxters??
Happy late Valentine's Day, Voxters!
I had a great post all planned out and I just did not have time to do it. You can look forward to a future post where I tell you about how our cat fell through the ceiling this week. True story. (He's okay.)
Happy Imbolc as well to my Pagan Voxter friends. One of my favorite books, Celebrate the Earth, talks about the symbolic nature of fire to keep us warm, and milk to get ancients through the winter. It also discusses replenishing the Earth's resources so it can be fertile and healthy for the growing season.
And since I've been on a fun drinks kick lately, here is a recipe for Faery Wine from the book:
1.5 cups milk per serving, 1 tsp honey, 1/8 tsp vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Warm milk, be careful not to boil! Add honey and vanilla to each glass or mug, sprinkle tops with cinnamon.
Ta.da! My thesis will be focusing on chimney swifts, the mysterious migratory bird that lost all of its natural habitat after the colonization of Northeast America, and made the remarkable adaptation of nesting and roosting in chimneys.
The other cool thing is that although we can see them from Texas all the way up the East coast and even into Canada, these beauties are actually neotropical migrants; they are a tropical songbird from Peru, Ecuador and other places in the upper Amazon basin.
I love this bird and their story is such a compelling one. I think it can teach us a lot about migratory birds, old growth forests, nightjars and taxonomy. I also wanted to focus on the use of rural homes by species, and this is a perfect fit.
Here is my original post about chimney swifts. There will be many more to come. For our Master's Thesis class we were assigned to come up with 3 questions about our topic, each to be followed by 3 hypothesis statements to go along with the questions. Here are mine:
1. Are chimney swift numbers declining due to the increased use of modern chimneys and do they have higher nesting success in older homes and historical buildings? Ha: Chimney swift numbers are declining due to the increased use of modern chimneys and their numbers will increase with the preservation of old homes and historical buildings with the correct type of chimneys.
2. Are artificial chimneys (swift towers) beneficial to chimney swifts? Ha: The use of artificial chimneys will increase nesting success in chimney swifts and increase their numbers.
3. Will chimney swifts ever return to their natural habitat? Ha: Artificial chimneys placed near areas of old growth forest will result in chimney swifts returning to their natural habitat.
As you can see I have yet more choices to make, but I am looking forward to the process. Many thanks to all my Voxter friends for helping me with this very difficult decision. I am blissful to say, in the end I made the right choice. Many more lessons to share about these critters, it should be fun!
Voxters, I have exciting news. I have finally locked in a thesis. It's the right one, and I'm overwhelmed with love and bliss. I will post about it very soon.
In the meantime, I thought I'd share a cough remedy since everyone around me seems to be getting sick. I have not been ill since ****my immune system is completely psychotic**** but I used to use this remedy when I would get the flu. It's from an herbal book given to me by my sister.
According to my herbal book, this remedy worked "for a cough which does not respond to anything else". I read this one time when I had the most violent cough of my life and it kept me up all night. I was desperate and none of my OTCs were working.
Licorice, ginseng and rosemary. I used loose herbs and boiled them in a pot of water. The results were amazing - I stopped coughing immediately and I did not cough once thereafter. I may have mixed lemon and honey in the tea as well. It tasted rather yummy! Of course here's the standard disclaimer: I'm not a doctor! Check with yours first to make sure the remedy is safe for you!
! I have been using many herbal treatments over the years, and in my 20's I made a love potion with brandy, apricots and blue vervain. We steeped it in a dark, cold closet for 2 weeks. I'm probably lucky I didn't blow up my liver at 22 years old.
I'm trying to "expand" my blog's subjects slightly so it won't be so one sided - wildlife, grad school, blah blah blah. So in honor of that idea, have some ice cream!
So apparently this is some kind of example of molecular gastronomy - it's ice cream, nitrogen flavored or some damned thing. Can't you just imagine the tounge stick that would happen there?
Sorry I missed my mustelid post today, I was sick all morning but I'm doing better now, obviously since I have ice cream on the brain. Mustelid info will be here soon. One thing about which I know very little is cooking, so please my beloved Voxters feel free to share your wisdom. I read many many wonderful cooking posts in my Neighborhood. I'll be especially impressed if anyone knows about this molecular stuff.
Namaste.
So yeah I've been busy with grad school again, but one thing I've realized is that I can't be away from Vox anymore. It's too important to me. So thankfully I'm getting a grip on my studies so I can be here more. Yay!
Here are the classes I'm taking:
NRI Wildlife - a wildlife class! Finally!
New England Flora - between classes and projects, 6 to 8 hours deep in the woods. I love it.
GIS - don't ask, don't look it up unless you want your head to explode. Just walk away.
Master's Thesis - here's where it gets prickly.
The good news is that I adore the person teaching us this class. But I'm still working on a subject, of course I'll be hitting up my exceptionally bright Voxters for ideas. You guys haven't let me down yet! I'm thinking some kind of mammal, perhaps mustelids or porcupines. Denning behaior, strip corridors (okay, get your mind out of the gutter there) or use of agricultural areas. Can you tell I'm lost?
Now, show us your dream job.
Why, tracking wolverines, of course!
That's my winter dream job, anyway.
Hi all! Just a quick note concerning the 2012 Olympics in London! Construction work has already begun to prepare for the Olympics - however, the Olympic Authorities did not seem to care that it was the site of a large feral cat colony - about 200 cats and kittens resided there.
They began construction, literally crushing the cats. Fortunately several animal welfare groups stepped in and, despite some serious resistance, are trying to rescue all of the survivors.
There is some good momentum going for the primary group rescuing these critters. If you like, you can sign a petition urging the Olympic Authorities to allow the group access to the cats! P.S. - the cats pictured are not from the Olympic site, (see my photo page for some of those guys) but this group rescues all kinds of strays and finds homes for them - the cats pictured are among the lucky ones. Pps, the Olympic Authorities have been lying to the public, claiming to cooperate with these groups. They are not doing so.
Here's the petition, and here's the organization's latest news on the project.
Peace and warmth to my Voxter friends - if you're in the cold regions, hang in there - it's been a brutal winter! ;)
Geez I go to take a short break from wildlife posts, and look what happens! I revert back to a cat rescuer. Oh well. This is a photo of one of the thousands of stray cats on the streets of Greece. If I ever visit this place I can't imagine the cost of my air fare back after I wind up adopting a few hundred of these guys. Sadly this may never happen.
Hans Sylvester made a big name for himself photographing these beauties, although he had a big advantage with the stunning beauty of Greek ports and the charm of the strays.
What's facinating to me is that many of these photos show the strays by the docks. This is exactly how cats were domesticated in the first place. Ships would dock near where wild cats lived, and the smell of cooking meat and the presence of rodents near the docks attracted the cats. The cats were happy to have such abundant hunting, and the humans were thrilled that the rodent population was kept down. The same thing happened on farmlands with rodents infesting barns. Cats' presence was first tolerated and then encouraged. Thus the beginning of a sometimes beautiful relationship.
In truth, the situation is quite dire for these cats now! People do not allow them in their homes, and they are treated by the authorities as vermin - rounded up and killed. Although they are not kept as pets, some sympathizers will put collars on the strays they like and it spares them from being collected by animal control.
Most of these kitties are very thin and never get veterinary care and suffer from chronic illnesses. As they are not "fixed" they continue to reproduce at a rapid rate and it becomes a vicious cycle. Here in the U.S. the problem is just as serious.
These cats are forced to kill thousands of wild birds and mammals, and often spread diseases to other wild cats such as cougars, bobcats, lynx and even to non-feline mammals. Needless to say, keeping our companion cats indoors is the best way to prevent these problems in the first place! It's good to know the difference between a stray cat and a feral cat. Stray cats are simply cats who were once owned but became lost at some point. They might look unhealthy or scared, but they have the general look of an unhealthy, but domestic, cat. (The cats in the photos area strays).
Ferals, on the other hand, tend to have a very different demeanor and look. They will always run in terror from humans, if they are seen at all. If cornered they may attack out of extreme fear. They tend to have squinty eyes and are usually very thin. They are absolutely not wild animals, but they are usually the offspring of a mother cat who has had no contact with humans and so are very fearful. If a "colony" is kept, they may appear only "semi feral" and of course the lines are constantly blurred. Alley Cat Allies is a tremendous organization and a great resource. I learned from their website how to build a fancy feral cat shelter.
For the record, I beleive that killing strays and ferals is the wrong move since thousands of people allow their unneutered cats outdoors, and once one colony is destroyed another one just moves in. This happens on Hawaii where thousands are rounded up and killed in order to save Hawaii's endangered birds. But Hawaii still allows people to bring their cats onto the island and it's the same situation. Until we have a moratorium on allowing cats outdoors, no feral cat should be killed. That's my stance.
How to help: If anyone lives in a cold area of the country, it is nice to put out a simple feral cat box on your front porch. Do not leave out food, and it will not attract cats but may save a cat from freezing to death. Most strays in cold areas do not starve, rather they die of hypothermia. All you have to do is take a cardboard box, place a fleece blanket in it, seal it up, and cut a square hole in the side. Prop it up on some bricks if it's in an area where it can get wet. Don't put out food unless you are going to find them an indoor home!
A more expensive, although much easier option is to buy a small dog igloo (doghouse) and put some fleece blankets or even coats inside. They work wonders by trapping the cat's own body heat. And it's really easy to keep them snow-free. If you have snow in your area, you may be surprised to find kitty footprints near your home! Okay, my cat rescuer side has had its fix. Thanks Voxters!
How are you spending New Year's Eve?
* Curled up inside our warm house with our cats, new fluffy maroon blanket and raspberry tea. Thankful that we are so blessed and have such good fortune.
* Thinking of resolutions. I usually avoid making them, but this year it's necessary. A few things became very clear to me after my first semester of grad school.
* Reconsidering my thesis. There is so much to think about! I should do this kind of thinking over hot chocolate, don't you think? ;)
* Playing my violin. Yes, I play. I might also do some artsy stuff with my watercolor set. And I may call my grad school friend E, who plays viola. We found some Russian folk music that we can play as a team.
* Thinking of my Vox friends, who mean the world to me. Happy New Year, all. I love you guys.
