Parque de las Palomas - Pigeon Park

Parque de las Palomas in Old San Juan has been surrendered to the birds. Don't bring any food there unless you want to be perched on and pooped on!

Paloma is Spanish for "dove", as in rock dove, the traditional name for the common pigeon (they are now called rock pigeons, or just pigeons). "Rock" refers to their native habitat, the rocky cliffs of Europe, Asia and North Africa. I don't know who would be more surprised, a sherpa finding a beautiful rock dove scavenging a city street, or a city-dweller on an exotic Nepalese vacation finding a "rat with wings" in the Himalayan mountains.

Pigeons love to roost in areas that resemble their natural, cliffy habitat. The nooks and crannies of buildings fill this bill perfectly. So do "pigeon holes", which are nooks and crannies man-made just for this purpose. Someone has dug pigeon holes into the ancient walls of Parque de las Palomas, and the pigeons love it.

These birds are feral pigeons (as are all city pigeons), meaning their ancestors escaped or were released from captivity and returned to the wild. True wild pigeons are all colored the same, bluish-grey with an iridescent neck, and two black bars on each wing. Pigeon breeders call these birds "blue bars".

Through selective breeding over the years, many other colors and patterns have developed. In the photo above, the cute couple in the upper right is a "spread" and a "red". (Purists might argue with me, but I am using the simplified naming convention developed by Cornell University's PigeonWatch.)

"Red" is self-explanatory. "Spread" refers to the way the pigment molecules are arranged in the bird's feathers. Bluish-grey feathers actually contain the same pigment as the feathers in the black bands. The pigment molecules in the black feathers are just spread out rather than clumped up, causing light to be absorbed more than reflected. So a pigeon that is completely black or dark grey is called a "spread". The bird in the lower right is also a spread.

The bird in the lower left is called a "pied". "Pied" means means "blotched", and in the pigeon world means "blotched with white". So more specifically, this is a "red pied".

To learn how you can help scientists collect data on pigeon colors and courtship displays, visit Cornell University's PigeonWatch. To learn the science behind these varied colors, check out this Pigeon Genetics website.

I'll close with a photo of the San Juan wall. San Juan was settled by the Spanish in 1521. They built this wall around the city during the 17th and 18th centuries, to keep out their European enemies and plundering pirates.

The Carnival Midway

I have been participating in blog carnivals for a few months now, almost as long as I have been blogging. A blog carnival is the literary equivalent of the photo above - an eclectic mix of rides (the blog posts), loosely organized around a midway (the host blog), promoted by a crazed barker (the host).

I have enjoyed "meeting" other bloggers through these carnivals. Participating in carnivals has increased my readership, especially when I hosted a carnival myself for the first time.

I didn't realize that blogging etiquette suggests that I should help advertise the carnivals I participate in. Advertising on my fledgling website is not like advertising during the Super Bowl, but every little bit helps.

So step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and take a stroll down this Kind of Curious midway:

Starting with the carnival having the broadest of scopes, Scientia Pro Publica publishes twice per month on science, medicine, the environment and technology. The latest issue is at Reciprocal Space, and includes my post on Thomas Jefferson's arguments against the Theory of American Degeneracy. Click here to see the Scientia issue hosted at Kind Of Curious.

Following the science and environment path, we soon come to a clearing in the woods. All around us are odd creatures in various stages of development. We must be at - The Carnival of Evolution. This month's edition, at Mauka to Makai, also includes my post on American Degeneracy (just doing my part by recycling and reusing old material).

Continuing our stroll, branching off down the Animalia trail, we come to another carnival with a pretty broad scope - the Friday Ark. I missed the launching of last week's ark, but the week before featured my post on coyotes sneaking into Manhattan.

Continuing down the Animalia trail, we stop to study a small insect. That's right, it is an invertebrate, so we must be at Circus of the Spineless! This month's issue, at The Modern Naturalist, starts off with my article on how arachnid lungs evolved from those of horseshoe crabs. Kind of Curious will be hosting Circus of the Spineless in July.

The invertebrate path in our carnival blogosphere has a big hole where "insects" should be. I think I smell an opportunity for a new carnival ... or maybe that's just a stink bug. Anyway, we turn down another branching pathway toward the biggest order of insects. This next carnival has An Inordinate Fondness - for beetles. This carnival set up its tents for the first time last month, and it included my post on the Ponderous Borer.

Next, it's off on a trail toward a sub-order of insects. I have not yet submitted a post to The Moth and Me. But I have a really cool photo of a tomato horn worm (hawk moth caterpillar) being attacked by wasp larvae. This will make a great article - as soon as I can find the photo.

Thankfully the invertebrate path does not branch off any further. Now we hop over to a parallel path for reptiles and amphibians. House of Herps is a new carnival, and issue #4 will be hosted right here at Kind Of Curious in just one week. I missed last month's issue, but the prior month at Beetles in the Bush included my post on diamondback terrapins.

As we tire of casting our eyes toward the ground, we look up to the skies and see - birds. I admit that birds are not my most frequent subject, so I do not submit posts every fortnight to I and the Bird. My last was back in January, uniquely hosted at The Marvelous in Nature. Each post is illustrated by a hand-drawn bird. Mine is the Chukar Partridge on the right edge, about 2/3 of the way down, at the base of the bird feeder.

Next we leave the Animalia path and head over to Plantae. Berry Go Round is a monthly carnival on all things botanical. The latest issue at Foothills Fancies features my article on the Haleakala Silversword.

Our plant-lined path now "branches" off onto a tree-lined boulevard. Trees are another topic I don't blog on very often ... a great goal for 2010. My last post at Festival of the Trees was in the January issue at Xenogere. It is my post on the Indian Kapok tree (look for the trees described as "godlike with their magics and powers and untold beauty").

The tree-lined boulevard finally leads to the water's edge, into the Carnival of the Blue. This month's carnival is at Southern Fried Science, and it includes my post on terrapin evolution.

Thank you for joining me on the carnival midway. Now it's off for a caramel apple ...

Eleven Amazing Things About The Haleakala Silversword

I don't know if botanists keep "life lists" like birders do; but if they do, seeing the plant above would be like spotting an ivory-billed woodpecker. (Not exactly, since plants don't fly away as you try to find them, but you get the idea.)

We saw this plant on a trip to Hawaii. Here's why the Haleakala Silversword is so special:

1. It is found only within a 250 acre area on Mount Haleakala, on the island of Maui in Hawaii.


2. Its habitat is at an elevation of 7000 - 10,000 ft, in soil composed of volcanic cinders.


3. The weather at this height is very dry, sunny, windy and cold. We drove through the cloud layer on our way up the mountain, and looked down on the clouds as if we were in an airplane. We started the day swimming in the warm ocean, and ended it wearing long pants and jackets.


4. Silverswords live for about 10 to 50 years as a low, round bush like the one in the left edge of the photo above. At the end of their life, they send up a flowering stalk that can grow over 6 feet tall within a few weeks, and produce up to 600 flower heads.


5. Silverswords have adapted to their dry environment by storing a large amount of water in their thick leaves. As the flowering stalk grows, it pulls water from the leaves and they begin to droop, like the one above.


6. They have adapted to their cold environment by building themselves a reflector oven. Their leaves are covered with shiny silver hairs, and are curved into a parabolic shape that focuses the warm sunlight on the plant's growing point. This can raise the temperature of the growing point by up to 40 degrees F. Below is a closeup of these curved leaves from Wikimedia.
   
   


7. The Haleakala Silversword is a member of the Silversword Alliance. The Three Musketeers were also members of the Silversword Alliance. Actually, the Silversword Alliance is a group of about 30 plant species throughout Hawaii, which are believed to have evolved millions of years ago from tarweed plants in California. These tarweed seeds floated over 2000 miles on the open ocean to colonize the Hawaiian islands. Both silverswords and tarweeds are members of the sunflower family.


8. Although some members of the Silversword Alliance look very similar to the Haleakala Silversword, others look nothing like it. Each is adapted to one of the wide variety of habitats in Hawaii. This is a classic example of "adaptive radiation", where a single ancestor evolves into very different species adapted to their local environments. Darwin helped develop this idea when he studied the adaptive radiation of finches in the Galapagos Islands.


9. The Haleakala Silversword is a threatened species. It used to be threatened by overzealous tourists and grazing cattle. Now that Haleakala is a National Park, the tourists and cattle are kept under control. What threatens the silverswords today is an invasive species of ant from Argentina, which is preying on the native insects that pollinate the silverswords. Since silverswords flower only once in their long life, this small window for pollination is critical to their survival.


10. After being pollinated, and spreading its seeds to the Hawaiian winds, the silversword dies. In the photo below, you can finally see why they call this plant "silver sword". A new silversword is growing directly behind the old, shriveled leaves and sword.


11. The Hawaiian name for this plant is 'āhinahina, which translates to "very gray". Or maybe silver, it's hard to say.

Coyotes in Manhattan

I've heard of the wolves on Wall Street, but the coyotes at Columbia were a new one.

It's hard to believe, but at least 3 coyotes have been spotted recently in Manhattan. They were seen in Central Park, and on the nearby campus of Columbia University.

The theory is that they walked along the Amtrak right-of-way, which goes along the Hudson River from the northern suburbs, through the Bronx, and over a railroad bridge onto the island of Manhattan.

From there, Amtrak continues along the Hudson, next to a series of parks. Then the tracks go underground, near Grant's Tomb in Riverside Park. The wandering coyotes would want to leave the right-of-way there rather than entering the tunnel, putting them only a couple of blocks from Columbia's campus.

After scaring a few students as they cut through campus, it is across the street to Morningside Park. From there, it is just 1 block cater-corner to Central Park. Finally, 843 acres of nature. I hope they have roadrunners!

For more about the coyotes, and links to photos, check out the New York City wildlife blog Out Walking the Dog. For even more, including an earlier visit in 2006, check out the blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Here's a comment on the Gothamist blog from someone who spotted one of the coyotes as late as this past Friday (2/19/10). The best photo is here, at the NY Times.

The photo above, by the way, is not from Manhattan. It is from Wikimedia.

The Ponderous Borer

This beetle is a Ponderous Borer. No, I am not criticizing its social skills, although it didn't have much to say as I took its picture. It is "ponderous" as in "huge". You can't tell from the photo (I should have put a coin next to it), but it is about 2 inches long not including the antennae. The "boring" part refers to the larvae of this beetle, which bore through the wood of dead and dying trees.

These beetles like pine trees, so they are sometimes called Pine Sawyers. But I would call what their larvae do "boring" more than "sawing", so "sawyer" is misleading. Coincidentally, they especially like Ponderosa Pines. "Ponderosa" is Spanish for "ponderous", as in "that is a ponderosa steak", or "that is a ponderosa ranch".

This particular beetle was crawling on the sidewalk in a small strip mall in Lake Tahoe. That is not normally where you would find a beetle that loves trees, so I think this one was ill. He had two types of growths or abnormalities on his exoskeleton, the yellow and white pus in the middle of the photo below, and the shiny spot surrounded by white pus at the bottom right.


Here is another closeup that is not so gross. This is his tarsus (foot), showing the hooks that allow him to climb tree bark very well.


If you are into really gross insects, you will want to check out this photo of a Ponderous Borer larva being held in a man's hand. It is a 3 inch long grub as thick as your finger. If Thomas Jefferson had known about the Ponderous Borer, he could have used it as further evidence of the superior vitality of New World species.

Scientia Pro Publica Needs YOU!

Last year, the well-respected Pew Research Center took a poll of scientists and of the general public. Here are a few of their findings:

84% of scientists say human activity is causing global warming. Only 49% of the general public agrees with this view.

87% of scientists say living things have evolved over time due to natural processes. Only 32% of the public agrees.

Only 10% of the general public could correctly answer all 12 of the questions on a basic science quiz.

If you think there is something wrong with this, Scientia Pro Publica needs YOU!

"Scientia Pro Publica" means "Science for the People". Scientia Pro Publica is a blog carnival with the mission of communicating science to the general public. Considering that many of the most important issues of our time require an understanding of basic science, this mission is critical. We need to understand science in order to elect leaders who will make informed decisions on behalf of us, our society and our planet.

That's where YOU come in! Please submit your blog posts on science, medicine and the environment to Scientia Pro Publica. Submit them by clicking on this link. Submissions for the next edition of Scientia Pro Publica are due by this Friday, 2/12/10. Scientia is published every other Monday, with submissions due the preceding Friday. By the way, if you come across a blog post written by someone else that you feel deserves some publicity, submit that as well.

As if that weren't a good enough way to save the world, here's something even better - you can HOST Scientia Pro Publica! This means that you take all of the submissions, write some introductory text to whet the reader's appetite, and post the whole thing on your blog. Then, hundreds of people come stampeding to your blog to read your summary and follow the links to the submitted posts. To volunteer as a host, send an email to Grrl Scientist at ScientiaBlogCarnival@gmail.com.

So, if you want to help improve scientific literacy, introduce new readers to your blog, or just have some fun, submit your posts now!

Scientia Pro Publica needs you. THE PEOPLE need you!

PS - To take the 12 question science quiz and read more about Pew's research on science literacy, click here. For links to previous editions of Scientia Pro Publica, click here.

My Proboscid Is Bigger Than Your Proboscid

The gross-sounding statement in the title of this post was uttered by one of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson (OK, I'm paraphrasing). It's not as bad as it sounds - proboscids are an order of animals that includes modern-day elephants, and extinct elephant-like creatures like mastodons and mammoths. Proboscid is short for Proboscidea, which is the actual name of the taxonomic order. As you can guess, these animals all have long proboscises (noses/trunks).

The photo above is from a visit to the Rutgers University Geology Museum. My wife and I visited their annual Open House last weekend. We met at Rutgers, so the trip was nostalgic as well as geologic. The photo is of a mastodon unearthed by a farmer in southern New Jersey in 1869.

But back to Thomas Jefferson ...

Jefferson's fit of proboscid envy was prompted by a man with the pretentious name of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. "Comte" is a French title of nobility, similar in rank to an English earl. He is generally referred to as Buffon, although that is the town he was comte of and not his name.

Buffon was a well-known naturalist in the late 18th century, and made many observations including some that presaged Darwin's theory of evolution. But his observation that got Jefferson's wig twisted was what became known as the Theory of American Degeneracy. The idea was that due to a colder, more humid climate in the New World, the animals there (including humans) were smaller and weaker than those in the Old World.

It's not hard to see that Americans would be upset by this theory, especially being a new country that would not benefit from being seen as weak in the eyes of European powers. Jefferson, being somewhat of a naturalist himself, took on the task of refuting Buffon.

It turned out this was not very difficult to do. Buffon had never been to the New World, and his theories were based on incomplete and misleading information provided by others. Jefferson put together a list of several species that are larger in the New World than in the Old. Exhibit A was the mastodon, which not only was larger than the elephant, but was the largest known terrestrial animal in the ENTIRE world!

Never mind that the mastodon was extinct. At the time, which was before the expedition of Lewis and Clark, many believed that mastodons might still be roaming the interior of the American continent.

To make a long story short, the Americans got over their inferiority complex.

The End (the back end, that is):