Maizie, my field assistant and resident canine, and I enjoyed a two-day trek to observe the Sand Hill Cranes migrating northward in the San Luis Valley in south central Colorado.
We started at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, of course.
We spent some time listening to the cranes in San Luis State Park, although we did not see many of the graceful birds.
We wondered what this unidentified two story building
with a locked gate is adjacent to the Mosca Campground, seen in the left-center part of this image (very mysterious-but, I digress).
Our next day search for the Sand Hill Cranes took us first to the Alamosa Wildlife Preserve and then, enroute to the Monte Vista Wildlife Preserve, to a cow pasture adjacent to a very narrow two-lane road.
We were alone with the birds and the cows when this noisy, chortling flyover of Sand Hill Cranes happened. Some have asked if I took the video; no, it was Maizie with her crazy-good iPad filming skills. The video is 3:39 long and gets very exciting a few seconds in.
Antigone canadensis (which are classified as part of the Gruidae family) currently number 450,000 or so in North America. They are ancient birds, having origins 2.5-10.5 million years ago, depending on classification.
What the Sand Hill?
Steph
We started at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, of course.
We spent some time listening to the cranes in San Luis State Park, although we did not see many of the graceful birds.
We wondered what this unidentified two story building
with a locked gate is adjacent to the Mosca Campground, seen in the left-center part of this image (very mysterious-but, I digress).
Our next day search for the Sand Hill Cranes took us first to the Alamosa Wildlife Preserve and then, enroute to the Monte Vista Wildlife Preserve, to a cow pasture adjacent to a very narrow two-lane road.
We were alone with the birds and the cows when this noisy, chortling flyover of Sand Hill Cranes happened. Some have asked if I took the video; no, it was Maizie with her crazy-good iPad filming skills. The video is 3:39 long and gets very exciting a few seconds in.
Antigone canadensis (which are classified as part of the Gruidae family) currently number 450,000 or so in North America. They are ancient birds, having origins 2.5-10.5 million years ago, depending on classification.
Here's hoping you will see or have seen these magnificent creatures, especially as they dangle their legs for a perfect landing.
What the Sand Hill?
Steph
According to this map, that building was the Park Office, back when this was San Luis State Park, rather than San Luis State Wildlife Area, which it became on May 1, 2017.
ReplyDeletejan, thanks for discovering that. I was hoping for something more nefarious, though. There is some federal government signage as you enter the area warning one to keep out. I am not sure the signage has been updated to reflect the wilderness area (or maybe I was so used to it being a state park, I didn’t catch that).
DeleteIt is a lovely wildlife area. We plan to camp there next visit.
In terms of the hawk-goose effect, sandhill cranes almost look like they could fly in either direction. Wonder if that relates to why they were given the generic name of Antigone, who was her own aunt/niece?
ReplyDeleteI imagine you are right about the generic name. They most assuredly look like they could fly in either direction.
DeleteIf ornithologists are birders, are lepidopterists mothers?
ReplyDeleteMoth-er ~~ Yes!
Delete<< >>
Then is someone who makes stock a brother?
DeleteAnd is a spineless mathematician merely an adder?
Deleteeco, I like both.
DeleteOf course you really like that a geologist is a rocker, except in England where they are boulder.
Delete1778 vents off the coast of Washington state:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/methane-vent-sites-washington-25032019/
I just needed to vent.
How did you find this site of Romanian science populizers?
DeleteI don’t recall now how I found the RSP. Maybe it was the ‘Z.’
DeleteHere is the original research:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2018JB016453
Not sure I want to go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans to have glass beads hurled at me.
ReplyDeleteAh, the Alvarezes, tektites, and seiches! The latter is a new word to me. The pronunciation is fun.
Deleteeco, are you still planning a trip to Chaco Canyon?
ReplyDeleteGood information about stargazing (astrotourism!) there (if you can get past the headline):
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/destinations/north-america/united-states/new-mexico/discover-chaco-canyon-dark-sky-stargazing-archaeology-astrotourism/
Thanks WW, I still want to go, but I'm not sure my clients will permit.
DeleteChaco has an obscure and I think unique feature: a small spiral carving in a rock below two angled rocks that form a slot. The carving marks perfectly the varying altitude above the horizon of the January full moon, a cycle that repeats every 18.5 years (or so, I think). So far the mysterious people of Chaco are the only ones known to have observed this. Except now you can too!
The article mentioned the 2017 eclipse (which I'm still shocked you missed); The 750 mile drive to Stanley ID, yielded the bonus of incredibly dark skies - 7000', and no sizeable towns within 50 miles. Though temps were 35°, even in August.
I have been at Delicate Arch in Utah at the January full moon as the sun went down and the moon came up. Watching that particular moon rise was quite memorable. Mystical.
DeleteI know. The 2017 solar eclipse was only partial here in CO. Sometimes, as you know, the timing just doesn’t work out.
Looking forward to camping at San Luis Wilderness Area (after northwest Arkansas with my mom this month).
The 17th Century Japanese poet Ishikawa Jozan built a house and garden for himself in Kyoto, called Shisendo.
DeleteIn it he build a second story room with a large opening, which he called the Tower for Whistling at the Moon.
An evocative image.
I really enjoyed this article on a working paleontologist. Although our understanding of the ancient world has grown so much, the methods of field study sound remarkably similar to those of a century ago.
ReplyDeleteCompletely unrelated, I recently became aware of how much some fields have changed recently. The last time I needed a dental crown, just a few years ago, I was reminded of how much I hate having an impression taken, with a mouthful of glop slow hardening while trying to gag and choke me. So, when a tooth with an old filling cracked last week, I wasn't looking forward to that torture again. Turns out, there's no need anymore. The hygienist just waves this magic wand over my teeth, and a 3-D scan of my dental arches appear on the touch screen, ready for her to rotate to inspect with a flick of her fingers, and to transmit to the people (robots?) who make the new crown.
Thanks for the NY'er article, much more in depth than the one I posted. Whenever you feel you're having a bad day just think back 65 million years ago.
DeleteNo people/ robots needed to make the new crown, just a 3d printer.
Thanks, jan. I truly enjoyed all the wonderful details about the area and the paleontologist. I remember that GSA talk!
DeleteIt is also refreshing hearing the KT boundary referred to as the KT boundary.
Good luck with your crown.
eco, that’s a perfect use for a 3D printer!
DeleteThe thing I don't get is a 3d printed crown doesn't look like it would be comfortable in Jan's mouth.
DeleteI've been told I have a big mouth....
DeletePrincess Peach’s crown doesn’t seem quite right anyway.
DeleteUneasy lies the mouth that wears the crown.
DeleteThanks, Will S.
DeleteHampshire College President resigns. Allegedly, students broke into her office, saying it was okay to do that because they had no faith in her leadership. (I saw video of that interaction.) But, you won’t read that here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/04/06/hampshire-college-president-quits-and-board-votes-raise-money-try-stay-independent
I thought you were a Smithie?
DeleteIt is sad to see the small, independent, and often liberal arts colleges struggle. I think the Pres and Board chair are jumping the sinking ship - I know I've had that temptation with non-profit boards I've been on.
Off topic, those are some dang ugly buildings on the Hampshire campus. First thought: Ulrich Franzen or Paul Rudolph on Ritalin, but it turns out Hugh Stubbins is at fault. Was Hampshire competing with Amherst for the ugliest library?
The seemingly unrealized R.W. Kern Center is a better environmental response - the Living Building Challenge is exceedingly hard to achieve. But the architecture still pays too much homage to the toe Stubbins.
This is not unusual: the Stanford campus is famous for its beauty (Shepley Bulfinch, heirs to H. H. Richardson), but the context of the medical school campus, dominated by Edward Durell Stone's unfortunate hospital (he also designed the Kennedy Center), was a big challenge when I designed a lab/ MRI center on that part of the campus. I still feel compromised by the vertical fins, though they help with sun screening.
I am. The Five College Consortium, including Smith alums, was alerted early on about the possible closure. I also know a Hampshire alum here.
DeleteYeah, we had to go check out Hampshire on the Five College bus back in early Hampshire days. I thought it was rather ordinary and not anywhere close to the beauty of Smith’s campus. And the Hampshire guys we met were rather out there.
Those are some ugly buildings in your post. The Brown U Science Library is also rather plain, but they light up Tetris pieces on the skyscraper’s sides.
Hampshire also puts the year one came to Hampshire after one’s name. So if you graduate this year and arrived in 2015, you are, for example, Jayne Doe, 15F. (Not be be confused with degrees Fahrenheit.)
DeleteDoes the "F" designate the number of years you took to graduate? What do they use for 5? How do they distinguish between 6 and 7? Or 2 and 3 for the smarties? Using the matriculation year would just make me feel older.
DeleteBrown sure has some ugly buildings, the 50's through 70's (and even 80's) were not proud decades. At least there was an underlying philosophy of minimalism (paired with low construction budgets).
That might be more redeeming than the underlying reasons behind the Frank Gehry fiasco at MIT, which no one else calls Disney on the Charles, though it's actually a couple of blocks in.
F is solely the year you got there. So if you take six years to graduate, it still only shows when you got there.
DeleteOh, dear, that is a fiasco.
If puns make you feel numb, do math puns make you feel number?
ReplyDeleteEither George Carlin or The Simpsons has an answer for everything.
DeleteYesterday's featured article in Wikipedia was Allison Guyot, a tablemount in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I knew the term "guyot" from my junior high earth science teacher, Mr. Monte, of course, but I didn't know its origins until a couple of days ago, coincidentally. The flat-topped undersea volcanic remnants were named by Harry Hammond Hess, a Princeton geologist, who discovered and described them in his spare time while commanding an echo sounder-equipped troopship during World War II. He named them not for Arnold Henry Guyot, a Swiss-American geologist, but for Guyot Hall, the flat-topped geology building at Princeton named for Arnold, which Hess thought looked like the underwater tablemounts. I don't really see the resemblance.
ReplyDeleteWhy did the cassowary kill its owner?
ReplyDeleteThis may be a clue...
jan, great tying together all the abbirdity :-). You are truly unflappable.
DeleteQuite ostrich of the imagination, but I'm sure there's a rheason.
Delete20 years ago I had clients that raised ostriches, one look at the chicks convinced me they are not too far removed from dinosaurs. On the emutional side they're also really nasty, not at all cute and cuddly like Peeps.
Today's featured picture on Wikipedia relates to some of this blog's earlier, um, columns.
ReplyDeleteAnd since this column, often gives us, um, the blues, some other news of interest.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this article, eco. Lots of good research re: blues.
DeleteInfinite possibility >>>
ReplyDeletehttps://www.brown.edu/news/2019-05-08/sundial
Here's an analemma picture that was taken at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, where I used to work.
DeleteAlways mesmerizing.
DeleteI enjoyed this 50th anniversary appreciation of Apollo 10, but was surprised that it failed to mention this recent news about the hunt for, and possible discovery of, its lunar module ascent stage. Snoopy is the only formerly manned spacecraft still in space.
ReplyDeleteI hope they bring Snoopy back!
DeleteThe LM wasn't designed to survive re-entry, and probably wouldn't fit in a shuttle cargo bay, even if those were still flying. Maybe some future generation will decide it's worth snagging for an orbiting museum, but we've got bigger problems to solve before then.
DeleteI'm surprised to learn that even though Snoopy's descent stage didn't have enough fuel for a landing, the ascent stage had enough, after climbing to dock with the command module, to achieve escape velocity (which certainly wasn't needed for the later landing missions).
DeleteNew post on “April Arkansas Gems, Fossils, and Meanderings“ is now up. Enjoy!
ReplyDelete