This evening, while checking my email, the Common Poorwills were singing so loud I could hear them inside the lodge. Just a little reminder that I’m in the right place.

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Sorry for the lack of blogging. I’m keeping real busy as I try to set up my transects out here in the Davis Mountains. I should have some stuff up soon though, including pictures.

I am excited to announce something I’ve known about for a while but have yet to announce as I worked out the particulars. I’m leaving tomorrow to begin my thesis on avian community ecology in the Davis Mountains. I will spend two field seasons of approximately six to eight weeks focusing on quantitatively describing the bird communities and how they are defined in major habitat types. Also, this type of work has previously been done in many of the other southwest mountain ranges, so I should be able to make comparisons with the Davis Mountains to see if any differences show up.

Most exciting is the place I get to work. I’ll be doing this study on The Nature Conservancy’s Davis Mountains Preserve. This location is an amazing place. It includes Mount Livermore, the fifth highest peak in Texas at 8,378 feet. It also contains habitats (and species associated with them) that are either Rocky Mountain species which barely make it this far south or Mexican species which barely make it this far north. The state’s first record of Buff-breasted Flycatcher was found here, sitting on a nest. The Mexican subspecies of Spotted Owl occurs here. Ten species of hummingbird have been recorded, like Magnificent Hummingbird. It’s also a great place for rare Mexican warblers like Slate-throated Redstart, Red-faced Warbler, and Olive Warbler. It is a place that any biologist would love to work in.

At first, I’ll be extremely busy working on the details of the study and marking my transects. But after things settle down and my surveys begin, I may have time to blog. You can also bet that I’ll be taking pictures, as time allows. We’ll just have to see how things work out. I’m also excited by all the time I’ll have this summer to read. I’m bringing a bunch of books.

One of my biggest goals in my time off however is to make a date with a Flammulated Owl. Of the birds that regularly occur in Texas, I can count the ones I’ve not seen on one hand. Somehow I’ve missed these tiny owls in all my prior birding trips, probably because I’ve not looked for them specifically.

It’s going to be a great summer, but one with its own challenges being away from my wife. I’ve got to give a big shout out for her support and willingness to take care of the homefront while I’m gone.

A story is breaking in the popluar press today about dragonflies migrating in similar ways to birds. This story is really just a good excuse for me to put up one my favorite pictures I took in South Carolina a few years back.

Small animals have been migrating since ancient times, but scientists still don’t know very much about where most of the wandering critters come from or where they’re going.

[...]

Although dragonflies are 140 million years older than birds, according to fossil records, they abide by the same temperature and wind rules. Both groups stay put on blustery days and travel only after two days of cooling temperatures. They even use the same markers on the landscape, and rest on the same beaches.

For more information, you can read the blurb from Science or if you’re really adventerous, go digging around the author’s website to learn more about the tracking technology they use.

And when someone publishes a study with a comparison to damselfly sex, I’ve got just the picture for that too.

I came across a picture of an Ovenbird the other day that I love. I’d love to include the picture here, but the photographer might not appreciate that. Anybody who’s birded much knows these little forest walkers can be devilishly difficult to see. The guy’s got more pictures of neotropical migrants, which illustrates why this spectacle of nature just has to be witnessed and appreciated.

And, his prints are reasonably priced, with 15% of the sale going to a local Houston Audubon Sanctuary (High Island) where these birds pass through on migration.

(For the record, I’ve never met the photographer and have nothing to gain by pointing to his pictures, though if my links provide a windfall — hah — I want a nice picture of that Ovenbird…)

Had I been reading the various blogs I usually skim over, I would have known in advance that the Simpsons last night was on evolution. As it turned out, my wife and I walked in the door from a long weekend (she graduated!) and turned on the TV and just happened to notice what the Simpsons was about. I was immediately interested.

The show was funny. It wasn’t epic, but good nonetheless. A brief synopsis: Flanders creates a stink over teaching evolution in schools. Principle Skinner is going to ignore it as first, but is then reminded that his car lease with an amazing interest rate comes from Christian Brother’s Auto Service. As the lease is about to be set on fire, he caves in to teaching creationism. Lisa forms a secret after school club to read the Origin of Species and is arrested when the cops kick down the doors. The ensuing trial is a parody of the Scopes Trial. I could describe the whole thing in greater detail, but Jason Rosenhouse has already provided a thorough recap.

For me, the funniest part was Principal Skinner’s announcing to the class they would learn about creationism. Ralphie asks if it’s true that the ocean’s are God’s tears. Skinner nervously looks over at the people holding his auto lease, they nod their heads in approval, and Skinner looks back at the class and says, “yes, the ocean’s are God’s tears”.

When the video starts playing, it’s the classic dichotomy. The video’s titled Are you calling God a liar? and promises to take a unbiased look at the scientific record. It then immediately depicts Charles Darwin and The Origin as being in league with the devil. It captures the truthfulness of creationists who claim to present fair and unbiased discussions on the subject.

All in all, it was good satire.

I don’t know what it is, but family members and weird people that stop by (is that redundant?) seem to love my cat. It’s the ears. Except for other Scottish Fold owners, aint nobody’s cat got cooler ears than The Bruce. Okay, whoever ended up with this cat does, but that’s just a freak of nature.

For those that don’t know, my cat The Bruce is half Scottish Fold and half Siamese. As my wife likes to put it, someone’s show cat was defiled.

It’s also been a while since The Bruce has graced the blog, so I thought I would provide a nice little writeup.

Anybody that has a cat knows they’re creatures of habit, and The Bruce is no exception. Every morning at around 6am, he meets my wife at the bedroom door (he gets locked out at night) eager for company. Coffee and breakfast in hand, my wife and The Bruce catch up on world affairs, watching the news from the couch.

With enthusiam that makes any father’s heart swell with pride (and makes any mother jealous), The Bruce has a strong affinity for me over my wife. When The Bruce hears my alarm at 6:45am, he jumps off my wife’s lap, runs to the bedroom door, and starts yowling. (It’s a cross between a meow and howl — the Siamese in him coming through). My wife bitterly protests playing second fiddle.

Mornings are the time when The Bruce seems demon possessed. He attacks imaginary demons and displays the latest gymnastic routines he’s practicing for the 2008 olympics.

The day is the typical schedule for any cat. Approximately 11.5 hours of sleep.

Before bed, The Bruce likes to unwind just like the rest of us. He’s become an exceptional practitioner of yoga, contorting himself into unnatural positions, as the following series of pictures illustrates.

He usually demands as much attention as he can possibly get before we head to bed. In fact, his latest trick is one my wife loves to encourage. The Bruce sits on the back of large chair in the living room, and when my wife stops petting him and trys to walk off, he reaches out and taps her on the back several times with his paw. She pets him just to watch his reaction when she tries to walk off.

Just how loved is this cat? A few weeks ago my wife, covered with hair with The Bruce in her lap, looked at me and said, “I never thought I’d say this. I’ve become a cat a person.”

We’ve become so fond of The Bruce that when he finally kicks the bucket (don’t worry, he has many years left), we just might have to get a purebred Scottish Fold. They don’t come cheap though, starting at $500 and most breeders have a waiting list.

The story of a polar bear / grizzly hybrid is all over the mainstream press today.

Officials seized the creature after noticing its white fur was scattered with brown patches and that it had the long claws and humped back of a grizzly. Now a DNA test has confirmed that it is indeed a hybrid — possibly the first documented in the wild.

“We’ve known it’s possible, but actually most of us never thought it would happen,” said Ian Stirling, a polar bear biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Edmonton.

From an ecological standpoint, I can see why this is surprising everybody. Neither species overlaps very much, and I would imagine both have nasty tempers in the presence of each other.

The latest edition of I and the Bird is up. Only this one has a twist.

If you can identify all 27 birds from the pictures provided, this week’s host, birdDC, will buy you a Peterson Field Guide of your choice. I got close, but doubt I got them all.

And as always, the carnival features good posts on birds. Here are my favorites.

• A nice writeup on the Great Texas Birding Classic. It even has a picture of the guys I’ve been to Mexico with (the picture that looks like a group of thugs). I did the classic the first two years it was out and it’s a great event.
• The Scoop on the Red Knot and Horseshoe Crab
• When Mockingbirds Attack
• The US has vultures, the old world buzzards (which are actually analogous to our large hawks – genus Buteo). These are buzzards.

Update: I got 23 out of 27 correct. I also know the identity of those I missed. For 1 million dollars, I will gladly give you the right answers, and use a portion of the money (no more than $20) to pay back the blog author for the book you swindled him out of. I figure as long as he’s not out any money, I’ll have a clean conscience. Not to mention $999,980.

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I feel right now. I’m done with this semester. Well, the heavy academic part at least. Three finals in the last three days have left me wasted. I studyed my butt off for evolutionary ecology tonight. I don’t even want to hear about an N-dimensional hypervolume for at least a week and anyone leaving comments about them risks my wrath.

But seriously, it’s the best feeling in the world. I’ve finished the semester. I think it’s one of the things I like most about academics. The cycle. The feeling of a new beginning at least twice a year and being completely exhausted and ragged, without a care in the world, when it’s all done in the spring. Oh sure, I’ve got things to do. Lots of things. But for the rest of the week, no more classes and no more tests.

I’ve got a semester of grad school under my belt.

Live Science has a nice article up about ants, and they’ve included a picture gallery showcasing their diversity.

Rhytidoponera metallica

Ants rule because of the many different ways in which they have adapted to work and eat.

Even their appearance and where they live contrasts from one ant to the next. They can be as tiny as the millimeter-long Oligomyrmex atomus or as big as the aptly named 1.5 inch-long Dinoponera. They come in a range of colors from yellow and red to black. They exist in deserts, rain forests, and swamps—anywhere but the coldest and highest places on Earth.

“Nearly all human languages have a word for ant,” said Philip Ward, an entomologist at the University of California at Davis. “It’s a universal idea. That’s not true for many insects.”