The Grackles of the Riverwalk in San Antonio

I imagine even non-birders have to take note of the Riverwalk's resident grackles. They are large, noisy, brash, gregarious and at least at this time of year, have a night roost in the trees around the Riverwalk. They go by the common name of Great-Tailed Grackle and it's apt, given the way the males fan their long tails and flourish them in an attempt to impress a female grackle. When they're not busy wooing, they stroll about snatching fallen tortilla chips. The grackles have an impressive array of vocalizations and at night when they are settling down for bed it is a veritable cacophony in the trees above.

There are also large numbers of white-winged doves, pigeons, mallards and house sparrows living off the leavings of huge numbers of tourists. The umbrellas which shade nearly every outdoor table along the Riverwalk are not just there to protect from sun and rain. I'm by no means a germ-phobe, but I'm quite glad I packed a purse-size bottle of hand sanitizer on this trip. Every unprotected outdoor surface bears evidence of the abundance of bird life in the area.

Here's a ten second video of a male great-tailed grackle bathing in a fountain at the San Antonio Botanical Garden:

San Antonio's Riverwalk

San Antonio's Riverwalk is a tourist attraction done right. Descending a flight of stairs from street level leads you into two and a half mile series of pathways that border the small green San Antonio River, which is plied by flatboats filled with laughing people. There are only two methods of transportation on the Riverwalk - your feet and the boats. The Riverwalk is lined with more restaurants and hotels than I could count, interspersed with splashing fountains, arched foot bridges and ancient bald cyprus trees. The Riverwalk is also famous for its music scene and there is no shortage of places to kick back with a cocktail while listening to live jazz.

The Riverwalk was designed by a young architect by the name of Robert H.H. Hugman in 1929. His plan was not put into action until 1939 however, when the WPA undertook construction. It was completed only two years later, concluding with the first annual Fiesta River Parade, featuring floats that actually float.

Bad blogger

I've been terribly remiss at updating my blog the past couple of days. I can only blame the fact that I'm getting ready to go out of town for a few days. That and the fact that my brother came into town from Atlanta and we've been hanging out. We took the kids down to the Cincinnati Museum Center today to see the BODIES exhibit, which was both fascinating and gruesome. Then there was a quick trip to the Carew Tower and after that on to the Knotty Pine on the Bayou for dinner. This time tomorrow night I should be in San Antonio.

Eggs!

Eggs are one of the oldest fertility symbols around and of course, closely associated with this season of Spring and the Christian Easter holiday. Here are a number of unspeakable things to do to eggs what never did you no harm. OK, the tea eggs aren't unspeakable; they're really quite tasty (because they don't taste of tea, just eggy goodness).



Chinese Tea Eggs
Tie-Dye Easter Eggs
Transparent Bouncy Egg
Batik Eggs
Egg in a Bottle
Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs
Washi Eggs

I just love stuff like this

The PocketMod is a little eight-page booklet for you to customize, print and fold. I just made one for my up-coming San Antonio trip that includes my emergency contact information, flight schedules, hotel name and number, plus a couple of lined pages for taking notes, a couple of pages of check book register to keep track of my finances, and a sudoku game. The software isn't without its glitches just yet; the text I entered into the blank custom page showed up on screen but didn't print and I had to use a work-around. Still, I'm going to keep a close eye on it; it's useful as can be. I'd recommend using CutePDF to print to a file so you can double check your print-out before wasting paper.

By way of LifeHacker.

Why I didn't go to the gym today...

Mother Nature decided a blizzard in March wasn't enough, so she's sent somewhere between four and six inches of rain our way. It's still raining right this minute. Both the Little and Great Miami are well above flood stage, as are any number of smaller rivers and creeks in the area. My gym is in Sharonville but two roads I have to traverse to get there were completely closed (Kemper and Main) due to high water so I came home and worked out to a video instead.

We can have spring now, yes?

Counting Coots

I photographed this lone coot at Sharon Wood's lake last week, which inspired me to learn a bit more about this odd rail. I found a report on a scientific study which suggests that coots can count, at least as far as the number of eggs in their own nest goes. Coots, like many other species of birds, practice a behavior known as brood parasitism. This involves a gravid female sneaking onto an unguarded but active nest and laying an egg within, leaving the owner of the nest to raise the sneak's offspring. Since this might be detrimental to the victim's own offspring, there is constant pressure to recognize that the parasitism has taken place and to counteract it afterwards. Coots apparently do this by counting the eggs in their nest once they are finished laying and rejecting any that appear later. They may push the offending egg out of the nest, bury it deep in the nest material where they will never hatch, or relegate it to the periphery of the nest where it will have a diminished chance of hatching.

I've come to expect brilliant behavior from birds like the crows and the parrots, but counting ability from a coot astounded me. They are somewhat comical birds and have been likened to a water-going pigeon due to their habit of pumping their head back and forth when they swim, much as pigeons do when walking.

Hiking the Shaker Trace Loop

Today I walked the long loop (7.8 miles) of the Shaker Trace trail at Miami-Whitewater Forest. It's not my favorite path; long stretches of it pass through miles of corn fields, which make for rather dull walking. It has the advantage of being paved, however. Between the melting snow from last week's blizzard and the following rain, I thought I would be ankle deep in mud on most of my favorite trails. There were just loads of birds making themselves known today and it made the walk enjoyable; there's a list of what I saw (or heard) below, haphazardly ordered. Still, I was quite footsore by the end; walking on pavement tires me out much more than walking on dirt and leaves.

I spotted the pictured large tree obviously felled by a beaver along the Dry Fork Creek. Extirpated from Ohio by 1830, beavers started making their way back into Ohio in the 1940s and have been expanding their range ever since. The range map on this page doesn't even show Hamilton County as confirmed for an active beaver population, but I suspect is is simply out of date. I saw signs of a beaver family living in this area ten years ago.

On a different note, one of my favorite authors was in the news these past couple of days for having donated a million dollars to Alzheimer's research. Terry Pratchett was recently diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease himself. His legions of fans have started a campaign to match Terry's donation called Match It For Pratchett. There you will find links to donate directly to the Alzheimer's Trust or you can buy a t-shirt, decorated with elephants and the Great A'Tuin. It's a worthy cause even if you're not a Pratchett fan. If you've not read any of his work, you should do so; he's brilliantly funny.

Belted Kingfisher, Eastern Phoebe, American Crow, Blue Jay, Song Sparrow, Carolina Wren, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Mallard, Canada Goose, Cooper's Hawk, Killdeer, Red-Winged Blackbird, Red-Tailed Hawk, Kestrel, Wild Turkey, Grackle, Turkey Vulture, Rufus-Sided Towhee, Eastern Bluebird, White-Throated Sparrow, Downy Woodpecker, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker

Happy Pi Day!

On March 14th, math geeks around the world celebrate the beauty of Pi by eating pie and toasting the birthday of Albert Einstein. The Exploratorium gave rise to Pi Day some twenty years ago and the holiday continues to grow in popularity with each passing year. You can gaze in Zen-like wonder at Pi calculated to one million digits or marvel over Pi-Ku. Or you could just eat some pie, be it apple, pizza or shepherd's.

Alder Catkins

Alder Catkins
Originally uploaded by lilysecret42

Somehow I managed to walk four and a half miles today - a workday no less. The weather was sunny and in the sixties and I couldn't stay inside. I spent my two breaks during the day doing laps around the office building (five laps equals one mile) and after work I went over to Sharon Woods and walked all the way around Sharon Lake.

There are many alder trees bordering the lake and they are already in bloom. This photo depicts long catkins, which are the male flowers of this tree. You can also see the woody remains of the female catkins from last year, still clinging to the tree. They look like tiny pine cones.

Alder trees are water loving and their oily wood is found throughout Venice, Italy in underwater foundations and pilings. It was also commonly used to build bridges. The wood does not rot in water, instead becoming hard as stone. Alder trees are also very useful in environmental reclamation projects, as the nitrogen fixing nodules on their root system improve soil fertility.

Oh Ikea

The new Ikea store opened in West Chester, Ohio today to much fanfare. People were camped out since Monday to be first in line (the first visitors received a free arm chair) which I think is insane behaviour, but whatever floats your boat.

I love Ikea. They have cool stuff at great prices, but I'm still going to wait at least a couple of weeks before visiting. I hate crowds more than I love Ikea. WCPO offered a guide to shopping Ikea for first-timers, which has some handy tips. Ikea Hacker is a fun blog I follow, which details re-purposed or improvements upon Ikea furniture. Go wild.

Mondays...

Honestly, I have to stop working. It's startling to note how I go from full of ideas and energy through the weekend to zero when I have to return to work on Monday.

Of course, the time change Sunday helped not at all.

So on this longest Monday of the year, I leave you with an adorable solution to living in a small space. Even though I live in the land of bigger is better I've always been intrigued by space saving concepts. I used to own a VW Westfalia which managed to fit beds for four adults plus a small fridge, a sink, a two burner stove and a closet within a not very big van. One of the reasons I'm looking forward to having an Ikea locally is because they've long been catering to a population with space issues.

Digging out

It took me twenty minutes just to clear the snow off of my car this morning. There was a good ten inches piled on the hood and the windshield, somewhat less on the rear window. Once I'd cleaned the car I drove over to Hyde Park, one of Cincinnati's tonier neighborhoods. There are always joggers in Hyde Park and today was no exception, snow and ice be damned. I saw a man jogging down the street holding what looked like a pizza box at first glance. When I got closer I realized he was jogging with a box of donuts from Busken Bakery.

The reason I drove to Hyde Park this morning was to meet a woman from Mohr's Animal Acres in Urbana, Ohio. They are regulars at the Hyde Park farmer's market and in the off season they've arranged a pre-order system and they meet their customers in a bank parking lot to drop off the orders. I picked up some lamb for my traditional Irish stew for St. Patrick's day and some smoked ham to put into bean soup.

So since I've set out on my quest for locally produced food during a Cincinnati winter I've found an untended honor system store, where you write down what you took and leave payment in a lock box, I've picked up pre-ordered winter greens from a porch in Wyoming and bought meat out of a parking lot. It seems so very clandestine for some reason and I'm having so much fun doing it. I'm really looking forward to visiting farms that will be selling peas, asparagus and strawberries this spring. Those goodies are generally in season well before the farmer's markets open, but I feel sure they'll be worth the extra effort.

Snow Shadows

Snow Shadows
Originally uploaded by lilysecret42

The great Cincinnati Blizzard of 2008 has passed and given way to blue skies and sparkling snow. I put on my coat and headed out for a bit to stomp around in the drifts and make sure my car hadn't been hit by a snow plow (it's fine). Fortunately digging out won't be too bad; it's heading into the fifties later this week.

I posted just a few pictures in my Flickr account and there's a short, silly video at YouTube taken this morning.

Blizzard!

The predicted snowstorm has been upgraded to a blizzard. It's Cincinnati's first blizzard since 1978! Staying home from work today was truly a capital idea. I think we've had four or five inches of snow so far and we're expecting up to a foot total snowfall. I'm so very ready for spring.

I spent the day studying my Intro to ArcGIS course work and I love GIS. It's so much fun playing around with maps. I see a new career blossoming before me.

Finally, I leave you with this interesting New York Times article about MSG. I worked for many years in a Chinese restaurant and the "no MSG!" people always got under my skin. So many would claim to be deathly allergic but would still order the hot and sour soup or the eggrolls after I (not so) patiently explained that those items contained MSG and there was nothing we could do about it. I still think claiming to have an allergy when none exists does a real disservice to those people who have genuine life-threatening allergies, such as those to peanuts or shellfish.

Blue-Stemmed Goldenrod

Blue-Stemmed Goldenrod
Originally uploaded by lilysecret42

It's not the greatest photo in the world, I know. Back in the old days, before I carried a digital camera on all my hikes I used to carry several field guides in case I came across a bird/tree/flower/mushroom I didn't know. It made for a very heavy pack. Now I take pictures of the things and identify them later. Sometimes much later. I took this photo last October and have just now got around to looking it up. As best I can tell, this is a Blue-stemmed Goldenrod (Solidago caesia). I found it growing in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore park (which is a lovely place) and there was a lot of it around at that time of year.

In other news I had my yearly performance evaluation at work today. It was all very positive; there were about a dozen anonymous comments from various co-workers singing my praises and saying how much they like working with me. I'm going to file them away and pull them out on those days when I feeling all blue and unlovable.

Another one of those days

in which I am too tired to type very much. So, speaking of typing, I leave you with a Brief (but fascinating) History of the Typewriter.

Drum Roll Please...

I ran a mile today! OK, it wasn't fast and it certainly wasn't pretty and little old ladies out for a walk were passing me by, but I ran a mile, by all the gods in Olympus!

I'm dead chuffed.

WTF?

Today I received a letter from the folks who hold my Ikea credit card, one GE Money Bank. They explained to me why they couldn't increase my credit limit at this time and as far as I can decipher their reasoning, it's because I payed more than the minimum amount due more than once and because my balance decreased over time. I thought those were supposed to be good things. Their logic does not resemble our Earth logic.

California Woods

March has decided to come in like a lamb here in Cincinnati. After last month's bitter cold, snow, ice and slush, today's sixty degrees felt heavenly. I grabbed my camera and binoculars and headed out to California Woods to hike the trails. I was hoping to catch some early emerging wildflowers but there were none that I saw. I did spot my first Turkey Vulture of the year though. Of course, some of them don't migrate all that far south in the winter; they just mosey down to Kentucky or Tennessee for a couple of months before heading back this way.

The park is collecting maple sap for syrup and many of the trees near the nature center had buckets attached. One was overflowing so I helped myself to a few drops of the faintly sweet sap. It helped convince me that spring is truly on its way.


There was a nice stand of horsetails in the park and I hunkered down to get a few snaps of them. They get the name horsetail from the feathery fronds that sprout up later in the year. Horsetails are primitive plants, reproducing from spores or rhizomes and they have been around since the reign of the dinosaurs. The stalks contain crystals of silica and were at one time used for polishing and scrubbing pewter ware; their other common name is scouring rush. They prefer wet soil and I found these growing along the flood plain of the Lick Creek.

Grass Fed Beef

I decided to make some Pineapple Beef Curry from the ground beef I purchased at Red Sun Farm a couple of weeks ago. I tried today to determine the difference in number of calories per serving that would result from switching grass fed beef for the typical corn finished beef and it was no easy task! Even though I found many websites touting the health benefits of grass fed beef and many suppliers, virtually none of them posted a simple Nutrition Facts label. This wasn't due to unwillingness to provide the information, simply that it's not required for single ingredient items such as beef (or indeed, coffee) coupled with the fact that the nutritional analysis is very expensive. I did find several interesting facts along the way though, including:

• Grass fed beef has 1/2 to 1/3 the amount of fat as does corn finished beef
• Grass fed beef is two to six times higher in Omega-3s and other healthy fats and is much lower in saturated fat
• Grass fed beef contains more vitamin E
• The e. Coli count is much higher in grain finished beef than in grass fed

This information and much, much more is available at EatWild.com. After reading and weighing the pros and cons for a couple of hours, I had to come to the conclusion that there are only two reasons not to eat grass fed beef as opposed to corn finished; taste and cost. Some people find grass fed beef too gamy for their tastes. I'll reserve my judgment on taste until I've actually tried it, although I don't think that will be an issue for me; I mean, I've eaten moose and liked it. But grass fed beef is more expensive, mostly because it tends to come from smaller producers. For me, cost isn't much of an issue since I don't eat much meat (I've only had beef once in the past 5 months), so I can afford to splurge a bit.

At the end of the day, it's really very simple. Letting cows be cows, and doing what millions of years of evolution have honed them to do (eat grass very efficiently) is better for the cows, better for the environment and ultimately, better for us.

Still, after two hours digging, I didn't find a simple calorie count until I stumbled across the nutrition information for Wild Oats Organic Grass Fed Beef Burgers. Using that and some raw calculations from the information I did find, I've decided I'll assume grass fed beef has about 80% of the calories as the conventional stuff. That's good enough for my calorie counting purposes.