The First 20 Birds of 2007

It has begun! I have started counting birds in 2007. I have a three month head start on last year (not that it will help.) The first ten birds I spotted were rather predictable. On new year's day I saw only two kinds of birds. I spotted crows and rock pigeons. No huge surprise there.

Returning to work the next day a quick visit to the feeders gained me white breasted nuthatches, black capped chickadees, American goldfinches, red-bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, and hairy woodpeckers. While talking to Tom Anderson in his office a pileated woodpecker flew through the woods. That made nine. I didn't spot any birds then until Thursday morning while walking the dog. I purposefully went down an icy alley when I heard birds. There was a huge flock of house sparrows in some mulberry bushes one block east of my house. So, it took me four days to get ten birds.

1-10
Crow
Rock Pigeon
White Breasted Nuthatch
Black Capped Chickadee
American Goldfinch
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
House Sparrow


For Festivus, my family bought me a pair of binoculars which should be really nice to use. I haven't done any serious birding with them yet but what I have seen so far makes me excited for the year.

Starting on the second ten, I saw a blue jay along Square Lake Trail and a cardinal at Tamarack Nature Center on January 8th. On January 11th I saw a bald eagle at Keller Lake. January 15th I spotted a Pheasant at Lake Elmo regional park and then January 16th a Junco in the corn fields south of Warner along Manning Ave. I've spotted Canada geese several times.

On the 20th Bekah pointed out a flock of Turkeys just south of Warner bringing the total to 15. On the 25th I spotted a brown creeper (finally) and I confirmed that the birds I see almost every day along the highway are in fact red-tailed hawks. I figured they were but no fair counting them on an assumption.

I spied a Mourning Dove at Boot Lake on Feb. 8th. Finally, bird 20 arrived on February 15th as I drove to Marine Elementary for an outreach program. As I passed through the tunnel and under the railroad tracks I saw a bird flit across the road. There was a flash of a white rump and with a second bird I spotted the red breast. I had heard robins hang out along this stretch of road all year because of the springs that keep water open. it was nice to have number 20 be a nice old friend like the robin.

11-20
Blue Jay
Northern Cardinal
Pheasant
Junco
Canada goose
Turkey
Brown Creeper
Red-tailed hawk
Mourning Dove
American Robin

Saturn

Last night was cold and clear so I finally got outside to do some astrophotography with my telescope. Saturn is a great target this month. The image above is a composite of about 20 images from a quicktime movie captured with a the Phillips SPC900NC web camera I got for my birthday. I stacked and averaged the images to bring out detail. This was my first attempt.

Ideally, once I get the hang of this I'll stack about 200 frames to make final images which should give me greater detail than this. Through the scope with my eyes I could clearly make out the cassini division which isn't visible in the photo. I'm guessing this may be a focusing issue. It is extremely difficult to focus the image and the cold wears my patience thin. Look forward to better images this spring.

I hope you enjoy my first attempt at photographing the ringed planet!

~Kirk

On Rationality

Last night I caught a little bit of the show Wife Swap ( or maybe it was the other one) Anyhow, there was this christian family that traded places with a pagan family. The pagan family believed in fairies. They prayed to them, spoke to them, worshiped them, made them baked goods, etc.

When the new mom came and read the "house rules" book about who they are and what they do she kept on saying "Oh they're crazy." I don't disagree with that and I'm guessing most of America that was watching was thinking the same thing. "Anyone who believes in that is nuts!"

What strikes me is that reasonable people can look at a pagan religion and see people who believe in talking trees, spirits, and magic and they can instantly see that it is a bunch of hookum. However, these same people see absolutely nothing wrong with believing that 2000 years ago a god impregnated a virgin and the resulting kid (who could walk on water by the way) was killed and then magically came back to life. You want talking to trees? How about the burning bush? Believing is spirits and magic? Heck, christians believe that they can commune with spirits by magically turning bread into the flesh of a guy who died thousands of years ago. They also turn wine into his blood. By magically combing these elements in a ritual, their soul is cleansed of sins.

Yes, yes, this is totally rational and every other religion is crazy.

Vision

A few years back I wrote the following:

1. seeing meaningful vision/values based change in youth as the result of powerful outdoor experiences that help them examine life/ecology and self.

I wrote that in response to the question, "What is your number one motivator at work?"

I need to re-examine everything I do. I've lost sight of this a little over the years as what I do becomes more about work and less about a vocation. How do I create powerful outdoor experiences? I think I'm doing okay with that but what bothers me about my current work is that it isn't as powerful as the adventure education. When I did adventure ed. I would see life change in hours. When everything went right the kids who left were different from those who came. Usually this shift was about self confidence. Studies show that this new self confidence lasts at least a year but for some kids you see that it will last much longer.

I think the effect is more subtle in any kind of environmental education or natural history program. Insted of a profound difference in how they view themselves, which is so personal, they may have a new appreciation for birds or something like that. That's cool and all but because it isn't really a change in self it isn't as intrinsically powerful.

We tend to teach natural history instead of environmental education. I'm proud of that fact but again, it is easier to see the change in an EE class versus a straight up natural history lesson. I think in truth the two can't be teased apart. I prefer coming at a subject from a natural history approach because I can get the group to fall in love with the subject and then they want to save it instead of telling them they are destroying something when they don't even care about it. If someone is falling in love with something that is a profound personal change that will affect their lives.

Bah. I need to examine all three parts of this but my brain isn't up to the task right now.

That and it is hard to affect change in the world when all of your programs get canceled because there isn't any snow.

~Kirk

Click-Hold contextual Menus in Firefox 2.0

Here's a little geek trick for all my Macintosh buddies. I just downloaded Firefox 2.0 (my browser of choice) and I was frustrated beyond belief that I could no longer click and hold on a hyperlink to make the menu pop up where I select "Open link in new Tab."

I have to hold down the control key when I click. I know most PC users can use a right click (or is it left?) for this but most Mac users do not have a multiple key mouse so this new "feature" drove me crazy.

Here's the solution.

Type the following into your browser address field:
about:config

A large list of variables will appear. Scroll down to ui.click_hold_context_menus

By default it will say this variable is set to false. Click on the word false to change it to true and now your beautful hold click contextual menus are back where they belong.

Geek on.

~Kirk

Angular Dimension

No, angular dimension is not some alternate reality nor is is a bad new wave 80's band. Angular dimension is the measured size of an object in the sky as expressed, typically, in arcseconds or degrees. In english, "How big does it look in the sky?"

One of the hard things to express to groups sometimes is how big or small stuff is in the sky. A great example is the Andromeda Galaxy. It is 2.5 million light years away and 220,000 light-years wide but how big does it look to us? It is one thing for me to say that is it somewhere around two to three degrees wide but even better to compare it to something we know.

I've often told groups that the moon is only 1/2 a degree wide so they can imagine how big Andromeda would look if only it appeared brighter in our sky.

I wish I always had this photo on hand to show them. Wow.

Minnesota Gears up to be #1 in Wind Power

It seems things may really come together this year to reform state policy on renewable energy. In Minnesota, renewable energy means Wind.

As part of the agreement between then Northern States Power (now Xcel Energy) and the state, money went to build the first wind turbines in exchange for being allowed to have dry cask nuclear storage on the banks of the Mississippi at the Prairie Island nuclear power facility. That was a devil's bargan but at least it kick-started the wind industry in the state.

Now, new proposals in the legislature would force utilities to be 25% renewable by the year 2020. The current goal is 10% by 2015. Increasing to 25% means, according to a StarTribune article, "about 5,000 [more] megawatts of renewable generating capacity to Minnesota's electrical grid. Most of it would probably come from an estimated 3,000 new giant wind turbines dotting farm country" According to the same article we're at 6% renewable now. 25% would be the highest state goal in the country.

Reading the Minnesota senate Energy, Utilities, Technology and Communications Committee Update, I see that on January 16th they had an information session with various interest groups presenting. Tucked in at the end was this gem. "Jay Lofgren, Boise Cascade, asked that the committee define renewable energy as broadly as possible and that members not enact a mandate." Hmm, Boise Cascade? The timber company? I read this to mean they want to consider forests a renewable resource and they have plans to turn Minnesota forests into biomass fuel. Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

Also, the cry from industry for there not to be a mandate is pathetic. "We the people" will stop using mandates when industries do the right thing all on their own, which is to say, never.

"The market" has no morals. We, the people of the nation, do and we have government of, by and for the people (with nods to Lincoln) that is there to set a course for the better future we seek to live in.

I'm happy to see the Minnesota legislature is doing just that.

~Kirk

What Serenity Character am I?

Your results:
You are Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)
Dependable and trustworthy.
You love your significant other and
you are a tough cookie when in a conflict.



Zoe Washburn (2nd in Command) 90%
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 80%
Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 80%
Wash (Ship Pilot) 75%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 55%
Inara Serra (Companion) 45%
River Tam(Stowaway) 40%
Derrial Book (Shepherd) 20%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 15%
A Reaver (Cannibal) 5%
Alliance 5%

Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test

Hasn't Bush Heard?

Hasn't Bush heard? Neo-conservatism is dead but he refuses to believe it. He's going to send 22,000 more troops into Iraq but insists it isn't an escallation. He calls it s "surge." When pressed, Condoleezza Rice said it was an "augmentation." There is clearly no plan to remove these troops and prior surges into baghdad eariler this have failed.

Give me a break.

I went out last night to protest at University and 280 which is right outside Coleman's office. Starting at 6:00 we had a surge of our own as we filled one whole side of the bridge. Given the awful weather it was a pretty good showing. There was a real lack of good large signs however which needs to be addressed. The bulk of the crowd left within 30 minutes which is okay since the real goal was to get a crowd on TV. This protest site happens to be just down the street from Channel 5. They used some quick shots of the crowd on the 10:00 news to show that opposition to Bush's plan.

There is a larger rally tonight but unfortunatly I cannot attend. :(

~Kirk

Final 2006 Bird Tally

Here is my final bird tally for 2006. This was the first year I'd decided to count birds. I ended up having a lot of fun. The total was 126 birds though I know I saw more kinds of birds than that these were the ones I was absolutely sure about. I'd feel like I was cheating myself if I counted otherwise. I'm pretty sure I say a grey jay and I probably saw a rough-legged hawk. I also might have seen one more kind of cormorant but, again, they aren't on the list. I also saw more gulls than in any other year and I was only able to ID two of them. I have the ring-billed gull and the black headed gull. I had the western gull on the list temprorarily until I realized I was deluding myself about a positive ID. Gulls are an extremely weak point in my bird identification skills.

2007 will be a harder year in a couple of ways. I'm probably not going to be able to go to arizona and I saw twenty-two species there. Twelve of them are species not found in Minnesota. Likewise, I'll not be going to Washington state so the American Dipper, Caspian Tern, Tufted Puffin, Pelagic Cormorant, Stellar Jay, Pigeon Guillemot, Clarks nutcracker, and the Oregon Dark Eyed-junco are not within my grasp. Thats eight more to make up. Of the twelve species I saw in Norway, the only one I might see here is a mute swan but I don't count captive animals so that's out. All told, if I want to keep up with the 126 total I need to spot thirty two more birds in 2007 within the state Minnesota. Ouch.

Here's the 2006 list (essentially in cronological order)

1-10
Black throated sparrow
Great tailed grackle
Killdeer
Great egret
Great blue heron
Mallard duck
Violet green sparrow
Mourning dove
White crowned sparrow
Gambel's quail

11-20
Verdin
Great horned owl
Cactus wren
Curve billed thrasher
Cliff swallow
White breasted nuthatch
Ruby crowned kinglet
Western Bluebird
Yellow rumped warbler (Audubons)
Anna's hummingbird

21-30
Common Goldeneye
Common loon
Wood duck
Wild Turkey
Red bellied woodpecker
Downy woodpecker
Hairy woodpecker
Brown creeper
Northern cardinal
American robin

31-40
Blue jay
American goldfinch
Dark eyed junco (slate colored)
Pileated woodpecker
Black capped chickadee
Purple finch
Red shouldered hawk
Bald eagle
Hermit thrush
American crow

41-50
Eastern Phoebe
Cedar waxwing
European starling
Bufflehead
Ring necked duck
Canada goose
House sparrow
Fox sparrow
Turkey vulture
Hooded merganser

51-60
Ring necked pheasant
Brown headed cowbird
Tree swallow
Yellow bellied sapsucker
American coot
Osprey
Red-tailed hawk
Eastern bluebird
American woodcock
Eastern Towhee

61-70
White throated sparrow
Tufted titmouse
Red breasted nuthatch
Yellow rumped warbler (Myrtle)
Chipping sparrow
Barred owl
Barn swallow
common raven
common grackle
Common yellow-throat

71-80
Rose Breasted Grosbeak
American Kestrel
Rock Pigeon
Baltimore Oriole
Eastern Meadowlark
field sparrow
Northern Waterthrush
Green Heron
Eastern Kingbird
Song Sparrow

81-90
Scarlet Tanager
Chimney Swift
House sparrow
Mourning Warbler
Great Crested Flycatcher
Ruby-throated hummingbird
Sandhill Crane
Yellow Warbler
Steller's Jay
Oregon dark-eyed Junco

91-100
American Dipper
Clark's Nutcracker
pigeon guillemot
caspian tern
double-crested cormorant
brown pelican
belted kingfisher
pelagic cormorant
tufted puffin
Eastern Wood Peewee

101-110
American Redstart
House wren
Ring billed gull
Chestnut-sided warbler
Blue-grey gnatcatcher
Red-eyed Vireo
Magnolia Warbler
Connecticut Warbler
Black and white Warbler
White Pelican

111-120
Solitary Sandpiper
Magpie (european) [Skjœre]
Great Crested Grebe [Toppdykker]
Greylag Goose [Grågås]
Grey heron [Gråhegre]
Carrion Crow [Kråke]
Mute Swan [Knoppsvan]
Robin (european) [rødstrupe]
Pied Wagtail [Linerle]
Great tit [Kjøttmeis]

121-126
Tufted Duck [Toppand]
Great Spotted Wodpecker [Flaggspett]
Black Headed Gull [Hettemåte]
Golden Crowned Kinglet
Pied billed grebe
Trumpeter Swan

Visions of Pareidolia

Okay so I know it is just pareidolia but it sure looks like the nebula in this photo is giving me the finger.

Warner's Woods Without Tom?

My first day at Warner Nature Center I had a note on my desk from the director Tom Anderson. It read something to the effect of "Off to fulfill my pleistocene hunting heritage." It was a nod to author Paul Shepherd.

In Ecology and Man, Shepherd said, "If nature is not a prison and earth a shoddy way-station, we must find the faith and force to affirm its metabolism as our own---or rather, our own as part of it. To do so means nothing less than a shift in our whole frame of reference and our attitude toward life itself, a wider perception of the landscape as a creative, harmonious being where relationships of things are as real as the things. Without losing our sense of a great human destiny and without intellectual surrender, we must affirm that the world is a being, a part of our own body."

Now, as Tom resigns his position at the reigns so he can pursue other adventures , it is hard to imagine Warner without him because Warner is a part of his being and his being is part of Warner. He has eaten apples of the trees, eaten fish from the lakes and deer from the woods. These things all became part of Tom but it is the experience of place at Warner that has shaped him over these past 29 years into the person he is. Every tree, every boulder, fen, marsh and every hand full of glacial till has subtly shaped his life and as such, Tom is as much a part of this land as this land is a part of him.

His relationship to the land and to us is just as real and as valued as the physical materials that make up the whole.

It is hard to imagine Warner without Tom because in many ways they are in unison. They always were, are now and will forever be one and the same. It will be hard to imagine but when the day comes that Tom is not here every day it will, in effect, be a little like my first day. Tom may not be here physically but his influence and presence will be here even when he is out in other wild places.

You cannot truly remove Tom from Warner because you cannot remove a person from themselves.


~Kirk

I am so freakin' happy

Valleyfair get's a new woodie this summer!

Belated Halloween

Here's a shot of our halloween costumes.

Water on mars?

NASA may be poised to make a major announcement about water on mars. The details on this page are limited but it sounds like they have found a seep?

~Kirk

A caving we will go

I went into Spring Valley Caverns today with my co-worker Paul. It took us about two hours to get down to southern Minnesota and get into the cave. We were down there for about an hour and a half as we scouted the route in preparation for bringing a group of kids in a few weeks. I should have brought a camera!

It reminded me of one of the coolest things I did when I was young. We went to Woodlake Nature Center and went on a Storm Drain tour walking tour. We tromped around in the storm drains and learned how the water from the city empties into the nature center. What to bet hte city lawyers have ended that program?

~Kirk

Anyone have $200,000 for me?

If anyone has an extra $200,000 sitting around and they want to buy me a ticket on SpaceShipTwo I'd be happy to cook them a really nice dinner.

Sun Dogs

I saw a sun dog this morning on my way to work. It was the second of the season. I'd like to start carrying my digital camera with me so I can capture some atmospheric lens effects.

I am a dork.

~Kirk