For those sick of movie talk

[urbpan]

I've started writing an essay on my long and twisting relationship with those animals some call "pests," but it'll take some time. I feel I need to explore and explain that before I can continue with my Urban Pantheist type text posts.

On a related note, I've been invited back to Drumlin Farm to teach a class or two in the spring. I have to come up with a subject for it this weekend. I could do early spring mushrooms, but they are pretty few and far between. Any ideas?

Soon I'll be posting a "Bowling for Rhinos" donation request. I'll put a future date on the post, so for the next week, every time you look at my journal, it will be at the top. My most recent post will be the one after it. They do things kind of old fashioned--I have a pledge sheet to write names, addresses, and check numbers on. I need to bring all donations to the event, a week from tonight. I'm going to collect donations with paypal, and write them one check; I'm sure it will be fine. Come on, people, use the internet! I resisted the internet, too--until 1999! Only 8 years have passed and it's hard for me to imagine how people live without it.

Anyway, it's a beautiful, if cold, autumn day out there. By this time last year it was mostly over with. The trees in Boston still have a way to go. And most people and parks departments haven't bothered to pick up the leaves yet, so they're still on the ground looking wonderful and messy in a way that makes me feel good.

Comments

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

Phenology! There's a national phenology network starting up by Mark Schwartz at UW Milwaukee. The goal is to see if there's a difference in the onset of spring over time, given global warming concerns. The program wants to implement a lot of "citizen science."

Even just teaching people about phenology, and how to keep phenology journals, and recognize the different stages of, say, leafing, would be a really fun and useful class, methinks.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

um, sure...

(runs away and looks up 'phenology' in the dictionary)

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

It's right up your alley - it's the timing of natural phenomena that are controlled by climate - bird migration, flowering, leaf opening, leaf fall, etc.

I've been thinking about starting another lj community - something like "Signs of the Season," where people post seasonally representative photos of the natural world.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

The more i think about it, the more interesting it is. How are people studying it? It seems like it needs to be interdisciplinary by definition.

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of science that goes into this, in terms of coordinating across the country, and the differences between native and exotic species (meaning, non-cloned species might behave differently outside their native ranges, or they might behave as though they WERE in their native range, throwing off the timing). So there's a lot of math and modeling and such that goes into the data interpretation.

On the other end, it's all about citizen science - training people to go out and collect data about things like flowering time, and identifying species. I guess they use lilacs a lot, because they're common, people like them, and they're a cloned species (meaning, they won't be behaving differently because of genetics from one part of the country to the other).

I hope that makes sense - I'm new to the who Network concept. They have a website here,, but they're by no means the only way of learning about or doing this stuff.

You might also check out:

The USA Phenology Network

Project Budburst (the citizen science initiative)

and

Spring Alive, a European project where kids track bird migration.

[macabre-grrl.livejournal.com]

COOOOOL! And here I was thinking about a class about birds' nests.

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

Nests are very cool - and in early spring, you can actually see them! :)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

That's more my speed :) i'll have to think of something.

[buboniclou.livejournal.com]

Spring is a good time to eat the shoots and whatnot of edibles. How about a food tour?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty good idea! People do seem to like those types of programs...

[by-steph.livejournal.com]

You can have scavenger hunt.

#1 Find something that isn't cold : Skunk cabbage

#2 Find something that isn't brown: Er, daffodils

#3 Find something that isn't wet: duck feather

#4 Find something that doesn't smell bad: Hey, look, a daffodil!

#5 Find something that you can eat that won't kill you: Fern?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I like this idea! It might be hard to sell as an adult program though...

Changing the subject completely for a moment, What do you think of San Marcos?

Adult program

[by-steph.livejournal.com]

#6 Find something with a penis?

San Marcos is boring. It has an outlet mall that rich Mexicans like to shop at. There is a college there, but I can't remember which one. The saving grace of San Marcos is Aquarena. I love that place: http://www.aquarena.txstate.edu/

Re: Adult program

[by-steph.livejournal.com]

Ahem. Apparently the college is Texas State.