City Nature Challenge

 

Headed out early

Saw a White Face Ibis





Popular posts from this blog

Climate Change Is Still Worse

Image
 My city is a municipal utility, which means the city owns the electric utility that provides the electricity to the community. An insert in our recent electric bill caught my attention. Apparently, there is a possibility of controlled energy outages which means under energy emergency conditions we would have to take assigned turns using electricity until demand goes down.  The city's explanation of contributing factors to the need for controlled outages was a deep sigh moment.  For someone who isn't familiar with our national electricity grid (no shame, it's generously described as arcane) this reads as if renewable energy and closure of coal-fueled energy generation were the definitive reasons for the controlled power outages. This is an oversimplification. The more technically precise reason for the controlled power outages is the lack of energy storage capacity on the grid. In other words, we have to store electricity made by renewables when they are producing for tim...
Read more

Autumn Elm

Image
You can live a long time in one place and still make discoveries. Yesterday's discovery was just how many American elms there are around here. American elms used to be common as they were the preferred tree for city planting in the 19th century due to their shape and color. And they are beautiful trees, large, majestic, everything a tree should be. I assumed for quite a while that elms were pretty much a threatened species  well on their way to being extinct thanks to Dutch elm disease which ravaged the population. Dutch elm disease and the monocultivation of elms is Exhibit A in why diversity of planting is a good thing. Diversity provides built in resistance. I was both surprised and pleased to discover about a year ago that on the grounds of the science center where I work there were not one but two large elms. Outside my window. That I looked at every day. I just assumed they were cottonwoods, the other large, beautiful majestic tree in my ecosystem. It wasn't till...
Read more

Read More, Run More Summer

Image
I have dubbed this summer the Summer of Read More, Run More.  For Read More, my read more goal is to read 5 books by Labor Day. I know for some people that's a Tuesday, but I've been slacking on my reading of late. Reading 5 books is an appropriate level of challenge, I will stretch without overreaching. I want  Read More to be a growing experience, but a fun growing experience and not one where I am grinding through books with a clenched jaw and set brow. If the book I read is particularly enjoyable, I will share it here via what I post on Goodreads . I'm off to a good Read More start: my first entry is below. My Run More goal is to run at least a mile a day from Memorial Day to Independence Day. I'm giving myself permission to skip the days I'm in the Badlands for a class. I know from prior experience that the best laid running plans can be disrupted with proximity to bison. Any days I have to skip, I'll make up by extending the deadline so I complete 35 day...
Read more