“They say that if a butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazonian rain forest, it can change the weather half a world away.” ~ Catherine McKenzie The natural world maintains its balance through diversity and interconnectedness. There are upsets and cataclysmic changes from time to time, but usually life just goes on. That is until we […]
Tag Archives: animals
“Edge effects are the changes in biodiversity that occur inside the space surrounding the shared edge of two or more distinct ecosystems. This transitional zone rich in biodiversity is known as the ecotone; examples are between woodlands and plains, forests and mountains, and land and water.” ~ Gia Mora I live in a small […]
“The 2020 analysis found that fences affect ecosystems on every scale, from decreasing insect abundance, because they give spiders ample places to build their webs, to impeding the long-distance migration of everything from wildebeests to mule deer. By concentrating animals more closely together than they might be in the wild, fences could increase disease transmission, […]
“That’s what the bison did,” Mr. Isaacs, a cow-calf rancher said. “They’d come in a million at a time, stomp it all down and move on to fresh pasture. And they wouldn’t come back until it was time to graze again.” ~ Henry Fountain Farming has always been about managing the soil, keeping it […]
Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic depression. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It most commonly occurs during winter months. ~ Wikipedia Lately, I’ve become envious of those animals that can just go into hibernation and ignore the outside world. Between the pandemic totally disrupting our lives both […]
Betty, our older cat, likes to lie in her cat hammock in the kitchen window and watch the squirrels scamper on the back lawn; and the various birds that visit the feeders. She complains — with her scratchy meow — about some of them for unknown reasons. The doves, flickers and magpies are a particular […]
And so, remember this, life is no abyssSomewhere there’s a bluebird of happiness ~ Sandor Harmati Twenty-five years ago, we made a major addition to our house that expanded the kitchen and featured a string of large windows overlooking the back yard with a view to the mountains on the north. Originally, I put up […]
It’s still dark outside, but the older cat yowls in the darkness, expressing some real or imaginary complaint. The dog stirs and “boops” me under the side of the covers to see if it’s time to get up. I rub her nose and eyes then “scritch” her back to see if she’ll settle back down. […]
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare We called them ‘doodle bugs,’ but a girl I knew called them ‘rolly-pollys.’ When in college, I learned they were actually ‘wood lice’ or the singular, ‘woodlouse.’ Wikipedia lists about fifty other names for these guys, not including […]
“Urban areas … have long been deemed to be devoid of biodiversity, especially by Americans, who glorify wilderness and believe that nature can flourish only where cities do not exist… This is called ‘the biological deserts fallacy’” ~ Janet Marinelli There are coyotes in Los Angeles and photos of rats stealing old pizza in Manhattan, […]
Writes of Nature 