Summer in the Butterfly Garden

Back in early May, I decided to give myself a birthday present and do something beneficial for my yard and wildlife by planting a butterfly garden.  I spent a large part of the summer tweeting about the Maryland native plants that I chose to attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds, but wanted to share a little more of the story here. I took what was the area I had been using as a tree nursery, and cleared a little more space for over two dozen species of native shrubs and flowers.  The plot went from this...

Things I Learned This Semester #7

The red mulberry, Morus rubra, is a wonder native tree that also bares a wonderful edible fruit.  Red mulberries are, by my account, delicious.  I'm lucky enough to have two fruiting trees that hang over from the neighboring properties, and they provide more than enough for me, and the birds.   They grow easily and rapidly as well, so the volunteer seedlings I have are off to a great start. Full disclosure: this isn't something I learned this semester, but I just brought in my first batch and they were quite tasty, so I thought they deserved a shout-out.  Here's to deliciousness!

Who's hungry?  There's plenty to go around!

Things I Learned This Semester #5

Loads and loads of native trees, reaching for the sky.

I love trees.  Now I know what you're thinking: "C'mon, David.  You've always loved trees.  You didn't just learn that this semester."  And that would in fact, be true.  But this semester, I learned I really, really, really love trees. Like a lot.  And I've been in a sorry state, because since I moved into my new home a few years back, there have been none on my property.  But no more!  Last year I started growing oak seedlings, and some of them actually made it through the winter.  Combine that with all of the volunteer saplings that I pick from my yard before I mow, and the count goes up even higher.  But these little guys will need a lot more time to grow before they are placed in their permanent home.  Which is why I'm so pleased that I was able to procure some larger, older trees this semester.  Mixed oaks and maples, a few sycamores and birches, redbuds, elms, the works.  All ready to go in the ground, all native.  One day my backyard will look more like a miniature forest, which is fine with me.  I mean, who doesn't love a good tree?  I know this semester, I learned I certainly do.

Things I Learned This Semester #2

Callinectes sapidus, photographed at the Maryland Science Center.

Back in 2008, Maryland Governor Martin O'Mally and Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine, at the advice of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, made the difficult decision to pass regulations regarding the harvesting of Atlantic blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) in the Chesapeake Bay.  By shortening the harvesting season, putting limits on the number of bushels allowed to be collected, and curbing the catching of female crabs, they hoped to allow the record low populations to rebound.  Well, good news everyone! Four years later, and the crab population has reached its highest levels in the last 19 years!  A dredge survey made public back in April shows a population rise of 66%, of which 587 million individuals are juveniles.  This is great news for the crabs, but also for the watermen that make a living off of them, and for those of us who love picking a good crab on a late summer evening.  Sustainable fisheries management for the win!

More Maryland Dinosaurs

Another day, another dinosaur.  At least that is how it seems here in Maryland.  On September 10 at Dinosaur Park in Laurel, amateur paleontologist Dave Hacker discovered a bone fragment that had been weathered out of the sediment by the heavy rains we've been having in the area.  With the help of Steve Jabo of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the bone fragment was removed from the iron rich Muirkirk Deposit of the Arundel Formation.  When first exposed, everyone hoped that they were looking at a complete limb bone, but as it was prepped out, they discovered it was only a fragment, and are now speculating that it is a sauropod claw.  Here's a little video on the find from the local 10:00PM news last night (I cringed a little lot when they referred to Astrodon as a dinosaur that looks like a "Brontosaurus"), which conveniently aired after the two hour season premier of another program about dinosaurs.  Coincidence? I think not.

What Kind of Dinosaurs Lived in the DC Area?: MyFoxDC.com

Introducing a new "backyard dinosaur", Propanoplosaurus marylandicus.

It has been entirely too long since I've blogged here at Superoceras.  Shame on me.  But if there is one thing that will get me back in front of the computer screen to write, it's baby ankylosaurs.  I mean, come on, look at how cute this little fella is.

Figure 4 from Stanford et al. 2011, showing two stereo photographs (top) and a drawing (bottom) of  the dorsum of the head of USNM 540686.

Backyard Botany: Native Maryland vines

As I mentioned in my last post, I spend quite a good deal of time fighting the growth of invasive vines in my yard.  I'll admit, I always feel guilty killing off any plants, invasive or not.  But controlling invasive species and making sure they do not spread is essential to protecting and preserving the local ecosystem.  That is why as I tear non-native plants out, I always try and replace them with species that can be found growing naturally in my area.  And lucky for me, there are several such species that can be found in the region of Maryland that I call home.

Parthenocissus quinquefolia, working its way up my gutters.

Backyard Botany: Invasive vines

Invasive vines: climbing fences and choking out bushes like a boss.

My yard is covered in vines.  Terrible, invasive, non-native vines, that seem to grow a lot faster than I can get rid of them.  It has become a serious problem.  Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), English ivy (Hedera helix), and mile-a-minute vine (Polygonum perfoliatum) can all be found on my property in Edmonston, Maryland. Initially brought in for ornamental purposes, their agressive growth have allowed them to take over large portions of  my yard.  They grow over natural groundcover, trees, shrubs, fences, gardens, sheds, and even the house itself.  It makes me very unhappy.  But their is one invasive vine that really gets under my skin, much more so than all the others combined: Porcelain berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata).

Backyard Ornithology: House finch breeding

A while back I left a teaser on the end of a post about house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus), and never got around to telling you all the reason that, despite their non-native status, they are a joy to have around the house.  One word: babies!

A house finch nest, conveniently placed in one of my hanging planters.

Like a Shark Out of Saltwater

Here's another piece of local news from the Maryland area. The brother started kayaking on the Potomac River this summer. I wonder what he would think of this NBC Washington headline:

"8-Foot Shark Caught in Potomac River"

Photos (above and below) taken by Christy Henderson, from Buzz's Marina.

The Discovery Hostage Situation

As much as I don't want to write about this, I feel I have to say something.

Silver Spring, Maryland, right down the road from where I work and live, and home to the Discovery Communications headquarters building, made national news yesterday as a hostage situation unfolded. "Environmental fundamentalist" James J. Lee entered the lobby of the Discovery building around 1:00PM, 01 September, 2010 firing shots and taking hostages. A little before 5:00PM, police had shot and killed Lee after hours of surveillance and attempted negotiation, fearing for the lives of the hostages as he brandished a firearm and told police he had explosives in the building. Watching the situation unfold via live web streams, Twitter updates, and Google Buzz posts took up a large portion of my afternoon.

Earth, Life, and Time: A Lasting Legacy

WARNING: The following post contains little science, and lots of "touchy-feely" stuff, but I'm putting it out there anyway. Consider yourself warned.

I will never forget the day of my college orientation. I had been invited to join the College Park Scholars, and had selected the "Earth, Life, and Time" program as my focus. Walking into the basement classroom of one of the imposing University buildings, I took my seat with all the other "ELT" scholars in front of two gentlemen who would, over the course of the next few years, change the way I looked at everything. They introduced themselves as co-directors of the program, said that they were vertebrate paleontologists, and that was pretty much the last thing I remember. There is a definite possibility I blacked out; I was immediately swept up by a whirlwind of excitement and anticipation.

Snowpocalypse 2010 and Global Warming.

The snowfall in my backyard the evening after the first storm.

The Washington DC area where I live is slowly beginning to recover from a record setting amount of snow that fell in two major storms between February 5th and 10th, 2010. I personally measured ~0.76 meters (30") of accumulation in my backyard, and in areas that were untouched by shovels there is still ~0.38 meters (15") left after five days of melting. Some of the mountains and piles formed from the drifts we experienced on Wednesday were over 1.5 meters tall.

Maryland Dinosaurs!

Sorry for the brief hiatus after Darwin/Thanksgiving week. My final weeks of classes and work were starting to catch up with me, but the good news is that it's almost over and winter break is right around the corner. That means I can put a lot more time into some substantial posts. For now, I just wanted to briefly mention some other exciting news from that week.

On November 7, 2009, the Maryland-National Parks and Planting Commission and the Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation opened Maryland's first Dinosaur Park just south of Laurel, MD. The park is open to the public every other Saturday from noon to 4:00PM, and in only its second week, a nine-year-old Virgina girl discovered a caudal vertebrae from a theropod dinosaur estimated to be around 100 million years old. I'm sorry, but that's AWESOME.