Comments for Field Notes and EcoBlog http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst Perspectives from UVM Field Naturalists and Ecological Planners Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:49:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Comment on Orion Rising by Bryan http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/2013/02/14/winter-routines/comment-page-1/#comment-6621 Bryan Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:49:03 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/?p=581#comment-6621 Awesome post!

]]> Comment on Considering Crows by Bryan Pfeiffer http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/2013/01/18/considering-crows/comment-page-1/#comment-6572 Bryan Pfeiffer Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:01:40 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/?p=540#comment-6572 Thanks for the lead, Charlie. I’ve got a roost in downtown Montpelier. I’ll get it into the database.

]]> Comment on Considering Crows by Charlie http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/2013/01/18/considering-crows/comment-page-1/#comment-6568 Charlie Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:17:42 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/?p=540#comment-6568 i love watching the crows, they are incredible, intelligent animals, and the way they adapt to and even take advantage of human-created landscapes is incredible. you mentioned the city lights and I remember reading somewhere that they may actually SEEK out well lit areas. As you mentioned, their main predator is the owl but owls prey on crows under cover of darkness… any owl stumbling into that flock that the crows could actually SEE would be lucky to escape the mobbing alive.

If you’re interested in technology-based citizen science, check out this iNaturalist project to track the roosting of the crows:
http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/crows-in-vermont
I haven’t contributed yet because I haven’t found an equivalent flock of crows in Montpelier… but I’ve seen them both in Burlington and Middlebury.

]]> Comment on Happy Maggot Land by Cyndi Brewer http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/2012/01/30/happy-maggot-land-2/comment-page-1/#comment-5124 Cyndi Brewer Mon, 12 Nov 2012 21:34:56 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/?p=469#comment-5124 Hello,
I enjoyed your article and came about looking up maggots in a pretty interesting way. Now, don’t get me wrong, the kind of maggots on rotting dead animals and on fruit in my kitchen get NO sympathy from me. This year, however, I have been harvesting acorns around the neighborhood to feed “my” squirrels (I don’t have any oak trees). I noticed after the first day, at the bottom of my acorn bags, there were 30-40 maggots of varying size and disposed of them without a second thought. As a couple of days went by and I was collecting more and more maggots (and sorting through and disposing of any acorns with drill holes or big cracks), I started feeling bad for the little creatures that were showing such a strong will to live. I have several bags of mulch behind my shed (most with holes in them) and just by coincidence, I put the first batch in the holes and was AMAZED at how fast they dug themselves out of site!! Ever since, I take the “babies” I collect out every day and place them in the mulch, so I’m happy, after researching on the internet, that these “acorn weevils”, in fact, burrow themselves underground and emerge as adults in 1 – 2 years!!
It’s really special in a world full of such inattention to nature, to find that a lowly maggot can bring about a new understanding of the world around me and rejoice that these “pests” have a chance to grow and mature.

Thank You,

Cyndi

]]> Comment on Random Nature Questions from a Non-naturalist by Toby Lattimore http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/2012/02/12/random-nature-questions-from-a-non-naturalist/comment-page-1/#comment-4510 Toby Lattimore Sat, 18 Aug 2012 09:54:22 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/?p=488#comment-4510 I was interested to read your section on Bees and Honey above and would like to add the fact that bees pass their chewed food to each other, around the hive and so the process of “vomiting” as you called it is a much larger deal in the colony. Part of the reason why they pass their food about is because it holds a chemical which the queen excretes and prevents the hive from swarming. Once this chemical is too thinly spread then the inhibitors on queen production are lifted and a new queen is allowed to grown which can ultimately trigger a swarm. Find out more about Honey Bees here.

]]> Comment on Random Nature Questions from a Non-naturalist by Vanessa http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/2012/02/12/random-nature-questions-from-a-non-naturalist/comment-page-1/#comment-4134 Vanessa Fri, 13 Jul 2012 01:25:47 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/?p=488#comment-4134 my brother and co-workers found a ant hill 6ft wide and 4ft high.Any idea how long that would have taken the ants to build.

]]> Comment on Other Blogs and Sites We Like by Charlie http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/other-blogs-and-sites-we-like/comment-page-1/#comment-2547 Charlie Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:34:37 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/?page_id=56#comment-2547 I was just directed to another very neat FNEP alumni blog at http://bugtracks.wordpress.com/

]]> Comment on The Shoemaker Taxonomist by Charlie http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/2012/03/05/the-shoemaker-taxonomist/comment-page-1/#comment-2314 Charlie Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:47:56 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/?p=531#comment-2314 Great post, but I beg to mildly disagree with the last part. First of all, there aren’t all that many shoemakers left in Vermont, but perhaps more importantly, he would have access to vast seas of knowledge about mushrooms that he didn’t have now, via the Internet, and would be able to track his findings using his smartphone and iNaturalist! He might not differentiate cryptic species via DNA analysis (no app for that – yet) but he certainly could find occurrences that had never before been recorded, and track changes caused by natural and human-caused effects.

There are certainly downsides to the changes we are seeing in the world, but upsides too.

As for your point about scientific jourlans, that I agree with.

]]> Comment on Searching for Squirrels, Finding the Night by frisör http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/2011/11/23/searching-for-squirrels-finding-the-night/comment-page-1/#comment-1715 frisör Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:25:50 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/?p=441#comment-1715 I really appreciate this post. I have been looking everywhere for this! Thank God I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day! Thank you again.

]]> Comment on Time Slips by Matthew Jones http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/2011/09/08/time-slips-3/comment-page-1/#comment-1193 Matthew Jones Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:57:03 +0000 http://blog.uvm.edu/fntrlst/?p=40#comment-1193 Great read. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

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