Denise and the Humpback Whale

While I was recently in Carmel, CA, the local newspaper reported a humpack whale carcass was going to be left to rot where it washed ashore to allow scientists to study the process. I immediately wanted to go photograph it, but didn't get around to it until after Denise joined me in California, several days later. It wasn't high on Denise's agenda of what to do while on the West Coast. After the experience, she was glad she had witnessed something few people on earth ever get to see in a lifetime. The beach was at Andrew Molera State Park in Big Sur, CA. From the parking lot near Highway 1, it was about a three kilometer walk through a couple of beautiful meadows and the riverbed of the Big Sur River to the whale. Thankfully, the wind was howling on the beach, and the stench of rotting flesh wasn't that bad and was only discernible if standing down wind. Here is a shot of Denise with the whale. I'll post others later.

Andrew Molera SP - Big Sur, CA - 01 July 2006

Krugman - Reign of Error

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote another incisive column about the whacky Bizarro world that is the Bush Administration:

Reign of Error

Football-shaped globs

In the learn-something-new-everyday category, I now know what a quenelle is. Sort of, anyway. We dined last evening with friends at the excellent Uptown restaurant, Lilette. I couldn't resist this description from the dessert menu: "Quenelles of goats cheese crème fraiche with poached pears, pistachios, and lavender honey."

On inquiry our waiter told me that a quenelle is a "football shape," and that these were "globs" of goat cheese. Sounds appetizing, right? In spite of her description, I ordered the dish, and it was delicious, decadent and, well, primarily two football-shaped globs of goat cheese. Nevertheless, lacking all confidence that the waiter's definition was correct in any formal sense, I turned to Google later in the evening.

The most complete information comes from a private web project by hobbyist in the etymology of words, who offers this:

"The definition is found in most dictionaries: 'A seasoned ball whose chief ingredient, meat or fish, has been reduced to a paste' is what the OED says. The American Heritage Dictionary gives this definition: 'a ball or dumpling of finely chopped meat or seafood bound with eggs and poached in stock or water.' Each definition provides slightly different information. Neither is incorrect, though the OED is more correct with its suggestion that the meat of fish has been reduced to a paste. Anyhow, now that we know what a quenelle is, where does the word come from? Surprisingly, the OED says it is a mystery, but other sources claim that quenelle derives from German Knödel 'small dumpling', the Middle High German diminutive of knode 'knot', presumably referring to the shape of the quenelle. The Old High German form was knodo, cognate with Latin nodus and English node. The Indo-European root would then be *ned- 'to bind, to tie'. Surprisingly, English knot is not thought to be related, but comes instead from a Germanic root meaning 'round lump' versus 'something tied'. Some sources do believe that Knödel and noodle are related. Italian gnocchi 'dumpling' comes from the same Indo-European root, *ned-."

For my main dish I had the day's special, a Lane Snapper. The football-shaped-glob lady, told me that "Lane Snapper was like a Red Snapper but from smaller bodies of water, a fresh water snapper." That didn't sound right to me either. So, I learned a second new thing yesterday: Lane Snappers are very much like Red Snappers and inhabit the same waters.

Even though we didn't have the most well-informed waiter, our experience at Lilette was, as it has been consistently, an excellent one.

Brood Parasitism

I've recently noticed our local Northern Cardinals carrying nesting material into a Japanese Magnolia in our yard. This morning, Denise told me she saw a cowbird hanging around the tree. I climbed up and found a nest with three eggs, two brown-speckled cardinal eggs and the solid blue-green egg of a Bronzed Cowbird.

Cowbirds are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species. A favorite host species is the cardinal. The common species in the U.S. is the Brown-headed Cowbird. Much less common, the Bronzed Cowbird is largely restricted to Mexico and Central America, but they occur in small numbers in the states bordering Mexico and in Louisiana.

Cowbird eggs tend to hatch ealier than the eggs of the host species, and cowbirds usually target smaller species as hosts. So, cowbird nestlings out-compete the nestlings of the host. I've been called several times by confused friends who had witnessed a cardinal feeding a larger black bird. Although similar in size to the cardinal, cowbirds also lay eggs in the nests of much smaller species, such as vireos, warblers and wrens.

While posing no threat to the abundant Northern Cardinal, cowbirds do put pressure on the populations of less common species, especially certain neotropic songbirds. Cowbirds' preferred habitat is open grasslands and fields, and Brown-headed Cowbird numbers exploded with the removal in the 19th century of the forests of the eastern U.S. Not wanting to see my local cardinals lose a brood, I removed the cowbird egg. Here it is:



I moved the egg from the cooler cloth, on which it appears above, to a warmer, more neutral poster board, and it rolled off the table and broke.

Frog and toad chorus

With all the rain we've had these last few days, there have been numerous frogs and toads calling each night in our yard. Tonight I heard at least three species, and located a squirrel tree frog in our back yard. It's the first time I've actually identified this species. It looks similar to the green tree frog, and I've probably mistaken the squirrel tree frog for the official LA amphibian (green tree frog) in the past. The calls are quite different. Here are two sites which have audio files of Louisiana frogs and toads: LA D of W&F; National Wildlife Federation.

The other evening, gulf coast toads calling in our front yard were nearly loud enough to prevent me from sleeping. A third species I have not yet identified sounds like a cricket: a soft, two note squeak that usually comes from under the house or in the garden against the house.

Forest Find

On our recent trip to California, we stayed at the Carmel Valley Ranch Resort, a rather tony, gated conglomeration of condominiums and houses sprawled all over the hillsides of Carmel Valley, about 10 miles from the coast. There was much green space, mostly oak covered hills. I explored them on a couple of mornings, and found this deer skull.




Here's another view of the skull.

New Blog: SULASULA

A new blog is born!