LEARN ABOUT CREATURES
(IN OUR OWN NEIGHBORHOODS)
this project is called LOCAL BIOLOGY (until we think of something better)
Today was a great day with the inauguration and the end of Bush. Obama talked about the work that needs to happen. This is really exciting and I'll take a moment here to put some ideas out about what this means for Local Biology.
When we were starting this group, and I was thinking about the meaning of LB, I searched really far into my heart to try to come out with a direction for me and my generation -- regarding the outdoors. There isn't really a good situation for making natural experiences sharable in web format in the way we are coming to expect.
from Sue Rich, volunteer coordinator, Friends of the Mississippi River:
Join the Mississippi River Gorge Stewards volunteers to help remove buckthorn along river gorge trails in the Seward neighborhood. Buckthorn is an invasive woody species that degrades our local native plant communities and wildlife habitat.
Volunteers will work closely with FMR staff, will be provided with tools and gloves, and should be prepared to work on steep slopes and uneven terrain. Due to the tools and terrain, this event is not suitable for children.
Near West River Parkway and 24th Street, Minneapolis (Seward)
Identification in progress (started Sunday September 28, 2008...I'll post when I feel finished with the identification)
Helen Allison Savanna Scientific Natural Area, in East Bethel, MN. Saturday, September 27, 2008 9-11 A.M.
I had been planning on doing something else for the Blogger Bioblitz but it fell through. Turns out that the plant tour I went on happens to also fit perfectly with the bioblitz -- so I am working on formatting this information.
- big bluestem
- little bluestem
- 1 cricket
- 1 grasshopper
- Laccaria mushroom
- earthstar mushroom
- cinnabar-red chantarelle mushroom
- hazelnuts with nuts on them
- cool flat mushroom
- yellow bellied sap-sucker
- dullish colored jays, some carrying nuts
- turkey vulture
- possibly saw some sort of long winged hawk - head smaller than turkey vulture, wings long, didn't seem to have same white patches as the turkey vulture.
- some long winged seagulls
- canadian geese
- some sort of finches - 10-15 of them
- ant with black stomach and red head, 1cm, fat belly
- poison ivy with berries
- pin oak and many other species of oaks
- june grass
- steeple-bush grass
The Minnesota School of Botanical Art offers a range of wonderful fine art classes for learning to do traditional botanical, scientific illustrations. Sessions run from September through July - each session is about 6 weeks long. These are really great classes (I have taken lots of them.)
You learn real, accurate drawing and painting skills. You learn to draw what you see as well as what is already fading away. The students in the school are all really great - both artistically, and just really wonderful people.
The next session coming up: watercolor II, pen and ink I, fundamentals of drawing I, leaves, botany for artists.
Check out their website.
Usually at the Bakken museum or the Minnesota Book Arts center
There is a sister school in Arizona -- it's really cool because they do desert plants - it's at the Desert Botanical Garden.
Around 8:30pm we heard something that sounded like a Canadian goose. Made us think maybe the goose was getting ready to migrate.
it's 5:36pm - and i think the other species of cicadas are singing now. These ones sing slower and longer - fading in and fading out.
Every afternoon, when the sun is out, I hear a lone cicada wailing from somewhere in the tall oak tree near my house. They are always in full swing at night time. Don't know if these are different species. But at night they are VERY loud.
I don't know that they sing when it rains. I did see one cicada, it had some green on the edges of it's wings. I saw some cicada pictures at it looked like that species might have been a match.
The ground outside my house is littered with discarded acorns. The squirrels have been eating them from the tall oak tree outside my house. For the last few weeks, the squirrels have been nibbling the acorns.
The acorns are just now starting to turn a little brown. The nuts are a lot bigger. I am not sure what kind of oak tree is near my house, but it has little green tentacles on the acorn cap.
it's hot out and really peaceful - we just hear crickets now - low ones and high ones.
© 2009 Local Biology, a social business
A social business is owned by the people who directly benefit, and need its existence. We all benefit from the earth, and knowing about the earth, therefore, the earth owns Local Biology and we are simply noticing her, and how she created us.
It is by being a social business today that we can reach out to all people who want to understand the world they live in - the science, the spirit, the changing planet. We can reach around walls built by schools and other educational institutions, television, media, science, religion, language and country.
We know that we love and care about our Earth and in this we unite as this 'social business,' the business being that we are all working together to bring this knowledge together on this website and to other real projects in our towns — working with our own communities and, especially, friends.
Local Biology by Local Biology is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.localbiology.org.
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