The Loma Prietan
May/June 2003
Meandering
by John Maybury
Shoot the tube
Fast, safe transportation of the future could take place in tubes. Pressurized passenger or cargo capsules would travel in vacuum tubes on thin steel wheels, or frictionlessly using maglev (magnetic levitation) technology. See more at www.et3.com.
Bird's-eye view
Visit your fine feathered friends at www.plannedparrothood.com, squawks Gary Hanauer, who wears wingtips and pecks out his famous annual Bay Guardian guide to beaches where one may bathe naked as a jaybird.
Choo choo news
Rail Passenger Association of California www.railpac.org has train pictures, news items, archives, and the latest buzz on California high-speed rail.
Garden therapy
For at least 100 years, the therapeutic community has recognized the rehabilitative value of gardening. Many mental institutions, rehabilitation hospitals, prisons, and individual therapists use gardening to treat their patients. Gardening can be a physical and emotional relief for all kinds of ills, from depression to anxiety. It also is used to help people grieve, restore their self-confidence, and rediscover themselves. New Beginnings Center in Novato, California, helps the homeless rebuild their lives through gardening. Yardwork can cure what ails you, says a staff member there.
Snow and ice
Like the idea of drilling deep down into the polar ice cap? For a peek at this underworld, visit www.glaciology.gfy.ku.dk.
Green thumbs up
Like to surf the Internet for gardening information? See www.gardeningclub.com for contests, tours, trips, tools, supplies, and news.
Bug secrets
Tiger swallowtail butterflies camouflage themselves to look like bird droppings, and give off the unpleasant smell of butyric acid, proving that the best offense is a good defense, according to lepidopterist Dr. John Hafernik, an expert on moths and butterflies. Hafernik's slide show pictures iridescent mission blue butterfly larvae tended by ants that sup on their honey dew, darkling beetles that protect themselves with foul-smelling spray, and beetle larvae that mimic female bees to trick male bees into giving them a free ride to a free lunch.
Heron addict
I often see blue herons plying their way up and down the creek behind my house. But just the other day as I was biking along the beach, I spotted a blue heron standing on the bluff and looking out at the ocean. Was it watching the sun go down, the surfer wipe out, or the sea lion shoot the tube? After a few minutes of bobbing and weaving its angular head and neck, the heron turned and walked deliberately along the footpath. It kept stopping and staring into the low bushes near the cliff edge. Katherine Curry-Merria knows what the heron was doing in the dunes: looking for gophers. She and her husband John have staked out herons on several occasions and observed these beautiful birds patiently stalk, hunt, catch, flip, and swallow gophers. Katherine says they are filled with "wonder and awe" at seeing herons in action. Sequoia Audubon Society director Cliff Richer e-mails:
"Great blue herons are extremely opportunistic predators and will eat insects, lizards, snakes, birds, and small animals, as well as fish. You often will find them patrolling fields and hedgerows looking for mice and voles. I have seen them consume crickets, fence lizards, mice, and three endangered species: the San Francisco garter snake, the salt-marsh harvest-mouse, and the black rail."
Seeing white
A snowy egret appeared out of the dense fog and landed with a squawk on the deck of the swimming pool. I stopped doing laps and started treading water so I could watch him. He perched on the lip of the pool, preening his stark-white feathers. When he stopped grooming, we engaged in a staring contest. Then the jet-black pool cat charged the egret, which casually flew across the pool to the other side. This little game went back and forth for a while until the cat grew bored with it and wandered off. Finally the long-necked, long-legged bird heard something over by the creek and flew off to investigate.
Smog cop
For eight years, Bruce Hotchkiss was a state smog inspector, busting smog technicians who illegally passed vehicles that should have flunked. Bruce says, "I'm a car guy and I've had my share of hot rods, but I believe every car must adhere to the law. Air pollution kills." Because of his long field experience, Bruce recently was picked to mediate conflicts between consumers and auto repair shops. "It's good work," he says, "but not nearly as rewarding as being a smog cop."
Hawk talk
Robbie Fischer, treasurer of Western Field Ornithologists, observes: "Cooper's hawks nested in San Pedro Valley this year and produced two young. They and red-tailed hawks are common in Pacifica. Neither gray hawks nor Northern goshawks would be expected in this area. Gray hawks are a tropical species, seen only in southern Arizona, New Mexico, or the Rio Grande Valley. Goshawks nest in Canada and Alaska." For additional information on hawks in general, visit Hawk Hill on the Marin Headlands this fall and see the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory Web site, www.ggro.org.
Keep in touch with Meandering John Maybury, Mayburrito@goofbuster.com