#pollinator: squirrel

[inthecityofgoodabode]

July 2022: Pollinators & Early Voting:

This year’s batch of young squirrels is a little on the clueless side: 

They shouldn’t let me get this close: 

Today was the last day of early voting so we went & got our vote on: 

And we burned 80 calories doing it (There was a pretty good line at the polls): 

[jensownzoo]

But in other news...

Corn's up!

Think I'm gonna make some soda bottle cloches to protect it from the opossums until it gets a little bigger. I'm not hugely worried about them eating it so much as crushing it or digging it up.

[julianplum]

Desperately want your artober prompts as prints 🙏

!!!! GOOD NEWS, ANON

What a timely ask!! I've updated my shop with a bunch of restocked old work as well as the first half or so of the 13 Days of Art prompts!

There's a vinyl sticker sheet full of mushrooms! There are two new glow-in-the-dark stickers! There are prints of the starlings and the tea kettle and the squirrel in the pumpkin patch, and there are eastern US wildflowers and their respective pollinators, there's a fat bear!

Come check it out!!

[ecc-poetry]

SMASH THE MUSEUM, I NEED OXYGEN Elisa Chavez

exhibit 1.  My dad texts:  IS CRIME REALLY UP IN SEATTLE?  I send him a picture of the garden at Cal Anderson's heart. Black Lives Memorial. NO, I say. It felt like proof to me. Diversifying  in the face of scarcity. Transubstantiating the earth into wafers. 

exhibit 2. The oregon grape, qʷəbqʷəbčac  (qweb-qweb-chadth),  mahonia aquifolium, is "beloved by hummingbirds and bees."  I bring coffee to tired throats,  I bring post-it notes and pens; call me pollinator. Black and gold, buzzing corona.  Feathered shoulders. Busy, busy. 

exhibit 3.  Commenting Seattle says, Get rid of that weed patch, then the road mural on Pine. It's eating up the space we need for cars. Spare me your tree museum.  Your noblesse oblige, your death printed in triplicate. This feels like the right time to say  that I personally don't get the Mona Lisa. Kids' art I understand: color anarchy,  eyes wilding like coals in construction paper. Words I understand. I always stop for messages on telephone poles and building corners: "Wanted: the squirrel who stole my bagel"; "when I helped build this place  a worker fell down the elevator shaft and died." The Venus de Milo, I understand: armless, beautiful. Found in a farmer's field, where his habits of sowing and upturning resurrected the goddess from the earth. This is to say that not all beauty will make itself obvious to you.

exhibit 4. I watch my best friend pick blackberries straight from the bush by I-5. She swallows, no fear. I'm too scared to eat without permission, but I've thought of smoke and the tart juice ever since.  I read blackberries grow especially well  on the sites of old house fires.  I hope if I have to, I'll do the same.

exhibit 5. In the garden, we hors d'oeuvre  like it's a birthday party. We sing, we town hall, we fucking juggle. A man falls; like bees, we shift to give him space.  Like bees, the gardeners tend. Someone says, "I have narcan" and they get him back to blooming. Straggling, maybe. Pretty, maybe not. But alive.

exhibit 6. Ms. Lyles, this one's for you. For your children, who I pray will learn the story of a city that did better. Grief is a seed. It waits through winter, sprouts between the ribs like sidewalk cracks and puts reminders in your lungs. It's okay to breathe your grief. It's okay to speak it. Our grief is a story committed to dirt. We just hope something good will grow.

Hey friends, if you're in the Seattle area, please consider lending your voice to saving the Black Lives Memorial Garden! There is so much you can do that would be helpful to preserving this vital space: filling out a community survey, donating, asking local orgs and businesses you frequent to sign the letter of support. And more, probably!

Please share this poem/post/the linked resources with Seattle buddies, and remember to support your local gardeners. Okay I luh you buh-bye!

[fox-bright]

On Christmas I stepped out into the garden for half an hour to pull up the tomato vines and the pepper plants, and I found a pumpkin.

The smoke from the Canada fires took out most of my squash this year; their flowers are delicate, and I guess they just couldn't get pollinated through so much gunk in the air. What blooms did form were mostly eaten by squirrels. But the vine grew long and lush under my inattention, and climbed over a fig tree--and this pumpkin must have bloomed inside of the shelter of the fig leaves, and grown quietly above the rabbits and the groundhogs until it was weighty enough to slowly be lowered to the ground. And then when the first frost came, it had cured under the camouflage of leaf and vine.

So now, at the end of the year, it's in the oven. It's roasting, and tomorrow it will become puree for soup or bread or waffles. And there are two bowls of seeds waiting to have the strings soaked off of them, that next year may grow me more pumpkins.

My hope for you is that you, too, find some secret strength that grew while your attention was elsewhere, some nourishment that bloomed quietly in the green dark, and that it can carry you through next year.

[your-punk-mom]

Do the red geraniums matter?

When we think about media literacy, we often think about tropes, cinematic and literary devices, references, and Easter eggs. All of these are explicit ways for creators to communicate with us, the audience.

But we know there’s a lot of *implicit* communication happening too, such as how a character is lit from scene to scene, the color palette of the set, and camera angle.

Not everything in an artwork is on purpose. But Rem’s red geraniums must be intentional, at least in Stampede. They qualify as a repeating motif, even rendered gigantic in E12.

So what the hell do they mean?!

Well, kids, I consulted the Oracle today. By which I mean I Googled it.

Have you heard about the language of flowers? Go check it out, it’s almost as fascinating as tarot and not nearly as likely to get you kicked out of church.

Turns out there’s a ton of possibilities here. It could be as simple as Rem’s birth flower. That would make her a Scorpio, and some say Scorpios prefer dark red flowers.

It could be a reference to the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, which uses red geraniums to signify redemption, forgiveness of cruelty, and above all hope for a better future.

In Wicca, red geraniums symbolize protection. Rem gives up her life protecting others, and Vash spends all his energy and time protecting others. So red geraniums fit perfectly with this theme.

I think we can dismiss the love-letter meaning “Your smile bewitches me!” Even I can’t rationalize that one. But there’s a lot of other weird stuff too, like how the Victorians defined all geraniums as “stupidity or folly”. In numerology, it’s supposed to be the number 7. They also apparently are good for repelling squirrels, attracting pollinator insects, and are deer resistant. Make of that what you will.

I like the Wiccan protection meaning a lot, but the TKaM reference makes sense to me. Vash believes it is never too late for anyone to choose peace. He is all about redemption and hope.

Anybody else have thoughts to add?

[owlpellet]

Hi I saw your post about having 12 species of birds in your backyard so now I’m genuinely asking: what’s your advice for bird watching? And getting those birds into my backyard?

so i'm not what anyone would call a comprehensive resource but i can offer a few tips, yeah!

for making your yard attractive to birds:

birds do not like open space, as it makes them vulnerable to predators. they need lots of foliage to hide, so place any feeders or other features in places that aren't wide open. if you do not have a lot of plants in your yard, change that if you can!

diverse plants will also attract nectar-feeding birds and insect-eating birds, and are sort of your "natural" feeder setup. you can check if your area offers grants for pollinator gardens.

a non-stagnant or regularly-changed water feature (fountain, bird bath) is also very attractive to birds. in hotter climates, i would say it's an essential addition.

different types of feeders and food attract different types of birds. you can draw hummingbirds with nectar and bright flowers (they love fuchsia), most songbirds with black oil sunflower and safflower seeds, a whole variety with different suet, corvids with peanuts; doves and juncos and corvids prefer tray or ground feeding, little songbirds like something they can cling to, etc. research what kind attracts what you want to see, or make a diverse setup if you have the space. you can usually avoid feed that has millet, most birds will just hurl it everywhere.

don't feed birds bread; it's empty fluff and just fills them up. seed is boring but fine, they don't really have a concept of food being "boring"

clean your feeders every time you refill them (and change hummingbird feeders every few days regardless); there are several contagious avian diseases and you want to avoid outbreaks. your feeders will become known as foul and the uninfected will move on.

if you live in an area that has them, figure out a way to rodent-proof your feeders, like squirrel baffles. they'll destroy your whole setup and scare away all the birds (you can try to set up a special squirrel feeder, but they do not respect borders).

consider nest boxes! make sure they can be opened for cleaning, and don't have any harmful materials in their construction.

check if your town has a backyard birding store, like wild birds unlimited or a locally-owned equivalent. there will almost always be an old woman who may or may not work there willing to dispense advice about your local birds.

keep your cats indoors

for watchin them birds:

get the merlin app on your phone; it's kind of like Bird Shazam and can help you ID based on its song

if you want to get more serious, you can also get eBird and report your findings/keep a checklist

if you don't have a fancy zoom lens camera, get a pair of binoculars! they're good to have even if you do. you can even take pics through them with your phone.

the best time to watch birds is from about sunrise to late morning

don't interact with the birds, save for outlier circumstances (rescue, one lands on you, etc)

yard-watching and trail-watching are pretty different when it comes to ethics and how much humans and birds should be interacting. in general it's frowned upon to feed birds in wilderness areas to attract them, whereas urban birds are already accustomed to human presence. it's also frowned upon to play mating songs to attract birds.

don't go off-trail trying to find birds you can hear. it's dangerous for you and upsetting to them.

your area might have local birding meetups, or online groups where people report sightings and good spots.

there's uhhh probably a lot more i'm forgetting to add but i think this covers the basics!

[stoicmike]

My bug hotel, ready for our first 10,000 guests. The general idea is to provide an environment for beneficial insects who eat all the bad ones, and who also pollinate things that need to be pollinated like squash and cucumbers. And to reduce a need for harmful sprays, not just in our garden, but over a larger area. The penthouse suites are for solitary bees. The dark compartment is filled with pine cones. The screen is to discourage squirrels. In front is marjoram, and you can see some artichokes behind it on the right. -- Michael Lipsey

[bonefall]

do your cats recognize invasive-ness? i was reading your custom moth/butterfly taxomomy and it reminded me of spotted lanternflies (which are not in the UK i think?) so i got curious

Yes, AND I am willing to use StarClan to let them know about certain long-term damages that some species do that they may not know about on a short timescale,

BUT

That's all within reason! Ecologically speaking, not every non-native species is invasive, and there are some species which the Clan cats can't get rid of. In addition; the environment of Sanctuary Lake is different, in some aspects, from the environment of White Hart.

Here's a couple of the examples that are particularly interesting off the top of my head;

Sycamores and Spottedleaf's tar-spot blight are exclusive to the White Hart. They are an American species, and were deliberately planted.

Cedars are exclusive to Carrionplace, they were planted to help with the smell.

The pine plantation that ShadowClan's Bog Project decimates was mostly sitka spruce with an occasional douglas fir, they had never seen a douglas fir until Sanctuary Lake

They are not aware that Signal Crayfish are invasive. Signals spread a disease that is almost 100% fatal towards the native Whiteclaws. The species cannot coexist in the same ecosystem.

Clan cats fucking hate Gray Squirrels, every time canon has a 'pointless argument' about squirrels crossing the ThunderClan border, in BB that is a very real point of anger about other Clans doing unauthorized hunting of Red Squirrels.

Part of why ThunderClan is seen as so 'pushy and bossy' is because they are self-proclaimed Red Squirrel Defenders

Without getting into the cultural significance of this, it has to do with Thunderstar (righteous, defender of the weak, Our Glorious Leader) and Skystar (treacherous, hater of the weak, Their Barbarous Dictator)

Minks. Clan cats fight Minks constantly. River otters leave them alone, but minks are notorious prey-stealers (and RiverClan is probably looking for an excuse to get at those pelts)

Muntjacs are what humans consider an invasive species, but Clan cats actively manage their populations. They're the perfect size of deer to hunt and they produce very valuable pelts.

Rhododendron is uprooted ASAP because it gets out of control fast. This is StarClan knowledge.

Giant Hogweed is an IMMEDIATE danger and killed as soon as it's spotted. It's noxious, it spreads like wildfire, it gets so big it's impossible to handle. If I wasn't working with canon and had Thistleclaw to make a name pun out of, I would have used Giant Hogweed as the authoritarian parable. Ecologically speaking Thistles are actually very valuable for pollinators and are a pioneer species-- Giant Hogweed should die by my hand

[gallusrostromegalus]

Updates from the garden of Berry-dise:

Squirrel Patrol is in top form this summer, with Charlie teaching Herschel the pincer manuver Arwen taught him for rabbits. Very nearly took one off the fence this morning, and my berries remain unmolested by tree rats.

Garlic, herb and Salad bed coming in nicely. Corn in the back row went in really late but is coming up well, alone with flower seedlings.

Lingon berries are throwing a tantrum because it hit 100F in the shade yesterday and they DID NOT CARE FOR THAT SHIT AT ALL. Cranberries are having a great time and have even set fruit.

Full sun bed doing ok and the black currants are setting roots properly. German chamomile is taking a while to really set up, possibly because it's competing with the horseradish, which set roots clear into the bedrock and is sending up runners.

Big Bed Blueberries doing well despite three of them pretending to be dead until last week. Added columbines and echinaceia to keep Charleston from digging it out and attempting to plant his toys. (He has a designated dig zone already)

Pillbugs very nearly took out all of my melons and pumpkins but a combination of dandelion bait/removal and coffee grounds around the stems seems to be protecting them. Crimsoned sweet seems to have gotten the concept in of the trellis, sugar baby is struggling.

Broccolini and dahlias doing well, as are the dinosaurs.

Lettuce seeds final came in, canteloupes seem determined to spread horizontally rather than up the trellis. Zip ties may be needed. Yes, Herschel follows me around like a tiny bodyguard. Who knows when the squirrels might attack!

Shallots are absolutely off the shits and I'm very proud of them. Pumpkin and other sugar baby are #suffering after the pillbugs

FINAL BED FINALLY INSTALLED. Husbeast very politely insisted that the Free Dirt be removed from the driveway so he could have D&D so I moved 2 cubic feet of dirt this morning and planted raspberries, blackberries, strawberry and coral bells for pollination.

[booniesoil]

Psychonauts fans, I PRESENT TO YOU

the psychic 6 as animals. I finished these a few months back and never got to posting it, but here they are NOW!! I have reasonings for all the animals LET ME GET INTO THEM.

I tried to make all the animal representations less literal, like no animals that are already used to represent different aspects of them.

BOB: I wanted to make Bob a pollinator, and not a butterfly like it's a variant of the moth. I wanted to make him wingless, since he's stuck on an island it's as if he can't fly away. I also think Truman would be a peacock and I think keeping it in the bird family would be awesome.

HELMUT: CHINCHILLA! I, first of all, just think him as a fluffy rodent suits him. Chinchillas are known for having the softest fur around, which I think could be representative of his theatre! Additionally.. Chinchillas can't get wet or they'll get terribly sick. AND. UM.

OTTO: Ok I think my association of this comes from the movie Gforce, which I've watched countless times as a child but I associate moles with science. THERE HE IS. I also just totally imagine Otto with a cartoonish tunnel boar drill. I have nothing more to say (dusts off hands)

COMPTON: Giggle. Compton. This is the most surface level association but. YOU ALL HAVE SEEN IT. RIGHT? COMPTON LITERALLY HAS A SQUIRREL SCRATCH ANIMATION. HE IS A SQUIRREL. this kind of goes against my code because I'd consider an association between dogen and squirrels as a bit more literal, but he can be a different rodent. COMPTOONNNNNN. I wonder if squirrels hiss (I hope someone knows what I'm referencing)

Cassie: STICK BUG! To blend in with her forestey environment. I also think the multiple legs could represent her talent with multitasking. I think maybe a better idea with this concept would this could be maybe an arachnid or centi/millipede, I gotta explore that a bit actually. But she also looks really good as a stick bug! I also associate Hollis with tarantulas, giving her more legs than Cassie, but it doesn't have to be mega it's just for fun :-).

I'm hoping to do more designs for other characters but otherwise I have sketches of these designs under #critternauts

[yoga-onion]

[Image above: Celtic Green Man]

Legends and myths about trees 

- Introduction 

Why do humans want to cut down trees like this too?

Because they don't get enough sunlight, because they are dirty with dead leaves, because they are disgusting with caterpillars falling on them, because they can make money if they are used for housing, because they are dangerous in times of disaster, on and on..

In elementary school science, we learnt that oxygen in the air is produced by photosynthesis in plants and trees. We also learnt that most seed plants are carried by insects, such as bees and butterflies, and grow through animal pollination. The disgusting caterpillars eventually become butterflies and give back to the earth. Perhaps, they have already been erased from children's textbooks.

In prehistoric Britain, squirrels were able to cross from one end of the country to the other by climbing the tree tops. This was probably the case in many other countries and continents as well.

Even today, the forests are said to revive as soon as humans are gone.

Trees are the lifeblood of living beings and the planet.

Originally, we humans, like other living beings, worshipped nature and lived in humble harmony with it. Nature deities and legends relating to trees exist in many cultures. In this issue, we present legends and myths related to trees, interspersed with anecdotes.

[Image below: Kodama, the tree spirit of 'Princess Mononke', 1997 film by Studio Ghibli]

木にまつわる伝説・神話

はじめに

人間はなぜ、こんなのも木を切りたがるのでしょうか？

陽が当たらないから、枯葉が落ちて汚いから、毛虫が落ちて気持ち悪いから、住宅地にすれば儲かるから、災害時に危ないから、などなど..

小学校低学年の理科でわたしたちは、空気中の酸素は植物���木の光合成によりつくられると習いました。ほとんどの種子植物は、蜜蜂や蝶などの虫たちにより運ばれ、動物媒受粉により育つとも習いました。気持ちの悪い毛虫はやがて蝶になり地球に還元してくれのです。恐らく、これは既に子供の教科書から抹消されているのでしょう。

太古のイギリスでは、リスが樹木の天辺をつたって国土の端から端までを渡れたそうです。その他の国々、大陸でも多くはそうだったのでしょう。

現在でも、人間がいなくなれば直ぐに森は復活するそうです。

樹木は生物と地球の生命線です。元来、われわれ人間も他の生物と同様に自然を崇拝し謙虚に共存していたのではないでしょうか？木に関係する自然の神々や伝説は、多くの文化に存在しています。今回は木にまつわる伝説・神話を、逸話もまじえながらお届けします。

[ovaruling]

sometimes the view outside my kitchen window is so idyllic i almost feel unworthy of the peace and harmony the animals there show me. the doves and grackles and jays and cardinals and warblers and ibis and woodpeckers all eat together, alongside squirrels and (at dusk) raccoons and possums.

natural fungi grow happily and undisturbed nearby, breaking down fallen leaves and seed fragments and making the soil a happy place for underground friends like worms and burrowing reptiles and amphibians. the canopy of the large trees overhead provides shade in the rising heat and shelter from the rain and wind, even for the butterflies. the blooming flowers on the edges provide sustenance for pollinators and the large 35-year-old trees nearby provide a variety of homes for all who visit this little clearing of mine. there is nothing wasted here. everything is made use of in this little microcosm. everyone, down to the tiniest insect, has a role.

my neighborhood used to boast large patches of untouched old growth forests when i was very young. one of my earliest memories was crying to see them cut down for development. these animals have been displaced so violently, now considered “pests” viable for extermination in the new mowed backyards where their homes used to be. they have nowhere to go and limited places to forage for food.

it’s nothing like those beautiful long-gone forests, but i’m more than happy to keep providing something, however ersatz, for them until i have enough resources to purchase as much land as i can here to replant native flora on, where the forests used to be.

it will take my whole life to be able to secure something like that—but i am determined to give back to the place i grew up in, no matter what i have to do to achieve it, or how long it takes. i will make reparations for what we have taken from the creatures we share this land with. i will give them back at least one approximate forest. it won’t ever be the same, i can’t ever get that perfect ecosystem back. but i can give them something in the vast human-developed desert of nothing.

for now, this is the best i can do. but i still think it’s something.

[aut2imagineart]

For Christmas Eve, here's a Christmas Tree of the future. Spending most of the year as a dark cone that absorbs as much sunlight as possible, it unfurls into its true form at snowfall. Generating it's own heat and light, it becomes a winter oasis for various small animals. The star on top is it's flower waiting to be pollinated. Bioluminescence light up its branches as a beacon for wandering animals. It produces bulb-like fruits to feed weary travelers who would in turn spread its seeds.

Two of the animal species here are from a sketch set I did a while back called "Zoo of the future". In the top branches is a griffon, a modified gliding squirrel with a beak-like mouth, while at the base of the tree are pair of Jackalopes, specifically modeled after arctic hares. I also threw in a northern cardinal for good measure.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays every!!!

As always, comments and critiques are welcome.

[otherwindow]

I don’t really know how to phrase this properly but my brain spat out a lil idea for blooming dead

Terrariums, (working name) are bloomed zombies that have a nest of birds, usually humming birds or small squirrels, that live on the zombie. They help pollinate the zombie and they aren’t big enough to weigh them down. Zombies, in turn, are slow enough that if the animal wanders off for extra food, they won’t have to search for too long to find their home again

Just a lil idea for fun

AWWWWWWW a zombie with a shawl of leaves and feathers gently holding a nest of eggs 🥺

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Googe Form:

What makes some species evolve from another/branch off but both species exist as now or not? Stuff like well, humans evolved from apes but apes and humans are both here. But birds evolved from dinosaurs but only the birds stay. Sure irl that may be because dinosaurs died out quickly. But when making my world, how do I determine these various things when I design my own flow of evolution? Also not to be rude but most of my project is focused on world building, not story so stuff like 'If it doesnt affect story, don't bother' is completely not applicable.

Tex: Well you’re in luck, this is a worldbuilding blog and not a story-writing one. Unfortunately the two do meet and have quite a lot of overlap, so if you’re looking for facts only, I would suggest taking a stroll through Wikipedia and not an opinion blog focused on the background work that makes a written world engaging to their readers.

That being said, evolution is a matter of pressures in one’s environment. It’s not uncommon for a species to branch itself off so there’s less competition of resources in a given niche environment - this is how you see species who only eat one type of bug or only pollinate one type of flower. The larger a species gets, and the more omnivorous, the greater their potential territory is, with the caveat that more energy is spent on finding food than it is on eating it.

A quick and easy route is to have a greater population of a species than an environment can tolerate, and then a couple or a few enterprising - or desperate - members of that species look to seek new territory where they have an adequate food supply and less competition.

Wootzel: It might help to avoid thinking of any single species evolving. If a population changes enough that it’s different than the ancestors, that’s a new species.

Let’s say you have bird A living in meadows on a certain continent. A set of mutations crop up in bird A’s population, and over time, these mutations are really successful. Birds that have these mutations are sufficiently different than their ancestors that they are a different species, so let’s call them bird B. Maybe at the same time as they emerge as different than bird A, members of species bird B outcompete A. By the time it’s really obvious that the birds in this meadow are different, bird A is extinct. That does not make this the same species, evolved. It could just as easily have worked out that both species now live in the same area but fill different niches, or that one species moved away from the area. 

What makes species branch out? Random mutations in a population that either change how they interact with their environment, make them more suited to a new environment, or cause them to compete differently with others. Practically, though, what usually causes noticeable species branching is distance. If a population is spread out over a large area, the individuals living far away from each other are unlikely to trade genetics very often, so they might become different if the population is spread out over a large area like a continent. Alternatively, a natural barrier is a potential species branch cause; if the climate changes and a species of squirrel can no longer cross a mountain range, the populations on either side of that range are likely to become different over time. 

What causes a species to die while another remains? Environmental pressure. This can be climate, other species, terrain, presence or absence of food sources, etc. When one species has a slight advantage due to traits, that one might survive a devastating event that kills a similar species. 

I don’t mean to sound insulting, but this question sounds like it comes from a place of not understanding the processes of evolution very well. Hopefully our answers have helped somewhat in how to think about evolution and extinction, but some deeper and more detailed reading on the theory of evolution may help deepen your understanding and give you clearer ideas of when and why species in your world might diverge, converge, or die out.