Quick Butterfly Sampling

There was a diversity of butterflies in the backyard today - a couple were familiar, while the others that are common, I hadn't identified. I found a good Website for Maryland nature that is helpful: http://www.nestbox.com/sections/MDbutterflies/MD_bfly_fast2.htm
Also, a very comprehensive site called Butterflies and Moths of North America can be found at: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/

Some of the most notable butterfly finds that are in our backyard are: a. Spicebush Swallowtail; b. Red-spotted Purple; c. Crossline Skipper; d. Eastern Tiger Swallowtail; e. Red Admiral; and f. Cabbage White. Notice how half of the specimens were photographed on Echinacea. The Eastern Tiger was commonly seen there and occasionally on the butterfly bush, but the Sulfur Whites were almost always around the lavender.  The Crossline Skipper was a completely new species to me, while I had seen the the Red Admiral around our yard, but knowing its name is new. I didn't remember the Spicebrush Swallowtail, until I recognized it's name from last year when I identified this specimen - just hadn't seen it since. I found the picture of the Red-spotted purple in a batch of images I took last year, so posted it here today after I identified it. A video of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail working an Echinacea flower by clicking here. If you are at least as dull of a person as I am, you can click here and watch Cabbage White butterflies feed on lavender.
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Here are links to more information about the specimens shown above:

a. Spicebush Swallowtail
b. Red-spotted Purple
c. Crossline Skipper
d. Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
e. Red Admiral
f. Cabbage White

Silver Apples and Experimental Music Listening

The dubbed over music on the starling video that I mentioned in the previous blog brought back memories of other electronic music - some that go way back to the early 1970's. I have no personal music talent and I cannot sing very well - best done in a crowd. I have tried piano and guitar, even had lessons - only remember a few chords, have no rhythm, no coordination. I am sure if I were to try to sing and play an instrument at the same time, that would be a complete disaster. But as far back as I can remember, I have always enjoyed listening to all kinds of music - record albums of musicals my mom had; starting to listen to rock and roll on an old tube radio beside my bed when I was 11 or 12 - KONG radio (1); beginning to purchase albums in junior high school from a store in town called The House of Wax - before J.C. Penney's, and later Tower Records and Barnes and Noble; playing more records on a Heathkit stereo receiver I build when I was a sophomore in high school electronics shop. I have especially enjoyed listening to my oldest and youngest sons play their instruments - their talent came from their mom's side of the family (and my mom's as well). As far back as I have bought music, I had a penchant for experimenting with the kinds of albums I would buy. Synthesizers used in music by Jefferson Starship; Emerson, Lake and Palmer; Pink Floyd just sounded good in my ears. There was a period when I would turn on the NPR Hearts of Space radio program every Tuesday night on KLCC from Eugene.

I think it all started with an album called Silver Apples of the Moon that I purchased from a discount book catalog from Publishers Central Bureau. I had no real idea what it was when I ordered it - the title sounded interesting. It turned out to be early synthesizer music by Morton Subotnick. I am pretty sure my wife and kids won't appreciate this, but samples of his music from Silver Apples can be listened to here and from another piece call The Wild Bull here. Years later, I bought a copy of Wendy Carlos' sound track to the original movie Tron - I see there is a new version coming out soon.

I had a lot of vinyl albums that were packed in cardboard boxes that went from Visalia to Davis to Fresno to Clovis to Corvallis and back to Clovis, back to Corvallis again, and then to a used record shop before moving to Annapolis - Silver Apples among them. Most all of the PCB experiments are gone - the way of the 33 1/3 turntable that stopped functioning during the first tour in Corvallis.

Regardless, here is my list of favorite institutionalized music that still has some remnants of the experimental listening era:

Jefferson Starship - Blows Against the Empire

Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery

Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
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(1) KONG radio in Visalia, California is now defunct.

Applied Mathematics - Starlings in Flight

During early-spring, I saw a few European Starlings in our backyard at the bird feeder, but there have not been any in our backyard for months (1). At that time, I didn't realize that during the winter they are covered in white spots, and then turn dark in summer - the yellow beak was the characteristic that settled it for me that what I was looking at were starlings. These birds are native to most of temperate Europe and western Asia. Northeastern populations migrate south and west in winter to Europe, and further south to areas where it does not breed in the Iberian Peninsula and north Africa. Starlings have been introduced to Australia, New Zealand, North America, and South Africa - the first brought to North America by Shakespeare enthusiasts in the nineteenth century. European Starlings are now among the continent’s most numerous songbirds. For much of the year, they wheel through the sky and mob lawns in big, noisy flocks.

My son's Facebook page had a link to a flock of starlings in flight - complex amorphous formations that turned and folded into itself.

The video clip is dubbed over with music titled Forgive by an artist called Burial (2). I saw swarms of starlings in Oregon when out in newly established grass seed fields in early spring. They would land en mass in fields, and peck small holes in the soil between the grass seedlings. Though there was no way to plan ahead for making measurements to prove our hunch, we were pretty sure that the starlings were a natural control measure of gray garden slugs - another introduction into North America from Europe. The size of the flocks I saw in Oregon came nowhere close to the size of the one in the photograph to the side, or the video. A quick Google search turned up the abstract below from a scientific journal article that describes how the motion of birds in flight can be described mathematically in physical terms for particles, as well as information about Burial and his music. Using the Google translator, the English for the Russian title of the video is Birds Before the Tornado.

While watching the starling video, I remembered when growing up in the hot Central Valley of California, how in summer gnats would swarm together in their own distinctive fashion at dusk, while the air was perfectly still after a 105° F day. Across and down the road from my 

house, I would stir up the layer of dust on a short dirt road that led back to an old barn behind an abandoned farm house. As I shuffled my feet back and forth, the cloud would hover a foot above the ground below my knees like fog, while the gnats silently swam in unison above my head. I could stand there for what seemed like a long time - barefooted, only wearing short pants -  and squeeze the alkali dirt that felt like talcum power with my toes. That place off the asphalt was a refuge from the heat that still lingered in the pavement, as were the white painted lines - the only other cool place to walk back home where the shower was the next stop before my bed.

A computer simulation of gnats swarming can be found at this link.  The underlying assumptions used in the simulation are that gnats are always in flight motion - never stationary, and individual gnats will seek to stay within a given distance of the rest of the swarm. Given these assumptions it is natural that they will tend to fly in circular patterns around a common center. The simulation allows for gusts of wind to originate from the point of the mouse click and blow outward. Each gnat is affected by the gust in inverse proportion to its distance from the origin, and in a direction away from the origin. As I mentioned above, when I watched the swarms of gnats, the evenings were still - no wind at all, except for my breath that I held when the swarm came near me so I wouldn't swallow them.
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Flocks, Herds, and Schools: A Distributed Behavioral Model
  
Abstract. The aggregate motion of a flock of birds, a herd of land animals, or a school of fish is a beautiful and familiar part of the natural world. But this type of complex motion is rarely seen in computer animation. This paper explores an approach based on simulation as an alternative to scripting the paths of each bird

individually. The simulated flock is an elaboration of a particle system, with the simulated birds being the particles. The aggregate motion of the simulated flock is created by a distributed behavioral model much like that at work in a natural flock; the birds choose their own course. Each simulated bird is implemented as an independent actor that navigates according to its local perception of the dynamic environment, the laws of simulated physics that rule its motion, and a set of behaviors programmed into it by the "animator." The aggregate motion of the simulated flock is the result of the dense interaction of the relatively simple behaviors of the individual simulated birds. (3)
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(1) However, I have seen starlings in our neighbors' yards across the street from our front yard. Sometime I need to begin doing an inventory of birds in front, because I suspect there may be other species present there. Our backyard, and those of our next door neighbors have virtually no turf, and are heavily wooded. In contrast, the neighboring yards up and down on the street side in front of our house are dominated by turf, and of course the open area caused by the road.

(2) Burial’s self-titled debut album was released May 15, 2006. While the genre is usually filed under dubstep, ambient and garage often get used to describe the album. The album was very unique and fresh when first released and quickly  Burial rose to the top of the dubstep scene. At that time, his real name was not known and he released his music simply using Burial - nothing like a little drama and mystery to stir up interest,  even though the artist wasn't looking for any.

(3) Reynolds, C. W. (1987) Flocks, Herds, and Schools: A Distributed Behavioral Model, in Computer Graphics, 21(4) (SIGGRAPH '87 Conference Proceedings) pages 25-34.

Traveling Through Iowa

I wasn't expecting to look for birds during my trip to Iowa this last week. I was flying in on Tuesday, making a presentation Wednesday morning, and flying out early that afternoon - total time portal to portal; 5:30 AM, Tuesday to 11:00 PM, Wednesday. On the ride from the Des Moines airport to the hotel in West Des Moines, I was able to watch the scenery go by, not a care in the world - other than having to finish my presentation by 6:30 the next morning. The hotel driver mentioned this week was beautiful compared to the last. Iowa had received a lot of rain, and the river was believed to be cresting in the next day or two because of all of the runoff. Everything was lush green, and the air temperature perfect.

Right after getting on the freeway bypass, I began noticing Red Wing Blackbirds (a) fly across fields with regularity- one after another - the red patch on their wings easily visible. I have only seen one while driving in a wooded area north of Annapolis since being here.  Also

darting everywhere were Tree Swallows (b) - the light colored feathers on the side of their bodies showing as they turned away. I soon arrived at the hotel, and didn't think much more about birds - I had to finish preparing my presentation.

After the workshop the next day, some colleagues drove me to the airport - we talked the whole way, so I wasn't looking for birds. After a late lunch at the terminal, boarding the plane bound for Chicago, and taxing out to the runway, I noticed a Mississippi Kite (c) hoovering over the freshly mowed grassy area between the taxi-ways and the runway. It maneuvered back-and-forth - gliding effortlessly to each new position. As I watch it for a few minutes, a UPS (United Parcel Service) 757 freight jet accelerated down the runway in the background and took off - climbing steeply and then turning to the right and continuing back around to the south. The kite carried on with its routine... my plane moved towards the runway... I sat back, and then we were off.

Neo-Ancient Geoglyphs Come to Iowa

When flying from Denver to Des Moines this past Tuesday, I was looking out the window from my First Class seat (1) at the ground below and noticed patterns across the landscape that were formed by different conservation practices such as contour farming and buffer strips. These are used by farmers to protect their fields and keep the soil from eroding and polluting streams and rivers. The patterns reminded me of the Nazca Lines - ancient giant desert drawings in Peru (2), and similar reliefs made by other ancient peoples such as the Blythe Intaglio left behind in a California desert (3).

But what if the patterns in these Iowa farm fields were designed with more than land stewardship in mind - that there were deeper meanings behind each that the farmer-sculptors know and that are waiting for other viewers to reveal? Where the life experiences and dreams of farmers are sketched with tractors and plows, with contrasting hues made from earth and trees and creeks - left behind for future inhabitants of this landscape to ponder and admire.
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Iowa Geoglyphs

A sampling of the modern geoglyphs that can be seen across Iowa and neighboring states are shown here, with an explanation of the history behind the designs. With each Iowa Geoglyph is a matching image from the real world that was used for inspiration. These artists have coined the term Neo-Ancient to describe their general style of work.

Remembrance of Trees. Iowa was once part of the vast North American hardwood forest east of the Mississippi where Passenger Pigeons and Running Buffalo Clover were once abundant, but now gone - like the way of trees, only remembrances of times past. Most of Iowa is now is used for agriculture - crops such as corn and soybeans cover 60% of the state, pastures and hay fields of alfalfa with some prairie and wetlands cover 30%, and forests cover only 7% of the land. About 95 percent of the state's prairie pothole wetlands have been drained, and over half of the original forest has been cleared. These changes and other factors such as channelization of streams and rivers, soil erosion, development and urban expansion, and intensive row crop agriculture have contributed to the loss or degradation of suitable habitat for numerous plant and animal species. This early Iowa-period geoglyph is done in the style of the Nazca Lines, and was used as a pattern in the construction of the metal tree art in the Sculpture Garden next to the Smithsonian Museum of Art in Washington, D.C.

Twister. The western half of Iowa is a part of the North American Tornado Alley. In recognition of the many tornadoes that touch down in Iowa each year, this managed riparian zone is sculpted using a unique style similar to the Blythe Intaglios to resemble a typical funnel cloud of an Iowan F2 tornado. Tornadoes are caused when a cloud of the right size precipitates rapidly releasing heat, which causes it to rise, and creates a vacuum under it - air rushing under it creates the vortex. Although tornadoes occur in many parts of the world, these destructive forces of nature are found most frequently in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains during the spring and summer months. In an average year, 800 tornadoes are reported nationwide.

Terrestrial Homage to the Extra Terrestrial. This whimsical geoglyph was produced using a primitive style of the Blythe Intaglios
tradition to honor the Steven Spielberg classic film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Though less than 500 feet tall, the image is easily seen from the air while flying cross-country. This 1982 American science fiction film grossed more than $790-million, far more than the farmer-creator of the geoglyph has received from charging for autumn hay ride viewings.

The Kelp Garden. While vacationing after the soybean harvest in 1997, this farmer was inspired by the enchanting kelp forests along the Pacific Coast of California. Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is a species of marine alga found from the central California coast to Baja California. Giant kelp prefers depths less than 120 feet, temperatures less than 72° F, hard substrate such as rocky bottoms, and bottom light intensities above 1% that of the surface. The traditional Blythe Intaglios style is used here to depict, though primitive, a sense of the kelp swaying in the currents of sea water coming and going with the tide through Monterey Bay. More information about giant kelp can be accessed on the Web.

Integrated Circuit Board. The son of a farmer who insisted his children go to college and not come back to the farm created this geoglyph. Done by the artist in the style of the classic Nazca Lines to represent his electrical engineering degree received from Kansas State University, the faux circuit board design was applied across parts of five quarter sections of fields near Manhattan, Kansas. After returning to the farm after graduation, the father thought his son would have been far better off had he gone to work for a high tech company - particularly because of the erratic way he drove large tractors and implements to form the design soon after returning home. However, upon seeing the designs from the air, the father was quite impressed and glad that his son was to continue as the fourth generation of family farmers on the homestead.
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(1) United Airlines now gives automatic complimentary upgrades if you have enough miles and they have an empty seat. I have done more sitting in First Class the past six months than I have for all the flying I have done in the past years. Typically I sit in Economy Class, and usually over one of the wings of the plane - I think the Government fare tickets are set up that way; or in the back of the plane.

(2) The Nazca Lines are a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert of Peru. The high, arid plateau stretches more than 50 miles between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana. Although some local geoglyphs resemble Paracas motifs, scholars believe the Nazca Lines were created by the Nazca culture between 200 BCE and 700 CE. The hundreds of individual figures range in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks or orcas, llamas, and lizards.

The lines are shallow designs made in the ground by removing the ubiquitous reddish pebbles and uncovering the whitish ground beneath. Hundreds are simple lines or geometric shapes; more than seventy are designs of animal, bird, fish or human figures. The largest figures are over 660 ft across. Scholars differ in interpreting the purpose of the designs, but they generally ascribe religious significance to them, as they were major works that required vision, planning and coordination of people to achieve.

(3) The Blythe Intaglios or Blyth Geoglyphs are a group of gigantic figures found on the ground near Blythe, California in the Colorado Desert. The intaglios are found east of the Big Maria Mountains, about 15 miles north of downtown Blythe just west of U.S. Highway 95 near the Colorado River. The largest human figure is 171 feet long. The intaglios are best viewed from the air.

The geoglyphs or intaglios were created by scraping away layers of darker rocks or pebbles to reveal a strata of lighter valued soil. While these "gravel pictographs" are found through the deserts of southeastern California, human figures are found only near the Colorado River. The figures are so immense that they were not observed by non-Indians until the 1930s, when pilot flew along the area. This set of geoglyphs includes several dozen figures and a labyrinth. These geoglyphs are no doubt ceremonial, and the process of their creation, possibly by ritual dancing, might transcended the end product in importance. They are believed to date from 1000 CE but could range from 450 to 10,000 years old, which makes them possibly more ancient than the well-known 5000 year old Stonehenge and its still newly discovered secrets. Mojave and Quechan Indians most likely created them. Modern Quechan tribe information.
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Note: I don't know why I am getting a lot of hits on this site - fictional accounts are given for the source and related information about the Iowa geoglyphs.

Not a Woodpecker

Yesterday morning a new bird showed up at the feeder. At first glance, I thought it was a Downy or Hairy Woodpecker (woodpeckers I have seen before), but after pulling out the bionoculars - no red spot on the back of the head. A quick look at the Peterson's Field Guide (1), and narrowed it down to only two possibilities: the Three-toed Woodpecker - doesn't have the red spot, but also doesn't live around here so not it - or the Black and White Warbler - pretty sure. The photographic quality of this picture isn't great: I had the lenses zoomed in on maximum magnification and held the camera against the patio window to steady it as best I could. It was before 7:00 AM, so the light wasn't all that helpful either. The bird stayed around for a good five minutes or so, and then flew off. It just goes to show that there are transient encounters. I have no idea how many other species fly through, on their way to somewhere else, and I miss them.
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Black and White Warbler. The Black-and-white Warbler is the only member of the genus Mnitilta, which means moss plucking. They have an unusually long hind toe and claw on each foot. This adaptation allows them to move securely on the surface of tree bark. Unusually aggressive for a warbler, they sometimes attack and fight Red-breasted Nuthatches, Black-capped Chickadees, and other species. They are known for their habit of creeping around tree trunks and along larger branches in search of insect food in crevices or under the bark; hence its old name, "Black-and-white Creeper." Unlike the Brown Creeper, which only moves up a tree, this species can climb in any direction. A group of black-and-white warblers are collectively known as a "dichotomy", "distinction", and "integration" of warblers. Information from Whatbird.com
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(1) In addition to the Peterson's A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America, I use the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition, and the simple quick reference Birds of Maryland & Delaware Field Guide: Includes Washington, D.C. & Chesapeake Bay by Stan Tekiela.

Another Record, But Still Another Win

Last night flying back to Baltimore on a connecting flight from Des Moines through Chicago, we flew past Camden Yards on our final approach. It was around 9:30 so dark, and the stadium lights were bright in the distance - easy to pick out the park - the Orioles were obviously in town playing. My wife mentioned last weekend that it would be fun to go to a game. I was thinking about that as I looked out the window, and also how I am more interested in how the up-the-road team - the Phillies - are doing because of Jamie Moyer (see the earlier preseason and complete game shutout posts). I quickly Googled Phillies Moyer on my Web browser this morning and came up with the following article - another record set and another win.

Phillies' Moyer Sets Record For Most Home Runs Allowed
Sun Jun 27, 2010 7:30pm EDT

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer gave up a Major League record 506th home run in an otherwise outstanding performance on Sunday.

Toronto's Vernon Wells hit the record-breaking run to left field in the third inning as the 47-year-old Moyer passed the mark held by Phillies Hall of Famer Robin Roberts.

Moyer (9-6) also became the 40th Major Leaguer to pitch 4,000 career innings when he threw seven innings in the 11-2 victory.

The left-hander, who first played in the Major Leagues in 1986, has a 267-201 career record.

(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina. Editing by Ian Ransom)
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I taught statistics for seven years when I was a university professor in California - before taking a full-time research position at a Federal laboratory in Oregon. In typical fashion for me, as I was reading about Jamie Moyer's new record - not a flattering one - I began thinking about how if a pitcher stands among the elite pitchers who pitch the most career innings, that pitcher is bound to accumulate the most of other pitching statistics as well - cause and effect, more innings - more opportunities for greatness or infamy. As I thought about that, I put it into a statistical perspective. In this case, I remembered a principle called collinearity - concurrent associations among two or more variables that are used to predict an outcome using multiple regression analysis.

I have a book about collinearity that I bought when I was a graduate student. It looked interesting at the time, and was also an interesting read. I used the theory in some of the research papers I wrote so the interpretations were more accurate. Applied to baseball, if you pitch enough innings, you are bound to accumulate more home runs given up - collinearity. The important point with Jamie Moyer is he keeps on going, and going, and pitching....and winning - kind of like the Eveready Energizer bunny. Pretty good for a relatively old man in young man's sport.

I know I am an old man, because when I looked on Amazon for an image of the book cover, I glanced at it's price - I know I didn't pay $100 for the book 30 years ago, back when I was in graduate school - another young man's game.