Yo! Did you know that Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically active object in the solar system?
Io is the size of our Moon but a very inhospitable place. It’s covered in sulfur which makes pretty shades of yellow but unbreathable air.
To make matters worse, Io is so small and Jupiter is so large that Jupiter’s gravity causes 100 meter land-tides on Io’s surface. Yes, the land rises and falls 330 feet as Io orbits Jupiter. No wonder Io has more than 400 active volcanoes!
In 2007 NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft took photos of a plume coming off the top of Io. What was it? A volcanic eruption rising 300 miles above Io’s surface!
Even after the coldest winter the east-central U.S. can remember, the average U.S. temperature was 0.5 degrees above normal. (Ask Westerners how hot they were!) Here’s a month-to-month video that shows that even the East was hot in December.
Climate scientists agree(*) that the warming is caused by humans and there will be sobering results. We’ve caused it. We record it. We report on it. But will the news change anything?
On a political and media level in the U.S. this news has generated interest and talk but no real action. On the natural level — among the air, water, birds, plants, and animals that I care about — it is big news and they’re doing something about it. The air is hotter, the ice is melting, the sea is rising, and the plants, animals and birds are moving north or uphill.
Humans are doing something too, even here in the U.S. where our society has not taken up the cause.
(*) That number is “97% of scientists agree.” Discussion of that number can be found here. I am not going to discuss the number. Plenty of others have already done so.
Emmalina uses non-verbal communication to teach her humans a trick (photo by Kate St. John)
Today’s blog post is about animal behavior, though not about a wild animal.
I am always fascinated by birds’ and mammals’ ability to communicate without complicated language. Gestures and eye contact are often so effective that the one who sees the look or gesture knows exactly what to do. I’ve noticed this on the webcams among nesting peregrines and eagles who don’t have language but certainly get the point across — often with just a pointed look in the youngster’s direction.
Can gestures and eye contact achieve communication between species? I think so.
Shown above is the animal I watch most closely. Her name is Emmalina (or Emmy). Though domesticated, her heart is wild.
Emmalina makes a few sounds I understand but the rule in our house (my rule) is that meowing doesn’t get you anywhere. If you want a treat, “sit pretty” and silently in the Treat Zone (where she’s sitting right now) and you’ll get one. If I don’t notice her sitting there she makes a very faint “mewp” to get my attention and then sits silently. I congratulate myself that I’ve trained her to do this.
We’ve always fed our cats in the basement, just down the kitchen stairs. Emmalina is 8 years old and she knows the routine. She usually runs downstairs ahead of me to be in place when her dish arrives, but last week she started to run away when I went downstairs. She wouldn’t come down and she wouldn’t eat anything in the basement — not her canned food, not the dry food. I began to wonder if she was ill. (Nope! I could tell she was hungry.) Would I have to call the Cornell Animal Behavior Clinic to figure out what was going on?
Last Friday the problem was solved in such an amazing way that it generated this open letter from Emmalina to Cornell.
Dear Cornell Animal Behavior Clinic:
The training program was successful at last. After two weeks of non-verbal instruction the humans have figured out that I want to eat upstairs. It was worth refusing a week’s worth of dinners in the basement.
Relieved and vindicated,
Emmalina St. John
Notice her dish in the Treat Zone now! She says the basement floor is too cold in winter.
Non-verbal communication does work … eventually.
(photo by Kate St. John)
p.s. Cornell Animal Behavior Clinic is a great resource. As part of the Veterinary College they have extensive experience with companion animals and can tell you exactly what the behavior means and how to address it. Don’t hesitate to look them up if you have a behavior problem with a dog or cat.
Backyard birds need high-calorie food when the weather is harsh. Did you know you can “cook” for the birds?
Marcy Cunkelman has a favorite No-melt Peanut Butter Suet recipe that’s a real bird-pleaser and well worth trying.
The recipe has a long and famous history in our area. Scott Shalaway calls it The Best Suet recipe and has been telling folks about it on his radio show since 2005. He credits Martha Sargent in Alabama for passing it along to him. Julie Zickefoose, from southern Ohio, has a similar recipe called “Zick Dough” that omits the sugar and adds chick starter.
Marcy makes Scott’s version and loads it into holes drilled in old logs. (The blue jays, above, are waiting for her to reload the holes.) You can also offer it on trays or in suet cages. The secret is real lard — not substitutes.
No-melt Peanut Butter Suet Recipe (from Martha Sargent in Alabama)
Melt 1 cup of lard and 1 cup of crunchy peanut butter in microwave or over low heat in a kettle. Stir, then add:
2 cups of quick cook oats
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup of flour
1/3 cup of sugar
Pour into square containers and freeze for your suet holders or load into a suet log or even spread on a tree trunk.
We’re heading into a warming trend but winter is still with us so there’s plenty of time to “get cooking.”
Note this caveat from Julie Zickefoose: Julie used to feed her birds Zick Dough all year long but the bluebirds got gout from it! (Yes, even birds can get gout from a rich diet.) The bluebirds recovered when she stopped feeding them suet in the non-winter months. Here’s her recipe and warning at Birdwatcher’s Digest.
Jupiter has captured my imagination this month so on Throw Back Thursday (TBT) I’m pointing you to one of my favorite January topics: The Moons of Jupiter.
In North America, bald eagles and golden eagles are very large birds but they’re no match in size for the Steller’s sea eagle.
Steller’s sea eagles (Haliaeetus pelagicus) live on the coast of northeast Asia so do not encounter North America’s bald eagle but they do run into goldens who are lightweights by comparison. The largest Steller’s can outweigh a golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) by a factor of two.
At Lake Kuril on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, Steller’s sea eagles and golden eagles compete for food.
When the sky is clear on cold January nights, the planet Jupiter shines brighter than the stars. Step outside with binoculars and you can see up to four of its moons.
These are the Galilean moons, named for Galileo because he was the first to report them in 1610. He used an improved 20-power telescope that wasn’t even as good as today’s birding scopes. When the moons are in the right position you can see what Galileo saw — something like this.
However on the night of Friday January 23 you’ll need a real telescope to view them because three of the moons — Europa, Callisto and Io — will transit (pass across) the disk of Jupiter and cause eclipses on the planet.
Above, the Hubble Space Telescope captured Io playing “Me and My Shadow.” At one point on January 23-24 all three moons will play this tune.
Astronomy.com calls it a triple shadow transit. Click here for their drawing of what you’ll see in the telescope at 1:40am EST on January 24.
This is your last chance to witness Jupiter’s triple shadow transit until 2032, but it’ll take some preparation and luck to see it. You’ll need a telescope and the sky has to be clear.
In Pittsburgh we’ll have to cross our fingers. Our sky is usually overcast in winter.
Christian Jansky was capturing some nice closeups of an emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) at the zoo in Stadt Haag, Austria while the bird stood patiently.
Suddenly the emu had had enough. “Don’t come so close!” He made a move to bite the camera.
Notice how the nictitating membranes are now covering the bird’s eyes so they don’t get hurt while he attacks.
I wonder what happened next.
(photos from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the images to see the originals.)
