Spring is a time of renewal, and in the month of May I underwent one of the bigger forms of renewal one can get; I moved house. Or to be more precise; we moved house, in which 'we' also includes my boyfriend and 4 cats. Before the big move, we actually had to renovate quite a lot (removing the ceilings, putting in new ceilings, putting in a new stair, and what have you), so it was a bit of a hasty building/packing/moving scramble. But now all my stuff has been moved (if not unpacked or organised) and I can focus on other things again. Such as: spring! While we were busing inside, the world around us erupted into an explosion of leaves, insects, singing birds, and weeds. I could enjoy this by sitting outside in my garden (I now have a garden again! There are actual trees in it! And grass!), but apart from that one of my favourite ways of enjoying spring is by watching Springwatch.
To my horror I just found out I've only written about Springwatch once before, in 2012. It really has been too long. The format has stayed basically the same in those 5 years; a couple of biologist and non-biologist presenters, a setting in one of England's most beautiful wildlife preserves, lots of cameras on nests and nestboxes, and lots of natural drama. This year so far, one of the trending Twitter topics has been #fledgeorfall, concerning a jay nest that was sloping precariously downward (the relief came a day later; one chick fell and survived, the three others actually fledged). Also happening, in a tree or barn not close to you; peregrine falcons loosing their eggs, a woodpecker checking out a blue tit nest, stoats playing about in the sun, and kestrel snot on one of the camera lenses.
But it's not just pretty pictures. In between all of this great imagery, loads and loads of biological and conservational facts are dispersed at a high rate. As always, lots of the more 'general' biological stuff are things I start explaining to the person next to me, right when one of the presenters is actually saying about the same thing. But there is quite a lot of new research being preformed too. How many species of newt live in this pond? Do hedgehogs/mice/stoats live in this wall/hedgerow/barn? Peregrine falcon feed their chicks with an amazing 98 different species of bird, but where do they catch them?
Generally, this research involves catching the animals in question, weighing and tagging them, sometimes with a geolocator, and then releasing them again. This may disturb the animal in question for a short while, but in the end, I always think the disturbance is worth it, for every new bit of information we get about the natural world is an extra piece in the puzzle of trying to protect it. If we know that the peregrine falcons on Salisbury cathedral visit a nearby copse of wood to catch their food, we know we cannot just chop down all those trees, or the peregrine will suffer (lots of other animals will suffer too, but generally you need the 'poster child' animals to get conservation working). If we know that three different species of newt live in a pond, we cannot just fill it in to put a housing estate there. We need to protect what little of nature we have left, and knowing more about it will make it easier to do so.
I know I'm a bit of a nature fanatic, but if you're even the slightest interested in the natural world around you, do watch Springwatch. You can find it either on the BBC or one one of the many live feeds online. You will see a side of nature that is relatively close, but very unknown. Also, actually trying to name the bird or animal in view before the voice-over tells you what it is will make it more of a challenge, and will make you realise actually how many species of bird and insect and mammal are out there, and how much there is left for us to discover.
Showing posts with label biology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biology. Show all posts
Wednesday, 31 May 2017
Wednesday, 14 May 2014
Feathered housemates
So, after a year of waiting, the moment is finally there: we have a little birds' nest in our nest box! The fact that I still get manically excited about these things shows how much of a biologist I still am (Dutchies: you may want to watch the documentary 'MeesTV' that was broadcast a short while ago to understand this). I have spent a summer ploughing through forests and fields to check up on literally hundreds of nest boxes and their inhabitants, so you would think I'd be done with them by now, but nope, it's still great.
We'd put the nest box up on our eastern wall, which is the one facing the garden, as high up as possible. This had two reasons: safer from the cats, but also longer sun time. We put it up quite early last spring, in the hope of catching some late breeders, but nothing happened, apart from some stray twigs being put into the box.
Then this spring, some great tits took an interest in the box (incidentally, a friend of mine who is now teaching proficiency classes in English put a question about a 'great tit' on her examination, which led to the test supervisor having to grab the microphone and inform the sniggering first years (and anybody else in the exam hall at the time) that "a 'great tit' is a kind of bird". Seriously, who doesn't know that?). We held our breath, but the birds disappeared again. The house sparrows have been in a frenzy of breeding for a couple of weeks now, so I'd lost all hope, but then last week I came into the garden from the bike shed, and two great tits left the nest box. Very exciting! But also a bit disturbing: if they were leaving when I entered the garden, how would they ever start to breed in there?
Then it started to rain, and it kept on raining for at least a week. So I was sure nothing was happening, as they couldn't have possibly already started a nest, and now they wouldn't be starting one because of the rain. But then today I came into the garden and heard the unmistakable sound of little birds begging for food. So I stood still for a good minute, and as expected: one of the parent birds went into the nest box carrying food, and came out with a little white parcel of poo. Which makes our box officially inhabited! Woo!
The box has a little window up the side through which you can look inside, but as it is about 4 meters of the ground I think I'm going to pass on that one. I think there must be 4 or 5 chicks in there at the moment, reckoning from the sound, but more may still hatch.
The only downside is that the box is quite close to our (always open) bedroom window, so we may get some sleep disturbance from the begging noises. But I'm guessing they've been out of their eggs for a couple of days now, and just aren't as loud as we thought they would be. And otherwise, they'll be gone in two weeks, so I will enjoy their presence for as long as it lasts!
We'd put the nest box up on our eastern wall, which is the one facing the garden, as high up as possible. This had two reasons: safer from the cats, but also longer sun time. We put it up quite early last spring, in the hope of catching some late breeders, but nothing happened, apart from some stray twigs being put into the box.
Then this spring, some great tits took an interest in the box (incidentally, a friend of mine who is now teaching proficiency classes in English put a question about a 'great tit' on her examination, which led to the test supervisor having to grab the microphone and inform the sniggering first years (and anybody else in the exam hall at the time) that "a 'great tit' is a kind of bird". Seriously, who doesn't know that?). We held our breath, but the birds disappeared again. The house sparrows have been in a frenzy of breeding for a couple of weeks now, so I'd lost all hope, but then last week I came into the garden from the bike shed, and two great tits left the nest box. Very exciting! But also a bit disturbing: if they were leaving when I entered the garden, how would they ever start to breed in there?
Then it started to rain, and it kept on raining for at least a week. So I was sure nothing was happening, as they couldn't have possibly already started a nest, and now they wouldn't be starting one because of the rain. But then today I came into the garden and heard the unmistakable sound of little birds begging for food. So I stood still for a good minute, and as expected: one of the parent birds went into the nest box carrying food, and came out with a little white parcel of poo. Which makes our box officially inhabited! Woo!
The box has a little window up the side through which you can look inside, but as it is about 4 meters of the ground I think I'm going to pass on that one. I think there must be 4 or 5 chicks in there at the moment, reckoning from the sound, but more may still hatch.
The only downside is that the box is quite close to our (always open) bedroom window, so we may get some sleep disturbance from the begging noises. But I'm guessing they've been out of their eggs for a couple of days now, and just aren't as loud as we thought they would be. And otherwise, they'll be gone in two weeks, so I will enjoy their presence for as long as it lasts!
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Alpha vs beta
In the Netherlands, there exists a differentiation between 'alpha' and 'beta' people. This difference starts in secondary school, when you have to choose between an 'alpha' or 'beta' profile, the first including mostly languages and/or creative subjects, the second being the science subjects. It is almost impossible to combine the two, especially since most schools now offer 4 'streams' you can choose from: nature & mechanics, nature & health, economics & society and economics & culture (the last one is a combination of things I still fail to understand). Once you're in a stream, your somewhat fixed, and it's almost impossible to take courses from any of the other streams (as classes are planned on the same time, e.g., 'chemistry is 3rd period, so we can plan arts history then as well, as nobody will want to take both'). But also further in life, people can ask you whether you are a typical alpha or beta person (or 'gamma', if you're into psychology) and then judge you as creative or logical or social or anti-social accordingly. You are put into the 'alpha' or 'beta' box and stay there.
I know this system does not exist in most other countries. I know, because I've tried to explain it to so many foreigners, who have looked at me blankly as I struggled to make it clear. It isn't clear. It's not really a 'system' either, it's just a way of labelling people, putting them into boxes to make things easier.
Of course, there are some people who do not fit in either of these boxes. I was at a talk by someone who studied Dutch, history and geography, and there was another person who studied economics and English. All of these things are not easily 'married' in the Dutch educational system, but do still belong to the 'alpha' box. It becomes even more difficult when you try to live in both boxes.
In secondary school, I took the 'nature & health' profile, but I added German and Spanish on to that, because I really enjoyed science but I also really enjoyed languages. I studied Biology, which went pretty well, but when it turned out (during my research MSc) that this was not the way I wanted to spend my life, I studied English Language & Culture after that. I enjoy science, reading about science, and discovering things, but I also love languages, reading, writing, and creating. Strangely enough, I do not enjoy the 'scientific' side of languages: linguistics. It is a weird combination.
Now it seems that weird combination has landed me a job. As there are so very few people who combine an interest in science with an interest in language, there are also very few people who can write scientific school books. And I've been doing an internship at a publisher for school books. And they mentioned they needed people who had affiliation with both 'beta' subjects and language, and whether I knew someone. I mentioned that I knew myself. Somehow, this led to me getting a temporal position at the 'beta' department for secondary education.
The interesting thing is, the third person I met in this department studied chemistry and arts. That is crossing the alpha/beta division even more than my biology and English. So now I'm starting to wonder what we're trying to achieve with this alpha/beta divide. Clearly, there are many people who do not fit in these standardised boxes. So making the world easier to grasp by trying to put secondary school pupils in one of four streams may be throwing a way a lot of good things, as people are not encouraged to stimulate other parts of their interests. They may enjoy biology and chemistry, but also history and geography, and now they have to choose. This may cause frustration, but also lead to poorer results because they have to take the 'full package' of what comes with the stream, regardless of whether they also like for example maths. If you choose a 'beta' stream, you have to take the whole thing. I was able to compliment my science profile with languages, and after 9 years of university have finally managed to find a place where I can use both. But how many people have to suppress or ignore part of what they love to do because they do not 'fit' in the system?
If we are the only (that I know of) country actually using this weird system, maybe it's time to look critically, and dispose of it. There are no 'alpha' or 'beta' people. There are just people, with loves and interests, and they should be able to study and learn everything they want.
I know this system does not exist in most other countries. I know, because I've tried to explain it to so many foreigners, who have looked at me blankly as I struggled to make it clear. It isn't clear. It's not really a 'system' either, it's just a way of labelling people, putting them into boxes to make things easier.
Of course, there are some people who do not fit in either of these boxes. I was at a talk by someone who studied Dutch, history and geography, and there was another person who studied economics and English. All of these things are not easily 'married' in the Dutch educational system, but do still belong to the 'alpha' box. It becomes even more difficult when you try to live in both boxes.
In secondary school, I took the 'nature & health' profile, but I added German and Spanish on to that, because I really enjoyed science but I also really enjoyed languages. I studied Biology, which went pretty well, but when it turned out (during my research MSc) that this was not the way I wanted to spend my life, I studied English Language & Culture after that. I enjoy science, reading about science, and discovering things, but I also love languages, reading, writing, and creating. Strangely enough, I do not enjoy the 'scientific' side of languages: linguistics. It is a weird combination.
Now it seems that weird combination has landed me a job. As there are so very few people who combine an interest in science with an interest in language, there are also very few people who can write scientific school books. And I've been doing an internship at a publisher for school books. And they mentioned they needed people who had affiliation with both 'beta' subjects and language, and whether I knew someone. I mentioned that I knew myself. Somehow, this led to me getting a temporal position at the 'beta' department for secondary education.
The interesting thing is, the third person I met in this department studied chemistry and arts. That is crossing the alpha/beta division even more than my biology and English. So now I'm starting to wonder what we're trying to achieve with this alpha/beta divide. Clearly, there are many people who do not fit in these standardised boxes. So making the world easier to grasp by trying to put secondary school pupils in one of four streams may be throwing a way a lot of good things, as people are not encouraged to stimulate other parts of their interests. They may enjoy biology and chemistry, but also history and geography, and now they have to choose. This may cause frustration, but also lead to poorer results because they have to take the 'full package' of what comes with the stream, regardless of whether they also like for example maths. If you choose a 'beta' stream, you have to take the whole thing. I was able to compliment my science profile with languages, and after 9 years of university have finally managed to find a place where I can use both. But how many people have to suppress or ignore part of what they love to do because they do not 'fit' in the system?
If we are the only (that I know of) country actually using this weird system, maybe it's time to look critically, and dispose of it. There are no 'alpha' or 'beta' people. There are just people, with loves and interests, and they should be able to study and learn everything they want.
Saturday, 2 June 2012
Springwatch
I am a big, biiiig fan of Springwatch (and Autumnwatch, and Lambing live, and any other live nature program the BBC will throw at me). The biologist in me, who usually stays hidden under the editor and the literature fanatic, comes to the fore and starts spilling out all kinds of random biological facts, usually in response to a question or remark by my boyfriend. Generally, the presenters of the program (clearly 2 biologists and one woman needed to fill the women quota) will provide the same information about 10 seconds after I'm done, which just goes to show that we're all the same, kind of.
The program is on Monday to Thursday, with the additional Unsprung on Thursday evenings, which is kind of a mishmash of quizzes and guests and documentaries and questions and letters and overall happy chaos. I love every minute of it.
But now I've discovered the webcams. I generally try to stay away from such things, especially as there was this nuthatch family with one small runt bird who was clearly struggling, and I didn't want to see him die right before my eyes (he did die, sadly, but such is nature (and the loads of watchers complaining that Springwatch didn't intervene and didn't hand raise the young are completely deluded as to what nature is really like)). But today, the other nuthatches were fledging. I saw the last one go, hanging on to the side of the nestbox for a few seconds, looking directly into the camera, and then jumping off, into the wide world.
And now I'm hooked, of course.
They change the cameras every several hours, so where there were blue tits now you can watch the bats, or the barn owls. The chaffinches are about to go, I thought, because they are getting very restless (and a bit too big for their nest). The sanderling parents are close to the railway, and they keep moving away when a train goes past, but now there is a cuckoo hanging around their nest and this may turn out to be baaaad... Yes, it's a real life nature soap.
The real thing is always better, of course, and I love watching the little blackbird family in our garden, or the troops of blue tits that patrol our birch tree, or seeing the birds on the feeder in winter. And I love the program, because I recognise the presenter's drive to explain and show and make people see and love and enjoy nature. And today we were walking through the park, and it turn out that the city herd (yes, Groningen has one) was being sheared right then and there, and I love being close to the sheep and seeing and touching and smelling them (well, maybe not so much smelling them).
But still. You can't stop watching them.
Thankfully it's only one more week before they go away again, and I know there are many many more webcams out there, but as long as I don't know where, I'm okay. No need to get emotionally attached to even more animals. Also, I'm working on a really big essay at the moment, and staring at some wood warbler chicks for a couple of minutes will be a good relaxation. Or so I tell myself...
The program is on Monday to Thursday, with the additional Unsprung on Thursday evenings, which is kind of a mishmash of quizzes and guests and documentaries and questions and letters and overall happy chaos. I love every minute of it.
But now I've discovered the webcams. I generally try to stay away from such things, especially as there was this nuthatch family with one small runt bird who was clearly struggling, and I didn't want to see him die right before my eyes (he did die, sadly, but such is nature (and the loads of watchers complaining that Springwatch didn't intervene and didn't hand raise the young are completely deluded as to what nature is really like)). But today, the other nuthatches were fledging. I saw the last one go, hanging on to the side of the nestbox for a few seconds, looking directly into the camera, and then jumping off, into the wide world.
And now I'm hooked, of course.
They change the cameras every several hours, so where there were blue tits now you can watch the bats, or the barn owls. The chaffinches are about to go, I thought, because they are getting very restless (and a bit too big for their nest). The sanderling parents are close to the railway, and they keep moving away when a train goes past, but now there is a cuckoo hanging around their nest and this may turn out to be baaaad... Yes, it's a real life nature soap.
The real thing is always better, of course, and I love watching the little blackbird family in our garden, or the troops of blue tits that patrol our birch tree, or seeing the birds on the feeder in winter. And I love the program, because I recognise the presenter's drive to explain and show and make people see and love and enjoy nature. And today we were walking through the park, and it turn out that the city herd (yes, Groningen has one) was being sheared right then and there, and I love being close to the sheep and seeing and touching and smelling them (well, maybe not so much smelling them).
But still. You can't stop watching them.
Thankfully it's only one more week before they go away again, and I know there are many many more webcams out there, but as long as I don't know where, I'm okay. No need to get emotionally attached to even more animals. Also, I'm working on a really big essay at the moment, and staring at some wood warbler chicks for a couple of minutes will be a good relaxation. Or so I tell myself...
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