swallows in april, swifts in May

stand on grass
watch the birds
threading the sky
infinite patience

swallows in april
swifts in may
two lilac trees so high
birds threading, weaving
Leaves waving, swaying..

nests sheltered in shadows
fledglings complaining of starvation
ever demanding more as
parents struggle back and forth
shuttles on a loom

under the lilac
the heavy morning air
weighs down on dark purple blooms
Tiny fragrant enticing perfumes
bees, wasps, gnats
Earthlings
all one
Love

Riches of Life

During the waning years of the Depression in a small southeastern Idaho community, I used to stop by Brother Miller's roadside stand for farm-fresh produce as the season made it available. Food and money were still extremely scarce and bartering was used extensively.

One particular day, Brother Miller was bagging some early potatoes for me. I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily apprising a basket of freshly picked green peas. I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes. Pondering the peas, I couldn't help overhearing the conversation between Brother Miller and the ragged boy next to me.

"Hello, Barry, how are you today?"

"H'lo, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus' admirin' them peas -- sure look good."

"They are good, Barry. How's your Ma?"

"Fine. Gittin' stronger alla' time."

"Good. Anything I can help you with?"

"No, Sir. Jus' admirin' them peas."

"Would you like to take some home?"

"No, Sir. Got nuthin' to pay for 'em with."

"Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?"

"All I got's my prize marble here."

"Is that right? Let me see it."

"Here 'tis. She's a dandy."

"I can see that. Hmmmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?"

"Not 'zackley but, almost."

"Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble."

"Sure will. Thanks, Mr. Miller."

Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me. With a smile she said: "There are two other boys like him in our community, all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever. When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn't like red after all and sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, perhaps."

I left the stand, smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short time later, I moved to Utah but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys and their bartering.

Several years went by, each more rapid than the previous one.

Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community, and while I was there, I learned that Brother Miller had died. They were having his viewing that evening, and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them. Upon our arrival at the mortuary, we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could.

Ahead of us in line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits, and white shirts...very professional looking.

They approached Mrs. Miller, standing smiling and composed, by her husband's casket. Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her, and moved on to the casket. Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one, each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket. Each left the mortuary, awkwardly, wiping his eyes.

Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and mentioned the story she had told me about the marbles. Eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket. "Those three young men that just left were the boys I told you about. They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim "traded" them. Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about color or size...they came to pay their debt.

"We've never had a great deal of the wealth of this world," she confided,"but, right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho."

With loving gentleness, she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three magnificently shiny red marbles.

Moral: We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds.

12,396 viewsJul 25, 2016, 10:59am

Why Are Robin Eggs Blue

Eggshell pigments and color patterns reveal a lot about where a bird nests and the sorts of evolutionary challenges it faces before it even hatches

Robin’s egg blue: eggs of the American robin (Turdus migratorius). Blue-green eggshell pigments protect the embryo from sunlight, which can be adaptive as long as light levels are low enough not to heat up the eggs. 

When I was reading ornithology, there were several questions that students would invariably ask at some point during the academic term. One was why are robin eggs blue?

Even Charles Darwin wondered about the evolutionary reasons that birds' eggshells range in color from white to dark greenish-blue. Since this is such a simple and obvious question to ponder, you'd think someone would have figured out the reason long ago. And indeed, there are a number of hypotheses that explain eggshell pigmentation -- the most widely accepted are either camouflage or protection from sunlight.

The camouflage provided by dull, mottled eggshells is, of course, the most important factor driving the evolution of eggshell colors and patterns-

But camouflage does not explain why other birds' eggs would have bright, plain colors, such as unspeckled white or intense blues and greenish-blues -- since these colors can make eggs easy to spot, especially when they are in an open-cup nest. Thus, plain, bright eggshell colors must necessarily result from different sorts of evolutionary pressures than does camouflage from hungry predators. The other widely accepted hypothesis is that plain unspeckled eggs might be the best compromise for surviving exposure to the Sun.

To clarify the interactions between eggshell pigments and sunlight

Their central questions focused on identifying whether eggshell pigmentation could help the egg maintain a balance between two opposing, and potentially damaging, effects of sunlight: the transmission of light (including UV) through white or light-colored eggshells and the rapid overheating of eggs with darker (greenish-blue) shells.

Because the village weaver bird, Ploceus cucullatus, produces eggs in a range of solid colors, from white to a medium greenish-blue, it was possible to make direct quantitative comparisons for a variety of eggshell colors produced by this species in a controlled light environment.

The researchers tested four components of the sunlight hypothesis:

1. damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation can transmit through bird eggshells
2. infrared (IR) radiation at natural intensities can heat the interior of eggs
3. more intense egg coloration decreases light transmittance ("pigment as parasol")
4. more intense egg coloration increases absorbance of light by the eggshell and heats the egg interior ("dark car effect")

The researchers measured the three fates of visible light incident on a bird's egg, and compared these fates for a white egg to those for a greenish-blue egg, and found that eggshell color did affect reflectance (R; left column), absorbance (A; middle column), and transmittance (T; right column) of sunlight (figure 4):

Figure 4: Three fates of visible light incident on a bird eggshell, illustrating the influence of eggshell color. 

Additional experiments revealed that, just as the researchers predicted, the darker (greenish-blue) eggshells did do a better job protecting the egg's interior (where that precious embryo is developing) from light, including dangerous, DNA-damaging, UV radiation. But at the same time, the darker pigments also allowed the eggs to absorb more light and thus, caused them to heat up more quickly , while over heating can speed up embryonic development- and which then leads to a suite of other problems.

So basically, in environments with moderate light levels, like forest where American robins typically nest, birds' eggs will evolve towards being dark to protect the embryo from the Sun, whereas nests in brighter environments, such as open park lands, semi-arid and arid regions, the dangers of rapid over-heating favors white or lighter colored eggshells.

These findings are useful for predicting the sorts of environments that birds nest in, but can also explain why some birds species, like the village weaver bird, produce eggs with a variety of colors, from white to dark greenish-blue.

Source:

David C. Lahti and Daniel R. Ardia (2016). Shedding Light on Bird Egg Color: Pigment as Parasol and the Dark Car Effect, The American Naturalist 187(5):547-563 |

As a writer, my passion is to use words and images to capture the wonder and excitement of hot-off-the-presses research and share that with the public, so whats your comment, do write in..

Head held high, stay positive

I am in a new place in a new country almost 6 decades into my life.

Finding myself alone held no fear, having lived by my principles almost all my life. Married off early, I lived as a grass widow he stayed in the Gulf, coming home once in two years for a 3 week stay. The boys and I were a close knit family, we filled in the social spaces and held each other up.

Then came the Kuwait siege and he was home.

But never fit in, no position gave the pay he expected and friends, drinks, clubbing was the way to swap time.

But I paid off the loans, house, furniture, appliances, kids school fees, higher studies..

Then understood he had remortgaged the house, drawn money off the title deeds and siphoned off the money.

I left him.

Life went on, the boys graduated, moved out and started working at different locations.
My parents were always there to help me, my mother- a talented artist stood by us to quietly help when needed.

This needle work is an epitome of just how powerful women are, steadfast, hard working and quietly being there every moment to keep Life moving on.

This is what allows me to keep my head held high and go ahead, learn to live in this life as I marshal my experience and work in a new place- I know mother who is an angel now, looks proudly on with father who almost always smiles, knowing they had done right by their children and grand children.

Stay strong and stay smart.