Dear Charles

I really enjoyed this class and I had a lot of fun with the activities you planned. I loved the bird watching and field trips, and I also had a really good time with the Close Readings. I'm glad this class was focused on poetry, because it goes so well with environmentalism, and also because got me more excited about reading and analyzing poetry than I have been in the past. Also, this Journal assignment was fun and very useful for me.
Thanks for a great semester!

Lesser Goldfinch

Lesser Goldfinch: A small bird with bright yellow to brownish coloration on the body, dark wings with a large white wingbar. Color variations occur with location - for example, black backs are found in Texas birds, but backs are usually green in all birds west of Texas. These birds are found across the southwest United States and all of Mexico. They do well in suburban habitats and are common in areas inhabited by humans. 

Rosalia and I saw a Lesser Goldfinch on the Crissy Fields trip. It was fairly dull and very small - probably a juvenile. It was quite cute :)

Common Peafowl

Common Peafowl (Pavo cristatus): Very large exotic game bird, around 40 to 90 inches. Some feral populations may exist in Southern California, but otherwise they are introduced.

I saw a peacock in my yard in Oregon once and I am still very curious as to where it came from. I also saw and got to photograph common peafowl at a farm in Central Oregon. I think it's interesting that peacock feathers are a current fashion among teenage girls and young women. The design is super common in earrings, shirts and even dresses (and sometimes prom dresses! Yuck!). This strange phenomenon has got me pondering how many other fashions have been directly or indirectly derived from the animal world.

Mourning Dove

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura): A common, native bird found across North America. This is a medium sized bird with a light brownish-gray body, long tail with white tips and sometimes a slightly iridescent coloration on the back of the neck. They are widespread and common in suburban areas and on agricultural land. 

I saw (and identified) my first Mourning Dove in the USF garden and have seen many more since. It is one of the few birds that I can somewhat identify by it's voice.

Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture (Carthartes aura): Very large, common birds with a dark underbelly, white underwing feathers and a small, bald, red head.  They fly at a high dihedral, cruising high overhead for carrion. 

I saw two turkey vultures on a hike last Saturday through Mt. Tamalpais/Muir woods. At first, I thought I might be seeing a red-tailed hawk, but using my bird guide and class knowledge, I was eventually able to determine that it was a turkey vulture because of its high dihedral and the coloration on the underbelly. It was pretty cool to finally see a turkey vulture after talking about them all semester - I had already gotten to see/identify about 20 red-tailed hawks!

Born To Run

Over winter break, I read a book called Born To Run by Christopher McDougall. It is a piece of literary journalism that outlines the story of the Tarahumara Indians, a small civilization of people living in the Copper Canyons of Mexico. These people are the best distance runners on Earth. Their style of running and their diet are the same as they have been for the last several hundred years. They don't wear modern shoes, utilize modern sports medicine or eat a typical runner's diet. The book gives an overview of their traditional style and then attacks the modern way of going about running. After this is established, the book goes into detail about human's evolution as distance runners. It it believed that humans used to run down their prey through a long-distance pursuit. I watched a video of a tribesman in Africa performing this kind of hunt and it was awesome and very interesting. I think it's really interesting that humans seem to have no idea that their bodies evolved to be distance runners capable of running down every other animal on Earth. It was a really great read for me because it was a combination of my three biggest passions: environmental studies/evolution, journalism, and athletics. I'm considering the topic of "the evolution of humans as runners" for my final paper, using Born To Run and Darwin.

This is the persistence hunting video!

Cherry Blossom

I took this photo on main campus last week :)

Cherry Blossoms: I don't know what specific type of tree this is, just that it's flowers are called cherry blossoms. I think they are gorgeous flowers and a love when the trees bloom, as they are now. I went to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown and it was a lot of fun. I think celebrating the beautiful things in nature is a good way to ensure the protection of all of Earth's plants and animals. Who could destroy something that is celebrated?