April 2015

Red Wattles, Charles Darwin, and Pork Jowls

I was surprised to see a drawing of a pig with wattles in Charles Darwin’s The Variation of Animals & Plants Under Domestication.  Here is the accompanying text: Another curious anomaly is offered by the appendages, described by M. Eudes-Deslongchamps as often characterizing the Normandy pigs. These appendages are always attached to the same spot, to the …

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Boring Woodpeckers

Pileated woodpeckers spent the early part of the winter boring out some of the Aspen (Poplar or Popple) trees behind the house.  I’m not sure what influences their choice of trees.  The trees they chose don’t look much different than their unscathed neighbors, but obviously they have very specialized knowledge about what they are doing. From …

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