Hummingbirds are known to host a diversity of feather mites, but this relationship is not well-understood. In particular, mite distribution in situ has not been previously studied. The authors of the present study examined 753 hummingbirds of five species from urban locations in California: Annaās, Allenās, Black-chinned, Calliope and Rufous Hummingbirds. They documented the presence of the feather mite Proctophyllodes huitzilopochtlii on tail flight feathers.
The researchers found that feather mites were present on the tail flight feathers of nearly 60 percent of Annaās hummingbirds, but less than 10 percent of the other species. Across all the species, the mite was more prevalent on the tail feathers of males (44.9 percent) than on those of females (36.2 percent), possibly because of the nesting habits of females.
The authors used tabletop scanning electron microscopy to analyze individual feathers, building a detailed 3D picture of the distribution of live mites in situ. They found that there tended to be more mites on the hummingbirdsā outer tail feathers than inner, and saw that mites often nestled between the barbs of individual feathers, sometimes in high numbers.
The authors state that their study provides the first prevalence and distribution information for these feather mites on both Annaās and Black-chinned Hummingbirds. This is especially important given that Annaās Hummingbirds co-reside seasonally with other hummingbird species, with the potential for spread of mites.
The other day I went birdwatching at the Bluffs. Rain was failing in the hills behind town, and as the clouds moved off toward Ventura I got a surprise.
I cannot wrap my head around living life without looking at birds. Just watched 3 dudes strolling along and a pigeon was frantically waddling in between them trying and failing to outrun their pace but not wanting to take off. They didnāt even acknowledge it. How could you not acknowledge that. It was incredible. People hear a crow and donāt even look for it. What the fuck.
Youāve never been woken up at ass crack o’clock bc of a damn bird, have you?
Yes, I often wake up early for some damn good birds! š
For the last several months, Iāve been helping (off and on) a member of the public who is pretty far down the conspiracy theory rabbit holeāfar be it from me to try to diagnose anyone, but this person seems to have a lot of paranoid, delusional, and irrational thoughts.Ā
On the one hand, I truly sympathize because my anxiety has gotten me into some extremely irrationalĀ spirals (not to the point of delusional thinking but, you know, we were close there a few times). It is a Bad Timeā¢
On the other hand, I am a librarianānot a therapist, a counselor, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, or a social worker. A librarian.
I donāt have the resources to help this person. And I am starting to get compassion fatigue.
Libraries are one of the last truly public institutions in the United States. As such, theyāre also becoming the front lines of a lot of problems and issues (ask me about libraries keeping naloxone on hand) that could and shouldĀ be solved by other, appropriate institutions that should be (but usually arenāt) public.
This is why we need guaranteed universal healthcare. Among a lot of other things.
That may sound like an early April Foolās headline, but itās not:
Heās hailed as an Americaās Cup champion. The man who led Team New Zealandās cyclor pack to victory. But Simon āThe Rhinoā van Velthooven doesnāt really know how to sail.
āIāll happily admit I still have no idea whatās going on,ā he says. Nevertheless, heās determined to learn the ropes, to get back on board Emirates Team New Zealand to defend the Auld Mug in three yearsā time.
The Olympic cycling bronze medallist quietly slipped into the Team NZ fold back in 2016, given a clandestine mission to teach the sailing crew to become cyclors – those radical pedallers who powered up the AC50 foiling catamaran.
But now that pedal-power has been ruled out of the 2021 Cup, van Velthooven finds himself on the outside again – but desperate to fight his way back in. With the tables turned, the cyclist is now being taught to be a sailor.
āYou get addicted to trying to defy the odds,ā he says, after finishing another demanding session in the gym, and looking for breakfast. āIt was an awesome experience in Bermuda, and itās pretty cool to see how the team operates and what they achieved. Itās a cool opportunity to be able to train up to get on the next boat.ā
Also two more that will not be scanned and uploaded becauseā¦ eugh.
This isā¦ harderā¦ and taking longer than anticipated. Kinda feels like maybe I should have tried to paint simpler things first? Anyway. Finally moving on to the next lessonās homework. But I really think that in order to improve Iām mostly just going to have to paint more regularly.
I was presenting an assembly for kids grades 3-8 while on book tour for the third PRINCESS ACADEMY book.
Me: āSo many teachers have told me the same thing. They say, āWhen I told my students we were reading a book called PRINCESS ACADEMY, the girls saidāāā
I gesture to the kids and wait. They anticipate what Iām expecting, and in unison, the girls scream, āYAY!ā
Me: ā’And the boys saidāā
I gesture and wait. The boys know just what to do. They always do, no matter their age or the state they live in.
In unison, the boys shout, āBOOOOO!ā
Me: āAnd then the teachers tell me that after reading the book, the boys like it as much or sometimes even more than the girls do.ā
Audible gasp. They werenāt expecting that.
Me: āSo itās not the story itself boys donāt like, itās what?ā The kids shout, āThe name! The title!ā
Me: āAnd why donāt they like the title?ā
As usual, kids call out, āPrincess!ā
But this time, a smallish 3rd grade boy on the first row, who I find out later is named Logan, shouts at me, āBecause itās GIRLY!ā
The way Logan said āgirly"ā¦so much hatred from someone so small. So much distain. This is my 200-300th assembly, Iāve asked these same questions dozens of times with the same answers, but the way he says āgirlyā literally makes me take a step back. I am briefly speechless, chilled by his hostility.
Then I pull it together and continue as I usually do.
āBoys, I have to ask you a question. Why are you so afraid of princesses? Did a princess steal your dog? Did a princess kidnap your parents? Does a princess live under your bed and sneak out at night to try to suck your eyeballs out of your skull?ā
The kids laugh and shout āNo!ā and laugh some more. We talk about how girls get to read any book they want but some people try to tell boys that they can only read half the books. I say that this isnāt fair. I can see that theyāre thinking about it in their own way.
But little Logan is skeptical. Heās sure he knows why boys wonāt read a book about a princess. Because a princess is a girlāa girl to the extreme. And girls are bad. Shameful. A boy should be embarrassed to read a book about a girl. To care about a girl. To empathize with a girl.
Where did Logan learn that? What does believing that do to him? And how will that belief affect all the girls and women he will deal with for the rest of his life?
At the end of my presentation, I read aloud the first few chapters of THE PRINCESS IN BLACK. After, Logan was the only boy who stayed behind while I signed books. He didnāt have a book for me to sign, he had a question, but he didnāt want to ask me in front of others. He waited till everyone but a couple of adults had left. Then, trembling with nervousness, he whispered in my ear, āDo you have a copy of that black princess book?ā
He wanted to know what happened next in her story. But he was ashamed to want to know.
Who did this to him? How will this affect how he feels about himself? How will this affect how he treats fellow humans his entire life?
We already know that misogyny is toxic and damaging to women and girls, but often we assume it doesnāt harm boys or mens a lick. We think weāre asking them to go against their best interest in the name of fairness or love. But that hatred, that animosity, that fear in little Logan, that isnāt in his best interest. The oppressor is always damaged by believing and treating others as less than fully human. Always. Nobody wins. Everybody loses.Ā
We humans have a peculiar tendency to assume either/or scenarios despite all logic. Obviously itās NOT āeither men matter OR women do.ā Itās NOT āwe can give boys books about boys OR books about girls.ā Itās NOT āmen are important to this industry OR women are.āĀ
Itās not either/or. Itās AND.
We can celebrate boys AND girls. We can read about boys AND girls. We can listen to women AND men. We can honor and respect women AND men. And And And. I know this seems obvious and simplistic, but how often have you assumed that a boy reader would only read a book about boys? I have. Have you preselected books for a boy and only offered him books about boys? Iāve done that in the past. And if not, Iāve caught myself and others kind of apologizing about it. āI think youāll enjoy this book EVEN THOUGH itās about a girl!ā They hear that even though. They know what we mean. And they absorb it as truth.
I met little Logan at the same assembly where I noticed that all the 7th and 8th graders were girls. Later, a teacher told me that the administration only invited the middle school girls to my assembly. Because Iām a woman. I asked, and when theyād had a male author, all the kids were invited. Again reinforcing the falsehood that what men say is universally important but what women say only applies to girls.
One 8th grade boy was a big fan of one of my books and had wanted to come, so the teacher had gotten special permission for him to attend, but by then he was too embarrassed. Ashamed to want to hear a woman speak. Ashamed to care about the thoughts of a girl.
A few days later, I tweeted about how the school didnāt invite the middle school boys. And to my surprise, twitter responded. Twitter was outraged. I was blown away. Iāve been talking about these issues for over a decade, and to be honest, after a while you feel like no one cares.Ā
But for whatever reason, this time people were ready. I wrote a post explaining what happened, and tens of thousands of people read it. National media outlets interviewed me. People who hadnāt thought about gendered reading before were talking, comparing notes, questioning what had seemed normal. Finally, finally, finally.
And thatās the other thing that stood out to me about Loganāhe was so ready to change. Eager for it. So open that heād started the hour expressing disgust at all things āgirlyā and ended it by whispering an anxious hope to be a part of that story after all.Ā
The girls are ready. Boy howdy, weāve been ready for a painful long time. But the boys, theyāre ready too. Are you?
Iāve spoken with many groups about gendered reading in the last few years. Here are some things that I hear:
A librarian, introducing me before my presentation: āGirls, youāre in for a real treat. Youāre going to love Shannon Haleās books. Boys, I expect you to behave anyway.ā
A book festival committee member: āLast week we met to choose a keynote speaker for next year. I suggested you, but another member said, āWhat about the boys?ā so we chose a male author instead.ā
A parent: āMy son read your book and he ACTUALLY liked it!ā
A teacher: āI never noticed before, but for read aloud I tend to choose books about boys because I assume those are the only books the boys will like.ā
A mom: āMy son asked me to read him The Princess in Black, and I said, āNo, thatās for your sister,ā without even thinking about it.ā
A bookseller: āIāve stopped asking people if theyāre shopping for a boy or a girl and instead asking them what kind of story the child likes.ā
Like the bookseller, when I do signings, I frequently ask each kid, āWhat kind of books do you like?ā I hear what youād expect: funny books, adventure stories, fantasy, graphic novels. Iāve never, ever, EVER had a kid say, āI only like books about boys.ā Adults are the ones with the weird bias. Weāre the ones with the hangups, because we were raised to believe thinking that way is normal. And we pass it along to the kids in sometimesĀ overt (āPut that back! Thatās a girl book!ā) but usually in subtle ways we barely notice ourselves.
But we are ready now. Weāre ready to notice and to analyze. Weāre ready to be thoughtful. Weāre ready for change. The girls are ready, the boys are ready, the non-binary kids are ready. The parents, librarians, booksellers, authors, readers are ready. Timeās up. Letās make a change.
Being a Brief Account of My Participation in Island Packersā Pelagic Birding Trip to Santa Cruz Island, 2018-03-10
With specific reference to birds I saw that were new additions to my Santa Barbara County year list
After a cut because no one has room for that in their dash
It was so much fun! It only rained on us a little on our way over, and then when it rained a fair amount on our way back it didnāt matter because I was warmed by the inner glow of all the cool new birds Iād seen. š
It was all quite awesome, but Iām just going to list the birds that were new for my county year list. Here they are in the order in which I saw them. The eBird lists, which were kept by the trip guides, havenāt been finalized yet, so this is from memory.
These little alcids are so adorable itās ridiculous. And the Santa Barbara Channel was full of them today. We started seeing them on the way to Anacapa, and after we crossed the imaginary line between Anacapa and Santa Cruz we saw more almost immediately. By the end of the day I felt pretty solid about picking them out, even through rain-spattered binoculars as they skittered away across the water.
Black-vented Shearwater (#206)
PhotoĀ by Flickr user (and regional eBird editor and all-around swell person) Jamie Chavez
These are on the small side (for a shearwater). Theyāll be moving on from our area fairly soon, so I was glad to have the chance to see them. We picked them up early in the trip, and kept seeing them as we crossed from Anacapa to Santa Cruz.
How could you not love a bird like that? We were surrounded by them once we started motoring along the north side of Santa Cruz. Theyāre nesting in the sea caves there, and there were some in view pretty much the whole time we were close to shore.
There should be a law against a bird having this much personality. We saw a couple on the detached breakwater as we were leaving Channel Islands Harbor, then saw several countable ones along the north shore of Santa Cruz.
North Americaās only island endemic. On some level it seems surprising that such a boisterous, apparently fearless bird is such a weak flyer that the few miles of ocean between the mainland and Santa Cruz are enough to isolate the population, but here we are. Something I noticed this time that Iād never appreciated before is how much bluer they are than their mainland cousins.
They showed up as soon as we walked off the pier at Prisonerās Harbor.
I was a little nervous about these. Another adorable little alcid, we started seeing them on the way to Anacapa, but they donāt hang out close to shore, and as of lunchtime we hadnāt seen any in Santa Barbara waters. As the trip back started I wondered: Would we we be able to get any while still on the Santa Barbara side of the line?
I neednāt have worried. The people running our trip knew what they were doing. On the way back we headed north into deeper water, and shortly thereafter I got to add these sharp little alcids to the list.
We actually saw one of these early on the trip back before the countable Scrippsās Murrelets, Iām pretty sure. I raised my binoculars to check out a bird flying a short distance from the boat; through the raindrops on my lenses I saw dingy gray plumage and thought it was yet another Cassinās Auklet. But as I was following the bird a couple of the better birders on the upper deck where I was hanging out (including trip guide Peter Gaede, one of the best birders Iāve ever been lucky enough to bird with) said,Ā āRhino!ā The bird disappeared into the rain, and they explained that it had looked considerably bigger than a Cassinās Auklet. I was spared having to wrestle with whether or not to list it (over-analyzing listability is something that comes with a list obsession) when a second, much closer Rhino showed up and put my mind at ease.
It wasnāt in breeding plumage, so it didnāt have the cool rhino horn and head tufts, but I got good views of its big beak and āanvil-shapedā head.
I knew these were out there for the finding since weād seen several in Ventura County on the way out, but we hadnāt seen any on the Santa Barbara side, and I was starting to worry we wouldnāt when a couple more flew past. Yay! County year bird #8 for the day!
Fulmars are so cool.
There actually was one more bird that would have been #9, Bonaparteās Gull; we saw several just a few minutes after the announcement that we were back in Ventura County. But itās possible the announcement was just a tad premature, and I believe the trip guides are taking a closer look to see if one or more of those fulmars might actually have been on the Santa Barbara side. So weāll see about that.
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