Trash and Trashing our Home - Earth

The shot above is looking north towards the San Fernando Valley.
This is looking south towards Down Town Los Angeles


On May 9th Lots of folks came out from behind their weekend lives and helped remove trash from the Los Angeles River, supported by Friends of the Los Angeles River (FOLAR) and other volunteer groups and Governmental Agencies. It was wonderful to see people get involved in making their part of the River cleaner. It was estimated that about 3000 people dipped in and near the River - from north to south - to remove the nasty junk that flows down the river and out to the sea.



Cleaning the 52 mile stretch of the concrete covered Los Angeles River possed a daunting task but, many local groups supplied water (some in plastic - we will learn someday) and music. The Western Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) butterflies were alight in Atwater and that was a joy. The man in the turban is looking right at it.... click on the photo and see if you can find the yellow spot.... that's the butterfly.



I suspect, that most of the plastic that gets wrapped around the trees and brush are not there just because 'someone' threw it there. People are absent minded about the junk in their lives. People do not recognize the mess they live in - the mess they create by buying all that stuff. Their homes are filled with stuff that they never use. They spend most of their life either at uninteresting jobs, going home to a house filled with things they never use or wear, and then, when they go outside.... stuff just 'flakes' off. They/we never see it because, trash is in all of our lives. People - we - are used to seeing things trashy.



Here are two of my bags of trash (normal sized large garbage trash bags provided by FOLAR). I picked up about five bags and helped pull off plastic from a few trees. As you can see, the plastic - the REAL TRASH - is knotted in the branches, leaves, soil, and shreds into tiny and tinier pieces. (For comparable sizes, those are my flash drives.)



The pieces of plastic from dry cleaning, are really nasty. They shatter very easily. The plastic bags from grocery stores stay flexible longer and cause trees and brush to knot into huge sheets of dead vegetation. The bags which has mylar bonded with a thick plastic for potato chips and other greasy perishable fast food, is really bad because it stays in its shape and form much longer and is resistant to UV light degradation.

Eventually, the plastic breaks apart and is taken to the sea ..... into the large trash heap in the Pacific Ocean.....

SO..... Los Angeles, (specifically its Rivers even with folks trying to clean it up) is one of the main sources of the trash that is killing our ocean. Thank a lot guys.

AND... The San Gabriel River is another mess. But FAR WORSE because it has the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy. "WHAT!??" A Conservancy with billions of tax dollars, which has spent lots of money on studies does not clean up the San Gabriel like the folks at the Los Angeles River? - WHY...Yes, because the RMC has other things on its collective minds..... and it has nothing to do with conservation of the rivers and the mountains......CHECK OUT the trash in the San Gabriel... THANKS A LOT RMC!!!! ....Thaks for NOTHING!




Pictures of trees in the San Gabriel River....





OH.... and Ms. Rivers-and-Mountains-Conservancy, are those QUAGGA MUSCLES in the River???? What are you planning to do about THAT!!!??? Oh yeah... nothing....

(UPDATE: June 28... These are actually, Asian Clams, Corbicula fluminea, which are invasive but have not been mapped in the San Gabriel River. Maybe I should do something about that...)

Movable Murals

One favorite murals to make (the collaboration with the clients) was one for a friend who left science to go into the coffee house biz. My friend needed something that was unique and had a feeling of being old. She and her husband lived in Santa Paula ...so, they called their coffee house the Santa Paula Coffee House.

The area is beautiful with mountains, trees, and framing. So, she wanted mountains, trees, farms, and coffee beans, all in a Craftsman style. Sounded like one of those wonderful orange crates from the turn of the 20th Century... With lots of ideas back and forth over the internet we came to a design, pallet of colors and style.

Lettering is always a bitch... but they wanted something homey....




Here it is at the opening of the shop....

Still in progress...

It can take a long time to finish a painting. OR, it can come in a snap. My stilt painting is taking a while. That is ok. I kinda liked the first version but now I am liking this new view much better.

I thought it needed a place to walk out from. I felt it needed other animals. I outlined a tiger beetle near the mud bank on the right. Can you find the crab?

I also felt the Salicornia needed more life.

Also, I started another painting. I can't help myself. This is also along the San Gabriel River but, at the Whittier Narrows.



Have yet to finish the burned trees. I will do some more before I up load it.

REALLY OLD stuff

Way back in Ohio, when I was on the Board at what had been the Dayton Museum of Natural History (now it is the Booshoft Museum of Discovery)~(as an aside.....any museum with 'Discovery' in its name ...should ... uh...well... this over used word, 'discovery,' now sounds like a corporate buzz word. 'Discovery Museum' 'Discovery Center' 'Museum of Discovery' all sound like a place to sell junk to the innocents.)

ANYWAY.... I painted murals for the museum. I had a wonderful time. I grabbed these old shots from my old website which lives in the Wayback machine.



Sometimes we had smaller shows... this one was about artifacts from Mexico.



My friend, who was the director, asked if I could do something to help display some of their materials from the ocean that had been in storage for years. So, I did this...



Dayton Museum of Natural History needed images of a time when the earth and moon separated as molten globs. I loved the illustrations from my children's Life books. I would stare at them for hours and hours. I am deeply influenced by those artists. So, I re-created the birth of earth for them.






Dayton was the birth place of CFCs.... there was this celebration.... and I got to paint the mural. This is really my vision of what the molecule might look like... fun to imagine!




Prior to working and living in Dayton, I lived in L.A. and worked at the LA County Natural History Museum in their Discovery Center (sigh...well, when they named the Hall, it - 'that word' - was not over used - yet). I built hands on materials for children and their parents to learn together. One of several boxes of materials was called 'The Eyes Have it!'. Kids learned all about how other animals saw their world. I even built a camera obscura from two white plastic spheres, which together. looked like an eye ball. Kids could hold the handles on each side of the 'eye' and see that the world was projected on the back of the ball, upside down. I also wrote materials explaining optics and the biology vision for all ages, which were all in the box, too. Here were a couple of illustraitions.


I also got to do some stuff for their members' booklet.... all so much fun!

Oklahoma Anna

This is a year old. Almost. I will put up some other songs by my daughter.

Lost a friend.

These are just some pictures. My daughter took some and so did I.

This was where Flo Itkin lived, in Mandeville Canyon.

My friend, Flo, and my children's great aunt, died the first week of this month. She had been ill and fighting Parkinson's. My son and I went to see her just the week before. She wanted to be at home and not at the hospital. We visited her. She was so little. She had been so big so vital so important to us all. I held her hand for a short while until that became too hard for her.


Flo loved her backyard with all of its visiting birds. She adored hummingbirds.

She was a friend when no one else would be. She would listen when no one else would. She loved no matter what. Thank you, Flo.


The Ceanothus was in bloom. Flo loved plants and gave them to her friends and family. And at this time, they were in bloom and fully fragrant. She would have loved them.

She understood how much I wanted to go back to school to get a degree. She knew how much art was part of me. It was Flo who sent a letter to me telling me of the scholarship in art at Mount St. Mary's College. Thank you, Flo.



My daughter, trying to be 'together' while walking about the 'empty' house, needed to go up the side of the canyon just above her house.

Visiting over the Holidays...

Taking the train out to Oklahoma this time, my son will be coming with me. We will share the small room-ette and I will take the bunk... I may regret that decision, because my back has been killing me, but if Russ wants to read all night he can and I won't notice.

Looking out the windows is very relaxing... and it is striking how different so much of our country looks from this vantage point. The trees are different. The soils are different.



These two pictures were of Texas, which is most of the trip going to Oklahoma. It is not a straight shot. The train follows the outline of the state and then makes a bee line through the center to Chicago, stopping along the way in other states' cities.

My daughter's group was playing, at the restaurant where she works, on my birthday - the day after Christmas. Here she is setting up two hours before her set.



My son and daughter are special people.Very talented. Anna's mural at the restaurant where she works.



Russ stayed for a week but they got to talk. Good things.

TIME FOR A POST!!!

I have been in over my head. It's been interesting but at times, difficult.

My job at Mugu with Tetra Tech (Chadux, in Alaska) is wonderful. I am glad to get back to doing insects. Now, I am writing my paper for the Navy.

Here is a note to me.... which I have sent on to others...

Another day to find Cicindela oregona and/or Cicindela hirticolis gravida... no luck... end of their season.... I think.... though, I did find a tiger out by the main drag a bit north of the "Mugu Lagoon" on the map in Central (C) mudflats. It was too quick and I could not rouse it again from the Saliconia in the blowing Santa Ana winds. It was 94 degrees F today at Mugu... October 22... This Cicindela looked like a C. oregona... This is the right time.... This is crazy weather!

I wish I could have gone yesterday.... I almost did but phones, oh phones...



I visited section (A) but only at the entrance of the Upper Marsh just after the bridge. The Telegraph weed (Heterotheca grandiflora) that has grown there is mostly dead. I did not see the Wandering Skipper (Panoquina errans) However, in the sticky traps in the Firing Range (B) several Umber Skippers (Paratrytone melane) were caught. I suggest looking there next year for the Wandering Skipper. The difference is the light colored edge of the wings. Also, any place that has lots of Distichlis spicata spicata..... and Asteracea just might have that little skipper...



I then tried to look for C. hirticolis gravida



The last time I visited these dunes (one month ago) I found Globose Dune Beetle (Coelus globosus ) and the cleptoparasite of Anthophora sp. , Zacosmia maculata, which breaks into the cell cap of her host (Anthophora), oviposits and then re-closes it. Zacosmia is reported to be from Baja California. (But Mugu's tiger, Cicindela gabbi is also a tiger from Mexico). I found this bee tumbling along the dunes... It should be called the Tumble Bee. http://bugguide.net/node/view/143811

Mugu's Mexican tiger, C. gabbi...



Mugu's C. hemorrhagica...



By the way... it seems that I am finding more and more insect internet sites with wonderful photographs!!!! For this email - the map is Google's (I altered it), and the other shots in this email were mine... but the shots in the links are what makes a lot of this study possible!!!! .

I love the dunes at Mugu. There is so much trash.... from the ocean !

See those plants.... they have these terrible seed pods that get into your shoe and poke you with sharp spines... They tumble across the sands just like the Zacosmia maculata.



So finally, I hunted for tigers at the Airport... which is the little square west of C. No tigers but lots of these wonderful curious dragon flies, Varigated Meadowhawk (Sympetrum corruptum). There were a few in the Upper Marsh but there were many in West Salt (just above the dunes near the fence in F). I walked back to my car after walking the open pannes looking for tigers I saw all of these Meadowhawks holding tight with the winds in the vegetation. Little gossamer wings reflected the light from the sun (which was on the decent). There are quite a number of different Odonata. Many hunt in the upper marsh but they were all over.

Mugu has several species of dragonflies (5). I had not met a Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacerata) until Mugu.




Variegated Meadowhawk (Sympetrum corruptum)

Ahhhhh.... Back at Mugu this summer to next spring. I sure miss this place! I have been hired to look for endangered insects and to write an assessment of the marsh and lagoon's insect populations. I have set up five trapping suites in and across the marsh and salt pannes.

At Mugu there are birds (shore, chord grass, fresh water, riparian, pelagic), and mammals (besides people, are sea lions, seals, coyotes, rabbits, mice, rats, voles, bats, and shrews) reptiles (snakes, lizards, only the bones and parts of a shell from one California tortoise), and insects and other Arthropods (two species of crab and snails). Snakes eat insects, and small mammals. Small mammals eat insects, too but the coyotes eat the small mammals - rarely birds (from the scat). Seals haul out not to eat but to sun bath and mate. Some birds eat the crabs, but many eat insects.

The salt tolerant insects, that feed on kelp and fungus in huge numbers may be, I believe, the cinch pin for terrestrial life in the marsh. It has been said that God must have loved beetles because there are so many of them in the world... But, I think Poseidon loved .... Diptera.

In the photo above, it must be noted that the size of these insects is important. The round stick in the frame, on the right at the bottom, is the tip of my mechanical pencil lead, 0.7". The flies are floating in alcohol 90%.

This is an image of three important flies in Mugu. This is not to say that the others are not as important, but these three are interesting because either of their great numbers all over the marsh or because of their unkown biology. Dolichopodidae are also vital and are in plenty of numbers in marshes and other wet (fresh and salty) areas. The Sarcophagidae, Calliphoridae, Muscidae, Otididae, Drosophilidae, Syrphidae, Platypezidae, Anthommyzidae, Diastidae, Tethinidae, Bibionidae, Scaridae, Chaoboridae, Ceratopogonidae, Chironomidae, Tabinidae, Staratiomyidae, Bombyliidae, Empididae, Chloropidae, Tachinidae, espcially, Psychodidae all can be in riparian, forest and urban backyard areas,too. Oh, and we can't forget about Simulidae, too... which are indicators of highly oxygenated water (good) but the females need a blood meal to lay eggs (bad, if they are not species specific in their supping of local mammals or birds - you). But, Simulidae, or Black Flies are fresh water insects.... how did this one find its way into Mugu???



There are fresh water inlets into the marsh from inland and from run off from the farms.... oh, and there are Culicidae - mosquitoes.

The top fly is an Ephydridae. You can always tell this Family by it's flat or frog like "lower jaw" - and this one has setae on its 'upper lip' so, I believe it to be Ephydra hians. Ehydridae are called Shore flies but some of this Family are called Petroleum Flies for their propensity to live, mate and eat around oil seeps like at La Brea Tar Pits. Most Ephydridae are capable of living in highly saline conditions, an environmental of evolutionary distinction. They are important because of their numbers in marshes, tidal pools and inland salt flats and lakes. They are food to the birds and vertebrates and invertebrates in those areas... One group of Native Americans, the Modocs, subsisted on the larvae of Ephydridae in the Great Salt Lake on a seasonal basis for hundreds of years.

The larvae of Ephydridae are filter feeders of microorganisms in shallow waters, some adult Ephydridae are parasitoids of marsh inhabiting spiders, and one group are predators of Chiromonidae.

The fly on the left is identified by its triangular spot on the top of its otherwise light colored head, where it sports three other 'eyes' or ocelli. Chloropidae fly in swarms of great numbers. Some are leaf miners, phytophagous, some are saprophagous (feeding on decaying plants, animals, and fecal matter, and a few have been bread on fungi). I am making a jab at its genus, Oscinisoma sp..

The middle fly with the mustache and goatee is a Phoridae. They are sometimes called Scuttle flies because of their jerky movements, walking. This is the first real find in a few years (I have either helped in identifying insects traped for UCLA's biological surveys for the Navy or been the sole insect identifier since 2001). The 1983 Los Angeles County Natural History Museum's insect study referenced past work done for the Navy and did not by all indications, find any themselves. Phoridae are attracted to the decomposition emanating from dead flesh and vegetable matter. There are a few genus that are interesting predators on other flies, bees, and then .... there is this ant decapitating fly.

This specimen is, Megaselia sp., identified by Dr. Brian Brown at the LACNHM (thank you!). Phorid flies may swarm in numbers, but VERY few are caught in the traps at Mugu. This year I caught 8 in drop and Malaise traps and 52 in the sticky traps.

It just seems a very interesting point that the most diverse and abundant group of multicellular organisms at Mugu, are Diptera. And many of Diptera are involved, in some way, with fungus, especially at the marsh. It has been found that the Salicornia sp (pickle weed) has a particular symbiotic relationship with fungus (Mycorrhiza)

Decomposition is all around you at the marsh. The smell of sulfur is in its many forms is all around you. And sometimes you get a whiff of the decomposing bodies of seals that wash up on the beach. AHHHHH! That's nature for you!

One young man, who volunteered from UCLA as an undergraduate, said to the graduate UCLA crew who were contracted with the Navy to do ecological studies of the marsh habitat, when he first stepped into the marsh, ".... You know,.... it smells REALLY bad here...." He said this as if this was a very important piece of information that had to be said.... He was surprised when we all chuckled.

Animal Perenting

I had a very good meeting with a friend at Claremont College in the morning and decided to visit the most recent fire in the San Gabriel Mountains, above the town of Sierra Madre. It was in early May and there has been sufficient time for people to get their lives mostly in order. I hoped that the road was open so that I could photograph the grounds and the vegetation. I also wanted to take samples of the grasses that were around the burn area for a painting I have been working on of an area in the mountains that has had several consecutive fires. There have been several studies showing that the deposition of NOx from exhaust from cars contribute to nitrogen loading in near forests. Nitrogen increases the likelihood of invasive grasses which thrive in soils with high amounts of nutrients which contribute to the fires that start and burn so hot at the intersection of forest and urban areas. The USGS has some important studies rarely used by City planners, that urban sprawl causes forest fires. On top of all of that bad news is that the same pollution that causes destruction of forest habitat even from far away cities, the ozone which cars produce is in high enough concentration and fill so much of our world landscape that when people want to get away from it all can't, and may be exposed to higher levels of the lung destroying molecule when they visit the mountains.


Well, with all of that lovely information in my head - hey! I have to live with the Debby-downer brain everyday and it's not easy!!! - I traveled up Santa Anita until it turned into a single lane. When I finally came to edge of the burn I found a turn out where trucks had pushed debris into what was a small turn out.




I was at the beginning of the forest and I parked the car and took out my camera and lenses. There seemed to be trash about my car and plenty of beer bottles from after the fire (not shattered). What? Was there some sort of a party after the blaze?
Another vehicle drove up past me as I walked across the single lane road to listen to the cicadas sing and to inspect the partially burned, but still living oak tree.

What I find in burn areas is a lot of destruction of the surface soils from the water used to dowse the fire by the fire fighting crew. It is like a preamble to the coming winter rains which will continue to lubricate the highly disturbed soils and rock from the side of the mountain. Sands and small to very large rocks fill the gullies and undercut road shoulders, which are ready to move down the hill in a landslide all because the fire fight was to save housing. (See above for why we should not build so close to the forest)

I took these two shots and then turned to take a picture of the oak tree. I crossed the road and saw a bunch of different species of grasses all in one area - COOL! I opened the trunk of my car and started to take small clumps of grasses. One clump at eye height was sitting on top near a giant boulder. There seemed to be new deposits of trash about my car and not from the bulldozers....There was plenty of beer bottles from after the fire (not shattered). What? Was there some sort of a party after the blaze?

As I was pulling the clumps of grass when I heard a strange gurgling sound... coming right in front of me. I looked down - just a bit (why I did not see it before the sound, escapes me) what looked to me to be a DUCK!!!! It had its head in a defensive posture, trying to hide in the clump of grass I was pulling.

So, what does a good biologist do when faced with an animal in a defensive pose? I pulled on its tail and it gurgled some more... and I took it out and found it was not a duck but a chicken. Why in HELL was a chicken up here!????

I looked her over and found that her nostrils had some black inside probably from rooting around in the burn area. WHY FOR HEAVEN"S SAKE WAS SHE HERE??? She was actually quite a large chicken the size of a DUCK!! and obviously comfortable with a human examining her. She was someones pet! I decided to take her home and call my vet. This bird had a respiratory problem . .... She was dumped by some crappy person probably just before I got there.

Dr. Cauble came the next morning and told me she was an older bird, had some arthritis. She was sick with one of three organisms, two of which we could treat. I had her in quarantine in the garage and fed her and gave her water. She was very dehydrated. She had a good night's sleep in a safe place.... but we decided to put her to sleep and call the health department.

I can't watch the animals go. "Chris, I will be inside the kitchen." Dr, Cauble watched over her. The chicken went peacefully. Dr. Cauble took her body with him and he will tell me what the Department has found. They needed the exact spot and time where I found her.

This was a sweet bird. Perhaps she was past her egg laying days like my Miss Chicken. I could not put my bird out to be eaten by dogs, or coyotes, or raccoons. There is so much trust that my animals have in me to take care of them.



After Dr. Cauble left I got a call from my son's friends. Lisa and Gabe were coming over with Zoe. "Is 3 p.m. okay?" "Sure."

I took care of Zoe for two summers. She is a delightful Abyssinian. Last year, I was having work done on my house and decided to put her in the studio. She thought all the spaces under the easels were great places to hide and my son was making his own place in there, too. FRIENDS and PLACES TO JUMP! ZOE was such a happy curious girl.

On her second day in the studio, breakfast was as usual, she gobbled it all down and then returned to her duties at the windows and under chairs. I had an appointment before lunch and returned early after lunch to find Zoe sitting on the rug not moving. I touched her and found her to be HOT! She was lack-luster. My son looked up the address of the emergency animal hospital.

The hospital staff took x-rays and found her food to still be in her stomach from the morning! And something like a blockage in her bowel!!! Her temperature was quite high and they said I should leave Zoe there for observation. I called after an hour and they said she was getting worse! I told my son to call or email Lisa and Gabe about their kitty.

HOLY MOLY! And on my watch!!!! Zoe was transferred to another hospital where they put her on intravenous fluids. She was going down fast! Lisa and Gabe came back early and picked up little Zoe at the hospital. I was devastated and so were Zoe's parents. I had no idea what happened to her. Zoe continued to go down and Lisa and Gabe spent a lot of money trying to save the little cat.... and called the next day and said that their doctor was considering to put her to sleep.... and asked if I would take her... and, I said I would an try to save the little girl.

Then, Zoe made a miraculous turn around and got better. We were all relieved and spent! I wracked my brains trying to understand what happened.. and so, indulge me in my take on what nearly killed this little cat...

Last year, I had two yellow jacket nests to contend with... one of which was out side the studio. I found the nests, of course, by walking near them and being attacked and stung multiple times. I used the safest methods for ridding them but I think what happened was this....

The studio had a ceiling but the people who were renting my house in the 90's while I was in Ohio, took the ceiling out to expose the rafters. This was a wonderful idea because the building was small and claustrophobic. The bad part was that there are ventilation holes between all the rafters. I suspect that a wasp came in and Zoe found it. Lisa said that Zoe is fascinated by insects and eats them. Cats are very sensitive animals and will develop high fevers quickly. This will also shut down the digestive system which looks like one of several serious conditions. Zoe may have even been stung internally by the wasp and the reaction put her in a tail spin. She was put on strong medication .... some of which may have acted like an antihistamine. This may be what saved Zoe....

Well, Lisa and Gabe are moving and cannot take Zoe with them. They asked if I would look after her and I said, "Yes." Zoe is now a new member of my household.

Meet Zoe.