Baby Nuthatch Extravaganza!

I have often wished my birdfeeders would get chosen as the spot for the National Tree Creepers Association Meeting, but it never has. I suppose it would help if the National Tree Creepers Association actually existed, but that is beside the point. However, this year our yard has apparently become the #1 cool hangout spot for baby nuthatches, and you couldn't ask for a better honor than that.

It started a couple months ago, when we noticed a mother nuthatch, a faithful customer of ours, trailing her beautiful little daughter along with her. Little Miss Nuthatch was extremely shy, and would sit on top of our feeders, her little wings quivering, waiting for her mom to feed her. After awhile, she started learning to eat on her own. She was kind of a little Rachel when it came to trying new things--it took her half a day to get up her courage to land on the feeder, let alone eat from it. I bonded with her immediately, and loved watching her grow and get more and more confidence. She had a tiny little voice, and she would squeak quietly as she went from tree to tree. Once she learned how to get peanuts out of the feeder, that was the only feeder she would visit, and she would sit there for minutes at a time, pounding away, until she got the peanut she wanted. Unlike most birds, who keep trying various peanuts until one comes out, she would always get the one she started, no matter how long it took. If something scary like a chickadee came out and startled her away, she would always return to the exact same peanut.

As Little Miss Nuthatch grew, so did her confidence in exploring other parts of our yard. Her mother was usually with her, often sitting on the roof, quietly encouraging her in her food-gathering exploits. She discovered the pond on the side of the house, and enjoyed bathing and drinking there. Unfortunately, one tragic day, after drinking from the pond, she crashed into our window and died. We ran out to try to rescue her, but she was too far gone. So we buried her under a fruit tree and we mourn her loss still.

I thought our feeders would never appeal to nuthatches again, after that sweet little creature died on our property, but fortunately, I was wrong. I guess this has been a good year for nuthatches, because baby nuthatches are cropping up everywhere. A lot of them turned up when I was gone in Wisconsin last week, and Andrew said they were kind of taking over the world, which was exciting.

Today, as I was taking a load of laundry back into our room, I looked up, and there were not one, not two, but three baby nuthatches on one feeder!

You can find a full resolution version here.

Another flew into the scene and got overwhelmed by the sheer numbers and left. She came back eventually, though.

4 Red Breasted Nuthatches at once!

I don't know if they all belong to the same parents or if it's a couple of broods worth. Two are fat, and two are skinny, and one of the skinny ones is definitely the runt and gets bullied around by the others, poor thing. The fattest one is also the most immature (he still waggles his little wings and opens his mouth to be fed), and he has decided he owns the peanut feeder. Unfortunately, he has yet to figure out how to actually get a peanut out of it.

They are so precious! I can't believe we got this lucky!

More Than A Square Foot Garden

Last season, all the space I could afford was a for a square foot garden, which, all things considered, was remarkably productive and beautiful.

Since moving to Blaine, I have been busy creating a moderate garden and landscaping around the house. I am almost finished with phase one. Here are some photos:

Here is an overview of the vegetable garden. It was designed with inspiration from both the French Biointensive school of thought and the Permaculture school of thought. Permaculture has certainly been the primary inspiration for my overall sight design.

Leeks

Swiss Chard

Radishes in need of thinning.

The pea harvest is just beginning.

This mini-greenhouse has allowed me to get some peppers (already!) and should help with some of my Basil and Tomato harvest.

A Jalapeno!

An experimental Tomatillo.


At the edge of the garden is an herb spiral. It is a beautiful permaculture design element that provides a large variety of soil moisture and microclimite conditions in a very compact area. At the top it is hot and dry, at the back left it is cool and wet, and at the front it is warm and wet. It is planted with Sage, Oregano, Rosemary, Tyme, Lemon Verbena, Fennel, Chives, Garlic Chives, Parsley, Peppermint & Spearmint.

The larger landscape has been designed to maximize food production and wildlife value. A pond, hummingbird feeder, nestboxes (unfortunately unoccupied), and bird feeders are elements that the local wildlife enjoy. As a side note, the gentle gravel beach at the top right portion of the pond is critical for birds to enjoy it. There is almost always a bird bathing or drinking there. Before I constructed it there was nearly no bird activity.

An overview of the front yard, where much of the smaller fruits are planted.

A Fig (desert king).

Red Currents forming.

Grapes.

Other fruit producing plants in the yard include a Peach tree (frost), Cherry tree, Apple trees, Plum trees, Raspberries, Strawberries, Blueberries, Saskatoon Berries, Honeyberries, Lingonberries, Lowbush Blueberries, Cranberries, Huckleberries, Black Currents, and Maypop Passionflowers. Most of these were purchased from Cloud Mountain Farm and Raintree Nursery, and Territorial Seed Co. I have been very pleased with the products I received from all of these operations -especially Cloud Mountain Farm in Sumas.

Ski to Sea Fun

I (Andrew) just got to do the Kayak leg of the Ski to Sea relay race for team RYD Knights of Bellingham. The Ski to Sea is a 90 mile relay that starts at the Mount Baker Ski Area and cascades across the county via XC Ski, Downhill Ski, Running, Road Cycling, Canoeing on the Nooksack River, Mountain Biking, and finally, Sea Kayaking.

Kayak Staging Grounds

Waiting for the hand off from the Mountain Bike Leg

Approaching the Beach. You can see the bow of a Kayak that paralelled me for the entire race. I barely met my goal of holding the team's place, passing 14 boats and being passed by 12. I also maintained the rule set for me by teammate (Road Bike, Gaining us 50 places!) and buddy Brian Russel: don't let anyone in a Sit on Top Ocean Kayak pass you, no matter how burly s/he is!

Ringing the Celebratory Finish Bell. You can see our time. 8 hours, 58 minutes, 29 seconds! At nearly 3 hours behind the leader, that was good enough to put us into 204th place (out of 464 teams). Full results are here if you enter team no 150.

Celebrating after the finish with team Captain and Mountain Biker Ben Muller (Top) and Family (Below).

Now that you are all excited. I am recruiting a team for next year. There is a bit of a hitch, but if the race sounds fun to you, you'll love the plan. Let me know if you are interested!

A Foray on to Mount Baker

This last weekend Pete Day, Andrew Hamilton, and myself made an attempt on Mount Baker. We only climbed onto Heliotrope Ridge Just above the base of the Black Buttes due to a late start, really soft snow (should have been on skis!), and concern about avalanche danger.

Nonetheless, it is beautiful country! Thanks to Andrew Hamilton for bringing a camera and sharing these photos.

Colfax Peak and Mout Baker from the high? point on Heliotrope Ridge

Soundless woods in a snowstorm on the approach.

Our tracks and ski tracks onto the moraine at the edge of Coleman Glacier

Lunch overlooking the Black Buttes (Colfax an Lincoln)

A Storm Clearing in the Early Morning

A Cross-Chaped Science

Wow,

We have been lazy about updating our blog. We have had an early, beautiful spring (maybe the only one in the northern Hemisphere), and have enjoyed doing some home improvement work landscaping outside and painting inside our house. I hope to take and post some pictures soon.

But that is not what this post is about. A while back I preached a sermon at our Church in Blaine, about being a scientist and a Christian. You can find a MP3 of the sermon here. Sorry about the slightly poor audio at the beginning. I was having some microphone issues:). I would love to get feedback on both the presentation and content of the sermon. One big lesson: my public speaking would be a lot better if I slowed down a bit and replaced every "uum" with a pause.

While preparing for the sermon, I compiled some resources from orthodox Christian thinkers who do not preclude accepting the consensus scientific view of the age and history of the earth and its life. Some of these may be of interest.

The Vatican : John Paul I's Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, October 22, 1996 "Magisterium Is Concerned with the Question of Evolution for It Involves Conception of Man."

"In his Encyclical Humani generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII had already stated that there was no opposition between evolution and the doctrine of the faith about man and his vocation, on condition that one did not lose sight of several indisputable points (cf. AAS 42 [1950], pp. 575-576).".....

"In order to delineate the field of their own study, the exegete and the theologian must keep informed about the results achieved by the natural sciences (cf. AAS 85 [1993] pp. 764-772; Address to the Pontifical Biblical Commission, 23 April 1993, announcing the document on The interpretation of the Bible in the Church: AAS 86 [1994] pp. 232-243)."...

"How do the conclusions reached by the various scientific disciplines coincide with those contained in the message of Revelation? And if, at first sight, there are apparent contradictions, in what direction do we look for their solution? We know, in fact, that truth cannot contradict truth (cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Providentissimus Deus)" "Today, almost half a century after the publication of the Encyclical, fresh knowledge has led to the recognition that evolution is more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory."

From Tim Keller's The Reason for God "Despite widespread impressions to the contrary, both inside and outside of the church,, modern Creation Science was not the traditional response of conservative and evangelical Protestants in the nineteenth century when Darwin's theory first became known. There was widespread acceptance of the fact that Genesis 1 may have been speaking of long ages rather than literal days. R.A. Torrey, the fundamentalist editor of The Fundamentals ... said that it was possible "to believe thoroughly in the infallibility of the Bible and still be an evolutionist of a certain type (quoted in Mark Nol, Evangelical American Christianity: An Introduction [Blackwells, 2001], p 171). The man who defined the doctrine on Biblical inerrancy, B.B. Warfield of Princeton (d. 1921) believed that God may have used something like evolution to bring about life-forms."

Frances Collins (from a scientific viewpoint). "This narrow interpretation is largely a creation of the last hundred years, arising in large consequence as a reaction to Darwinian evolution."

St. Augustine in Genesis 19:39"usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth... and this knowledge he hold to as being certain from reason and experience.

How, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show a vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn.

The shame is... that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. It they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are the going to believe those books and matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learned from experience in the light of reason?"

The ACG Affiliation of Christian Geologists:

"Statement on the Physical Age of the Earth and Universe"

The Affiliation of Christian Geologists is committed to the historic Christian faith and to its meaningful integration with the best available science. This effort reflects our desire to serve God with all our minds. Data from science also help us to serve our neighbors and to care for God’s creation. Investigations of the Earth and the universe have been ongoing for hundreds of years using such scientific methodologies as:
-astronomical data from telescopes and satellites
-observation of the physical makeup and arrangement of earth and extraterrestrial materials
-chemical and physical analytical study of rocks, sediments, soils, water, air, ice, and meteorites found on Earth as well as lunar and Martian materials
-experimental synthesis to determine the origins of earth and extraterrestrial matter
-analytical determination of absolute ages of natural materials, and
-mathematical and computer modeling of the above observations and processes.

Beginning in the mid-1600’s, geologists and astronomers (including many Christians) have consistently found that the scientific evidence clearly favors a vast age for the earth and the universe. Current scientific calculations indicate that the universe began about 13 billion years ago and the earth about 4.6 billion years ago. These conclusions are based on cumulative evidence and are refined with each new study. All scientific knowledge is constrained by the limitations of the methods of inquiry and discovery. We are limited and sometimes mistaken in our understanding of both nature and Scripture, but ultimately the two must not conflict, both coming from the same Creator. Although Scripture contains essential information on origins that gives meaning and perspective, technical details of the method and timing of creation are not major concerns of the Biblical text, and many orthodox theologians do not see a conflict between the Bible and an old creation."

Gary B. Ferngren writing for The American Scientific Affiliation on CS Lewis "There is no evidence that Lewis Every read the Genesis account of creation Literally. Repeatedly and publicly he described it as a folk tale or myth."

The American Scientific Affiliation: on Science and Faith

Christmas program!

Well, after about 2 1/2 months of preparing, my students performed their Christmas program today. I've been a part of many, many Christmas (and other) programs over the course of my lifetime, but this is the first one I've been entirely responsible for (as in, I wrote it, arranged it, ran it, and every student involved was mine). After a somewhat-hectic dress rehearsal (they always are), everything fell together just about perfectly (it always does).

Have I mentioned how much I love my job, my students, and my school? Probably. But it doesn't hurt to mention it again. After the nightmare that was my student teaching, and a year of subbing, I am still so thrilled to have students that like me. Middle school students, at that!

I think the highlight of the program for me, really, was seeing how excited everyone was this morning, seeing my students coming in smiling and bouncing off the walls and asking if it was time to go backstage yet, and could they do anything to help me, and where were their costumes, and could I look at the new props they had found last night at the last minute. It makes me know I did a good thing this semester, knowing my students loved it and were excited.

I had a lot of parents, a ton of parents actually, come up and tell me how much their children liked music, and how wonderful the program was. I had several tell me it was the best program they had seen at the school. I suppose that's a pretty good compliment, for my first year.

The other highlight was walking past the middle school to return some props the kids had forgotten, telling them Merry Christmas, and having them give me a standing ovation. Middle schoolers! The age that scares me. They aren't like kindergarteners, who just like you because they like everyone.

Okay, so I'm bragging a little. But there are days when you have to overflow with happiness, and this was one of them for me. And as pleased as I might be about what I've done this year, I am really most proud of my kids. They are great kids, all of them, and they put in good work. I look forward to many more semesters with them.

Andrew took pictures, so if any of them turn out, I will post them when they come off his camera.

For all our fellow Liberal Arts students