The Names of Places

The Board on Geographic Names is a governing body in Reston, Virginia, that decides what we call gaps, streams and creeks, and plains, mountains and peaks. A report in the Washington Post said it had “reign over 2.2 million geographical names but usually end up talking among themselves because hardly anyone from the public attends their meetings.”

Mainly the board members act as an austere editors preoccupied with the details. They fix spelling, capitalization and punctuation errors. Apostrophes are discouraged, and so are hyphens or periods. According to “myth,” the apostrophe was eliminated in names because on maps the typeface would get lost or be mistaken for a rock in the water. But the most likely explanation was to discourage the idea that ownership was enough reason to name a natural feature.

There are exceptions, and if people make a big enough noise they will usually get their way. Like Martha’s Vineyard. After residents were upset by the exclusion, they were able to keep the apostrophe legally. Similar contention arose in Pittsburgh and the letter “h” was restored to the city by a subsequent ruling.

Another chief role for the board historically has been taking out racist and offensive names of the past. And surely, they will likely revisit existing ones like Negrohead Point, Chinaman Lagoon and Little Squaw Lake sooner or later.

Currently up for debate: Coconut Island would be derived from a single, mysterious coconut found on the island in Fairfax County, Virginia. An island off of Long Island, New York would be named Bamboo Island for the plants that happened to root there. A mountain in Washington would be called Glencanaan, which means “promise land.” The man who’s proposing the name already gave his property and his consulting firm this nomenclature. He likes it that much.

One of the more controversial cases deals with a barrier island along the coast of Florida. The American Indian Association doesn’t want an island to be dedicated after the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon, who went in search of gold and for the Fountain of Youth. The AIA says de Leon and his men “had no qualms about pillaging, mutilating, raping, and murdering the Ais people, the original inhabitants of the barrier island.” They prefer to call it Ais Island.

Anyone can propose a name for an unnamed place. Check with any large-scale federal or state map to determine if the area in question is free, and then submit a proposal.

The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks

In December NASA’s Office of Inspector General announced that an investigation had found that, between 1970 and 2010, hundreds of moon rocks and samples of stardust were lost or stolen. One researcher somehow lost 18 lunar samples in one year. The report explained that often moon rocks are loaned out to museums or other institutions for a time, and are supposed to be returned.

In the past, governors and heads of foreign states were lent lunar remnants, as goodwill gestures, but the officials and their staff forgot about them. Recently a moon rock thought to be lost forever turned up in a box of Bill Clinton’s memorabilia.

But sometimes the rocks are taken for personal gain, to sell on the black market. Perhaps the most egregious yet unsuccessful attempts to abscond with moon rocks, occurred in 1998. In the middle of the night, two NASA interns managed to steal a safe weighing 600 lbs., which stored moon rocks from every Apollo mission. It also contained a meteorite that reportedly might hold the secret to life on Mars. The moon rocks were eventually recovered through an FBI sting, and the two perpetrators were found and arrested in a hotel room. (The pair was also having an affair.)

The inspector general’s report recommended that NASA do a better job in record-keeping. The report also noted that the office took appropriate steps and notified the agency’s Stardust Curator about missing materials unbeknownst to him.

Termite Mounds

Certain termite mounds, cathedral-like and elaborate, contain a maze of tunnels that effectively filter carbon dioxide out while bringing oxygen in – essentially acting like lungs. The mounds are made of soil, mud, chewed wood, saliva, and feces piled systematically by worker termites. The typical large mounds are about 10 feet high, but in some cases they can reach up to 30 feet high, as tall as a two-story house. Though about a four-year undertaking for the industrious workers, a mound will take generations of termites being born and dying before it’s complete.

In a colony, there is a king, queen, workers, soldiers and reproductives (the future kings and queens).

In one science experiment, a scientist and his team drilled a hole in part of the mound. The team noticed that five minutes later soldier termites arrived at the scene to stand watch while workers patched up the breach. (The soldiers have stronger jaws and bigger heads and normally protect the colony from ants.) It took the worker termites an hour to produce a “spongey” wall in the place of the hole.

If that wasn’t enough, two days later, the scientific team ended up chain-sawing the top of the mound, and what they saw inside amazed them. More workers were busy securing off another passage that led deeper into the nest after the first infraction days before. Termites don’t actually dwell in the mound but live underground, where down further still is the inner sanctum or the “royal chamber” of the king and queen, who have the longest life span in the colony.

Coyotes

A scientist has broken down coyote calls to eleven distinct vocalizations: the woof, growl, the huff, the bark, the bark-howl, the yelp, two kinds of whine, the ‘wow-oo-wow’ (a greeting to others), the yip-yowl in groups, and a simple howl in groups. He contends, though, that more research is needed.

During mating season, female coyotes will be able to choose from more or less half a dozen suitors who will typically follow her around from a courteous distance. The males don’t fight with amongst themselves however; they just obediently stick it out until they are the last one standing. Or else they might lose interest and wander off for other opportunities. When two male coyotes remain, the female will make her choice. Couple coyotes will perform howling duets, touch noses and wag their tails. Their bond being established, mating will occur some weeks later. Then one day, after the male has been met with licking and friendly overtures for some time, the female will bear her teeth and growl at her mate.

In preparation for pups, females will dig the den with the aid of the male. They usually renovate abandoned fox or badger dens, and outfit other dens nearby in case they have to abandon one spot. Sometimes dens will have a second entryway, like a back door.

Bovine Pleasures (or Till the Cows Come Home)

Last week I saw a cow trotting across a highway. I’ve never seen a cow move so fast before. Usually they’re grazing, stationary and swaying their tail from side to side — at least in my imagination. The cow, light brown in color, appeared somewhat excited about venturing out. Either that or scared shitless.

About an hour later right around that same stretch on Interstate 25, a highway patrolman had his lights on and was gazing out into the desert terrain spying on the same cow in the distance with binoculars. This apparently happens a lot out here in open expanses when a cow breaks free and wanders away. A sign with an image of a cow warns drivers to be on the lookout.

In Mississippi last month, a paper ran the headline, “Wayward Cows Cause Problems for Motorists,” when ten cows got loose and trudged across Interstate 10.  Three separate drivers struck three separate cows. Two of the animals were killed instantly, and the third died shortly after. Deputies went in search for the others.

“We rounded up four cows but there were three or four others we weren’t able to catch,” the local sheriff said. “They went back deep into the woods.”

It goes without saying that cows killing humans is minute in comparison. Death by cow mostly happened when someone was working and treating cattle in enclosed spaces or moving them toward other pens, pastures or barns, according to a study a few years ago that looked at fatalities caused by cows in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. Most victims were men, and about half of the perpetrators were bulls. And in several of the attacks, the bull or cow was known to be dangerous. In one instance, a man’s family said the bull had been “threatening in the past.”

Spotted: Mule Deer

The other day, on my way to a trail next to the Rio Grande, mule deer came peeking out of the brush. One of the two looked at me with curiosity, and after a few seconds, she came closer, craning its neck and staring directly at me. I stood still. Then I accidentally made one false step, and the two of them leapt away as if they were kangaroos.

Mule deers are known for their jump. When alarmed, they spring with all four legs at the same time and land in the same fashion. First named by Lewis and Clark, the mule deer were noted by the explorers during an 1804 expedition through South Dakota. Clark wrote, “Colter killed … a curious kid of Deer of a Dark gray colour—or more so than common, hair long and fine, the eyes large and long, a small receptacle under the eyes like the Elk, the taile about the length of a Common Deer, round (like a cow) a tuft of black hair about the end, this Species of Deer jumps like a goat or Sheep.”

People seem to note their disproportionately large ears. While they have a fairly good sense of hearing and sight, their keen sense of smell is what they use to investigate whether a situation is dangerous. Supposedly they can detect humans from up to a half-mile away.

Females are attracted to the scent of a rutting buck, and females have been observed crawling on their stomach to a stranger buck to get a sniff of his tarsal glands, which are located on inside of the buck’s hindlegs and have been deliberately sprayed with urine.

Unlike their white-tailed deer relatives, mule deer live in more open areas. Their diet consists of bitterbrush, sagebrush, pinon and yellow pine, juniper, and mountain mahogany, and they seem to like broadleaf plants the best. Most of them feed during the early mornings right before sunrise or in the late afternoon. During the middle of the day, they bed down in cool places with the wind in their direction so they can sniff for predators.

Reasons to Admire the Hummingbird

You can’t miss a hummingbird’s bill. They can be straight or curved, but they’re always pointy like an extra-fine sharpened No. 2 pencil. Like swords, they are excellent for males when fighting for a mate or marking their territory on a perch.

During mating season, hummingbirds make spectacular dives to attract females. One species of hummingbird make a U-shaped courting dive and hiss, while another variety makes a V-shaped arc and squeaky buzz. Yet another makes a tight circle. (Sometimes during the season, the male organs are slightly visible as a “bulge” in the animal’s abdomen.)

Hummingbirds usually have 10 tailfeathers. They’re known as nature’s helicopter.  They can change directions, like acrobats, and fly upside down for brief periods when startled.

The heart of a hummingbird beats 500 times per minute when it’s resting, and 1,200 per minute when it’s excited. A human’s heartbeat is about 60-90 beats per minute in comparison.

Hummingbirds have the fastest metabolism of any bird, and they can tell the difference between really sugary and less sugary things. They seem to prefer sweeter things. The tongue is really long and can go far distances. Ornithologists used to think their tongues acted like a straw, but later learned the birds just lick nectar superfast.

Walking

I took a walk today but I didn’t follow my usual route. I took a dusty path a block away from the main road, where I could still see the cars pass by on the main street. I saw a few notable things: a 1960s blue Oldsmobile,  one large, speckled feather in the middle of the street and a patch of wild grass. Along the way I picked flowers, avoiding anything prickly.

At the end of the day, I had goatheads, spiky orb-like thorns, stuck to my shoes and this photograph.

Window Shopping

I walked by an antique store with a sign posted on the door that read, “You Can Not See Anything From Out Here.”

However, the shop was closed even though it was early afternoon, and the contents awaiting inside would have to remain a mystery.

One of These Things Is Not Like The Others

The brown-headed cowbird lays its eggs in other bird’s nests. The host bird, usually a songbird of some kind, then will raise the young cowbird like its own. Cuckoos do it too. That’s why they’re called brood parasites.

If you look at the history of the brown-headed cowbird, it makes sense why the species would lay eggs in other nests. For thousands of years, prior to the obliteration of the bison population, the cowbird had a symbiotic relationship with wild buffalo that roamed the American Great Plains. The cowbirds followed them so they could eat the insects that tormented the bison. It was a nice arrangement. So the practice of laying eggs in other birds’ nests along the way suited this nomadic lifestyle.

The host bird may do one of a few things if it suspects something is awry: abandon the nest altogether, weave over the egg like it’s not there, rebuild a nest on top of the existing one, or eject the imposter egg. In some cases, the soon-to-be mother risks damaging her own egg in the process of disposing of the fake.

But the worst scenario (at least to me) is a practice seen in one type of cuckoo. Noticing that their egg is gone or damaged, in what scientists have termed “mafia behavior,” the bird destroys the nest along with the eggs in it.

A brown-headed cowbird egg in the nest of an Eastern Phoebe.