In a truly double-take-inducing finding, geneticists recently surveyed a population of critically endangered California condors and found that two of the birds reproduced without actually mating.
This phenomenon, called parthenogenesis (a nice callback to Athena springing from Zeus’s head), happens occasionally in reptiles and fishes but rarely in birds. The scientists stumbled across the discovery when going back through the genetic records of the condors from the mid-2000s. Their findings were published today in the Journal of Heredity.
“It’s a remarkably improbable occurrence,” said Oliver Ryder, a geneticist at the Wildlife Alliance at the San Diego Zoo and co-lead author of the paper, in a phone call with Gizmodo. “In their lifetimes they weren’t even recognized to be parthenotes… we’re definitely keeping our eyes out anytime we get a batch of blood samples for testing…”
This weekend my sister and I squatched In a new spot. While we were doing our usual research of which part of our area to hit she stumbled on these pictures. These pictures depict a rough shelter, and other suspicious structures, there were animal bodies way up in the trees etc. we researched the area well and found this forest is part of a larger forestry system. It’s a large corridor with rail trails, gas and transmission lines. It connects to the Bay Circuit Trail, which is a 206 mile long corridor that natives and settlers used. As far as food and water goes, there is a small pond and streams throughout. Because this was a trade route back in the day, you will also see some old stone homes, foundations etc. We are looking forward to spending more time there this fall and see what we come up with.
Oast houses converted to homes, typically have conical shaped kilns that dried hops.
Jenny & David bought a derelict Oast House, but theirs had square kilns. They had to start from scratch to make it a home, b/c they were, well, kilns. For hops. Not people. But, it’s beautiful.
Their home also has gorgeous antiques, like this old punch clock, which may have been for the oast workers.
They chose a lovely soft turquoise for the living room. The wood horse is a Mongolian pony that came from Afghanistan.
And, the kitchen is a cozy cottage green.
They chose a modern stair style. That’s a fully functional jukebox underneath.
The effort to keep all the original levels of the oast intact, as much as possible, resulted in half a dozen different staircases!
In the bathroom is an antique hop weighing scale.
Connecting the spaces to make the oast a home, has also resulted in many twists and turns.
In this hall is an antique hops press, vintage farm tools, and a showcase of old fashioned children’s games and toys.
Guest room with a cozy sleeping nook.
A door that looks like a closet, opens to reveal a small bath in the guest room.
The bed in the master is suspended from the ceiling, but it’s not very far to fall.
Finally, a spiral staircase leads to an apt. that the couple used to rent out. Isn’t this a fascinating home?
