Our New Pets

 We were recently gifted some new pets by my brother and sister-in-law. Have you ever had these pets? They are sea monkeys! Otherwise known as brine shrimp. Sea monkeys have been marketed since 1961, when they were called Instant Life. The next year, their promoter, Harold Von Braunhut, invented the term sea monkeys because their long tail somehow looked like a monkey tail. Sea monkeys were marketed extensively in comic books.

We received a little tank that we filled with water and then added a packet of water conditioner (basically salt). The next day we added sea monkey eggs. The brine shrimp have a life cycle that includes cryptobiosis or anhydrobiosis, which is basically an inert state that allows them to withstand drying up, like they might encounter out in real life when a puddle dries up. That's the reason they can be shipped around the country (and even to the moon!) and then hatch when they're put in water. According to Wikipedia (which has more interesting information), the sea monkeys we have are not found out in nature. They're a hybridized version called Artemia NYOS (New York Ocean Science).

As far as pets go, they're easy to care for. We add water and food about once a week. We go look at them occasionally. And I had some fun doing a photoshoot (they move fast, so it's hard to capture them!).  And they're much smaller than they look in these photos--about a half-inch long full grown.

Thanks to my brother and sister-in-law for enriching our lives. We will be sure to reciprocate. Although we might send a pet that's a little larger, like our other pet, who happens to wag his tail quite a lot.

The Sandhill Cranes are Back!

 Sandhill cranes recently returned to the ranch, to my great delight. These huge birds are so fascinating, and they really leave no doubt that birds are descendants of dinosaurs. Sandhill cranes have been around for quite awhile (although not as long as dinosaurs); their fossils have been dated back as far as 2.5 million years.

The photo above shows the reddish feathers on these sandhill cranes. Those are due to foraging in iron-rich mud. Also note the curved feathers on the rump.

I got out of the van to take the photo, and that spooked the birds, so they took off.

This photo isn't quite in focus, but the shape of the bird makes it look so much like a pterodactyl that I had to include it!

The sandhill cranes made a big circle and flew in the beautiful golden hour sunlight.

As I was editing the photos I saw that the birds flew in sync.

But then they didn't. Why not? Well, probably due to a small weight difference, although both sexes are nearly the same size. Sandhill cranes mate for life, which is sometimes more than 20 years. During the summer, sometimes up to 30 sandhill cranes stay at the ranch. I haven't seen baby sandhill cranes, but my husband has. Typically they raise just one young a year.

Back in sync again, with the shadowed foothills in the distance. For more about sandhill cranes, along with a recording of their cool sound, check out this Cornell Lab of Ornithology link.

Lint Camp 2015

 Lehman Cave at Great Basin National Park was the place to be for a lint and restoration camp in February and March.

What is lint?

Lint includes the tiny pieces of clothing (think dryer lint) that come off as we walk around. In a cave, air currents help them float around until they settle on cave formations, where they may change the way the speleothems form or provide an unnatural food source. Because caves are such sensitive environments, often with few changes such as sunlight and darkness, temperature swings, or flooding (at least in many caves in the arid Great Basin), they need a little help. They may need a lot of help if almost 30,000 people a year go through them, like Lehman Cave. If 30,000 people went through your house, it might need a little cleaning, too. (Mine needs a lot of cleaning with a lot fewer people than that!)

I took the kids to participate for a day. Desert Girl helped pick up pieces of litter with some tweezers. The tweezers made it a fun task.

A lot of people came for the February lint camp. We quickly became friends.

My friend Deanna came from Ely with her daughter, which made Desert Girl very happy.

But even with friends, the kids eventually tired of cleaning. They took a movie break. The cave proved to be an excellent theater.

Meanwhile, the volunteers were busy dusting stalactites and stalagmites, picking hairballs out of popcorn, and removing old trail debris to uncover natural cave floors. The back of the pickup truck started filling up.

So why would people volunteer their time to clean the cave? One reason is they get to visit parts of the cave that are usually off-limits, like the Talus Room. Here the special tour traverses the Sunken Garden, bypassing the pools of water.

We even found a pseudoscorpion, which is rare in this part of the cave.

Before long we were in the immense Talus Room. It is so different from the rest of Lehman Cave, cavernous and almost barren, with very few formations. Huge boulders litter the floor, giving testimony that this isn't one of the most stable parts of the cave.

Some beautiful formations do decorate the ends of the room and also this huge wall, called the Rainbow Wall.

On another slab, the cave has been turned into a bulletin board with signatures from 1885.

 Everyone enjoyed seeing the Talus Room.

Then it was back to work. Here are some rimstone dams that I was cleaning. Dirt had obscured many of the crenulations.

Another part of lint camp involved checking all the lights for algae growth, and upon finding some, spraying it with a bleach solution. The algae is not natural to the cave environment and also provides an unnatural food source.

 Lint camp has an interesting effect on people. Many come and are surprised by how much they like it. They find a zen in concentrating on just one area and making it look better. They start feeling like that little part of the cave is theirs. They can't wait to come back and make it look even better. They even say that they don't want anyone else to touch their spot--it's theirs and they have dreams about it.

So who knew? Lint camp is so much more than cleaning. It's about finding peace, making new friends, discovering parts of the cave that haven't seen the light for decades, and feeling that you're making a difference.

Thanks to everyone who participated in lint camp!

If you'd like to read a couple other perspectives, check out these articles and photos in the Los Angeles Times and National Parks Magazine.

First 2015 Snow Survey

At the end of February it was time to put on the skis and head up into the mountains to check how much snow we had. This has been done annually since 1942 along Baker Creek in eastern Nevada, and I've been helping the last several years. Usually we have lots of snow the end of February, but this year we didn't, so we were able to drive up to the Baker Creek Campground, which saved us a couple of hours.

We started skiing up the road and came across these tracks. Any idea what they are? (Answer at end of post)

Hint: they lead to a burrow under a rock.

At 8,000 feet we had enough snow on the road to ski, but not enough to get around the sagebrush bushes.

So we had to walk, carrying our skis. Not fun.

We found snow on the ground at the first snow course, but there was so little we had to put all the snow in the tube from the five samples into a plastic bag and do a bulk sample to weigh it.

The snow water equivalent (moisture in the snow) at Baker Creek #1 was 1.8 inches, or 36% of median (1981-2010). The snow depth was 10 inches, or 50% of median (1981-2010).

We did a quick group selfie.

Then it was time to head further up the mountain. Nicole with the NRCS office was doing this snow survey for the first time, but the rest of us were repeat offenders.

When we got up higher we found some nice snow.

But then we reached spots that were melted out and we had to take the skis off. It was a workout putting skis on and taking them off.

Fortunately the second snow course had more snow.

This is looking back up towards the top ski course marker. You can see the nice powder.

The snow is measured by pushing the snow tube into the snow. Often it picks up some dirt at the bottom, which has to be removed to get accurate measurements.

The snow water equivalent (moisture in the snow) at Baker Creek #2 was 5.1 inches, or 47% of median (1981-2010). The snow depth was 25 inches, or 61% of median (1981-2010).

On the way we passed this sign: Baker Lake Trail. Someone had added infinity miles. Someone else had added 2.7 miles. And someone else had written Turn Around. Fortunately we didn't have to go all the way to Baker Lake.

Mark on the ground! He's our best skiier. I fell eight times on the way down, so he was doing much better than me. Our snow conditions were constantly changing from icy to powder to a crust and depths from zero to over two feet. It made it a challenge.

Even as we got higher we found spots that didn't have much snow.

Finally we arrived at the big meadow with a spring channel along one side that is our third and last snow course.

The sign looked extra tall this year.

It started snowing on us as we measured. We were hoping for a quick six inches to cover all the rocks to make it a smoother trip down, but it was about a fifteen-minute dusting. The orange zigzag sign was for when they did aerial surveys of this snowcourse; an observer from an airplane would be able to estimate snow depth based on how many zigs or zags he could see.

The snow water equivalent (moisture in the snow) at Baker Creek #3 was 5.7 inches, or 43% of median (1981-2010). The snow depth was 30 inches, or 67% of median (1981-2010).

When we finished measuring, we geared up for the trip down (for me that meant putting on my snow pants in anticipation of closer contact with the snow). We entered the clouds for part of the trip down, which is a really strange feeling out here where we're used to seeing over twenty miles every day.

The data we gathered is used by the NRCS to do water forecasting. They just issued their March 1 Nevada Water Supply Outlook Report, and it's kind of grim. We're hoping for lots of March snow so that the April snow survey will be more skiing and less walking, and more importantly, the fish will have more water during the summer.

p.s. Did you guess what animal left the tracks on the road? If you guessed marmot, you're right! They are one of the longest hibernating animals in the world. They usually wake up in March or April and then hibernate in July, after they've eaten the tastiest of greens, but apparently there's enough to eat for at least one to be awake in late February.

Backyard Bird List Up to 20 Species

Are you taking Desert Survivor's Backyard Bird Challenge? How many bird species have you seen in your backyard?

A friend asked me how many we have, and I realized we are up to 20 species already! Our list is over in the sidebar to the right, and also below (because that's what will print out when we print our blog book):

1. European starling (1/1/2015)

2. Dark-eyed junco (1/1/2015)

3. Black-billed magpie (1/2/2015)

4. Eurasian collared dove (1/5/2015)

5. House finch (1/5/15)

6. Canada goose (1/5/15)

7. Great horned owl (1/6/15)

8. Northern flicker (1/9/15)

9. American goldfinch (1/11/15)

10. Mallard (1/11/15)

11. Chickens (1/11/15)

12. Red-tailed hawk (1/9/15)

13. Common raven (1/14/15)

14. American Robin (1/24/15)

15. Red-winged Blackbird (1/26/15)

16. Northern harrier (1/27/15)

17. Killdeer (2/13/15)

18. Western meadowlark (2/13/15)

19. White-crowned sparrow (2/13/15)

20. Sandhill crane (2/22/15)

Don't you just love #11? The kids insisted we add that. 

I was very excited to hear the killdeer (photo above) and sandhill cranes, as they were gone for part of the winter. The meadowlarks are already singing their mating songs. Some birds we had in the yard last year but haven't seen yet this year are Cassin's finches and pinyon jays. I think with the really warm winter they have stayed up higher on the mountain.

Desert Girl is getting very good at some of the most common birds we see, like dark-eyed juncos and black-billed magpies. The next few months will be a lot of fun as the list grows quickly. Will we make it to 50 species this year? I've got my fingers crossed!