Early allergies

For those of us who have allergies, no, you don't have a cold. Early pollinators are out, and they are going to town. Most folks don't even know it's happening. If you live in the Northeast, like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or you live in the Southern Appalachians, it looks like Winter is still with us, but there are a few hardy shrubs who are always ready to jump the gun. They are the Hazels (both species) and the Tag Alder, Alder and the American, or Leafy Hazelnut are both found near streams and creeks, and both shedding pollen right now. The Beaked Hazelnut will not be far behind. Since they are wind pollinated, they don't have to worry about any hardy insects being out in what seems the dead of Winter.

Both are in the same family, called Betulaceae (or Corylaceae) by Botanists, and just plain old Birch (or sometimes Hazel) family by the layman. All of them, Birches, Hazels, Alders and relatives have similar floral parts and seeds, and all are pretty much wind pollinated.

This family has flowers called catkins, a type of aggregated flowers all in a bunch. The male catkins are pendulous, and the female ones, the ones that make the seed, are small and generally upright. In the Hazel, there is only one female flower, a tiny red one, generally on the end of the twigs. I am linking to a couple of pictures on the USDA Plants Database, as I don't have any good pictures. They are at USDA Alder, and USDA Hazel. Note that following these links will take you away from this page unless you open them in new tabs.

I will place a couple of my own that are not quite as nice to display the density of them. First a couple of Hazel photos taken along Hominy Creek near Asheville, and then some Alder photos taken along Gashes Creek near the Blue Ridge Parkway where is crosses US 74-A. The USDA photos show the red catkins of the female flowers both on Alder, and the single tiny flower of the female catkin of Hazel. The last photo is of Hazel taken near the Swannanoa River in Asheville.

If you look closely at the photos I present, though not technically very good, they illustrate the sheer mass of pollen being shed at this time of year. Think of these photos, and then think of every little creek, stream, branch, rill or trickle which is absolutely certain to have these lovely little shrubs along them, at least Alders, and you can figure that there are probably tons of Alder pollen (hazel is not quite so common) blowing around in the air right now in the Southern Appalachians. It is no wonder that people have "colds" they cannot seem to get rid of.

Frogwatch in the suburbs.

Yeah, I live in the suburbs. A sorry state for a Naturalist, I know. Maybe one day I will win the Lottery (never play it), have a rich great aunt leave me a bundle (all my great aunts are poor), or find a rich benefactor (yeah, right...), but until one of these things come to pass, I am stuck here in the suburbs where I have lived for most of 50 years. *Sigh*.

Anyway, I signed up for Frogwatch USA last year, and tonight I decided to go out and look for, or really, listen for, frogs. I got in my old van, started out through a rather stiff rain, and ran down to a local Wal-Mart shopping center. Frogs at Wally World? Well, yeah. See, they usually build ponds around the stores in order to cut down drainage from their parking lots, and to stop the drainage from blasting into the nearest river or stream. This is a perfect home for a number of species of frog. Nobody was home, though I thought I heard a Wood frog; the ambient noise was too great for these half century plus ears. I was undaunted, and took myself to a local soccer complex.

This soccer complex has a nice depression that was obviously planned as a drainage pond, but as it is on a bed of river sand and silt, it never holds water, and I bypassed it completely. As I was driving, I saw a frog shaped blob in the road. I stopped, backed up, and got out, right next to a fine little Wood Frog, Rana sylvatica. I missed catching him, and drove on to an old beaver pond along the river, where I heard Spring Peepers, Hyla (or Pseudacris) crucifer. Getting out, I spied another Wood Frog shaped blob in the headlight beams, and managed to catch this one, who gave an explosive bellow worthy of a Bullfrog - I have never heard a Wood Frog do this in the dozens (possibly hundreds) I have handled. I looked at him and crooned to him (I always talk to them - folks think I am silly, but since I am 6'3" and 250#, they rarely say anything about it). I of course let him go, and walked off a quarter mile or so to listen to the Peepers across the river, who were in full chorus.

This is a sign that Spring is poised to strike. Actually, the seasons here are a progression and never a discrete occurrence.

HTML Mail

OK. I have had it with technical old fogies. I mean, it is here in the year 2009, and people are still afraid of HTML mail? Give me a break!

A few days ago I was warned about HTML mail when I sent a message to a birding group here in the Carolinas. It was a second warning. I did not wait for a third warning (whereupon I would have been banned), but sent a nasty flame message to the whole group, and unsubscribed myself. Why, you ask, did I do this? After receiving a number of messages from people who told me they will not post to that group because their e-mail program doesn't send in plain text (oh, yeah, it does, but they don't know that), and are relegated to only receiving mail and not able to participate, I decided to say something about this, and hopefully refute the pervasive current "wisdom" about this. You see, I had added a little picture of a view from Mount Mitchell to my signature file, and in order for this picture to go through, the mail had to be in HTML. I also had a few links, one to a page where I can accept (much needed) donations to keep my blogs (like this one) and lists and web pages going. I even had a message bounced from a Yahoo group for birds in North Carolina. Well, I did not and do not see the problem. I will tell you why.

First off, it is 2009 for God's sake! Most e-mail proggies worth being called that can format and receive HTML with no problems. Let me refute a few things from a popular web site with some of my own opinions. Taken from Georgedillon.com's "7 reasons why HTML email is evil"

1. HTML e-mail is dangerous

So is breathing, swimming, horseback riding, sailing, skydiving, smoking, driving a car, and crosing the road. Most of us do many of those things, and many do all of them. We use safety equipment when we do many of them - some of even wear seat belts. A good virus program and some common sense can go a long way.

2. HTML e-mail always wastes bandwidth

Yep. Most of us these days are on some form of high speed, so the point is moot. Even dial-up is now at 56K.

3. HTML e-mail doesn't always work

Does if you want it to. If you use a modern e-mail program like Thunderbird or Windows Mail. This is an argument for 1998. I can't buy into it.

4. HTML e-mail can connect to the internet by itself

Once again, only if you want it to. Mozilla Thunderbird will not unless I tell it to. Plus, so what? I have a firewall and an antivirus. It's like whitewater canoeing. You wear the necessary safety equipment and the risks go way down.

5. HTML e-mail renders slowly

What year did I say this was? My computer, a low end desktop has a dual core processor and 2 gigs of memory. This might have applied 10 years ago. HTML mail comes up in the same time as plain text on mine, and did the same on my 8 year old computer (633Mhz with 192mb memory). This just doesn't apply any more.

6. HTML usually looks like it has been designed by stoned amateur chimpanzees using Front Page Express with their feet

What??? I get HTML mail from dozens of web sites, including my ISP. They all look good. What year did I say this was?

7. Digested lists hate HTML mail

Oh yeah, so they do. So they just rip out the formatting, as does Yahoo! No biggie.



So there. I just do not see what the fuss is about. I own several Yahoo lists, and moderate another. All are set to accept HTML. Yahoo kindly checks each message for viruses. My antivirus kindly checks each one as it is downloaded. My list clients can use whatever formatting they fancy or is the default on their e-mail program. And I don't have to worry about it.

Alex Netherton
Blue Ridge Discovery