Browsing Category "Uncategorized"
Recycling Tom
By     |    Nov 27, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized     |    No Comments

Recycling Tom

  (Photo: http://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/wattles-caruncles-snoods/) I don’t know how that turkey ended up dead on the side of the highway. It’s possible that his tiny mind was occupied with the pursuit of a female. (Human males are prone to similar, sometimes fatal distractions, of course, but that’s another story.) Perhaps he was particularly despondent and, lacking easy access to a nearby bridge, leapt out in front of a tandem trailer. Or perhaps, […]

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Farming Filtration in RI Waters
By     |    Nov 18, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized     |    3 Comments

Farming Filtration in RI Waters

  Do oysters cause disease? Or, can oysters be the magic bullet that cleans up polluted waters? Which is better for fish habitat: an oyster bed, or one of eel grass? Dr. Robert Rheault, Executive Director of the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association (ecsga.org), discussed those questions in conjunction with the showing of the film “Shell Shocked: saving oysters to save ourselves” at URI recently. The event was sponsored by […]

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Symmetry and Artistry: RI Audubon Hosts Annual Bird and Wildlife Carving Exposition
By     |    Nov 10, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized     |    No Comments

Symmetry and Artistry: RI Audubon Hosts Annual Bird and Wildlife Carving Exposition

  Note: SaNfaP is on Facebook! Go to facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie and click on “Follow” to receive pictures, facts, and more about the natural world. Then suggest that your friends do the same. They’ll thank you.  -HM “I take everything away that isn’t a bird, and what’s left is a bird.” Hmmm… if that instruction on bird carving sounds a bit too simple to be true, that’s because it is. And champion […]

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What Lies Beneath: URI Surveys Rhode Island Waters
By     |    Nov 1, 2014
Posted in: BioBlitz, Blue Crab, Natural Science, Outdoor writing, Uncategorized, URI, URI Graduate School of Oceanography, US Fish and Wildlife, USFW     |    2 Comments

What Lies Beneath: URI Surveys Rhode Island Waters

  Note: SaNfaP is on Facebook! Go to facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie and click on “Follow” to receive pictures, facts, and more about the natural world. Then suggest that your friends do the same. They’ll thank you.  -HM It takes Captain Tom Puckett a moment to decide on the most unusual fish he’s brought aboard the URI research vessel Cap’n Bert. Tall, lanky, and sporting curly gray hair, Puckett has been responsible for […]

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Hatching a New Group: Ocean State Bird Club
By     |    Sep 16, 2014
Posted in: Caterpillars of Eastern North America, land trust, National Audubon Society, Natural Science, Ocean State Bird Club, Outdoor writing, RINHS, Steere Hill Land Trust, Uncategorized     |    5 Comments

Hatching a New Group: Ocean State Bird Club

It’s dusk. A dirt parking lot (well, more like a clearing of dirt) retains a few cars, and further back there is a small circle of people sporting binoculars. They wear the full palette of the bird watcher’s color wheel: khaki, tattered khaki, dirty khaki, spanking new khaki, and new khaki stressed to look old. (We are nothing if not consistent.) A bearded young man in the circle speaks to […]

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Diamonds in the Surf
By     |    Aug 15, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized, URI, URI Graduate School of Oceanography     |    No Comments

Diamonds in the Surf

Note: “Science and Nature for a Pie” is now on Facebook! Visit www.facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie and “like” the page for ongoing discussions, photos, and factoids! Looking at them was like seeing diamonds scattered in the shoreline. They were translucent, and sparkled brilliantly in the wet sand as the sun caught them. There were thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, running the entire 1.5-mile length of Napatree Point Conservation Area. Shimmering, sparkling, a king’s […]

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An Antenna on Napatree? What is this neighborhood coming to?
By     |    Aug 3, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized     |    No Comments

An Antenna on Napatree? What is this neighborhood coming to?

Note: “Science and Nature for a Pie” is now on Facebook! Visit www.facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie and “like” the page for ongoing discussions, photos, and factoids! Taylor Swift’s cell phone tower? Some new spying gadgetry from the NSA? Wrong on both counts. Then why on earth is a 40-foot tall antenna rising from the dunes at Napatree Point Conservation Area in Westerly, RI? Fear not. This is an instrument being used by doctoral […]

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The Mid-Summer Moth Mingle
By     |    Jul 27, 2014
Posted in: BioBlitz, Caterpillars of Eastern North America, Franklin Farm, Light pollution, Moth Mingle, Moths, National Audubon Society, National Audubon Society Field Guide to Insects and Spiders, Natural Science, RINHS, Roger Williams Park Zoo, Uncategorized, URI, USFW     |    2 Comments

The Mid-Summer Moth Mingle

Note: “Science and Nature for a Pie” is now on Facebook! Like the page for regular updates on new stories, photos, and other discussions about the wonders of the outdoor world! www.facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie . If moths and butterflies thought like human children, they would be embroiled in a never-ending case of sibling rivalry. “Why do the butterflies get all the attention?” the moths would moan. “People never even notice us!” The […]

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What is a Gall, after All?
By     |    Jul 15, 2014
Posted in: Kettle Pond, mites, National Audubon Society, National Audubon Society Field Guide to Insects and Spiders, Natural Science, Rhode Island DEM, RINHS, Roger Williams Park Zoo, Uncategorized, US Fish and Wildlife, USFW, wasps, Writing     |    No Comments

What is a Gall, after All?

Note: “Science and Nature for a Pie” is now on Facebook!  Stop by and “like” the page for ongoing stories, photos, and discussions about the great outdoors! https://www.facebook.com/scienceandnatureforapie “You have some gall saying that to me!” “Man, that guy galls me!” It’s difficult to determine precisely how common these expressions still are, but most will recognize the idea that having “gall” or to “gall” someone is not a good thing. […]

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Chowder, Clam Cakes, and Cigarettes: Rocky Point Shore Dinner Hall
By     |    Jun 24, 2014
Posted in: Rocky Point Park, Uncategorized, Writing     |    4 Comments

Chowder, Clam Cakes, and Cigarettes: Rocky Point Shore Dinner Hall

Note: The 2014 BioBlitz was held at what’s left of one of Rhode Island’s legendary attractions: Rocky Point Amusement Park.  That story is in a different post.  What follows here is a memoir of my time spent  working as a busboy at my first job, at the Shore Dinner Hall. The story goes that river boat captain William Winslow brought the genteel set to Rocky Point in the 1840’s for […]

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