Unusual weather, even for New England.  Right at the time that we normally walk the dogs (6:00 a.m.) there was a thunderstorm complete with heavy downpours.  The dogs weren't having any of it, but we gave it the old college try (in two separate installments) and Alexis had to walk the 3/4 of a mile to where she parks her car anyway, so we're soaked.  At least it's not cold!

Charlie told me that since the river is flooding, perhaps I'd let him swim in it.  Poor guy, I wish we could spend a week doing whatever he wanted.  Swimming and sleep mostly.  Beats work any day.

Hopefully the dogs got done what they needed to, cause that's their only chance until lunch.

This rather large (for New England) beetle came trundling in to the hospital garage a couple days ago.   Another similar-sized beetle was caught elsewhere in the zoo yesterday, and I want to go look at it and see if it can be identified.  They may be relatives of the reddish-brown stag beetle, a large beetle known to live in Boston.   If this is a stag beetle it's probably a female, judging by her relatively small mandibles.

Yet again I will prevaricate on the kindness of the entomologists reading this for the sake of two-winged (true) flies.  This time an anonymous commenter wants to know if there is a dichotomous key to dipteran larvae out there, and how to obtain it.

Thanks in advance!

Hey movie fans!  I just posted a nasty review of Natural Born Killers over at soylent_screen!

If you likewise experienced hate, read it to commiserate! 
If you saw and liked the flick, head on by and see what made me sick! 
If you abstained and saved your money, just go over and read the funny! 
Maybe I'm dumb, or maybe just tired--maybe I just don't "get" satire. 
Maybe I liked it and just lied--tell you what, why don't you decide?

I promise the review itself does not rhyme.  Friend soylent_screen to read my reviews without poetry links.

Stinking Chamomile  Anthemis cotula

As fate would have it, my snapshot alarm went off right as I was examining a plant I'd never seen before.  Its location carried an obvious pice of information.  It was growing in the "Contact Yard," the little corral where children, sheep, and goats can all mingle.  This meant that this plant was unpalatable to goats, an attribute shared by relatively few growing things, or things at all for that matter.  I suspected its identity from reading field guides, and did what I always do when I encounter a plant or fungus with the word "stink" in its name:  I took a big sniff of it.  (I can't seem to find it, but somewhere there's a pic of me getting a big whiff of a Phallus ravenelli) Yup, they smell real bad.  Unsurprisingly, they are reportedly pollinated by flies and beetles, but repel bees, who tend to share our anthropocentric view of what smells good.

This plant is fairly closely related to chamomile and pineapple weed, and is even likewise used as a tea by some people.  I'd advise against it, based on the odor alone, plus the fact that many people seem to be allergic it.  An invasive weed outside of its southern European range, Anthemis cotula likes to grow in claylike soil, in direct sunlight--both of which were conditions I found it enjoying today.  Like many weeds it goes by a long list of common names, including many that it shares with entirely unrelated plants, such as "mayweed," and "dog fennel."  I prefer stinking chamomile, as it describes its appearance both visual and olfactory.

Sources and further reading:

Plants for a Future: Edible, medicinal and useful plants for a healthier world.  Anthemis cotula.

Calflora Taxon Report 392

Connecticut Botanical Society

Invasion by alien Anthemis cotula L. in a biodiversity hotspot: Release from native foes or relief from alien friends?
An interesting paper suggesting that this species becomes invasive in part due to helpful mycorhyzzal fungi in the soil of the lands it invades.

Here's an all-too familiar hypothetical situation for dog owners:

A person is walking their dog on a leash, when an off-leash dog approaches.  Despite their best efforts to prevent it, the dogs fight, and the off-leash dog is injured.

Is the owner of the leashed dog responsible for the vet bills of the off-leash dog?  Should the leashed dog be considered a dangerous or vicious dog (these may be legal terms depending on jurisdiction, requiring muzzles or probationary periods and so on)?

 

Tired dogs back from swimming.

You may have noticed me conspicuously NOT complaining about the weather.  This is because I like summer weather, even when it's hot and sweaty and hard to work in.  Last night I was driving to a friend's birthday party after 10 p.m. and the guy on the radio said it was 81 degrees.  All day long it has been gray and humid and the air felt so FULL like it was going to burst.  About five minutes ago--about 30 seconds after Alexis and I agreed that the air felt pregnant and when was the rain going to start already--it burst.  The sounds of the storm drowned out our playing of Rock Band.  The lightning strikes are all within a mile of our house, and some sound like they are much closer.  It sounds like someone beating on huge pieces of sheet metal.  Finally the rain is here, soaking the streets.   It's all so beautiful.  If I lived (as I probably will someday) in the south, I'd be afraid.  It seems that every time there's a storm there someone dies.  In New England we view thunderstorms as welcome respites from the heat.  I love them.

I have to go rock out some more, Alexis commands it.

If you haven't seen the question yet, go to the previous post first.

What's this?

Apparently, every year the Ailanthus tree outside the hospital sends suckers through the foundation and up into the student library radiator.  If we didn't pluck them, the tree would rip the side off the building.

Of all the sidewalk-splitting weeds, tree of heaven may be the champion.

I feel like I'm starting to make some progress on the stable fly thing.   My online research and recent buying decisions conflated nicely today, when I discovered that the inexpensive traps I bought were found to be the most effective out of six different models tested. (In a journal of veterinary entomology.)  Then I went to where one of the keepers had installed one correctly yesterday, and it had caught quite a few flies already.

Another robber fly landed on my hand today.  What's up with that?

As the zoo pest control guy I find myself interacting with the guests much more often than I thought I would be.  It's a good thing I actually know a bit about animals.  At any moment I could be discussing why beavers build dams or why there are camels in Mongolia.

While at Stone Zoo yesterday, a green heron landed in an unused water feature near where I was working.  There were maybe 20 people nearby at picnic tables completely oblivious.  It was the first green heron I've seen this year, and the first one I've seen at all in maybe 5 or 6 years.  Stoneham isn't Boston, but it's in the 128 loop, so it's damn close.  I have seen them at Mt. Auburn, which pretty much  counts.