1. pets
2. birds

A Quarterly Journal of Natural History
Spring 2015 V20N1 $2.50
The
Methow Naturalist
Happiness is more often found among those who are highly cultivated in their hearts and
minds and only have a moderate share of external goods. Aristotle 310 BCE
How the Evolution of Grass
Changed the World
Also:
Nesting Strategies
Mixing Fire & Water
Supernova Remnants
How Leaves of Grass
Remade the World
by Dana Visalli
One would not think that the appearance of the
spindly family of flowering plants that we call the
grasses could over time force the great forests of the
world into a massive retreat, spread wildfire to the
four corners of the earth, increase the primary productivity of the oceans and the amount of oxygen in
the atmosphere, initiate the return of ocean nutrients
to the continents, and then, after all that, make human civilization possible through the production of
energy-rich grains. But that is exactly what the
grasses did.
It all started with carbon dioxide levels plummeting in the atmosphere, from over 1000 parts per
million (ppm) 60 million years ago to the current
levels of 250-400 ppm. Carbon dioxide is the primary building block used in the process of photosynthesis to make plant tissues and produce sugar, and
the decrease in its abundance over time was a crisis
for the plant kingdom. Plants had to adapt to these
lower levels or perish.
It is thought that the reason carbon dioxide decreased in the atmosphere during the Cenozoic Era,
which lasted from 65 million years ago to 2.5 million years ago, is because the early Cenozoic was a
time of major mountain-building on Earth. In particular, the continental plate carrying the subcontinent
of India on it slowly collided with Asia between 55
and 50 million years ago, creating the world’s highest and most extensive mountain range, the Himalayas. This exposed massive quantities of unweathered
rock to the atmosphere. Over a series of several
chemical steps, carbon dioxide reacts with fresh rock
and then washes to the oceans, where some of it is
sequestered as sediment, decreasing the quantity
available to the biosphere.
Plants have some ability to adjust to varying
amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by altering the number of stomata on the leaves. Stomata
(which means ‘mouths’ in Greek) are microscopic
pores that control the passage of gases into and out
of the plant. As carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
decreased, stomata increased. But there are other
consequences to having large numbers of holes in
the leaves, one of which is increased evaporation of
water. Thus plants can only employ so many stomata
before water retention becomes impossible.
Most of the 300,000 or so species of flowering
plants on earth (95% of them) capture carbon dioxide by binding it to a 3-carbon molecule inside the
leaf cells, and are therefore called C3 plants. When
carbon dioxide levels are relatively low and oxygen
levels are high this process malfunctions, and plants
start binding oxygen to the 3-carbon molecule instead of carbon dioxide, a process known as photorespiration. This basically shuts down photosynthesis and plant growth.
The grasses are a relatively young family of
flowering plants; they first appeared about 70 million years ago (grass flowers are not showy because
they are wind pollinated). It was the grasses that first
came up with a different chemical means of binding
carbon dioxide when it is present at low concentraDana Visalli is the editor of The Methow Naturalist
If this box is checked your subscription is due or expired, see back cover; subscriptions are $10 or more/year
great herds of grass-eating ungulates, the same process was under way.
While there is a co-evolutionary relationship between grasses and grazers which enhances the viability of both, grasses also evolved strategies to
protect themselves from being eaten. Foremost
among these was the uptake of silica from the soil
and building it into the structure of the plant. Silica
is basically glass; it is hard, indigestible and abrasive. Grasses take up silica from the soil in unusually
high amounts and deposit it in their leaves, some of
it in the form of glassy spines called phytoliths
(‘plant rocks’) along the leaf edges. The impact on
Graph shows C4 species (upper line) absorbing more CO2 that
grazers was so intense that over time they developed
C3 plants (lower line) at low levels of CO2 in the atmosphere
a new type of teeth, called hypsodont teeth that have
tions so that oxygen is not inadvertently captured.
a high crown and grow continuously, to replace the
Plants with this capacity are called C4 plants, and
portion worn away by constantly chewing though
while they constitute only 5% of all flowering plant
glass.
species, they account for 30% of terrestrial biomass
Like all plants, grasses accelerate the weathering
production. They are a very successful group, and
of silica. However, in contrast to most other memmost of them are grassbers of the Plant Kinges.
dom, up to 15% of the
C4 photosynthesis
dry weight of grasses
allows grasses to fix
consists of phytoliths
carbon efficiently un(silica incorporated
der conditions low carinto cell walls). The
bon dioxide
solubility of phytoliths
concentrations. About
in water is twice that
15 million years ago
of abiotic mineral silicarbon dioxide levels
cate, so once grasses
fell below 400 ppm,
became a dominant
and grasses spread
force on land, far more
widely after that time.
dissolved silica was
Shaded areas show where the Grass Family dominates, up to 40% of the land
There are no C4 trees,
washed to the sea than
which means that in some environmental conditions
previously.
grass would have a biochemical advantage. In addiIt just so happens that there was rapid increase in
tion, grasses have co-evolved with fire and are highdiatoms in the world’s oceans at the same time that
ly adapted to it; in fact they encourage fire. Their
grasses were spreading across the land. Diatoms are
fine, fast-drying leaf structure ignites easily and cara form of photosynthetic, food-producing algae that
ries fire well, so as the grasses spread so did wildconstruct intricate shells made out of silica. Without
fire, which kills trees but most often leaves grasses
Continued on page 10....
alive and well (under-ground). Over time grasses
have continued to displace forests until today wild
grasses cover 20% of the Earth’s land surface. Domestic grasses cover another 20%, with forests reduced to 30% cover.
Grasses are edible and nutritious for some herbivores. As savannahs and grasslands spread across
Africa and the Americas, herbivorous animals adapted to a grass diet. By 15 million years ago grass
grazers made up 50% of all North American fauna,
and by 8 million years ago about 80% of all fauna
were grass specialists. Obviously in Africa, with its
A silicaceous (glass) spine on a grass stem
3
FIRE & WATER: STREAM PROCESSES
AND THE ROLE OF FIRE
by Gina McCoy
In our previous article on “Fire, fire suppression
and watershed functioning” we discussed short- and
medium-term changes to the watershed-scale production of the two primary watershed products streamflow and sediment - following large fires.
Fire also plays a significant role in long-term, cyclic
pattern of sediment and wood delivery to the stream
system. Large wood is the third major physical component of the stream system. Turns out, large wood
inputs to the stream system also are linked to fire
disturbance. In a nutshell, fire disturbance tends to
increase inputs of all three major physical components of the stream system.
Watershed zones, sediment supply and stream types
alluvial (constrained) channels are controlled by materials they cannot mobilize, such as bedrock or
large boulders. This is the dominant channel type in
the source areas the watershed. Alluvial (or unconstrained) channels, located within response zones,
are formed in sediments previously transported and
stored by the stream and are characterized by the
presence of well-developed floodplains. The boundaries of these channels can be adjusted by the forces
inherent in the streamflow.
Constrained stream channels are very stable and
resistant to change, whereas alluvial channels adjust
to changes in streamflow, sediment or large wood
inputs. The transition from non-alluvial to alluvial
channels encompasses a spectrum from bedrockcontrolled to sand/bedded streams that move bed
material at all flow stages. Channels within the
transport zone display an intermediate level of stability, wherein most sediment delivered from upstream transports directly through, leaving the
channel virtually unchanged from one year to the
next. Adjustments occur only in response to large,
relatively infrequent floods. Transport channels are
characterized by flat, coarse-textured beds and poorly-developed floodplains.
Due to space limitations, the effects of increased
fine sediment inputs to stream channels following
fire will not be addressed. Excessive fine sediment
Stream processes are fundamentally driven by
the movement and storage of sediment, so we will
follow the sediment through the watershed. On the
large scale, mountainous watersheds can be roughly
segregated into three zones: sediment source areas in
steep, unstable, deeply dissected terrain, transport
zones through intermediate areas where slopes are
more stable but valleys are still relatively steep and
narrow, and response areas where valleys are wide
enough to accommodate floodplains. Stream characteristics and behavior within these zones are strikingly different.
For the purposes of discussing stream processes,
there is one overridingly important concept. Non4
concentration and sediment transport. To anthropomorphize: alluvial streams ‘seek’ equilibrium. How they
do so is the beautiful and complex heart of stream geomorphology, which cannot be properly explored in this
article.
Stream reaches in dynamic equilibrium are the
most physically and biologically diverse components
of the stream systems, and the most sensitive to disturbance. Alluvial channels within mountainous watersheds such as the Methow are primarily cobble/gravelbedded. Such channels, when in properly-functioning
condition, tend to initiate bedload movement at bankfull flow, or with a frequency of roughly 1 ½ to 2
years. Over time, frequent, relatively small floods have
the greatest influence on the usual form and behavior
of naturally-functioning channels and account for the
majority of sediment transport. Bet you thought it was
the really big floods that
matter most.
While we are thinking
in analogies: large wood
within a cobble-gravel system such as the Methow is a
critical structural component
that can be likened to steel
reinforcing bar in concrete;
it is the component that provides tensile strength. Its
presence is just as important
to the functioning of the system as rebar is to concrete.
Additionally, it greatly influences sediment behavior and stream character by
providing roughness that reduces the velocity of high
flows.
Starting From the Top
Infrequent mass wasting within the upper watershed dominates the delivery of sediment from steep
Those of us living near the Methow River can hear cobbles rolling
down the river at higher water levels.
can have significant aquatic ecosystem effects, but its
effect on physical stream
processes is limited and of
short duration. Fine sediment deposition is key to
riparian functioning and
long-term valley-building
processes, however, in terms
of stream processes and
channel change, the transport and deposition of coarse
sediment comprising the
streambed is where the action is.
Coarse sediment moves
in pulses of short duration
and limited distance. Think of streambeds as conveyor
belts for the bed material. These are turned on and off
by the tractive force (‘force used to generate motion’)
of the water; the switch is flipped by the fluctuating
depth of flow at a given location: ‘on’ above a critical
depth and ‘off’ below that. Increased runoff following
widespread fire can result in the conveyor belt staying
‘on’ longer, increasing sediment delivery throughout
much of the stream system. The amount and size of
bedload moved may be limited by the cumulative hydraulic power available at high flows (‘energy-limited’), or by the amount of sediment available of a size
that can be moved (‘supply-limited’).
However, a third configuration exists, involving an
alluvial channel that balances available energy with
available sediment. The result is dynamic equilibrium,
with a reach-scale balance between erosion and deposition. Over periods between major disturbances, the
quantities of sediment delivered to and exported from a
reach in equilibrium are essentially balanced. This is
possible because alluvial channels can adjust their
boundaries in ways that increase or decrease energy
Continued on page 14.....
Continued on page 12....
Large woody debris in the Twisp River
5
Strategies for Successful Nesting
Don’t Come Easy
By Eddie Torr
It would seem that birds
can rapidly build-up huge
simply have to show up when
populations. For example,
the weather warms, build
half a million northern fowl
their nests and lay eggs to
mites have been extracted
coincide with the increasing
from a single nest.
summer food supply. The
Females of most bird
first indication that the situaspecies have subdued colortion is more complex than
ation that offers them some
this appeared when studies
camouflage protection from
showed that most birds lay
predators, especially in contheir eggs too late for the offtrast to more flamboyantly
spring to profit fully from the
colored males. But this is in
seasonal peak of food abunpart due to the fact that fedance; but only the very earlimale birds are often more
est nesting birds achieve the
susceptible to predation in
highest success in raising
the course of their reproductheir young. A large body of
tive activities. They are usudata on survival of nestlings
ally the primary nest
had demonstrated a continubuilders, and then the primaExamples of nests- center: woodpecker. outer, clockwise from up- ry incubators, at which time
ous fall in prospects right
per left: killdeer, hawk, vireo, finch, kingfisher, oriole, cliff swallow they are unmoving targets on
from the start of the season.
The observation that the majority of the parents were
the nest for 10 to 30 days. In addition, they have to
too late to profit from what appeared to be the optigather the nutritional resources not only for their
mal time for having their young in the nest, despite
own activities but also to produce the fertilized eggs
the great selective advantage to those that breed earof multiple offspring. Thus it has been found that
ly, led to the hypothesis that ‘there must therefore be
laying cannot begin until resources has become sufsome counteracting disadvantage of early breeding.’
ficiently abundant for each female to find enough
The primary dynamic that the simplistic view of
food to build up her nutritional reserves without risk
nesting overlooks is that of natural selection—the
to herself. It is for this reason that migratory birds in
continuation and evolution of every species taken as
our area do not immediately begin nest-building upa whole-- is based on ‘death before breeding’ for
on arrival to their nesting grounds.
most of the individuals of that species. Only those
The advantages of prior experience immediately
individuals that are the ‘fittest’ for their current envibecome clear. Birds that are returning to previously
ronment survive potential early death from parasites,
successful nesting sites, where they know the terpredation or starvation to successfully reproduce.
rain, the potential predators and vicissitudes of the
To offer one graphic example of the often overfood supply need to spend far less energy to establooked challenge of parasitism, at least 2500 species
lish their territory and build a nest than does an inexof mites from 40 families are closely associated with
perienced bird or pair. Every successful nest is the
birds, occupying all conceivable habitats in the nests
result of successful responses to a multitude of chaland on the bodies of their hosts. No avian taxon is
lenges.
free from a mite associate because even those that
lack feather mites, such as penguins, are attacked by
Eddie Torr is a retired ornithologist living in the Methow
Valley.
ticks. These mites have short generation times and
6
Early February
Early March
Late March, early April
Late March, Early April
Early April
Middle of May
May
May
Late May, Early June
Early June
Early June
Early June
Early June
June
June
June and July
Late June, July
Canada Goose
Golden Eagle
Raven
Say’s Phoebe
Harlequin
Western Bluebird
Dusky (Blue) Grouse
Rufous Hummingbird
Western Tanager
Warblers
Empidonax Flycatchers
Gray Catbird
Cedar Waxwing
Common Nighthawk
White-crowned Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Time of Egg Laying
Great Horned Owl
Species
Timing of Nesting for Selected Methow Birds
Our earliest nester; the primary reason may be that it is very difficult to learn to hunt
at night; fledglings are fed and taught hunting skills through September.
Canada geese are large birds, so eggs take longer than average to hatch (28 days);
young have to be mature enough to migrate by September.
As with geese, eagles are large birds so must initiate nesting early. The availability of
newborn fawns in early June, when eaglets are growing large, may be a factor.
Ravens are opportunistic feeders; nests of other birds are plentiful and can be raided
in early May when raven young are feeding.
Say’s phoebes are able to nest early, even though they are insectivores, because they
are versatile feeders, catching prey both in the air and on the ground.
Harlequins need full leafing out of vegetation in spring for nest concealment; females
must get back to the ocean in September before molt renders them flightless.
Western bluebirds arrive early, as soon as there is bare ground on south slopes, but
they don’t nest until air temperatures allow an adequate insect hatch.
Dusky grouse live on conifer needles in winter, which are nutritionally poor. They
need April in the shrub-steppe to gain the reserves necessary for eggs in May.
Hummingbird nestlings are fed a regurgitated slurry of flower nectar and insects;
both have to be present in abundance for successful rearing.
Tanagers arrive in early May and nest in early June. They time the feeding of
nestlings to the peak population of forest insects.
Warblers are primarily insectivores, and they time their nesting to the peak of insect
populations in the nesting region.
A concentrated source of nutrients in the form of flying insects is required for the
work of nesting and raising young, and these peak in early summer.
Over 50% of a catbird’s diet is fruit; thus they time the feeding of nestlings to the
ripening of your June-bearing strawberries.
Cedar waxwings are primarily frugivores, they time their rearing of nestlings to
when small wild fruits are ripe (they also feed some insects to their young).
Nighthawks feed entirely on flying insects, and therefore are dependent upon
adequately warm temperatures for mass insect flights at dawn and dusk.
In our area white-crowned sparrows nest in the alpine zone of the high mountains,
where neither the sparrows nor spring arrive until June.
The goldfinch is associated with thistles, which bloom in July. Their nest is constructed of thistle down, and they feed regurgitated thistle seeds to their young.
Reason
Spring Bird Calendar
April 1-15
Ruddy ducks return to the marshes in the first week of April, accompanied by a major passage of northern harriers.
Killdeer, Say’s phoebes, and robins begin nesting. Golden-crowned kinglets move through residential gardens and
Williamson’s sapsuckers appear in the larch forests. Golden eagles begin laying. The second week is marked by increased movement along the lakes; the first wood ducks, greater yellowlegs and ospreys appear. On the benchlands
northern shrikes and snow buntings have all but left. The first vesper sparrows, yellow-rumped warblers and red-naped
sapsuckers arrive. White-throated swifts and rock wrens return to the valley’s cliffs while crows begin nesting in the
deciduous bottomlands.
April 16-30
This is the time to watch and listen for flocks of sandhill cranes overhead. Cooper’s hawks and dark-eyed junco migrations peak early in this period, and the first turkey vultures, pipits, orange-crowned warblers and Brewer’s sparrows appear. Towards the end of the month an often-spectacular passage of white-crowned sparrows begins, and most of the
fox and Lincoln’s sparrows move through. Cinnamon teal, northern shovelers, soras and spotted sandpipers return to
the marshes, while large numbers of American widgeons grace the lakes. Rufous and calliope hummingbirds appear at
currant blossoms and western kingbirds take up stations on power lines. In ponderosa pine forests flickers and magpies
are at the peak of laying while white-headed woodpeckers begin to excavate nest holes.
May 1-15
In the fields and along the shores the first killdeer chicks appear. Large flocks of white-crowned sparrows seem to fill
every available thicket, watched closely by sharp-shinned hawks. Common poorwills arrive, while dusky and
Hammond’s flycatchers arrive in their appropriate habitats, and barn swallows and house wrens appear in suburban gardens. In the second week of May, harlequin ducks, soras and Townsend’s solitaires begin laying, while an array of insectivores--Cassin’s and warbling vireos, yellow and Wilson’s warblers, Bullock’s orioles, brown-headed cowbirds and
western tanagers--appear. The first young starlings fledge and the white-throated swifts begin their spectacular aerial
courtships.
May 16-31
In mid-May black-chinned hummingbirds arrive, while rufous hummingbirds begin their aerial courtship displays. In
the marshes the pied-billed grebes and yellow-headed blackbirds are laying; in the sagebrush Brewer’s sparrows begin
to lay just as the lark sparrows return. On the valley floor eastern kingbirds, veeries, yellow-breasted chats and lazuli
buntings return, while the montane forests greet their first olive-sided flycatchers and Townsend’s and MacGillivray’s
warblers. Towards the end of May Barrow’s goldeneye ducklings and dusky grouse chicks appear, while Swainson’s
thrushes, gray catbirds, cedar waxwings, red-eyed vireos, American redstarts and finally common nighthawks and willow flycatchers arrive. The first song sparrows fledge while most Lewis’ woodpeckers are still laying.
June 1-15
In the first few days of June the eggs of Williamson’s sapsuckers are hatching while western kingbirds, barn swallows,
and western tanagers are laying. At the same time most mourning doves are incubating eggs and orioles are building
nests; starlings, meadowlarks and Brewer’s blackbrids are all busy starting second clutches. By the second week of
June male Barrow’s goldeneyes have disappeared, the first broods of ruffed grouse and spotted sandpipers appear, and
white-headed woodpeckers, yellow-breasted chats and white-crowned sparrows are laying.
June 16-30
Around the middle of June alpine and subalpine species such as American pipits, winter wrens and hermit thrushes begin laying, while house finches are producing second clutches at lower elevations. Male common mergansers leave at
this time, and the first adult greater yellowlegs return from the north. Red-naped sapsucker nests are easily located during this period because of the incessant noise of the young. Western wood-pewees are laying while calliope hummingbird eggs are hatching. Young California quail and juvenile magpies appear in the orchards and farmland; in the forests
mountain chickadees are starting second clutches. Horned larks and mountain bluebirds are just starting to nest in the
alpine, now that most of the snow has melted. By the end of June most three-toed woodpeckers and barn swallows have
fledged young, and house wrens and western bluebirds are laying second clutches. The last calliope hummingbird displays occur while the first migrating solitary sandpipers appear in the valley bottom.
Excerpted, with minor adjustments from the exceptionally useful book Birds of Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
by the Canning brothers, 1987, out of print but still available at Amazon
Leaves of Grass
Old Woodrat's Stinky House (excerpts)
Walt Whitman
Gary Snyder
A child said, What is the grass?
fetching it to me with full hands.
How could I answer the child?
I do not know what it is any more than he.
Us critters hanging out together
something like three billion years.
Three hundred something million years
the solar system swings around
with all the Milky Way -
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition,
out of hopeful green stuff woven.
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
a scented gift and remembrance designedly dropt,
bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we
may see and remark, and say Whose?
Ice ages come one hundred fifty million years apart
last about ten million
then warmer days return A venerable desert woodrat nest of twigs and shreds
plastered down with ambered urine
a family house in use eight thousand years,
and four thousand years of using writing equals
the life of a bristlecone pine -
Or I guess the grass is itself a child,
the produced babe of the vegetation.
Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike
in broad zones and narrow zones,
growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff,
I give them the same, I receive them the same.
A spoken language works
for about five centuries,
lifespan of a Douglas fir;
big floods, big fires, every couple hundred years,
a human life lasts eighty,
a generation twenty.
Hot summers every eight or ten,
four seasons every year
twenty-eight days for the moon
day/night, the twenty-four hours
and a song might last four minutes,
a breath is a breath.
And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.
Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
it may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
it may be if I had known them I would have loved them,
it may be you are from old people, or from offspring
taken soon out of their mothers' laps.
Great tall woodrat heaps. Shale flakes, beads, sheep scats,
flaked points thorns.
Piled up for centuries, placed under overhangs.
at the bottom, antique fecal pellets;
orange-yellow urine-amber.
Shreds of every bush that grew eight thousand years ago.
This grass is very dark to be
from the white heads of old mothers,
darker than the colorless beards of old men,
dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.
O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues,
and I perceive they do not come from
the roofs of mouths for nothing.
I wish I could translate the hints
about the dead young men and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers,
and the offspring taken soon out of their laps.
What do you think has become of the young and old men?
And what do you think has become of the women and children?
They are alive and well somewhere,
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait
at the end to arrest it, and ceas'd the moment life appear'd.
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed,
And luckier.
9
Cottontail say, ‘Woodrat makes me puke!
Shitting on his grandmother’s blankets.
Stinking everything up, pissing on everything.
Coyote says, ‘You people should stay put here.
Learn your place, do good things.
Me, I’m traveling on.’
Grass, continued from page 3
ophores and dinoflagellates) prefer warmer water.
Thus the rapid increase of diatoms that occurred
about 8 million years ago greatly increased the productivity and fecundity of the Earth’s oceans. Grasses were doing the same thing on land. While in some
habitats they replaced trees, in hot, dry areas their
capacity for C4 photosynthesis allowed them to increase the productivity of previously impoverished
ecosystems.
The great hordes of salmon that until recently
swarmed along the coastlines of the mid- and highlatitudes and then carried the abundant ocean nutrients in their bodies back to high country when they
ascended rivers to spawned probably would not exist
without the extreme power-boost that diatoms gave
to the marine ecosystems. Salmon are high-energy
fish that require high net primary productivity and
high dissolved oxygen content in the water, and diatoms supply both. In fact the first salmon ancestor is
dated at 5 million years old, soon after grasses on
land and diatoms in the sea established their dominance.
Grass had one more trick up its sheath. Grasses
hastened the thinning of the forests in Africa and the
spread of the savannahs beginning 8 million years
ago, and in the process forced at least one species of
primate out of the trees and onto the land. After a
multi-million year evolutionary journey this new
line of terrestrial primates stood upright, developed a
big brain, thought things over, and then late in its
evolutionary history began to cultivate certain plants
for food. The primary plants that this hominoid species now toils all over the world to grow, carefully
nurturing them, supplying them with nutrients and
water, protecting them from herbivores and tending
to their every whim, are the grasses wheat, rice, and
corn. By harnessing the brain and brawn of this unsuspecting primate, grasses have become the most
widespread family of plants on Earth.
A diatom bloom off Alaska, visible from space
silica in solution in the ocean there could be no diatoms. Diatoms are not bit-players; they produce
about half of all of the net primary productivity in
the world’s oceans (the base of the marine food
chain), and they produce about one quarter of the
oxygen in the atmosphere as a by-product of photosynthesis.
While the relationship between the spread of
grasses on land and the increase in diatoms in the
seas is not conclusive, there is considerable scientific
interest in the simultaneity of their coetaneous (‘of
equal age, contemporary’) increase. In the open
ocean, the condition that typically causes diatom
blooms to end is a lack of silicon. Unlike other nutrients, this is a major requirement solely of diatoms,
so it is not recycled in the plankton community in
the way that nitrogen and phosphorus are. Silicon is
usually the first nutrient to be exhausted.
The use of silicon by diatoms is believed by
many researchers to be the key to their ecological
success. In one classic study it was found that diatom dominance was directly related to the availability of silicic acid (silica in an aqueous solution).
When concentrations were above a minimum abundance level, diatoms typically represented more than
70% of the phytoplankton community. Another
study found that, relative to organic cell walls, silica
shells (called frustules) require about 90% less energy to synthesize, a significant saving on the overall
cell energy budget. Others have suggested that the
silica in diatom cell walls acts as an effective pH
buffering agent, facilitating the conversion of bicarbonate (HCO3-) to dissolved CO2. As with plants,
because diatoms produce their own food resources
through photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is the critical
necessary ingredient, and it appears that silica aids in
extracting it from dissolved minerals in sea water.
Diatoms flourish in cold water at high latitudes,
in the near-polar regions. The other marine primary
producers at the base of the food chain (coccolith-
Note: A list of the 107 grass species of the Methow is included
in the online edition of this issue.
Wheat: ‘the staff of life’
10
Grass Species of the Methow
Com m on Nam e
Scientific Nam e
Bearded w heatgrass
Agropyron caninum
Crested w heatgrass
Agropyron cristatum
Intermediate w heatgrass
Agropyron intermedium
Quackgrass
Agropyron repens
Bluebunch w heatgrass
New Scientific Nam e
Elymus caninus
Abudance
Alien?
4
3
Thinopyrum intermedium
4
Elymus repens
Pseudoroegneria spicata
3
Agropyron spicatum
Redtop
Agrostis alba v. alba
Agrostis gigantea
3
Northern bentgrass
Agrostis borealis
Agrostis mertensii
5
a
a
3
Spike bentgrass
Agrostis exarata
3
Alpine bentgrass
Agrostis humilis
3
Idaho bentgrass
Agrostis idahoensis
4
Winter bentgrass
Agrostis scabra
Colonial bentgrass
Agrostis tenuis
Thurber bentgrass
Agrostis thurberiana
Mountain bentgrass
Agrostis variabilis
4
Silver hairgrass
Aira caryophyllea
4
Little meadow -foxtail
Alopecurus aequalis
4
Meadow foxtail
Alopecurus pratensis
4
Oatgrass
Arrhenatherum elatius
5
Rattlesnake grass
Bromus brizaeformis
3
California brome
Bromus carinatus
3
Fringed brome
Bromus ciliatus
Hairy brome
Bromus commutatus
Smooth brome
Bromus inermis
a
3
Agrostis capillaris
4
Agrostis humilis
3
a
a
4
Bromus racemosus
3
a
3
Japanese brome
Bromus japonicus
Ripgut brome
Bromus rigidus
Bromus arvensis
Bromus diandrus
3
a
4
a
Cheatgrass
Common brome
Bromus tectorum
1
a
Bromus vulgaris
3
Bluejoint reedgrass
Calamagrostis canadensis
Narrow -spiked reedgrass
Calamagrostis inexpansa
Purple reedgrass
Calamagrostis purpurascens
4
Pinegrass
Calamagrostis rubescens
3
Woodreed
Cinna latifolia
4
Orchardgrass
Dactylis glomerata
3
Timber oatgrass
Danthonia intermedia
3
Wild oat
Danthonia spicata
Mountain hairgrass
Deschampsia atropurpurea
Tufted hairgrass
Deschampsia cespitosa
4
Annual hairgrass
Deschampsia danthonioides
3
Slender hairgrass
Deschampsia elongata
4
Barnyard grass
Echinochloa crus-galli
3
Canada w ildrye
Elymus canadensis
4
Great basin w ild rye
Elymus cinereus
Leymus cinereus
3
Blue w ild rye
Elymus glaucus
Elyhordeum stebbinsianum
3
Six-w eeks fescue
Festuca bromoides
Vulpia bromoides
4
Idaho fescue
Festuca idahoensis
Small fescue
Festuca microstachys
Western fescue
Festuca occidentalis
Six-w eeks fescue
Festuca octoflora
Vulpia octoflora
3
Sheep fescue
Festuca ovina
Festuca brevipila
3
3
Calamagrostis stricta
4
a
5
Vahlodea atropurpurea
3
a
a
3
Vulpia microstachys
3
4
Red fescue
Festuca rubra
Bearded fescue
Festuca scabrella
3
Spike festuce
Festuca subulata
4
Green fescue
Festuca viridula
3
Tall mannagrass
Glyceria elata
3
Reed mannagrass
Glyceria grandis
3
Festuca altaica, F. campestris
3
a
Grass Species of the Methow page 2
Com m on Nam e
Scientific Nam e
New Scientific Nam e
Abudance
Alien?
Fow l mannagrass
Glyceria striata
Northern sw eetgrass
Hierochloe odorata
Squirrel-tail
Hordeum jubatum
Junegrass
Koeleria cristata
Italian ryegrass
Lolium multiflorum
English ryegrass
Lolium perenne
Oniongrass
Melica bulbosa
3
Little oniongrass
Melica fugax
3
Hartford's melic
Melica harfordii
4
Smith's melic
Melica smithii
3
Show y oniongrass
Melica spectabilis
3
Alaska oniongrass
Melica subulata
Mat muhly
Muhlenbergia richardsonis
Little ricegrass
Oryzopsis exigua
Common w itchgrass
Panicum capillare
Western w itchgrass
Panicum occidentale
Reed canarygrass
Phalaris arundinacea
3
Alpine timothy
Phleum alpinum
3
Timothy
Phleum pratense
3
Alpine bluegrass
Poa alpina
3
Annual bluegrass
Poa annua
3
a
Bulbous bluegrass
Poa bulbosa
2
a
Canada bluegrass
Poa compressa
4
Cusick's bluegrass
Poa cusickii
4
Muttongrass
Poa fendleriana
Slender bluegrass
Poa gracillima
Gray's bluegrass
Poa grayana
Curly bluegrass
Poa incurva
Bog bluegrass
Poa leptocoma
Nervous bluegrass
Poa nervosa
Nevada bluegrass
Poa nevadensis
Lake bluegrass
Poa palustris
Kentucky bluegrass
Poa pratensis
Timberand bluegrass
Poa rupicola
Sandberg bluegrass
3
Anthoxanthum odoratum
4
3
a
Koelaria macrantha
3
L. perenne
4
a
4
a
3
M. squarrosus
Piptatherum exiguum
5
4
4
Dichanthelium acuminatum var. fasciculatum
4
a?
a
4
Poa secunda
4
4
Poa secunda
4
4
4
Poa secunda
3
3
2
Poa glauca ssp. rupicola
4
Poa sandbergii
Poa secunda
3
Pine bluegrass
Poa scabrella
Poa secunda
3
Secund bluegrass
Poa secunda
3
Suksdorf's bluegrass
Poa suksdorfii
4
Weeping alkaligrass
Puccinellia distans
Weak alkaligrass
Puccinellia pauciflora
Rye
Secale cereale
Yellow bristlegrass
Setaria lutescens
Green bristlegrass
Setaria viridis
Bottlebrush squirreltail
Sitanion hystrix
Big squirreltail
Sitanion jubatum
Sand dropseed
Sporobolus cryptandrus
Needle and thread grass
Stipa comata
Hesperostipa comata
3
Lemmon's needlegrass
Stipa lemmonii
Achnatherum lemmonii
4
Western needlegrass
Stipa occidentalis
Achnatherum occidentale
3
Thurber's needlegrass
Stipa thurberiana
Achnatherum thurberianum
4
Spike trisetum
Trisetum spicatum
a
4
Torreyochloa pallida
Setaria pumila
Elymus elymoides
Elymus multisetus
4
4
a
4
a
3
a
3
3
3
3
Compiled by The Methow Naturalist/www.methownaturalist.com/[email protected]
Terms Used in Grass Taxonomy
Spikelet--
Auricle: a projecting flap of tissue, like a small ear-lobe, attached to
the edge of the collar. If auricles are present (often they are not),
they come in pairs, one at each end of the collar (see drawing below).
Collar: the junction of a grass leaf blade and the leaf sheath.
Floret: the tiny reproductive unit or 'flower' of a grass plant, made
up of two bracts called the lemma and the palea, with the male and
female reproductive structures sandwiched in between them.
Glume: a bract at the base of a grass spikelet. Usually there are 2
glumes at the base of every spikelet, as in the illustration of a spikelet in the middle of the page.
Palea--
Inflorescence: the overall flowering head.
Lemma--
Lemma: the larger of the two bracts that make up a grass floret and
enclose the male and female reproductive structures of each floret.
Ligule: a small flap of translucent plant tissue (or sometimes a
fringe of short hairs) located where the leaf meets the stem (see
drawing below).
Lemma-Lemma-Lemma--
Palea: the smaller of the two bracts that make up a grass floret.
Rachilla: the main axis or 'stem' of the flowering stalk, to which the
spikelets are attached.
Glume--
--Glume
Spikelet
Sheath: the lower portion of a leaf, tubular in shape, which surrounds the stem and binds the leaf to the stem.
Spikelet: the basic, most visible unit of the grass inflorescence, usually consisting of two bracts at the base (glumes), and one or more
very small flowers, called florets. In the illustration at top left, the
inflorescence has 9 spikelets, each with many florets. One of the
spikelets is shown enlarged in the middle of the page.
Pubescence
(hair) on stem
One grass floret, with the
lemma and palea sandwiched
together, and 3 anthers plus
two stigmas protruding
13
Fire & Water, continued from page 5
We are entering the transport zone. At some point there
is sufficient width that some of the sediment delivered
from upstream can deposit in the channel. Incipient
alluvial processes occur when vegetation establishes on
sediment deposits. At this point, large wood often becomes a driving factor. Live trees promote floodplain
development and bank stability; downed trees in the
channel increase roughness and energy dissipation, reducing flow velocity and promoting further sediment
deposition. This establishes a positive feedback loop
between physical and biological processes; the finer
the sediment that is captured and stabilized, the more
readily riparian and floodplain plants establish and the
more robust and dense the riparian plant community
Boulders in the source area: ‘material that cannot be mobilized’
can become, leading to greater sediment capture.
hillslopes to the stream system. Materials on slopes
As we have seen in the last year, stream systems
steeper than about 40° are inherently unstable and typiwithin canyons and narrow valleys near source areas
cally held in place by tree roots.
can be severely affected by mass
Such areas are prone to increased
wasting events triggered by runoff
mass wasting following severe disfrom fire-affected, water-repellant
turbance to the stabilizing vegetasoils. We also recently witnessed a
tion. This can result in a cycle of
delayed response to fire: the 2011
accumulation and failure: bedrock
Pearrygin debris flow, initiated
weathering generates mineral soil
from a small area in the headwaters
that is colonized by vegetation; inthat burned intensely in the 2006
stability gradually increases on
Tripod Fire, scoured about 8 miles
overly steep slopes as soil depth
of canyon. The alluvial character
increases; disturbance to vegetation
of the stream was swept away; the
is followed by slope failure and a
canyon reach is now largely bednew round of soil development berock-controlled, and sediment capgins. Thus, fire, as a dominant disture and storage is essentially
turbance mechanism, is often a
‘back to scratch’, from the standsignificant component in the cycle
point of alluvial processes and
of slope failure.
aquatic and riparian ecology.
Such events deliver slugs of
Farther down the watershed,
sediment and organic material to the
the valley widens, slopes continue
channel system, resulting in infreto drop, and smaller, steeper side
The debris flow in Pearrygin Creek in 2011 scoured
the
canyon
down
to
bedrock.
quent, severe disturbance. The cadrainages contribute to the main
pacity of the stream to transport sediment is
channel. In mountainous systems, debris flows from
temporarily overwhelmed, causing an energy-limited
side drainages create fans of coarse material that may
state, and streamflow is choked with sediment. Without
confine the main channel against the opposite valley
further hillslope erosion, subsequent streamflow winnows everything that can be mobilized, moving progressively coarser material as the fines are exhausted.
A wave of sediment propagates downstream, with finer, more readily moved material at the leading edge.
Over successive high flows the wave attenuates, extending in length and lowering in height. After the sediment wave processes through, these channels revert to
a supply-limited state. However, the valley bottom will
have been locally raised by retained wood and sediment too large to be transported away. This is the genesis of boulder cascades deposited over bedrock chutes.
Moving down the channel system, slopes decrease,
Google Earth image of Boulder Creek (the creek comes in from the right)
valley bottoms widen, and bed material becomes finer.
debris flows forcing the Chewuch River up against the opposite valley wall
14
wall. This can be seen at Wolf Creek in the upper
avulsions, or sudden channel relocations, are likely to
Methow and Boulder Creek in the Chewuch. These
occur. Where there is infrastructure in the floodplain,
fans exert significant controls on the stream system.
avulsions are interpreted as bad. However, in a naturalConfined along the toe of the fan is usually a steep
ly-functioning system, such channel changes provide
transport channel. More interestingly, the fan can cremassive inputs of large wood and coarse sediment to
ate a constriction in the valley that during high, sedithe channel system that very quickly becomes highly
ment-moving flows causes up-valley backwatering.
productive habitat. It is a fundamental physical process
Flow velocities are reduced within the backwatered
that rejuvenates the aquatic ecosystem.
zone, resulting in sediment deposition, flattening of the
However, the tributaries most affected by the Carlvalley and channel profile
ton Complex Fire conand the further developtribute to the lower
ment of alluvial processes.
Methow below Carlton.
The Big Valley reach of
This part of the river is
the Methow River is an
mostly confined by old
excellent example.
terraces and so has limitNow we are in the reed ability to adjust.
sponse reach – the main
Steep, small drainages
valley where the channel
along the lower river
has (or had) an extensive
have the potential to defloodplain to work within
liver debris flows to the
and hillslope processes no
mainstem. It is outside
longer dominate. The
the scope of this discuschannel is formed within
sion to address the risks
its own stored sediments.
to infrastructure, however
Where a broad floodplain
it is worth noting that the
is available, the typical
natural systems and proBraided section of the Methow River south of Twisp
alluvial channel form for
cesses are also degraded
cottonwood-dominated cobble/gravel-bedded mountain
in these encounters. It is a lose-lose situation.
rivers such as the Methow is multi-threaded; vegetated
Nevertheless, if mass wasting events do carry to
islands separate one or two major channels and possithe valley bottom, you will have years of fascinating
bly multiple smaller side channels.
channel responses to witness as the waves of sediment
The relative dominance of such channels can shift
process downstream. If the associated woody debris
frequently due to unpredictable sediment deposition
carries through with the sediment (rather than, say, beand development or break up of woody debris jams.
ing trapped behind the highway embankment), comConditions that promote frequent channel change inplex aquatic habitat will develop (pools! gravels!
volve relatively steep gradient, large quantities of
sandy margins! – goodness knows what) that has not
coarse bedload and an abundant supply of wood. Under
been present in that reach of the river for a very long
natural conditions this form can maintain dynamic
time. Look for downstream bar development that may
equilibrium in the periods between major disturbances.
convert to vegetated floodplain. There may be some
However, this is not a highly stable channel form. Signice new whitewater along the toe of the new fan. Upnificant changes to flow, sediment or wood supply can
stream of the fan, the slope of the river may be reinduce disequilibrium, causing either unbalanced eroduced, possibly leading to deposition and bar
sion or deposition.
development. The channel may narrow and become
Large inputs of coarse sediment contributed from
slightly more sinuous. Another slug of fine sediment
fire-affected area can cause a downstream-propagating
will settle in the pool of Azwell dam. Dibs on that for
cascade of channel instability. As sediment transport
farming someday.
capacity is overwhelmed, the channel fills, forcing high
Gina McCoy is an environmental engineer specializing in
flows onto the floodplain and inducing conditions that
stream processes, watershed hydrology and landscape ecolwould otherwise occur only during extreme flooding.
ogy. Sections of this article are excerpted from Chapter 2:
High flow pathways can erode, contributing additional
Stream Processes and Habitat, which she authored, in
sediment to the downstream channel, which in turn can
WDFW’s Stream Habitat Restoration Guidelines.
lose capacity. These are the circumstances under which
15
Tracey W. was out on skis in late December when,
“A group of 6 of us were skiing up the Gunn Ranch ski
trail and came upon some interesting tracks in the
snow on the slope above the trail. After lots of discussion and investigation we all decided that it was ravens
playing in the snow. The wing tips showed clearly in
the snow as did their walking tracks as they headed
back up the slope. There were no rodent tracks, or any
kind of tracks for that matter, associated with it. It was
obvious that a raven, or ravens, were rolling down the
slope and then walking back up to do it again. It was
so fun to picture them doing that.”
I was intrigued to see how our local ‘mystery
plant, Steershead (Dicentra uniflora) would respond to
last summer’s intense fire, so I monitored a site on
Balky Hill where I knew the plant was growing last
year (it would have been dormant by the time of the
fire in mid-July). At this site it was under bitterbrush,
and that shrub was torched during the fire. Checking
the first day of March there
was no Steershead, but on a
return visit on March 7th the
plant picture below was pushing up through the charred
ground.
Jenny M. is writes that on
March 3, “We saw lots of Bitteroot leaves all plump and
ready to go. We saw many
deer - like several herds of 50.
With nothing else to eat the
deer have not left the area but
are grazing the bunchgrass the
moment it appears above
ground; they have also browsed down any new growth
of aspen, willow, etc. They are also eating Douglas fir
needles in the remaining green tree thickets. Lots of
moose tracks and coyotes. Clarks nutcrackers working
cones on the burned ponderosas. Today we had a Towhee return - they have been a scarce after the fire.
The starlings are back looking for their aspens - we
Wildlife
Sightings
Wildlife
Sightings
In a presentation to the 6th grade at the Methow
Valley Elementary school on ‘The Life of the Methow
River,’ it was eye-opening to find out that not a single
student knew what a bird called a Dipper was, nor did
any recognize a picture of a Common Merganser nor a
Belted Kingfisher. So it was
comforting when all hands
went up when the stunning image of an Osprey picture above
by Bill Wolcott was shown (it
has half a fish in its talons).
There has been an active Osprey nest at the elementary
school for about 6 years now,
and because this is a bird that
the students have actual living
experience with, they know
what it is. Bill also captured the
image of the Bald Eagle in the
frosted Ponderosa Pine shown
below.
Victor and Libby spotted some out of season birds
through their careful observations, including a
Wilson’s Snipe along the Methow River on January
1st at -2 F, and a male Harlequin Duck on the Methow
near Carlton on March 4th. Snipes are known to occasionally spend the winter locally, but a Harlequin in
early March is unheard of.
Diana H. noted on January 23, “Today, heeding
Robert Frost’s nudge to take the road less traveled, I
nipped off the main drag (Highway 20) between Winthrop and Twisp, and took Witte Road, which hugs the
river for a ways. I stopped to look for, oh, cougar, say,
across the river, but instead my eyes snagged on a
wake in the river made by something underwater. Then
three river otters’ sinuous bodies appeared above the
water as they sped down river. Very nice, I thought.
Also nearby, dabbling by exposed shore rocks were
two green winged teal pairs.”
16
cut the burned ones that would
there was but one eagle left,
land on the house--starlings are
about fifteen feet from the cow
checking out the downed logs.
and calf in some kind of perStream flows up very high for
petual face-off, the eagle just
this time of year; if we don't
waiting for a chance at some
get rain stream flows will be
high-density nutritious spring
very low in summer - its interfood, and a crow hopping back
esting to think about the differand forth between them, instient landscape outcomes post
gating and cajoling, careful not
fire, lots of deer, weather sceto get too close to either, but
narios - good time to read Aldo
just close enough.”
Leopold's ‘Thinking Like a
The real excitement came with
Mountain’ from A Sand County
a bear sighting in early March.
Almanac. “
Nearly 200 people showed up
Nate B. observed a close relaat the 1st Tuesday program in
tionship between Bald Eagles
February to hear that there are
A waterbear, looking agitated and about to charge
and the fearsome Bos taurus
no resident grizzly bears in the
between Winthrop and Twisp: ‘Yesterday, we stopped
North Cascades. It is remarkable that so many people
to watch five bald eagles congregated in the field on
are interested in what does not exist. As an aside, this
East County with all the cows. I was trying to figure
fact was reported in The Methow Naturalist in the Fall
out why they were there when I looked over and saw
1998 issue, 18 years ago.
one of the cows chewing on something long and
But then, on March 6th, a bear was sighted. It was
stringy hanging from its mouth with a very small calf
not a Grizzly Bear, but rather an eight-legged Water
laying next to her, and realized that the eagles were
Bear. The Naturalist education team had borrowed 12
there to scavenge on the leftovers of the placenta and
microscopes from the high school to saturate the 6th
afterbirth from the calving. It got up to eight eagles,
grade class with them, and all of the 6th grade students
including two or maybe three juveniles (hard to tell
had the opportunity to study the ‘periphyton’ (“around
with the light), before six of them rose up and flew into
the rocks”) that grows on the cobbles in the Methow
the cottonwoods on the river. This may be a common
River. The students were entranced, as the non-desight for other locals, but was pretty neat for me as it
script algae proves to be chock full of beautifully dewas my first time to see such a thing. Gave me more of
signed, glass shell-encased diatoms, as well as a
an idea of what it might look like during caribou calvmultitude of protists and animal life. It was the careful
ing concentrated in such large numbers and all of the
student-observer Michael D. who found the relatively
other creatures associated with this phenomenon. The
rare, indomitable, eight-legged Water Bear tromping
cow was clearly wary of the eagles, though not apparthrough the algal bloom, perhaps seeking a pot of honently agitated. when we drove back by two hours later
ey for a hit of early spring energy.
Naturalist Events
contact [email protected] for information
April 11 & 12- Native Plants and Ice Age Floods at Sun
Lakes State Park, Washington Native Plant Society, free.
May 14-17- Annual Naturalist’s Retreat with the Methow
Conservancy, $170.
May 23- Migratory Bird Count, free.
June 28- Native Plant Society difficult hike to Hoodoo
Pass and Bigalow Peak for alpine wildfowers, free.
July 13-17- Methow River Camp, ages 10-14, $350.
August 3-7- Ecology and Evolution Field Camp for adults
at Copper Glance Lake, a life changing experience for only
$300.
August 17-21- The same program as above, Ecology and
Evolution Field Camp, but this one for teenagers, $300.
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Supernova Remnants in the Night Sky
The American Indians in
Without supernovae exnorthern Arizona were so inplosions life on Earth would
spired by the event that they
be impossible. In the small
drew images of it. Two pictospace available here on this
graphs have been found, one
last half page to discuss the
in a cave at White Mesa and
evolution of the universe, we
the other on a wall of Navajo
can only point to the fact that
Canyon, both showing a cresthe radioactive element uranicent moon with a large star
um is created in these giant
nearby. Scientists have calcuexplosions of giant stars. Uralated that on the morning of
nium is such a large element ,
July 5, 1054, the Moon was
with so many protons in its
The Crab Nebula, the gaseous remnant of a supernova explosion
located just 2 degrees north of
nucleus (92 of them, all posithe Crab Nebula's current position.
tively charged and therefore all repelling one another)
The supernova was forgotten for more than 600
that it can’t hold itself together. When it flies apart
years, until the invention of telescopes, which revealed
(decays) it gives off heat--and this is the heat that keeps
fainter celestial details than the human eye can detect.
the Earth’s mantle semi-molten, and drives the moveIn 1731, English physicist and amateur astronomer John
ment of the Earth’s crustal plates. The shifting of the
Bevis observed the strings of gas and dust that form the
plates builds mountains, expose unweathered rocks and
nebula. While hunting for comets in 1758, Charles
fresh building blocks, and slowly recycles all elements
Messier spotted the nebulous gas cloud resulting from
and nutrients that sink to the bottom of the sea.
the supernova explosion. The nebula became the first
We have a ‘really big show‘ for you tonight; if you
entry in his famous ‘Catalogue of Nebulae and Star
have binoculars or a telescope you can actually see a
Clusters,’ first published in 1774, classified as M1. Lord
supernova explosion. It’s called the Crab Nebula, and it
Rosse named the nebula the ‘Crab’ in 1844 because its
exploded about 3500 years ago, but because it is about
tentacle-like structure resembled the legs of the crusta4500 light years away (the distance light travels in a
cean.
year; because no one has stepped off the distance this
The nebula shines faintly at magnitude 9 (the faintestimate varies widely) we can watch reruns of the exest stars visible to the eye are magnitude 6), making it
plosion from our couch (if we put it outside).
just visible through binoculars but an easy target for
Chinese astronomers saw and recorded the giant
even small backyard telescopes. To find it with binocustar’s demise in July of 1054. This ‘guest star,’ as the
lars or a scope, you will have to know your way around
Chinese called it, was so bright that people saw it in the
the universe, or alternately, google ‘finding the Crab
sky during the day for almost a month. During that time,
Nebula’ online. It is between the constellations of Orion
the star was blazing with the light of about 400 million
and Taurus the Bull.
suns. The star remained visible in the evening sky for
more than a year.