How to Recognize Spiders By their Webs - Bay Nature Magazine
Sep 29, 2015 · Illustration by Rachel Diaz-Bastin. Orb webs are the classic, wheel-shaped webs that have inspired everyone from engineers to poets to, well, designers of computer networks. They are primarily associated with their namesake, the family Araneidae, commonly known as the orb-weaver spiders, and have allowed spiders to fully enter vertical space.
Photosynthesis in Leaves That Aren’t Green - Bay Nature
Jul 1, 2008 · All photosynthesizing plants have a pigment molecule called chlorophyll. This molecule absorbs most of the energy from the violet-blue and reddish-orange part of the light spectrum. It does not absorb green, so that’s reflected back to our eyes and we see the leaf as green. There are also accessory pigments, called carotenoids, that capture ...
ENature.com Website Launch
Apr 1, 2002 · Share This: If you haven’t checked out eNature.com, now’s the time. The website has been acquired by the National Wildlife Federation and offers a tremendous resource and tools for exploring Bay Area nature. Local-Guides on the site provide you with a zip-code-based photographic primer on the wildlife common in any area, including birds ...
Why do Pacific Salmon Die After Spawning? - Bay Nature
Nov 21, 2013 · For the five species of Pacific salmon (Chinook, chum, coho, pink, and sockeye), this arduous journey is a race against the clock that ends in a fleeting romance and ultimately death. The answer to why they die, it turns out, hinges on a problem every animal on Earth has had to solve. “Every kind of organism has evolved to solve the problem ...
The Enduring Mystery of Oak Tree "Mast" Years - Bay Nature
Jul 5, 2022 · Figure 1. The mean acorn crop of valley oak at Hastings Reservation (mean number of acorns counted per 30 second visual survey), 1980-2021; dashed lines divide years into those where the crop was <25% and >75% of the maximum acorn crop. Divided like this, only 3 of 42 years were “mast” years, while 16 were “medium” and 23 were “poor ...
Crow Funerals and What We Can Learn From Them - Bay Nature
Oct 29, 2020 · A crow funeral can happen at any time. Farmers bear witness after shooting unwanted crows in their fields. Powerline workers see them should an unlucky bird zap itself and drop. Occasionally, the funerals occur in a city park. All it takes is one dead American crow plus one fellow crow to spot it and release an alert, harsh and urgent — Caw!
The Celebrated Joaquín Murieta - Bay Nature
Sep 22, 2021 · Joaquín Murieta, published in 1854, was the first novel published in California, the first novel by a Native American, and a source text for future stories of masked avengers from the original Zorro novel to Batman. Popular from the start, it has given rise to dozens of academic articles, artistic interpretations, and works of outright plagiarism.
Bay Nature: What Is El Nino, Why Is it Called That, and What Does …
Sep 15, 2015 · El Niños are classified by the Oceanic Niño Index, or ONI, which is a measure of how much ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific deviate from the norm. “The ONI only considers a very specific part of the ocean — between 5 degrees north and 5 degrees south, and 120 degrees west and 170 degrees west,” says Null.
Bay Nature Magazine: Can a Plant Live Without Photosynthesis?
Apr 17, 2018 · Typically, plants “fix” carbon from the air as CO 2, mix it with water, and convert it to glucose through photosynthesis. Powered by energy from sunlight, this reaction takes place in specialized structures called chloroplasts — organelles contained in the cells of plants. Each chloroplast acts like a small solar factory, bringing in raw ...
What’s It Like Inside a Woodrat Nest? - Bay Nature
Jan 3, 2021 · Woodrats, pack rats, and trade rats are all common names for the same remarkable rodent genus, Neotoma.Our local species, the dusky-footed woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes), has a nice multicolor coat—unlike the nasty nonnative Norway and black rats, all too common in urban areas.It’s also extremely cute, with big Mickey Mouse ears and a lovely, lightly fuzzy tail.