The Plantations’ Mundy Wildflower Garden has the most variety of early-blooming wildflowers in the area and is a must see in early spring. To celebrate National Poetry Month this April, graduate student Emily Oliver matched her favorite poems to many of the garden’s wildflowers. Look for signs throughout the garden providing a number to call for information about each plant and a poem recited by the author.
Inspired by science journalist Michael Pollan’s description of rare, odd apples from the Noah’s Ark of apples in his book “The Botany of Desire,“artist Jessica Rath twice visited Cornell’s Plant Genetics Resource Unit in Geneva, N.Y.
Writes The Atlantic: “… America’s apple archivist, Philip Forsline, has assembled and tended a vast Noah’s Ark of more than 2,500 apple varieties: two clones of each, in order to preserve the fruit’s genetic biodiversity. Meanwhile, on the same Cornell/USDA Agricultural Experiment Station, Susan Brown, one of the country’s three commercial apple breeders, develops new clones by cultivating wildly different seed sisters.”
Rath went on to create nine sculptures based on PGRU apple varieties, such as the cluster above, made of high-fire glazed porcelain and bronze. Her exhibition “take me to the apple breeder” is on display at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has collected the first known video documentation of one of the world’s rarest birds on its tundra breeding grounds in Chukotka, Russia. Lab videographer Gerrit Vyn captured footage of the first moments when spoon-billed sandpiper chicks venture away from their nest. The spoon-billed sandpiper population has plummeted to about 100 breeding pairs, and the species could be extinct within a decade.
Michelle Jang, 16, was a winner of the Humane Education Networks’ “A Voice for Animals” essay contest. Her essay, “Road to Extinction: Confinement of Roads,” was chosen from more than 8,000 high school student entries and addresses threats elephants face and some of the complex issues surrounding their conservation.
Jang’s knowledge of these issues stems from her training at the Elephant Listening Project where she volunteers as a sound analyst. She has identified thousands of elephant calls from recordings generated by automated recording units set up in African parks to monitor and understand elephant behavior.
Attention birders in New York City’s five boroughs, along the south shore of Long Island and in coastal and interior New Jersey: keep an eye skyward this weekend as migrant birds pass over your area.
According to BirdCast, hawks – including American kestrel, osprey, northern harrier and sharp-shinned – will be much in evidence by Sunday, Sept. 23, in late morning and in the afternoon, and heavy bird migration will occur Sunday night.
In quiet areas, listen for flight calls of vocal migrants. In particular, pay attention to Swainson’s and gray-cheeked thrushes, white-throated, chipping and savannah sparrows, and warblers.
Earlier risers Sept. 24 will likely see movements of these nocturnal fliers.
One small boy, one giant leap for citizen science.
A 12-year-old near Vancouver, British Columbia, recently sighted an American robin and submitted his finding to eBird – becoming the 100 millionth observation.
Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon, eBird is an online application for birders to record their checklists, and for scientists to collect a massive database of citizen-science observations about bird abundance and distribution. Over the past 10 years, more than 93,000 observers have submitted checklists with observations on about 9,500 of the planet’s 10,157 species of birds. Altogether, eBird’s 100 million observations equal 860 years of fieldwork.
So far, eBird has received 7.1 million checklists from 1 million locations.
The most reported species is the Mourning Dove with almost 2 million observations.
The fall Veterinary College dog wash will be held Sunday, Aug. 19, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the courtyard between the Veterinary Research Tower and Sherman Hall, Tower Road.
A wash is $5; $15 for a wash and nail trim. Veterinary students also offer body condition scores and advise on your dog’s diet.
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Around Campus, Cornell People, Created@Cornell, Field Trip, Flora & Fauna | Tagged: Mundy Wildflower Garden, Plantations | 
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Posted by George Lowery
