National Geographic Guide to Birding Great Courses

I've just got into birding this year and found National Geographic's The Guide to Birding in North America from the Great Courses to be very helpful. The course leader, James Currie covers the basics of bird identification with physical description and auditory cues. He also provides specifications for binoculars and other birding gear.

He describes each grouping of birds and how to differentiate them. There is also a section on extinct and endangered birds.

A nice complement to the course is the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 7th Edition. The sixth edition is also available at considerable discount. The full color line drawings are helpful with verbal descriptions of the bird calls.

National Geographic Guide to Birding in North America - 31 minutes 

The National Geographic Guide to Landscape and Wildlife Photography - Great Courses

The National Geographic Guide to Landscape and Wildlife Photography by Tim Laman and Michael Melford gives tips specific to each type of photography.

I was impressed at the efforts required for getting wildlife photos. Researchers will sit in blinds for long periods of time. They will install cameras in nests. They will climb up hundreds of feet into trees and wait days to get the perfect photo.

Landscape photography has more to do with location, lighting, and time of day. You need to be comfortable getting up early in the morning before sunrise to capture the special light when the sun is low in the horizon and the shadows are long.

Preview of The National Geographic Guide to Landscape and Wildlife Photography - 2 min. 

Landscape Photography by Michael Melford - 46 minutes

Evolutionary Psychology part II: The Science of Human Nature

This part of the Modern Scholar lecture serie The Modern Scholar: Evolutionary Psychology, Part II: The Science of Human Natures on focuses on group interactions. How do friends and foes interact. Warning some of the conclusions in this lecture are disquieting.

The lecturer makes a compelling argument that the cohesion and sense of group identity with a larger purpose that religion offers people makes them a much more effective in fighting and surviving wars than individuals with no religious background.

Identity and willingness to sacrifice for a group can also lead to toxic altruism in the form of extremist groups or terrorism.

Understanding warfare an evolutionary approach - 50 minutes

Dirt by David R. Montgomery

As part of our book club I read Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations and was impressed. My father was careful to distinguish between dirt and soil. Soil has structure with layers. Dirt is unstructured.

The book starts with research from Charles Darwin focusing on the the positive effect of earthworm castings on the  building up the depth of soil structure. This is good for some parts of the world but not so good in certain forested areas.

How civilizations practice agriculture and take care of the soil affects their sustainability and survivability. When cultures increase the use of the soil without crop rotation or letting it rest the productivity of the soil declines. Erosion increases the loss of top soil and reduces the ability of plants to grow on the soil. Irrigation often increases the amount of salt in the soil which reduces the types of plants that can grow crops.  Egypt and North Africa supplied grain for the Roman Empire because the farming practices of Rome eroded the top soil and made the land unproductive.

Cutting down trees and planting on hillsides is a prescription for rapid soil loss and subsequent transition out of productive farm land. Agricultural practices will need to change, crop rotation with nitrogen fixing plants. Mixing in organic matter with soils. Using low till or no seed drills will also extend the useful life of the soil. He points to the organic farming method used in Cuba out of necessity because they lacked access to chemical fertilizer or pesticides.

For those of you who want a touch of optimism feel free to explore the work being done by the Land Institute.  They are working on developing perennial crops which put less stress on the soil.  The University of Minnesota is also researching the perennial grain kernza as part of sustainable cropping system.

Bringing our soil back to life - 66 min. 

Soil degradation and why you should care - 27 min. 

Can we reverse the long term pattern of soil degradation - 17 min.