A Vinyl County Almanac

The term "living fossil" is a bit of a misleading one. It sounds like it is referring to a species previously known only from the fossil record which has somehow survived into the present, a species unaffected by evolution or extinction, but instead remaining in a kind of stasis for thousands or even millions of years. This, anyways, seems to be the popular understanding of the term. The truth, however, is that while this definition of a living fossil may be excellent fodder for adventure novels and horror movies, it doesn't describe any real organisms. "Actual fossils," as noted by biologists Didier Casane and Patrick Laurenti (2013), "are dead" and what we call living fossils today are not somehow immune to evolution.  Providing a more accurate definition of a living fossil is a bit tricky, but I would argue that in general, the term refers to organisms that are (1) the only living representatives of a mostly extinct taxon and (2) have significant mo...

It's almost the end of May and the spring migration is coming to a close. Winter visitors, like the white-throated sparrow and the golden-crowned kinglet, have left to breed in the great, temporarily not-so-white north and passers-by, like the Nashville warbler, have continued on their way after a rest and a snack. Among those species that stay for the whole season, many have already begun to go about the business of breeding, while a few stragglers continue to arrive - only during this past week have the eastern wood-peewees, serenaders to the dog days of summer, started to show up as invisible whistlers high the canopy.  A common nighthawk in flight (1) Yesterday evening, I was sitting out on the stoop of my building, listening to the birds singing from the woods, when I looked up and saw another late arrival swooping high up over my head - a common nighthawk ( Chordelies minor ). Nighthawks are members of the family Caprimulgidae, a group commonly referred to as nightjars or goa...

The banjo has a bit of a limited reputation, often being associated, at best, with lighthearted silliness and, at worst, with an offensive brand of hillbilly stupidity. This is unfortunate not only because of its perpetuation of a particular bit of northern self-righteousness with respect to the south, but also because the banjo is a really beautiful, versatile instrument. Sure, it seems to be especially good, as Steve Martin has noted , at playing fast, happy music that puts a smile on your face, but the truth is that there are lots of different ways of playing the banjo and lots of different genres that it can contribute to and emotions that it can evoke. The banjo is also an important historical instrument, reflecting  the paradoxical, yet crucial elements of multicultural collaboration, power, and erasure that have shaped American popular music since its beginnings. Below, I have listed fifteen banjo songs that I think do a good job of representing the instrument. The first sev...

The other day, I was walking to a job site in Lichfield, CT when I came across a tall shrub with some lovely white flowers. The first time I passed by, I was focused on what I had to be doing for work and assumed that the shrub was a flowering dogwood ( Cornus florida ), a species known for its large white flowers. When I passed by again later that week, however, I took a closer look and was excited to find that it was actually something a bit more interesting (at least in my opinion) - a hobblebush!  A hobblebush ( Viburnum lantanoides ) in Lichfield, CT The hobblebush ( Viburnum lantanoides ) is a kind of viburnum, a diverse, cosmopolitan genus of shrubs and small trees found throughout the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, as well as in mountainous parts of the tropics. Like many North American viburnums, the hobblebush is an understory shrub that only grows to up to about 10 or 12 feet at maturity. The species gets it common name from its branches' ability to take ...

  Black-and-White Warbler (1) Spring is here and so are the warblers! Most of these tiny, colorful birds spent the winter far to the south, in the Carribean, Mexico, Central, or South America and are now flying back to their breeding grounds in North America. Some will just be passing through on their way to their final destination farther north, while others will stay for the whole summer, defending a territory, pairing off, and raising young. Whatever their final destination, there are dozens of species passing through Connecticut right now and I am doing my best to enjoy every minute of it! Of all the warbler species that return north each spring, the one that I am always most excited about is the black-and-white warbler ( Mniotilta varia ). As their name implies, black-and-white warblers are not quite as colorful as some of their relatives, but their streaks of black, blue-grey, and white feathers are visually striking nonetheless. They have a fairly distinctive song that soun...

The other night, I was out for a walk when I heard a strange noise - like something between a bark and a screech - coming from one street over. I have mostly lived in more urban or suburban areas, and I hear night cries like this one so infrequently that I always have to do some detective work to figure out what they are, since I've usually forgotten what the last one sounded like and what I finally decided it was. I do know enough, however, to always start my search in the same place, with a species that was probably responsible for most of the strange noises that kept you up at camp or gave you goose bumps while watching a bigfoot hunting reality show. In a suburb like this one, it is almost guaranteed to be the culprit behind any strange cries in the night and indeed, turned out to be source of this one - the red fox.  One of our neighborhood foxes making a "vixen scream." Red foxes ( Vulpes vulpes ) are surprisingly vocal creatures that make a wide variety of barks, y...

A serpentine barren at Soldier's Delight Last weekend, I traveled down to Baltimore to see some friends and, while I was there, decided visit Soldier's Delight Natural Environment Area, one of my favorite places to go hiking when I was living in the area for school. It's also one of my favorite places in general, both because exploring it was an excellent use of time during the pandemic and because it is home to some really cool geology which in turn underlies a rare and fascinating ecosystem.  Hundreds of millions of years ago, the land that now makes up Soldier's Delight was at the bottom of an ancient sea, where large deposits of a magnesium-rich, greenish rock called serpentinite formed. Over time, the serpentinite was eroded by wind, water, and ice until it became a thin, rocky soil too poor in nutrients for the more common Midatlantic plant communities to survive in. Instead, Soldier's Delight is dominated by a unique and rare community of plants known as a Mi...