Rain: an inch every day since Sunday, and temps in the low 60s. Jeans and sweatshirt weather - can’t complain! Of course as Karen says, rain is good - rain rain rain rain and then more rain today gets a little old. However my potatoes are loving it, and the forest understory down in the hollow is extremely pleased.

Great Crested Flycatchers: Momma and Daddy are much more reclusive now, and one or the other stays in the box a lot now. Reclusive or not they still peal out before entering the hole. Everything occurs in two week intervals - building the nest, laying and incubating, and fledgling development - I figure they’re halfway through incubating right now. Only one clutch a year - I wonder if they’ll stay or meander down to visit Brian before returning to South America?

New Blogs: Well, they’re not necessarily new, but new to me and sorry it’s taken me too long to get them onto the sidebar. I hope I didn’t miss anyone; if you think I did, then I probably meant to have you here. Castigate me in the comments with an intro if I missed you and we’ll take care of it. If I haven’t found you yet, gimme a comment and I will!

Roundrock Journal: One of my new favorites since Pablo and L are protecting and learning about their land in much the same way and for the same reasons that we are. Situated “on the edge of the Missouri Ozarks”, Roundrock sits inside a meteorite impact area, with resulting interesting rock and soil formations. See Ancient History!

BotanicalGirl was “already interested in plants when she was a smaller botanicalgirl.” I’ve enjoyed reading her reflections as a plant biology grad student since they remind me of the trials and tribulations, in a not unpleasant way, and yes, the triumphs, because there were those, of my own experiences years ago. Catch her Eureka post, which absolutely encapsulates one of the most marvelous things about scientific discovery, and her Day in the Life of a Molecular Biologist for activities most people don’t engage in but I can assure you have their charm.

Tree Trends: Tom Kimmerer indulges us with a whole series of far-ranging interests that have to do especially but not exclusively with forest ecology. I especially recommend his accounts here and here on the recent and very important discovery of the auxin receptor. Plant auxin is one of the five classic plant hormones and controls a whole range of growth responses - bud dormancy, branch growth (the pruning effect!), direction of growth, and more. The receptor (or one of them) has been *extremely* elusive, and Mark Estelle and his colleagues are to be congratulated.

Leaning Birch: Lene' in Vermont offers us a number of observations and reflections on what she’s encountering as spring unfolds far north of us here. Her article on mercury in songbirds is especially good.

Creek Running North: Chris Clarke probably needs no introduction. It’s been a lot of fun following his hikes around the southwest US, and his writing of a book on Joshua trees. Given how good everything he writes is, I feel a little bad about selecting this story, “Life and Death”, but it is one of the most remarkable stories I’ve ever read.

De Rerum Natura: Reed Cartwright, right here in Athens, GA, has a lot to say about a lot of things. Basically I just generally agree with him.

The Timeless Way, offers us new sensibilities on disturbing issues. Speechless has just returned from the treehouse in Vermont. I love encountering her comments on other blogs; they’re like finding hidden treasures in the dirt when you’re digging and are always to watch for but see especially her article on the Dreaded Science Fair Project.

And now for the retrospective additions. Understand I’m not just adding any old blog here - you’ll recall that my REAL computer is sick, and I didn’t have all my more recent blog interests memorized, so as those purveyors come to light, well, here they go!

Science and Sensibility. From New Zealand I have the reminder that I was (at the time of the Great Computer Wipeout) enjoying David Winter’s posts. I first encountered him in Botany in the Blogosphere, but right now I’m taken by his article on Ordovician Sexual Contests. The Ordovician Period has always been a favorite of mine, filled with oddities like trilobites, and at least one major extinction and climate change event. Besides, David links to Wolverine Tom, whom I must investigate.

Henry’s Webiocosm Blog. David’s comment reminded me of Henry (another physician, Don), since I encountered them at the same time. You might want to start by checking out the mating watersnakes beginning here and then concluding here; these are utterly cool pics. NOW I see he has a Red Stripe Beer Review, that’s what I get for not backing up my computer.

And of course there’s the old “must visit on a daily basis”:

Get your daily fix of odd observations from Mark at The Biomes Blog.

At Rurality near Birmingham, Alabama, things happen cocurrently with Athens, as do events in eastern North Carolina at Swamp Things. Get a load of the cutest little beetle you’ll ever see there.

One of my first blog buddies, Brian in Southwest Florida at The Taming of the Band-Aid is a bug freak and loves to identify little brown moths for you.

From Don’s Iowa Garden we get an enormous variety of a plant collection that never ends (except during late freezes).

Rexroth’s Daughter and Dread Pirate Roberts in the rainshadow in Washington State at Dharma Bums have a number of articles on their efforts to conserve water. They are a fresh breeze in an insane world, as is Philalethes at Bouphonia; the writing from both these blogs is incomparable.

Great pics and stories about current events in the real world, the one where we all see trilliums coming up, blue toadflax flowering, and jack in the pulpits. Not to mention particular species of frogs calling, snakes cruising, and lepidopterans emerging. We get our gardens together, more or less, and worry about the ravening deer. Many of us shudder at the insane humanocentric world around us, and I for one feel better knowing there are more like me out there.