Global March for Lions -- New York -- 2014

I am linking this post with Rambling Wood's Nature Note meme. Global March for Lions took place yesterday (March 15, 2014). It took place across the globe, in sixty-two different countries, in protests against the canned lion hunting. My husband and I along with our friend Joolz participated in the protest.

The protest was against canned hunting. The canned hunting takes place primarily in South Africa. But, in the US alone, there are 1000 such canned hunting sites with 500 of such sites being only in Texas. NY states also allows canned hunting. In canned hunting, lionesses are captured and kept in secluded captivity and constantly impregnated through artificial insemination (much like what happens to all the catles in industrial meat-farming) so that they can keep on producing lions.

These canned hunting organizations then earn lots of money by luring tourists and volunteers to look after the lion-cubs, to pet them and play with them. So, please be aware of such organizations/rehabilitation-centers in Africa which will allow you to pet cubs, play with them or look after them. Once they become adults, they are confined in cages or small areas where hunters go and shoot them for trophy hunting. The lions die of painful death because they are never shot in the head or heart to be killed at once. They are never shot in such places because then the beauty of the trophies will be gone. Rather they are shot in such places in the body where they die an agonizing death over long hours. The trophies are then collected by the hunters for which they more than ten thousand dollars are more. The rest of the body/bones/meat get sold at sky-rocket prices in Asia for Oriental-medicines. Now, I don't think I am sounding that much gory or horrific but you can imagine the analogous situation where human-females are kept under lock-and-key to keep on producing children; then their children are looked after my volunteers who are thinking that they are helping in orphanage; but as soon as the children of some age, the male-children are hunted down in a confined cage; the female-children are either sold into prostitution, or to produce more babies or in research labs. So, now I hope you get the picture. Here is one such ad where a female white-lioness is being sold. I AM ASHAMED TO SAY THAT 55% OF SUCH HUNTERS ARE FROM THE USA :-(:-(...

Here the story told in picture about what happens to canned lions.

People argue that these hunters provide money to conservation. How? That $10,000 or more that they pay for hunting goes towards these business-organizations -- their goal is to earn money through such hunting practices. If anyone really wants to give to conservation-groups, then there are no scarcity of good conservation groups like National Wildlife Federation who use money to protect everything in nature. People also argue that such hunt take down the pressure on wild lions as they are not being hunted. But the sad reality is that wild lion population is going down dramatically in the last fifty years. Lions once used to roam from Africa to India through Middle-East. No wild lions are found anywhere in the Middle-East; a small pocket of lions is found in Gir National Forest in India; only 4000 wild lions are left in Southern Africa. The lion population in Africa has gone down by 50%.

Here is Archbishop Desmond Tutu leading a prayer for the global march for lions:
Here is a video about canned hunting:

Here are some pictures from the protest. About three hundred signatures were collected; more than three hundred people participated. If you live in NY state, you can go to this site and sign the petition to ban canning animals in NY state. Such canning sites not only kill and put in danger exotic animals from outside the USA, but also the native (and often time endangered, exotic species) animals. If you are wondering how can such sites put in danger the endangered species like say Bald Eagle, then let me assure you that they do so by exploiting the loop-holes that exists in non-profit status and laws for organizations. All these canning sites have declared themselves non-profit organizations because they claim that whatever money they earn by letting canned hunting goes towards conservation.

If you live in other states which has canned hunting, then you can try to find out which organizations, legislator or senator is trying to ban canned hunting and thus support their petitions. Here are some more ideas through picture.

Nature's Note -- Can I dream of Spring?

Since Saturday (March 8, 2014), weather has been lovely here with temperature rising as high as 50 degree (10 degree C). Morning skies are spectacles to be behold; later in the day the skies are becoming bright blue with puffs of white cotton floating around here and there. Sun is shining brightly, temperature is warm and people are wearing shorts/t-shirts/light-jackets.

Robins are back. I spotted the first robin last Monday (March 3, 2014). As I was watching the birds and enjoying the nature from the kitchen window, I saw a red-something fleeting across the bush in the neighbor's yard with a mocking-bird following it. Was that a cardinal? Could be. But, why is the mocking-bird chasing a cardinal? I have never seen such a behavior! Could it be....noo..it's too cold; the ground is frozen solid covered with about two feet of solid ice. It will starve to death...it shouldn't be here now...but, sub-consciously I was wishing it to be true. Let it be true, let me have some optimistic feeling that spring will indeed come, that the ice will melt, please let me look forward to the future....So, I waited patiently, straining my neck to catch a glimpse of what was going around in that bush, behind it, with something reddish flying around and the mocking-bird giving it a chase. And, then it was that euphoric moment...Lo and Behold! The Robin is Here...I indeed felt like Moses seeing God and receiving the Ten Commandments on the mountain-top.

I had to run for my camera and take this shot through the window. I dare not open the window in case it flew away. It was sitting there with its chest puffed and enjoying the sunshine. The mocking-bird still didn't leave it alone and it was sitting nearby. Any idea anyone why mocking-birds would chase around robins? Perhaps they want to steal the food that the robins dig out? Then, I saw it again on Tuesday but not since then. But, I am worried about what it will eat.

It really brought the spring with it. As I told above, the weather has been so lovely and the sun has been so hot that all the ices are melting fast revealing huge patches of ground where the grasses are waking up. Their bright spring green is indeed a site to cherish and enjoy after the brutality of the winter. But alas, it might not last long as another winter-storm, Vulcan, is supposedly coming up on Thursday (March 13, 2014). What will the robin do in the storm?

Besides robins, I am also seeing an increase in activity among the deer population here. They are always very active during the night. But, I am seeing them around the neighborhood even during the middle of the day. The juncos have not left yet but I think their winter population here is dwindling now as fewer and fewer of them are coming to the bird-feeders. The varieties of bird-songs, during the day, are also increasing. Many different types of finches can again be seen as they are coming back to NJ (they are here during spring and summer but they leave at least this part of northern NJ during winter). I am also getting busy like my feather-friends. In between work and as time permits, I am taking the opportunity of this gorgeous weather to start doing the spring cleaning, designing, planning, re-potting plants and putting in more seeds. And, of course I am taking every opportunity to enjoy the nature and see all the critters.

These beautiful deers were seen today in front of our house. I am linking this post to the wonderful Nature Notes meme hosted by Rambling Woods .

NJ Flower and Garden Show

This was the twelfth annual NJ Flower and Garden Show, and my second time attending the show. It always has displays of various types of garden designs, seminars, workshops, floral arrangement displays, photography-display and display of various other types all related to garden.
As you can see, most of the displays contain plants that are very common -- daffodils, tulips, irises, hyacinths -- the typical bulb or flowers that one sees in NJ home-gardens. It also had some other flowers and plants, on display, that are not commonly found in gardens here.
The pink flower is a Ranunculus. There were varieties of Ranunculus in different colors, though they are not hardy to NJ. They grow best in milder climates of Western or South-Western USA, as the root can tolerate temperature only as low as ten degree Fahrenheit and the growing plant can handle temperature as low as only twenty degree Fahrenheit. They are grown from bulbs. The blue flowers are that of Blue BaronRhododendron. These are small (only three feet by two feet in maturity) evergreen shrubs. The picture is not doing justice to the plant as it was looking spectacular covered with tiny blue flowers and glossy evergreen leaves. The third picture is that of a winterberry plant. Apparently, these plants are native to swampy areas of Eastern USA. This is a Red Sprite or Ilex Verticillata. The red berries attract birds. However, to get these red berries, which appears only on the female plants, one need a male plant for pollination. These are also small shrubs.
Various types of displays, all related to garden. The last picture is from a children's category entry where kids from schools enter and compete in some kind of competition. I go to the show not to enjoy all these displays, though they are creative and sometimes shows innovative way of using materials in designing gardens; my attraction is to the market place where all sorts of vendors come to sell garden-related stuff. One get to see unique products which one might not see in any stores around here, plants that are exotic and not usually sold by garden centers, at least in NJ, and gets to buy those at a much cheaper price.
This year, I have already gone overboard with the number of plants, bulbs, herb-seeds, flower-seeds and vegetable-seeds that I have ordered, and collected, details of which will come later in another post. So, I promised myself that I was just going to see and admire and not buy anything. But, promises are to be broken, right? If you tell me otherwise, then perhaps I need to join Obsessed Gardeners Support Group (NO! I didn't make it up; check it out here -- https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/3307-obsessed-gardener-s-support-group).
I ended up buying garden-related furniture, Deck-Planters, hanging-pots, a big sweet-bay plant, campanula (if I heard the name correctly though the flowers do not look like bell-flowers at at all. Rather they look like tiny roses. The plant is supposed to be a ground-cover), and two Blue-Zebra perennial Primula. But my prized possession has been the three roots of Foxtail Lily (Eremurus). They are supposed to be exotic plants and hardy to zone 5. They indeed looked exotic to me; even their fleshy roots look like a big blackish spider. These plants are supposed to attract butterflies.

The plant looks like a clump of showy-grass with slender bright-green foliage. The size of the foliage-plant is maximum one to one-and-a-half feet. But, from the midst of such a small plant, spikes of flowers, some even seven feet tall and looking like bushy-tails of squirrels, emerge. In the first year, there might not be any such spikes or perhaps just one or two. But with time, more and more spikes will emerge from just a single plant. Unlike any other lilies, these plants are not that invasive as they usually do not spread. And, if they spread, they take many, many years to do so. The plant cannot be grown in pots, and have to be grown in rich soil, in a sunny area. The soil needs to be well-drained and once-established, the plant does not need that much watering -- rains will be enough. The roots do not like to be disturbed. So, once planted, you have to make sure that that planting spot is their permanent home. Garden designers recommend that the flowers of this plant are so bright and showy that need to have a background of evergreen dark-greenish plants (like pines, I guess) to really create a contrast and bring out the beauty of the flowers. The above picture is not doing justice to the flowers that I saw in the show.

I know that none of the plants that I bought are native plants. I hope that native-plant proponents will not be angry with me and start judging me. I have immense number of native plants in my garden -- at least twenty or more varieties -- and I am going to buy and plant more this year. But, I also like non-native flower plants. One of my main reasons for gardening is to help nature and all the bees, butterflies, birds and wild-life. The non-native plants also help my feather and pollinator friends, tremendously, in that sense. Case in hands -- lavender, dill, parsley, coriander, mint, lemon-balm-herb, vegetables and pear-tree -- all non-native plants. The lavender plants, mint and lemon-balm herbs are buzzing with bees and butterflies, from spring till late frost. The parsley and coriander all the time hosts some kind of big (yellow and black striped, but I don't know they belong to what species of butterflies) caterpillars. Vegetables (corn, tomato, peas, etc) and pears are eaten by birds, squirrels and other wild-lives (raccoon, deer, ground-hog, Opossum and skunks). So, you see, the non-native plants also help our wild friends.

To all my Non-American readers, I have to tell you that NJ is known as the Garden State in the US because of the tremendous number of greeneries, woods, state-protected parks and forests, farms and public-gardens it has. So, the show provided me with the opportunity to connect with many of the local farms around here. All these farms are family-owned businesses who advocates natural, organic methods of growing plants and carry all the various kinds of plants that are available in any garden-catalogs from anywhere. So, I hope to visit, one-by-one, each of these farms this year.

Winter Storm Janus (Jan 21 -- 22) -- Picture Only Post