So - on 9/27 I had Gamma Knife treatment at UC Davis for a posterior fossa meningioma that was first found by MRI about 6 years ago. I am going to be collecting my various posts here on the saga. I am also going to post separate posts here about the saga but just wanted to collect some of the other posts for now.
Day 20. October 17.
Really brief updates.
Had some horrible headaches last week but as of a few days ago these have lessened. No significant fatigue or brain fog so that is good.
Also - I decided to test my ability to fly on Friday and flew into a concrete pillar at a gas station and smashed my shoulder quite badly. Fortunately it was not broken but it still hurts like hell a few days later and have not slept very well since then. The good news is, this got me to forget about the Gamma Knife treatment ...
Day 13. October 10.
This was definitely a bad day. Went in to work in the AM thinking I might be able to work for their day.
First went for a really brief walk at the UC Davis Riparian Preserve. That was nice.
Then went to my office in the Genome Center. Saw some colleagues which was nice and chatted for a bit. Then hit by unbearable headache where my head felt like someone took 1000 big rubber bands and wrapped them tightly around my head.
So I went home. Took ibuprofen which did not help. Napped a bit. But nothing helped. Took a bath. Did not help. And that is how the rest of the day went.
Panorama of Sycamore Park and the memorial to Karim
A bit over 10 years ago I wrote a blog post that I repost all the time. Entitled "A day to think, to pause, to ponder" it was posted on my dad's birthday and was about the pain of him dying, by suicide, when I was in college. It was meant as a sad, melancholy post but also one about the importance of compassion and how "we can all do a little bit to improve how we treat other." When I reposted this one time a few years ago, someone asked me if I had ever met the "Compassion Guy" who frequented downtown Davis and who had a life's mission of getting people to think about compassion. I told them, yes, indeed I had and I had talked to him on and off over the years about this topic at or near the farmer's market or at his "Compassion Corner" bench area.
And thus, a few days ago, I was devastated when I found out that "Compassion Guy", aka David Breaux, was the person whose body was found April 27 in Central Park in downtown Davis. He had been murdered. And initial reports indicated that the Police did not have any good clues as to what had happened because there were no witnesses.
When I found out that this was David I posted a few things to social media because I wanted to make sure people knew that he was a good person, an interesting person, and was not just some random bit of information.
Very sad and shocking. I talked to David relatively frequently https://t.co/7jLbcMtYme
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) April 28, 2023And I am glad I posted this because many people responded to also say that David had impacted them.
For example:
So senselessly tragic. I saw David for years on 3rd before the compassion bench was built in his honor. A human truly loved by the Davis community. My favorite definition from his book was something like "compassion is sharing your Co-Op chocolate chip cookie with someone else". https://t.co/ENKh9kk0jx
— Vince Buffalo (@vsbuffalo) April 28, 2023 'She recalled meeting Breaux on what she described as a “dark day,” having heard of yet another school shooting in the U.S.
“I was just feeling very negative,” Tafoya said. “We sat and we talked, and he made me realize that going out there and doing something was compassion.” https://t.co/XIDHNaWjJG
— Ted Hand (@t3dy) April 29, 2023
I also posted this to other places, like Facebook, and there I found out that Nat Pearson, who I had known since I was a PhD student at Stanford and he was and undergrad there, had been a first year dorm mate of David's and also had wonderful things to say about him.
I had planned to go visit "Compassion Corner" on Saturday during my regular bike outing to the Farmer's market but alas I could not since I had to go to UC Davis Medical Center for an MRI.
Thanks once again @UCDRadiology for excellent service / care - quick in / quick out - all personnel excellent - and also happy to see mask requirement still in place https://t.co/kEY9gUVM55
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) April 29, 2023
And then late Saturday night our town was hit again. Suspect description from Davis PD:
- Lightskin male
- Height: 5’7-5’8
- 19-23 years of age
- Long curly loose hair
- Last seen wearing a white hat & a light colored t-shirt
- Riding a bike with straight handle bars@cityofdavispd @FOX40 https://t.co/CIWg3vCDib
— Zach Boetto (@FOX40Zach) April 30, 2023
And soon we found out that the victim was a UC Davis student - Karim Majdi Abou Najm
Davis Enterprise (via @laurenkeene) is reporting additional details on the fatal stabbing of a 20 year-old male in Sycamore Park in Davis. https://t.co/5KGMmDIFnb pic.twitter.com/QnMsvos82A
— Anthony Volkar (@ucdvolkie) April 30, 2023 This is Karim Abou-Najim. He is the victim in the deadly stabbing at Sycamore Park in Davis. Family friends tell us he was riding his bike home from his award ceremony for his research work. The 20-year-old was graduating in just 10 days from UC Davis. @CBSSacramento pic.twitter.com/BEKmE6xnyT
— Tori Apodaca (@tori_apodaca) May 1, 2023
And this was of course horrific. A second murder in this sleepy town of Davis. And a UC Davis student. And for me, someone who I had multiple direct and indirect connections to. Just horrific.
😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 https://t.co/2jXFSDxIh6
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 1, 2023
I decided that some NatureTherapy for me and others might be useful.
It is a sad and scary time right now in #davisca and at @ucdavis due to recent murders. I thought some #naturetherapy might be useful for me and others. From the @ucdavis Arboretum https://t.co/lK97RdV8VH pic.twitter.com/cSquRgaaGd
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 1, 2023 Stunning sight at @ucdavis Riparian Preserve this AM. Male Western Tanager with snack. Some #NatureTherapy for a wounded university at town. #DavisCA https://t.co/FLet4dDzqN pic.twitter.com/FNrKNJZQ09
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 1, 2023 Really feeling sad about the recent murders in #davisca - thinking of the two people who were killed and all their families, friends, and colleagues - spent a lot of the day in nature thinking of them - here is some #naturetherapy from #yolobypass pic.twitter.com/0cfi5uEEN9
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 2, 2023 Been a rough few days here in #DavisCA so I spent much of the day out in nature trying to rebalance. At the end of the day I was driving home and took a little detour on a rural farm road in #DavisCA and saw this guy. Blue Grosbeak. Not a bad ending to my day of #NatureTherapy. https://t.co/Hi5ljBOtnu pic.twitter.com/oCzlBNOGiD
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 2, 2023
And these got some nice responses that indicated they helped some other people out there. And then in the middle of the night we got a phone call and multiple text messages telling us there was a third stabbing.
Just got this alert - report of another stabbing in #davisca pic.twitter.com/ClTQcwC1Ty
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 2, 2023
And despite a shelter in place order the suspect got away
Third stabbing in Davis — suspect eludes manhunt after shelter-in-place downtown, at UC Davis https://t.co/MmQ8g8tmlE
— Marcos Breton (@MarcosBreton) May 2, 2023
Later we found out that the victim fortunately survived but was seriously wounded.
Meeting is back on.
The victim from last night's stabbing, the police chief says, underwent surgery but is awake, alert and talking. She is in critical condition but making progress, he said.
More: https://t.co/z6lU2liJWi @kcranews
— KCRA Lee Anne Denyer (@KCRALeeAnne) May 3, 2023
And all around town and at UC Davis people were justifiably both devastated and scared. So for the class I am currently teaching, we put into place every measure we could to let students NOT have to come to class in the wake of such incidents. And despite UC Davis focusing on only nighttime safety, some of us also understood that students might be afrain in the day time too (with good reason I might add).
To everyone in the @ucdavis and #DavisCA area, be careful out there. But also, while attacks have happened at nighttime, @ucdavis & @cityofdavispd should also be emphasizing at least some caution and extra protections during daytime until the person(s)responsible are caught https://t.co/4ftKlDf6HL
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 2, 2023
That morning I went out for some #NatureTherapy again but this time decided to not go to too isolated a place on campus and went off campus:
A little more #naturetherapy from Putah Creek https://t.co/3bZnWJw8Ef pic.twitter.com/FL9yWPoKcj
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 2, 2023
I then went to "Compassion Corner" to pay tribute to David. I took some pics and posted them.
At Compassion Corner in #DavisCa thinking of David Breaux and the many many many times I saw him here over the years - RIP Compassion Guy pic.twitter.com/5z2Esiy3A5
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 2, 2023
And also made a video panorama
Video panorama of Compassion Corner pic.twitter.com/Wdu6QpUNhT
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 2, 2023 A few other pics from the memorial
Then on May 3 there was an extended period where we heard helocopters overhead. I took some pics and found out one was from KCRA.
Helicopter from @kcranews flying over #DavisCA right now - not sure what it is doing ... pic.twitter.com/ikSbateQjN
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 4, 2023
Turns out, they were watching overhead as police were questioning a person of interest who had been caught near Sycamore Park and was eventually broungt in to be interviewed.
Person of interest in Davis stabbings detained, police say https://t.co/a7KIa4g8kU
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 4, 2023
Meanwhile, a fund had been set up in honor of Karim and I donated to it and suggested other do so too.
I encourage everyone to donate to this fund in honor of @ucdavis undergrad Karim Majdi Abou Najm who was killed last week in #DavisCA
Memorial Undergraduate Student Research Award https://t.co/c1gV0ZuCe9
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 4, 2023
This was when I found out that Nadine Yehya, who I knew from various science communications functions and from Twitter interactions was Karim's mother.
Thank you Johnathan for donating and keeping his legacy alive. Karim is my son who was taken from us all prematurely
— Nadine Yehya, PhD (@yehya_nadine) May 4, 2023
I went back out for more #NatureTherapy for myself and to share
Still spending a lot of time in nature trying to process everything happening in #DavisCA and thinking of the stabbing victims and their families and friends. Tuesday I drove around with my daughter at dusk and got a nice pic of an owl in rural #DavisCA https://t.co/xh5dlDB2Ey pic.twitter.com/g5e0qj0r8l
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 4, 2023
And I then went to the memorial for Karim in Sycamore Park and tried to get some nice pics there.
I went by the memorial for Karim in Sycamore Park in #DavisCA today. So very sad but also moving. Thinking of Karim and his family and friends today.
Please consider donating the the fund to create a @ucdavis Undergraduate Student Research Award in his honor (see below). https://t.co/uOtIKI2Tzz pic.twitter.com/sTiOUM4DK0
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 4, 2023
And I also did some iNaturalist observations with the goal of setting up a project in the area in honor of Karim.
When I went to Sycamore Park this AM to visit the memorial for Karim Majdi Abou Najm I also decided to do a little #naturetherapy for myself and to share. It was pretty dark out so pics aren't great but here are a few: bushtit, house finch, Anna's hummingbird, black phoebe. https://t.co/3Ma9lVOWcT pic.twitter.com/0YAn45mFxQ
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 4, 2023
And then later in the day we found out the promising news:
Breaking news: Davis police will announce arrest in series of brutal stabbings this afternoon. https://t.co/DJDY1GblBc
— The Sacramento Bee (@sacbee_news) May 4, 2023 Well this sounds like amazing news - arrest in #DavisCA stabbings https://t.co/lOCRTMtc6l
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 4, 2023
And important comment from Nat Pearson Hope for a Davis community gripped by violence and fear.
And a reminder: victim David Breaux, longtime friend to many of us there and beyond, would (and tirelessly did) seek #transformativejustice. https://t.co/tPkRu2ezP6 pic.twitter.com/8Me2iTujqB
— Nathan Pearson (@GenomeNathan) May 4, 2023
I responded to it:
I spent about an hour at / near his corner yesterday thinking about David and trying to channel his compassion https://t.co/nRW3ilCmgG
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 4, 2023
And also noted that I had started making iNaturalist observations there too:
And I also started making @inaturalist observations at that site - seemed like something he would have liked https://t.co/ovAX9jkxTb and I will keep doing them regularly
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 4, 2023
And some additional details stated trickling out
Important details on #DavisCA stabbing arrest h/t @peiferlabunc https://t.co/Qh5Gbde4ub
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 4, 2023
See details on the press conference regarding the arrest in the #DavisCA stabbing cases https://t.co/d1YejFKE10
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 4, 2023
Person arrested is s 21 year old Carlos Dominguez of #DavisCA and was a student at @ucdavis until last week according to the police chief
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 4, 2023
Well I just want to say - thank you to the @cityofdavispd @UCDavisPolice @FBI and all the witnesses and people who helped catch this person. https://t.co/xgPAIaXxAj
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 4, 2023
And that is how we get to today.
I went by the memorials for Karim and David this AM and the sun was shining, birds were singing and it felt like some sort of renewal. Here are some pics - more later https://t.co/3Ma9lVOWcT pic.twitter.com/db3VrmGb5Y
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 5, 2023
I note - I went to see if there was anything in terms of public displays at the site of the third stabbing but did not see anything. The woman who was stabbed is Kimberlee Guillory and I would like to at some point also pay tribute in some way to her.
At the memorials sites for David and Karim, I took a bunch of nature / landscape pics and also posted observations to iNaturalist.
I made some additional nature observations at each site - going to try to keep doing this regularly as a tribute to both of them - and am posting them to iNaturalist - here is my favorite from from today near Karim's memorial https://t.co/5rDNGhC8ak
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 5, 2023
Also see https://t.co/cnZ1YRhGlZ
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 5, 2023
And https://t.co/9f2uQFfkBn
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 5, 2023
And also made some observations from near Compassion Corner / David's memorial such as this nice mushroom https://t.co/MGDRxWjftK
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 5, 2023
And this Swainson's hawk was flying overhead https://t.co/GteADTqDuT
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) May 5, 2023
Basically, I want to make sure that people do not forget Karim and David. They were wonderful people. They were taken from us too soon in a terrible way. But we can get some good out of this. And I will try my best to contribute to that.
Posted a question to a few places Hi. We would like to functionally annotate some metagenomic sequencing reads without doing any assembly or binning or read mapping to reference genomes. Just annotate by searching things like nr, PFAM, COGs, etc. Anyone know of tools that do this?
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) March 29, 2023
Recently I posted to Twitter about the disastrous new University of California Pharmacy Benefits system. Dear @UofCalifornia @ucdavis
This is NOT OK.
I just got a notice by letter in mail that my insurance will no longer cover the insulin I have been getting "as of January 1, 2022". Letter was dated in February and was received after March 1, 2022.
This is NOT OK.
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) March 7, 2022 In summary, I got a letter in March that warned me of something that was about to happen in January (that is, in the past). And what was about to happen was bad - cutting off coverage of my insulin. And the system in place for trying to even find out what was going on and what to do about this was a disaster.
I note, this generated an enormous response and it was clear that this was not just me experiencing the disaster of their system.
I used the threadfreader app to make this into a more easily readable thread here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1500934973775249412.html
A few people pointed me to some contacts at UC Davis to reach out to and I did. They were both great and very helpful. They told me that the UC was working on dealing with many of these issues and some of those responses were rolled out quickly.
And I posted about how these efforts were sort of helpful but not ideal. For example
Well, the saga continues -- just got this from Navitus. They say I "may be eligible" for an extension of 1 bonus month with my prior prescription. Pretty useless to be honest. pic.twitter.com/ASUHvYuUwn
— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) March 14, 2022
On March 21, I got a detailed email from the University of California apologizing for the situation and detailing many changes to apparently try and help fix things. I mean, they never should have done this and used this incredibly cheap, low grade system. But at least they are trying to fix things.
Below is the email from UC. More about this in a bit but I wanted to share the full text for people to see here.
An important message from UC about your pharmacy benefits
Dear Jonathan,
We are writing to acknowledge — and apologize for — the problems many members of the UC community are experiencing with Navitus Health, a new administrator of pharmacy benefits for UC employee and Medicare PPO plans, and to let you know what we are doing to fix the problems.
Last year, University of California Health (UCH) and UC Systemwide Human Resources selected Navitus Health to administer pharmacy benefits, starting Jan. 1, 2022. This decision was made following an extensive formal bid process, conducted by a committee with representatives from UCH, Systemwide HR, UC faculty with pharmacy expertise and UC’s retiree association.
Navitus was selected as the partner that could provide UC with the best overall flexibility, service, and affordability. However, since UC’s transition to Navitus Health, we have heard from too many members who have been negatively impacted by this change.
Some members have had to change prescription drugs, been required to complete time-consuming authorization processes and experienced denials by Navitus, causing unnecessary anxiety and frustration. Navitus failed to meet the scheduled target date for mailing a clinical transition letter, causing hardship and worry for faculty, staff, retirees and their family members.
Additionally, like many employers Navitus has faced customer service staffing challenges, leading to wait times that far exceed Navitus’ standards and UC performance guarantees. Among other things, this has put undue pressure on benefits professionals at UC locations and in the UC Retirement Service Center and the UCPath Center, as they have worked to provide support that should be handled by Navitus.
We take these problems — and our responsibility to ensure that members of UC health plans have access to the prescriptions they need — very seriously. UCH and UC Systemwide Human Resources have been in constant communication with Navitus, and we want to let you know what we are doing to fix these problems.
Support with member transitions
Due to the delay in mailing clinical transition letters, Navitus has provided an extended transition period to the end of April for drugs that are not covered. Extension letters and an email campaign were recently initiated.Navitus will call members who need to transition to new medications directly and offer help with authorizations, denials, and appeals. Those who have experienced a denial for a Not Covered/Non-Formulary medication will also receive a phone call offering help. UCH, Alliant (a UC consultant) and Navitus will audit and review the protocols Navitus uses for denials to ensure they are in alignment with Navitus internal guidelines, industry standards and Medicare guidelines – and to identify and correct any gaps.
Customer service improvements
Navitus has committed to adding an additional 35 customer service representatives (an increase from 125 to 160) by the end of April, and hopes to add another 15 staff after that, along with additional support for UC benefits professionals.Navitus has also added two more personnel with pharmacy clinical expertise to help UC benefit professionals support members.In addition, Navitus is exploring a concierge-type customer service model to ensure UC members receive the dedicated assistance they need.
Again, we sincerely apologize for any difficulties you or your family members have experienced during this transition. We are committed to you receiving the critical health care you deserve, without unnecessary inconvenience or frustration.
Sincerely,
Cheryl Lloyd Dr. Carrie Byington
Vice President Executive Vice President
Systemwide Human Resources University of California Health
Please do not reply to this message. Replies to this message are routed to an unmonitored mailbox.
So one of my New Year's resolution is to try to make and post nature observations of some kind every day this year. I am hoping to post pictures and also post observations to iNaturalist.
On January 1, I made some observations in my yard. I posted some pics to iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/phylogenomics/2020/1/1.
I am trying to just copy straight from that iNaturalist page into this blog - not sure how well that will work
Observations by you on January 01, 2020
8
taxa
8 birds
21
observations
21 from Yolo County, US, CA
21 from California, US
21 from United States
21 from North America
Grid List Map
Large White-headed Gulls
ID
California Scrub-Jay
2 IDs RG
Dark-eyed Junco
1 ID RG
Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 ID RG
White-crowned Sparrow
1 ID RG
Northern Flicker
1 ID RG
White-crowned Sparrow
1 ID RG
White-crowned Sparrow
1 ID RG
White-crowned Sparrow
1 ID RG
White-crowned Sparrow
1 ID RG
Mourning Dove
1 ID RG
Dark-eyed Junco
1 ID RG
Dark-eyed Junco
1 ID RG
White-crowned Sparrow
1 ID RG
White-crowned Sparrow
1 ID RG
White-crowned Sparrow
1 ID RG
White-crowned Sparrow
1 ID RG
White-crowned Sparrow
1 ID RG
California Towhee
1 ID RG
Large White-headed Gulls
ID
White-crowned Sparrow
1 ID RG
So - I did a guest appearance in a UC Davis Microbiology class run by a colleague / friend of mine - Renee Tsolis and I thought I would just post the details here.
Class: MIB200A - Biology of Prokaryotes
Four days of microbial phylogeny oriented around discussions of papers. So to do this I picked four topics, really organized around papers. See below for details. I have posted the slides though I note they are pretty boring since most of them are just figures / text from the papers.
Class 1: rRNA and the Tree of Life
Papers
Woese and Fox 1977 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC432104/ Hugenholtz et al. http://jb.asm.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=9733676 Slides
MIB200A at UCDavis Module: Microbial Phylogeny; Class 1 from Jonathan Eisen
A month or so I wrote the post below that I thought was an example of really bad misleading advertising. And it is indeed. But keep reading past the discussion of this ad, because today I got a much worse example.
Post I drafted a month ago but did not actually make public:
Uggh. This is just such BS. I saw a Viome ad on Facebook.
Here is the text:
DNA tests can tell you a lot about where you came from.
Your past. Your family history, and your ancestry.
But that doesn’t help you right now.
That doesn’t help you today.
DNA tests also told her what foods were best for, but the recommendations never changed, even as symptoms got worse.
Just like you, Kelly wanted to know how to make the most of her health.
DNA tests told Kelly what diseases she was more at risk for genetically,
but they don’t give her any actionable advice on how to lower that risk.
Frustrated with generic guidelines like “exercise more and eat healthy,” Kelly finally found Viome, and it made all the difference.
That’s because Viome didn’t test her DNA. Viome tested the RNA of the microbes that make up Kelly’s gut microbiome to tell her what her microbes were up to and how they were affecting her.
The same microbes that are responsible for making most of the neurotransmitters, nutrients, and other compounds her body needs to be healthy.
Just like Kelly’s microbes eat what Kelly eats, your microbes eat what you eat, and if they don’t get the right foods at the right time, they begin making compounds that contribute to chronic inflammation.
That means:
Poor sleep,
Bloating,
Weight gain (the bad kind),
And a significantly increased risk for all kinds of chronic diseases.
Once Kelly got her Viome results, she knew which foods she needed in her unique personalized diet to boost the good guys (and which foods to avoid!) to take action to improve her health.
You can do the same thing as Kelly using the Viome Gut Intelligence Test.
End the guesswork and take charge of your health.
Order your Viome Gut Intelligence Test today.
So - I did a thing today. A new thing for me. I officially became a bird nut. For the first time in my life, I went on an outing to see a rare bird that I read about online.
I went to West Sacramento, to a pond there, to see, and hopefully take pictures of, a garganey. What, you ask, is a garganey? It is a kind of duck. According to Wikipedia:
The garganey (Spatula querquedula) is a small dabbling duck. It breeds in much of Europe and western Asia, but is strictly migratory, with the entire population moving to southern Africa, India (in particular Santragachi), Bangladesh (in the natural reservoirs of Sylhet district) and Australasia in winter,[2] where large flocks can occur. This species was first described by Linnaeus in 1758. Like other small ducks such as the common teal, this species rises easily from the water with a fast twisting wader-like flight.
So - kind of boring in some sense. Just another duck right? But the key for my outing today is that it is not a normal resident of Wast Sacramento, or Central California, or California, or North American even. It is, as my National Geographic bird field guide says in a colonialist phrasing "An old world species"
So when one was spotted a few weeks ago in the West Sacramento area, the birders got very excited. And they started to share information about it on Facebook, and eBird (which is where I heard about it) and Twitter and such. And it even made the news: Bird Watchers Flock To West Sacramento To Catch A Glimpse Of Rare Bird
So why, you may ask, did this interest me? Well, I have been a birder, on and off, since I was a kid. Birds, and birdwatching, are what got me into nature, which then got me into natural history, which then got me into biology, which then got me to where I am now. For example, my first science job, doing field in the summer of 1988, involved studying hummingbirds in Colorado at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory with Bill Calder from Arizona.
More recently, I have rediscovered birding and bird science. From a birding point of view, I got back into birding when we went on a trip to Costa Rica a few years ago. For that trip, I got my first good pair of binoculars (Leica Trinovid 8 x 42) I have ever owned. And I got my first digital SLR camera (a Nikon D80) and a nice lens (a Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8). This was a great set up to have. although I confess I never fully learned all the ins and outs of using it for photography. I mean, I used it a lot, but I never learned how to do much other than leave it on auto settings and use some of the "scene" settings to vary things up. I wrote some blog posts about birding in the area on and off too and also started to spend a lot of time in Yolo Bypass nearby Davis. See for example:
Harvard Club of Sacramento outing to Yolo Basin #Birds #Birds #MoreBirds Great kids activity in Davis - the U. C. Davis Raptor Center Davis Wetlands - Beatiful Place, but Bizarrely Closed to Visitors most of the Winter Good day at Yolo Basin - Birds, Otters and more Vic Fazio Yolo Wildlife Area - A Stunning Place 5 Minutes from Davis Lab meeting at Yolo Basin - science should be fun ... Bat tour at Yolo Basin Wetlands Day 4 of the #ChallengeOnNaturePhotography - great horned owl in #Yolo Basin Yolo Basin 1-6 - yellowthroat, sora, and more Yolo Basin Notes Jan 5, 2014 Best of #Yolo Bypass Photos Pictures from Yolo Basin - Bitterns, Night Herons, Owl I even made some collections of my better pics. For example see
From a science point of view, I have been slowly trying to do more bird work in my lab. And since I study microbes, the easiest thing to do seemed to be to study bird associated microbes. I tried to get a project going on microbes of Darwin's Finches and to jump start this I even helped sequence one of the finch genomes. See Nice timing: Our paper on the Darwin's Finch genome is out today on Darwin's birthday. But we never got funding to work on the finch microbiomes (though am still interested in that). But I have gotten involved in a few bird microbiome projects recently and am doing a few more now and looking for others. See for example The cloacal microbiome of five wild duck species varies by species and influenza A virus infection status and Community-level differences in the microbiome of healthy wild mallards and those infected by influenza A viruses and Genome Sequence of a Multidrug-Resistant Strain of Bacillus pumilus, CB01, Isolated from the Feces of an American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos
And I should note that I also have been going on and on and on about how microbiologists could learn a lot from birders and how I think we need a "Field Guide to the Microbes."
So, yeah, birds and birding were and are bigs parts of my life.
Anyway, back to the garganey. Why was I checking out eBird reports and following reports of bird sightings? Well, because I REALLY rediscovered birding in the last two months. This happened because after about two years of pondering, and about 1 year of serious research, I got a new camera and lens specifically to do more bird photography. In order to choose what camera to get, basically, I looked and looked and looked and finally found someone online who made recommendations for bird photography that I really trusted. This person is Mark Smith. And I found his recommendations via the oracle of Google and then watched a series of his videos on Youtube about comparing and contrasting different set ups for bird photography. Especially bird in flight photography. This had been my bane in a way. I just felt like with my current birding set up I was not able to get close enough to birds or get good pictures of them in flight. And Mark Smith's videos showed me how I could get to the next level. Based on his videos I finalized my choice to a Nikon D850 w/ a crazy fancy lens (for more than $10,000) or a Nikon D500 with a Nikkor 200-500 mm lens for about $3000. I decided on the $3000 option both to save money and because I was not sure I would really use the rig enough to justify $10K. So here is what I got, based on Mark Smith's guidance:
Nikon D500 DSLR Camera (Body Only) Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR Lens Oben GH-30 Gimbal Head Benro TMA47AXL Extra Long Series 4 Mach3 Aluminum Tripod All purchased from B&H photos.
Everything showed up in early January. And I started to try to learn how to use everything. And things were slow at first. I went out for a few weeks taking pictures using auto settings. And, well, it was nice, occasionally. But the pics just were not as good as I thought they would be. It all came to a head when I went on a local little outing with Jim Koenigsaecker. And he kept asking me about all the settings I was using. And I kept saying "blarg" or something like that (actually, I said mostly I was using just the automated settings). And when I went home from that day, I had some good pics. And a lot of crummy ones.
So then I decided to consult the oracle again. Google that is. And I found Mark Smith had a bunch of videos on how to set up the Nikon D500 for shooting birds in flight
And I watched these. A few times. And then set up my camera with those settings. And I went out again that afternoon. And BOOM. The pics were way way way better.
See for example these.
Anyway - more about my pictures from the past another time. Back to the garganey. As part of taking better pictures I started wanting to share them more. And I started being able to ID birds better and in some cases also wanted help confirming IDs. So I started using iNaturalist and eBird more.
See my iNaturalist posts here.
See my eBird posts here.
And I signed up for notifications about bird sightings via eBird.
And this is FINALLY where the garganey comes in. A few weeks ago I saw that some people had reported a rare bird on eBird - a garganey. I also saw these were reported in the West Sacramento area, near the deep water channel and near where UC Davis students do crew and sailing. So this stuck in my head somewhere for a few weeks. And I talked about possibly going to check it out with some birding friends like Mei Yamaguchi. And then, a few days ago my friend from TIGR Karla Heidelberg contacted me and told me she was going to be in the Davis area this weekend since her daughter would be racing in two crew regattas. So yesterday we met up to see Captain Marvel with my wife, daughter, mom and step dad. And Karla came with her son, who it turns out, is getting interested in bird photography. And while chatting before or after the movie I asked where her daughter was going to be racing Sunday and she said "somewhere near West Sacramento".
