A new Strook with something I drew, read, and listened to.

Drawing

Over the past few weeks, I spent many hours working on this hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata). With its distinctive shell, it was a very cool and challenging subject.

In the next newsletter, I will share more images of the drawing process.

Reading

The Gray Nutcracker, a crow-like bird that lives in North America, survives the cold winters by hiding 30,000 seeds in up to 6,000 different locations in an area of 260 square kilometers in the fall. The bird finds 70% of the seeds again.

The Monarch butterfly migrates north from Mexico in the spring to reproduce. During the summer, their offspring migrate further and further north to Canada. When summer comes to an end, the last generation of butterflies migrates back to exactly the same location in Mexico in one go. They fly up to 3,600 km in 75 days. High up in the mountains, millions of monarch butterflies hang in the tall trees.

David Barrie describes these and many other amazing navigational talents of animals in his book Incredible Journeys. Navigating by sight, smell, magnetism, internal memory, and even based on the stars, sun, and rotation of the earth. Barrie follows the scientists who are searching for answers. Often, the search is still ongoing. Such as with the mystery of sea turtle navigation.

Female sea turtles return after 20-30 years to the exact same place where they were born to lay their eggs. Sea turtles swim from their habitat in Brazil to Ascension, a tiny island only 17 km wide in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A journey of 4,500 km in total. Often in a straight line. But how do they do this?

In addition to sight, smell seems to play a role. To prove this, the sea turtles were released outside their route. Sea turtles that were released in the direction of the wind found their way to the island within a few days. Against the wind, it took some turtles months. This suggests that scent tracking helps them find Ascension. Sea turtles also seem to use an internal magnetic compass. The navigational abilities of sea turtles could be impeded by placing magnets on the turtles. Since the book was published (2020), more and more evidence has been found for such an internal compass.

A wonderful mystery to unravel. Unfortunately, six of the seven sea turtle species are threatened with extinction.

Listen

A loyal reader of this newsletter has a birthday today. We gave him a record by Songs:Ohia. Jason Molina's alternative Americana band was not very well known to the general public, but it was very influential. I got to know Songs:Ohia through a cover of the beautiful Farewell Transmission. Covered by Kevin Morby and Waxahatchee, both big fans of Jason Molina:

Farewell Transmission is the opening track of the album Magnolia Electric Co. His subsequent albums were also released under that band name, until he died of liver failure at the age of 39. The fact that his music is still alive is evident from the tribute album that will be released soon, featuring MJ Lenderman, among others.

See you next week!