Today I arrived at the Soil Factory in Ithaca, NY. It’s already filling me with inspiration and ideas, while providing much food for thought on soil sustainability, local plants, and so much more.
Much of my current internal focus is on human and insect interactions, in particular the ways that trophic levels are interdependent. There are a few things that were quite pronounced about my drive up to Ithaca today, though the thing that stands out the most is the lack of insect splatter on my windshield. This is a well documented and discussed phenomena now, and like many I was introduced to the concept by Oliver Milman in his book The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World , where he discusses the Windscreen Phenomenon as studied by Anders Pape Møller (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.5236) . Though my own experience is anecdotal, I have definitely noticed that I no longer need to clean my windshield at every gas stop as I drive long distances now, and it is definitely a loss.
As I walk around this new to me location, I am very much looking forward to getting to know the local critters, and of course, insects. I am hopeful that I can get some decent field recordings, and though I would LOVE to get some good insect sounds, I can already tell there will be a lot of fantastic birds to listen to while here. I will also be taking a lot of photos and video, and, as always, will keep an open mind as to what the outcome of this trip will be.
And, most of all, I am looking forward to see how my relationship with this land changes over my time here.
