BIRD WATCHING

Our bird feeder gets the usual visitors...

chickadees, sparrows,

pine siskins, goldfinches. The latest visitors to stop by on their way north have specialized beaks. At first glance you may think there is something wrong with them.

They are Red Crossbills, although the female is more yellow. Their odd-shaped bills are used to pry open pine cones to get at the seeds. They travel in flocks and are pretty greedy. It only took them a day to eat half the seeds in the feeder.

Despite their fierce appearance they don't seem aggressive. At least they share better than the pine siskins. But they are really taking advantage of the free food to fuel up for the rest of their trip.

SNOW ROLLERS

Maybe they couldn't wait to try out their hay bailer.

(Borrowed from the National Weather Service) On the evening of March 31st, 2009, Tim Tevebaugh was driving home from work east of Craigmont in the southern Idaho Panhandle (see map below). Across the rolling hay fields, Tim saw a very usual phenomena. The snow rollers that he took pictures of are extremely rare because of the unique combination of snow, wind, temperature and moisture needed to create them. They form with light but sticky snow and strong (but not too strong) winds. These snow rollers formed during the day as they weren't present in the morning on Tim's drive to work. http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/otx/photo_gallery/snow_rollers.php






For those who can't open the link: here is one of the photos.

RUNNING DOWN THE STREET IN MY PAJAMAS

If you were out before sunrise on the west side of the United States this morning with a clear view of the horizon, you would have been able to see an occultation. This has nothing to do with black magic, but is an astronomical term for, “concealment of one celestial body by another.” In this case it was the planet Venus sliding behind a thin crescent moon. I often get up before sunrise to go for a walk or a bike ride. I have been watching the moon wandering between Jupiter, Mars and Venus in the early sky. Today was the day Venus and the moon crossed paths. I had my camera ready and went out to get a photo, only to discover the moon so near the horizon that I had to walk over a block for a clear view. I was in my pajamas and slippers and it was dark. It did not occur to me until later that I might have looked a little suspicious wandering around the pre-dawn neighborhood with a camera, dressed in my jammies. Fortunately, I did not meet up with the police like I did last time I was taking sunrise snapshots.

Venus was even brighter than the thin moon, and both were easily visible. The Steiner Castle, okay, ...really grain elevators, added a nice silhouette to the set off the event. In a matter of a few minutes Venus

touched

kissed

and disappeared behind the moon. I guess in California this happened enough before dawn that Venus could be seen coming out on the other side. It was certainly worth missing a little sleep to see!