Towheeblog

It may be winter on the calendar. But our artificial seasons mean nothing in the real world. Mushrooms are sprouting from the ground. The camellias, lilacs, deciduous magnolia and all fully budded. Green shoots of yarrow are pushing upward. The male turkeys are practicing their courtship strut, individual birds are chasing one another around a makeshift May pole. Red-wings are singing possessively. Goldfinches are starting to get springy plumage. I saw my first fully bloomed dandelion of the year.

Here where grass is greenest in January, winter is just the path to spring.

OUTR MOTUS ROBIN AT ANKENY NOW HAS CHALKED UP SEVEN STRAIGHT DAYS OF BEING “SENSED.”
I note that many of these signals come in early evening as it it is getting dark…so maybe our robin comes “home” from feeding and before he settles into a dense conifer for the evening, the bird spends some time on the outer edges of that tree where his signal is not blocked by the foliage…just a guess, but his pattern of 6-7PM signals is consistent.

California has a dam problem that is a damn problem. Water they gonna do about it? Click here.

A long-time friend and life-time atmospheric researcher put this paragraph in a recent email exchange on the climate…and what our species may, or may not, do about it.

“IPCC is not moving the goalposts.  White People in rich countries refuse to spend money to reduce emissions and to strengthen climate resilience in the world. So we get closer to the edge as we emit more.  But the edge is not actually a cliff.  So IPCC strategizes on how to make the best of a bad deal as each opportunity to do the right thing is passed up.  Every country is in IPCC.  The process is pretty open compared to much of human activity.  It is nice have a target that explains the fact that poor choices are leading to bad outcomes – Trump, Professors, Scientists, Oil Companies, Consumers, Voters, Your Choice Goes Here.  Our grandchildren are, of course, always the victims and, as it usually turns out, provide the solution that puts the cliff off long enough so that their grandchildren have to puzzle it out. My Problem:  Is it better to make my house a net zero house ($$$) in a fire zone, or is it better to send that $$$ to poor countries to improve their climate resilience?”