6 thoughts on “Thursday: Hili dialogue”

  2. I find myself curious about the weather in Dobrzyn. What’s the temp on an average spring day? Does it get hot enough in the summer that Hili will complain and want indoors?

    1. Just now the temperature is 20 degrees (Celsius) and it’s normal for May. In the summer it can come up to 30 and Hili and Szaron prefer to be inside where it’s cooler. Now it’s the best time to be outside.

  3. …lots of blood sucking going on lately.
    A general comment from a BBC science podcast.
    The rise in temperatures has had implications on the life cycle of ticks. Their breading season has been extended and it has subjected, in this example moose, with infestations of thousands on a single individual. (IIRC it was in the 100s of thousands on one adult…)
    These ticks are sucking the nutrients out of the moose with calves particularly impacted resulting in being badly malnourished for winter and severely reducing their chances of survival if not killing them outright.
    Hili is right to be concerned it seems.

    1. Auntie Beeb may well have published this recently, but having spent over 40 years in the domain of the dread Highland midge, I have been hearing exactly the same points from students and faculty of the Zoology department throughout that time. (A member of the Zoology Dept staff published a whole popular book on the Highland Midge … in the mid-80s ; It may still be in print.) There might be changes in recent time, but all the baseline data we have is that blood-sucking parasites in general have been a significant issue in the summer polar regions for as long as people have been recording relevant data.
      OK – there are three such books, at least. This appears to be the current edition.
      I wonder – do tick-strikes produce enough of a welt on skin (cervid, proboscidean) that natural leathers – or artificial leathers – preserve a usable intensity record?

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