Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
It’s been snowing on and off in Chicago today, and now it’s snowing harder. It’s gonna be a cold night for trick or treaters! Frosen Milky Ways!
We may have up to two inches, but temperatures will rise, taking it away by tomorrow
Usually, when it’s very cold in Chicago, the weatherperson says that we’re inundated by “cool Canadian air”. Now our Canadian friends are sending us something worse: smog from the extensive wildfires up north. Yesterday Chicago had the worst air quality in the world. It’s just about as bad today. Here’s our index from the NYT:
Here are the air quality indices for several major cities this morning. The index runs from 0 to 500; the higher the number, the greater the level of air pollution. An A.Q.I. of 301 or more is considered hazardous. Find your city here.
We’re Number One!!
More from the NYT:
In Chicago, Air Force One descended through a thick layer of smoke and haze at the O’Hare International Airport late Wednesday morning, as President Biden arrived for a speech on the economy.
. . . . The smoke is the result of one of Canada’s worst wildfire seasons in decades — nearly 500 active wildfires were burning in Canada early Wednesday, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, and more than 250 were burning out of control.
It’s funny, but though the air is visibly hazy even a block away, I can’t smell anything. But here’s the view of downtown Chicago, six miles away, from my crib. I can nearly always see the skyscrapers quite clearly rising up in the distance between the two buildings in the middle ground. Today: bupkes. The downtown is completely obscured.
I just hope the ducks are okay.
Saturday is a day to collect singletons and doubleton photos. The photographer’s captions are indented, and you can click on the photos to enlarge them.
From Christopher Moss, an olive-sided flycatcher:
Taken through a window, but finally I managed it! There’s a pair of these birds, Contopus cooperi, feeding and likely nesting near the house on this side of the pond. They wake me up about 5 am if the windows are open, with their “Quick! Three beers!” call. They fly from side to side of the house, picking up some juicy insect along the way. Now that the dragonflies are out, they have easy pickings. When I go down to my record-cleaning machines (don’t ask unless a vinyl fanatic!) in the basement I sometimes see one of them perched on something close to the windows. So I set up the Nikon D850 and the 400mm lens on a tripod, saying to myself that one day things would coincide. And so they did.
From Garry VanGelderen:
Attached are two photos of ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) that I took some time in May at the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre near Midland, Ontario.
From Norman Gilinsky, photos labeled “Trigger warning: Irresistible cuteness!”
Here we have a tiny baby bunny, an Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) from my yard in Washington State. No, this ball of fur was not displaced from somewhere in the east. Cottontails were introduced here in Washington State in the 1930’s and—not surprisingly given their propensity to reproduce—now thrive here. I don’t believe that they have displaced any native rabbits here, at least in the Seattle area where I live. The cuteness of this baby rabbit is undeniable. I hope it survives, but life for these babies can be difficult as they are often viciously tormented by crows in ways that are hard to watch.
When I asked Norm if the mother was still around, he responded:
The probable mom is still around, but by this point (it appears to me from watching several litters grow up this spring) the mom is not providing much care. The bunny was not afraid of me until I got within about six inches of it, so it was barely aware that photographers can be dangerous. The bunnies grow up very quickly.
Hummingbirds from Emilio d’Alise, with tentative IDs
Broad-tailed hummingbird [Selasphorus platycercus], immature male
Rufous hummingbird [Selasphorus rufus]:
Your guess:
Virginia landscapes from reader Lorraine (more to come).
View of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Fairy Stone State Park, Stuart, VA
From Andrew Berry, a photo that I just got this morning.
From a couple of days ago in Colorado. Once, early morning, I had made it to a decent altitude (~13K’) in the hills above Leadville, CO, clouds moved in on the back of a stiff chill breeze. The tops were obscured. Shortly, however, after reaching a peak, with the early morning sun competing with the low cloud, my shadow was flung off the edge of the mountain on to the bank of cloud. Photo below, a Brocken spectre materialized. This is a relatively unusual phenomenon (I’d never seen it before, but often heard accounts of it) whereby the shadow-on-cloud generates a rainbow-hewed halo. Cool effect. It makes me look like a New Age Jesus!\
The rainbow circle is called a “glory.”
And the site of the photo:
Photo taken on the cloud-obscured left hand peak below, Horseshoe Mountain, 13,898 ft. Mt. Sheridan to the right.
Yes, when this post goes up at 10:59 a.m. Eastern U.S. time, Winter in the Northern Hemisphere has just begun. I thought it would be a good winter, but it looks like we’re in for another long bout of social distancing, mask wearing, people avoidance, and maybe even another jab. I hope to still go to Antarctica in March, and if that doesn’t happen I’ll be bummed.
A quick explanation of the solstice: because the Earth orbits the Sun but its axis of rotation is tilted at a constant angle, this is the day when the Northern Hemisphere is farthest from the Sun, while the Southern Hemisphere is closest. That’s why it’s the beginning of Summer below the equator and the beginning of Winter here (just that slight tilt makes all the difference in weather and light). It’s the shortest day of the year for us, and the longest day of the year below the equator. This diagram explains both the light and temperature phenomena.
Will it be a good winter (either for you or the world) or a bad one? A dumb poll:
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Again I appeal to readers to send in their good wildlife photos. I can go about ten days, but then will run out.
For Boxing Day we have some cloud and weather photos from Phil Loubere; one has a rainbow that I declare is our symbol of hope for 2021. Phil’s captions is indented; click on the photos to enlarge them.
Attached are some weather photos. They were all taken from my home outside of Nashville during our torrid summers, when towering thunderstorm clouds are common, and close to sunset when the light effects can be spectacular. The rainbow photo has a near-full moon in the background.
Here’s an almost real-time view of Hurricane Dorian (just an hour from before I posted this) from the International Space Station. The storm, now a Category 5, is battering the hell out of the Bahamas. It looks peaceful from up there, but on the ground the winds are fierce. Here’s part of the YouTube summary of the NASA video:
Cameras outside the International Space Station captured views September 1 of Hurricane Dorian from 260 miles in altitude at 12:16 p.m. Eastern time as it churned over the Atlantic Ocean over the northern Bahamas. The storm, which is moving in a westerly direction with sustained winds of 180 miles an hour, is a dangerous Category 5 hurricane, carrying the strongest winds in recorded history for the northwestern Bahamas.
h/t: Michael