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... while we were trying to spot early Perseids tonight because it's supposed to be cloudy tomorrow and we'll be back in the urban light blight on Sunday:
Fuck You!
Nature Red in Beak and Claw
May. 11th, 2015 09:35 pmI intervened, likely to no good effect.
I simply could not walk past the spectacle of a full-grown blue jay beating the stuffing out of a fledgling sparrow in the bank parking lot on the way up from the Metro.
The sparrow's near relatives were screaming and buzzing, and as I got near, a bunch of them took off after something that fled across the street: probably the blue jay's mate. The fledgling was still flapping its stubby wings and trying to evade the blue jay's beak. I chased off the predator and picked up the birdling: still alive, and not visibly too torn up although there was a little blood on it. I carried it to some shrubs, with my hands cupped around it, and tried to get it to perch, but the little claws weren't gripping, so it was probably pretty messed up.
I tucked it near the roots of the shrub, and it probably died later of its injuries, or a cat got it, or the blue jay finally figured out my sleight of hand and came after it again: the jay was fruitlessly searching where its prey had last been seen when I left.
And of course this could well mean that the blue jay's own fledglings went hungry this evening. Mother Nature is an unforgiving bitch sometimes.
Jupiter- Crescent Moon-Venus Conjunction!
Feb. 26th, 2012 08:16 pmIt's outside right now. If you're in this time zone (U.S./Canada Eastern), you should hurry and look, before Venus sets. In other time zones, this alignment of celestial bodies will also be visible shortly after sunset, but given the Moon moves about 12° along the Ecliptic every night, the exact configuration will differ as time goes on. In the arrangement outside right now, the Moon appears much closer to Jupiter than to Venus.
