Cold

[Tannin]

I'm not sure about the egg size, I'll look it up later on today at Belinda's (we keep all our bird books at her place, because that's where the birds are).

So far, so good. The current six-year drought is severe in Australia generally, but we have been lucky: so far there has been no real damage, as we have had just enough rain to keep the surface moist. Trouble is, the sub-soil just has nothing left in it, so this summer could be a complete disaster. Belinda's damn is at its lowest level ever, and the summer hasn't even started yet. (In late spring, after the winter rains, it should be full.)

I had no idea that California was having one too, Buck, though I should have guessed it from reading about your bad fire seasons lately. I am a little surprised to hear about insect eating birds disappearing. It seems odd to me; I would have expected it to be the nectar-feeding ones. After all, the amount of nectar substitute that humans provide must be tiny by comparison with the natural supply, except in the confines of suburban areas, of course. Over here I know that the price of honey has roughly doubled because there just isn't enough nectar for the bees to make their usual amount. (Again, our particular part of the world is much more mildly affected so far than places as little as 50k further north.) But, if anything, we have seen an increase in the number of insect feeding birds. Let me see, there are blackbirds (imported vermin species from England, but they are here), grey thrush, blue wren, red robin, golden whistler, rufous whistler, white-throated tree-creeper, grey fantail, spotted pardalote, striated pardalote, brown thornbill, striated thornbill. magpie, mudlark, silvereye, doubtless some others that escape me at the moment (it's 5:00AM here so I'm not going to ring Belinda to jog my memory!). These are all the usual suspects, and they are in their usual numbers, perhaps more than ever. No sign yet of the flycatchers, but it's a little early in the year for them yet. Also this last year or so, we have had at least four ones that used to just pass through on their way from one place to another move in and set up house: yellow robin, yellow thornbill, crested shrike-tit, scrub-wren.

So why is it that you have a drought and fewer insectivorous birds, and we have a drought and more of them? I have a couple of theories: (a) the high summer is yet to hit and grim times lie ahead for us; (b) the worst of the drought is elsewhere and, so far, we are insulated from it. (c) Australian insects are better adapted to drought, and there is still just as much to eat this year as there is in a good year.

On theory (b) its worth noting that there are some seasonal migrants that are always a sign of dry further north, in particular the grass parrots, which usually arrive in summer to feast on eucalypt nectar, but arrive in far greater numbers when it's dry up north - and last year, as witness Tea's post in the China Thread, they were here in numbers. Perhaps some of our recent insectivorous arrivals are refugees too.

On theory (c), I'm sure that there is truth in this. ENSO has been a part of the climate here for a very long time, probably some millions of years, so drought is something that every single species in Australia is adapted to - or was adapted to, as we humans have made three seperate changes that are making things difficult: (a) global climate change; (b) habitat destruction: by removing particular parts of the place in accordance with what we happen to find convenient for farming and building on, we have forced many species into areas that are marginal for their needs - OK in a good year but unsuitable to support life in a bad year. and (c) habitat fragmentation: by reducing and eliminating the connections between the remaining islands of natural vegetation, we make it difficult or impossible for many species to migrate to more suitable areas when conditions change. The ability of different species to follow the seasons and the rains varies, of course. My favourite example is the silvereye: a tiny little thing the size of a large hummingbird (I should say "two-thirds the size of a sparrow", as I'm not sure how big hummers get) which eats insects, fruit, and seeds, whichever happens to be most convenient, and which, as a matter of routine, crosses Bass Strait - that's 200 miles of ocean!

 

[Buck]

That Silvereye is a beautiful bird. The color and markings are fantastic and should make the bird easier to spot, as its size is quite small.

In the area that I live, our main source of insectivorous birds is migratory (present from March until October) cliff swallows. Swallows rely on insects for food and mud to build their dwellings.

The small valley that I live in is dissected by the San Juan Creek. When this creek flows with water, the conditions are ripe for swallows, when the creek runs dry as it has for over a year, swallows spread out to other parts of our region (outside the valley that I live in) and search for mud, and of course, then partake of the local fair. The other requirement for swallows is a tall structure that can be used to attach a dwelling made from mud and grass. Our town has had a Mission since October 1775, which towered in comparison to the tents erected by the natives. Thus, the swallows had the perfect spot, a large structure, with plenty of nooks and crannies, mud from the San Juan Creek, and an insect population that thrived because of the San Juan Creek. We still have the Mission, and a reasonable amount of swallows return every year, but considering it is not a significantly large structure in comparison the commercial buildings and malls that surround our area, the swallows have spread out. Although swallows will return to the same nest, if the nest has been destroyed (cliff swallows are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Russia and Mexico) they will move on. Insert a drought condition, and the swallows have less of what they need. The main insects that they eat are mosquitoes, which are not drought tolerant.

Our nectar drinking species get their fill because of bird feeders and because we plant plenty of flowers, fruit trees, and vegetables. This area is packed tight with singe family homes, which results in a large amount of gardens that we irrigate thoroughly with water from the Colorado River. So thoroughly, that (as I think I’ve mentioned before) the Colorado River no longer makes its way to the Gulf of Baja - we drain it before it’s given the chance.

 

[Buck]

I had intended for this image to accompany my previous post, but the URL I used was incorrect. This would be a group of Cliff Swallows gathering mud for their nests.

 

[Tannin]

I am fond of Silvereyes, Buck, they are indeed beautiful little creatures. Most people don't particularly notice them, perhaps because they are so small and so common. Belinda, being fond of her cherries, her plums, her Nashis, and her grapes, calls them "little wretches", but can't bring herself to harm one. (This is not the case with sparrows and blackbirds; with the true vermin species, she is completely ruthless.) Anyway, as I often point out, unlike the larger fruit stealers (parrots in particular!) they only take little tiny bites, and we both know that a golf-ball surfaced fruit is still good to eat. (Alas, with grapes and tomatos, they do ruin the fruit, though the tomato is OK if you eat it promptly, before any mildew sets in.) She puts bird netting on the more precious things - fine-meshed stuff with holes no more than 2cm in size - just yesterday we netted one of the cherry trees, because they are starting to ripen now. But the Silvereyes pop themselves straight through, no trouble at all!

As you probably know, I have been fascinated by flight since not long after I could talk. My father being a pilot (now retired), I spend a good deal of my childhood making model aircraft and reading his books about aircraft design and aerodynamics, an interest that still stays with me today. And I was always interested in animals too: not birds in particular in those days, but all kinds. As an adult, I have merged the two interests, and spend any amount of time just watching birds fly: trying to visualise the flow of air over their bodies, the logic behind the different shapes for the different tasks (lazy soarers, swift swallows, manouverable flycatchers, and so on), and the way (say) that a magpie curves its wings just so, in order to adjust the lift-drag ratio when landing, stuff like that.

And in all that time, I have never, ever seen an adult bird stall or lose control. (They are, of course, far, far bettar at this flying stuff than the Louis Bleriots and the Charles Lindbergs and the Chuck Yeagers of this world - after all, they have been practicing for 80 million years or so.) No matter what the species, no matter the conditions or the task, birds never ever let themselves get out of control while airborne.

But late last summer, I was idly watching some Silvereyes hawking for mosquito-sized insects from the top of a lucerne tree out the back of my house. I'd never seen Silvereyes catching insects on the wing before. And, to my astonishment, they had a unique way of doing it. Lots of birds hawk, of course (perch somewhere high and make sallies up or out to catch a flying creature); leaving aside the specialists like fantails and swallows, most of the honeyeaters add a little protein to their diet by eating insects now and then, especially when they are raising babies, and every one has its own particular method - but that of the Silvereyes was special.

They were flying amost straight up to the level where the insects were, snapping one out of the air, and then - just stopping. No, not folding their wings and free-fall power-diving back to the tree, not executing an energy efficient glide back down, not doing any of the countless variations that other species use: they just stop and tumble back down any old how: upside-down, right way up, sideways, backwards, or all of those mixed up together. I have never seen any other bird lose control completely like this. Extraordinary! After perhaps one or two seconds of tumbling free-fall, they would curl a wing or flip a tail at the appropriate moment, resume control, and land normally, totally unconcerned by their gross violation of the rules of flight. Were they saving every possible erg of energy getting ready for their long flight? Nope: wrong time of year. Were they so interested in the flavour of the insect they were swallowing that they forgot to fly? Ridiculous. Were they so confident that this place was safe and predator-free that they didn't need to maintain control so as to be able to avoid a hawk at an instant's notice? Were they just incredibly lazy? Maybe. Or maybe it was a sort of game for them, a "let's break some rules, just for fun" thing. I wil watch again this year with interest to see if they do it again, try to get some pictures.

Now, I started this post off intending to reply to your swallow post, Buck, and I seem to have sidetracked myself. Just two more things about silvereyes then: first, if you have not already done so, take that link above, which talks about the mystery of their migrations. And second, the one that nested in the apple tree over Belinda's vegetable garden gate two years running. Just after you walk through the gate, you have to duck your head to avoid a low hanging branch of an apple tree, and it was in this exact spot that a silvereye chose to build her tiny, delicate nest. The first year I think she was successful: I remember looking inside it to see those tiny mouths wide-a-gape, more mouth than chick. last year, though, she refurbished the nest (or possibly built a new one) laid eggs in it, and lost them to causes unknown. I think she did that twice before abandoning the site. It may have been bush rats (which abound here - not the foreign vermin Rattus rattus, one of the relatively shy and relatively harmless native ones which arrived during an ice age over the land bridge to Asia), or possibly a nest-robbing bird such as a currawong.

 

[Tannin]

Swallows! Doh! How could I have forgotten swallows? We have them, of course, but not so far as I know not nesting, they just cruise on in now and again, particularly in summer. But - look out - having wasted my morning writing about silvereyes, I've hit my self-imposed start time and am late for the not-office. There is much of interest to explore in your post, Buck. Tonight.

 

[Tannin]

It was your comment that the Colarodo River no longer reaches the sea that particularly caught my eye, Buck. That is very sad - and yet, with so many people to feed and water, is there a reasonable alternative? Here in Oz, with fewer mouths to feed, I don't think we have ever sunk to quite that level, but the pitiful trickle that flows down many of our major rivers is a serious problem. The Murray, the Golbourn, the Snowy, and the Thompson are examples. On the Murray, the beautiful and unique red gum river flats are slowly, slowly dying because, while they are well adapted to survive long periods of dryness - somtimes quite a few years - they cannot regenerate and grow without the floods that have been a part of their environment for countless thousands of years. And of course, thanks to Lake Hume and the Snowy Mountains Scheme, these days the Murray never floods.

But help - too little, too late, but better than none at all - is at hand. The once-magnificent Snowy River, now diverted by tunnels to the Murray, will, over time, be restored to a minimum of 17% of its natural flow. Similar schemes for other rivers are under active discussion. Even setting aside the wonderful creatures that live in them and near them, rivers are such beautiful things. The thought of taking so much water from one that it no longer flows at all is very sad.

 

[Tannin]

Here, compressed to 640 x 480 to save screen space, is a view of some of the part of Belinda's property that I call "the forest". (Look at it right now, because the grass won't be green again till winter, I should imagine!)

Notice the brown trees on the far left and far right: these trees are not dead, they are just very sick with a lerp infection. Lerps are small insects that suck sap out of the leaf and leave a sugary deposit. (Strictly speaking, the lerp is the deposit, not the insect.) These last few years, lerps have become a real problem - no-one knows why, and this year they have arrived here. (They have been around forever, but these bad infections are new.)

There are two main natural enemies of the lerp psyllid: a parasitc wasp (which was introduced into California recently in an attempt to deal with the lerp problem on America's euycalypts) and birds which like to eat the lerp: in particular pardalotes.

And speaking of sad things, as I was in the previous post, a spotted pardalote flew into a window yesterday and broke its neck. They seem to be particularly prone to that. Not only are they useful (though we need many more of them, as you can see), they are astinishingly beautiful:

 

[Tea]

(Tannin?)

(Yes Tea?)

(Whatz "cold" mean?)

(Well, Tea, it's like ... um ... I'm not sure, actually. I think it was cold a while ago, like last year. Do you remember last year?)

(I remember breakfast. )

(sigh)

(Tannin? What are we doing at the office? I don't like going to the office on a Saturday.)

(Me neither, Tea. But it's better than being at home..)

(No it's not. There's no gin and no bananaz, only chocolate.)

(There's no chocolate either now, Tea..)

(Oh. Zorry.)

(It's OK. It's too hot for any normal person to eat chocolate anyway. I don't mind.)

(So we can go home now?)

(You can if you like. I'm staying here.)

(OK. But why don't you come too? I'll let you drive.)

(It's nice and cool here.)

(No it's not! It'z horrible! Must be 80 degrees at least! Look at you - you've got your shirt off.)

(Please yourself then. Bye.)

(See you later.)

 

[Tannin]

I wonder if I should have done that?

 

[The Grammar Police]

SNo. It was cruel. he'll be back in a minute. You watch.

 

[P5-133XL]

Why is my Icon associated with the Grammer Police? I am not he and he is not me. I have never given permission for my likeness to be associated with anything as noble as correcting peoples grammer.

 

[The Grammar Police]

Sorry. I thought that was me. I seem to be getting confused lately. All that orange hair in my soup, I guess. Is this one better?

Anyway, what I meant to say was: "No. She'll be back in a minute."

 

[Tea]

Whowwww!!!!

(Must you always use five exclamation marks, Tea?)

(It's HOT out there!)

(I know. That's why I'm in here.)

(How many hots is it?)

(43)

(It feels like 109!)

(It is 109 if you count them the other way. That's called '"degrees F". They count them that way over in America. I don't know why.)

(Well I wish they wouldn't count so many of them. Have you got a blanket, Tannin? It's really cold in here.)

(Tea? What's that smell?)

(I think it'z me. I don't like it when my fur catches on fire.)

 

[Jake the Dog]

speaking of hot, we had a lovely day today ... not.

after an overnight low of 27.5C (80.6F) the local temperature reached a high of 45.3C (113F)... guess who stayed indoors today?

 

[James]

A friend of mine from Canada sent me an email during the week. She said it had been -20C for the last 2 weeks. I thought, well, it was 45 here last weekend, perhaps I could send her 25 degrees or so.

Tomorrow's due to be warm again.

 

[Dozer]

Night before last it was 7F here in Chattanooga. This is extremely cold for our neck of the woods. The county schools were closed because, "they didn't want the kids getting cold at the bus stops," according to a friend of mine who teaches in the school district. It is unreal how a bit of snow and cold weather puts our town into shutdown.

I grew up in Chicago, and the only two days I can remember that school was cancelled was one time when it was -30F (without the wind chill factor) and one other time when we were surprised with over 1 1/2' of snow. We haven't seen anything quite like that here since I've lived here, except for the snow storm of '96. And it really wasn't that bad (maybe a foot).

But the Dozer prediction is that before the end of this year, our region will see a significant winter storm that can truly be defined as "a significant winter storm."[/u]

 

[Tannin]

According to the official Bureau of Meterology figures, today it hit 44.1, making it the second-hottest day ever recorded in Melbourne - second only to Black Friday - Friday 13th January 1939, when the official temperature in Melbourne hit 45.6. In Adelaide it got to 47.6 on Black Friday- that's just on 118F!

Black Friday makes the recent Canberra and Sydney fires, and the current Victorian ones seem almost routine. That day, in the state of Victoria alone, the fires killed 71 people and burned out 1.4 million hectares of bush - that's an area slightly larger than the entire state of South Carolina. In South Australia, they were, if anything, worse (though the area was smaller - SA is mostly desert, but the fertile part all went up).

The current fires are very serious indeed, and may well get a lot worse before the summer is over - it's only January, and February to early March is usually the hottest - but they can't possibly destroy that much forest again. There isn't that much forest left now.

 

[Mercutio]

A couple days ago, I found out that my apartment doesn't have heat. It's never been an issue before, with all the PCs I have, I put my thermostat at its lowest setting and left it there.
Tuesday night I saw that it was going to hit -20F outside, so I bumped the thermostat up to to a toasty 70something.

... and when I woke up, with a shivering cat on either side of my head, it was 43F in my apartment.

Since they didn't get around to fixing it the next day, I decided to sleep on the loft in my computer room, which is almost 20 degrees warmer than the rest of the apartment, the next night.

 

[CityK]

It has been cold in T.O. (and the rest of the eastern half of N.A.). Its just one big Artic air mass that doesn't want to move along....alas, I guess it just balances out the sweltering heat we experienced last summer.

Anyways, 6 more weeks and we'll be well on our way to the good stuff. I just hope that, in this coming summer, it'll be a little cooler so that the windows can stay open more often.

CK

 

[Handruin]

A couple days ago, I found out that my apartment doesn't have heat. It's never been an issue before, with all the PCs I have, I put my thermostat at its lowest setting and left it there.
Tuesday night I saw that it was going to hit -20F outside, so I bumped the thermostat up to to a toasty 70something.

... and when I woke up, with a shivering cat on either side of my head, it was 43F in my apartment.

Since they didn't get around to fixing it the next day, I decided to sleep on the loft in my computer room, which is almost 20 degrees warmer than the rest of the apartment, the next night.

Same here, my heat hasn't been working the entire winter. I've been watching the thermometer in my room hover around 63 degress F. We finally called a few days ago and sure enough it was broken. Now it's like summer in here because we've been so used to the cooler temperature.

 

[iGary]

Yeah, it's been cold as hell here too. I had to put on a long-sleeved shirt the other day when I went out to feed the dolphins.

 

[Tea]

Arctic air mass? Send it here, send it here!

 

[Cliptin]

Arctic air mass? Send it here, send it here!

What has happened to your antarctic air masses?

 

[Tea]

Did you steal them? Give them back right this minute!

 

[Buck]

<cough> We have a lovely temperate condition of 73-degrees F.

The heat waves endured by Australia are amazing. Although we get very hot weather here, it never lasts the duration that is seen down under. It has peaked here at 120-degrees F, but that may be just one day, whereas the remainder of the hot spell would hover around 100-degrees F. Although, I must admit that such hot, dry weather has not plagued our area for quite some time. It was more prevalent in the late 70's and early 80's.

Since then, our summer weather has become more humid. I am happy about the change, as I find hot, dry weather frustrating and annoying. I avoid the desert at all costs. I would much rather vacation in Hawaii.

 

[Tannin]

Speaking of lawnmowers and cameras, my second 20D and the 10-22mm Canon lens arrived on Monday, and I spent most of the afternoon attending to Belinda's lawn with the new (two years ago) mower. Here are the results.

13mm, 1/90th, F/9.5 ISO 100

10mm, 1/60th, F/11 ISO 100

 

[time]

W i d e . . .

Speaking of cold, it's the sixth day of Summer here and it hit 99F (37.3C), with much the same predicted for tomorrow and the day after (depending on whether it rains). 72F minimum tonight (4am).

The meteorologists are predicting average temperatures to be a full degree C higher this Summer - this after one month in Spring broke all historical records.

It's now 11pm and the outside temperature has dropped to 77F (25C), but the humidity is 87% (no, I'm not near the ocean). Unfortunately, the airconditioned rooms are still at 81F (>27C) - the unairconditioned rooms are still >30C.

This side of Brisbane sucks. We were hoping to move before Summer hit, but it looks like it's already too late.

 

[Tannin]

Still seems more like late spring than summer here, Time. Sunday was warm and very windy - quite unpleasant. Yesterday it was warm, still, and borderline hot. Clear skies (as you can see from the pictures) and just under 30. (Maybe just over, I didn't check exactly, just found it expedient to sit in the shade for an hour or two until it cooled enough to make me feel like starting the mower.) Warmish for so early in December.

Today it was mild to warm and we had thick cloud cover all day, with showers. Tonight we had two ripper thunderstorms pass overhead, and torrential rain. Tommorow, who knows. Snow?

 

[Buck]

Thunderstorms and no pictures of lightening?

 

[Tea]

Here be a picture of lightening for you Buck.

Sun go up, be lightening. You want picture of darkening, you have to wait till da sun go down. Be darkening lots den.

 

[timwhit]

You guys a complaining about warm weather. It is about 16 degrees F today, but feels like 4.

http://www.weather.com/weather/local/60657?lswe=60657&lwsa=WeatherLocalUndeclared&from=whatwhere

 

[CougTek]

Tommorow, who knows. Snow?

Have you ever seen snow? I heard about a few snowfall in Australia these past years, but it seems so rare in your country that every time you receive a few flakes, people die (must be the psychological shock).

 

[timwhit]

BTW, it is 9 degrees colder here than in Montréal.

 

[CityK]

Its currently -8C here in Toronto ... feels like -16C with the windchill. Pretty cold for this time of year. But can't complain, as we really had an awesome autumn. Anyways, the way I see it, Winter ends with the conclusion of February, so 84 more days till Spring will be in the air.

 

[i]

Wimps. It's -201° C ( -330° F) on Enceladus.

And you wouldn't believe how bad the network latency is...

 

[ddrueding]

I had to close the door to the game center, though the windows are still open. It's actually down to 40F outside!

 

[Tannin]

When you get to -201 degrees, i, I don't think you really need to bother putting in whether it's °F or °C ..... I've sort of stopped caring by that stage.

 

[time]

Wimps. It's -201° C ( -330° F) on Enceladus.

Is that just down the road from Tralfamadore?

 

[Tannin]

I never did warm to Vonnegut. Don't know why, lots of people seem to think he was fantastic. Never saw too much out of the ordinary in his work myself, though I haven't looked at any of it for a decade or two.

 

[i]

Planet: Earth

Coldest recorded temp:
-89.2 °C (-128.6 °F)
Vostok research station, Antarctica, 1983

Hottest recorded temp:
57.7 °C (135.9 °F)
Al Aziziyah, Libya, 1922

These values ignore any additional effects from wind chill or humidity that a human might sense.

I have read somewhat vague claims that, down at about the -60° to -70° Celsius range, if you make the mistake of breathing through your mouth, the nerves in the core of your teeth can freeze and die, and the enamel can become brittle to the point that your teeth can break apart. I have also read that, at that range, inhaling the air through your mouth can cause lung damage as the moisture in your lungs will begin to freeze. The only way you can survive is by layering material over your face, and remembering -- no matter how out of breath you might be for whatever reason -- to breathe only through your nose. Climate conditioning is one of your nose's functions, and at extreme cold like this, I suppose you'd better use it.

Have a nice day.