Think I’ll go outside for a while, and just smile! And pick up the branches, put the bird feeders back out, etc., etc. I am so very thankful our storms were not nearly so bad as was forecast as possible-to-likely! I hope all of us are able to find beauty today!
Category: Animals / Insects / Water Life / Plants / Nature
Supermassive Black Hole
NGC 1300: Barred Spiral Galaxy
Image Credit: NASAESA, Hubble Heritage
Explanation: Across the center of this spiral galaxy is a bar. And at the center of this bar is smaller spiral. And at the center of that spiral is a supermassive black hole. This all happens in the big, beautiful, barred spiral galaxy cataloged as NGC 1300, a galaxy that lies some 70 million light-years away toward the constellation of the river Eridanus. This Hubble Space Telescope composite view of the gorgeous island universe is one of the most detailed Hubble images ever made of a complete galaxy. NGC 1300 spans over 100,000 light-years and the Hubble image reveals striking details of the galaxy’s dominant central bar and majestic spiral arms. How the giant bar formed, how it remains, and how it affects star formation remains an active topic of research.
Jigsaw Universe: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
Tomorrow’s picture: spiral unraveling
And any chance I get to listen to any Muse, I’m takin’ it; while I work the puzzle!
Clay Jones
Drunkie and the Blowfish
Why did Kash Patel snorkel around the Arizona?
When Kash Patel visited Hawaii last summer, he participated in what government officials described as a “VIP snorkel” around the USS Arizona, the battleship that sits at the bottom of Pearl Harbor as a memorial, in an outing coordinated by the military. The battleship sunk at the battle of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Empire entombs more than 900 sailors and Marines.
The swim, revealed in government emails obtained by The Associated Press, comes to light amid criticism of Patel’s use of an FBI plane and his global travels, which have blurred professional responsibilities with leisure activities. Patel has chosen to live in Las Vegas for a reason.
When the Patel made the visit to Hawaii, the FBI took pains to note the director was not on vacation, highlighting his walking tour of the bureau’s Honolulu field office and meetings with local law enforcement. But what they left out was the swim. If Kash, who prefers to spell his first name as “Ka$h,” wasn’t doing anything wrong or suspicious, then why did they leave it out?
The USS Arizona is considered one of the most hallowed sites in the United States. With few exceptions, snorkeling and diving are off-limits around the battleship. Marine archaeologists and crews from the National Park Service make occasional dives at the memorial to survey the condition of the wreck. Other dives have been conducted to inter the remains of Arizona survivors who wanted to rest eternally with their former shipmates. (snip-MORE)
Your Weekly Birds: The Songs, The Cuteness … And A Bonus!
Mourning Warbler
Geothlypis philadelphia
Also Known As
- Reinita Enlutada (Spanish)
- Chipe Llorón (Spanish)
About
Though relatively common over much of its range, the Mourning Warbler is secretive and notoriously hard to observe. These birds mostly stay close to the ground in dense thickets and brush where they forage and nest. Outside of the breeding season, Mourning Warblers are also fairly quiet and can easily go unnoticed. As a result, very little is known of this bird’s life history outside of the breeding season. In fact, there are sizable gaps in our understanding of its breeding biology as well — for instance, no researchers have documented the courtship behavior of this species.
However, one thing we do know is that these birds are fairly particular about their habitat requirements. Mourning Warblers are reliant on thick, brushy second-growth forest, the result of big ecological disturbances, such as fire or major storms, that kill numerous trees and open up gaps in the canopy. Following such a disturbance, habitat becomes acceptable after about two or three years. After another seven or eight years, the forest will have grown back enough that Mourning Warblers will no longer use it. This means that breeding areas for this species are constantly shifting, as one forest regrows and a new opening is (hopefully) created elsewhere. Sometimes referred to as a “fugitive species,” Mourning Warbler populations are frequently “on the run,” fleeing the regenerating forest and searching for another suitable opening.
Fortunately, these birds are not terribly picky about exactly what kind of disturbance creates this ideal habitat. Drought, disease, insect outbreaks, and especially fire are natural disturbances that this species probably relied on historically. In the current day, large forest fires are far less common, but for the Mourning Warblers, human activities seem to work just as well. These birds are commonly found in old clearcuts, abandoned agricultural areas, along logging roads, and even mining and oil well sites. While these heavily disturbed areas do not benefit most species, the Mourning Warbler makes it work. (snip-see MORE here)
Clay Jones
Spiked Election
Court overrules the people
This cartoon was drawn for the Fredericksburg Advance.
Lately, it seems that Democrats cannot win, even when they win.
The Supreme Court has struck down the Voting Rights Act, ruling that race cannot be a factor in drawing congressional districts, which has now set off southern red states to redraw all their districts to guarantee that their entire congressional delegation will be lily white.
And Republicans, who hate fair elections anyway, have redrawn their congressional districts mid-decade in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, and now in Florida, without putting it to a vote by the people, and can gain as many as 14 seats. But in Virginia, where the people did vote on it, four conservative justices have ruled it unconstitutional and thrown out the entire election. (snip-MORE)
Frickin’ Hegseth
MAGAts even make war weird.
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported about the possibility that Iran could be using “mine-carrying dolphins” to attack U.S. warships. Seriously.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who does not want to acknowledge any strength of the Iranian military, said at one of his He-Man press briefings last week after being asked about kamikaze dolphins, “I cannot confirm or deny whether we have kamikaze dolphins, but I can confirm they don’t.”
We cannot confirm or deny whether Hegseth was joking or if he was serious because Republicans do not have a sense of humor. An example to prove this would be Greg Gutfeld. (snip-MORE)
Space Bribe
Who won’t Donald Trump accept a bribe from?
Donald Trump declassified 162 files and identified flying objects last week. And it landed with a thud.
The files, hosted on a defense department website, include dozens of testimonials from civilians, federal agents, diplomats, and astronauts who reported seeing UFOs. There are also new videos, but they are like the ones that we’ve seen over the past few decades, grainy, squiggly, and usually creating more questions than answers.
It’s almost like it doesn’t matter what they release, as skeptics will see it as proof that there’s nothing out there, while true believers will claim it’s proof that we are being visited, while also claiming that the government is still withholding information.
Personally, I do believe there is life out there, but I don’t believe we are being visited. I also believe that the government is withholding information. For example, they’re withholding information on the Epstein files. And regarding these UFO files, I think the government may be embarrassed by how little it knows. (snip-MORE)
The Moon On Monday
Moon Setting Behind Teide Volcano
Video Credit & Copyright: Daniel López (El Cielo de Canarias); Music: Piano della Moon (Dan Silva)
Explanation: These people are not in danger. What is coming down from the left is just the Moon, far in the distance. Luna appears so large here because she is being photographed through a telescopic lens. What is moving is mostly the Earth, whose spin causes the Moon to slowly disappear behind Mount Teide, a volcano in the Canary Islands of Spain off the northwest coast of Africa. The people pictured are 16 kilometers away and many are facing the camera because they are watching the Sun rise behind the photographer. It is not a coincidence that a full moon sets just when the Sun rises because the Sun is always on the opposite side of the sky from a full moon. The featured video was made in 2018 during a full Milk Moon. The video is not time-lapse — this was really how fast the Moon was setting.
Tomorrow’s picture: stellar cluster
It’s A Bird’s Life
Yellow-breasted Chat
Icteria virens
Also Known As
- Buscabreña (Spanish)
- Reinita Grande (Spanish)
- Chipe Parlanchín (Spanish)
- Chipe Arriero (Spanish)
About
At first glance, the Yellow-breasted Chat seems to be a mishmash of many bird families: its larger size and stout bill resemble a Scarlet Tanager’s, while its skulking habits and complex vocalizations seem more like those of a thrasher or mockingbird. Taxonomically, this bird was considered an unusual wood warbler in the family Parulidae. However, in 2017, the American Ornithologists Union gave this bird its own family — Icteriidae — based on its unique physical and genetic features. It is considered to be related to the blackbirds and meadowlarks of the Western Hemisphere.
Among birders, the Yellow-breasted Chat is best-known for two features of its behavior: its habit of staying hidden at most times within the thickest vegetation available, and its loud, wild, weird song and flight display. In 1953, ornithologist Arthur Cleveland Bent described the Chat’s song as a “medley of strange sounds, musical and otherwise, catcalls, whistles, and various bird notes coming from points now here, now there in the bushes” — sounds which would “betray the presence of this furtive and elusive clown among birds.” The song is indeed a strange and wonderful mix of cackles, clucks, whistles, and hoots. Only males are known to sing, and they do so from deep inside the densest cover. A male chat may sometimes sound as if he’s laughing at the frustrated birders trying to locate him. (snip-MORE)
And thanks to MDavis for intro’ing this guy, who is great!
2:00 Break!
If you don’t care to read the poetry, scroll on down to the photos-guaranteed to cheer you!
Now I’ve heard The Man With No Name tellin’ folks I don’t like people laughin’- says I get the crazy notion they’re laughin’ at me… Well, that’s a load of hee-haw, for sure:
Jennifer Burville-Riley -Mule Musings
Mule Musings by Jennifer Burville-Riley Now I’ve heard The Man With No Name tellin’ folks I don’t like people laughin’- says I get the crazy notion they’re laughin’ at me… Well, that’s a load of hee-haw, for sure: I’m about as self-assured and confident a Mule as you’re likely to find either side of the Mexican borderline. See, my Momma was a skittish chestnut mare, and I get my fine set o’ teeth and my elegant hooves from her but my Pappy gave me a donkey’s patience and an even temper… shame about the ears. So y’see I ain’t generally too fussed when folks are laughin’. I confess, I do hate it when folks start shootin’. Been shot at by Confederates, been shot at by the Union, been shot at by bandits, outlaws, inlaws, mulateers, racketeers, pistoleers, pursuin’ posses and ambushin’ enemies. Been fired on by cannon, by pistol and by rifle… By my rump, I sure could do without this rumpus nowadays. Truth be told, I’d settle for a quiet life, a little paddock on the prairie. Sometimes, I say to the cowboy: look here, friend, if we don’t take it easy soon, I’m gonna tell all the folks in the next saloon just what your Momma really christened The Man With No Name. Then we’ll see who gets the crazy idea that people are laughin’.
I found a file full of photos of Amos and the Minions I hadn’t used.I went looking for a suitable poem and found this one.
And here we are! The poem is clever and funny! (Used for educational purposes only , btw) I’m glad I found it !
(I was hoping since I’d copied those grouped as on the page, they’d load that way, but no. No way I can find that WP will do side by side photos, even when picked up together. My apologies for those who scroll on their phones!)
There’s a story here – Penny got caught
Jenny thought it was hilarious –
Penny thought Jenny might be over doing it a bit.
And told her so-
They agreed to disagree and got over it in 10 minutes
That’s all I got room for – Thanks for dropping by!
2 Cornell Bird Lab Cams
Enjoy!
These birds dance:
The “Tip-up Warbler”
Palm Warbler
Setophaga palmarum
Also Known As
- Wagtail Warbler
- Tip-up Warbler
- Bijirita común (Spanish)
- Reinita coronicastaña (Spanish)
About
The Palm Warbler is unusual among the Western Hemisphere’s wood-warbler family. While the majority of warblers are sexually dimorphic, with males noticeably brighter in the breeding season, the male and female Palm Warbler are nearly identical, and can be impossible to tell apart. Warblers, in general, spend a majority of their time in trees and shrubs, but the Palm Warbler is quite comfortable on the ground. Rather than hopping like their arboreal relatives, these birds take to walking or running. Like other warblers, the Palm Warbler often joins mixed-species flocks outside of the breeding season. However, though most warblers tend to flock up with other arboreal species, the Palm Warbler is just as likely to be found foraging with sparrows along hedgerows and in open weedy fields.
Palm Warblers share another habit more typical of ground-dwelling birds in that they continuously bob their tails. This behavior is also seen in other birds typical of open habitats, including the Spotted Sandpiper and Black Phoebe, where the rate of bobbing is thought to vary with the bird’s level of excitement, and thus plays a role in communication. In many ways, the Palm Warbler behaves more like a sparrow or pipit than a typical wood-warbler — even its monotonous trilled song is remarkably similar to that of a Dark-eyed Junco or Chipping Sparrow. Though perhaps an oddball among its own family, this unique bird has found a niche all its own, somewhere between a sparrow and a warbler. (snip-MORE)
Scottie's Playtime 
