What’s In My Backyard? Meet the neighbors: Oak Rough Bulletgall Wasp Look at the young oak tree in the photos. All of its branches are covered with strange hard bumps! If you look closely, you may notice small round holes on the bumps. These bumps are called galls and they are the work of the […]
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What’s In My Backyard? Meet the Neighbors: Mockingbird For the introduction to this series, see here This robin-sized gray bird lives up to its name. An adult mockingbird may know as many as 200 songs! These birds imitate the songs and calls of many other birds. Mockingbirds like to sing so much that sometimes they
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On April 8 this year, most of North America will see a solar eclipse. 49 of the 50 states will see at least a partial eclipse, though most of Alaska will miss out. For certain parts of North America, the eclipse will be total. The path of totality will cross Texas, the corner of Oklahoma,
What’s In My Backyard? Lake Friends: Muskrat For the introduction to this series, see here Meet the muskrat! When is a rat not a rat? When it is a muskrat! These aquatic animals are rodents but they are much more closely related to voles and lemmings than to rats. Muskrats are adapted to life in
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What’s In My Backyard? Projects: Tracking For the introduction to this series, see here It is winter or early spring. The ground is covered with snow or mud and the weather is quite cold. There are no insects or flowers, many birds have migrated to warmer areas and there doesn’t seem like there is much
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When does spring start this year? It’s complicated and depends on who you ask. This year, spring officially begins on March 19, the date of the March equinox. Equinox means equal night. But surprisingly, the equinox is not the date when all locations on Earth receive exactly twelve hours of light. On March 19, we
Between three and a half hours to four hours after sunset, the stars Mirzam and Sirius rise. As I have mentioned in past posts, Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. But it wasn’t always that way. Around four million years ago, Mirzam was the brightest star in the sky, about seven times brighter
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Science Snippet: Sky Color Everyone knows that the sky is blue. But is it? During the night, the sky is black. At sunrise and sunset, the sky can be a variety of colors. What we really mean is that during the day, the sky is blue. But that blue isn’t always the same. As sunlight
Science Snippet: The 2023 Eclipse On Saturday, October 14, an annular solar eclipse was visible from parts of North and Central America. Much of the rest of the Americas saw a partial solar eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon moves between the sun and the earth. Solar eclipses come in three kinds. Partial
Science Snippet: Explore The Closest Stars On a clear night with extremely dark conditions, there can be as many as 6,000 stars visible to the naked eye. Some of these stars are bright and noticeable whereas others are barely visible pinpricks of light. You might expect that the bright prominent stars are the closest ones.
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