Ice-out

Today is the first day without ice on the Hunter Brook arm of the New Croton Reservoir. Thiry-six hours earlier, a thin film of remnant ice covered much of the open water visible in the top photo (which was taken three-quarters of an hour ago). The bottom photo (from the same time) shows the mouth of the Hunter Brook from the bridge on Baptist Church Road. This has been a strange winter—incredibly mild for most of December and January, it turned sharply colder for February and March.

Winter's Last Gasp

Winter has saved its hardest punch for March 16 when we got about 11 inches of snow and sleet. Top photo shows my hill of home on St. Patrick's Day. Bottom photo, also March 17, shows a barn on Hunter Brook Road, Yorktown.

My Hill of Home

I'm returning to the hillside I first showed you in my post of May 9, 2006. This evening is blustery and cold with a late winter glow in the eastern sky. View is through my living room window.

Promise Kept

Here's the promised link to a map of puma sightings in Missouri. And let's throw in Iowa while we're at it with a PDF map of confirmed puma sightings in the hawkeye state.

Show Me the Mommy

Dave Hamilton, chair of the Mountain Lion Response Team of the Missouri Department of Conservation, in a letter in the current issue of Audubon, writes that there is not a breeding population of mountain lions in Missouri despite a number of recent sightings. In his response, Ted Williams of Audubon points out that many researchers disagree and believe that the cats are breeding in Missouri. Coming soon: I will try to dig up a map of mountain lion sighitngs in the state and post the link.

When the Memory of the Memory is Gone

Bob Holmes or someone at the New Scientist must have been reading the 1949 novel Earth Abides. Holmes, writing in the 12 October 2006 issue, puts a contemporary twist on the theme developed in the novel. His article is entitled, Imagine Earth Without People. I address the question in a oblique way in my post of May 13, 2006.