Our Window on Nature

This weekend (March 3rd) there will be an eclipse of the moon — at least for those on the East Coast. The total eclipse will last for over an hour. A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, earth, and moon line up with the earth blocking the sun’s rays from striking the moon.

Unlike a solar eclipse, you need take no special precautions to watch the moon partially disappear on Saturday night. Even a total eclipse is only a partial disappearance because some of the sun’s light will be refracted (bent) by the earth’s atmosphere.

Depending upon the amount of cloud cover and dust in the atmosphere, the moon should take on a reddish or coppery cast during the eclipse. According to the Sky Tonight website

Only in New England, Québec, and the Maritime Provinces does the sky become fully dark before the end of totality. Farther west, the eclipse is nearing its end when the Moon rises …

If you live west of the Rockies, you’ll miss this show.

But all is not lost. This year will have several total eclipses of the moon, and on August 28th those of us in the West will see the display while those in the East miss out.

Since the eclipse will already be in progress as the moon rises, take a few minutes Friday evening to mark the location on the horizon near your home. That way on Saturday evening you’ll be able to view the event without missing the opening act.

The moon image was taken from the Distant Suns computer program. Distant Suns has both a free and a commercial software program that will display the night sky right on your computer. It’s what I use to help me explore the heavens. Check out their website at http://www.distantsuns.com/.

Acorn woodpeckers leave very little to chance. Pessimists by nature, these birds devote their waking hours to storing insects and acorns from late summer through fall, making sure that they’ll have ample food for the coming winter.

In much of California and the Southwest, you can’t help seeing or hearing acorn woodpeckers. They’re common wherever you find a mixture of oaks, junipers, and pines. You won’t have to look hard for them either, because they’ll be sharing your backyard or campground. These birds rank among the noisiest of the woodpecker tribe, and their loud “jacka, jacka, jacka” announces their presence long before you spot the clownlike pattern of their facial feathers. More than most birds, they seem to take pleasure in the sound of their own voices.

Of course, they have a lot to discuss. Whereas typical woodpeckers move about in pairs, acorn woodpeckers live in groups of six to a dozen or more. It takes a lot of hemming and hawing, screeching and cawing to live, work, and raise young in close quarters.

As one might expect, such communal living produces distinctive behavior patterns. The most noticeable - and perhaps the most interesting - of these behaviors is the acorn woodpecker’s habit of storing food in communal granaries.

All North American species of woodpeckers are woodworkers, but none approaches the efforts that acorn woodpeckers make to build and stock their community larder. Find a dead snag in acorn woodpecker country, and it’s apt to be so riddled with holes that it looks like a sponge. (Read the rest …)

NASA released several photos today showing the possibility of water on Mars. They didn’t actually find the water, but by comparing photographs taken in August 1999 with the same location in September 2005, there is exciting news. The new picture shows a major change that occurred some time in the last five to seven years. According to the NASA website

The atmosphere on Mars is so thin that liquid water cannot persist at the surface. However, researchers propose that water could remain liquid long enough, after breaking out from an underground source, to carry debris before totally evaporating and freezing.

The photo at the left shows the before and after pictures, and scientists believe the several hundred foot long white streak was caused by flowing water. If this is the case, it increases the possibility of finding microbial life on Mars.

Don’t even try to imagine lying down on an ant hill. If you think ants should be avoided, it’s a good thing you’re not a bird. Many species of birds occasionally seek out ants for what may be a beneficial procedure – it is called “anting.” They will plop down on an ant hill and spread their wings. The question is, “Why do they do it?”

Some scientists suggest that the ant’s secretions help kill parasites in the bird’s feathers, an example of Mother Nature’s insecticide. Others think that, since anting occurs more often during the molting season, birds and ants get together because those ant secretions help to sooth the skin irritation caused when emerging feathers break through the skin. (They can’t be certain, however, since birds are also known to rub their feathers with moth balls, cigarette butts, and other odd objects.)

Sometimes the birds, instead of spreading their wings and lying on an ant hill, will pick up individual ants and rub them on their feathers. Perhaps the answer lies in the scientific name for ants, Formicidae. Ants produce an excretion that contains formic acid, and it acts as an insecticide in their nests, protecting them from parasites.

Whatever the reason, if you see a bird consorting with ants without eating them, it may just be performing a type of bird hygiene. Bird watching is much more than identifying birds – solving the puzzles of their behavior can be a constant challenge.