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MASSBIRD for Friday, March 21, 2008
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Messages are displayed in the order they were received.
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| Subject | From | Time |
| RE: Canada Goose with white eyebrow in Watertown | Marshall J. Iliff | 8:34am |
| RE: Link to Primack article/Lowell
Cemetery/spring warming | Chris Sheridan | 9:24am |
| Leaf Out Date Debate | Andrew Birch | 9:24am |
| Hooded Mergs, Fenway (Boston) | Jeremy B. Dibbell | 9:40am |
| leaf out debate | Dee Stewart | 10:18am |
| BBC Blue Books for April - June, renewals and
Earth Day event | diana_f(AT)comcast.net | 10:41am |
| Bird reports, please | Ida Giriunas | 11:40am |
| Canvasbacks back at Clay Pit in Belmont | Pamela A. Perry | 12:16pm |
| Red-headed Woodpecker - 3/21 NO at 12pm | Mark Daley | 1:18pm |
| Concord Raven | John Nevins | 1:34pm |
| Re: Late springs | Doug Hardy | 2:56pm |
| Eared Grebe - JFK / UMass | Andrew Birch | 3:38pm |
| Food for thought - leafing out debate | Richard Marchant | 3:52pm |
| N. Yellow-Shafted Flicker | Richard Marchant | 3:52pm |
| Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps
fall | Richard Marchant | 3:58pm |
| tundra swans, No | Henry Lappen | 3:52pm |
| 1886 | Richard Marchant | 4:32pm |
| Historical Data Project and eBird | Marshall J. Iliff | 4:56pm |
| Piping Plover-Plymouth beach | Kathryn Doyon | 4:32pm |
| Re: Food for thought - leafing out debate | Jon Woolf | 4:32pm |
| Friends MSSF - Wayne Petersen Talk 3/27 | Barbara Volkle and S | 4:30pm |
| Rusty BB, wood ducks, Great blue: Cold Spring
Park, Newton | maurice.gilmore(AT)comc | 5:34pm |
| Re: FYI: Article on early spring arrival based on
old photo | Richard Danca | 6:36pm |
| Re: Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate
temps fall | Chris Sheridan | 6:35pm |
| Re: Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate
temps fall | Richard Marchant | 6:36pm |
| Concord Raven | Cherrie Corey | 6:35pm |
| Re: Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate
temps fall | Chris Sheridan | 7:10pm |
| Good Firday Surprise, Am. Coot | | 7:20pm |
| Re: Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate
temps fall | Chris Sheridan | 7:10pm |
| Forgot to add town, email address.... | Chris Sheridan | 7:46pm |
| Bridgewater birds -- Snipe, raptors | alice morgan | 8:20pm |
| CT Report 03/21/2008 | Roy Harvey | 8:40pm |
| Bohemian & Cedar Waxwings ~ Newburyport ~ 3/21 | newburyportbirders(AT)c | 8:34pm |
| Late Spring 1868 | jtlmb(AT)spamex.com | 8:32pm |
| Southwick | Scott Ricker | 9:06pm |
| Re: Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate
temps fall | Joseph T. Leverich | 8:32pm |
| Osprey at last! | Al Curtis | 9:12pm |
| Middlesex Fells waterfowl 3/21 | Andrew Joslin | 11:14pm |
|
|
To use email addresses replace '(AT)' with '@'.
This is done to confuse the spam 'bots.
|
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: RE: Canada Goose with white eyebrow in Watertown
From: "Marshall J. Iliff" <miliff(AT)aol.com>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 8:34am
Doug,
Nice photos of the odd Canada Goose. This bird matches the subspecies Branta
canadensis maxima, which is sometimes known as 'Giant' Canada Goose. This is
the largest of the many Canada Goose subspecies and characterized by its
extensive white cheek patch and proclivity towards having white supraloral
spots or lines. One of the few modern articles that discusses the
identification of this distinctive taxon is: Mlodinow, S. G., D. Shonewald,
and D. Grandstand. 2006. Giant Canada Goose in Washington. Western Birds
37:48-50. [note: This article not yet available on SORA,
http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/wb/index.php, but I have a hard copy]. James P.
Smith also discusses the ID on his website (see links below).
We are still learning the status of 'Giant' Canada Goose in New England, and
your photo adds to the picture. As far as I know, there are only the
following records, all recent:
*At least one at the UMass Amherst campus pond 24 Dec 2006 by James P.
Smith. See photos at http://keenbirding.com/NEFall06/GiantCan241206.html.
*Up to 6 among Canada Geese at Newport, RI (same flock that had the 2
Pink-footed and 4+ Cackling Geese) 23 Jan 2007, by James P. Smith. See
photos at http://keenbirding.com/NE07/maxima230107.html
*One at Old Bedford Rd., Concord, MA, 17 Oct 2007 (see photos at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/miliff/page8/) and probably the same bird seen
at Great Meadows NWR. These photos show that your bird and the one I
observed are different individuals.
The latter sightings were discussed by Jeremiah Trimble in the recent 'Bird
Sightings' in Bird Observer (Vol. 36:40) which gives a good summary of the
known status (and complexities) of maxima in the East: "nearly extirpated
during the early 1900s but which, through reintroduction programs, is now
abundant in the Midwest. These birds have also been introduced into many
parks around the country and hybridize regularly with other forms, making
identification of this larger subspecies of Canada Goose tenuous."
Doug, good job being attentive to the details of your local Canada Geese and
great job getting photos to document the sighting.
Best,
Marshall Iliff
--
-------------------------------------------------
Marshall J. Iliff
West Roxbury, MA
miliff AT aol.com
-------------------------------------------------
eBird/AKN Project Leader
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850
http://www.ebird.org
http://www.avianknowledge.net
-------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: massbird-approval(AT)world.std.com
[mailto:massbird-approval(AT)world.std.com] On Behalf Of Douglas Logan
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 5:51 PM
To: Massbird(AT)theworld.com
Subject: [MASSBIRD] Canada Goose with white eyebrow in Watertown
Greetings
Near the footbridge, above the dam on the charles
river was this Canada Goose with white eyebrows. I've
never seen this before.
http://gallery.mac.com/dougsmassage#100104
enjoy!
Doug Logan
dougsmassage(AT)yahoo.com
Watertown, MA
____________________________________________________________________________
________
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page.
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: RE: Link to Primack article/Lowell
Cemetery/spring warming
From: cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net (Chris Sheridan)
Date: 21 Mar 2008 9:24am
This is a link to Richard Primack's article on earlier warming in spring.
http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1886.pdf
While I believe that the date of the older Lowell Cemetery photo must be
in error, (for a number of reasons) it is not the basis of the research
reported, but is used as a
dramatic example. The basis of the research is a study of carefully dated
photographs in two collections in
the Arnold Arboretum archives. In summary, flowering dates of both wild and
cultivated plants were found
correlate with a general trend towards earlier spring warming.
I could not find any reference to the source of the older photo. It would be
interesting to find its context, and
the source of the date.
The article by Seth Bornstein and widely distributed all over the country/world
used the Lowell cemetery photos for their drama. They became a focus for
amazement--and controversy with more critical observers.
I hope the point of the actual research isn't lost..
Plant growth, insect hatching and maturation, bird arrival and
nesting...disruption of their timing may indeed
fray the complex ecological web that creates our environment.
Chris Sheridan
Nashua NH
cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Leaf Out Date Debate
From: "Andrew Birch" <andrewlbirch(AT)gmail.com>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 9:24am
I thought folks might like to look at a paper from the Arnoldia by the
same authors on this subject -
http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1886.pdf - although
the relevant pictures are missing I think you can read all or most of
the text, explaining the research. I think there is a bit of
hyperbole in the NYT article - here is the description of the 1868
Lowell photo from the Arnoldia paper, "The striking photograph at the
top of page 2 was taken in the Lowell Cemetery in Lowell,
Massachusetts, on Memorial Day, 30 May 1868. In the photo, the trees
have not yet leafed out, despite the late date, and people are wearing
heavy clothing. An exceptionally cold spring probably caused the
delayed leaf-out in 1868; the mean temperature from February to May of
that year was 4 degrees F (2.2 degrees C) lower than the average over
the past 150 years and nearly 5 degrees F (2.7 degrees C) colder than
February to May 2005." Yet, it still seems hard to believe trees
would not have leafed out by then. I have spent many years in
Northern MN and even the trees there are leafed out on this date.
____________________
-----------------------------------
Andrew Birch
Boston Birds Moderator
Medford, MA
andrewlbirch(AT)gmail.com
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Hooded Mergs, Fenway (Boston)
From: "Jeremy B. Dibbell" <jbdibbell(AT)gmail.com>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 9:40am
On my walk to work this morning I noticed a pair of Hooded Mergs in
the small pond between the stone bridges along the Fenway in Boston.
The male was in full display, and vocalizing.
Jeremy Dibbell
Boston
--
Jeremy B. Dibbell
jbdibbell(AT)gmail.com
http://philobiblos.blogspot.com
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: leaf out debate
From: "Dee Stewart" <haberlea(AT)verizon.net>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 10:18am
We first started birding in the early 1970's. At that time, the trees in Mt.
Auburn had not yet leafed out when the warblers peaked around May 10th. It
was much easier to see them that way. Now, it seems the trees are well out
when we go around that date. If the leaf out date has changed that much in
35 years, could it have changed by 2 or 3 weeks in the previous hundred
years?
Dee Stewart
Stow MA
haberlea(AT)verizon.net
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: BBC Blue Books for April - June, renewals and
Earth Day event
From: diana_f(AT)comcast.net
Date: 21 Mar 2008 10:41am
----INCLUDING text/plain MIME SECTION----
The Brookline Bird Club bulletins for April 1 - June 30th were mailed out BULK
mail on 2/29. If anyone does not receive theirs by April 1st, please contact me
soon thereafter. (Bulk mail has been known to take up to a month in some areas).
Also, if you have moved, bulk mail will not get forwarded so please inform me
of your new address and I will get a new book out to you.
For those that still need to renew, please do so before April 1st so not to miss
out on any of those great spring migration trips! Also, I will be away some of
April, so if you want your book promptly please renew now!
Renewal forms can be found in the back of a blue book, or from your renewal card
or printed from the web: http://www.massbird.org/bbc/BBCJoin.htm
For those that sometimes forget if you have renewed or not, if you received an
April Blue Book you are all set, but feel free to email me to double check.
BBC will have a table at the Earth Day event on April 19th from 10-2 at the
Woburn Mall. If you want to help out at the table for a short time, please let
me know!
Thanks and Happy Spring!
-Diana Fruguglietti, BBC Membership Secretary
Woburn, MA
diana <at> dnptravel <dot> com
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[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Bird reports, please
From: "Ida Giriunas" <Ida8(AT)verizon.net>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 11:40am
Folks:
If any one goes to look for the Tundra Swan or the Red-headed W.P., please
report either positive or negative. The weekend is coming up.
Thanks.
Ida Giriunas
Reading, MA
<ida8(AT)verizon.net>
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Canvasbacks back at Clay Pit in Belmont
From: "Pamela A. Perry" <paperry6(AT)yahoo.com>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 12:16pm
I just saw the pair of Canvasbacks at Clay Pit Pond in
Belmont, on the high school side of the pond. They
were under the branches trying to catch some Zs. It
was so windy there were white caps on the pond.
Pam Perry
Watertown MA
____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page.
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Red-headed Woodpecker - 3/21 NO at 12pm
From: Mark Daley <mbkm(AT)hotmail.com>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 1:18pm
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Massbirders,
=20
Since Water Row is one of my regular lunchtime birding spots I tried for th=
e bird there today. Although I bird there on a regular basis I am not sure =
where the referenced "2nd beaver pond" is. I drove the whole length of the =
road including south/west of Rt 27 but concentrated on the area 1/2 mile or=
so past the refuge buildings where the road straightens out and the water =
comes right up to the road on both sides. There are lots of dead trees here=
and usually at least a Downy or 2. I didn't expect much given the extreme =
wind conditions and not much is what I got. I will try again at lunch next =
week.
=20
Good birding
=20
Mark Daley
Reading, MA
mbkm(at)hotmail(dot)com
=20
=20
_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live Hotmail is giving away Zunes.
http://www.windowslive-hotmail.com/ZuneADay/?locale=3Den-US&ocid=3DTXT_TAGL=
M_Mobile_Zune_V3=
----DELETED text/html MIME SECTION----
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Concord Raven
From: John Nevins <Hoopoe1(AT)verizon.net>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 1:34pm
Seen again this morning 0830 in fields across the road from Minute
Man NP parking lot on Lexington Rd. near Miriam's Corner.
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Re: Late springs
From: Doug Hardy <dhardy(AT)geo.umass.edu>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 2:56pm
Richard Heil wrote:
> To return to 1868, an apparently unremarkable spring, it is very
> unlikely, to say the least, that "nothing is growing" and "trees were
> barren" in Lowell, Massachusetts on 30 May.
The data bear Rick out on this. At the UMass Amherst Climate System
Research Center, Paula Brown has recently homogenized 3 stations with
data going back to 1868 (Moorestown NJ, Central Park NYC, and Gardiner
ME). I plotted the 1855-80 daily max and min for each station, along
with 1868 daily values. That year was indeed unremarkable, including the
month of May when the mean temperatures were 58°, 56° and 52° F,
respectively.
<http://www.geo.umass.edu/climate/doug/3sta_1868_temp.pdf>
I think few of us would disagree that changing seasonality is relevant
to birds. The fact that the photo in question seems to have been
mis-labeled does not in any way refute the preponderance of evidence for
warming in Massachusetts and elsewhere, as well as for changing seasonality.
Back to birding-
Doug Hardy
Norwich Vermont
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Eared Grebe - JFK / UMass
From: "Andrew Birch" <andrewlbirch(AT)gmail.com>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 3:38pm
Hello All,
I just got back from a very windy walk along the Dorchester Shores
doing some Bigbying (http://sparroworks.ca/bigby.html). Halfway
between Carson Beach and JFK Library I was halted by an "odd" grebe -
The grebe was constantly feeding making observation and field ID very
difficult. In my favor was distance - started at about only 200 feet
away - and light - sun right at my back. The field marks in favor of
an eared grebe ID include dark "cheeks" with the white patch
concentrated near the back of the head, a very dusky grayish neck to
breast with hardly any white, and a steep sloping forehead peaking
above the eye. It sounds like a slam dunk but in the 20 minutes I
observed this bird it never showed the "raised stern" or "football
shape", in fact this bird had a very distinctly elongated (held low)
rear end. I have found a web reference with photos
(http://montereybay.com/creagrus/ID-EAGRvHOGR.html) that indicates
Eared Grebes do not always show the raised stern field mark and Sibley
describes the mark as "frequently" occurring, so I am confident this
was an Eared Grebe.
I am hoping someone can get out and confirm this bird.
On another note - I am starting to believe the JFK / UMass Barrow's
Goldeneye has a vendetta against me! If anyone can help with when and
where to look for this bird it would be greatly appreciated - I am 0
for 4!
Good Birding!
____________________
-----------------------------------
Andrew Birch
Boston Birds Moderator
http://groups.google.com/group/bostonbirds
Medford, MA
andrewlbirch(AT)gmail.com
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Food for thought - leafing out debate
From: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 3:52pm
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Hi Dee,
I think that you have asked a legitimate question. Although "All the news
that's fit to print" has, on occasion, made simple (and complex) errors, to
think that this image was mis-dated by 2 months seems to me to be a stretch.
In Canada, I think it is at Banff, there are signs marking the retreating
of the glaciers and each sign is dated. If I remember correctly (which is a big
'if') these occured at intervals of 10 years, then at 5 years, and in the last
25 years, begin to occur more frequently. I think the one that is furthest away
is more than 15 miles from the current retreating edge. The closest one marks a
relatively much shorter interval.
This indicates to me that the current warming trend has been going on for a
very long time, (short geological time) and, with due respect for current
science, was perhaps accelerated by the Industrial Revolution, the advent of the
automobile and the 20th century post WWII population explosion, all of which
employ fossil fuels to such a great extent. If, however, mentioned to some of my
geologist friends, this "Global Warming" effect is flicked off like a bug at a
summer picnic. They say, the Earth has been going through these warming and
cooling trends for billions of years. What's new?
One little tidbit of relatively trivial information I learned as an
undergraduate in the late 60's, was that coal burning 'fallout' created
incredible sunrises and sunsets due to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. I
learned this in a poetry class on Emily Dickinson. She lived in Amherst, MA
during the mid-to-late 19th century. In her poem, #1000, which begins "Fingers
of Light," Richard B. Sewall, her biographer, points out the "ringing of the
church bell to summon the town to witness an unusually fine display of northern
lights." The intensity of this aurora borealis display was also, I've been told,
intensified by coal emissions in the atmosphere! Plus, when was the last time
anyone saw an aurora in New England? I remember seeing one as a child, but not
since then.
Take it with a grain of salt.
Donna
Dee Stewart <haberlea(AT)verizon.net> wrote:
We first started birding in the early 1970's. At that time, the trees in Mt.
Auburn had not yet leafed out when the warblers peaked around May 10th. It
was much easier to see them that way. Now, it seems the trees are well out
when we go around that date. If the leaf out date has changed that much in
35 years, could it have changed by 2 or 3 weeks in the previous hundred
years?
Dee Stewart
Stow MA
haberlea(AT)verizon.net
Dick and Donna Marchant
Gloucester, MA
rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net
"If you think your dog can't count, put 3 treats in your pocket, and only give
him 2."
----DELETED text/html MIME SECTION----
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: N. Yellow-Shafted Flicker
From: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 3:52pm
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We saw our first Flicker of the year today at Cox Reservation, Essex County
Greenbelt property, Rt. 133, Essex, MA.
Dick and Donna Marchant
Gloucester, MA
rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net
"If you think your dog can't count, put 3 treats in your pocket, and only give
him 2."
----DELETED text/html MIME SECTION----
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps
fall
From: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 3:58pm
----INCLUDING text/plain MIME SECTION----
Krakatoa or Krakatau or Krakatao is a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait
between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. The name is used for the island group,
the main island (also called Rakata), and the volcano as a whole. It has erupted
repeatedly, massively, and with disastrous consequences throughout recorded
history. The best known eruption culminated in a series of massive explosions on
August 26-27 1883, which was among the most violent volcanic events in modern
times. With a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6, it was equivalent to 200 megatons
of TNT ~W about 13,000 times the yield of the Little Boy bomb (13 to 16 KT),
which devastated Hiroshima, Japan.
The 1883 eruption ejected more than 25 cubic kilometres of rock, ash, and
pumice,[2] and generated the loudest sound historically reported: the
cataclysmic explosion was distinctly heard as far away as Perth in Australia
approx. 1,930 miles (3,110 km), and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius
approx. 3,000 miles (5,000 km). Near Krakatoa, according to official records,
165 villages and towns were destroyed and 132 seriously damaged, at least 36,417
(official toll) people died, and many thousands were injured by the eruption,
mostly from the tsunamis which followed the explosion.
Global climate
In the year following the eruption, average global temperatures fell by as
much as 1.2 degrees Celsius. Weather patterns continued to be chaotic for years,
and temperatures did not return to normal until 1888. The eruption injected an
unusually large amount of sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas high into the stratosphere
which was subsequently transported by high-level winds all over the planet. This
led to a global increase in sulfurous acid (H2SO3) concentration in high-level
cirrus clouds. The resulting increase in cloud reflectivity (or albedo) would
reflect more incoming light from the sun than usual, and cool the entire planet
until the suspended sulfur fell to the ground as acid precipitation.[9]
Global optical effects
Main article: Noctilucent cloud
The dramatic skyline in Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893) is thought to be based
on the global optical effects caused by the eruption and seen over Oslofjord,
Norway.
The eruption darkened the sky for days afterwards, and produced spectacular
sunsets throughout the world for many months. British artist William Ashcroft
made thousands of colour sketches of the red sunsets half-way around the world
from Krakatoa in the years after the eruption. In 2004, researchers proposed the
idea that the blood-red sky shown in Edvard Munch's famous 1893 painting The
Scream is also an accurate depiction of the sky over Norway after the
eruption.[10] Munch said: "suddenly the sky turned blood red ... I stood there
shaking with fear and felt an endless scream passing through nature." Also, a so
called blue moon had been seen for two years as a result of the eruption.
Interesting
Dick and Donna Marchant
Gloucester, MA
rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net
"If you think your dog can't count, put 3 treats in your pocket, and only give
him 2."
----DELETED text/html MIME SECTION----
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: tundra swans, No
From: "Henry Lappen" <wow(AT)henrylappen.com>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 3:52pm
I was down in Longmeadow this afternoon and did not see the swans. I did
have plenty of Ring necked Ducks, 2 Gadwall, and a Muskrat.
Henry Lappen
Amherst
heron(at)henrylappen.com
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: 1886
From: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 4:32pm
----INCLUDING text/plain MIME SECTION----
Transpose a numeral??
Dick and Donna Marchant
Gloucester, MA
rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net
"If you think your dog can't count, put 3 treats in your pocket, and only give
him 2."
----DELETED text/html MIME SECTION----
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Historical Data Project and eBird
From: "Marshall J. Iliff" <miliff(AT)aol.com>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 4:56pm
----INCLUDING text/plain MIME SECTION----
Massbird,
Thanks to the many of you that responded with offers to help and ideas for
sources for historical bird data. Although I have not done any specific
follow-up yet, I assure you all that I have gotten your emails and am at
work coming up with a good plan for this project. I'll be in touch with all
those who responded in the next week or two and we'll come up with a good
plan for this effort. Thanks again for your enthusiasm and willingness to
help!
In the meantime, please continue to let me know about any sources of
historical data that you are aware of and please continue to contact me if
you have any interest in helping out! I am really excited about what this
team of helpers might be able to computerize in the coming weeks and months,
and am very excited about the possibilities for analyzing those sightings
with respect to recent data!
Best,
Marshall
--
-------------------------------------------------
Marshall J. Iliff
West Roxbury, MA
miliff AT aol.com
-------------------------------------------------
eBird/AKN Project Leader
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850
http://www.ebird.org
http://www.avianknowledge.net
-------------------------------------------------
_____
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51733/*http:/mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8H
DtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ%20> it now.
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[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Piping Plover-Plymouth beach
From: Kathryn Doyon <gizzybird(AT)verizon.net>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 4:32pm
Although I knew it was going to be windy, I thought
I'd make an attempt to see Piping Plovers at
Plymouth's Long beach this morning. I guess I'm just
anxious to find more signs of Spring. The wind was so
strong and the blowing sand was so annoying that I was
only there very briefly. Happily, I did manage to
find one Piping Plover during my quick visit.
Kathy
Kathryn Doyon
Plymouth, MA
Gizzybird(AT)verizon.net
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Re: Food for thought - leafing out debate
From: Jon Woolf <jsw(AT)jwoolfden.com>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 4:32pm
At 04:06 PM 3/21/2008, you wrote:
>Hi Dee,
>
> I think that you have asked a legitimate question. Although "All
> the news that's fit to print" has, on occasion, made simple (and
> complex) errors, to think that this image was mis-dated by 2 months
> seems to me to be a stretch.
Is it?
March 30, 1868
May 30, 1868
Nope, those don't look very much alike. But what about these:
Mar 30, 1868
May 30, 1868
Maybe the date was handwritten by somebody with sloppy penmanship, so
the R in "Mar" looked like a Y.
-- Jon W.
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Friends MSSF - Wayne Petersen Talk 3/27
From: Barbara Volkle and Steve Moore <barb620(AT)theworld.com>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 4:30pm
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Thanks to Sharyl Heller for the following message.
Barbara Volkle
Northboro, MA
barb620(AT)theworld.com
* * *
We would like you to know that Friends of Myles=20
Standish State Forest is hosting a talk by Wayne=20
Petersen. We are hoping that his visit will=20
encourage people to take more of an interest in=20
protecting bird habitat in the forest. Please=20
pass this information on to anyone you think may=20
be interested in attending. Friends MSSF would=20
really like to work closely with local birding groups.
Friends of Myles Standish State Forest
Friends of Myles Standish State Forest (FMSSF)=20
invites all bird loving people to hear Wayne=20
Petersen, Director of the Massachusetts Important=20
Bird Areas (IBA) at the Massachusetts Audubon=20
Society, Thursday, March 27, 7:00 p.m. at the=20
Barn, at the MSSF Headquarters, Cranberry Road, South Carver.
In 2001 Mass Audubon initiated the IBA Program in=20
Massachusetts to identify areas particularly=20
important as bird breeding habitats. By working=20
with knowledgeable birders, representatives from=20
state and federal agencies, NGO organizations,=20
and avian scientists, 79 IBAs throughout the=20
Commonwealth were identified, nominated, and=20
officially recognized. Myles Standish State=20
Forest is among the sites listed as an IBA.
Petersen's presentation will provide a summary=20
overview of the IBA program. The program will=20
also include a description of some of the more=20
important Massachusetts IBAs, their habitats and=20
special bird life, and the particular=20
conservation problems existing at different=20
sites. In addition, attendees will discover how=20
local bird clubs can help advance the success of=20
the IBA Program throughout the Commonwealth.
Wayne Petersen is co-author of Birds of=20
Massachusetts (1993) and co-editor of the=20
Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas (2003), his=20
knowledge of the habitats, distribution, and=20
status of the Commonwealth's bird life is both=20
extensive and wide-ranging. In 2005 Wayne was the=20
recipient of the American Birding Association=92s=20
Ludlow Griscom Award for outstanding=20
contributions in regional ornithology.
Admission is free. The building is accessible and=20
dessert will be served.
=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD=AD
Sharl Heller
Friends of Myles Standish State Forest, Inc.
201 Center Hill Road
Plymouth, Massachusetts 02360
(508) 591-7533
<http://www.friendsmssf.com/>www.friendsmssf.com
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Subject: Rusty BB, wood ducks, Great blue: Cold Spring
Park, Newton
From: maurice.gilmore(AT)comcast.net
Date: 21 Mar 2008 5:34pm
Folks,
This afternoon from 4-5 PM a pair of wood ducks and
a single male rusty blackbird in a flock of 15 grackles and a few
red-winged blackbirds
All in the secluded red maple swamp near the turn of Beaconwood Road
in Cold Spring park, Newton.
yesterday AM, a pair of great blue herons checking out the same area.
Pete Gilmore
Newton, MA
maurice.gilmore@comcast,net
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Re: FYI: Article on early spring arrival based on
old photo
From: Richard Danca <rdanca(AT)ix.netcom.com>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 6:36pm
Here's our chance to get the story straight from whichever end of the
horse you think the author of the spring leaf study represents, just by
going to BU on April 17 and spending 10 bucks. Thanks to Janet Egan for
sending this to me. I'll be the guy wearing the anti-climate-change
polar bear suit.
------------------
Richard Primack, the scientist mentioned in the Times article, has the
photos up on his web site at BU:
http://people.bu.edu/primack/research.html
He claims both the 1868 and the 2005 photos were taken on Memorial Day.
Also, he's apparently giving a presentation with photos on April 17:
GLOBAL WARMING AT WALDEN POND ~W Arts and Sciences at Boston University
presents ~SWhat Would Thoreau Think? Global Warming at Walden Pond,~T on
Thursday, April 17, 7 p.m., at School of Management Auditorium, Room
105, 595 Commonwealth Ave., Ground Floor, Boston. The second lecture in
the new Discoveries series, this will be an exploration of climate
change in an iconic landscape. Presented by BU Professor of Biology
Richard Primack, it will include photographs, environmental science, and
the natural history records of Henry David Thoreau. Lecture will be
followed by a light reception. Admission is $10 per person. For
information, e-mail casalum(AT)bu.edu.
--
---------
Richard A. Danca
Newton, MA
mailto:rdanca(AT)ix.netcom.com
-----------------
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Re: Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate
temps fall
From: cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net (Chris Sheridan)
Date: 21 Mar 2008 6:35pm
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In the course of my work I have read and constantly refer to town histories,
generally written
in the 1880's through the early 1900's dealing with southern NH towns within
10-30 miles of Lowell
Many of them have a section of "unusual occurances" or "notable events" ,
including weather. The years of 1816 and 1883 (the Krakatoa year) are often
mentioned, as is the winter of 1843-44, for being unusually long and harsh.
I have never seen a reference to the year 1868 as being unusual.
Found reference to some research by a high school girl for a High School "Nobel
Prize" competition, in which she found that 1868 was most likely a mild El Nino
year, slightly wetter and warmer than usual. Found reference to
that spring being damp and cool in Northern Europe (maybe related to a Mount
Etna
explosion I got an email about off-list?)
Day off, wandered down to the Mogan Center for Lowell history. The woman at
the research room said the photo wouldn't have appeared in a newspaper; they
used engravings up till at least the 1880s..--she did show
me a picture of the grave--(not the same picture). It belonged to two young
men of the Abbot
family who had died in the Civil War in 1862 and 1864 and their little brother.
Her opinion about the
photo was that it was taken at a later date--maybe in the
1880's. (Kind of my impression too, having looked at lots of old pictures.)
As for Memorial day, it was established as Decoration Day on May 5 1868 by the
Secretary of the Army
to be celebrated on May 30 to commemorate the Civil War dead. It was not
universally accepted; New York was the first to make it a state holiday IN 1873.
Many towns and cities had their own commemorations.
At that time it was called Decoration Day, and wasn't declared a national
holiday till--1882, when the name was changed to Memorial Day, and the
commemoration extended
to the dead of all wars.
What Doug Hardy said, back to birding. The date of the photo may be prolematic,
but the general warming trend
is clear.
In Lowell I saw several Gulls, two crows, and
a number of Rock Pigeons--If there were any ducks or Eagles around, they were
hiding out of the wind.
Didn't look too hard--WICKED windy. A pair of Red tailed Hawks in Tyngsborough
seemed to be enjoying
the wind though.
Chris Sheridan
Nashua
cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net
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From: cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net (Chris Sheridan)
To: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>, massbird(AT)theworld.com
Subject: Re: [MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:51:47 +0000
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From: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>
To: massbird(AT)theworld.com
Subject: [MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:15:11 +0000
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<SPAN class=mw-headline> <div><B>Krakatoa</B> or <B>Krakatau</B> or
<B>Krakatao</B> is a <A class=mw-redirect title="Volcanic island"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_island">volcanic island</A> in the
<A title="Sunda Strait" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunda_Strait">Sunda
Strait</A> between <A class=mw-redirect title="Java (island)"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_%28island%29">Java</A> and <A
title=Sumatra href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumatra">Sumatra</A> in <A
title=Indonesia href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia">Indonesia</A>. The
name is used for the island group, the main <A title=Island
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island">island</A> (also called <A
title=Rakata href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakata">Rakata</A>;), and the <A
title=Volcano href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano">volcano</A> as a
whole. It has erupted repeatedly, massively, and with disastrous consequences
throughout recorded history. The best known
eruption culminated in a series of massive explosions on August 26-27 1883,
which was among the most violent volcanic events in modern times. With a <A
title="Volcanic Explosivity Index"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_Explosivity_Index">Volcanic
Explosivity Index</A> of 6, it was equivalent to 200 <A class=mw-redirect
title=Megaton href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaton">megatons</A> of <A
title=Trinitrotoluene
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitrotoluene">TNT</A> ~W about 13,000
times the yield of the <A title="Little Boy"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy">Little Boy</A> bomb (13 to 16
KT), which devastated <A class=mw-redirect title="Hiroshima, Japan"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima%2C_Japan">Hiroshima,
Japan</A>.</div> <div>The 1883 eruption ejected more than 25 cubic kilometres
of rock, ash, and <A title=Pumice
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumice">pumice</A>,<SUP class=reference
id=cite_ref-scholastic_0><A title=""
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa#cite_note-scholastic">[2]</A></SUP>
and generated the loudest sound historically reported: the cataclysmic
explosion was distinctly heard as far away as <A title="Perth, Western
Australia"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth%2C_Western_Australia">Perth</A> in <A
title=Australia href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia">Australia</A>
approx. 1,930 miles (3,110 km), and the island of <A title="Rodrigues
(island)"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodrigues_%28island%29">Rodrigues</A> near <A
title=Mauritius href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius">Mauritius</A>
approx. 3,000 miles (5,000 km). Near Krakatoa, according to official
records, 165 villages and towns were destroyed and 132 seriously damaged, at
least 36,417 (official toll) people died, and many thousands were injured by the
eruption, mostly from the <A title=Tsunami
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami">tsunamis</A> which followed
the explosion.</div></SPAN> <div><SPAN class=mw-headline></SPAN> </div>
<div><SPAN class=mw-headline>Global climate</SPAN> </div> <DIV>In the year
following the eruption, average global temperatures fell by as much as 1.2
degrees Celsius. Weather patterns continued to be chaotic for years, and
temperatures did not return to normal until 1888. The eruption injected an
unusually large amount of <A title="Sulfur dioxide"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_dioxide">sulfur dioxide</A>
(SO<SUB>2</SUB>) gas high into the <A title=Stratosphere
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratosphere">stratosphere</A> which was
subsequently transported by high-level winds all over the planet. This led to a
global increase in <A title="Sulfurous acid"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfurous_acid">sulfurous acid</A>
(H<SUB>2</SUB>SO<SUB>3</SUB>) concentration in high-level <A title="Cirrus
cloud" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirrus_cloud">cirrus clouds</A>. The
resulting increase in cloud <A title=Reflectivity
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflectivity">reflectivity</A> (or <A
title=Albedo href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo">albedo</A>;) would
reflect more incoming light from the sun than usual, and cool the entire planet
until the suspended <A title=Sulfur
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur">sulfur</A> fell to the ground as <A
class=mw-redirect title="Acid precipitation"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_precipitation">acid
precipitation</A>.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-3><A title=""
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa#cite_note-3">[9]</A></SUP></DIV>
<DIV><A id=Global_optical_effects name=Global_optical_effects></A></DIV>
<H4><SPAN class=mw-headline>Global optical effects</SPAN></H4> <DL> <DD> <DIV
class="noprint relarticle mainarticle"><I>Main article: <A title="Noctilucent
cloud" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud">Noctilucent
cloud</A></I></DIV></DD></DL> <DIV
class="thumb tright"> <DIV class=thumbinner style="WIDTH: 142px"><A
class=image title="The dramatic skyline in Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893) is
thought to be based on the global optical effects caused by the eruption and
seen over Oslofjord, Norway."
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Scream.jpg"><IMG class=thumbimage
height=181 alt="The dramatic skyline in Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893) is
thought to be based on the global optical effects caused by the eruption and
seen over Oslofjord, Norway."
src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/The_Scream.jpg/140px-The_Scream.jpg" width=140 border=0></A> <DIV class=thumbcaption> <DIV class=magnify><A class=internal title=Enlarge href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Scream.jpg"><SPAN class="" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 2px; DISPLAY: inline-block; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 2px; FONT-SIZE: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-COLOR: #0000ff; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 2px; BORDER-BOTTOM-COLOR: #0000ff;
VERTICAL-ALIGN: middle; CURSOR: hand; BORDER-TOP-COLOR: #0000ff;
BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 2px; BORDER-RIGHT-COLOR: #0000ff"><SPAN style="DISPLAY:
inline-block; FILTER:
progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src='http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png'); WIDTH: 1px; HEIGHT: 1px"></SPAN></SPAN></A></DIV>The dramatic skyline in <A title="Edvard Munch" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch">Edvard Munch</A>'s <A title="The Scream" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream">The Scream</A> (1893) is thought to be based on the global optical effects caused by the eruption and seen over <A title=Oslofjord href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslofjord">Oslofjord</A>, <A title=Norway href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway">Norway</A>.</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV>The eruption darkened the sky for days afterwards, and produced spectacular sunsets throughout the world for many months. British artist <A title="William Ashcroft"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ashcroft">William Ashcroft</A> made
thousands of colour sketches of the red sunsets half-way around the world from
Krakatoa in the years after the eruption. In 2004, researchers proposed the idea
that the blood-red sky shown in <A title="Edvard Munch"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch">Edvard Munch</A>'s famous 1893
painting <I><A title="The Scream"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream">The Scream</A></I> is also an
accurate depiction of the sky over <A title=Norway
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway">Norway</A> after the eruption.<SUP
class=reference id=cite_ref-4><A title=""
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa#cite_note-4">[10]</A></SUP> Munch
said: "suddenly the sky turned blood red ... I stood there shaking with fear and
felt an endless scream passing through nature." Also, a so called <A
title="Blue moon" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon">blue moon</A>
had been seen for two
years as a result of the eruption.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Interesting</DIV><BR><BR>Dick and Donna Marchant<br> Gloucester, MA<br>
rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net<br> <br> "If you think your dog can't count, put 3
treats in your pocket, and only give him 2."<br>
--NextPart_Webmail_9m3u9jl4l_19215_1206136307_1--
--NextPart_Webmail_9m3u9jl4l_17946_1206137651_1--
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Re: Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate
temps fall
From: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 6:36pm
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Hi Chris,
I am not looking for 'one-up-(wo)man-ship.' I am a retired academic
librarian, and enjoy investigating, analyzing, and researching just about
everything in sight!
It is of little compense from my former days to do a mediocre online
search. This is too easy, but I humbly admit that I took the easy way while
investigating, on Google, this phenomenon.
I simply meant to inspire more investigative reasearch, and to motivate
people to delve more closely, into their comments.
D
Chris Sheridan <cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net> wrote:
In the course of my work I have read and constantly refer to town histories,
generally written
in the 1880's through the early 1900's dealing with southern NH towns within
10-30 miles of Lowell
Many of them have a section of "unusual occurances" or "notable events" ,
including weather. The years of 1816 and 1883 (the Krakatoa year) are often
mentioned, as is the winter of 1843-44, for being unusually long and harsh.
I have never seen a reference to the year 1868 as being unusual.
Found reference to some research by a high school girl for a High School "Nobel
Prize" competition, in which she found that 1868 was most likely a mild El Nino
year, slightly wetter and warmer than usual. Found reference to
that spring being damp and cool in Northern Europe (maybe related to a Mount
Etna
explosion I got an email about off-list?)
Day off, wandered down to the Mogan Center for Lowell history. The woman at
the research room said the photo wouldn't have appeared in a newspaper; they
used engravings up till at least the 1880s..--she did show
me a picture of the grave--(not the same picture). It belonged to two young men
of the Abbot
family who had died in the Civil War in 1862 and 1864 and their little brother.
Her opinion about the
photo was that it was taken at a later date--maybe in the
1880's. (Kind of my impression too, having looked at lots of old pictures.)
As for Memorial day, it was established as Decoration Day on May 5 1868 by the
Secretary of the Army
to be celebrated on May 30 to commemorate the Civil War dead. It was not
universally accepted; New York was the first to make it a state holiday IN 1873.
Many towns and cities had their own commemorations.
At that time it was called Decoration Day, and wasn't declared a national
holiday till--1882, when the name was changed to Memorial Day, and the
commemoration extended
to the dead of all wars.
What Doug Hardy said, back to birding. The date of the photo may be prolematic,
but the general warming trend
is clear.
In Lowell I saw several Gulls, two crows, and
a number of Rock Pigeons--If there were any ducks or Eagles around, they were
hiding out of the wind.
Didn't look too hard--WICKED windy. A pair of Red tailed Hawks in Tyngsborough
seemed to be enjoying
the wind though.
Chris Sheridan
Nashua
cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net
From: cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net (Chris Sheridan)
To: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>, massbird(AT)theworld.com
Subject: Re: [MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:51:47 +0000
From: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>
To: massbird(AT)theworld.com
Subject: [MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:15:11 +0000
Krakatoa or Krakatau or Krakatao is a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait
between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. The name is used for the island group,
the main island (also called Rakata), and the volcano as a whole. It has erupted
repeatedly, massively, and with disastrous consequences throughout recorded
history. The best known eruption culminated in a series of massive explosions on
August 26-27 1883, which was among the most violent volcanic events in modern
times. With a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6, it was equivalent to 200 megatons
of TNT ~W about 13,000 times the yield of the Little Boy bomb (13 to 16 KT),
which devastated Hiroshima, Japan.
The 1883 eruption ejected more than 25 cubic kilometres of rock, ash, and
pumice,[2] and generated the loudest sound historically reported: the
cataclysmic explosion was distinctly heard as far away as Perth in Australia
approx. 1,930 miles (3,110 km), and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius
approx. 3,000 miles (5,000 km). Near Krakatoa, according to official records,
165 villages and towns were destroyed and 132 seriously damaged, at least 36,417
(official toll) people died, and many thousands were injured by the eruption,
mostly from the tsunamis which followed the explosion.
Global climate
In the year following the eruption, average global temperatures fell by as
much as 1.2 degrees Celsius. Weather patterns continued to be chaotic for years,
and temperatures did not return to normal until 1888. The eruption injected an
unusually large amount of sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas high into the stratosphere
which was subsequently transported by high-level winds all over the planet. This
led to a global increase in sulfurous acid (H2SO3) concentration in high-level
cirrus clouds. The resulting increase in cloud reflectivity (or albedo) would
reflect more incoming light from the sun than usual, and cool the entire planet
until the suspended sulfur fell to the ground as acid precipitation.[9]
Global optical effects
Main article: Noctilucent cloud
The dramatic skyline in Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893) is thought to be based
on the global optical effects caused by the eruption and seen over Oslofjord,
Norway.
The eruption darkened the sky for days afterwards, and produced spectacular
sunsets throughout the world for many months. British artist William Ashcroft
made thousands of colour sketches of the red sunsets half-way around the world
from Krakatoa in the years after the eruption. In 2004, researchers proposed the
idea that the blood-red sky shown in Edvard Munch's famous 1893 painting The
Scream is also an accurate depiction of the sky over Norway after the
eruption.[10] Munch said: "suddenly the sky turned blood red ... I stood there
shaking with fear and felt an endless scream passing through nature." Also, a so
called blue moon had been seen for two years as a result of the eruption.
Interesting
Dick and Donna Marchant
Gloucester, MA
rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net
"If you think your dog can't count, put 3 treats in your pocket, and only give
him 2."
Dick and Donna Marchant
Gloucester, MA
rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net
"If you think your dog can't count, put 3 treats in your pocket, and only give
him 2."
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[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Concord Raven
From: Cherrie Corey <cherrie.corey(AT)verizon.net>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 6:35pm
The sighting this morning was in the field contiguous to the one I
watched the Raven in yesterday on Old Bedford Rd. Seems he's hanging
around. We'll keep watch over the weekend.
Cherrie Corey
Concord
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Re: Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate
temps fall
From: cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net (Chris Sheridan)
Date: 21 Mar 2008 7:10pm
----INCLUDING text/plain MIME SECTION----
I apologise to Dick if he feels I was trying to one up him. I happened to have
been
interested enough to do a little diggin today, and basically, I was trying to
offer up
what I'd learned that seem to support of his post:
That is :
It doesn't look like an 1880's picture
1868 doesn't seem to have been to unusual, but 1883, at least, was; I noted
that 1883 was the Krakatoa year.
Memorial Day might not have been called Memorial Day till the 1880;s
Maybe we're dealing with a photo dated not days, but decades off.
I'm sorry if my post was taken in any other way
Chris S.
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>
> Hi Chris,
> I am not looking for 'one-up-(wo)man-ship.' I am a retired academic
> librarian, and enjoy investigating, analyzing, and researching just about
> everything in sight!
> It is of little compense from my former days to do a mediocre online
> search. This is too easy, but I humbly admit that I took the easy way while
> investigating, on Google, this phenomenon.
> I simply meant to inspire more investigative reasearch, and to motivate
> people to delve more closely, into their comments.
> D
>
>
>
> Chris Sheridan <cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net> wrote:
> In the course of my work I have read and constantly refer to town histories,
> generally written
> in the 1880's through the early 1900's dealing with southern NH towns within
> 10-30 miles of Lowell
> Many of them have a section of "unusual occurances" or "notable events" ,
> including weather. The years of 1816 and 1883 (the Krakatoa year) are often
> mentioned, as is the winter of 1843-44, for being unusually long and harsh.
> I have never seen a reference to the year 1868 as being unusual.
>
> Found reference to some research by a high school girl for a High School
"Nobel
> Prize" competition, in which she found that 1868 was most likely a mild El
Nino
> year, slightly wetter and warmer than usual. Found reference to
> that spring being damp and cool in Northern Europe (maybe related to a Mount
> Etna
> explosion I got an email about off-list?)
>
> Day off, wandered down to the Mogan Center for Lowell history. The woman at
> the research room said the photo wouldn't have appeared in a newspaper; they
> used engravings up till at least the 1880s..--she did show
> me a picture of the grave--(not the same picture). It belonged to two young
men
> of the Abbot
> family who had died in the Civil War in 1862 and 1864 and their little
brother.
> Her opinion about the
> photo was that it was taken at a later date--maybe in the
> 1880's. (Kind of my impression too, having looked at lots of old pictures.)
>
> As for Memorial day, it was established as Decoration Day on May 5 1868 by the
> Secretary of the Army
> to be celebrated on May 30 to commemorate the Civil War dead. It was not
> universally accepted; New York was the first to make it a state holiday IN
1873.
> Many towns and cities had their own commemorations.
> At that time it was called Decoration Day, and wasn't declared a national
> holiday till--1882, when the name was changed to Memorial Day, and the
> commemoration extended
> to the dead of all wars.
>
> What Doug Hardy said, back to birding. The date of the photo may be
prolematic,
> but the general warming trend
> is clear.
> In Lowell I saw several Gulls, two crows, and
> a number of Rock Pigeons--If there were any ducks or Eagles around, they were
> hiding out of the wind.
> Didn't look too hard--WICKED windy. A pair of Red tailed Hawks in Tyngsborough
> seemed to be enjoying
> the wind though.
> Chris Sheridan
> Nashua
> cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net
>
>
> From: cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net (Chris Sheridan)
> To: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>, massbird(AT)theworld.com
> Subject: Re: [MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall
> Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:51:47 +0000
>
> From: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>
> To: massbird(AT)theworld.com
> Subject: [MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall
> Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:15:11 +0000
>
> Krakatoa or Krakatau or Krakatao is a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait
> between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. The name is used for the island group,
> the main island (also called Rakata), and the volcano as a whole. It has
erupted
> repeatedly, massively, and with disastrous consequences throughout recorded
> history. The best known eruption culminated in a series of massive explosions
on
> August 26-27 1883, which was among the most violent volcanic events in modern
> times. With a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6, it was equivalent to 200
megatons
> of TNT ~W about 13,000 times the yield of the Little Boy bomb (13 to 16 KT),
> which devastated Hiroshima, Japan.
> The 1883 eruption ejected more than 25 cubic kilometres of rock, ash, and
> pumice,[2] and generated the loudest sound historically reported: the
> cataclysmic explosion was distinctly heard as far away as Perth in Australia
> approx. 1,930 miles (3,110 km), and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius
> approx. 3,000 miles (5,000 km). Near Krakatoa, according to official records,
> 165 villages and towns were destroyed and 132 seriously damaged, at least
36,417
> (official toll) people died, and many thousands were injured by the eruption,
> mostly from the tsunamis which followed the explosion.
>
> Global climate
> In the year following the eruption, average global temperatures fell by as
> much as 1.2 degrees Celsius. Weather patterns continued to be chaotic for
years,
> and temperatures did not return to normal until 1888. The eruption injected an
> unusually large amount of sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas high into the stratosphere
> which was subsequently transported by high-level winds all over the planet.
This
> led to a global increase in sulfurous acid (H2SO3) concentration in high-level
> cirrus clouds. The resulting increase in cloud reflectivity (or albedo) would
> reflect more incoming light from the sun than usual, and cool the entire
planet
> until the suspended sulfur fell to the ground as acid precipitation.[9]
>
> Global optical effects
> Main article: Noctilucent cloud
>
> The dramatic skyline in Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893) is thought to be
based
> on the global optical effects caused by the eruption and seen over Oslofjord,
> Norway.
>
>
> The eruption darkened the sky for days afterwards, and produced spectacular
> sunsets throughout the world for many months. British artist William Ashcroft
> made thousands of colour sketches of the red sunsets half-way around the world
> from Krakatoa in the years after the eruption. In 2004, researchers proposed
the
> idea that the blood-red sky shown in Edvard Munch's famous 1893 painting The
> Scream is also an accurate depiction of the sky over Norway after the
> eruption.[10] Munch said: "suddenly the sky turned blood red ... I stood there
> shaking with fear and felt an endless scream passing through nature." Also, a
so
> called blue moon had been seen for two years as a result of the eruption.
>
> Interesting
>
>
> Dick and Donna Marchant
> Gloucester, MA
> rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net
>
> "If you think your dog can't count, put 3 treats in your pocket, and only give
> him 2."
>
>
>
> Dick and Donna Marchant
> Gloucester, MA
> rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net
>
> "If you think your dog can't count, put 3 treats in your pocket, and only
give
> him 2."
----INCLUDING message/rfc822 MIME SECTION----
---- DELETING EXCESS HEADER LINES ----
From: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>
To: Chris Sheridan <cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:49:43 +0000
--NextPart_Webmail_9m3u9jl4l_6095_1206144554_1
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
<div>Hi Chris,</div> <div> I am not looking for
'one-up-(wo)man-ship.' I am a retired academic librarian, and enjoy
investigating, analyzing, and researching just about everything in sight!</div>
<div> It is of little compense from my former days to do a mediocre
online search. This is too easy, but I humbly admit that I took the easy way
while investigating, on Google, this phenomenon.</div> <div> I
simply meant to inspire more investigative reasearch, and to motivate people
to delve more closely, into their comments.</div> <div>D</div>
<div> </div> <div> <BR><BR><B><I>Chris Sheridan
<cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net></I></B> wrote:</div> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">In
the course of my work I have read and constantly refer to town histories,
generally written <BR>in the 1880's through the early 1900's dealing with
southern NH towns
within 10-30 miles of Lowell<BR>Many of them have a section of "unusual
occurances" or "notable events" , <BR>including weather. The years of 1816 and
1883 (the Krakatoa year) are often <BR>mentioned, as is the winter of 1843-44,
for being unusually long and harsh.<BR>I have never seen a reference to the year
1868 as being unusual.<BR><BR>Found reference to some research by a high school
girl for a High School "Nobel <BR>Prize" competition, in which she found that
1868 was most likely a mild El Nino <BR>year, slightly wetter and warmer than
usual. Found reference to <BR>that spring being damp and cool in Northern Europe
(maybe related to a Mount Etna <BR>explosion I got an email about
off-list?)<BR><BR>Day off, wandered down to the Mogan Center for Lowell history.
The woman at <BR>the research room said the photo wouldn't have appeared in a
newspaper; they <BR>used engravings up till at least the 1880s..--she did show
<BR>me a picture of the grave--(not the same picture).
It belonged to two young men of the Abbot <BR>family who had died in the Civil
War in 1862 and 1864 and their little brother. Her opinion about the <BR>photo
was that it was taken at a later date--maybe in the<BR>1880's. (Kind of my
impression too, having looked at lots of old pictures.)<BR><BR>As for Memorial
day, it was established as Decoration Day on May 5 1868 by the Secretary of the
Army<BR>to be celebrated on May 30 to commemorate the Civil War dead. It was not
universally accepted; New York was the first to make it a state holiday IN
1873. Many towns and cities had their own commemorations.<BR>At that time it was
called Decoration Day, and wasn't declared a national <BR>holiday till--1882,
when the name was changed to Memorial Day, and the commemoration extended <BR>to
the dead of all wars.<BR><BR>What Doug Hardy said, back to birding. The date of
the photo may be prolematic, but the general warming trend<BR>is clear.<BR>In
Lowell I saw several Gulls, two crows,
and<BR>a number of Rock Pigeons--If there were any ducks or Eagles around, they
were hiding out of the wind.<BR>Didn't look too hard--WICKED windy. A pair of
Red tailed Hawks in Tyngsborough seemed to be enjoying<BR>the wind
though.<BR>Chris Sheridan<BR>Nashua<BR>cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net<BR><BR><BR>From:
cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net (Chris Sheridan)<BR>To: Richard Marchant
<rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>, massbird(AT)theworld.com<BR>Subject: Re:
[MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall<BR>Date: Fri,
21 Mar 2008 21:51:47 +0000<BR><BR>From: Richard Marchant
<rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net><BR>To: massbird(AT)theworld.com<BR>Subject:
[MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall<BR>Date: Fri,
21 Mar 2008 21:15:11 +0000<BR><BR><SPAN class=mw-headline> <DIV><B>Krakatoa</B>
or <B>Krakatau</B> or <B>Krakatao</B> is a <A class=mw-redirect title="Volcanic
island" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_island">volcanic island</A>
in the <A title="Sunda
Strait" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunda_Strait">Sunda Strait</A>
between <A class=mw-redirect title="Java (island)"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_%28island%29">Java</A> and <A
title=Sumatra href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumatra">Sumatra</A> in <A
title=Indonesia href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia">Indonesia</A>. The
name is used for the island group, the main <A title=Island
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island">island</A> (also called <A
title=Rakata href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakata">Rakata</A>;), and the <A
title=Volcano href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano">volcano</A> as a
whole. It has erupted repeatedly, massively, and with disastrous consequences
throughout recorded history. The best known eruption culminated in a series of
massive explosions on August 26-27 1883, which was among the most violent
volcanic events in modern times. With a <A title="Volcanic Explosivity Index"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_Explosivity_Index">Volcanic
Explosivity Index</A> of 6, it was equivalent to 200 <A class=mw-redirect
title=Megaton href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaton">megatons</A> of <A
title=Trinitrotoluene
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitrotoluene">TNT</A> ~W about 13,000
times the yield of the <A title="Little Boy"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy">Little Boy</A> bomb (13 to 16
KT), which devastated <A class=mw-redirect title="Hiroshima, Japan"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima%2C_Japan">Hiroshima,
Japan</A>.</DIV> <DIV>The 1883 eruption ejected more than 25 cubic kilometres
of rock, ash, and <A title=Pumice
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumice">pumice</A>,<SUP class=reference
id=cite_ref-scholastic_0><A title=""
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa#cite_note-scholastic">[2]</A></SUP>
and generated the loudest sound historically reported: the cataclysmic explosion
was distinctly heard as
far away as <A title="Perth, Western Australia"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth%2C_Western_Australia">Perth</A> in <A
title=Australia href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia">Australia</A>
approx. 1,930 miles (3,110 km), and the island of <A title="Rodrigues
(island)"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodrigues_%28island%29">Rodrigues</A> near <A
title=Mauritius href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius">Mauritius</A>
approx. 3,000 miles (5,000 km). Near Krakatoa, according to official
records, 165 villages and towns were destroyed and 132 seriously damaged, at
least 36,417 (official toll) people died, and many thousands were injured by the
eruption, mostly from the <A title=Tsunami
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami">tsunamis</A> which followed the
explosion.</DIV></SPAN> <DIV><SPAN class=mw-headline></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=mw-headline>Global climate</SPAN> </DIV> <DIV>In the year
following the eruption,
average global temperatures fell by as much as 1.2 degrees Celsius. Weather
patterns continued to be chaotic for years, and temperatures did not return to
normal until 1888. The eruption injected an unusually large amount of <A
title="Sulfur dioxide" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_dioxide">sulfur
dioxide</A> (SO<SUB>2</SUB>) gas high into the <A title=Stratosphere
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratosphere">stratosphere</A> which was
subsequently transported by high-level winds all over the planet. This led to a
global increase in <A title="Sulfurous acid"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfurous_acid">sulfurous acid</A>
(H<SUB>2</SUB>SO<SUB>3</SUB>) concentration in high-level <A title="Cirrus
cloud" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirrus_cloud">cirrus clouds</A>. The
resulting increase in cloud <A title=Reflectivity
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflectivity">reflectivity</A> (or <A
title=Albedo
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo">albedo</A>;) would reflect more
incoming light from the sun than usual, and cool the entire planet until the
suspended <A title=Sulfur href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur">sulfur</A>
fell to the ground as <A class=mw-redirect title="Acid precipitation"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_precipitation">acid
precipitation</A>.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-3><A title=""
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa#cite_note-3">[9]</A></SUP></DIV>
<DIV><A id=Global_optical_effects name=Global_optical_effects></A></DIV>
<H4><SPAN class=mw-headline>Global optical effects</SPAN></H4> <DL> <DD> <DIV
class="noprint relarticle mainarticle"><I>Main article: <A title="Noctilucent
cloud" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud">Noctilucent
cloud</A></I></DIV></DD></DL> <DIV class="thumb tright"> <DIV class=thumbinner
style="WIDTH: 142px"><A class=image title="The dramatic skyline in Edvard
Munch's The Scream
(1893) is thought to be based on the global optical effects caused by the
eruption and seen over Oslofjord, Norway."
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Scream.jpg"><IMG class=thumbimage
height=181 alt="The dramatic skyline in Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893) is
thought to be based on the global optical effects caused by the eruption and
seen over Oslofjord, Norway."
src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/The_Scream.jpg/140px-The_Scream.jpg" width=140 border=0></A> <DIV class=thumbcaption> <DIV class=magnify><A class=internal title=Enlarge href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Scream.jpg"><SPAN class="" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 2px; DISPLAY: inline-block; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 2px; FONT-SIZE: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-COLOR: #0000ff; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 2px; BORDER-BOTTOM-COLOR: #0000ff; VERTICAL-ALIGN: middle; CURSOR: hand; BORDER-TOP-COLOR: #0000ff; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 2px; BORDER-RIGHT-COLOR: #0000ff"><SPAN
style="DISPLAY: inline-block; FILTER:
progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src='http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png'); WIDTH: 1px; HEIGHT: 1px"></SPAN></SPAN></A></DIV>The dramatic skyline in <A title="Edvard Munch" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch">Edvard Munch</A>'s <A title="The Scream" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream">The Scream</A> (1893) is thought to be based on the global optical effects caused by the eruption and seen over <A title=Oslofjord href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslofjord">Oslofjord</A>, <A title=Norway href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway">Norway</A>.</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV>The eruption darkened the sky for days afterwards, and produced spectacular sunsets throughout the world for many months. British artist <A title="William Ashcroft" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ashcroft">William Ashcroft</A> made thousands of colour sketches of the red sunsets half-way
around the world from Krakatoa in the years after the eruption. In 2004,
researchers proposed the idea that the blood-red sky shown in <A title="Edvard
Munch" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch">Edvard Munch</A>'s
famous 1893 painting <I><A title="The Scream"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream">The Scream</A></I> is also an
accurate depiction of the sky over <A title=Norway
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway">Norway</A> after the eruption.<SUP
class=reference id=cite_ref-4><A title=""
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa#cite_note-4">[10]</A></SUP> Munch
said: "suddenly the sky turned blood red ... I stood there shaking with fear and
felt an endless scream passing through nature." Also, a so called <A
title="Blue moon" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon">blue moon</A>
had been seen for two years as a result of the eruption.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Interesting</DIV><BR><BR>Dick and Donna
Marchant<BR>Gloucester,
MA<BR>rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net<BR><BR>"If you think your dog can't count, put 3
treats in your pocket, and only give him 2."<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR><BR>Dick
and Donna Marchant<br> Gloucester, MA<br> rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net<br> <br>
"If you think your dog can't count, put 3 treats in your pocket, and only give
him 2."<br>
--NextPart_Webmail_9m3u9jl4l_6095_1206144554_1--
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Good Firday Surprise, Am. Coot
From: <njlandry(AT)verizon.net>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 7:20pm
PI/MASS Birders,
After leaving work a 2pm I headed to Plum Island for a late day of birding. I
knew that with the winds that the birds would be few but hoped for a surprise.
The surprise came as I pulled into lot 6 to let a car pass me by and found an
American Coot at the edge of the lot. I watched it for about15 minutes before it
moved off into the brush and swamp water.
I took lots of photos and took a 3 minute video with my point and shoot camera.
I have posted two pictures on my web page and on the PI website as well.
Here is a list of birds seen.
Brant 60 bar head
Canada Goose Various
American Black Duck Various
Mallard 4
Long-tailed Duck ocean 7
Hooded Merganser 2 forward
Red-breasted Merganser 1 bar head
Northern Harrier 3 n field
American Coot 1 lot 6
Herring Gull beach 7
Great Black-backed Gull beach 7
Mourning Dove 3 Various
American Crow 1 wardens
Black-capped Chickadee 3 hellcat
American Tree Sparrow 3 Various
Song Sparrow 2 rd
Red-winged Blackbird 6 n field
Nancy Landry
Haverhill MA
njlandry(AT)verizon.net
www.pbase.com/plumphotos
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Re: Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate
temps fall
From: cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net (Chris Sheridan)
Date: 21 Mar 2008 7:10pm
----INCLUDING text/plain MIME SECTION----
I apologise to Dick if he feels I was trying to one up him. I happened to have
been
interested enough to do a little diggin today, and basically, I was trying to
offer up
what I'd learned that seem to support of his post:
That is :
It doesn't look like an 1880's picture
1868 doesn't seem to have been to unusual, but 1883, at least, was; I noted
that 1883 was the Krakatoa year.
Memorial Day might not have been called Memorial Day till the 1880;s
Maybe we're dealing with a photo dated not days, but decades off.
I'm sorry if my post was taken in any other way
Chris S.
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>
> Hi Chris,
> I am not looking for 'one-up-(wo)man-ship.' I am a retired academic
> librarian, and enjoy investigating, analyzing, and researching just about
> everything in sight!
> It is of little compense from my former days to do a mediocre online
> search. This is too easy, but I humbly admit that I took the easy way while
> investigating, on Google, this phenomenon.
> I simply meant to inspire more investigative reasearch, and to motivate
> people to delve more closely, into their comments.
> D
>
>
>
> Chris Sheridan <cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net> wrote:
> In the course of my work I have read and constantly refer to town histories,
> generally written
> in the 1880's through the early 1900's dealing with southern NH towns within
> 10-30 miles of Lowell
> Many of them have a section of "unusual occurances" or "notable events" ,
> including weather. The years of 1816 and 1883 (the Krakatoa year) are often
> mentioned, as is the winter of 1843-44, for being unusually long and harsh.
> I have never seen a reference to the year 1868 as being unusual.
>
> Found reference to some research by a high school girl for a High School
"Nobel
> Prize" competition, in which she found that 1868 was most likely a mild El
Nino
> year, slightly wetter and warmer than usual. Found reference to
> that spring being damp and cool in Northern Europe (maybe related to a Mount
> Etna
> explosion I got an email about off-list?)
>
> Day off, wandered down to the Mogan Center for Lowell history. The woman at
> the research room said the photo wouldn't have appeared in a newspaper; they
> used engravings up till at least the 1880s..--she did show
> me a picture of the grave--(not the same picture). It belonged to two young
men
> of the Abbot
> family who had died in the Civil War in 1862 and 1864 and their little
brother.
> Her opinion about the
> photo was that it was taken at a later date--maybe in the
> 1880's. (Kind of my impression too, having looked at lots of old pictures.)
>
> As for Memorial day, it was established as Decoration Day on May 5 1868 by the
> Secretary of the Army
> to be celebrated on May 30 to commemorate the Civil War dead. It was not
> universally accepted; New York was the first to make it a state holiday IN
1873.
> Many towns and cities had their own commemorations.
> At that time it was called Decoration Day, and wasn't declared a national
> holiday till--1882, when the name was changed to Memorial Day, and the
> commemoration extended
> to the dead of all wars.
>
> What Doug Hardy said, back to birding. The date of the photo may be
prolematic,
> but the general warming trend
> is clear.
> In Lowell I saw several Gulls, two crows, and
> a number of Rock Pigeons--If there were any ducks or Eagles around, they were
> hiding out of the wind.
> Didn't look too hard--WICKED windy. A pair of Red tailed Hawks in Tyngsborough
> seemed to be enjoying
> the wind though.
> Chris Sheridan
> Nashua
> cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net
>
>
> From: cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net (Chris Sheridan)
> To: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>, massbird(AT)theworld.com
> Subject: Re: [MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall
> Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:51:47 +0000
>
> From: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>
> To: massbird(AT)theworld.com
> Subject: [MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall
> Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:15:11 +0000
>
> Krakatoa or Krakatau or Krakatao is a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait
> between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. The name is used for the island group,
> the main island (also called Rakata), and the volcano as a whole. It has
erupted
> repeatedly, massively, and with disastrous consequences throughout recorded
> history. The best known eruption culminated in a series of massive explosions
on
> August 26-27 1883, which was among the most violent volcanic events in modern
> times. With a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6, it was equivalent to 200
megatons
> of TNT ~W about 13,000 times the yield of the Little Boy bomb (13 to 16 KT),
> which devastated Hiroshima, Japan.
> The 1883 eruption ejected more than 25 cubic kilometres of rock, ash, and
> pumice,[2] and generated the loudest sound historically reported: the
> cataclysmic explosion was distinctly heard as far away as Perth in Australia
> approx. 1,930 miles (3,110 km), and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius
> approx. 3,000 miles (5,000 km). Near Krakatoa, according to official records,
> 165 villages and towns were destroyed and 132 seriously damaged, at least
36,417
> (official toll) people died, and many thousands were injured by the eruption,
> mostly from the tsunamis which followed the explosion.
>
> Global climate
> In the year following the eruption, average global temperatures fell by as
> much as 1.2 degrees Celsius. Weather patterns continued to be chaotic for
years,
> and temperatures did not return to normal until 1888. The eruption injected an
> unusually large amount of sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas high into the stratosphere
> which was subsequently transported by high-level winds all over the planet.
This
> led to a global increase in sulfurous acid (H2SO3) concentration in high-level
> cirrus clouds. The resulting increase in cloud reflectivity (or albedo) would
> reflect more incoming light from the sun than usual, and cool the entire
planet
> until the suspended sulfur fell to the ground as acid precipitation.[9]
>
> Global optical effects
> Main article: Noctilucent cloud
>
> The dramatic skyline in Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893) is thought to be
based
> on the global optical effects caused by the eruption and seen over Oslofjord,
> Norway.
>
>
> The eruption darkened the sky for days afterwards, and produced spectacular
> sunsets throughout the world for many months. British artist William Ashcroft
> made thousands of colour sketches of the red sunsets half-way around the world
> from Krakatoa in the years after the eruption. In 2004, researchers proposed
the
> idea that the blood-red sky shown in Edvard Munch's famous 1893 painting The
> Scream is also an accurate depiction of the sky over Norway after the
> eruption.[10] Munch said: "suddenly the sky turned blood red ... I stood there
> shaking with fear and felt an endless scream passing through nature." Also, a
so
> called blue moon had been seen for two years as a result of the eruption.
>
> Interesting
>
>
> Dick and Donna Marchant
> Gloucester, MA
> rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net
>
> "If you think your dog can't count, put 3 treats in your pocket, and only give
> him 2."
>
>
>
> Dick and Donna Marchant
> Gloucester, MA
> rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net
>
> "If you think your dog can't count, put 3 treats in your pocket, and only
give
> him 2."
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From: Richard Marchant <rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>
To: Chris Sheridan <cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:49:43 +0000
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<div>Hi Chris,</div> <div> I am not looking for
'one-up-(wo)man-ship.' I am a retired academic librarian, and enjoy
investigating, analyzing, and researching just about everything in sight!</div>
<div> It is of little compense from my former days to do a mediocre
online search. This is too easy, but I humbly admit that I took the easy way
while investigating, on Google, this phenomenon.</div> <div> I
simply meant to inspire more investigative reasearch, and to motivate people
to delve more closely, into their comments.</div> <div>D</div>
<div> </div> <div> <BR><BR><B><I>Chris Sheridan
<cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net></I></B> wrote:</div> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">In
the course of my work I have read and constantly refer to town histories,
generally written <BR>in the 1880's through the early 1900's dealing with
southern NH towns
within 10-30 miles of Lowell<BR>Many of them have a section of "unusual
occurances" or "notable events" , <BR>including weather. The years of 1816 and
1883 (the Krakatoa year) are often <BR>mentioned, as is the winter of 1843-44,
for being unusually long and harsh.<BR>I have never seen a reference to the year
1868 as being unusual.<BR><BR>Found reference to some research by a high school
girl for a High School "Nobel <BR>Prize" competition, in which she found that
1868 was most likely a mild El Nino <BR>year, slightly wetter and warmer than
usual. Found reference to <BR>that spring being damp and cool in Northern Europe
(maybe related to a Mount Etna <BR>explosion I got an email about
off-list?)<BR><BR>Day off, wandered down to the Mogan Center for Lowell history.
The woman at <BR>the research room said the photo wouldn't have appeared in a
newspaper; they <BR>used engravings up till at least the 1880s..--she did show
<BR>me a picture of the grave--(not the same picture).
It belonged to two young men of the Abbot <BR>family who had died in the Civil
War in 1862 and 1864 and their little brother. Her opinion about the <BR>photo
was that it was taken at a later date--maybe in the<BR>1880's. (Kind of my
impression too, having looked at lots of old pictures.)<BR><BR>As for Memorial
day, it was established as Decoration Day on May 5 1868 by the Secretary of the
Army<BR>to be celebrated on May 30 to commemorate the Civil War dead. It was not
universally accepted; New York was the first to make it a state holiday IN
1873. Many towns and cities had their own commemorations.<BR>At that time it was
called Decoration Day, and wasn't declared a national <BR>holiday till--1882,
when the name was changed to Memorial Day, and the commemoration extended <BR>to
the dead of all wars.<BR><BR>What Doug Hardy said, back to birding. The date of
the photo may be prolematic, but the general warming trend<BR>is clear.<BR>In
Lowell I saw several Gulls, two crows,
and<BR>a number of Rock Pigeons--If there were any ducks or Eagles around, they
were hiding out of the wind.<BR>Didn't look too hard--WICKED windy. A pair of
Red tailed Hawks in Tyngsborough seemed to be enjoying<BR>the wind
though.<BR>Chris Sheridan<BR>Nashua<BR>cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net<BR><BR><BR>From:
cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net (Chris Sheridan)<BR>To: Richard Marchant
<rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net>, massbird(AT)theworld.com<BR>Subject: Re:
[MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall<BR>Date: Fri,
21 Mar 2008 21:51:47 +0000<BR><BR>From: Richard Marchant
<rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net><BR>To: massbird(AT)theworld.com<BR>Subject:
[MASSBIRD] Krakatoa??Food for Thought/ Global climate temps fall<BR>Date: Fri,
21 Mar 2008 21:15:11 +0000<BR><BR><SPAN class=mw-headline> <DIV><B>Krakatoa</B>
or <B>Krakatau</B> or <B>Krakatao</B> is a <A class=mw-redirect title="Volcanic
island" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_island">volcanic island</A>
in the <A title="Sunda
Strait" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunda_Strait">Sunda Strait</A>
between <A class=mw-redirect title="Java (island)"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_%28island%29">Java</A> and <A
title=Sumatra href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumatra">Sumatra</A> in <A
title=Indonesia href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia">Indonesia</A>. The
name is used for the island group, the main <A title=Island
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island">island</A> (also called <A
title=Rakata href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakata">Rakata</A>;), and the <A
title=Volcano href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano">volcano</A> as a
whole. It has erupted repeatedly, massively, and with disastrous consequences
throughout recorded history. The best known eruption culminated in a series of
massive explosions on August 26-27 1883, which was among the most violent
volcanic events in modern times. With a <A title="Volcanic Explosivity Index"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_Explosivity_Index">Volcanic
Explosivity Index</A> of 6, it was equivalent to 200 <A class=mw-redirect
title=Megaton href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaton">megatons</A> of <A
title=Trinitrotoluene
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitrotoluene">TNT</A> ~W about 13,000
times the yield of the <A title="Little Boy"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy">Little Boy</A> bomb (13 to 16
KT), which devastated <A class=mw-redirect title="Hiroshima, Japan"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima%2C_Japan">Hiroshima,
Japan</A>.</DIV> <DIV>The 1883 eruption ejected more than 25 cubic kilometres
of rock, ash, and <A title=Pumice
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumice">pumice</A>,<SUP class=reference
id=cite_ref-scholastic_0><A title=""
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa#cite_note-scholastic">[2]</A></SUP>
and generated the loudest sound historically reported: the cataclysmic explosion
was distinctly heard as
far away as <A title="Perth, Western Australia"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth%2C_Western_Australia">Perth</A> in <A
title=Australia href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia">Australia</A>
approx. 1,930 miles (3,110 km), and the island of <A title="Rodrigues
(island)"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodrigues_%28island%29">Rodrigues</A> near <A
title=Mauritius href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius">Mauritius</A>
approx. 3,000 miles (5,000 km). Near Krakatoa, according to official
records, 165 villages and towns were destroyed and 132 seriously damaged, at
least 36,417 (official toll) people died, and many thousands were injured by the
eruption, mostly from the <A title=Tsunami
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami">tsunamis</A> which followed the
explosion.</DIV></SPAN> <DIV><SPAN class=mw-headline></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=mw-headline>Global climate</SPAN> </DIV> <DIV>In the year
following the eruption,
average global temperatures fell by as much as 1.2 degrees Celsius. Weather
patterns continued to be chaotic for years, and temperatures did not return to
normal until 1888. The eruption injected an unusually large amount of <A
title="Sulfur dioxide" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_dioxide">sulfur
dioxide</A> (SO<SUB>2</SUB>) gas high into the <A title=Stratosphere
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratosphere">stratosphere</A> which was
subsequently transported by high-level winds all over the planet. This led to a
global increase in <A title="Sulfurous acid"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfurous_acid">sulfurous acid</A>
(H<SUB>2</SUB>SO<SUB>3</SUB>) concentration in high-level <A title="Cirrus
cloud" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirrus_cloud">cirrus clouds</A>. The
resulting increase in cloud <A title=Reflectivity
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflectivity">reflectivity</A> (or <A
title=Albedo
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo">albedo</A>;) would reflect more
incoming light from the sun than usual, and cool the entire planet until the
suspended <A title=Sulfur href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur">sulfur</A>
fell to the ground as <A class=mw-redirect title="Acid precipitation"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_precipitation">acid
precipitation</A>.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-3><A title=""
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa#cite_note-3">[9]</A></SUP></DIV>
<DIV><A id=Global_optical_effects name=Global_optical_effects></A></DIV>
<H4><SPAN class=mw-headline>Global optical effects</SPAN></H4> <DL> <DD> <DIV
class="noprint relarticle mainarticle"><I>Main article: <A title="Noctilucent
cloud" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud">Noctilucent
cloud</A></I></DIV></DD></DL> <DIV class="thumb tright"> <DIV class=thumbinner
style="WIDTH: 142px"><A class=image title="The dramatic skyline in Edvard
Munch's The Scream
(1893) is thought to be based on the global optical effects caused by the
eruption and seen over Oslofjord, Norway."
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Scream.jpg"><IMG class=thumbimage
height=181 alt="The dramatic skyline in Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893) is
thought to be based on the global optical effects caused by the eruption and
seen over Oslofjord, Norway."
src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/The_Scream.jpg/140px-The_Scream.jpg" width=140 border=0></A> <DIV class=thumbcaption> <DIV class=magnify><A class=internal title=Enlarge href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Scream.jpg"><SPAN class="" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 2px; DISPLAY: inline-block; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 2px; FONT-SIZE: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-COLOR: #0000ff; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 2px; BORDER-BOTTOM-COLOR: #0000ff; VERTICAL-ALIGN: middle; CURSOR: hand; BORDER-TOP-COLOR: #0000ff; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 2px; BORDER-RIGHT-COLOR: #0000ff"><SPAN
style="DISPLAY: inline-block; FILTER:
progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src='http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png'); WIDTH: 1px; HEIGHT: 1px"></SPAN></SPAN></A></DIV>The dramatic skyline in <A title="Edvard Munch" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch">Edvard Munch</A>'s <A title="The Scream" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream">The Scream</A> (1893) is thought to be based on the global optical effects caused by the eruption and seen over <A title=Oslofjord href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslofjord">Oslofjord</A>, <A title=Norway href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway">Norway</A>.</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV>The eruption darkened the sky for days afterwards, and produced spectacular sunsets throughout the world for many months. British artist <A title="William Ashcroft" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ashcroft">William Ashcroft</A> made thousands of colour sketches of the red sunsets half-way
around the world from Krakatoa in the years after the eruption. In 2004,
researchers proposed the idea that the blood-red sky shown in <A title="Edvard
Munch" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch">Edvard Munch</A>'s
famous 1893 painting <I><A title="The Scream"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream">The Scream</A></I> is also an
accurate depiction of the sky over <A title=Norway
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway">Norway</A> after the eruption.<SUP
class=reference id=cite_ref-4><A title=""
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa#cite_note-4">[10]</A></SUP> Munch
said: "suddenly the sky turned blood red ... I stood there shaking with fear and
felt an endless scream passing through nature." Also, a so called <A
title="Blue moon" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon">blue moon</A>
had been seen for two years as a result of the eruption.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Interesting</DIV><BR><BR>Dick and Donna
Marchant<BR>Gloucester,
MA<BR>rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net<BR><BR>"If you think your dog can't count, put 3
treats in your pocket, and only give him 2."<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR><BR>Dick
and Donna Marchant<br> Gloucester, MA<br> rmarchant31(AT)verizon.net<br> <br>
"If you think your dog can't count, put 3 treats in your pocket, and only give
him 2."<br>
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Subject: Forgot to add town, email address....
From: cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net (Chris Sheridan)
Date: 21 Mar 2008 7:46pm
Chris Sheridan
Nashua NH
cmsbirds(AT)comcast.net
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Bridgewater birds -- Snipe, raptors
From: "alice morgan" <morgan.alice(AT)gmail.com>
Date: 21 Mar 2008 8:20pm
Birding was tough in the late afternoon due to wind and sometimes
looking into the setting sun. In a field on Lincoln St about half a
mile south of Rt. 106 we saw many many Killdeer, often flying and then
disappearing into the dirt, presumably keeping low to stay out of the
wind. Among them were several Wilson's Snipe -- we were able to count
at least 6, but they were unusually hard to see, so probably there
were lots more. This field is on the right as you head away from 106;
it is the nursery field opposite the greenhouses. There were Mallards
in o
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