The rainiest season
Has seemed rainier than usual lately? It has been: We’ve received about three times more than the 122-year average.
Nature
Bucket-list sky phenomena
Here are my top six sky apparitions that belong on everyone’s bucket list, most of which appear in your own backyard.
First Lady of fly fishing will speak at Phoenicia Library
“Fly fishing is a deep sport,” said Joan Wulff, known as the First Lady of fly fishing for her mastery of casting, the art of lofting a lure out over a stream to land on the water’s surface and attract a trout. She will speak at the Phoenicia Library in the Sporting Legends of the Catskills series on Saturday, October 27, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
The consummate sky-speaker
One word is so consistently mispronounced that I’ve been repeatedly corrected when I say it the right way, which is why it drives me bonkers.
Foliage forecast: Less sunshine = less red pigment
The many cloudy and rainy days for the past weeks don’t bode well for a great autumn show of leaf color.
Nature Walk: The toothbrush caterpillars
The high number of caterpillars dead or dying this late summer (especially fall webworms) is almost certainly attributable to the stiflingly hot and humid weather we had, and the stretches of abundant rain.
Learn how the Hudson River gave birth to the modern American environmental movement
Saturday, October 6: Book talk at Slabsides with historian David Schuyler about his new book, Embattled River. Some of the conflicts that Schuyler documents are universally known: General Electric, the PCB contamination of the Hudson and the cleanup debate, for example. Others are news – startling news – to me: a major nuclear power facility with cooling towers proposed for the Esopus/Lloyd town line in the 1970s?
See the secret gardens of Mountain Top Arboretum
Lichen Walk this Saturday, October 6: This public garden situated on 178 acres above Tannersville is a stunning nature sanctuary. The nearly finished timber-frame Education Center designed by architect Jack Sobon features 21 native tree species.
Talk on Arctic narwhal expedition
Wednesday, Sept. 26: It’s said that, in centuries past, the spiral tusks of narwhals were regarded as proof of the existence of unicorns. Marine biologists studying this elusive cetacean today are discovering that this “horn” – in fact, an overgrown tooth – has ingenious if not magical properties.
WLC’s BioBlitz will document species at Thorn Preserve
The Woodstock Land Conservancy (WLC) holds its fourth annual BioBlitz on Friday, September 21, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday, September 22, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., as naturalists lead expeditions on the Thorn Preserve in eastern Woodstock, counting the species found on the 60-acre property.