Night Sky: Expect the improbable
It’s a tricky business, dealing with events that happen at the same time. Are they linked, or just coincidental? Case in point: climate change.
Almanac Weekly | Nature
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Night Sky: Last chance to see Venus
Twilight won’t be the same without Venus hovering in the middle of it.
Beyond honey: A primer on some of New York’s 400-plus bee species
Honey bees are great and all, but did you know many native bees are actually better pollinators because the co-evolved with local plants?
An argument for nature’s innate intelligence: the wing
Random evolution can’t explain the dragonfly’s wing. Unlike the evolution of giraffes’ necks, where any incremental increase in length would offer evolutionary advantages, a step-by-step process just wouldn’t work for a wing design. The wrong shape would be useless, and confer no advantage whatsoever.
A new star in 2022? The century’s first naked-eye nova
An astronomy professor at a small Midwestern college, along with some of his students, predicts that an odd type of exploding star called a red nova would appear in our skies five years from now.
Deborah Dows’ Southlands in Rhinebeck open for winter rambles
Deborah Dows traveled the world – “sleeping in haystacks and palaces” – and is said to have associated with general George Patton when he was still a major, and to have done a stint at the renowned Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Dows opened her riding school at Rhinebeck’s Southlands Farm in the late 1930s. An avid horsewoman, her aim was to teach people of all ages to respect and love the land and its animals. The nonprofit Southlands Foundation operates primarily as an equestrian center, but it opens its nearly 200 acres of trails to the public for hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and birdwatching for free, seven days a week.
Black Dome Press publishes Nora Scarlett’s photo collection Trunks of the Gunks
Nora Scarlett, a serious studio photographer whose portfolio includes work as an assistant to the great Irving Penn and several major advertising agency assignments, is now based in New Paltz. While on a hike in the Shawangunks more than a decade ago, she writes, “I was captivated by a tree that appeared to be kissing a boulder.” That was the inspiration for Scarlett’s first serious departure from studio work: a series of large-format photos that she called “Trunks of the Gunks.”
Christmas Bird Count participants needed for December 17 & 28
Watching for birds will slow your heartbeat, lower your blood pressure, sharpen your observational skills, get you more in tune with the Earth’s eternal rhythms.
This park near the Hudson is a great place to spot bald eagles
The 270-acre park is a rich estuarine habitat, particularly for birds. It’s a great place to spot bald eagles, and home to thriving populations of red-winged blackbirds, mallard and black ducks, herons and kingfishers.
Ice storm lecture this Friday at Millbrook’s Cary Institute
Research suggests that ice storms are on the rise in the Northeast due to climate change. Destructive and unpredictable, these storms affect forest ecosystems, altering everything from the composition of trees to water quality. Despite their role in sculpting forests, scientific understanding of ice storms has been limited, because researchers can’t predict when and where they will next occur.