Recently in Nature Category

NASA released this photo yesterday of the massive wildfires burning in California. The extent of the fires is mind-boggling.

The country's mind-boggler-in-chief will be in southern California today to view the devastation.
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Maryland is in the throes of a horrible drought. So when a small shower passed over my house last night, I rejoiced. I think the shower only lasted 30 minutes, but the rain is much needed. Cooler temperatures follow the shower.

People used to rain miss it when it's taken away.
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A recent image of Earth's western hemisphere produced by NASA using a variety of source data.

Remember folks, it's the only one we've got.
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Isn't this an awesome picture? Brilliant young stars nestled in nebula NGC 3603 glowing red from the H-alpha spectral line of hydrogen emissions. It comes from Baltimore's own Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute. The photo was released as part of its Hubble Heritage program.

You can find more incredible photos here.
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Temperatures have been delightfully cool the past few days. Makes me optimistic that cooler climes are coming. Mid-September is right about when my ruby-throated hummingbirds take off. And with the really cool nights we've been having, I figured they were all in parts south. But I had a hummer feeding on my deck this morning where the temperature could not have been more than 50 degrees. Don't know if it was one I was feeding all summer or was just a passer-by.

But I wouldn't be surprised if that was the last one I'll see in '07.
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Thought this was interesting. The USGS has a ground water monitoring station in Christiansburg, VA, about 9,000 miles from Indonesia. Nominal tidal variations are only 2.5 inches. The earthquake and its aftershocks are clearly visible.
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National Geographic reports today a new ignominy for the solar system's outermost planet. Make that outermost dwarf planet. Not content to simply demote the planet Pluto from full-fledged planet status to ugly step-sister "dwarf planet", scientists now tell us that Pluto isn't even the biggest dwarf planet. That honor actually belongs to dwarf planet Eris, which is one-third bigger than Pluto. The new finding is creating a public relations nightmare for my employer, which is responsible for New Horizons mission management and spacecraft operations.

Kind of hard to whip up a lot of interest and excitement for a mission to the second-biggest dwarf planet in the solar system.
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Saw first hummingbird of the season at the feeder yesterday.
Heard first wood thrush this year singing in the woods coming out of work last night.
An indigo bunting dined at my feeder this morning.
Still no bluebirds.

Sorry for the bird crap. But a blog is sort of a diary and this is for the record.
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