Maybe a "Swan" song"

Drove to the Narrows but the Narrows was completely covered over with at least snow and probably ice underneath.

So I drove to Quetton Street boat launch to launch my car but there too everything was covered with snow and probably ice beneath.  I got out and looked around. There on the marge of the entrance to the canal were some Trumpeter swans - maybe 20?

 In addition there were several groups flying:

 

 And some singles:

 No sign of water, no sign of food. I was not aware of any yellow labels but I did search for them.

 

I wonder if any are over at Port Severn where R08 has been in other seasons over the past 5 years or so?

 

 I think this will be rough winter for the birds without factoring in avian flu and the ice storm of Spring.

 

WOB 

What "May" December contain?

 It may contain snow!

 

 How do you get down from an elephant?

You don't, you get down from a duck!

Or in exceptional cases:

 And still the snow is deep -

 

 

And there was a late migrant,

 And snow makes its relentless "March" - WOB

May contain nuts

 And you are looking at a jar of peanut butter ... well? 

I should hope so, shouldn't I?

So here I was on the balcony of my outside cabin, continuing my journey around the world, and all is well.

 

WOB 

 

 

Early Christmas Card

 The transition from one season to another, not always in logical progression still brings me to consider how my life is being spent.

 

So here is a recent thought:

 

Since November 11, remember every day, there have been violent thunder storms and all the snow is gone,

 

WOB 

It began months ago

 And then it disappeared, carried by the Sun's rotation out of sight.

But then it, AR4274,  reappeared!

 AR4274 had returned.  It had been tracked via GONG, a global network of telescopes observing the Sun almost continuously since I first heard of it back in 1988. It is not often that sunspots survive a complete solar rotation.

 

But it did_

 I also observed it on Saturday November 8:

 

This sunspot group may have been responsible for the aurora seen during this time. Unfortunately it was cloudy wet here and I saw nothing but clouds and maybe a faint glow on the northern horizon.

And now solar rotation has carried it from view. Will it return in a few more weeks?

 

 WOB

I am stumped

 What a contrast between a day in early April and this day in early November:

 

 

If "all" is not lost,

where do I find "it"?

 

 The blue and yellow colours are to be found  elsewhere, too.

 

WOB 

DND radar sites in green-green environmentally sensitve Clearview township

 I am not a permanent resident of this region - I migrate through in Spring and Autumn, I cannot say "Ouch". I do have a long memory, I recall the debate about the "Bomarc" and felt the nuclear fallout over me:

 

 "Better Red than Dead"

A-OTHR   - "Eve of ..."

Good Bye, Ibykus ?

 

 

Green, green, it's "green" they say, ...

 

WOB 

Unusual

 No Haiku"

It is in the stars:

 The comet, Lemmon, is obvious in the middle. However, there is a cluster of 10 trails

to  the  left of the comet and again  3 in the lower right of the image.

 

Then in this image there are a couple of trails left/south of the comet and a burst to the right - near the edge of the trees:

 All this is happening on a single night, Sunday October 26.3 exposures, less than 45 seconds:

 

Some - most - must be satellites.

 Pollution?

 WOB 

 

PS There are a couple of "reasons" for thinking these are satellite trails seen low in the west and not in the field with comet Swan higher up where they are more likely to be in the Earth's shadow.

The similarity in brightness then would be  expected for objects of the same size and orbit

like the Starlink datellites. They are also launched in "bunches and require time to disperse. 

Meteors in the evening have to overtake the earth leading to short trails.  They would not be expected to be homogeneous in brightness and trail length.

 

Some examples from the night before where the red bars are beside trails:

 Comet Lemmon is unmarked but plainly visible near the centre.

 

wobbily 

The next passenger, please step up ...

 It was raining quite heavily late in the afternoon:

 

 

Several 1000 cranes were observed flying west over Köln. The nest day the "Zeitungen"

newspapers reported 1000s of Kraniche  dead, Vogelgrippe

 

 H5N1

 Vogelgrippe  dort

Avian flu there and here -

Passenger Pigeons?

 

 Looking back in the mirror?

 

 WOB