Here’s another good reason to look up in the sky, especially if you’re up early later this week. Astronomically speaking, it’s a conjunction: the coincidence of two or more heavenly bodies at the same celestial longitude. In this case, we’re talking about Jupiter and Venus sitting next to each other in the pre-dawn sky and being joined by the moon. It’s a celestial hug, according to this writer.

Here was the first reason to look up.

Remember the H5N1 virus, a.k.a bird flu? It swept across Asia a few years ago and was thought to be the next human pandemic. Well, just because it hasn’t, doesn’t mean we should forget about it, scientists and officials said yesterday.

Plus, we shouldn’t blame wild birds for its spread or worry they may be a reservoir for the virus, according to this expert.

Here’s a story I did almost two years ago about local researchers monitoring songbirds for the possibility of avian flu.

Walking my daughter into school this morning, I spied a northern mockingbird chasing a robin around a tree. Caught me off guard for a moment, considering both birds are more familiar sites in the spring and summer than the winter. But mockingbirds, as you can see from that link, hang out all year, even begin to sing in Febuary. Robins, too, stick around for the winter.

Westchester County will be sending out interactive maps to its 43 towns, cities and villages that include various environmental and natural resources data. The maps will help planners and conservation boards identify valuable natural resource features when faced with a proposed development, flooding problem or other environmental issues. Read more of this entry »

I drove back and forth across the Tappan Zee Bridge this morning and the Hudson River was open water as far as one could see, upstream and down. Not an ice floe in sight – which isn’t unusual.

From the state Department of Environmental Conservation: “Ice cover on the mainstem varies from year to year. A mild winter may see open water to Albany; a cold one might find ferryboats cutting through ice off Manhattan. In most years, ice is common south to the Hudson Highlands. ”

Looking back at the Hudson River Almanac from January of 2004, you would find the Hudson by the Tappan Zee was a lot more solid then than it was today.

The photo above shows large chunks of ice floating off Riverfront Green Park in Peekskill in Feb. 2004.

Here’s an eye-in-the-sky photo of the bridge last March by TJN photographer Mark Vergari. Here’s a video, too, that I found of an icebreaker plying the Hudson.

I don’t know many constellations, very few actually. So if I can find Orion, the hunter in the night sky, you can too. Three stars in a row form Orion’s belt, making it easy to spot on the southern horizon during the winter.

For us here in the northern hemisphere, Orion is a winter constellation. That’s because our nighttime view of the sky changes as the Earth orbits around the sun.

For me, Orion hangs over a field across the road from my house. As I watch Orion slide farther across the sky from week to week, I know winter is getting shorter.

Down under, Orion is a summer constellation.

Click here for a fun page that maps out various constellations.

Mmmmmm. No idea if they taste like chicken or not, but if GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s “fried squirrel” comments have whetted your appetite, here’s a recipe or two. Here in New York, squirrel season is open until Feb. 29 (thankfully, we’re in a leap year) should you need ingredients.

(The critter to the right, by the way, was spotted by TJN photographer Dave Kennedy in Mamaroneck in 2003. He’s eating a pizza crust.) Read more of this entry »

Enjoy the sun outside today but consider this: “A study of weather station data from across the Northeast from 1965 through 2005 found December-March temperatures increased by 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit.” That’s according to this AP story that looks at whether Northeast winters are warming faster than other seasons.

Then there’s NASA’s announcement that 2007 tied with 1998 as Earth’s second warmest year in a century.

The state is looking for folks who want to raise and release pheasants into the wild “to enhance opportunities for pheasant hunting in New York State.”

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is accepting applications until March 15 from youth groups, sportsmen/women or landowners who want to rear and release pheasants. There are two programs. One involves raising and releasing chicks, the other deals with slightly older birds.

Got coyotes? Cornell Cooperative Extension is offering a free video-linked workshop on Saturday “to provide . . . tips to livestock producers, hunters, trappers and landowners on how to cope with wild canines . . .” The link includes information on how to find out if the presentation is available in a particular area.