Moment of Silence: Dean Stockwell

Actor Dean Stockwell has passed away. He was known for playing Al in Quantum Leap, along with many other roles in television and movies.

Birdfeeding

Today is mostly sunny and chilly. It rained off and on yesterday but is drier today, and the howling wind has died down. Last night it got up to 24 miles per hour. It blew over the obelisk in the septic garden -- despite the bricks weighing down the bottom -- so I need to set that back up.

I fed the birds. I've seen a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, several mourning doves, a starling, and a male cardinal.

I put out water for the birds.

The first yellow snow crocus is blooming in front of the log garden.

EDIT 3/6/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

Birds have been mobbing the feeders.  After yesterday's craptastic weather, I can't blame them.  

The sun is more-or-less behind the house now, casting a peaked shadow of the roof across part of the house yard.  I saw a squirrel shadow along the edge of the roof, and then the squirrel jumped into the forest garden!  :D  Much fun to watch.

EDIT 3/6/25 -- I walked around the yard a bit.  I saw a fox squirrel high up in a tree.  I heard a downy woodpecker drumming and managed to spot it.  :D

The snowdrops, which were absent just a few days ago, are now up a few inches and blooming all over the east end of the savanna.  :D  They are blooming in their proper place at the north end of the flowerbeds bordering the parking lot, but have also seeded into the lawn and parking lot on either side.  The ones in the white garden are blooming too.

I pulled the dead vines off the obelisk in the septic garden, then set it upright.

EDIT 3/6/25 -- I raked leaves from around the bases of two trees and hauled the leaves away to use as mulch in the savanna.

EDIT 3/6/25 -- I broke up sticks from the brushpile beside the driveway and hauled a wheelbarrow full to the firepit.

Also, I noticed that yesterday's tiny terrarium has condensation all over the sides, so I took the metal cap off to let it air out a bit.  As I was doing that, I noticed a thin meandering trail along the sides, barely a millimeter wide.  It likely belongs to a baby slug or snail, possibly a worm.  Even in just a few spoonfuls of soil, life finds a way.  :D

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.

The Butterfly Apocalypse

Study raises the possibility of a country without butterflies

A sweeping study for the first time tallies butterfly data from more than 76,000 surveys across the continental United States. The results: Butterflies -- all of them -- are disappearing.

Butterflies are disappearing in the United States. All kinds of them. With a speed scientists call alarming, and they are sounding an alarm.

A sweeping new study published in Science for the first time tallies butterfly data from more than 76,000 surveys across the continental United States. The results: between 2000 and 2020, total butterfly abundance fell by 22% across the 554 species counted. That means that for every five individual butterflies within the contiguous U.S. in the year 2000, there were only four in 2020.

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