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| 5/28/24 Showers Across the Valley - image ©Bruce A. Morrison |
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It's
official now...the Drought in Iowa has finally ended. No exclamation
point punctuating the end of that opening statement yet, but I am happy
none-the-less.
It's
been a bit of a mixed bag of course, nothing is ever straight forward
or simple. The weather systems in the middle of the country have come
with a cost...flooding and damaging storms in many areas. Iowa lost the
best part of two small communities in the SW/Central part of the state
from tornadoes. Its been bad elsewhere too.
Its
been a bit of a race with area farmers trying to get crops in during
the melee...the neighbor just got his beans in behind us yesterday
afternoon. I was kidding him a bit and said he still had a couple hours
before the next rain comes and he said he didn't think he could disk
and plant another 300 acres before then! He'll be looking for another
hole in the storms like so many others I guess.
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| 5/28/24 Showers in the "Neighborhood" - image ©Bruce A. Morrison | |
Its
been a real joy "here" to see everything as it "used to be"...the
pastures were mostly burned late last winter and early this spring. We
left the NW quarter unburned to help the invertebrates out...had a bonus
surprise there just two days ago - our 3rd Prairie Skink in 22
years!!! We had our 2nd Prairie Skink outside the sheep barn in the
south pasture late last summer...that really gave me hope that maybe
they could make a come-back. Now I'm optimistic! Yes, even this
pessimist is now optimistic! What a little rain can do for a person,
right? Our first Prairie Skink here came the first or second week we
moved here in the Fall of 2002...we discovered it in the mouth of the
farm cat that came with the place! Ouch! Was so sad to see that.
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| Red-headed Woodpecker on the acreage - image ©Bruce A. Morrison | |
We
do not allow cats out side here unless supervised anymore...we are just
down to one now and she is my studio kitty...I'm afraid that little
rescued lady is indoors bound. Don't get me wrong...I have had cats
since I was a little kid, but I've witnessed first hand what they do
outdoors. I revisited a report I read many years ago on birds...it was
reinstated recently due to the precipitous fall in the world bird
population. Cats are the LARGEST documented cause in the drop in the
population of birds. Larger than habitat loss even - very significant!
And I will be witness to the significance of that here - we have lots
of birds...more than we used to before bringing all the cats
inside...lots more! And they are more successful in raising their
broods than I have witnessed in past years.
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| Anticrepuscular Rainbow - 5-8-2024 - image ©Bruce A. Morrison | |
This
last day of May marks an interesting month here, its been quite
eventful really. We get rainbows here fairly often each year...except
during the drought when it's not raining of course! We had a rainbow on
the 8th of May that was kind of special in it's own way - a rainbow
accompanied by ANTICREPUSCULAR RAYS. I have only witnessed Crepuscular
and Anticrepuscular rays 6 or 7 times in my life - and ALL of them Out
Here. Most people have either never seen them before or just didn't
realize what they were witnessing.
Here's
a WIKIPEDIA Quote for a brief explanation - "Anticrepuscular rays, or
antisolar rays, are meteorological optical phenomena similar to crepuscular
rays, but appear opposite the Sun in the sky. Anticrepuscular rays are
essentially parallel, but appear to converge toward the antisolar point,
the vanishing point, due to a visual illusion from linear perspective."
Fun huh!
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| Northern Lights from the North Pasture - 5-10-2024 - image ©Bruce A. Morrison | |
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But the Crème de la crème was the Aurora Borealis on May 10! A solar storm so active that the Aurora was visible into Mexico and the South Pacific!!!
I
was so fortunate I got photographs from the north pasture here...even
luckier I went out and set up when I did. It was still daylight; that
civil twilight when you can still make things out but the darkness is
closing in. And there they were! Spiking high and moving around. I
had to be quick and probably got the best of the evening - the shot
above shows the foreground still discernible and the moon off to the
west as the Aurora danced on the horizon! The next 45 minutes was great
fun but I still prefer this image, as the rest had the foreground only
as a blank black canvas.
Well May was great for us...here's to June being better!
Have
a great rest of your Spring out there and always - be good to one
another...we are not all the same, yet we are all from the same Maker
and Loved Equally. Again - Be Good To One Another.
Until next time...See you on the Tallgrass!
