Mystery "Creature"

Can you guess what this is? Answer coming on Monday...

Where's that pot 'o gold?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Wearin' of the green, shamrocks, leprechauns, shillelaghs, St. Patrick chasing all the snakes out of Ireland, a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow....all symbols for today. Well shamrocks and shillelaghs are real, there are no snakes in Ireland, and some people believe in leprechauns (or pretend to):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nda_OSWeyn8 photo by absolutwade

But some Irish lore is pure blarney! The blarney stone itself is sham rock, more of a giant brick really. St. Patrick wasn't even Irish! He was born in England. And those leprechauns are really pulling one over on us! The end of the rainbow ....rainbows have no ends; they're really circles. We just see part of the arc of the rainbow circle. From a jet you can see the entire rainbow circle, it's called the glory. http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/gloim21.htm

But it was discovered long before air travel....visible from high mountains in the sun, looking down into fog.....and it's even neater because instead of a plane silhouette at its center is a spooky specter (much too tall to be a leprechaun). The Specter of the Brocken: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/glory.htm

As all rain-weary Mainers know, rainbows appear only when the sun peeks out during rainstorms, and to see a rainbow the sun must be at your back. The primary rainbow appears 42 degrees away from the antisolar point (directly opposite the sun).

Here are some cool facts for your green beer party tonight:
Seawater rainbows are slightly smaller, about 41 degrees away from the antisolar point. Check out this cool photo for proof: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/seabow.htm

Sometimes the luck of the Irish gives us double rainbows: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/sec.htm

To understand how and why the colors are backwards and fainter, try this fun page, and be sure to mouse over the slider! http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/ord2form.htm

Here's some real leprechaun magic for you. Watch for it during spring rainstorms! Why is it always brighter inside the rainbow and darker outside? http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/adband.htm

And what are those alternating faint bands of green/purple/green/purple you sometimes see inside the rainbow? (They are super and numerous!): http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/supers.htm

These supernumerary bows are formed by overlapping light waves with both reinforcing and canceling waves:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/supform.htm Their colors always remind me of the "paint with water" coloring books I had as a kid. As you stroked a wet brush across the page only purplish pinks and greens would appear.

No two people ever see the same rainbow! Because your own personal rainbow forms from raindrops in a circle 42 degrees from your antisolar point: http://eo.ucar.edu/rainbows/rnbw4.gif Even someone standing right next to you will see light refracted from different raindrops.

And as for the legend of spurious leprechauns, well if you want to hide gold where no one will ever find it, the end of a rainbow's a perfect place! But the origin of this story comes from eastern Europe, not Ireland. There it's said that angels put the gold at the end of the rainbow and only a naked man could find it! So, you better be careful about just how much green beer you imbibe!

To learn more about rainbows check out the rainbows page of Les Cowley's wonderful Atmospheric Optics website: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/bows.htm
Also, browse through Robert Greenler's amazing book "Rainbows, Halos, and Glories". It's one of my favorites with lots of photos and diagrams explaining the mysteries of rainbows and other sky phenomena.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from
Roy G. Biv, that colorful 'ol Irishman
Head Leprechaun
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

March Comes in Like a Lion!

March roared in like a lion on the 1st with over 12 inches of blowing and drifting snow, but it's already becoming a little sheepish. On MDI snow in open areas is all but gone, persisting in forests and snow plow mountains. Recent storms mix snow, sleet and rain, teasing us with one last chance to preserve some snowflakes before winter's a memory. Some winter birds remain, like Northern Shrikes, Tree Sparrows, Evening Grosbeaks and a few Pine Grosbeaks. But winter's clearly on the wane.

March and April are always lions up in the night sky. Just "punch a hole in the bottom of the Big Dipper" and you'll arrive at Leo the Lion, his mane resembling a backwards question mark. An active solar wind is now hitting earth's magnetic field and strong auroras are forecast for tonight and tomorrow. Tonight looks clear, so keep watch!

Signs of spring are everywhere!
Common goldeneyes can be seen around Bar Island and sometimes one can catch them doing their head tossing courtship display.
Herring Gulls are also starting to "like" each other more.
Hooded Mergansers have begun to move to ponds with open patches of water,
While river otters are having fun cavorting on the ice at the Tarn.
Crows seem to have paired up. Eagles have been seen doing aerial courtship displays.
Best of all, to me....Redwing Blackbirds are starting to return to the thawing north!
And Grackles too! Their bronze blue plumage and striking golden eyes are a sight for my sore eyes.
Folks have seen Blue Jays and Cardinals nuptial feeding; i.e., gently passing a tidbit to their intended's beak.
Twigs of Red-osier Dogwood have become bright scarlet and

Red Maple buds look fire hydrant red.
Weeping willow branches have turned golden.

Warming days and frosty nights- can the maple sap run be far behind?

Enjoy this special season of late winter/early spring. There's much more than mud to look forward to! Keep your eyes and ears peeled for:
- the first waking woodchuck
- chipmunks at your feeder
- woodcocks will be back soon - listen for them peenting at twilight
- when will the first wood frogs quack this year?
- and place your bets on "Big Night" when scads of salamanders slither from the woods to chilly vernal pools to breed will occur this year. It happens during the first warm night rains and is a spectacle not to be missed!
- and check the marshes for the first flower of spring - skunk cabbage melting its way through the snow.

Thanks for your reports from the field and please keep them coming!
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

Feeling Jumpy? It's Leap Day!

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound… Here are the jumpers with their maximum distance in one leap. Arboreal species distances are limb to limb.

Happy Leap Day!

Bullfrog Rana catabeinsis 6.5 feet
Cougar Puma concolor 27 feet !!!
Red Fox Vulpes vulpes 15 feet
Meadow Jumping Mouse Zapus hudsonicus 3 feet
Woodland Jumping Mouse Napaeozapus insignis 13 feet!

Oh, go take a flying leap!!!
Flying Squirrel Glaucomys sabrinus 148 feet !!!
Gray Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis 19 feet
Red Squirrel Tamiasciurus hudsonicus 6 feet
Snowshoe Hare Lepus amaericanus 20 feet !!!!
(they don't call them Lepus for nothin'!)

Spittlebug Philaenus spumarius 2 feet
Cat flea Ctenocephalides felis 1 foot
Grasshoppers (many spp.) 3 feet
White-tailed Deer Odocoileus virginianus 40 feet
oh deer!

Take a leap,
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

Blueprint of Life

Did you see the movie Gattaca? Remember the double spiral staircase? Remember the credits? The letters making up the film's title: a,t, g, and c were a different color than the other letters. Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, Thymine. The photo of 2 snails? They are escargot (Helix), 2 of them...a double Helix. Got it yet? Stairway to Heaven?

On Februay 28, 1953 Watson and Crick figured out the structure of DNA, a double helix. They figured it out from Rosalind Franklin's X-ray pictures of DNA molecules. Watson and Crick won the Nobel Prize in 1962, becoming household names.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/watson-bio.html
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/crick-bio.html

Franklin perished in obscurity, but you can read about her discovery and her life in 2 books: Rosalind Franklin and DNA and Rosalind Franklin, The Dark Lady of DNA. http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Rosalind_Franklin.html

The discovery of DNA and how it works is one of the paramount discoveries in biology, along with evolution,natural selection and life based on chemosynthesis, not photosynthesis, at the deep sea vents. DNA studies have revitalized most aspects of botany, zoology and paleontology, revising taxonomic relationships (systematics), genetics, and medicine.

The Dorr Museum of Natural History

In our shadow

Last night's lunar eclipse was truly stunning! Before the eclipse, moonlight shone so brightly that it seemed like daylight. The albedo from snowclad fields made it bright enough to still see colors. Then the drama began... looking out my windows, the bright snowfields faded and an eerie darkness grew. It wasn't like the dimmed light of clouds passing over the moon. No white glow from clouded skies. Just darker and darker ground, with stars popping out overhead. Viewed from the dark skies of rural Maine, the moon turned dark orange as it entered earth's umbral shadow.

I went outside and stood on my backporch, clad in pajamas, coat and scarf. Wind whisked through pine branches and dried beech leaves rattled, still attached to saplings. The moon glowed deep umber and bright stars glittered. I hooted for Great Horned Owls, who I hope will nest in last year's crow nest in my yard, but the only answers were from my cats meowing inside. Standing there in my flip-flops, watching the remaining bright white arc of moon slowly melt away, I was reminded of roasting marshmallows 'round a campfire. White, ever so slowly turns mellow brown and then when it gets hot enough, ignites into glowing orange. It looked just like what was happening in the sky. And just like roasting marshmallows, watching an eclipse takes patience, maybe even more so, with no warming fire nor sugary reward.

But reward there was at totality! Suddenly the moon took on a 3D appearance, looking like one of those artists' conceptions of the view from another planet. When the moon is full it's so bright that it looks more like a disk than the sphere it is. But in our shadow, smoldering auburn, the moon appeared round. The "man in the moon" seemed to purse his lips in an expression of amazement. It was a spectacular sight with brilliant white Saturn just to the left of our orange orb and Regulus of Leo shimmering overhead! The moon punctuated the backwards question mark sickle of Leo the Lion's head with a giant dot, overwhelming Regulus' starpoint.

I have been asked why, during a lunar eclipse, that only the brighest stars become visible, making constellations easier to see. Whereas during a new moon, dim stars and the Milky Way blanket the sky making finding constellations a bit of a consternation. I was curious myself to see if the Milky Way would come out during this eclipse, but it did not. The answer is simply that even an eclipsed moon puts out a lot of light, obliterating dimmer stars. Guess being in our shadow isn't as eclipsing as earthlings might think.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day, so here's a little
♥Animal Courtship ♥ quiz for you:
1. What does the courtship call of this bird sound like?
♥ Answer ♥
This owl’s song or call is supposed to sound like the sharpening or whetting of a saw, giving the bird its name: Sawwhet Owl. Listen for their incessant calls at night next month.

2. How do female river otters let male otters know when they are ready to mate?
♥ Answer ♥
You may think the answer is just common sense, but it’s really an uncommon scent. Females ready to breed produce a special courtship perfume in their scent deposits which males can detect.

3. What is this eagle "talon" you about wooing a valentine?
♥ Answer ♥
Bald Eagles perform amazing courtship displays in which pairs lock talons in mid air and then cartwheel down toward earth, separating at the last moment.

Last week this pair near Ellsworth got carried away, lost in the moment, and hit the ground, talons still locked. The man pictured, interrupted their reverie and the eagles unlatched and took off.

Front page Ellsworth American 2/7/08

4. How can the astute tidepool voyeur tell if Whorled Whelks are mating?
♥ Answer ♥
It’s not your grandma’s Lawrence Whelk! These snails get to rockin’ and a rollin’ during mating. Males internally fertilize females who mate with several partners before laying impressive egg cases.

5. How do lobster females attract a mate?
♥ Answer ♥
They urinate! Female sex pheromones are contained in their urine.

6. Muskrat Love: What does muskrat musk smell like?

♥ Answer ♥
Strawberries! No wonder they wrote a song about muskrat love!

7. Groundhogs are sound asleep on Groundhog Day, but when they do wake up in early spring they don’t look for their shadow. What are groundhogs looking for?
♥ Answer ♥
Male groundhogs wake up first and go around hunting for females still in their burrows or just awaking from hibernation so they can mate.

8. What do these male birds have to find beforethey begin courtship?

♥ Answer ♥
A gull-friend!

Happy Valentine's Day!