One of the two hedgehog cacti in front of the house has several open flowers with more to come – you can see the cactus with its blooms and a close-up of one flower in the inset. Click on the image to enlarge.
Environment
Another Unknown Bird
Of all the millions of bird species seen worldwide, we have been able to identify most of those we see in our neck of the woods, except for a small number we can’t find in printed or on-line references. We’re still looking to find the species of this bird.
This week, during our visit to some friends who live on the Colorado River near Parker, AZ, we watched flocks of these black and yellow birds zipping from one treetop to the next. This is yet another mystery bird that does not seem to be listed in our references. Any clues? Click on the image to enlarge.
Vernal Equinox 2012
Today is the first day of spring. Right on cue, we saw this cardinal perched on the power pole across the road on Sunday. He was whistling the cardinal mating call which is considerably more musical than the bird’s normal metallic “chip” sound. We assume this handsome fellow is looking for a mate.
Image: Male cardinal perched calling for a mate. Click on the image to enlarge.
We’re hoping that this cardinal and his mate settle nearby. We had two or more cardinal couples frequenting the area last spring and summer.
Late Winter Local Snowfall
We were surprised to see last night’s forecast for possible snow as low as 2500 feet. No snow stuck to the ground here (if any fell at all) but the snow level in the local mountains looks to be as low as 3500 feet. I took this image from the hill behind our house looking north. Click on the image to enlarge.
CO2 Global Warming: Proven or Unproven?
Unproven wins hands-down.
From CO2 Science:
Anthropogenic-CO2-Induced Global Warming: Proven or Unproven?
The fact that there has been little to no net warming of the earth over the past dozen or so years, in almost all of the global temperature databases that are maintained by the various research groups that study this important subject, has led many people to suggest that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are not having the large global warming effect the world’s climate alarmists assign to it. And this fact has led many climate alarmists to devise complex explanations for this dilemma.
On 12 August 2011, for example, Science published Solomon et al.’s contribution to this effort, which begins with the statement that “understanding climate changes on time scales of years, decades, centuries, or more requires determining the effects of all external drivers of radiative forcing of earth’s climate, including anthropogenic greenhouse gases and aerosols, natural aerosols, and solar forcing, as well as natural internal variability.” The result of their effort in this undertaking was the finding that “near-global satellite aerosol data imply a negative radiative forcing due to stratospheric aerosol changes over this period [since AD 2000] of about -0.1watt per square meter, reducing the recent global warming that would otherwise have occurred,” although they emphasize that additional contributions to global climate variations of the past and future decades such as from solar variations, natural variability, or other processes “are not ruled out by this study,” which pretty much means that the study does not mean very much, and that it can thus be forgotten within the context within which it was conducted.
. . .
Clearly, the weight of real-world evidence continues to suggest that it is the recurrent millennial-scale cycling of earth’s mean global air temperature that has been responsible for the bulk of the warming of the 20th century, which could yet continue its upward course, level out, or begin a slow decline; for this phenomenon has created such warmings and subsequent coolings time and time again without any help from mankind. And if it’s done so before – innumerable times, in fact – it can do it again. In fact, it has actually got to be expected that it would do so, and at about this point in earth’s history.
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Solar Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)
I just love these 3D colorized graphics that depict the motion of solar events in space. This one shows a CME directed almost directly toward Earth and Mars. Click on the image at right to view the animated CME path as forecast.
From SpaceWeather.com:
CME TARGETS EARTH, MARS:
A coronal mass ejection (CME) launched from the sun on Feb. 24th appears set to hit both Earth and Mars. According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the cloud should reach Earth today, Feb. 26th around 1330 UT, followed by Mars two days later. Click to view the CME’s animated forecast track.
Moon Over Saguaro
After walking the dogs this afternoon, I stepped back out to get this nice photo of the waxing gibbous moon over one of the saguaros in our yard. Click on the image to enlarge.