Regulars (All)

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 5/26/11

A Bay Triple Crown

The last jewel, white perch, returning to the shallows

Just as horse racing has its Triple Crown, with Maryland’s Preakness its second jewel, the Chesapeake has its own Triple Crown: a gourmet celebration of the three tastiest seafoods the Bay has to offer. This year two of our three savories — the rockfish and the blue crab — have already resumed presence around the Bay. The third, white perch, had yet to return to their traditional summertime residences. Fish Are Biting ... Silt-laden water...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 5/19/11

EPA’s Fertilizer Rules Earn My Seal of Approval

It’s about time lawn fertilizers were regulated; they’re waging chemical warfare on the Bay

Most of Maryland’s soils are acid. Unless they are limed every three to five years, they are generally too acid for optimum growth, so that any fertilizer applied is wasted and finds its way into the Bay. During the many lectures I give, I always ask who in the audience have had their soil tested in the last five years. I’m lucky to find even a few. Horticulture is a science, not a game for guessing or intuition. But that is how most homeowners and even many lawn...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 5/19/11

Rockfish On!

Hooking up with a striper is sweet, and sweeter still if it’s a keeper

The sound of line being pulled off a reel sent both of us into high alert. The tip of my nearby rod in its holder flexed only slightly under the pressure of the run. Except for the meager tension of the clicker, the reel was in free spool, and line fed out smoothly as the fish accelerated off with my bait. Fish Are Biting ... They are biting with warm days and gentle breezes no longer a rarity. The limit on rockfish as of May 16 is two fish with an 18-inch minimum size. Only...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 5/19/11

The Shapes of the Seasons

Look for the hero Hercules between the stars of spring and summer

The waning gibbous moon rises in the southeast a couple hours before midnight at week’s end, but Tuesday’s last-quarter moon does not crest the horizon until almost 2am. The sun this week sets around 8:15, revealing the three brightest spring constellations: Leo the lion, marked by aquamarine Regulus; Boötes the herdsman, punctuated by rose-hued Arcturus, the fourth brightest star in the heavens; and Virgo, goddess of fertility, marked by Spica, the shaft of...

Article - Our Capital by Ellen Moyer; by Ellen Moyer - 5/19/11

A Tale of Three Fountains

They bring us water, adornment and inspiration

Annapolis has another fountain. You can’t miss it, for it dominates the plaza on West Street at Park Place as the great i am. Capping it is an unknown godlike male in the classic tradition and classically surrounded by horses. Water shimmers down it into a trough. Intrigued by the fountains of Rome, where people gathered to laugh and talk and hold hands, developer Jerry Parks built this fountain to welcome visitors to Park Place. It watches over the ghosts of horses...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 5/12/11

Clustered at Horizon’s Edge

Four planets await the keen-eyed early bird

The sun sets this week around 8:10. Following the trail of the sun, look above the northwest horizon for golden Capella, the sixth-brightest star. Opposite, in the northwest, shines Vega, the fifth brightest star. This time each year, the two line up at the same height in the sky, right now around 10pm. Friday, the waxing moon shines 10 degrees below Saturn. The ringed planet appears high in the southeast at sunset. By midnight it hovers in the southwest before finally...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 5/12/11

Surprises on the Trotline

Blue crabs bite early, but we get the better meal

The marine weather forecast promised only a short window of good weather, but that early May day was the only opportunity coming for quite some time. My friend Mike, his girlfriend Michelle and I launched my skiff that morning, just as a generous full tide was beginning to fall, a good phase to crab the long narrow inlet we had in mind. The first weeks of May are early for crabs in the mid-Bay — or have been the last few years. But we’d heard from some commercial...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 5/12/11

Keep Pests — and Pets — Out of the Garden

Nasty smells and fake snakes do the trick

Solutions to the perpetual problem of protecting your favorite plants from deer, rabbits, groundhogs and squirrels are on the shelves of your local garden center or farm supply. There are two materials on the market that I have tested and found effective, providing you follow directions carefully. They are Liquid Fence and Repels-All by Shot Gun. Both contain some of the same ingredients, with the exception that Repels-All adds dried blood. Both have the strong odor of garlic because both...

Article - Where We Live by Steve Carr; by Steve Carr - 5/12/11

The Severn River Association’s First Century

It takes many years to save a river

It seems odd, but the Severn River Association is the oldest group in the United States dedicated to the preservation of a river. You’d figure that honor would fall to some group affiliated with John Muir. On April 29, 1911, 32 wealthy white men from Baltimore who owned summer homes along the Severn River got together and started the Severn River Association. Their primary mission was to stock the river with fish, prevent watermen from poaching and upgrade Ritchie...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 5/5/11

The Dawn’s Early Lights

Meteors and planets dance across our skies

The annual Eta Aquarid meteors will likely be at their best before dawn Friday with encores possible early Saturday and Sunday. Unless you’re pulling an all-nighter, you’ll have to wake early, as the closer to dawn the greater their intensity. The spawn of dust and debris from Halley’s Comet igniting against earth’s atmosphere, the Eta Aquarids are not the most furious meteor shower, producing from 10 to 40 meteors an hour. What they lack in numbers,...