Regulars (All)

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 1/13/11

By the Light of the Moon

Follow the waxing moon and test your eyesight

The waxing gibbous moon brightens the night sky this week, appearing high in the southeast Thursday at sunset a little after 5:00. The next evening, and each following night, sunset finds the moon roughly a dozen degrees to the east. Thursday, the moon shines in front of the constellation Aries, with the three stars outlining the ram’s head shining to the upper right of the moon. A rather indistinct constellation at best, Aries’ brightest stars, Hamal, Sheratan and Mesarthim, pale...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 1/6/11

Your Christmas Tree’s Days of Giving Are Not Over

It still holds gifts for flowers and birds

If you planted pansies in your garden last fall, use branches of your discarded Christmas tree to provide the plants with some winter protection. Cutting the branches near the stem and spreading a single layer over the pansies will provide light shade, thus reducing chances of winter injury if we don’t get sufficient snow. Next spring, remove the branches just as the plants resume growing. Pansies are winter-hardy, but providing them with light winter shade will improve their spring color...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 1/6/11

Predictions for the Coming Year’s Sporting Life

Good — and sometimes great — fishing in a cleaner Bay

One of America’s wryest philosophers, Yogi Berra, once noted that predictions were difficult to make, especially about the future. Despite his sage warning, I feel compelled to make some Tidewater prophecies for the New Year. Fish Are Biting At last! A slight warming spell has freed many of the ice-bound tributaries, and the pickerel and perch are on the move. Lip-hooked minnows on a shad dart under a bobber will tempt them and relieve your winter doldrums — at least until...

Article - Where We Live by Steve Carr; by Steve Carr - 1/6/11

20 Questions about the Bay’s New Cleanup Plan

With these plain English answers, you’ll know as much as the experts (Of course nobody knows if it will work)

There have been a lot of headlines lately about how we’re finally going to start cleaning up Chesapeake Bay. Most feature the non-word TMDL. Q What is this TMDL thing that everyone keeps talking about? A TMDL stands for Total Maximum Daily Load. It’s a fancy phrase for measuring and establishing limits on what’s polluting the Bay, specifically nitrogen, phosphorous and sediment. The primary sources of nitrogen and phosphorous are sewage treatment plants, farms and stormwater...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 1/6/11

A Matter of Degrees

Even at their best, we can never see the full face of Mercury or Venus

While winter has just begun, we’re already in the process of reclaiming daylight, and Saturday marks a milestone when the sun sets at 5:00. Over the next month, the sun sets roughly one minute later each day. That same Saturday, daybreak arrives at 7:25, but alas, through January, it will come just a few minutes earlier each week. Sunset reveals Jupiter in the south. Look for the waxing moon less than 10 degrees to the east of Jupiter Sunday night and to the west Monday night. By 10...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 12/30/10

Basking in the Sun’s Rays

While Old Sol is seven percent stronger this week, it’s unlikely you’ll need to break out the sunscreen

While we commonly mark the first week of January as the commencement of the new year, it also marks two significant milestones in the passage of the earth’s journey around the sun. You wouldn’t know it by winter’s chilly grip, but January 4 marks perihelion, earth’s closest approach to the sun. On this day, 92.187 million miles separate us from the sun, compared to aphelion, around July 4 each year, when the two are 93.375 million miles apart. Sunlight hitting the earth...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 12/23/10

Clean-Up Time

Over winter, the most innocuous fouling turns into hardened deposits

This year Old Man Winter arrived with an especially frigid blast. Closing the rockfish season almost two weeks early for most of us, the 20-degree nighttime temperatures have since turned our tributaries to ice, denying even pickerel anglers their bitter weather pleasures. Fish Are Biting But not around here. Rockfish season is officially closed on the Chesapeake. However, if you still have a hankering to tangle with old linesides, the season remains open year-round oceanside. Ocean...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 12/23/10

On the Inside Looking Out

The Great Winter Circle beckons you to come outdoors

With solstice behind us, we’re in the full throes of winter. Long nights with little or no humidity make for great star-watching, even as the cold saps the desire to stay outside. As if to further lure us into the conundrum, winter skies are alight with some of the brightest stars in the heavens, contained within the Great Winter Circle and all neatly gathered in a ring surrounding the familiar figure of Orion. By 9pm, this grouping is above the southeast horizon, stretching nearly one-...

Article - Earth Journal by Gary Pendleton; by Gary Pendleton - 12/23/10

My Christmas Bird Count

Plus official counts you can join

It is hard to remember a transformation such as we just had, when the season seemed to change suddenly, with the decisiveness of a no-nonsense business executive. November was pleasant and mild, warm but not unseasonable, with enough rain and cold to bring out the sweaters and not fool us into thinking we had all been transplanted to Georgia. Then December came along and it was winter. The calendar might haves said not quite yet, but the thermometer said Now! I like early winter because the...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 12/23/10

Down by the Old Oak Tree

Why some oaks hold their leaves

Some oak trees retain their brown leaves all winter long, while others drop their leaves like all other trees. The reason is juvenility. It takes 25 to 30 years for an oak seedling to mature. Until it starts to produce acorns, the tree is in a juvenile state of growth and retains brown leaves all winter. As the oak approaches maturity, the ends of the branches near the top of the tree drop their leaves in the fall. The following year, the tree will drop more of its top leaves in autumn while...