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Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 9/23/10

A Sweetwater Slam

Despite heavy winds, I landed a largemouth bass, a bluegill and a pickerel

Most folks know that a grand slam is baseball’s term for a home run with the bases loaded. Angling has its own slam. A Chesapeake Bay slam is landing a rockfish, bluefish and Spanish mackerel on the same day. The freshwater version is typically a largemouth bass, a pickerel and a bluegill.  Fish Are Biting When winds permit, there is great fishing on the Chesapeake. Trollers are starting to do well pulling small spoons, fast and on top for Spanish mackerel and blues, slow and low...
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Article - Earth Journal by Gary Pendleton; by Gary Pendleton - 9/23/10

Maintaining the Mystery

It’s a complex balance that holds together the web of life

  It was late summer in the coastal plain forest. At mid-day, it was quiet but not quite silent. There was a background buzz of flies, then the whine of a mosquito in my left ear. Swat! Then I heard a sound like water coming from the trees. A flock of grackles, hundreds perhaps, were drifting through the scene, making low clucking sounds that together form a sound like water flowing over rocks. They moved from tree to tree, in the same direction, left to right. Then something startled the...
Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 9/23/10

The Night’s Bright Lights

The sun’s lost ground is the skywatcher’s gain

  As if to hammer another nail into summer’s coffin, the sun this week sets before 7:00. The darkening sky reveals Venus tight above the southwest horizon, and while the evening star is brilliant at magnitude –4, it, too, is fleeting and sets shortly after the sun. As the sun and Venus set in the west, Jupiter rises in the east. Last week this gaseous giant reached opposition — its point opposite the sun as seen from our earthbound vantage — and so rises with sunset...
Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 9/23/10

The Night’s Bright Lights

The sun’s lost ground is the skywatcher’s gain

  As if to hammer another nail into summer’s coffin, the sun this week sets before 7:00. The darkening sky reveals Venus tight above the southwest horizon, and while the evening star is brilliant at magnitude –4, it, too, is fleeting and sets shortly after the sun. As the sun and Venus set in the west, Jupiter rises in the east. Last week this gaseous giant reached opposition — its point opposite the sun as seen from our earthbound vantage — and so rises with sunset...
Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 9/23/10

From Humble Origins

Following a few simple rules, you can grow a mighty oak from a tiny acorn

  A master gardener recently asked me how to germinate acorns because she had repeated failures. To be successful, collect the acorns soon after they have fallen from the tree. Never collect acorns that have caps still attached because those acorns are most likely empty. Only solid, firm acorns that have fallen from the tree without caps should be collected. A healthy, well-developed acorn is one that has separated from its cap while still attached to the tree. After you have collected a...
Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 9/16/10

Catching the Fall Bite

In the shift to shallow water, tackle makes the difference

Live-lining small Norfolk spot remains the surest bet for a limit of striped bass on the Chesapeake. But light-tackle lure fishing grows more exciting as our waters cools with September’s chillier weather, when striped bass behavior changes. Fish Are Biting The shallow-water rockfish bite is growing more reliable after the warmer-than-usual water temperatures. So live-lining Norfolk spot around the Bay Bridge pilings, off of Podickery Point, Hackett’s and around Thomas Point...
Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 9/16/10

The Twitch of the Socks

With the autumnal equinox, that footwear comes to life

Labor Day has come and gone, but the celestial clock still reads summer. While our days are still longer than our nights, we have lost two hours 45 minutes of sunlight over the past three months. After this week, the hours of darkness each day will trump those of light. In the late hours Wednesday, as the earth’s equator faces the sun head-on, all across the Bay region, a strange phenomenon takes place. It begins in dust-coated drawers throughout Eastport but then spreads quickly to...
Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 9/16/10

Not Sour Enough to Kill Weeds

There’s a big difference between household vinegar and horticultural vinegar

A few years ago, I wrote about using horticultural vinegar to kill weeds. At a recent Deale Farmers’ Market, a customer who bought peaches from me insisted that my recommendation to use vinegar does not kill weeds. She even went to the trouble of boiling the vinegar, thinking she would be concentrating it. What she did not realize is that boiling vinegar dilutes the acetic acid, which is why vinegar gives off a strong odor when heated. Regular cider vinegar or white vinegar contains only...
Article - Bay Reflections; by Leo Newberg - 9/16/10

A Pirate’s Protest

These beautiful days can set you free

I have spent my life much like the proverbial pirate looking at 40, wondering why I never quite fit into today’s society, when the truth of the matter has always been that I am far healthier and happier because I never bothered to change. Too often I find that there is a sad disconnect between people’s daily lives and the world in which they live. This is not a matter of religion or spirituality or a higher power or anything remotely hard to believe in or have faith in. This is not...
Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 9/9/10

Gazing into the Cat’s Eyes

There’s more to Shaula and Lesath than appears at first glance

Soon after sunset on September 10th and 11th, the nascent crescent moon joins Venus low in the west. These two are the first two lights to appear after sunset, around 7:20 Saturday, when Venus shines six degrees to the right of the moon. Sunday, the moon and Venus form a loose triangle with the dim star Zubenelgenubi in the constellation Libra. Monday, the waxing crescent moon shines just a few degrees to the west of Antares, the heart of Scorpius. A summer constellation traveling along the...
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