Another day, another accident on I-70

Day 15 May 3 The Hatchings

May 3 - Two of the birds hatched today. I actually lucked out and saw the second one breaking out of its shell during the afternoon hours.

The Daily Bird, Day 10

Day 10 - April 28

Here's a quick recap. I discovered the nest on April 19. The next day on April 20, I spotted the first egg. The past few days have featured no real change, as I photographed 4 eggs on April 24. So, now it's just a waiting game for the hatching of the eggs. Typically, the eggs hatch at about 2 weeks so that will be about May 4. So for now it's just wait and watch. I do spot the robin on the nest... in fact she's there right this minute. She's not a big fan of the loud lawnmower, otherwise she's pretty content to remain on the nest and doesn't scare too easily.

The Daily Bird, Day 6

April 24- Mother robin wasn't all that happy about me grabbing a photo this afternoon showing 4 eggs in the nest. It's a rainy afternoon today, and there should be some wormy goodness for her in the coming days with more rain in the forecast.

The Daily Bird, Day 5

April 23 - The robin flew off for a brief bit allowing me to snap this updated egg photo... 3 eggs.

The Daily Bird, Day 4

April 22 - This lady is more than content to just sit on her nest. I was able to get really close to grab this photo and she didn't budge. She was in some kind of statue mode. Maybe I can grab an egg photo some other time. It didn't seem right to bug her any more.

The Daily Bird, Day 3

April 21 - The robin was sitting on the nest during the afternoon. I was waiting to see if she would leave so I could take a picture of the nest again to check on eggs. She didn't budge so I didn't bother her.

The Daily Bird, Day 2

April 20 - I spotted a bird in the nest this afternoon. It was a robin. The robin flew off so I decided to take another picture to see if there were any eggs. We have an egg! Typically, a robin will lay 3 to 5 eggs and the eggs hatch in about 2 weeks. So I should see some babies by May 4-8.

The Daily Bird, Day 1

April 19 - I found a fully built nest under my deck. No bird was present, but based on the shape and size of the nest, and the types of birds that are most prevalent around my yard, I guessed that it was either a robin or cardinal nest.

Fans From Russia

Yee haw, it's nice to see all those fans I have from Russia who read this blog for no apparent reason seeing as how I hardly ever post.

The Brian Williams Storm Chase

Once upon a time I visited a community impacted by a tornado. Once upon a time I arrived in a community just after being hit by a tornado. Once upon a time I spotted a tornado and took video footage as it hit a community. Once upon a time I was in a community when a tornado approached. I took video footage throughout the event and posted it on YouTube. Once upon a time I was in a community when a tornado approached. As I took video footage, my life hung in the balance as twigs, boards, roofing material and glass flew everywhere. I barely escaped safely and then promptly posted my harrowing experience on YouTube

Letters to Drivers

Dear Truck Driver, Man it must suck to have your rig separate from your load like that, and kudos for turning your hazard lights on. Might want to consider wearing a reflective jacket though. It was tough to see you but we were all driving slowly enough to avoid you. Dear Driver of Red Pick-up Truck with 4 tires in the back, Dude, if you can't drive faster than 35 mph on the interstate you gotta at least use your hazards. I mean REALLY, I don't get why you were driving that slowly... the tires were below your line-of-sight out the rearview mirror. Those tires can't possibly be so heavy to slow down your awesome pick-up truck that much. So dude get off the road and get on the shoulder, or stay off the interstate if you can't go any faster.

Just Because - An Essay on What Seasonal Outlooks REALLY mean.

Suppose you have a bowl full of marbles. In that bowl there are 33 blue marbles, 33 green marbles and 33 black marbles. If you randomly grab a marble from this bowl, what is the chance of grabbing a blue marble? If you said 33% chance you are correct. There are equal chances (33%) that you draw a black marble, a green marble or a blue marble out of that bowl. What if you stack the bowl with 50 blue marbles, 25 green ones and 25 black ones? Then there would be a 50% chance for a blue marble, and there would be a 50% chance for a NON-BLUE marble. So when you see a seasonal forecast outlook indicating "EQUAL CHANCES", that means any of the 3 outcomes - ABOVE, NEAR, BELOW - are equally likely. Also, if you see a seasonal forecast indicating one outcome is more likely than the other 2, such as a 40% chance for ABOVE NORMAL temperatures, keep in mind that means there is still a 60% chance the other two might occur. In this example, ABOVE NORMAL is simply more likely to occur (the blue marble) than either NEAR (the green marble) or BELOW NORMAL (the black marble). Once in a while you'll see a high confidence forecast in the 6-10 day or 8-14 day outlook for either ABOVE NORMAL or BELOW NORMAL. Again, the high chances reflect HIGH CONFIDENCE that the outcome will be WARM or COLD (for temperatures). These forecasts provide NO information regarding the magnitude of how far ABOVE or BELOW normal it might be. According to CPC's latest outlook, Maryland has EQUAL CHANCES for warm, cold or normal temperatures during Dec-Jan-Feb, and most of the state has EQUAL CHANCES for wet, dry or normal precipitation this winter except for the eastern section. The probability for above normal precip there is between 34% and 40%. Keep in mind that skill levels for these types of forecasts are rather low. So what does EQUAL CHANCES really MEAN? It means we don't really know, the signals we use are mixed, and it could go any of the 3 ways.

Labor Day

Here I sit enjoying a day off work, watching the U.S. Open whilst the butterflies periodically swoop by outside. Today, I saw the first spicebush swallowtail of the season.

Hummingbird Feeder

I just put out the hummingbird feeder. Just waiting to see if any birds come by.

NCAA Tourney

Let's go ahead and have Wichita State in the Final Four!

Kill the Blog?

Is it time to dismantle this poor excuse of a blog? Comment here....

Snow on Jan. 25

The beagle isn't much for snow. About 1.5 inches on the ground.

Road Work Update

The road work along Ijamsville Road from near Ball Road to Prices Distillery is expected to go through about June 2013, according to the project manager. I've driven on the new road from MD-80 to Ball Road... it's really nice.

CSX Railroad crossing work near Mussetter/Ijamsville Road intersection has closed off the commuter route recently. Word is that such projects take about a week. They should be motivated to finish things up given the upcoming rain and wind potential by Sunday night into Monday and Tuesday (from Sandy). I'll go check out the status later this afternoon. UPDATE- This project was finished Friday Oct 26! YES!