etudiant

Lucky you! My only prior comet was Halley's, a huge letdown, sort of a blob of no distinction or shape, even seen from an observatory in Stamford CT.

No idea how farmers do it either, maybe just they grow so much the critters can't eat it all. But I will add that an 8' high and 2' underground fence is no obstacle to raccoons unless it is also electrified. Or unless the garden is both fenced as well as wired over the top.

Sounds like raccoons at work. They did a number on my garden as well, before we returned to Manhattan. I'd be ok if they just ate their share, but they sampled all the corn. :((

Dark skies should help a lot, but even now binoculars are essential here in NYC. By Thursday it may be hard to locate without a sky guide. Good luck, it is worth making the effort to see it.

Happy to say the sky tonight was clear enough to get a good view of Neowise. It did not disappoint, big tail, both long and wide, best comet ever for me.

If you get a clear view to the west, this sky map should help: Sadly here in Manhattan, clear skies are not common. I've failed to see it thus far, despite several attempts.

A Central Park weather instrumentation site is in an enclosure just south of the small folly known as The Castle. It is surrounded by shrubs and taller trees. It may be that this impacts the readings there.

A waterbug really is tough, they need to be stepped on with a hard shoe to dispatch them, but that is not recommended, as their fluids will attract others. Our NYC version is mostly tan, rather than black, pretty wide and quite flat. There are beetles that are 2" long and black, mostly wood borers, including the invasive and very unwanted Asian Long Horned Beetle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_long-horned_beetle ), but they usually are slow to fly. Vultures do sometimes make hissing noises when interacting comfortably, although it is usually described as 'soft' rather than loud. Cornell E-bird has a free app caller Merlin, which allows you to download a bird sound and their computer will try to identify it. Perhaps your birds will become part of the data base.

Vultures are harmless, they get a bad rap even though they really are nature's recycling squad. They don't kill anything, just dispose of the remains. The chipmunks have nothing to worry about from them. Your vultures may be roosting in your trees to catch some rays or perhaps to sleep. Also, they much prefer to avoid flapping their wings, they'd rather glide and soar, so perching up high saves them the effort of climbing back up. Turkey Vultures are actually pretty snazzy, red face and all. Your 2" insect was probably a waterbug ( really a large species of roach), as you suspected. They are pretty hardy, able to navigate drains with ease, so plugging one drain is no cure. They are not as abundant here as further south, so with luck you won't see another.

Wood Thrushes normally nest in low shrubs, the kind that deer like to munch on. Deer are currently predator free, so they eat themselves out of house and home. Sadly that also means the potential home of the Wood Thrush. Nature usually solves this kind of excess with a plague, for which there are several candidates such as CWD. Meanwhile, deer ticks carry Lyme disease. Can anyone bring back wolves??

This table https://www.sablesys.com/support/technical-library/barometric-pressure-vs-altitude-table/ may help you. It shows that at 2000 meters, the atmospheric pressure is down from about 30 inches of mercury to about 24 inches. Afaik, the lowest pressure during a major hurricane is around 28 inches of mercury and the normal pressure fluctuations with weather are between 29 and 30.5 inches. So you should be ok healthwise with the pressure changes from the weather. Of course, sleeping and breathing comfort may be affected even if it is not a serious health issue.

Bugs on the windshield is a pretty reliable way to estimate whether insect numbers are up, down or steady. As your experience confirms, they are down sharply, which probably also helps explain why bird populations have dropped by 30-80% depending on the species over the past 50 years. I think the development and widespread use of broad spectrum insecticides is a plausible driver of this decline. We are probably damaging our ecosystem, for very short term benefits.

The problem is most insects see us as landscape, not as creatures, so they don't try to avoid us. The ones who do recognize us as animate usually see us as the lunch counter. Diatomaceous earth will not help with mice unfortunately, although it may irritate their lungs. Copper wire steel wool pads are pretty good for plugging gaps around pipes and there are a variety of expanding foams that help seal cracks. It's an uphill struggle, mice can squeeze under most doors and a little corner gap the size of a quarter is a highway for them. It is trench warfare when in the country, they don't quit and there is no lasting victory.

Well, the webs mean the spiders are really trying to thin the herd in your garden. Am surprised that you're getting zapped repeatedly though, as most insects try to pick only on stuff they can manage. Of course, for mosquitoes, deer flies and such, you are the main course. Wasps and hornets will be a problem if you're close to their nest, not always easy to see as many wasps nest underground. Just be careful about ticks, they are a real hazard, made worse because their bite is rarely noticed and the damage can be life long. Stuff coming into the house is a real pain and one only realizes how many cracks and gaps are in a house when one wants to seal them. Diatomaceous earth is probably the most helpful product here, it is basically barbed wire for bugs,

It's a problem, these bugs actually are very helpful, they prey on the other insects that are dining on your plants and flowers. Spraying is sort of creating a virgin territory, open to anyone, so usually that is the most aggressive species that rush in to take advantage, rather than the ones you want.

Looks something like an Assassin Bug, one of the true bugs that preys on other insects mostly. They bite by poking the victim with their beak. The bite is both painful and can cause swelling which lasts for days. A variant found in Latin America can infect people with Chagas disease, which damages the heart, but ours don't, fortunately. See: https://www.bobvila.com/articles/assassin-bugs/

Moderate rain only on Manhattan UES, had been some thunder, but no intense downpours. Gratefully accepted, the trees in Central Park were starting to feel the heat.

The trend is not showing any indication of deceleration, rather the opposite. That suggests 2+ *C is already baked in. Indicates the 2060 global temperature will be 3-4*C above that of the 1970s.

Thank you, that is very informative. One forgets how big Africa is, lots of room for both wet and dry regions.

I'm puzzled, the prior posting by Windspeed shows much above average rainfall in the same area that this unusual amount of dust is coming from. Can someone please help explain?

Think it was 'red on yellow, friendly fellow. Red on black, stand back'. That said, probably best to just get out of their way.

Interesting difference, I freak out about ticks, but snakes and spiders are just fine. Garter Snakes are actually quite silky, if you touch them. Don't know about the others, never touched a rattler.

Why is it that the forecasts appear so disconnected from real life. Here in NYC, the various (suitably hedged) forecasts were for close to a half inch of rain and thundershowers. A glance at the evolving weather shown on the various radar tracks indicated that the main event would be well south of the city. But the forecast remained the same. Why?

Put on a solar cover, it makes a big difference in the water temperature. Plus it really helps keep the crud out of the water.

Disappointing for a high school class, I'd have thought that at least one of her classmates would have know how to open a locked car. That said, I can easily see the wiper blades melting with that stress, lucky the metal wiper frames did not scratch the windshield.