stemwinder

Something is popping up right over the nearby Princeton area. All moving SE. A few rumbles, and some precip, FWIW.

Something is popping up right over the nearby Princeton area. All moving SE. A few rumbles, and some precip, FWIW.

This one was right over me this AM. Been escaping heavy downpours lately, until now. Some big CG strikes as well. Air has been like soup lately.

Get well, Uncle. Wishing you a good recovery.

I was in Hudson County during Hazel. Great winds, but very little rain. You pointed out elsewhere: it was the third storm to hit the area in 1954.

I've always envied people who can sleep through thunder and lightning.

I just checked, and it's now 107. Maybe the station is next to a pizza oven? At any rate, it's hot.

That formed near me, and I can vouch for the many short CTG strokes I heard. Glad it's moving away. Sorry you're getting it.

My humble limit is 24MP. In my amateur film years, Kodak used to make a great, slow film called Royal. Even had an ISO 25 for a while. Great colors. Rivaling Kodachrome. I'm sure you knew all of the good ones. Right now, I've got enough, being 83 yrs old. Leave the new stuff for the kids, except possibly a full frame mirrorless, so I can take (inferior?) photos with some old German lenses I have. I like that mirrorless can take almost any old lens with an adapter. Doesn't make sense, but it's fun. If I still used film, I'd be tempted to go larger format.

What a muggy, crappy evening. Maybe the first one of the season here, closer (relatively) to the ocean. Last night was almost pleasant in comparison.

Wow. And I'm berating myself thinking of buying a full frame SONY mirrorless, and scrapping all my smaller format camera stuff. It's a lot of fun. I hope you eventually develop those pix. OTOH, after looking down on it for years, I realized by 2005 that digital was great.

Hyakutake was visible as a fuzzy object in a different part of the sky from Hale-Bopp. It would have been my lifetime comet if Hale-Bopp hadn't scooped it the next year. A CCD camera would have set you back big time in those days. And maybe for about a .5 megapixel image at that. Good that you waited. Hyakutake got me locked out on my fire escape when I was watching it. I had had a few. Lucky someone was around to let me in, late at night.

I remember all the hype about Kohoutek. Was at Land's End waiting for it one chilly evening, and never saw it. Maybe we're allowed just one great comet in a lifetime.

Hale-Bopp was great! I lived in San Francisco when it appeared, and was able to enjoy it from a bluff overlooking the Pacific, called Land's End. Having seen a great comet, I don't need to fret over not seeing this one. For anyone who missed Hale-Bopp, I'm hoping something similar will happen soon. BTW, Halley's, years later, was a non-event for me. I thought I would see two great comets in my lifetime, but Halley's fizzled this time around. (1985?)

Glad you think that they are early too. Thought I was going nuts. Usually don't hear any until late in the month. Likely the last week. Interesting that they overlap with the lightning bugs which are still around.Insert other media

Heard my first katydid tonight. Yakking in the tree outside my Apartment. Seems a bit early for them, but the times are crazy.

That is entirely believable. I've imitated birds and occasionally they've looked into my Apt to check it out. Then: Oh! it's that joker! and fly away. BTW, heard my first katydid tonight. Seems a bit early for them, but the times are crazy.

The owls must be happy too!

Got around a quarter inch, and one thunderous boom at around 1AM.

Since I've been blathering, I'll bump this one down. interesting that little pool of cold water off Delmarva. The SST may not have been affected by such a paltry storm, but the aquifers are happy, I'm sure. At least here in NJ.

You are hopefully right about the fluctuations in the firefly population. Someone else has put pix on Facebook showing them in the Middletown area of NY. Abundant there too. Magical creatures for sure. EDIT - it's after 9 PM, and the fireflies are around, in abundance. Even picked one off my screen, to avoid it flying around the apartment. I stand corrected, and am glad of it.

The English sparrows make a lot of noise in the dawn hours. They are very gregarious, and incredibly tenacious birds. Not related to the song sparrow I mentioned elsewhere. I have much respect for letter carriers at any time. BTW, those are great neighborhoods. Someone took a photo of an old IND R4 train which at the time was running the D line to Coney Island. That's me in 1970, joyriding maybe to the Botanic Garden. I was renting a dump on upper broadway at the time. Someone took this photo. You never know... They ran these old R cars into the ground, and I wish that they had been overhauled for 20 more years of service.

Japanese beetles. My grandmother grew roses in our Jersey City backyard, and they were a real problem there. This was back in the 40's.

Wow. I may have heard a coyote now and then around here, at night. More likely I heard foxes. Unearthly sounds of them fighting, no doubt. I have new windows in my condo, and hear less now as a result. Another degree of separation from the outside world. In September the hooting of the owl is often heard. By then the windows are open. Also the strange cry of the screech owl. Like a baby human, almost.

Thanks - I did not realize the possible connection to the deer overpopulation. Everything is so interconnected. Deer are everywhere here in Central NJ. BTW another songbird I am missing is the Song Sparrow. A plus (for me, if the city dwellers will forgive me) is that the English sparrow is seldom seen around forested areas. OTOH, I have much respect for these tough little critters in the unforgiving urban environment.