The International Space Station in our Sky

Three nights ago (2009 May 11), I decided to go out to experience a lovely spring night. The stars were out and I could recognize the constellations - Gemini, Leo (with Saturn), Ursa Major and the Big Dipper. I then saw a point of light as bright as Jupiter move steadily across the sky from west to east. Its speed and brightness were steady, and I did not see any other lights near it, which would identify it as an airplane. I watched it cross the southern sky and disappear in the east. The Hubble-saving Shuttle had just launched, and I wonder if it was that. I went back inside and went to Heavens Above, at www.heavens-above.com . (You must use a hyphen. If you use any other punctuation, a space, or nothing, you get a nuisance site of some sort instead.) I found that it was the International Space Station. It is the first time I walked outside without knowing about the next ISS pass and found the station in the sky.

The Nests of Spring

It is spring. Birds are mating and they are coming and going. About a month ago, the dark-eyed juncos (snowbirds) left. The white-throated sparrows (chipmunk birds) actually increased in number, then at the beginning of May, they also disappeared, although I keep seeing singleton stragglers. The yellow-rumped warblers and ruby-crowned kingbirds are also gone.

Other birds have come in from the south. The catbirds are here. They are all over the place. Starlings and cowbirds maraud our lawn. Brown thrashers come by our feeders and stand up high in trees singing their doublet songs. An indigo bunting showed up briefly in our yard. The most prominent summer birds in our lawn are a pair of great crested flycatchers which have set up a nest in our martin house. I put out the hummingbird feeder, and in a few days, a hummingbird appeared. He now is a regular visitor.

I still have yet to see grackles, but I suppose sooner or later they will come.