Search Site   
News Stories at a Glance
Deere 4440 cab tractor racked up $18,000 at farm retirement auction
Indiana legislature passes bills for ag land purchases, broadband grants
Make spring planting safety plans early to avoid injuries
Michigan soybean grower visits Dubai to showcase U.S. products
Scientists are interested in eclipse effects on crops and livestock
U.S. retail meat demand for pork and beef both decreased in 2023
Iowa one of the few states to see farms increase in 2022 Ag Census
Trade, E15, GREET, tax credits the talk at Commodity Classic
Ohioan travels to Malta as part of US Grains Council trade mission
FFA members learn about Australian culture, agriculture during trip
Timing of Dicamba ruling may cause issues for 2024 planting
   
Archive
Search Archive  
   
After Groundhog Day, night is shortening for Midwesterners

Feb. 2-8, 2009
After December, all weather that is not wintry is springlike.
-Henry David Thoreau, 1860
The astronomical outlook

The Singing Cardinal Moon waxes throughout the week; it becomes completely full at 9:49 a.m. on Feb. 9, bringing more cardinals into song and spurring on more doves and tufted titmice to join them. A partial eclipse of the moon will occur at moonset (just before dawn) on that date.

Venus is the evening star in Pisces this month, bright in the western sky after sunset. Jupiter and Mars are together in Capricorn, rising in the southeast before the sun. Saturn continues in Leo, coming up in the evening and setting at dawn.

On Feb. 6, the day’s length surpasses 10 hours and 20 minutes, making the night an hour shorter than it was when the days first started to grow on Dec. 26. The sun reaches 40 percent of the way to spring equinox by Feb. 12.

By 10 in the evening of the first week in February, giant Orion begins to move west from its dominating January position in the center of the southern sky. The star grouping of Canis Major takes its place along the horizon, with Sirius, the Dog Star, the brightest light in the whole night sky.

Sirius, along with Procyon (the large star to the upper left of Sirius) and Betelgeuse (the reddish left shoulder of Orion), form what appears from our position on Earth to be an equilateral triangle.

The weather

The first half of February is typically chilly, with temperatures in the 30s or below occurring better than 60 percent of the time. Feb. 11 ushers in the third major cold wave of the month, typically the last severe front of winter. The days this week most likely to see snow are Feb. 5, 11 and 12.

Feb. 9 brings the best chance (a 25 percent chance) for a high above 50 degrees, but Feb. 8 brings the best chance of the week (50 percent) for highs only in the teens or 20s. Feb. 11-12 are brisk too, carrying a 35 percent chance for such cold.

Almanac daybook

Feb. 2: Today is Groundhog Day. Although most groundhogs stay in their dens this early in February throughout the northern half of the country, they do become active during January and February in the South.

Feb. 3: Often the coldest days of winter begin near this date and last through Feb. 16. Indoors, Asian lady beetles may appear on windows sills, a welcome sign of spring to come. In the wetlands, hemlock could be growing bushy. Bleeding hearts come up just a little if the ground temperature rises above 40 degrees.

Feb. 4: Thunderstorms often arrive with the cold wave that breaks the Groundhog Day thaw. Across the South, tornadoes could strike in the night.

Feb. 5: The pollen season, which ended with early winter, now begins again across the Gulf States with the blooming of mountain cedar, acacia, smooth alder, bald cypress, American elm, red maple, white poplar and black willow.

Bluegrass, which stopped flowering in midsummer, revives and starts its seeding cycle. When warm southern winds bring thaws across the North, all this pollen comes along with them.
Feb. 6: The evenings are becoming noticeably longer, daylight lasting well past 6 p.m., and the cardinals are starting to sing all day. When red-winged blackbirds arrive, start planning to tap your maple trees.

Feb. 7: Cedar waxwings and snow buntings are migrating into the border states now, and moss grows on logs in the sun. Raccoons, opossums and beavers become more active as the barometer falls in advance of the full moon high-pressure system (due in two to four days).

Feb. 8: Owls sit on their eggs, and horned larks migrate north. Flies appear in sunny corners of the barn. Moss grows a little on old logs and crocus, daffodil and tulip foliage has emerged.

Garlic planted in late November has pushed out of the ground; cloves set in early October are already several inches high.
The first rhubarb leaves can be unfolding. Henbit might be blooming in the alleys, skunk cabbage in the swamps. All those things promise spring with the certainty of nature’s covenant.

Mind and body clock

The waxing moon will favor the growth of sprouts from seeds planted under lights; sprout surges may be related to the high fluctuation of electronic fields that scientists have observed during the week of the full moon. Variation in electronic energy may also be related to an increase in the number of births in humans at this time.

Fish, game, livestock and diet

The waxing moon will be overhead in the middle of the night this week. Fish and wild game typically feed more heavily at that time, and livestock may be more inclined to eat. Dieters traditionally have a harder time dieting then, too.

As the barometer falls prior to the arrival of the Feb. 3, 6 and 11 cold fronts, interest in food often increases for fish and other creatures.

Heading toward Promised Land

The early 19th century witnessed the greatest squirrel migrations in recorded history. As the forests of the East were destroyed, the animals moved west toward Ohio and Indiana.

“They were evidently under some leadership and knew where to go,” according to Howe’s Historical Collections (1908), and they “had gathered as a mighty host with banners and, under some chosen Moses among them, were heading toward the Promised Land.”

Most of them never reached that destination. Their numbers alarmed farmers, and entire villages turned out to stop the threat to cornfields and gardens. Between 1810-50, newspapers consistently reported squirrel kills in the thousands.

The most devastating hunt of all may have occurred in Scioto County during August 1822. For three days, the pioneers went out “to prevent the alarming ravages of these mischievous neighbors.”
The Columbus Gazette gave this account of their success: “On counting the scalps, it appeared that 19,660 scalps were produced. It is impossible to say what number in all was killed, as a great many of the hunters did not come in. We think we can safely challenge any other county in the state to kill squirrels with us.”

The Scioto hunt may have come at the peak of the migrations. No county rose to meet the Gazette’s challenge. A few decades later, the virgin forest and most of the squirrels were gone.

Poor Will needs sheep, goat, horse, dog, cat, hog, chicken, duck and goose stories; in fact, he needs unusual stories of all kinds. Send your tale to: Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, OH 45387. Three dollars will be paid to the author of any story printed in this column.

1/29/2009