Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 48. Sunrise is 6:18 and sunset is 5:53, for 11 hours, 35 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 70.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1983, while addressing a convention of Evangelicals, Ronald Reagan labels the Soviet Union an “evil empire.” (It was, and the Russian Federation still is.)
Warmer Wisconsin Winters Changing Ancient Sport of Falconry:
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 45. Sunrise is 7:21 and sunset is 4:49, for 9 hours, 27 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 86 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1944, Allied forces launch the first of four assaults on Monte Cassino with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome, an effort that would ultimately take four months and cost 105,000 Allied casualties.
Wisconsin has a designated international dark sky park, Newport State Park. The Badger State could, however, have a second dark sky park if the Kickapoo Valley Reserve achieves that designation:
Directions from Whitewater to Newport State Park and Directions from Whitewater to the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.
Rocket science really is as hard as rocket science:
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 35. Sunrise is 7:22 and sunset is 4:47, for 9 hours, 26 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 92.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1945, Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.
Whitewater has geese at Cravath, but not far away by the Great Lakes one can find large numbers and varieties of gulls.
See Joe Tarr, Why gulls of the Great Lakes are no ordinary birds, Wisconsin Public Radio, January 16, 2025.
Blue Origin launches massive New Glenn rocket on first test flight:
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 47. Sunrise is 6:58, and sunset is 4:24, for 9 hours, 26 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 35.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1971, during a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (aka D. B. Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money. He has never been found.
Over at Vimeo, documentary filmmaker and photographer Lorie Shaull recently published Sandhill Cranes at Crex Meadows Wildlife Area in Grantsburg, Wisconsin:
At Instagram, photographer Andy Merkel offers a view of Devil’s Lake State Park:
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 56. Sunrise is 6:38, and sunset is 4:38, for 9 hours, 59 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent, with 43.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1972, American pay television network Home Box Office (HBO) launches.
Wisconsin Life | Inside the den: DNR researchers track Wisconsin’s black bears:
Aerial footage shows scale of wildfires burning in California:
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 92. Sunrise is 6:14, and sunset is 7:37, for 13h 23m 08s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 48.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1920, the 19th Amendment to United States Constitution takes effect, giving women the right to vote.
Wisconsin’s breathtaking fall landscapes:
New robot will clean up dangerous ‘space junk’:
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 83. Sunrise is 6:03, and sunset is 7:53, for 13h 49m 55s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 87 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1930, the first color sound cartoon, Fiddlesticks, is released by Ub Iwerks.
Evan Casey reports Wisconsin state park use remains high since COVID-19 pandemic boom (‘Wisconsin Policy Forum report found state park sticker sales in 2023 were up nearly 50 percent from 2019’):
When businesses shuttered and schools went remote during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Wisconsin residents flocked to parks and nature trails across the state.
Now, a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum found that Wisconsinites are still using state parks at higher rates than before the start of the pandemic. The report found there were 518,848 state park sticker sales recorded in 2023, up from 346,491 in 2019 — a nearly 50 percent increase.
Tyler Byrnes, the lead researcher on the report, said there were massive increases in outdoor recreation seen across the state in 2020.
See Wisconsin Policy Forum, Staying Engaged in Outdoor Pursuits:
A small benefit following a large tragedy.
Snow leopard cubs begin exploring at Virginia zoo:
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:58, and sunset is 8:01, for 14h 02m 41s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 39.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1919, the Green Bay Packers professional football team is founded during a meeting in the editorial rooms of Green Bay Press-Gazette.
The 2024 Perseid Meteor Shower:
Ditching generators and recycling buildings: How Paris did the Olympics differently:
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 74. Sunrise is 5:21 and sunset 8:36 for 15h 15m 55s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 21.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1836, scientist Increase Allen Lapham arrives in Milwaukee. By 1844 he had published Wisconsin’s first book, A Geographical and Topographical, Description of Wisconsin. He was a founder of the Milwaukee Female College, which later became Milwaukee Downer College, a charter member of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and a founder of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. Toward the end of his life, he was Wisconsin State Geologist. He also was an influential advocate of the weather bureau in the 1870s.
On this day in 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg begins.
Danielle Kaeding reports Study tracks how wolf reintroduction at Isle Royale affected foxes, martens (‘UW-Madison researchers find wolves had temporary effects on the diet of foxes and marten numbers at remote National Park site’):
The reintroduction of wolves has only had temporary effects on other small carnivores at Isle Royale National Park on Lake Superior, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The park is the site of the longest predator-prey study on record between wolves and moose. Over the years, the wolf population has fluctuated there, but the species almost went extinct in the last decade after only two inbred wolves remained. Those wolves couldn’t reproduce to control the moose population.
In the fall of 2018, federal authorities began to introduce 19 wolves to Isle Royale. UW-Madison researchers led a study that took a before-and-after look at how wolves affected small carnivores there, such as red foxes and American martens.
….
Jonathan Pauli, a forest and wildlife ecology professor at UW-Madison, said the research highlights the competitive interactions between the species.
“In the absence of wolves, foxes have free range of the island and that’s to the detriment of martens,” Pauli said. “But when wolves return, at least at first, they then enforce these really important costs on foxes, which benefits martens. But, eventually, it all kind of settles down.”
What’s in the Night Sky: July 2024:
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 71. Sunrise is 5:20 and sunset 8:37 for 15h 16m 39s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 31.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1864, Pres. Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for “public use, resort and recreation.”
The sighting of a crested caracara near Ashland drew carloads of viewers and rave reviews from birders in extremely rare appearance of the species. https://t.co/nA2EG1noBe
— Journal Sentinel (@journalsentinel) June 30, 2024
Not long ago, birders sighted A Varied Bunting, a First for Birders in Wisconsin. Now, for only the second time, a crested caracara near Ashland draws raves from birders in extremely rare sighting:
Birders from Milwaukee, Madison, Green Lake and Appleton were among the crowd that showed up over the first 24 hours of the sighting.
For nearly all, it was the first time they experienced the species in the Badger State.
The crested caracara looks like a hawk with a sharp beak and talons but behaves like a vulture and is officially in the falcon family. To add to is aura, its nickname is the “Mexican eagle.”
Its typical range is from southern South America, through the Caribbean and Mexico and just into the southern U.S., primarily in Texas.
The bird is “instantly recognizable standing tall on long, yellow-orange legs with a sharp black cap set against a white neck and yellow-orange face,” according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
That’s easy for Cornell to say. When it’s 2,000 miles out of place and been seen in Wisconsin only once before, it can take most state residents, even avid birders, more than a minute to identify.
The crested caracara prefers open country, flies low on flat wings, routinely walks on the ground and is not shy or reclusive, according to its Cornell description.
The species frequently perches on the tallest tree or structure around and is distinguished from vultures because it flies with flat wings (vultures have vee-shaped wings in flight).
In its native range, it is often seen beside vultures feeding on animal carcasses.
Wisconsin presents surprises for those who’ll look.
Sinkhole, estimated 100 feet wide, appears in the middle of an Illinois playing field:
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 83. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset 8:37 for 15h 19m 42s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 92.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM. The Whitewater School Board goes into closed session shortly after 5:15 PM, and returns to open session at 7 PM.
On this day in 1948, the Berlin Blockade begins as the Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible.
It wouldn’t occur to a sensible person to remove large numbers of periodic cicadas from a Wisconsin state park, thereby interrupting their natural lifecycle. The report seems too odd to be accurate, and yet, these are odd times. On Sunday, the Wisconsin DNR issued a press release warning against cicada harvesting:
MADISON, Wis. – Following multiple reports of people harvesting cicadas at Big Foot Beach State Park in Walworth County, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reminds the public that state law prohibits the capture and removal of animals, including insects, from state park properties.
There are exceptions for hunting and fishing activities that are otherwise authorized by law, but these exceptions do not provide for the collection and removal of cicadas.
DNR park staff and wardens have been instructed to make efforts to first educate the public on cicadas in state parks, and wardens may take enforcement action in response to violations.
If you are aware of cicada harvesting happening at any other state park locations in Wisconsin, please report it to the DNR’s Violation Hotline online or by calling or texting 1-800-847-9367.
Please note that no further information is available and we are not accepting interview requests on this topic at this time.
Honest to goodness, anyone so implicated is ignorantly destructive.
Bear snacks inside concession stand and scares worker:
