Steve and Judy's Travels!

The results are in!

For brother Tom in the Pacific Northwest, we have a 4 foot shadow.

Followed by Christie.  Her shadow was only a little over 3 feet.

Farther south, Brian checks in with a 23 inch shadow.

And my shadow, it’s barely measurable.   It’s only 3 inches from my toes!

It’s all about latitude.  The equator is at zero degrees.  The tropics are defined by the Tropic of Cancer to the North and the Tropic of Capricorn to the south.  These are the farthest points north and south that the sun can ever be directly overhead.  The Tropic of Cancer is at 24 degrees north of the equator.  If I were standing on that line, my shadow would be straight down at high noon on the summer solstice.  (If I were on the equator looking north on the summer solstice, my shadow would be behind me.)  Where we live in Edinburg, TX, we’re less than 3 degrees north of the Tropic of Cancer, so hardly any shadow at all.  At Becky’s house in Erie, CO, they’re 16 degrees north of the Tropic of Cancer.  And in Edmonds, they’re 24 degrees north of the Tropic of Cancer.  At 48 degrees north on the globe, they’re closer to the north pole than they are the equator!

We’ve been waiting and waiting for the summertime groove-billed anis to show up.

They’re just silhouettes in the trees in the morning light, but we got our first sighting of the year!

It looks like we might be gathering some nesting material.  That would be nice if they settle in for the summer.

Any and all submissions welcome!

Tomorrow is the official shortest day, highest sun, but plus or minus a day or two won’t make any difference.  The best time of day to take the shot will be about noon, standard time, 1pm daylight.  Even better than timing it by the clock though will be timing it by the compass.  Time zones are just approximations, plus or minus a half hour or so.  At the point your shadow is aligned perfectly north/south, will be the shortest shadow at your exact location.  My best time is at 1:30.

For the long shadow contest in December, I was 7 feet tall!

I had taken my picture slightly after the north/south sun-peak of the day though.

Can you spot the giant moth in this picture?

It’s a Black Witch Moth.  We don’t see them every year.  Last one was 2017.

A male.  Females look a little different.  In Central American cultures it’s historically considered a bad omen, even a harbinger of death if it flies into your house.  In Spanish, it’s known as Mariposa de la Muerte.  Death Butterfly.  Here, we just think it’s cool.  It’s not quite as big as my hand, but still, that’s a pretty big moth!

It has such a nice color when it matures.

It’s a grain, like corn, but a much shorter plant, and the kernels it produces are in the blooms on top, not down on cobs like corn.  It is harvested as a grain crop and used in people food (It’s gluten free), cattle feed, and silage.  Some of it gets processed for ethanol.  There is a lot of it here.  It’s drought tolerant and likes the heat of South Texas.