Taught By Bears put together a 3:20 music video of Ted's gentle face as seen on 4/27, 5/28, 9/16, 9/28, 11/1, 11/15, and 12/20/2017. She aptly named it "The Face of Gentle." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73nIBE9xCVk
Mike Lynch with telescopes
Dark Sky Lecture at NABCStar Gazing the other night turned out to have a sky that cleared shortly before the 7 to 9 PM event. The 40-minute talk was a fun run-through of facts I never knew. One thing that I'm sure most people know, other than me, is that the Big Dipper, Ursus Major, only covers the butt and tail of the bear in the sky. Three fainter stars cover the shoulders and head. Other stars are the foreleg and hind leg. Each of those two feet have two stars right next to each other. Then it was outside to stand in line for a look through a giant telescope. Cold. But I couldn't believe how many stars are revealed that would mostly be invisible to the naked eye.
Common redpoll We were proud to host Meteorologist Mike Lynch's free event in the Hope Learning Center Classroom at the Bear Center. This was in partnership with Ely's newly formed Ely Dark Sky LLC, a dark sky educational, informational and promotional astro-tourism organization. The director of Ely Dark Sky is Roy Misonznick who used to be on the Bear Center board some 18 years ago and put together a website for us. Small town. A lot of good people. Here is a link to their website: https://www.elydarksky.org.
ChickadeeI knew I was lucky to live in Ely with all the good people, nature, lakes, and forests, but I didn't know how Ely ranked with other beautiful nature towns. Today, I learned. In this list, the first picture is a generic picture of a nameless area, then comes the list of beautiful small towns. Even without mountains, Ely is the first town named on the list! Does that mean we are #1? We think so! https://travel.usnews.com/gallery/50-beautiful-small-towns-in-america
Red-breasted nuthatchOut the window on this nice (but cold) sunny day, the usual birds paused to pose on a branch in the sun before jumping down to a pile of sunflower seeds. They were the common redpoll (not the hoary redpolls I usually show), a red-breasted nuthatch, and a chickadee. It was nice to snap pictures from the comfort of my desk, than back to work.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center