The 1910 approach [of Halley’s], which came into naked-eye view around 10 April^[63] and came to perihelion on 20 April,^[63] was notable for several reasons: it was the first approach [ of Halley ] for which photographs exist, and the first for which spectroscopic data were obtained.^[16] Furthermore, the comet made a relatively close approach of 0.15 AU,^[63] making it a spectacular sight. On 19 May, Earth actually passed through the tail of the comet.^[95][96] One of the substances discovered in the tail by spectroscopic analysis was the toxic gas cyanogen,^[97] which led astronomer Camille Flammarion to claim that, when Earth passed through the tail, the gas “would impregnate the atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet.”^[98] His pronouncement led to panicked buying of gas masks and quack “anti-comet pills” and “anti-comet umbrellas” by the public.^[99] In reality, as other astronomers were quick to point out, the gas is so diffused that the world suffered no ill effects from the passage through the tail.^[98]      

More of that history… this 1910 approach of the comet added to the unrest in China on the eve of the Xinhai Revolution that would end the last dynasty in 1911.

Jay, thanks for your fascinating explanation of the timing of shorebird migration.   =)

When I got hopelessly obsessed with hummingbirds, I read everything about them I could get my hands on, and that’s when I discovered the BNA species accounts at UNM Albuquerque (with help from the science librarian  =)    For Rufous in particular, it seemed odd to be discussing “fall migration” when adult males began showing up at our humfeeders in both NM and CO during late June and early July, soon followed by adult females, and then……..  a ton of stragglers, hatch-year (HY) Rufous that had no “guides” to show them when or where to go, i.e., neither direction nor distance.  This blew my mind, that they were “hard-wired” (as we called it) to migrate within weeks of hatching!!  We had enough hummers passing thru our yard in western CO that we noticed almost annually a few HY birds seemed to get “stuck” at our place, unable to put on enough body fat to leave for the next leg of their journey.  Now switching to Black-chinned hummers, because some of these remained into November, even December one year, almost making it onto our local CBC.  As a reminder, this had nothing to do with feeders being left up, as we had many salvia and agastache plants continuing to bloom into late fall…

I had hopes that the BNA (now BOW) diagram of the annual cycle for Rufous Hummingbird would survive cyberspace to share with IBLE, but apparently not.  Their migrations northward and southward defy our usual labels of spring and fall migration, because Rufous are screaming up the west coast as early as February, as is shown by eBird data…..

Hummers rule !!

Larry

Reference:  Healy, S. and W. A. Calder (2020). Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.rufhum.01