Golden New Day

Golden new day beginning at the Biological Station. The sounding of the waves on the lakeshore and the fresh air, like spring days at the ocean. Last night's warm west wind produced mare's tails in the sky stretching from the sunset eastward across a third of the sky, foretelling the coming the change coming. Warm 70's yesterday. Rain and snow forecast beginning this evening and increasing through Wednesday when the main storm effect arrives. But today, in early February the door is open and I can enjoy the sound of the lake and the birds. The wind is turning to an increasing south wind. Soon time for me to pack up and start the drive north.

The Sun is Moving

Returned to UOBS after three weeks away. The sunrise is moving. I carefully located the exact point of direct sunlight from the sunrise January 5 at 117d SSE, just under a unique inverted 'U' curve of branches on an old dead cottonwood 500 feet away by the lake. Today dawn was before 7 AM with suffused light all across the mostly clear sky. Sunrise from my vantage point had moved north to 110d ESE, a 7 degree shift northward in the month. A warm beautiful 65d day expected today before cold returning.
At 10 AM a small mob of 8-10 goldfinches have taken over the hanging seed feeder I replenished early this morning. Two or three are trying to exclude others from the feeder. The smart ones are in the grass below picking out the many seeds dropped below the feeder. The flicker is calling all around the apartment and appears to hang out around this area. Meadowlark with bright yellow chest and black 'v',  foraging in the grass around the fallen sugarberry trees.

Cockleburs

Moist sunny areas at UOBS and Fobb Bottom WMA (large areas) support abundant populations of cocklebur Xanthium strumarium. Native to US and to Europe, now a cosmopolitan invasive. Flowers have no scent and are wind-pollinated & compound. Plant is an annual but produces a woody tap root. Well-defended mechanically (leaves tough like sandpaper) and chemically (produces poisonous diterpene, carboxyatractyloside ). Each bur is produced from two flowers, with one seed per flower, so each bur contains two seeds. One is ready for immediate germination within a year. The other seed is delayed in germination - up to a decade. Delayed germination - 'bet-hedging'. Plant is poisonous to mammals and can sicken or kill livestock. Poison is most concentrated in prickles of bur. Bur is very hard. Many insects feed on the plant: the Ragweed Leaf Beetle (Ophraella communa), stem-boring larvae of the Sunflower Longhorn Beetle (Dectes texanus), stem-boring larvae of the Sunflower Stem Weevil (Cylindrocopturus adspersus), Five-spotted Billbug (Rhodobaenus quinquepunctatus),  larvae of leaf-miner flies (Calycomyza platyptera, Liriomyza trifolii), larvae of the Bur-Seed Fly (Euaresta aequalis), Spotted Green Plant Bug (Ilnacora stalii), a leaf-feeding aphid (Capitophorus xanthii), stem-boring larvae of the Ragweed Borer Moth (Epiblema strenuana), and seed-eating larvae of a moth, the Pale-headed Phaneta (Phaneta ochrocephala) [ source: https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/weeds/plants/cocklebur.htm  ] 
The poison produced inhibits growth of other plants, including seedling cockleburs.