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Which won't young people believe when you tell them?
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The moss on the tree does not fear the talons of the hawk.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday November 01 2023, @06:13AM (1 child)
Northern Virginia was always "iffy" for Winter weather. Not only could the season vary widely, but it was and still is notoriously difficult to predict in terms of whether it will rain or snow during any particular storm. It's always close to the rain/snow line. I don't doubt what you're saying but our Winter was always fickle.
Forget the weather there. For me, it's the birds.
The great migrating flocks. Gone. There used to be what I thought of as a "river of birds", that's just what it looked like, a great pointillist vein high in the sky, or if they happened to settle in your area for the night it was like something out of the Hitchcock movie. I'd say this was pretty much history by the mid-80s for us. I don't know if the migration shifted due to the rapidly expanding development of the suburbs, or if it disappeared. I think it must have disappeared because suburban neighborhoods never seemed to bother them. We still had plenty of trees, and a park nearby that was several square miles of woods and a lake.
For this generation, it's insects. I hear tales of fireflies going. That would be a terrible shame. They were still around when I left Virginia in the early 2000s. I just can't imagine the east coast without them. When you move across country, it's hard to say what's what in those regards.
Anyway, for my location is was less about the weather and more about the wildlife. We are apparently in an epic extinction event.
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(Score: 3, Informative) by istartedi on Wednesday November 01 2023, @06:33AM
You sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to confirm the decline in birds specific to my area. Alas, I couldn't find it in a reasonable time but the general decline in North American birds [science.org] is well documented.
You also reminded me of something else. It used to be common for trees and even the sides of houses to be menaced by hornets that built the classic egg-shaped nest. I think the last time I saw one was in the woods, in the 1990s.
Kids are going to see those in cartoons and think they're made-up.
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