A Message From Argentina

At 2:15 this afternoon, I personally received a message from Argentina.  The Southern Hemisphere has ceded the sun's straight off radiations to the Northern Hemisphere; inward other words, nosotros inward the Northern Hemisphere accept at nowadays moved past times the vernal equinox.

The carrier of that message was a Swainson's hawk, the start out I accept observed this year.  Soaring inward a higher house our Littleton farm, the hawk had left the Argentinian autumn as well as traveled to the North American spring. He as well as his cohorts volition nest across the High Plains, Colorado Plateau as well as Great Basin provinces earlier heading dorsum to Argentine Republic side past times side fall.  There they volition "winter" inward the Argentinian summer.

Favoring opened upwards solid reason amongst scattered trees inward which to perch as well as nest, Swainson's hawks feed on a multifariousness of large insects, reptiles as well as modest mammals as well as are oftentimes observed soaring inward a higher house crop fields as well as grasslands.  Today's merely traveler was the start out but I volition for certain uncovering dozens (if non hundreds) of these migrant raptors over the side past times side vi months.

Above The Cascades & Corking Basin

Flying dorsum to Denver, yesterday, nosotros changed planes inwards Seattle.  On that 2d flight, nosotros took off to the south, before long passing the massive mass of Mt. Ranier, to our east.  Curving southeastward, nosotros together with therefore caught sight of the remnant cone of Mt. St. Helens to our southwest and, inside a few minutes, flew over the snowy crest of Mt. Adams.  Next came the distinctive split of Mt. Hood, across the Columbia River Valley, together with other prominent summits further south; unfortunately, haze obscured the distant horizon together with I was unable to locate Mt. Shasta, inwards Northern California.

Having formed over the yesteryear 36 1 one m thousand years, equally the Farallon together with its remnant Juan de Fuca Plate convey been subducting beneath the North American Plate, the Cascades stretch from west-central Washington to Northern California together with leave of absence on to split today.  Indeed, many Cascade volcanoes convey developed together with eroded (or exploded) away during that fourth dimension together with the prominent volcanic peaks mentioned higher upwardly are less than two 1 one m thousand years old; the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, inwards 1980, was a clear indication that the attain is withal evolving.

East of the Cascades, is the high, dry out desert of the Great Basin, stretching from eastern Oregon together with California across Nevada, southernmost Idaho together with western Utah.  Fault-block ranges, running due north to south, are separated yesteryear wide valleys which harbor sage grasslands, seasonal rivers, sinks, ephemeral lakes together with a few large saline lakes. Unfortunately, clouds obscured the mountains of Utah together with Colorado until nosotros crossed the Front Range higher upwardly Rocky Mountain National Park together with descended into Metro Denver.