When walking alongside streams this time of year we sometimes hear the sharp "kip" notes of the Winter Wren.  The one below peeked out at me from an opening in some fallen trees.  Winter Wrens are only with us during the winter months in Middle Tennessee, but occur year-round in the higher altitudes of the Appalachians.  One insight I received from traveling in the tropics was that many of the truly wonderful songs you hear in the rain forest are made by wrens - birds that are hard to find and blend in with their habitat.  They do not have colorful plumage.  But their songs are beautiful.

Daylight Savings Time begins on March 12th this year.  The spring equinox, marking the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, occurs at 5:29am CDT on March 20th.

From our vantage point on Earth, Venus appears to slowly dive into the Sun.  As it does, the crescent Venus becomes both thinner and larger.  By March 11th, Venus will appear 55 seconds of an arc in diameter, large enough that the crescent can be made out easily with binoculars.  Wait till the Sun is below the horizon so you don't accidentally damage your eyes. 

Here are some tricks.  Start looking for Venus a few minutes before sundown.  You want to try and spot Venus just as soon as you can, when the sky is still bright.  If you wait too long your eyes will be dazzled by Venus and the crescent will be hard to see.  You can also try dimming the light with a filter.  One of the prettiest views I've had of Venus in binoculars was when clouds drifted in front of the planet and naturally dimmed the view just the right amount.

Try using just one eye and see if the image improves.  You can sometimes improve your results by looking through a small hole, say 1mm in diameter.  In doing so you're just reducing the effects of imperfections in your eyes.  For us, the prettiest view comes when the binoculars are attached or even taped to the top of a tripod and are not hand-held.

The tiny crescent is quite beautiful.  The view at right is very similar to what you will see at the first of the month, though the crescent will appear very small.  Remember that the crescent will get both bigger and thinner as the month goes on.

On March 22nd, Venus will set 30 minutes after the Sun, and on the following morning will rise 33 minutes before the Sun.  By the end of March, Venus will rise about an hour before the Sun, and will appear 59 seconds of an arc in diameter and just 2 percent illuminated.  In late March and early April Venus will slowly appear to rise from the Sun, each morning appearing a little higher in the sky.

The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl was associated with the planet Venus.  Quetzalcoatl's earthly form was believed to be the beautiful Resplendent Quetzal, a spectacular Central American bird.  Quetzalcoatl literally means, "feathered serpent" and if you've ever seen the long tail feathers of the male Quetzal trail behind it as it flies, you can see why it was so named.  The god Quetzalcoatl was said to have sacrificed himself on a funeral pyre.  The following transcription from the Aztec writings is from E.C. Krupp's book, Beyond the Blue Horizon;

"they call it the burning place,
where Quetzalcoatl sacrificed himself.
And they say that when he was burned,
immediately his ashes rose up,
and all the exquisite birds came to see.
When the pyre ceased to burn,
Quetzalcoatl's heart came forth,
went up to heaven, and entered there,
And the ancient ones say
it was converted to the morning star."

It's not hard to see the ancient story in the slow rise of Venus away from the Sun and into the morning sky.