The purpose of this feature is to give scout leaders, educators and naturalists an idea of some of the natural events coming up each month.  We will try to cover a variety of natural events ranging from sky events to calling periods of amphibians, bird and mammal watching tips,  prominent wildflowers and anything else that comes to mind.  We will also note prominent constellations appearing over the eastern horizon at mid-evening each month for our area for those who would like to learn the constellations.  If you have suggestions for other types of natural information you would like to see added to this calendar, let us know!

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Notes and Images From February 2025

There are certain natural sounds that seem to evoke a feeling of wilderness, no matter where you hear them. The calls of Great Horned Owls are like that for me. So are the spring calls of loons. I think the calls of migrating Sandhill Cranes do that as well. It's not just the call. It's also seeing those large flocks of cranes high overhead, all heading north. You wonder what their journey will show them. Part of you wants to go along, to see the world through their eyes.

On the morning of February 2nd we had six or seven very large flocks of Sandhill Cranes flying north over our house. As usual, we heard them before we saw them. The rattling call sounds a little bit like an open cedar box struck with a vibrating striker.

We are always surprised at how far the call carries. We expect them to be a lot closer than they are. Often we have to spend a minute scanning the sky before we spot them. But this wasn't a typical migrating flock in our experience. The "V"s were very large, and intersected other "V"s. In one group we counted 150 cranes. The image below, made with a 600mm lens, shows just a small part of one group.

We saw one large flock after another pass by, separated by just a few minutes. This was very different from the isolated flocks we normally see. It occurred to me that there might be some advantage to the close spacing of these flocks.

In my experiences flying sailplanes cross county, I usually flew alone. But if you had another group of gliders (or raptors) circling in lift in the direction you were going, it helped to find rising air. You could travel faster that way. These individual groups of Sandhill Cranes could be in sight of each other. It might be beneficial to fly in these loosely-connected "super-flocks". In any case, we wished them safe travels.

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Sky Events for March 2025:

You don't need a telescope for this. By far the best views of a lunar eclipse are with either the naked eye or a pair of binoculars. The binoculars will allow you to see the colors better.

Totality begins at 1:26am CDT, the midpoint of the eclipse will be around 1:59am CDT, and totality ends around 2:32am CDT. Because the Moon does not pass exactly through the center of Earth's shadow, the north limb of the Moon (the top of the image at right) will be brighter than the south limb, as was true with the 2019 eclipse shown.

Daylight Savings Time will begin on March 9th.

The Vernal Equinox occurs at 4:01am CDT on March 20th, marking the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

You can actually see the crescent shape of Venus with binoculars and it will look about the same as the image at right. It will be tiny, but it will be there. There's a trick to this. Most people wait till it's dark to view Venus in binoculars. If the sky is dark the brilliance of Venus will make the crescent form difficult or impossible to see. The trick is to start right after sunset while the sky is still bright. You probably won't see Venus until about 10 or 15 minutes after sunset, but if you can catch it while the sky is still bright the crescent form is much easier to see. But it's important to always wait until the Sun sets. You can permanently damage your eyes if you sweep across the Sun with binoculars. It always helps to steady your hands on something like the side of a car.

I could see the crescent on March 1st with my 8x25 compact binoculars. Another trick you can use to make the crescent more obvious is to make some cut-outs with a small central hole to put over the objective (front) lenses of your binoculars. This both reduces the brightness of the image and the smaller exit pupil uses only the best part of the lens in both your binoculars and your eye. This further improved the image with my 8x25's.

As the month progresses Venus will appear lower in the sky each day after sunset. As it does, the crescent will appear both thinner and larger. That's because Venus is moving between Earth and the Sun at this time. From March 27th till the end of the month, see if you can see the wafer-thin crescent in the morning sky 15 to 30 minutes before sunrise. 

Mercury reaches it's greatest distance from the Sun on March 8th. It should be easy to pick up below and to the left of Venus looking due west. Try for it about 30 minutes after sunset.

Jupiter is about 73 degrees above the southwest horizon in Taurus at the beginning of the month. Over two-thirds of the combined mass of all of the solar system's planets is in your field of view when you aim your telescope at Jupiter.

I've had some very memorable experiences observing Mars over the years. I love to spend relaxed time just looking for surface details. I once spotted a feature on the planet's surface that was named Nodus Alcyonius. That led me to the Greek mythology and Ovid's telling of the legend of Alcyone and Ceyx, which in turn led me to the origin of the scientific name of our Belted Kingfisher. I've never looked at kingfishers the same way since. If you are interested in the history of Mars observations, the "canals" and other Mars trivia, you can find a much more in depth discussion here.

Recommended:  The Frogs and Toads of North America, Lang Elliott, Houghton Mifflin Co.