If a butterfly, flapping its wings, can trigger a hurricane on the other side of the earth as chaos theory suggests, is it possible for a single person to have an effect on the weather? I’m not talking about the cumulative effect of mankind worldwide and global warming but the actions of just one person. Well evidently it’s possible although the mechanism, the “triggering” action, is obscure.

Liz Vanderwoude has come out 4 Tuesdays in a row and all four have resulted in lousy weather. Today was no exception. Although Weather Canada was calling for “showers” we got heavy rain throughout the night and into the morning. There was no point in opening early. Liz showed up as scheduled and the rain continued unabated. By this time the census had been done (Pied-billed Grebes the only bird of note) and Liz decided that her time could be put to better use elsewhere. Within 20 minutes of her pulling out of the parking lot the rain stopped! Is it the Force? Is it a curse? A blessing? Just a coincidence? (C’mon – this is almost scientific!) Whatever the mechanism, the rain stopped and we opened a few of the nets until the building NW winds began to billow them and we closed for the day.

Banded 10:
1 Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
1 Field Sparrow
6 Red-winged Blackbirds
2 Brown-headed Cowbirds

ET’s: 40 spp.
Some nice shots by Renata Sadowska on her way home to Burlington the other day:

Rick