Climate and weather are not synonyms.

Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get. Climate is the weather averaged over a long period of years. Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a given time in a particular place.

Take, for example, a particular place known as Jackson Hole in winter. If a couple of early storms park over the valley, first putting down snow for days, they usually define the rest of the season. Conversely, should early storms bypass the valley or pass by quickly, there can be an open winter. Similarly for the other seasons.

So, if on some dark, 25-degree Fahrenheit morning you hear someone remark along the line, “Well, so much for global climate change,” he should be joking. Or else is a TV anchor.

The Earth has recently warmed. The climate is changing. The denier lobby says it’s simply a normal fluctuation Earth goes through – varying output of the sun, Earth wobble, just the way it is. Scientists try to learn with precision what’s going on, what man-caused and/or natural processes are responsible.

Our new president pledged in his inaugural address to “restore science to its rightful place.” That’s great. There’s dismissive speculation about climate change. Conversely, science tries to determine the cause, or causes, and then determine what, if anything, might or might not affect global climate change. Science unleashed, not pooh-poohed, may just come up with some surprises.

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Global heating is a really big deal. Depending on your disposition and concern, a sort of big deal is window-killed birds. A solution to global heating may be beyond you – or not. But if you feed birds – or not – you wouldn’t mind if your window didn’t kill birds. Although, you might conclude by simply looking at new residential and commercial buildings with all their expanses of glass and see-through corridors, that architects hate birds and delight when another slight thud is felt and heard. It happens, just in the U.S. alone, an annual 200 million times or more – half of those quickly forgotten thuds is a dead bird.

Well, here’s a welcome tip to people who feed birds. If your feeder is positioned no more than three feet from a window, the birds can’t build up enough momentum to suffer a lethal blow. Surely worth a try.

No one “solution” to window bird kills is known. We found putting a lighted lamp behind a particular window helped very much during seasonal migrations. Some people have soaped their windows – on the outside – and cleaned up when particular times of a season have reduced the danger; they at least end up with clean windows.

Hawk silhouettes (or any other shape) eliminate bird strikes if the element of a pattern are put vertically in columns four inches apart or in horizontal rows and only two inches apart. Not many people will do that, even for a few weeks each year.
There’s a study going on with ultraviolet signals that humans don’t see but birds do see. Windows clear for us but visible to birds. Have to try to learn more about how that’d work.

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Field Notes: According to my cheap-o kitchen clock that gains minutes, the sun came up two full minutes earlier today than yesterday. February arrived.

Robins are here. Folks have asked whether the robins are early or late. Perhaps they know; I sure don’t. I guess late, lured by last fall’s bumper fruit and berry crop (Pat Conner, John Daily, Kirby Williams, lots of others).

On Jan. 26, Susan Foster noticed a northern shrike above the National Fish Hatchery. Flickers are around in small numbers. Common redpolls are in the valley (Hunter Marrow, Tracy Blue, John Daily and many others. Even at my feeder). A white-throated sparrow – accidental here in winter and rare at any season – at a feeder cared for by Kevin Taylor. Also at my feeder was a lone white-winged crossbill. The species is in unusual numbers throughout our evergreen forest.

Rosy finches, pine siskins. evening grosbeaks, rough-legged hawks, a red-tail hawk and house finches are with us now.

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The Jackson Hole Bird Club will meet at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday in the Jackson Town Hall. Observations of our wildlife, socializing, and a presentation by Brian Bedrosian and Derek Craighead of Craighead Beringia South on “The Ecology of Ravens in Jackson Hole.” Everyone is welcome to attend.

© Bert Raynes 2009

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Bert Raynes writes weekly on whatever suits his fancy with a dash of news on nature and its many ways.