Revising Durham's UDO/LDC/LUP; Planning Commission hearing tonight cancelled

A Northern or yellow-shafted flicker (Colaptes auratus)  in late afternoon on November 24, 2025; not a mature male. ©

[For more photos from late November 2025 see:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2026/02/some-astronomical-events-fall-2025.html ]

I thought I heard upland chorus frogs or spring peepers very faintly calling in the distance southeast early on about February 18th and 20th (?), but it was hard to tell.  The weather was relatively mild but not very wet.  I heard angry-sounding raccoons or opossums (?) in a wooded area similarly early in the morning or in the evening two or three times recently and one or two ducks were flying over in the dark one night in February.  I might have heard gunshots nearby at night a few times recently (not a first if so), but there have been few or none of the pandemic-era unsanctioned car meetups at night (I think a youth was shot by an officer at one at Woodcroft Shopping Center in 2025).  On sunny or warmer days woodpecker 'drumming' rattles from nearby woods (as far as I know, the drumming is not produced by flickers, which seem to be uncommon here) and I have probably been hearing smaller Picoides woodpeckers calling nearby.  Large pileated woodpeckers were here in summer 2025, which was unusual, but they live in larger bottomland forests nearby and might not be uncommon there.  Cardinals have been singing a lot (if I did hear frogs recently, they would have been drowned out by the singing cardinals and other birds and traffic noise around dawn), along with mourning doves, chickadees, towhees, etc.  Barred owls have been calling more often, day and night, but not very nearby.  I've heard red-shouldered hawks a few times so far this spring.  Many of the migratory birds might have left.  Myrtle warblers are still here and I haven't seen many of the rarer migratory sparrows so far this season.  The small red maple was briefly bleeding sap, which often happens around now, maybe due to a yellow-bellied sapsucker migrating though.  Sapsuckers are here for months, but they often seem to leave the red maple alone until now, or maybe a lot of sap rises now.  The flowing sap attracted a Baeolophus bicolor.  Earlier in the season sapsuckers sometimes peck at fruit remaining on the persimmon below.  Despite the unusually cold weather in January daffodils sheltered by trees have been coming up fast and one already has a yellow flower bud this week.  Usually winged elms would probably be flowering by now or maybe even about done.  Other elm species might flower more in March.  Some Christmas lights are still on.  There can still be significant snow accumulation here even in March.     

Dry fruit remaining at the very top of the relatively large American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana; in the ebony family) nearby (surrounded by the hickory, left, and oaks) around mid-morning on November 22, 2025. ©

From the New Hope Bird Alliance – A petition near Sandy Creek Park in western Durham (Sandy Creek is a tributary of New Hope Creek/River):  www.change.org/p/petition-to-city-council-to-revoke-rezoning-adjacent-to-sandy-creek-park 

Durham Creek Week 2026 will be March 14th-March 22nd, and there will probably be creek weeks around then in Orange, Chatham, and Wake counties, etc.; others are usually held in the summer or fall.

[March 14th-21st:  www.chathamcountync.gov/government/departments-programs-i-z/watershed-protection/regional-creek-week ] [Theme:  “Water Connects Us”]

[ Orange County's 5th Annual Creek Week will be March 21st-29th:  www.orangecountync.gov/3491/Creek-Week ]

[2025 website? – raleighnc.gov/stormwater/services/stormwater-outreach-and-education/regional-creek-week ]

[2025 website, but covering much of the Triangle – nc-cleanwater.com/regional-creek-week-2/creekweek2025/ ]

[In the summer? – www.greensboro-nc.gov/departments/water-resources/get-involved/guilford-creek-week and www.guilfordcreekweek.org ; Rowan County's Creek Week also?]

From American Rivers ? –  

Demand a smarter future for the Colorado River:  act.americanrivers.org/page/94467/action/1

Tell Congress to Support the Floodplain Enhancement and Recovery Act:  act.americanrivers.org/page/94332/action/1  

In Durham:  indyweek.com/news/durham-planning-commissioner-resigns-in-protest/

indyweek.com/news/affordable-housing-excluded-in-southpoint-redevelopment-plans/

indyweek.com/news/business/housing/durham-parking-garage-redevelopment-council/

[ soundrivers.org/durhams-planning-process-comes-to-a-screeching-halt/ ]

[ soundrivers.org/new-sediment-issue-reported-on-little-lick-creek/ ?]

[Along Third Fork Creek:  indyweek.com/news/a-global-chemical-giant-racks-up-violations-in-durham-where-drinking-water-for-a-million-is-threatened/ ]

[ 9thstreetjournal.org/2026/03/06/at-contaminated-parks-shuttered-playgrounds-falling-fences-and-frustration/ ]

[ indyweek.com/news/durham-primary-election-results/ ]

In Chatham County, near Pittsboro:  www.wunc.org/economy/2026-02-11/chatham-park-asteria-explainer

In Orange County:  indyweek.com/newsletter/trapped-at-the-mall-during-chapel-hills-flash-flood/ 

There were a few articles on the 2025 (?) tropical storm flooding along Booker Creek by 15-501 and Village Plaza in eastern Chapel Hill. 

Along Bolin Creek in Carrboro (Booker Creek is a tributary; part of Little Creek in Durham): indyweek.com/news/carrboro-town-council-approves-creekside-greenway-alignment-for-bolin-forest/

On CHALT (not very recent):  indyweek.com/news/is-chalt-dead/

In Wake County:  indyweek.com/news/one-mans-trash-is-another-gulls-treasure/ 

[ soundrivers.org/momentum-growing-for-data-center-resistance/ ]

[ indyweek.com/news/apex-data-center-application-withdrawn-by-developer/ ]

indyweek.com/news/culture/art/dave-cook/

[The Eno River Association will hold a 60th Anniversary fall benefit concert and community celebration the evening of September 12th (Rosh Hashanah) in downtown Durham, instead of having its usual week of July 4th Festival for the Eno beside the River (north of downtown Durham) this year (people apparently say that early July is too hot, plus Tropical Storm Chantal almost hit the event in 2025); the Festival format should return in the spring of 2027? – www.enoriver.org/festival-for-the-eno/ ; from ERA Director Ryan J. Fehrman:  www.enoriver.org/a-new-chapter-for-the-festival-mar-dir-msg/ ; and www.enoriver.org/festival-for-the-eno/event-faqs/ ]

Both notices were sent out the afternoon of February 20th:

PUBLIC NOTICE: CANCELLATION OF FEBRUARY 24 PLANNING COMMISSION HEARING

The special meeting and public hearing of the Durham Planning Commission scheduled for Tuesday, February 24, 2026, at 5:30 p.m. to consider the rewrite of Durham’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), also called the Land Development Code (LDC), has been canceled by the Durham City Council and the Durham County Board of Commissioners.

Why is this happening? 

Durham has been working since late-2023 to rewrite its development rules so they align with the community’s vision in the Comprehensive Plan adopted in October 2023. State law actually requires local governments to have a comprehensive plan and to align zoning with that plan. That’s what Durham has been trying to do.

In December 2024, the General Assembly added a significant zoning provision to a 132-page disaster relief bill originally intended to assist communities impacted by Hurricane Helene. This provision prohibits local governments from making certain zoning changes—known as “down-zoning”—without obtaining written consent from every affected property owner. These restrictions make it extremely difficult for communities across North Carolina to update their development regulations. At the same time, other state laws require zoning regulations to be consistent with an adopted comprehensive plan. This creates a direct conflict in state policy: local governments are required to update zoning but are effectively prevented from doing so, resulting in uncertainty and challenges for sound governance statewide.

To avoid this conflict, the draft LDC included a carve-out: any property that would be “down-zoned” would be excluded and would continue to follow the existing UDO. Unfortunately, property owners have challenged this carve-out approach and threatened litigation within the past week. Given the legal challenges raised just days before the hearing, the adoption process for the LDC has been paused to allow time to evaluate these issues and determine the best path forward.

What’s next?

While the formal public hearing will not proceed, staff from the Durham Planning & Development Department will be present and available at the originally scheduled time—Tuesday, February 24, 2026, at 5:30 p.m.—to answer questions and provide information to any members of the public who choose to attend. This will be an informal opportunity for residents to learn more about the current draft of the LDC, to ask questions, and to share feedback about their specific properties.

Durham remains committed to transparency and to ensuring that the new LDC reflects the goals and values of our community. We will continue to keep the public informed as we navigate this challenge.

From the New Hope Bird Alliance –

[ACTION ALERT: Durham UDO Public Hearing Canceled

The public hearing previously scheduled for 2/24 to discuss the draft of the new Unified Development Ordinance (UDO)--now also known as Land Use Policy--has been canceled. Durham Planning Commission staff will still be available at the same time and location (5:30 PM at 101 City Hall Plaza) for an informal Q&A and to hear feedback about the draft code.

Please review the map and UDO and prepare to share your questions and thoughts with the Planning Commission. Almost every part of Durham will be affected, as this map shows. The full draft is here. The adoption process is described in more detail here. 

While the goals of increasing affordable housing, containing sprawl, and creating walkable neighborhoods are admirable, the UDO will result in more intense development within the Urban Growth Boundary. Long-term public and economic health and conservation of birds and other wildlife, require including preserving urban open space and wildlife corridors; retaining and using native plants; moderating lights; using bird-friendly design principles; increasing the urban tree canopy in heat islands; and widening riparian boundaries for flood control in the face of climate change. 

Stay tuned for more details on this ongoing issue! ]

ACTION ALERT: Durham UDO Public Hearing Canceled

The public hearing previously scheduled for 2/24 to discuss the draft of the new Unified Development Ordinance (UDO)--now also known as Land Use Policy--has been canceled. Durham Planning Commission staff will still be available at the same time and location (5:30 PM at 101 City Hall Plaza) for an informal Q&A and to hear feedback about the draft code. Please review the map and UDO and prepare to share your questions and thoughts with the Planning Commission. Almost every part of Durham will be affected, as this map shows. The full draft is here. The adoption process is described in more detail here.  While the goals of increasing affordable housing, containing sprawl, and creating walkable neighborhoods are admirable, the UDO will result in more intense development within the Urban Growth Boundary. Long-term public and economic health and conservation of birds and other wildlife, require including preserving urban open space and wildlife corridors; retaining and using native plants; moderating lights; using bird-friendly design principles; increasing the urban tree canopy in heat islands; and widening riparian boundaries for flood control in the face of climate change.  Stay tuned for more details on this ongoing issue!

An update for Week 34 of 2024

I might add to this post later in the week.  A previous and longer calendar post is at:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/08/summer-came-in-with-buzz-and-whirr-goes.html 

A cold front came through around the 18th and it has been sunny with drier air.  Clear to partly or mostly cloudy or overcast, often at night.  It is mostly cloudy at the end of the 21st.  Scorpius, Sagittarius, the Summer Triangle, Ophiuchus, and Hercules were visible between the bright clouds and haziness yesterday evening, but it was again mostly cloudy by dawn and the Moon was full on the 19th, Monday.  It has been mostly cloudy before dawn recently.  A hurricane or tropical storm went over Bermuda followed by a cold front passing through North Carolina.  It wasn't very windy or wet when the front came through but many small dead branches fell from the oaks around the 17th or 18th.  I saw a large mottled pale gray Carolina mantis nymph around the 17th in the late afternoon.  There was a green [Eastern] pondhawk dragonfly around the 19th or 20th, the first I've seen this year?  After early August dragonflies seem to have become scarce, at least away from water.  The catbirds, dark gray with black, are still around.  I've been hearing but not seeing the usual late summer goldfinches.  There are probably fewer Rudbeckia seeds to bring them down this year, whenever those ripen.  Around 27 black swallowtail caterpillars hatched out on the potted parsley, which will have to be supplemented [counting again on the 23rd, there could be 31 to 35 tiny black and white to greenish caterpillars on a few small parsley plants].  I saw a 2" American lady caterpillar on an Antennnaria around the 18th or 19th.  I noticed a large silken webworm nest on a hickory a few days ago, in seaon.  Many mosquitoes yesterday and today, or maybe it was just the time of day, in the afternoon.  Besides mushrooms, spiders are also more abundant in late summer and fall around here.  Disturbed a or the large robberfly, with prey, about yesterday.  A black and greenish (?) thin fly with mostly dark opaque wings landed on a yellow Hypericum flower a few days ago.  A green longlegged fly on a gray stepping stone rather than a leaf one morning.  Various wasps have been around.  A small brown, yellowish buff, white, and black leafhopper on a dayflower this afternoon.  The somewhat related cicadas seem fewer this week, though they also call less when it is cool or cloudy.  Could it be the work of the large cicada killer wasps, which came out recently?  One came down in front of me with a paralyzed female cicada a few days ago.  I also found a large, pale-colored female cicada with liquified insides and I wondered if that was only due to decay.  

Mars and Jupiter seemed to have moved apart and towards Auriga recently, and the times of sunrise and sunset have changed a lot since mid-July.  It might have been around now last (?) year or in 2022 when the night sky was clear before midnight but seemed noticeably more muddied, even though I looked at it for over an hour and tried to let my eyes adapt to the dark, or as dark as it gets in my area without a major power outage.  [I was with the gray patterned shorthaired cat, not mine, that died in November 2023.  She wasn't really supposed to be outside at night, but I was right there.]

The dead young bullfrog vanished but for the back leg bones.  It was dry, but two relatively large toads were killed on the road, 11-12' apart, at night around the 17-18th.  I found the remains early one the morning, but I might have heard one get killed the evening before.

Two white and blue, two (?) blue, and four purple morning glory (Ipomoea) flowers opened today.  It is cool enough that the blue and purple flowers stayed open all day and after dark, though they faded to become hard to tell apart by color.  A volunteer plant had the first purple flower yesterday and I think there were one or two white and blue flowers.  The orange Nasturtium bloomed again.  A darker red pink crape myrtle began blooming here before the 17th, joining the earlier purplish pink one and several in the neighborhood.  A fragrant white evergreen Gardenia is flowering again, after being cut short by drought around June.  Usually it only blooms once, earlier in the summer.  I just noticed today that a white and dark purplish red rose of Sharon began blooming again by today, with three flowers.  That particular small tree bloomed a lot during the drought, but their blooming season was also curtailed by the drought.  The large female American persimmon is losing many of its leaves early as usual, maybe to show off its usually very abundant, large, and sweet fall-winter fruit, which attracts many animals, day and night, including gray foxes.  At times it fruits so heavily that good-sized branches break.  The pink-flowered milkweed finished blooming around the 19th or 20th and the whitish crab spider left.  A nearby female yellow garden spider remains.  The milkweed might seed this year, possibly for the first time, though it has flowered before.  Or maybe for the second or third time.  There are at least three developing seedpods, from probably near 100 flowers (I did count them, but not all together).  It probably grew from a scattered seed from the NC Botanical Garden.  There are wild and planted milkweeds of a few species in my area, but they aren't very common, especially the large, spreading species (with light pink flowers?) that the orange and black monarch butterflies seem to prefer as a larval foodplant.  Similar looking dogbanes are much more abundant.  I found a ninth sicklepod (Cassia) this week, though most of them are probably too shaded and won't flower much or at all before it gets too cool and dark.  The mosquitoes are out, but it is like fall today, and not in a 'bracing' way.  There will probably be a lot of traffic noise from miles away after dark, because of the weather.  A seasonal wind is supposed to disturb people in California and there is something disturbing about the seasonal highway noise here, though it isn't usually that loud.  I don't mean individual vehicles or the heavy aircraft noise or trains, or the sound of people driving around in circles, etc. (that has mostly stopped in 2024 anyway) or in motorcycle 'gangs' on highways at night.  It could be the associations rather than the actual sound.  

The rabbit has been around most days, including today, and the deer have been browsing.  I saw the white with black spots cat around the 18th or 19th after dark, maybe the first cat I have seen this summer, though there are signs that they are around.  [Thinking about it further, I might have seen that cat across the street earlier in the summer.]  I don't see many cats around now.  Any coyotes?  Three crows were drinking by the road in the morning around the 20th.  A larger adult and two fledglings, or not??  Both common and fish crows might be found in the area, though the smaller fish crows are more of a coastal species.  Large ravens are also found in the Triangle, such as near the Eno in Hillsborough and in Raleigh, but they are rare.  There was mowing east yesterday and south today, and maybe two south.  Edging north of east recently?  Mowing in the west recently?  UNC's fall semester began on the 19th and nearby universities began around the same time.

A fireball over Makurazaki, Kagoshima, in southern Japan at night on August 11th 8:12-8:13pm:  lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com/2024/08/kagoshima-bolide-meteor-11aug2024.html

It was forecast that at the current rate of name changes, by 2532 Sato will be the only family name in Japan:  FT448.

Before May 21, 1942 the Japanese occupation forces reportedy killed a 200+ pound male tiger outside an internment camp in Hong Kong, and its skin is now on display at the Tin Hau temple in Stanley Town, Hong Kong?  WWII information war propaganda? 

In July 2023 unexplained lights were reported at Indian nuclear powerplants and an ISRO facility:  FT448.

"'A magnificent meteor'" like "'a dragon,'" or "'a tapeworm,'" white to dark red, reportedly flew from Perakirchen to Windhag over Austria around 10pm September 27, 1924:  FT448.

Ingo, a flamingo at the Berlin Zoo, passed away before February 9th; he had been there since the mid-50's, but his origins are unknown, other than a ring on a leg saying "Cairo, 23.6.1948:" FT448. 

A 250g chocolate bar from the 2000 Sydney Olympics was found in a store before February 4th; probably still edible:  FT448

Blowing tumbleweed trapped people in South Jordan, near Salt Lake City, Utah March 2nd:  FT448

Wikipedia:  The anniversary of an accidental release of non-native Atlantic salmon from a fish farm on the West Coast was a few days ago.

In the spring a traffic accident killed about 25,000 juvenile chinook salmon from Lookinglass Hatchery and released about 77,000 into Lookinglass Creek in Oregon, and 350-700 will probably return to the Creek to spawn as adults.  The fish had been meant for the Imnaha River:  FT448.

Modernist houses are most common in CA, NY, FL, and NC in this country?  Some have been 'retrofitted' into my community in recent years.

A person only has "an exceptionally good meal" 5-6 times in a lifetime?? – FT448.

August 18th – Mail Order Catalogue Day, from 1872?  Helium was discovered during a solar eclipse August 18, 1868.  August 17, 1590 the Roanoke colony was found to be "lost?"  Black Cat Appreciation Day and World Honey Bee Day?  World Photography Day on the 19th and Internaut Day on the 23rd?  Phil Donahue passed away August 18th.  

fair.org/home/phil-donahue-changed-my-life-and-millions-of-others/

fair.org/home/are-all-yeltsin-critics-quothard-linequot-or-is-that-just-the-u-s-medias-party-line/

fair.org/home/students-left-out-of-discussions-about-student-gaza-protests/

www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/independent-journalists-are-no-longer

Sam Husseini – Biden and the Iraq War:  husseini.substack.com/p/joe-biden-wont-tell-the-truth-about

www.kenklippenstein.com/p/americas-shadow-war-in-ukraine

Drug-adulterated Amanita muscaria mushroom "edibles?"  Potentially very dangerous mushroom entheogens/hallucinogens have become so 'mainstream' or 'normie' that they are mentioned on NPR??  Next up Datura?  

The item below (EI) is not going to be mentioned by the MSM.  The September issue if Fortean Times (FT448) appeared so early, and has an article on the attempted assassination of Trump with so many alleged details I never heard mentioned on NPR, etc.  They stopped talking about it soon after it happened and it vanished like the never really explained Las Vegas, Nevada (?) mass shooting.  Hundreds of bumblebees were found inexplicably dead by a path, in clumps, May 31, 2024 in Golpsie, Sutherland, UK.  Pesticide?  Douglas Mackay said that he saw a "'perfect orange ball,'" like a full Moon but not glowing (?), come from the ocean around 8pm, 50-100' high, fly over the village and climb and vanish near a hospital, over 10-15 seconds in all.  I didn't pay attention, but I wonder if the mainstream media gave as much attention to the RNC as it is giving to the DNC.  I haven't been paying attention to the conventions, but I wonder if they covered the 2024 Democratic Party platform, etc.  The platforms aren't followed in office, but they still matter, such as what the Democrats say, or don't say, about the multi-front war in the Middle East.  There is a very "weird" "vibe" listening to the applause and chanting at the DNC.  On Fresh Air today – Prosecutors or the FBI didn't talk to the media about ongoing cases under the old "norm," and J Edgar Hoover targeted both the left and the right – according to an NBC reporter??  The FBI doesn't want to damage the reputations of innocent people??  Blaming Trump, Tucker Carlson, etc.  "Hyperpartisanship," but their examples are all Republicans.  How many times has Hillary Clinton been on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me?  Former WUNC staffer Asma Khaled (Ozma? Someone else?) says that Walz is better for Harris than Vance is for Trump.  Maybe both of the major party VP candidates are more interesting candidates then their running mates and Walz is a new Dean or Edwards.  Green candidate Jill Stein recently revealed her running mate, probably not mentioned by the MSM.  In general, Hillary Clinton, Pelosi, Biden, and Harris are allegedly suddenly very popular if not charismatic.  The Democrats are going to try to run on a sort of economic populism (with bloody, though maybe not with American blood, for now, hot wars and cold wars abroad and information war in in the NATOland countries)?  WUNC hasn't played Della Mae's Boston Town in a long time.  I have a copy, but I came across it again on YouTube, though it seemed like a different recording.  Berning it down years ago?  It has nothing to do with Bernie Sanders or party politics  though.  Touching on Japan, Maoist China, Soviet cybernetics, ancient Babylonian cuneiform, etc. on YouTube, so I have to avoid spending too much time there.

Today's Electronic Intifada weekly live update on YouTube with, in order, a Professor Maradhi (?) from Tehran; a report on recent resistance actions, weapons, and tactics in Gaza and Lebanon; and discussion of the Democratic Party's new anti-Palestinian and pro-war party platform (though they don't do much with their platforms and then try to make them disappear) and news.  It is about three hours long:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIVpmfCpPXI

Jared Kushner and potential construction in a wild part of coastal Albania:  www.rsn.org/001/jared-kushner-wants-to-turn-a-wild-stretch-of-albania-into-a-luxury-resort.html

Ukraine's invasion of Russia isn't the same as the French or German invasions of Russia, but at the same time, the current invasion and earlier attacks inside Russia and on ethnic Russians in Ukraine might demonstrate that post-2014 coup Ukraine was a serious threat to Russia, as the Russian government claimed.  The Ukrainian government was very hostile to Russia and ethnic Russians, and now it has NATO personnel and weapons, and an "authoritarian" government with no opposition.  Maybe the Ukrainian right will work with the CIA to carry out terrorism and assassinations in the "West" and elsewhere during and after the war, like the CIA's Latin American allies in the 20th century.

In May Estonia accused Russia of GPS jamming in northeastern Europe; Germany kept quiet about its findings:  FT448.  China is currently launching its own sytem.  Russia?

Around 5pm May 20, 2024 several people were hit by lightning by the Elba River in Dresden, Germany.  A very brief and undetected hail at 20,000' destroyed the nose and damaged the windows of an Austrian Airlines Airbus A320 coming into the Vienna Schwechat airport June 9th:  FT448.

Damion Green did not cast a vote for himself in a Rainier, Washington city council election, and lost by one vote:  FT448    

The solar 365 day counting xiuhpohaulli in ancient Mexico (to edit for the fall, but I will probably post again before then.):

Teotleco (Arrival of the Deities), Tepeilhuitl (Feast of the Mountains), Quecholli (Precious Feather = a bird, the roseate spoonbill, a large, rose-colored wading bird sometimes seen in the Carolinas?  Or a quail?), Panquetzaliztli (Raising of the Banners), Atemoztli (Descent of Water), etc.  

Additional events and anniversaries in early winter 2023

This is an addition to the much longer December 1st calendar post at:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2023/12/some-events-and-anniversaries-in-late.html  There is much more I wanted to add here, though this took too long; maybe I will add more later or in another post.

If social media is intentionally addictive and manipulative, what about blogging services?

I inadvertently dug up the black trapdoor spider during some of the coldest weather so far this winter last week, but I tried to put it back in a sheltered location.  It was warmer over the weekend and in late afternoon on the 3rd (?) a large toad was out, maybe a female American toad.  

At one time there was a mistletoe growing on a silver maple on my street, later joined by others in post and Spanish or Southern red oaks, but then there were all lost over a few years to cutting and a hurricane or other storm.  I didn't know of any others in my immediate neighborhood, but several weeks ago I noticed a new mistletoe in the top of another maple, hidden behind a tall, thin Christmas tree-shaped conifer.  Mistletoe is relatively common along streets in urban areas in the Triangle and sometimes around parking lots and bodies of water.  Near a power substation on the north side of downtown Durham there is or was a deciduous tree, probably a small oak, with so much mistletoe that it looked evergreen.  I recently found a mistletoe growing in the top of a fruitless persimmon, an unusual host, near East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill.   Our mistletoe seems to prefer certain maples and oaks.  If mistletoe increases in Durham maybe we will gget more great purple hairstreak butterflies, mistletoe being their larval food.

A reminder that the Redwood City Seed Company in Redwood City, California is going out of business at the end if the year:  ecoseeds.com/

Some meteor showers in December and January:

The Southern Taurids September 28 – December 2, peaking November 4 – 5 and the Northern Taurids October 13 – December 2, peaking November 11 – 12; the Leonids November 3 – December 2, peaking November 17 – 18, maybe with a storm in 2099; the Geminids November 19 – December 24, peaking December 13 – 14; the Ursids December 13 – 24, peaking December 21 – 22; and the Quadrantids December 26 – January 16, peaking January 3 – 4:  amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/ 

New to me – slow and probably very spotty Wirtanen meteors around 11:20 UT December 12th from radiants in southern Sculptor, near alpha Phoenicis and between alpha Pegasi and beta Piscium; 2023 might be a good year for this shower.  These meteors are thought to come from Comet 46P/Wirtanen, a small sort-period comet discovered January 17, 1948 at Lick Observatory in northern California:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/46P/Wirtanen

Asteroid Vesta is visible with binoculars crossing the very top of Orion (an upraised "hand?") and into Taurus this month.  Very dark asteroid 319 Leona will pass in front of or occult the star Betelgeuse, at the top of Orion, December 11-12, seen from the southern tip of Florida, such as Miami:  occultations.org/publications/rasc/2023/nam23MBspecialoccs.htm  

Spica in Virgo, the rapidly waning Moon, and  brilliant Venus are visible in the east before dawn and today I think I saw very bright Arcturus in Bootes coming up over the trees again, after the spring and  summer.

Oakland, California UFO or mysterious airship November 22, 1896. ...

The Eclipse of Phlegon, November 24th in the year 29 CE, might have been recorded in the Bible regarding the crucifixion of Jesus.

A total solar eclipse November 24, 569 CE south of Mecca is thought to be the eclipse referred to in the Quran as occurring before Muhammad was born.

Author CA Burland is supposed to have argued, at the 1956 International Congress of Americanists, held in Paris, that Stele I of El Castillo, a compound in an ancient Maya city near Santa Lucia Cotzumahualpa, recorded a transit of Venus across the Sun November 25 416 CE:  brief reference on page 64 of We Are Not the First:  Riddles of Ancient Science, by Andrew Tomas, 1971-1973

Professor of religion and theology and prominent 9/11 truth author David Ray Griffin was born August 8, 1939 in Wilbur, Washington and passed away recently, November 26, 2022:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ray_Griffin

Spiral petroglyphs at the Loughcrew Cairn L megalithic monument, near Oldcastle, in County Meath, Ireland, are thought to represent the oldest record of a solar eclipse, noting an eclipse on November 30, 3340 BCE:  the October 2023 issue of Astronomy magazine.

There haven't been any arrests over the Moore County, NC power substation attacks a year ago.  I think it was also about year ago that the power went out on a very cold morning in Durham, but in that case it was due to unexpectedly high demand.

Israel's 10,000th air attack on Gaza was December 3rd:  nypost.com/2023/12/03/news/israel-launches-10000th-airstrike-in-gaza-700-people-reported-killed-in-past-24-hours/

legitgov.org/index.php/2023/12/06/the-state-of-texas-media-outlets-sue-u-s-state-dept-for-conspiring-with-newsguard-to-censor-american-media-companies/

justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/george-orwell-call-your-office-state-outsourced-censorship-conservative

An annular solar eclipse December 7, 150 CE had the longest duration of any between 2000 BCE and 3000 CE, at 12 minutes and 23 seconds.

Peruvian president José Pedro Castillo Terrones (born October 19, 1969) was overthrown December 7, 2022.  Pro-Castillo demonstrators were killed in the Ayacucho Massacre December 15, 2022 and the Juliaca Massacre January 9th of this year, etc.  There were demonstrations across Peru on December 7, 2023.

There is uncertainty about how the Aztec and Gregorian calendars should line up; the month of of Panquetzaliztli (Raising of the Banners) might have been November 30th-December 9th:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%81nquetzaliztli , December 6 - December 25, or November 9 - 28:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_calendar ; In The Aztecs (1992) Richard F Townsend gives the dates November 21 to December 10th.  The following month is Atemoztli (Descent of Water).

Japan's IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun), the first successful spacecraft to be propelled by a solar sail, flew by Venus December 8, 2010, 52,100 miles out. 

December 9, 1965 Kecksburg Incident/UFO crash – one investigator in Pennsylvania:  www.stangordon.info/wp/kecksburg/

In Operation Linebacker II the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was heavily bombed (with about the same explosive force as the two nuclear bombs used on Japan) from December 18 - 29, 1972, hitting a hospital, residential areas, dikes, electrical facilities, etc. and killing over one to two thousand civilians just weeks before the Paris Peace Accords were signed to end the Vietnam War ( revcom.us/a/574/american-crime-case-number-34-1972-christmas-bombings-of-north-vietnam-en.html ). 

The last Japanese soldier from WWII (actually Taiwanese) was arrested in Indonesia December 18, 1974, but a Wikipedia article claims others joined communist guerillas in southern Thailand (perhaps this refers to Malaysian guerillas).  This might not be true, though in other cases I think surrendered Japanese soldiers did join local national liberation struggles following WW2. 

The Moon Treaty was signed December 18, 1979, but not by any of the powers capable of human spaceflight.  The Outer Space Treaty was created January 27, 1967 and came into effect October 10th that year.

International Migrants Day is December 18th:  www.un.org/en/observances/migrants-day

There are UN days celebrating several languages, and Arabic Language Day is December 18th:  www.un.org/ar/observances/arabiclanguageday/ , in Arabic.  French Language Day is March 20th:  www.un.org/fr/observances/french-language-day/ , in French.  Chinese Language Day April 20th:  www.un.org/zh/observances/chinese-language-day , in Chinese.

According to The Long Surrender, by Burke Davis, Walter Williams of Houston was the last veteran of the Civil War, dying December 19, 1959 at age 117.  He had served under Confederate General John Hood.  The last Federal veteran was Albert Woolson of Duluth, who died about three years earlier.  According to Wikipedia, the last known widow of a veteran of the Civil War died August 17, 2008, but someone receiving a Civil War pension was still alive more recently.  The last people enslaved prior to Emancipation also probably lived well into the 20th century.  Forced prison labor remains legal (forced labor or not, prisons produce most of the cleaning chemicals used by state entities in North Carolina, such as the state parks; visitors can easily look into cleaning closet in the parks), and people are illegally enslaved in the US today.  

South Carolina was the first state to secede, December 20, 1860, and the Civil War started a few months later.

George HW Bush attacked Panama December 20, 1989, resulting in hundreds to thousands of civilian deaths, including American civilians and a Spanish journalist.  Poor neighborhoods were burned and demolished, thousands were deprived of work, and churches, embassies, unions, and other institutions were violated by searches and seizures ( revcom.us/a/540/american-crime-case-43-the-US-invasion-of-panama-1989-1990-en.html ).  The war also allowed the USA to test what were new weapons at the time, including the Humvee, AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, and the F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter.

Portugal restored Macau to Chinese sovereignty December 20, 1999.

The UN's International Human Solidarity Day is December 20th:  www.un.org/en/observances/human-solidarity-day

The Northern Hemisphere's winter solstice will be Thursday, December 21st in 2023, with the longest night of the year.  The Earth is actually closest to the Sun in the Northern Hemisphere's winter.

Georgian Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet statesman J.V. Stalin (Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili) was born December 21, 1879 or 1878 in Gori, now in the Republic of Georgia, but at the time part of the Tsarist Russian Empire.  Many of his writings are available online at www.marx2mao.com/Stalin/Index.html , www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/decades-index.htm , redstarpublishers.org/  , in Spanish at:  pcmml.org/biblioteca/ , etc.   

Thomas Sankara, called Africa's Che Guevara, was president of Burkina Faso from 1983 until he was assassinated October 15, 1987.  Sankara was born December 21, 1949, in the northern town of Yako, in what was then the French colony of Upper Volta.  Some of his writings are posted at:  www.marxists.org/archive/sankara/index.htm

Alex Saab was born December 21, 1971 in Barranquilla, Colombia.

The Apollo 8 mission was December 21 - 28, 1968, and was the first Saturn V launch with a crew and the first crewed mission to leave Earth orbit and orbit the Moon.  The three crew members, Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders, were the first to visit another celestial body and see the Earth 'rise.'  An influential photo taken on the 24th by Anders might have aided the development of environmental protection movements.

The Cambodian-Vietnamese War, in which Vietnam overthrew the Khmer Rouge government of Democratic Kampuchea, began December 21, 1978.

Soviet statesman Lavrenti Beria was shot December 23, 1953 as Nikita Khrushchev rose to power.  Some of Beria's works are available at www.marxists.org/archive/beria/index.htm and redstarpublishers.org/  For some political and historical analysis of his actions see:  ml-review.ca/aml/index/subject.html

The First Battle of Fort Fisher was December 23-27, 1864.

Christmas is December 25th, a Sunday in 2023.  

The Capricorn astrological period, is conventionally set as the period from December 22nd to January 19th.  Two thousand years ago the Sun actually was 'in' the ancient constellation Capricornus, in late December, but now it is in Sagittarius around the solstice.  Capricornus was imagined between the cosmic water and earth, thus the constellation was a half fish "Sea Goat."  For some reason some label Stalin a Capricorn.

Soldiers organized informal Christmas truces during WWI (especially on the Western Front, but also in the East), especially early in the war (1914) and less so in later years.  In many cases these fraternizing truces were repressed and there might have been cover ups.  

WWI was supposed to be over by Christmas; a war over Serbia became a world war, and today the US elite portrays the potential for war over Ukraine or Taiwan as nothing to worry about.  Are they taking the world towards a global conflagration or are they bluffing?  Soon women might be required to register for the draft, so they can die for US imperialism as well, assuming it takes a while for WWIII to go nuclear on a large scale or maybe by then autonomous swarms of drone will be WMDs.     

Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were executed December 25, 1989

Romanian President and General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party Nicolae Ceaușescu, his wife Elena, Romania's Deputy Prime Minister, and others were captured December 22, 1989.  Whatever their revisionism or alleged crimes, the Ceaușescus were barely given a trial before being executed by firing squad on the 25th (which is apparently also Romania's date for Christmas).  The Romanian Communist Party vanished, but former members continued to run Romania, as happened elsewhere in Eastern Europe and the former USSR.  Apparently the Ceaușescus were the last people killed before Romania abolished the death penalty.

Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics December 25, 1991, one of the last events after years of active destruction and dismantling, not passive, natural, and inevitable "collapse" of the Soviet socialist project.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched from the EU's equatorial spaceport in French Guiana in northeastern South America December 25, 2021, and placed at the distant Earth-Sun Lagrange Point L2.  It is often said that unlike the HST, the JWST can't be reached if there is a problem and apparently it isn't designed for refurbishing, but that shows how little progress there has been in human spaceflight since Apollo, beyond living in space stations orbiting close to the Earth.  Many decades ago there was talking of sending humans to Mars by now, but today the USA is having trouble even getting back to the Moon.  A private mission to the Moon might be launched January 2024.  There has been talk of privately owned spacecraft going to refurbish the HST, in the absence of the Space Shuttle.   

 Sen Katayama, co-founder of the Japanese Communist Party and an official in the Comintern, was born December 26, 1859.  He was also one of the first members of the CPUSA and was also active in Canada and Mexico; he was honored with burial in Moscow's Kremlin Wall Necropolis.  Some of his writings are available at www.marxists.org/archive/katayama/index.htm and there is a book about his legacy at redstarpublishers.org

December 26, 1862, following the Dakota War, 38 Dakota or Dakota Sioux were hung, the largest mass execution in US history.  303 Dakotas were convicted of murder or rape, some in trials lasting less than 5 minutes, and without defense attorneys, but Lincoln commuted the sentences of 264 prisoners and one more received a reprieve.  They were buried in a mass grave, possibly after skin was taken from some of the bodies.  Graverobbers later stole bodies for anatomy specimens.  Except for a group that helped the American settlers, the rest of the Dakota lost their reservation and were exiled from Minnesota over the next few months, and many died during the journey.  Any Dakota found in Minnesota could be killed, with the offer of a $25 dollar bounty.  The unrelated Ho-chunk tribe was also expelled.  Nonetheless some Dakota remained or returned 20 years later.

Chinese revolutionary and statesman Mao Zedong (or Mao Tsetung) was born December 26, 1893 in Hunan Province, People's Republic of China.  Many of his writings are available online at www.marx2mao.com/Mao/Index.html , www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/date-index.htm , foreignlanguages.press , redstarpublishers.org/ , etc.

Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky was born November 23 or 24 in what is now Poltava, Ukraine.  He was appointed as the USSR's ambassador to Spain but passed away December 26, 1933 in France.  In 1932 he represented the USSR at the League of Nations.   

American entomologist E.O. Wilson, known for his work on ants, sociobiology, island biogeography, biodiversity, and the online Encyclopedia of Life, though he was also condemned by the PLP, died December 26, 2021.  He was born June 10, 1929 in Birmingham, Alabama.  

The great Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami / Boxing Day Tsunami/ Sumatra/Andaman Earthquake was December 26, 2004 off northern Sumatra, Indonesia, close to Aceh.

December's Full Moon is Tuesday, December 26th, the "Cold Moon," though in recent years there have often been long periods of warm or mild weather December here and our coldest and snowiest month is January, with the "Wolf Moon."  [Others call January's full Moon the "Cold Moon," with the "Long Nights Moon" in December, the "Mourning Moon" in November, and the "Blood Moon" in October.]  The Moon is a delicate waning crescent in the east before dawn now, amid the constellations of spring evenings, and the dark new Moon will be Tuesday, December 12th.

Colonial Boston Harbor, in Massachusetts, UFOs and voices were reported in March 1639 and again January 18, 1644 and over the following two weeks [from Jim Brandon's Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States, 1978; mentioned by Governor John Winthrop's Journal, etc.] .

A UFO was reportedly seen in Denison, Texas January 25, 1878 [John Martin, a farmer from the Dallas area was hunting and described seeing a "large orange 'object;'" a report from another newspaper was reprinted in the Denison Daily News on the 25th and happened earlier, maybe on the 24th; this supposed to be the first time a UFO was likened to a "saucer;" the term "flying saucer" was coined by the media in 1947, though in that case "saucer" referred to the motion not shape:  Phenomenon:  Forty Years of Flying Saucers, edited by John Spencer and Hilary Evans, 1988 – Amazon makes such 'older' books difficult to find without the exact title, "forty" not 40, etc.]; Denison, next to the northern border with Oklahoma, is the birthplace of Dwight D Eisenhower (October 14, 1890) and Jim Hightower (January 11, 1943).

The shortest solar eclipse between 2000 BCE and 3000 CE was February 3, 919 CE, at 2.5 seconds.

Russia's Znamya-2 space mirror experiment, originally a solar sail experiment, launched October 27, 1992 on Progress M-15, and was successfully deployed near the Mir space station February 4, 1993.  The 20-meter mirror created a 5 kilometer wide spot lit as if by the light of a full Moon, racing at 8 kilometers a second from the south of France to western Russia.  I wonder if anyone was upset by this gigantic light trespass, or was everything prearranged?  I remember that a Russian orbital mirror was covered in Durham's Herald-Sun newspaper at the time.  The satellite was deorbited and burned up over Canada after a few hours.  

February 5, 1999 Znamya-2.5, 25 meters wide and designed to illuminate an area 7 kilometers wide with light equal to five to 10 full Moons was deployed but then damaged before much could be done.  A Znamya-3 60 to 70 meters wide had been planned, but wasn't built.  In a limited way maybe Znamya was going too far and could have erased the night, though these were just experiments.

The NC Botanical Garden's Darwin Day Lecture 2024 will be Monday, February 12th 7-8pm – "Using science-fiction depictions to learn real-world evolution concepts" with Mohamed Noor, a professor of biology, interim vice provost at Duke, and a consultant for Star Trek series:   reg.learningstream.com/reg/event_page.aspx?ek=0005-0014-e26d3b3d83b74d57b1592ecafa675cba

The NCBG will be closed December 23rd to January 1st, except for the natural area trails, Coker Arboretum on the main UNC Campus, etc.

There will be events for Saving Our Savannas: Stories of the Longleaf Pine over six months, starting in January. 

The African-American Legacy in Gardening and Horticulture Symposium March 30th:

Hayti Heritage Center
804 Old Fayetteville Street, Durham NC 27701
March 30, 2024, 10 a.m.
Free and Open to the Public

There is supposed to be some maybe underacknowledged ancient Mexican influence on the Western tradition in gardening, not limited to the foodplants, ornamental flowers, and herbs discovered and grown, if not domesticated, in Mexico and neighboring countries.  The Aztecs had ornamental gardens and city beautification, and zoos.  Some individual pre-Columbian cypress trees and parks still exist in Mexico City.  

People might not be aware that there is such a thing as garden history and national or regional traditions in ornamental gardening.  Trends in gardening can be seen just driving around Durham over the decades.  I've been seeing what might be called "cottagecore" (sic?) and foodscaping in recent years, and it seems very different from how people landscaped a few decades ago; it might even have been declared a violation of local laws not long ago.

The first of 36 solar eclipses recorded in China and noted in Confucius' Chunqiu, or The Spring and Autumn Annals, is thought to have been February 22, 720 BCE.  

The partial solar eclipse closest to total, the diameter of the Moon appeared to be 0.99985 of the Sun's, was March 30, 1578 BCE.  Plutarch made the first known description of the solar corona during a solar eclipse March 20, 71 CE.