The day · Quebec, Quebec
Dusk · 48 min left
Sun 4.3° below the horizon, in the west · Boreal Forest & Shield
The kind of day it is
High overcast
A lid of cloud over everything. Light is flat and diffuse, shadows are gone, and the whole day behaves like an extended dawn — fish roam shallow, and greens that would bolt in sun hold on.
The whole day is usable. This is the day to cover water and to transplant.
The day, phase by phase
Happening now · 18:56–20:04
1h 8m long
Dusk
Where the sun is this minute. Its highest today: 46°.
The sun is under the horizon but still lighting the sky from below. The ground begins to radiate its heat straight up into a clear sky and cools faster than the air above it.
Where the light lands · Boreal Forest & Shield
The sun is gone but the sky above the treeline is still bright. Down at ground level it is already night.
Up close
Ground-level air cools faster than the air a metre up and the whole forest floor becomes a shallow pool of cold. Moths and mosquitoes lift out of it into the warmer layer above.
The whole landscape
Cold air drains off the ridges into the valleys and river bottoms. On a still clear night the frost will land in the low ground and miss the slope entirely.
In the water now
Walleyebest now
Up on the shoals and weed edges in two to four metres, hunting into the shallows as the light goes.
Largemouth bassbest now
Cruising the weed edges, pads and shallow flats, ambushing anything that moves across the top.
Muskellungebest now
Moving along weed edges and over deep points, often following without taking. The last hour of light is the famous one.
Brook troutbest now
In the riffles and at the heads of pools, taking insects off the surface as the hatch comes off.
Flat light spreads fish out and holds them shallow through the middle of the day.
In the garden now
Ruby-throated hummingbirdbest now
Feeding hardest in the first and last hour — it burns through the night's reserves by dawn and must refuel before dark.
Green lacewingbest now
Adults fly at dusk and through the night; the larvae hunt around the clock and do the real work.
Tomato hornwormbest now
Feeding on the upper leaves, though it is easiest to find at dusk with a UV torch — it glows.
Running the soil surface after dark, taking slugs, cutworms and larvae. One of the best predators a garden has.
The kindest day for transplanting there is, and the safest for sowing.
Sitting this one out
Northern pike · Yellow perch · Bluegill · Arctic grayling · Honey bee · Bumble bees
The full guide
Everything for Quebec this week in one place.
Boreal Forest & Shield
The region this day belongs to, and what lives in it.
The almanac
The year's arc: day length, the moon and the water behind the air.
The week ahead for Quebec
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