The Backyard Scientist

As my friend Betty and I have mentioned earlier, it has rained more than average this summer.  "So," I thought the other day, "if it rained so much last night, why is the birdbath not full this morning?"

Did birds get up even earlier than I and drink or splash out some of the water before I saw it?  Did the rain (or hail, on some occasions*) hit the surface of the water so hard that more splashed out than was added?  Did the humidity drop rapidly after the rain, such that the water evaporated?  Then I wondered about later in the day.  How would temperature, humidity, or wind affect evaporation?  How much do birds of varying sizes drink?  How much water do birds of varying sizes splash about?  Will a birdbath in full sun evaporate more quickly than one which is shaded by a tree?  Is there a formula that can be created to calculate this phenomenon, accounting for bird number, size, and frequency?

It's too bad my brain isn't competent at processing physics because that sounds like a darn good topic for a PhD dissertation.


* When I moved to NM and started college, it hailed twice during my freshman year -- the same number of times it hailed during my entire life (18 years, at that point) growing up in NJ.  Just this summer, it has hailed four times or more.  It's too bad that college didn't teach me how to use my weather powers.  Maybe I should found a school for that:  the Fogwarts School of Witchcraft and Weather Wizardry.