Hazy Days - Summer's long warm days erode cold air, reducing the temperature contrast and weakening the polar front and jet stream winds. Haze is a result of less air flow.
Natural wildfires, like the 800+ fires burning in California right now, add increased smoke and pollutants to air which create a very smoky hazy layer of unhealthy air quality.
Jupiter-Mercury Mornings - These two planets are visible in the morning sky. Jupiter will disappear around July 9th, and then Mercury will follow and disappear around July 22nd.
Solstice - Tonight at precisely 23:59 UT, the Sun will be directly above the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere. This is when the Sun is at it's zenith, and the season of Summer officially begins! June 21 will technically be the longest day of the year, or rather having the most amount of sunlight in a single day. For my fellow Sacramentans, this means that sunset will not occur until 8:33pm Saturday.
Solstice Moon - The June full moon (aka Flower Moon) this year is a "Solstice Moon", coming only 2 days before the Summer Solstice. This is significant because the sun and full Moon are like kids on a see-saw; when one is high, the other is low. This week's high solstice Sun gives us a low, horizon-hugging Moon and a strong Moon Illusion. So be sure to go outside around sunset tonight and look towards the east, and you will see an unusually large full moon rising above the horizon. Because our minds automatically assume that objects along the horizon are a greater distance away than objects directly overhead, we are tricked into seeing this illusion of a huge full moon.
Mayfly Bloom - For approximately 2 weeks in mid-June, the emerging mayflies on the Tisza river in Hungary, create an insect carpet on the surface of the water, and then take to the sky creating an amazing cloud of insects swirling over the river. These clouds of mayflies can become so dense and large they have been seen on radar images!
In the United States and Canada, the mayfly can be found on parts of the great lakes where they typically emerge in the Spring or Fall. 
Olympic Flame - How do they light the Olympic flame? Several months before the Olympic games begin, there is an Olympic flame lighting ceremony performed in Olympia, Greece. Actual rays from the Sun ignite the flame by using a parabolic mirror.
Once the flame appears in the (mirror) bowl, a high priestess transfers the flame to a bowl which they use to light a torch. They will then transfer the flame to the first torch bearer and the official 2008 Beijing Olympic torch relay begins, and continues around the world. 
Currently the Olympic torch is in mainland China, and will make it's way around the country before it ends it's world journey at the opening ceremonies at 8pm on 08/08/08 in the Beijing National Stadium (aka Bird's Nest).
Whooper Swan - (Cygnus cygnus) Is a large swan found in the Northern Hemisphere. Whooper swans require large areas of water to live in, especially when they are still growing, because their body weight cannot be supported by their legs for extended periods of time. The whooper swan spends much of its time swimming, straining the water for food, or eating plants that grow on the bottom. Whooper swans have a deep honking call and, despite their size, are powerful fliers. They can migrate many hundreds of miles to their wintering sites in northern Europe and eastern Asia.
Whooper swans pair for life, and their cygnets stay with them all winter; they are sometimes joined by offspring from previous years. Their preferred breeding habitat is wetlands, but semi-domesticated birds will build a nest anywhere close to water. Both the male and female help build the nest, and the male will stand guard over the nest while the female incubates. The female will usually lay 4-7 eggs. The cygnets hatch after about 36 days and have a grey or brown plumage. The cygnets can fly at an age of 120 to 150 days.
