If only Little Bastard would share!
The feeder can easily handle eight or more hummers, but it’s rare to see two there because he chases them off. Very territorial!
I do wonder if the others are smart enough to gang up on him. It does seem that sometimes a half dozen or more will swoop in and take turns distracting him while the rest grab a quick bite. I have doubts that they’re really strategizing and planning. They’re beautiful to look at , but their brains are only theeeeeese 🤏🏻 big!
Filed under Birds, Photography
“Assistance” in this case being ibuprofen.
Two thoughts:
Something simple, like getting up from my desk or chair and walking to the bathroom or kitchen, is one of those simple things in life right up to the point where you can’t do it without being in enough pain that you want to scream and/or pass out. When you get enough “assistance” to be able to do it again at about 75% functionality, even that’s just a joy.
I’ll be fine. It’s just a muscle sprain of some sort. They ran tests to make sure it wasn’t something more serious. Having done that, it’s a RICE routine, “assistance,” come back if any of these horrible things happen, and give us a call if it’s not better in a week or two.
Okey dokey!
I hope that your week is going better than mine. “Adventure” is good, but if I’m going to be in that much pain I want to have done something exciting, stupid, forbidden, evil, sinful, ill advised, or all of the above to remember and savor in return for the punishment and consequences. The fact that it was a day ending in “y” is not sufficient!
Some days, in addition to already being Mondays (I mean, jeeze!!), throw in extra roadblocks.
Like, significant pain every time you try to move or walk.
Like, three and a half hours in Urgent Care.
So if there was barely enough time to get things done before that particular pile hit the fan, there sure wasn’t time left over after.
And there most certainly isn’t a lot of time to think great thoughts and pontificate in a blog post.
So here’s a couple of “spare” pictures from Saturday night at the Music Center.
“Peter Pan Goes Wrong” was hilarious and spectacular, by the way. See it if you can.
While this season is over for us at the Ahmanson, next season’s subscription has already been secured, starting in December. In between, next month, we’ll be seeing the return of “Hadestown” because it was just so stinkin’ fine last year.
I’m going to go take some pain meds, slap on an ice pack, and feel sorry for myself. (I’m fine, just some sort of unexplained muscle sprain. Getting old sucks. But beats the alternative. Barely.)
Filed under Entertainment, Health, Photography
You might have seen some news or social media coverage of a comet that’s currently visible (barely) for just another couple of days. It’s Comet Nishimura (C/2023 P1) and if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere you might be able to see it in the morning sky just before sunrise for about the next two days. But heads up, that’s a BIG “might.”
Comet Nishimura is getting very close to the Sun, so the time it rises is just before the Sun rises, which means the sky is getting brighter and the dim comet is getting harder to see. On the other hand, the comet is also getting brighter, so it’s something of a race between the competing factors.
It will help a lot if you have a dark sky, so get away from the bright lights of your city. Of course you’ll need a sky that’s clear of clouds.
Comet Nishimura is rising about 5:AM local time now. The easiest way to track it is this iPhone app, which does nothing at all except show you where the comet is.
After September 12th the comet will be past the Sun from Earth’s viewpoint and will be in the evening sky, but only if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s very Northern Hemispheric-centric for the news and social media to say that it’s “gone” after that, but when was accuracy or the facts important to modern mainstream media, let alone social media clickbait sources?
I tried to go out to see the comet two days ago, on the morning of September 8th, but had no luck.
(Image from Comet Nishimura app)
This is a wide angle view from the 8th – as you can see, at 04:55 the comet was just rising. That however also assumes a flat horizon, which I don’t have, in addition to being in Los Angeles with all of its light pollution.
If you go out to look in the next couple of days the things you’ll notice that aren’t shown on the Comet Nishimura app are the Moon (dead center here, also moving closer to the Sun from our POV, at New Moon on the 14th), Venus (brilliant at the bottom, near the horizon), and Jupiter (very bright up at the top). This is just a marginal photo on my iPhone, but if you blow it up you can easily see Castor and Pollux just to the lower left of the moon and also in the Comet Nishimura app star map. That should let you orient yourself.
As you can tell, even if the comet had risen and could be seen through the marine layer haze and light pollution, there’s a big tree on the non-flat horizon where the comet’s supposed to be rising.
(Image from Comet Nishimura app)
Still no joy, even though I’ve moved to where I can peek through the gap between the trees and the house. If there was a comet or any sign of its tail there poking up over the horizon I couldn’t see it either with the naked eye or with my binoculars.
I hope you have better luck if you go comet hunting tonight or tomorrow! (Or if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere!)
Filed under Astronomy, Photography
It’s been a good one, highlighted by spectacular productions of “1776” and “Into The Woods.”
Tonight we finish with “Peter Pan Goes Wrong,” which promises to be raucous.
It’s twenty minutes before we start but there are folks wandering around the audience yelling at folks, which is unusual, even for LA…
Filed under Entertainment, Los Angeles, Photography
Of crows, of course!
Most sources say that you need three or more crows to constitute a murder. One is just a crow, two is just an attempted murder.
One source said you need at least four, since three is obviously just a CROWd…
Cheese it! The cops! Or, at least, that weird guy with the camera.
By any definition, we had enough. There were at least eighteen in the tree, plus another ten to fifteen soaring and circling above.
That tree is normally where the local Great Horned Owls hang out. This was just after sunset, so it’s not unlikely that there’s a connection. I’m sure those owls think that crows are good eatin’. If I’m a crow in the owls’ tree and they want it, I’ll find someplace else to perch!
Filed under Birds, Photography
Mockingbird.
I think it’s a juvenile. The coloration is a bit different than normal, but the Merlin app says it’s a mockingbird when it sounds off.
It might even be one of the fledgelings from the bush near our front door. They don’t, unfortunately, wear name tags.
This guy was judging me. I was getting a major stink eye exam and I got a strong vibe that I was not welcome in my own yard.
I finally left via the driveway in order to give them their space. It was not the kind of day when I needed a fledgling mockingbird trying to peck out an eye without any explanation. Discretion, valor, all of that…
Filed under Birds, Photography
Thirty-seven thousand feet is a pretty great place to be taking pictures.
Sometimes, if you’re prepared and really, really lucky, you can see truly amazing things.
I absolutely do NOT understand how folks can fly with the window shade shut all of the time.
Filed under Flying, Photography, Travel
Outside of my bathroom window is a hibiscus plant which I’ve shared before. One morning recently I found that one of the large, flaming red hibiscus flowers had turned away from the sun and was pressed up against the glass. With the sun streaming directly in through the window (as you migh surmise, I am NOT an early riser) the intensity of the red flower and green leaves, broken up by the thousands of tiny prisms in the bathroom window glass, was almost overwhelming.
It was incredible how rich the colors were. I had to delay my shower while I grabbed my phone to take pictures.
A) This behavior should not surprise anyone who’s known me for more than thirty seconds.
B) No, I was not high on any artificial substances, legal or otherwise. It was just life, maaaaaaan…
Seriously – pay attention to the really bright colors out there, the hues that are screaming at you to be noticed.
And maybe clean the bathroom windows just a little bit more often. (Duly noted!)
Filed under Flowers, Photography
The word “planet” comes from the Greek word for “wanderer” and indicated that the “star” in question wasn’t fixed, but instead moved relative to the other stars.
In our western, sunset sky we often see bright planets. Search this site for “conjunction” or “Venus” and you’ll find plenty of pictures. So I wasn’t surprised to go out the front door the other day and see something bright just above the horizon.
See it? Just to the right of the batch of palm trees, between the mountain (Castle Peak) and the lowest cable? Here’s a close up.
Not bright enough to be Venus. And wait… Venus is in the morning sky, not the evening sky. Jupiter might be that bright in the sunset sky, but it rises around midnight these days.
So what is it?
Well, around here, the way to check for the next most likely object is to wait a minute. Is it “wandering” toward the horizon as the planet rotates, or is it “wandering” in the wrong direction and a bit faster than anything ever seen by the Greeks?
Right. It’s moving too slow to be the ISS (although the direction fits) but shortly after this picture was taken it got close enough overhead to see the other green and red navigation lights.
The new LED navigation and landing lights are really bright. When I first saw him he was probably out to the west of the 23 Freeway, near the edge of this image or even somewhere off to the left, just climbing out of CMA.
Wandering, yes. A star, no.
Filed under Astronomy, Flying, Photography, Sunsets
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We Love The Stars Too Fondly 