August 12, 2023 · 21:47

Red Tail Hawk Pair & Prey

I heard the red-tailed hawks calling on Thursday and went out, expecting to find a pair circling out over Valley Circle. Instead I found two pairs. They were off a ways so I just watched until one pair again landed in this tall Italian cypress tree. It’s the same tree where a hawk (quite possibly one of these two) was sitting before swooping down right next to me to attack the mockingbird nest by our front door. I’m wondering now if the other two hawks that were originally with this pair weren’t their offspring from this nest this spring – but I digress.

I couldn’t help but noticing that in front of me on the wires bringing power, internet, and phone to the neighborhood there were a half dozen or more big, fat mourning doves, as well as a few mockingbirds and that Cassin’s Kingbird that I finally ID’d. Since the hawk pair had apparently been hunting and I hadn’t seen them bring anything back to the (presumed) nest, I was thinking that if I were one of those big, fat mourning doves, I might be more worried about the presence of those two big, fast, hungry hawks.

The mourning doves however either knew something I didn’t (possible!) or are just really stupid (probable!) and didn’t pay any attention at all. I’ve seen one get taken out by a hawk several times from a perch on these wires, it’s spectacular. The hawk tucks and goes into a high-speed dive like a fighter jet, extends its talons at the last second, and *poof!*, they’re half a block away in a heartbeat and all that’s left is a cloud of feathers drifting toward the ground. A real world “sneak pass,” just with more fatal results for the mourning dove than the crowd at an airshow gets from that Navy Blue Angel F-18 that you lost track of.

One of the hawks (the male?) finally launched off down into the canyon, presumably to bring back an unsuspecting squirrel or dove.

I hope if we end up finding our “forever home” soon up in the high desert or Antelope Valley we have a nice assortment of birds there as well, particularly the raptors.

 

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Filed under Birds, Photography

August 11, 2023 · 23:36

Fine Feathered Friends – August 11th

Taking pictures of hawks and other birds near sunset yesterday, I originally thought this was a mockingbird. We’re lousy with mockingbirds this summer (including this nest which gave us three more) and there were a couple others sitting on the wires nearby.

But something wasn’t right for a mockingbird. The beak’s wrong, for one.

And when he turned I could see some yellow color on his belly, which definitely rules out a mockingbird. So maybe it’s related to one of the hooded orioles that comes around sometimes?

But while they’re yellow on the belly, they’re also yellow on the back, tail, and head . So what was it?

Yeah, not a mockingbird, not an oriole. The August mystery bird! Maybe the Merlin app from Cornell University can help?

(Image: Merlin Bird ID app)

And that makes sense, because I recognize that name! The Merlin Bird ID app also has an excellent function for IDing birdsong, and late last year it had ID’d one of these!

(Image: Merlin Bird ID app)

There are a handful of species that the app has heard but I haven’t seen or photographed yet. Check one off of that list!

The fact that I last got a hit on this song almost ten months ago makes me think that it’s migratory and this is just the time of year for it to be passing through. Lucky me to catch it as it was in the area!

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Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography

August 10, 2023 · 23:58

Doing Its Best

When I was out watching and filming the Falcon 9 launch the other night, I also had my DSLR with the big lens, just in case the opportunity came up to use it. I tried to take one picture but it was immediately obvious that it wasn’t going to work. Because it was so dark the camera automatically tried to take about a 60-second exposure, I didn’t have a tripod, the handheld shot was going to be blurred and useless, so I just let the camera go and hang by the neck strap for the final fifty or so seconds.

It turned out remarkably interesting and even borderline beautiful!

The brave little robot camera, having been given an order by me, its mentor, boldly went forward to do its very best to comply and produce what it had been asked to.

In the upper left corner, I believe that’s the Falcon 9 rocket. And all of the arcs and lines? I have no clue. Probably street lights, maybe a plane overhead, maybe lights on nearby houses as the camera swung. Who knows?

But all together? Sublime.

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Filed under Art, Paul, Photography, Space

August 9, 2023 · 23:34

A Pretty Pathetic Monsoon

Yesterday I pointed out that we had a chance of getting some monsoonal rain, but I wasn’t optimistic that it would come to pass.

In fact we got about three minutes of rain, enough to stir up all of the dust and turn it to mud, and give us a whiff of petrichor.

But that was it!

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Filed under Photography, Weather

August 8, 2023 · 22:57

Skyscape – August 08th

Some moisture moving in.

They were talking about a 40% chance of rain for the next three days, but now of course, it’s down to just a 24% chance on Thursday and 11% chance on Friday.

The odds of winning tonight’s $1.55B Lottery are starting to look better and batter in comparison. But at least the passing clouds are cooling it down out of the high 90’s into the low 80’s.

Any port in a storm!

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Filed under Photography, Weather

August 7, 2023 · 22:00

Tonight’s Falcon 9 Launch Out Of Vandenberg

I was hoping that tonight’s Falcon 9 launch out of Vandenberg would be soon enough after sunset so that we would get a spectacular “jellyfish” effect. That’s when the huge cloud of turbulent gas being released by the rocket engines is high enough to still be in the light of the sun, while down below we’re in darkness already. It’s really, REALLY cool! (Like this one from December, 2017!)

Tonight – close, no cigar.

Oh, I saw the launch, it was great! Clear as a bell here, so I could follow the second stage for over five minutes as it headed toward the southern horizon, out over the San Fernando Valley:

And the video I got as it came up over the mountains to the west and climbed toward MECO (Main Engine Cut Off) was decent:

But it would be nice to get to see a couple of launches close up. Like, as close as I can get without either being arrested or pulped by the acoustic energy.

Of course, ultimately I would like a seat on the pointy end… One step at a time.

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Filed under Photography, Space, Video

August 6, 2023 · 23:39

Thank You Sirius XM & Pandora

It’s been a long weekend with considerable room for improvement. Deadlines loom, time is short, my butt is starting to drag. Headphones on, listening to my “Erasure” Pandora Station channel on Sirius XM. It’s fine, I’m hanging in there, but I could really use…

(Image: Siriux XM app)

YEAH! That’s the ticket!

Later I stumbled across a channel that I hadn’t seen before. It might be only on the app, not on the car radio, and it might be temporary, but if yu can get it, look for the “Classic Rock Top 1000 Countdown.” I like a really, REALLY eclectic playlist and their definition of “Classic Rock” here seems to come from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, so it’s pretty eclectic. It’s not perfect since I’m not a huge fan of every group in the R&RHoF, but the last few songs have been Led Zepplin, Edgar Winter, Paul Simon, AC/DC, The Who, Jackson Brown, Prince, and Steely Dan.

Music, FTW!!

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Filed under Music, Paul

August 5, 2023 · 23:47

Dear Apple iPhone Design Team

The odds of anyone from the Applie iPhone 16 or 17 design teams reading this site are low – but they’re not zero! So just in case, here’s a request.

Can we please get a stylus we can use on the iPhone? At least on the Max Pro models with the big screens?

Some of us are getting older and not quite as dexterous as we used to be, and some of us have fat fingers to boot. It’s so much easier to use a nice, pointy, pen-like stylus than stab at virtual keyboards with the aforementioned fat fingers.

Even better if it’s the same stylus I already have for my iPad! I use the CRAP out of that wonderful device, it makes life so much easier!

Maybe the option of something like I used to use on an early something or the other – it might have been a Blackberry? It looked like a normal, retractable ballpoint pen, but when you clicked on it you got a stylus instead. Make that a stylus that will work on both the iPhone and the iPad? SOLD!!

Just a suggstion, if anyone’s listening. (You can send my royalties and free equipment thank you gifts to me here care of the site!)

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Filed under Computers, Paul, Photography

August 4, 2023 · 22:32

White-lined Sphinx Moth

Tonight’s visitor when I went out to check on the lawn sprinklers:

Not camoflouged real well up there in the bright light and all alone on the big, off-white, stucco wall.

(Image: Seek app)

The Seek app on the iPhone had no problem identifying it as a White-lined Sphinx moth. While they say these moths “are sometimes referred to as the hummingbird moth because of their bird-like size,” I can guarantee it wasn’t as big as any of the several species of hummingbirds I have in the yard. It’s a big moth, but we’ve seen bigger. (This one from April looks to have been the same species, but it was about 20% to 30% bigger.)

It’s pretty enough though. Just watch out for the mockingbirds! Their nest (now abandoned, as the three little ones fledged while we were in Winnipeg in July) is just a couple feet away.

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Filed under Critters, Photography

August 3, 2023 · 22:58

I Hate Plumbing

My father grew up on a farm and it was sort of the job description to be “handy,” able to do lots of different mechanical and handiman jobs. Everything from woodworking, plumbing, electrical, painting, engine repair and body work on the car – it had to be quite the significant or highly specialized task before he would just pay someone else to do it. Needless to say, I got tutored on all of these things, and while some of it stuck, the results varied. While we visited my grandfather’s farm for a couple of weeks here and there over the summer, I did *NOT* grow up on a farm.

One lesson I remember very distinctly, something I heard him say every time we were elbow deep in some array of pipes and drains and fixtures – “I hate plumbing!” That one I learned pretty well.

One guiding principle in my approach to plumbing repairs comes from astronaut Chris Hadfield. I don’t remember the exact quote, but the gist of it is, “First, don’t make it worse.” Meaning, I’m sure I could hire a plumber to fix this for $500 to $700 (hopefully not too much more) but if I had the correct $5 part I think I could probably fix it myself, but in the process of disassembling and attempting to repair and attempting to reassemble, don’t turn it into a $2,000 repair.

So far, I think I’m still good. But I haven’t been able to find that $5 part, and there are a zillion of these valves and they’re all different manufacturers and sizes and models and they’re all 1000% NON-interchangeable and the best way to get what I need is to shut off the water to the house, pull this sucker out, take it to the plumbing supply place, and let them ID it and sell me the $60 full replacement that includes the $5 part that I need, then go home and reverse the entire process.

It seems straightforward but there are so many places in there where I’m wandering further and further into “WTF am I doing?” and “I have no idea what to do next, but now the water’s off” and then I’m calling that plumber on a weekend and *POOF!*, $2,000 is gone!

I hate plumbing.

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Filed under Castle Willett, Paul, Photography