Hit my critical deadline (by the skin of my teeth), got to go out in public for a business lunch for the first time in YEARS (what was that all about?!), and I passed this test, so now I get to go to my first science fiction convention in about three years.
Ending June strong!
Filed under Fandom, Photography, Travel
Playing for five minutes as I brought the security camera back in.
I knew it would do that, I just didn’t know how easy it would be. The next time I have more than five minutes to play (which I believe I have scheduled for early 2024 right now) I’ll have to play with doing it better, or better yet, weirder!
(If I find a way to open a portal into an alternate dimension, I’m outta here!)
Filed under Photography, Silly Shit
We have a couple of hummingbird feeders out on the back porch, and aside from the hummingbirds, other critters love that sugary water as well.
A couple years ago, the squirrels climbed the porch supports and tried climbing across the vines to get to them. This succeeded in ripping the vines to shreds (it will take years for them to grow back) and smashed the crap out of a couple of feeders (which were never designed to hold the weight of a hyperactive squirrel) but there was so much damage to the vines that there’s no way for that particular problem to repeat.
Ants are always a problem, but since I got new feeders with the built in moats at the top, the ants are held at bay as long as I remember to refill the moats every couple of days. It’s been really hot and really dry and my memory is often distracted, so sometimes the ants get a feast, but that’s on me.
This week we have a new problem.
I had serviced the feeders on Sunday (I only fill them about 20% full and do it every week or two, otherwise the syrup tends to get icky) but noticed one of them was almost empty yesterday, with a great deal spilled out onto the ground. (Yet another feast for the ants until I descended upon them like the Avenging Angel of Death With the Watering Hose, despite our drought.) The feeders don’t normally leak like that unless they’re being seriously disturbed. But what was disturbing them?
Some of the really strong winds can do that and make them start to spill as the feeders get swung about. But the winds have been calm.
The squirrels could do that. But they really don’t have any way to get up there and they’re pretty well fed on the bird seed already.
The house finches? I’ve seen one or two over the years try to make a “carrier landing” and grab onto the perches at the bottom of the feeder, but none of them could drain a whole feeder in one or two days doing that. Plus, they can’t actually eat any of the hummingbird food, their beaks are too large, so even if they think it’s a great idea, it doesn’t work and they give up quickly.
Then I was walking through the kitchen and saw a FLASH of incredibly bright yellow with black accents. A really BIG freakin’ bird. Not condor-sized freakin’ big, but definately crow or raven sized. It went right by the window on the porch, hit the feeder and latched on, swinging like a chandalier in an earthquake, trying to get at the food. That was never going to happen, and a second later when I stepped over to the window to get a better view, it was gone just as fast as it had come.
Oh…
Remember this guy?
I’ve seen these Yellow-headed Blackbirds a handful of times here and they’re now my number one suspect for the hummingbird feeder thieves.
It was blind luck that I happened to see it on Monday. I don’t have the time to sit around and wait and hope to get lucky again. I’m going to have to be more clever.
I moved one of our Nest security cameras out to the back porch, hoping that any motion would trigger an alert. That’s not going to work. They’ve got a very wide angle view and even eight feet from the feeders with three or four hummingbirds flitting about and feeding, they never register the motion or activity. Rabbits in the yard? Ignored. Three squirrels stealing bird seed? Zippo, nada. Me going out to take the trash or get a soda from the spare fridge? I see that my shaved head looks even more stupid from above, but that’s not helpful.
I’ve got some really nice, old-fashioned HD “palm” cams and tripods that can record for a couple hours at a time. Maybe I’ll clean up the mess, refill the feeder, and set up a couple of those right next to the feeders. At worst, maybe I’ll get some nice video of the hummingbirds?
Or catch a bright yellow thief?
After all, I don’t have anything better to do with my time… 🤯😵
One thing that came out of some reflection on the nature of the world last week was that I’m not using any time for recreational reading.
That seemed to be a serious problem. Since most days it seems like I’m skating on thin ice to begin with, what harm could it do to MAKE that time for myself to read for a half hour or so?
So I am, and it seems to be working. Not every day, but most days. With the Hugo Awards coming up and voting due in August, I’m working my way through this year’s nominees, and where necessary, the previous works in a series that lead up to this year’s nominated work.
This is a good thing. I highly recommend it.
The other thing, of course, is wishing a happiest of birthdays (it’s one of those) to the long-suffering wife. I hope you got what you wanted for the day and it didn’t suck.
Filed under Family, Photography
Thinking a bit this weekend about process and goals and methods, priorities and evaluating all of the same. The good news is that I’ve allowed myself (or forced myself, perhaps) to take that time and let my mind wander.
It always seems to come back to “balance” as a lynchpin. When time is tight and deadlines get near, I tend to get ultra focused on the goal. That’s good – but if you get too focused on that goal you can miss other issues and opportunites and get blindsided. Don’t lose track of the big picture. Focusing on landing the plane on the numbers and on the centerline is good, unless you lose sight of the flock of seagulls that you’re about to fly through with negative results.
There’s a thing folks talk about these days called “flow,” where you’re clicking on all cylinders, operating at a higher level, just churning out high quality results like they were flowing magically from your fingertips. I’ve occasionally gotten into the flow, and it is a sweet, sweet feeling. One aspect of it for me is that it’s not stressed or high pressure or tense. When I find the flow I’m relaxed, loose, and totally balanced. Think of a major league baseball pitcher who’s throwing a no-hitter or perfect game and it’s just smooth, like he’s on autopilot and can do no wrong.
But that’s wrong as well. You can’t be on autopilot, you have to have situational awareness, you have to be in control.
Which brought me back to the idea of “focus,’ but in a photographic sense. With my DSLRs, for “normal” photography I often have the camera set to autofocus, which is good and fast and easy most of the time. But I’m finding out that more and more, particularly with things like astrophotography, bird photography when they’re not in a simple location, critter photography where they’re trying to hide like their lives depend on it, then going to manual focus can be critical. Shooting into the shade at the base of the tree with a lizard there trying to look a lot like tree bark can fool the camera’s electronics. Peering into the sunlight and shadows of some lush fruit tree, your camera doesn’t know that you want to focus on that bird-like shape instead of those leaves. And looking at the Moon rising through the pine trees, some sensor and software designed ten or fifteen years ago doesn’t know to ignore the branches and make the Moon as sharp as possible.
This picture and the first one are a matched set, taken seconds apart with different techniques for focusing.
Keep track of your focus, assumptions, and situational awareness. Search for the flow – it’s out there. You can find it.
Filed under Uncategorized
When last we saw our small and zippy avian heroes, there were a bunch of them around but one highly territorial dude which I had named Little Bastard because he constantly drives off all of the others.
So I was surprised to see this hummingbird (a female black-chinned hummingbird? best guess) in the bushes where Little Bastard always roosts.
She stayed back in the shadows, but I’ve seen her zipping around the yard for several days, usually being chased off after a quick hit on one of the feeders.
A week or so later, Little Bastard decided to sit still and pose in the sunbeams penetrating “his” fruit tree.
I think he’s a male Anna’s Hummingbird. The most prominent feature when you see him at the feeder or chasing other hummers away from “his” feeders is that brilliantly red head and chin area.
But as the branches bounced around and he would occasionally be in the sun, the color and iridescence on those feathers was astonishing. Here those “red” feathers seem to be bright yellow.
And here they’re bright orange.
And here it looks like a streak of green starting right under his beak and going downward!
The other really odd thing I saw today was him allowing other hummers at the feeders. At one point I was outside and saw seven or eight in the yard, with three or four feeding at a time while Little Bastard would occasionally chase one or two others around.
Did they figure out a way to gang up on him, letting some serve as decoys while the others feed? Did they finally beat up on him to take back control of the feeders? Or is there some other incomprehensible bit of hummingbird logic going on?
Who knows, but having a bunch of hummingbirds out there every day would be fantastic!
Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography
Yesterday I wrote about “Thriving Amid Adversity” and said
“Yet we do have the ability within us to be like this flower, finding a way to get up when the world knocks us down. We can bring the tiniest bit of beauty and joy to the world, even if it sucks. We can still make it better.”
It was easy to say then, harder to do today.
There’s a fair amount of rage to deal with today. I’m functional, deadlines to keep, places to go, people to piss off, but it’s more autopilot than innovation.
“Be the flower,” I said.
Yeah, right now I might be something with thorns, at best, and I don’t mean a rose, or even a cactus. More like one of those invasive species with the pollen that’s incredibly toxic and the sap that blisters, burns, and blinds.
Tomorrow I’ll see what I can do about channeling that into something productive.
Tonight?
There’s a drought, fourth year. We’ve got some significant watering restrictions outdoors. It’s been hot, pushing into the upper 90’s almost every day for weeks.
The lawn is turning brown. The dirt is hard packed.
Yet my little pal next to the driveway has found a way to thrive. (Assuming I can avoid running him over when I park.)
It’s hard out there for all of us. Politics. The economy. Inflation. Gas prices. COVID. Stress. Uncertainty.
Yet we do have the ability within us to be like this flower, finding a way to get up when the world knocks us down. We can bring the tiniest bit of beauty and joy to the world, even if it sucks. We can still make it better.
Even if you have to fake it. Function follows form.
Filed under Deep Thoughts, Flowers, Paul, Photography
The “June monsoon” is here!
Yesterday afternoon I was watching posts from friends in New Mexico showing their clouds and rain, and last night it was friends in Arizona. Our weather forecast had about a 15% chance of thunderstorms, with scattered heavy showers as a wave of monsoonal moisture swept up from Mexico and Baja.
The local news reports had stories this morning of thunder, lightning, and some downpours in downtown LA, Hollywood, the Pasadena and Glendale areas, all about thirty miles to our east.
There were also flash flood warnings and a couple of small brush fires in Ventura County, about thirty miles to our west. We were in the middle and had — clouds. No rain. No thunder. No lightning. Just, clouds.
Very nice clouds, mind you! Oh, and enough humidity to choke an elephant, very unusual for SoCal.
So throughout the day I periodically went and took a zillion pictures of clouds. The neighbors were pointing and whispering. They no doubt think I’m certifiable, a solid 5150 candidate, standing out in the middle of the street taking pictures of…clouds.
Finally, while I thought we hadn’t gotten a drop, the dirt on the Volvo says otherwise. Due to the severe water restrictions (notice how brown our yard is starting to look in the photos above?) I haven’t washed it in a while. The spots and patterns in the dust tell of some big drops falling, but very, very few of them. It must have rained for about thirty seconds, tops.
Bad drought. Every little bit helps.
Filed under Photography, Weather
A WHOLE NEW BIRD, OUT OF NOWHERE!!
I was just doing the O’Something-Fifty, “my watch just bitched at me” tour of the front yard and I saw something fly into the neighbors’ front yard tree.
The way that it was grabbing onto the side of the trunk and poking at it screamed “woodpecker!” That’s uncommon, but not super rare – we have Downy Woodpeckers around and have seen them here a couple of times a year.
But this didn’t look or act like a Downy, so I tried to get closer without spooking him. I didn’t have my DSLR with me, but the iPhone 13 (as previously noted many a time) is getting pretty fantastic on the camera front, and it’s almost always in my pocket.
This guy wasn’t spooked at all by my getting to within maybe twenty feet on the sidewalk, and I got some really great views.
He made sure I got a good view of the spots and markings on his back and sides.
Then he made sure I had a good view of his chest coloration and profile.
Finally he’s just showing off that red cap. A gorgeous speciman! But what is it?
(Image from Merlin Bird ID app from The Cornell Lab – HIGHLY recommended!)
I was correct, it’s not a Downy Woodpecker, although it’s close. (I was correct again!) It’s a Nuttall’s Woodpecker. The domain and range is correct, the description, the behavior… I think we have a winner!
For someone who spends so much time looking at birds, this was a great surprise and a wonderful find. I hope it sticks around for a while so I can get pictures with the big glass and camera!
Filed under Birds, Photography
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