It’s finally arrived after days of anticipation – the first big rain of the season in SoCal. Here – enjoy sixty seconds of the cool (47°F), dark, sounds of the rain in the back yard:
Fine Feathered Friends – January 27th
So, now that we have some time to breathe, and even more importantly, breathe OUT and not just keep inflating ourselves and building toward a point where we pop like a balloon (a horrible, bloody, gory, ‘splody meat balloon), I’ve noticed a few new visitors to the yard. Or, at least, I’m getting better at catching them on camera and the Cornell Lab Merlin app for IDing birds is a pretty neat tool for making the identification.
This guy was in the front yard last week (you can tell it was last week, because the sun was out) and while I knew he was some sort of sparrow (probably)…
…the markings on his head made me think that he wasn’t a common sparrow.
Merlin ID’d him as a White-crowned Sparrow. See, he looks impressed that I figured it out!
Actually, I think that these birds only have one thought when I’m taking their picture, and that’s, “LEAVE ME ALONE, I’M EATING! Do I bother you when you’re trying to catch or find your dinner and eat it?!”
Fair point.
But it’s my yard, so get over it.
Filed under Critters, Photography
Random Old Photos – January 26th
Almost eight years ago. Coincidentally the same trip when I took the picture that became the header photo for this site a month later (and still is).
Angels spring training in Arizona, this game at Tempe Diablo Stadium. In back of the field there’s a big hillside. Personally, I would rather pay the $10 (or whatever) to sit in a seat and have access to food, drinks, bathrooms, and a decent view rather be up with the rattlesnakes and scorpions (a decidedly non-zero probability in those parts), but that’s just me.
It’s also weird looking at these pictures (and I’ve been noticing it a lot in videos of all sorts of sporting events from previous years) and seeing no one even dreaming of wearing a mask or practicing social distancing.
I doubt we’ll see that opportunity for spring training in March of this year.
Well, belay that. It is Arizona, and they haven’t been real strict about COVID restrictions. There’s a reason that the San Francisco 49er’s played their last few games out of Phoenix, and the San Jose Sharks are right now playing their “home” games there. It’s possible that for spring training in seven or eight weeks they’ll have some fans in the stands.
We won’t be among them, even if it is “legal.” If the last four years have taught us anything, there’s often a world of difference between “legal” and “smart.” And in those cases, “legal” can also lead to “dead.”
Even if the rattlesnake doesn’t bite you on the leg while you’re traipsing through the desert mountainside in shorts and flip-flops.
Filed under Los Angeles, Photography
Art – January 25th
Too cold for real world scuba diving in LA today, so with the help of Photoshop, we’ll go there virtually.
Sort of.
Deadlines have been met. Accomplishments have been recorded. Credit has been bestowed.
Damn, I’m tired.
Filed under Art
Erratum – January 24th
In the past two days I have posted pictures, taken both during the day and at night, showing the tall, thin, coniferous trees in our front yard being blown hard by the wind. I have erroneously referred to them as “cedar” tress, even going so far as to use that term in the title of yesterday’s post.
Thanks to the diligent eye for detail and gentle words of correction from The Long Suffering Wife, I know now that these are not cedar trees – they’re Italian cypress trees.
I stand corrected, and regret the error.
On the other hand, in order to maintain a properly petty and sarcastic tone, I would not that no one, not even the omnipotent and omniscient Google is 100% correct, even on this subject. While researching these facts Google offered a link to “Italian cypress trees near me,” which did NOT mention the ones not fifty feet away from here.
They don’t know everything.
Yet.
Filed under Castle Willett
Same, Cedars! Same
The cedar trees were bent over pretty well in some stiff winds before the rain and snow moved in.
I know the feeling.
Same, cedars! Same. Bend, but don’t break.
But that’s a lot of bending. It’s been a long couple of weeks.
A day off, or five, would be nice. But not yet. “…miles to go before I sleep,” and all of that jazz.
Wait – did I say “snow?” Don’t I live in Los Angeles? Like, in the city, not up in the mountains?
Yes, and we didn’t get any snow here. (Yet.) We’re at 1,078 feet elevation and it’s only predicted to get “below 2,000 feet.” Which means that the Grapevine on I-5 (4,160′) going up to NorCal will be a mess, as will the I-15 (3,776′) headed out to Las Vegas. In addition, we all know that the San Gabriel mountains here in LA County go up to well over 10,000′, so there’s snow there all the time in the winter. (People are often amazed that there are ski resorts within a 60-90 minute drive of downtown LA.)
Remember Mount Wilson and the cameras we watched last summer with the brush fires there?
(Image from the HPWREN cameras on Mount Wilson, run by UC San Diego.)
It’s a freakin’ winter wonderland up there.
But closer to home? Places where you don’t normally get snow that often, maybe once a decade or less? Like, Malibu? You know, going through the Santa Monica Mountains between the San Fernando Valley (where I am) and the beach (where Malibu and Pepperdine University are)?
The tallest peak in Calabasas is 2,163′ and the tallest in the Santa Monicas is out in Ventura County at 3,114′. There are the canyon roads that run through there – twisty, turny, two lanes, can be fun, can be a nightmare if there’s an accident or landslide or rocks in the road or a brush fire? Topanga Canyon? Malibu Canyon? A bunch of those roads at their peaks go over 2,000’…
I would love to stay up all night to see if we get a dusting here so that I could go out in the yard and make a two-inch tall snowman – but I’m going to collapse and get some sleep instead.
Filed under Los Angeles, Photography, Weather
ISS Sailing Upwind
On Wednesday night, two nights ago, there was a pretty nice ISS pass scheduled. On the one hand, it was the last good one for a while. On the other hand, it was partially cloudy with a storm moving in and WINDY AS HELL!!! By which I mean that when setting up I twice had to grab the tripod to keep it from going over, and it was set firmly on level ground, not on a slope or with any other issue. And it’s not a cheap, flimsy tripod either.
I wasn’t at all sure that I would even see the ISS at all and I wasn’t having fun out in the wind. But I just (finally!) got some really great results in capturing the ISS, so I wanted to see if I could duplicate them. So, what the heck? Try it! What have I got to lose, right? Disc space and memory are dirt cheap, it’s not like I was shooting on film. So, holding down the tripod with one hand, triggering the remote with the other, hoping that the wind and my holding down the camera wasn’t jiggling everything too much, I set out to see if I got lucky.
Blow that sucker up to full sized to see it in all its glory. ISS is coming from the lower left (you can see it just starting to clear the horizon, actually in the bare branches of the tree across the street) toward the upper right through the cross of Cygnus. If you look at it full-sized you can also tell which way is north by comparing the start trails (almost five minutes long) on the left and on the right. North is to the right – the star trails there are much shorter since they’re near the pole.
Swinging around to the north, we see the ISS fading toward the horizon and fading to black in the very last frame. And speaking of star trails (there’s only about a minute’s worth in this picture) that bright star right near the start of the ISS trail is Polaris, the north star. It’s not trailing at all, because as the Earth spins it appears to stand still in the sky. But all of the stars around it will trail, some that way, some this, all in a circle around Polaris.
Another thing I noticed:
In this individual frame the ISS is crystal clear, as is the roof on the house across the street, and the telephone pole on the left. The image is in focus. But those tall palm trees in the lower center? Nope, they were whipping all over the place during this five-second exposure and they’re blurry as hell.
Ditto for this single frame looking north. Telephone pole and our roof in good, sharp focus. The cedar trees were having and E-ticket night with those winds.
I guess that I’m glad I gave it shot!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space
Guess Who Came Back To Visit?!
It Doctor Lizardo!!!
I was taking trash out to the curb and there he was, in his usual spot under the Volvo, right where he can catch rays and be on the hot concrete, but also able to scurry to cover in a heartbeat if needed.
When last we saw our lizard hero, just a couple days before Halloween…
You can see that he’s re-grown that tail quite nicely!
How can I be sure that it’s the same lizard? Well I guess I can’t be 1,000,000% sure, but if you look at the October picture (and other earlier ones) and this one, it sure looks to me like the same markings.
I can’t count each individual scale, but if you look at the banding and patterns, as well as the pattern of green spots sprinkled in along his tail stump, my money says it’s him. Plus, he was in the same place he always sits, and most importantly, when I saw him and went and got my camera and started talking to him and getting close, he didn’t skitter away. All of the other lizards we’ve had in the yard, especially the little, young ones, will bail out in a hot second if they think you’re coming in their direction.
It was up in the 70’s and warm today, and there were a few days last week when it was in the 80’s. On the other hand, I haven’t seen the good doctor here since mid-November. I gave him a warning, which I hope he heeded – there’s cold weather & rain coming for tomorrow and at least the next couple of weeks. I’m glad he got some rays and probably some ants or a cricket for lunch, but I hope he’s now gone back into hibernation for a while.
I’ll keep his spot under the Volvo ready for when spring comes along. Sleep well, Doctor Lizardo!!
Filed under Critters, Photography
That’s Better
That’s much, MUCH better.
There’s no magic wand to make the pandemic go away, or to change the fact that for four years the white supremacist evil in our society has crawled out from under its rock to challenge our democracy. But we have adults in charge now – honest, intelligent, rational adults. That’s a big step in the right direction.
A day of celebration! And then back to work.
Filed under Photography, Politics
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
A few days ago I mentioned a YouTube webcam site called “Hundreds of Hummingbirds.” Normally during the day it looks like this:
But I’ve noticed a couple of times that something’s wrong:
Over there on the right – that’s not a hummingbird. It’s a house finch, like the ones we watched build a nest, lay eggs, and raise fledglings last year.
I guess he figures if he can do the “carrier landing” he deserves a meal. Unlike the hummingbirds, which come in and hover to land, the finch comes in like a bat out of hell and just grabs on. Once in the area they’ll jump from feeder to feeder to feeder, each time going from hole to hole to hole. And I suspect due to the short, thick beak, it’s not getting any food at all since the holes are long and thin and designed for the hummingbird’s beak.
But they keep trying. I guess they figure if all of those other birds are there eating there must be something there to eat. Well… yes and no? Hope springs eternal – I see them there once or twice a day every day.
Speaking of hope springing… It’s about nine hours to go before the next era in American politics begins. Let’s hope that things go peacefully, smoothly, and we can get on with our lives.
Literally.
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 