The water collected in nasturtium leaves after a shower looks like droplets of mercury:
They refract outdoor lighting when seen from the correct viewpoint:
These were at the Morse Estate. Hand-held with the Canon SX230HS in low light conditions.
Category: Oddities
Who’d’a thunk it?
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Turkey Vultures Afield
We don’t often see Turkey Vultures on the ground, so this gathering was unusual:
Turkey vultures on the ground The depression in the grass suggests something keeled over right there; perhaps they’re rummaging around for leftovers. Although they’re totally graceless on foot, it works well enough for them.
There were two vultures on posts when I stopped, but one joined the ground party before I could deploy the camera. The other bird kept a close eye on me throughout the proceedings:
Turkey vulture on fence post Look alive!
Pix from the Canon SX230HS, zoomed to its optical limit, and certainly not prizewinners…
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Monthly Image: Alien vs. Predator, Backyard Edition
Late August is, as always, the season for giant orb-weaving spiders, one of which spun a web between two tall cactus plants on the patio and greeted us with this sight one morning:
Spider vs. Dragonfly – overview We’re big fans of both spiders and dragonflies, but it was obvious who came out on top in this contest:
Spider vs. Dragonfly – front These things are unimaginably weird:
Spider vs. Dragonfly – bottom detail Even with the spider busy at lunch, she has four eyes to spare. They reflect the flash and appear as white-centered dark dots near the middle of the image:
Spider vs. Dragonfly – many eyes I’m sure the red spinnerets are diagnostic:
Spider vs. Dragonfly – side detail The spider tossed the empty husk over the side, then spent the next two nights and days parked in her lair, presumably digesting that big meal, and didn’t bother repairing the web:
Spider vs. Dragonfly – spider at home She spun a fresh web on the third night and caught a more manageable insect:
Spider with smaller prey All hand-held with the Sony DSC-H5, some with a 2x close-up lens. All the pix are tight crops, crushed to fit my arbitrary 750 pixel maximum and 200 kB size limit. If you need high-res original images for anything, drop me a note; I took far too many pictures of this encounter…
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Mechanical Railroad Switch Actuator: Relic of the Empire
Once upon a time, the current Dutchess Rail Trail was an active railroad line, complete with all the usual switchgear and signals. This relic, abandoned in place near the east entrance to the Walkway Over the Hudson, looks like it changed the direction of motion at a right angle:
DCRT Abandoned Switchgear – rod in tree trunk I think the rod near the top of the picture came from a control lever, with the clevis to the right attached to a rod that moved the switch points.
And, yes, the rod passes right through that tree trunk. The metal gadgetry just in front of the trunk once captured the rod between rollers:
DCRT Abandoned Switchgear – rod in tree trunk – detail The body casting speaks of a bygone age of industrial might:
DCRT Abandoned Switchgear – General Railway Signal Co casting It’s been a long time since the General Railway Signal Company cast that iron in Rochester NY…
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Driveway Drain Debris Clog
Alas, the nice slotted cap I put on the driveway drain can’t handle the amount of debris released by the trees next to the house and above the gutters. I’d removed the thumbscrew to simplify clearing the cap whenever I go for the mail, but that just accentuated the problem:
Driveway drain – fountain The backup must be over a foot of water at the end of the pipe; that fountain emerges from the 1/4 inch hole for the thumbscrew. Fortunately, the slope is large enough that the water (probably) isn’t backing up into the retaining wall footing drain.
When the pine trees toss their dead needles overboard, the cap plugs solid and, minus the screw, blows across the driveway:
Driveway drain – clogged It usually doesn’t roll very far, although I’ve retrieved it halfway to the street.
I still think the chipmunks will move in without a grate blocking the pipe, but I’m unsure how to proceed…
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Survey Registration Number: Faceplant
A giant envelope containing one of those “political surveys” that’s actually a thinly disguised fundraiser arrived, with this confidence-inspiring ID in the upper-right corner:
Survey Registration Number The questions were all examples of false dichotomies.
A pox on their backsides, sez I.
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Public Facilities Maintenance: Progress
A day or so after kvetching about that informal DCRT vehicle entrance to the head planner developing the Dutchess County Master Plan for bicycle & pedestrian facilities, this appeared:
DCRT Overocker Crossing – block on informal entrance Notice the blue electrical junction box on the right? That can’t possibly be a Good Thing… but, so far, it doesn’t seem to bother anybody enough to repair it.
Those missing ADA strips at Grand have been swept out, converting them into rough-bottomed trenches across the trail. At least they’re not quite so slip-prone, even if they’re still a tripping hazard.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 