The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning
Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
Other creatures in our world
We’re accustomed to seeing geese with goslings and turkeys with chicks around this time of year, but we didn’t realize excavators have a similar breeding season (clicky for more dots):
The adult seems very protective …
Spotted on the Vassar College campus, in front of the dining hall.
A yummy carcass on New Hackensack Rd near Wappinger Falls attracted a pair of vultures, one barely visible on the right just beyond Mary (clicky for more dots):
Half a second later, they’re both airborne and flapping in unison:
The one on the left swooped around the bushes and we both anticipated a collision, but it decided against returning to the carcass until we passed.
Bon appétit!
After several years of seeing few-to-no Monarch butterflies, last year we managed to save a single Monarch egg, raise the caterpillar, and release it:
This year, we’ve seen more, if not many, Monarchs in flight. They’re not abundant, but perhaps there’s hope.
A Monarch evidently laid eggs in our milkweed patch, with at least two offspring surviving:
We decided to let them seek their own destiny; may the odds be ever in their favor …
This parts collection appeared atop the driveway wall, arranged just as shown:
It seems something snagged a large bee (not a honeybee!), ate the contents, and left the wrapper behind. We’ll never know the rest of the story.
Puts one in mind of Turner in Count Zero, though.
Repaving the driveway truncated the roots of a maple tree and, this year, produced a handsome pair of fungii:
Seen from the side, they’re even more complex:
They’re firm and perfectly healthy, but the tree is likely doomed.
A mutual staredown during a utility bike ride:
This is just after noon, when deer should be snoozing, north of Paula’s Public House, with the deer on the creek side of the road. I’m towing the trailer with an empty propane tank, coasting down from 18 mph, and expecting the deer to jump in front of me, because that’s what deer do. It waited patiently until I passed, hopped the guide rail, trotted across the road, then clambered up the steep hillside away from the Mighty Wappinger Creek.
Searching for deer will reveal many more encounters.
A pair of Barred Owls set up housekeeping nearby and we’ve watched them swoop down on rodents in the yard. We hope they succeed in raising their owlets!
This one kept watch on us as we cleared out a dead holly bush near the garden:
I took another picture at +1 EV to show more of the owl’s face; while blowing out the highlights:
Go, owls, go!
Taken with the Sony DSC-H5 and 1.7× teleadapter, because the Pixel phone’s camera just doesn’t have enough moxie at full zoom.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 