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
This resembles nothing so much as a “developing country” shipbreaking operation:
For all I know, the ants haul the carcass into position, blow the scuttling charges to loosen the armor, and sink it in a convenient spot on the driveway:
The hulk vanished later in the day.
This is the season for staghorn beetles; the one we spotted a few years ago was in much better condition.
The original owner of our house positioned two blue plastic barrels along the driveway, filled with salt for ice melting. We’ve neither used the salt (a snowblower suffices for most storms) nor removed the barrels; they’ve been in those spots for at least three decades.
Many critters pause in front of the barrels:
Those who fit often hop inside:
We’re pleased to provide public salt licks!
We often see Red Tailed Hawks circling high above the area, but this one came closer than most (clicky for more dots):
Surely you can see it, just to the left of the speed limit sign? It took us by surprise, too!
Near the middle of the road:
And away:
Perhaps it’s taking a break to enjoy just flying around? That’s about what we were doing; it was a fine morning for that sort of thing.
Squinting at a few more frames, it’s flying at 18 mph with 4 wingbeats per second. Not in a hurry, that’s for sure, and still traveling faster than we were.
We spotted a few Gas Hawks above the airport, too, but they stayed too far away for pictures…
The new Cooper’s Hawk siblings recently explored our front yard:
When they’re bigger, they’ll perch in treetops, but a new hawk’s got to know its limitations:
When you see something, pounce on it:
Practice makes perfect:
Eventually, you’ll catch something in those mighty talons:
Which looks like the wily and elusive snail:
Everybody wants to stand on the bird box, but a majestic takeoff requires more practice than you might think:
They’re now capturing their own food and don’t share their prizes.
They’re welcome to all the chipmunks / moles / voles / groundhogs / deer / whatever they can take!
“Our” pair of Cooper’s Hawks (or their descendants, of which there have been many) hatched a pair of chicks that recently fledged and have been exploring their world:
Sometimes they perch together:
Their world contains many interesting things, not all of which are visible to the human eye:
I’ve spotted a parent hawk circling high overhead while the youngsters practice their flight skills near the treetops. If you listen carefully, you can hear a hawk calling from far above:
We’ve seen them hopping from branch to branch, testing their wings, and by now they can launch from a standing start:
New squirrels emerge at about the same time, with equivalent levels of experience:
Right out of the nest, new hawks know what to do, if not quite how to accomplish it:
That little squirrel instantly pasted itself to the bottom of the branch and escaped. This time, anyway.
Mary watched one hawk practicing its pouncing skills by attacking a pine cone. A talon wedged under a tight pine cone scale, to the extent that the hawk spent the next half hour flopping around the yard trying to part company with its personal Pine Tar Baby.
Perhaps the piles of Chipmunk Gibbage came from a new hawk practicing its regurgitation skills …
Go, new hawks, go!
Taken with the Sony DSC-H5, sometimes with the 1.7x teleadapter, under ambient light, hand-held, sometimes braced against the frame of a partially open door.
This year’s mouse survived the winter under the tool rack, perhaps due to living inside a well-insulated ball made from leaf fragments, dryer fuzz, and random stuff:
The white fabric around the entrance is a nice touch and the blue threads certainly add a decorative flair. I eased the top surface back to show the interior, although the flash flattens the texture:
With hawks hunting during the day and owls a-wing at night, the local rodent population has been taking a real beating; even the squirrels look worried.
So then this happened:
Yeah, tanker boots and all; not the weirdest thing we saw during RIT’s graduation ceremonies.
This summer marks her fourth of four co-op semesters with Real Companies Doing Tech Stuff and her final classes end in December; RIT holds one ceremony in the spring and being offset by a semester apparently isn’t all that unusual. She (thinks she) has a job lined up after graduation and doesn’t need her doting father’s help.
But, hey, should you know someone with a way-cool opportunity (*) for a bright, fresh techie who’s increasingly able to build electronic & mechanical gadgets and make them work, drop me a note and I’ll put the two of you in touch. [grin]
(*) If that opportunity should involve 3D printed prosthetics with sensors and motors, she will crawl right out of your monitor…
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 