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.

Tag: Wildlife

Other creatures in our world

  • Chipmunk Gibbage

    Mary found the north end of a southbound chipmunk just outside the garden gate, at the foot of the utility pole that often serves as a hawk perch:

    Chipmunk tail tip
    Chipmunk tail tip

    Shortly thereafter, she found piles of gibbage atop the retaining wall by the basement door:

    Raptor vs. Rodent gibbage
    Raptor vs. Rodent gibbage

    It looks too loose for an owl pellet, but hawks also blurp up the indigestible bits. We have definitely have a pair of Cooper’s Hawks nesting in the area again; most likely, this is what’s left of the south end of that chipmunk.

    The next morning, we had a feeding frenzy out there:

    Raptor vs. Rodent gibbage - feeding frenzy
    Raptor vs. Rodent gibbage – feeding frenzy

    I’m not sure if the snail over on the right is a participant or a bystander. It’s certainly outclassed by the slugs, which are basically soft-shell snails.

    As dBm points out, nothing goes to waste in Nature:

    Raptor vs. Rodent gibbage - cleanup squad
    Raptor vs. Rodent gibbage – cleanup squad

    After the crowd left and the remains dried out a bit, one chunk had a tuft of brown-tipped fur with gray roots that definitely looks like it came from a chipmunk.

    Good work, hawks: go, go, go!

  • Monthly Image: Groundhog Burrow

    Our new back-yard groundhog made extensive renovations and improved the landscaping before moving into the unoccupied burrow against the garage wall:

    Groundhog at garage burrow - cobbles
    Groundhog at garage burrow – cobbles

    It seems the same architect designed this project:

    Cobbled walk - 37 Fairmont Ave
    Cobbled walk – 37 Fairmont Ave

    I cannot explain the post in the middle of the walk; perhaps they’ll remove it when everything’s finished.

    The top photo is through three layers of 1950s glass. I cropped the bottom one from a helmet camera image.

  • Groundhog on High Alert

    Looks like I’m getting the stinkeye:

    Groundhog being suspicious
    Groundhog being suspicious

    The extensive garden armor remains effective, although we know groundhogs can run straight up a chain-link fence when given sufficient motivation. They generally give up after encountering the galvanized chickenwire around the buried concrete blocks; the garden is just to the left of the picture.

    The front-yard groundhog suffered a fatal automobile accident shortly after it finished excavating its burrow against the front foundation. This critter may have moved into the abandoned summer home near the garage at the back of the house.

  • Hard Drive Platter Mood Light: Failed LED Debugging Assistance

    Another of the knockoff Neopixels in the Hard Drive Platter Mood Light failed, even limited to PWM 63 to reduce the temperature. This time, however, I had some help finding the failed blue LED:

    Hard Drive Mood Light - failed LED with spider - green
    Hard Drive Mood Light – failed LED with spider – green

    Spiders seem no less bizarre in white light:

    Hard Drive Mood Light - failed LED with spider - white
    Hard Drive Mood Light – failed LED with spider – white

    A day later, she’d built a small web, presumably to improve the odds of catching something yummy. Who am I to disagree?

    I should set up a test fixture for all the knockoff Neopixels and run some numbers. They’re definitely a disappointment, even to a bottom feeder such as I …

  • Moth Flyby

    A moth came within arm’s reach during a ride along the Dutchess County Rail Trail:

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    Squinting at some earlier frames that show only a tiny moving dot, the moth disappears every five frames: one wingbeat requires either 5/60 or 10/60 s = 12 or 6 strokes/second.

    We continued our respective missions without incident…

    The moth came much closer to the camera than it looks. I should calibrate the images with known objects at known distances, but that seems like a lot of work.

  • Monthly Image: April Snow

    An unusually late two-day snowstorm laid down half a foot of snow starting in the evening of April 3:

    Norway Spruce with April snow
    Norway Spruce with April snow

    Up until then, the weather had been running a bit warmer than usual, which seems to be the new normal, and this snowfall put more snow on the ground than we’d seen all winter.

    The snow took some critters by surprise:

    Sparrow - nest box in April snow
    Sparrow – nest box in April snow

    Most of the snow melted during the sunny 40 °F day after the storm, but overnight lows in the teens wiped out most of the spring flowers and buds.

  • Self-Cleaning Bird Nest Box

    We celebrate the start of Spring by cleaning the previous season’s nest(s) from our bird boxes, so this “improved” design caught our eye on a walk around the neighborhood:

    Self-cleaning bird nest box
    Self-cleaning bird nest box

    Birds being the way they are, the most recent occupants surely piled more twigs & grass atop their foundation to make the level come out right. An industrious mouse might find a convenient route inside.