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

Sunflowers

A stray sunflower seed decided that the spot just outside the garden gate was perfect and gave Mary’s garden an attractive marker. It will eventually have a dozen blossoms, each one serving as a buffet for the local bumblebees:

Sunflower with bumblebee

Each bee makes several complete circuits of the florets, draining the nectar and collecting pollen as she goes:

Sunflower with bumblebee – detail

Mary tucks the open gate inside the garden to avoid disturbing the pollinators, as wasps tend to have short fuses and multiple-strike stingers:

Sunflower with wasp

The bumblebee traveled clockwise and the wasp went counterclockwise, but I don’t know if that’s the general rule. I certainly won’t dispute their choices!

In a few weeks, long after the petals fall away, a myriad small birds will harvest the dried seeds…

2015-09-19
Green Grass Location: Goat Edition

Just because it’s a cliché doesn’t make it wrong:

Goats vs. fence – green grass

Spotted at the U-Pick Blueberry Field Formerly Known As Secor’s.

2015-07-25
Bird Encounter

At this instant, neither of us realized the other was present:

Starling-0145

Despite what it looks like, the blackbird (maybe a starling) passed just beyond arm’s reach directly ahead of the bike at eye level:

Starling-0167

And away!

Starling-0173

At 60 frames per second, that’s 466 ms of elapsed time.

Stepping through the video, frame by frame, the bird’s wings flap at a consistent three frames per stroke = 50 ms/stroke = 20 stroke/s = 1200 stroke/min. A bit of rummaging produces a study suggesting a starling’s normal rate is 10 stroke/s, so the critter had the throttles firewalled at war emergency power.

It makes my pedal pushing seem downright inconsequential…

2015-07-11
Bicycle vs. Flying Objects

A few minutes after we started riding, an insect collided with my helmet. About 3/60 second before impact:

HDR-AS30V 1280×720-60 – Insect – crop

We paused in a park at the far end of the ride, rolled out, and another insect buzzed past:

HDR-AS30V 1280×720-60 – Insect 2 – crop

Both of those flew within a few inches of the lens, far inside the camera’s fixed-focus near point, and it’s a wonder they look as good as they do. Looking at successive frames reveals wingbeats, although they’re surely flapping much faster than frame rate and therefore heavily aliased.

Fortunately, a Gas Hawk didn’t come that close:

Rt 376 – Dutchess Airport – landing

All from the Sony HDR-AS30V in 1280×720 at 60 frame/s. The bug images were ruthlessly cropped to show the full-size dot-for-dot camera image, then stored with minimal compression.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been buzzed on the bike, but it’s a record for one ride.

2015-06-21
Monthly Image: Sparrow Fledging Season

We noticed far more sparrows than usual in the garden, some flying clumsily, then saw both adults feeding a nestling peering from the nesting box:

Sparrow fledgling watching the world

Our presence interrupted the regular feeding pattern, stalling the male sparrow atop the utility pole with a tempting snack in his beak:

Male sparrow with insect

Even when it’s time to leave, just thinking about growing up and joining the world makes you tired:

Sparrow fledgling looking tired

May they all eat many garden insects!

Taken with the Sony DSC-H5 and tele extender lens, zoomed all the way in, with a touch of manual focus and exposure override.

2015-06-15
Barred Owl on the Dutchess Rail Trail
Just south of Lake Walton on the Dutchess Rail Trail, I encountered a barred owl with wings spread around something yummy in its talons (clicky for more dots):

MAH00389-0548 – Barred Owl on DCRT – 1

The owl acquired weapons lock on me, just in case I might try to steal its fresh-killed meal:

MAH00389-0548 – Barred Owl on DCRT – 2

My neck doesn’t turn nearly that far, so I lost the staring contest:

MAH00389-0548 – Barred Owl on DCRT – 3

Owls being good folks to have around, we wish ’em well: may they raise many owlets!

The pictures were extracted from the Sony HDR-AS30V helmet camera with this incantation:
```
avconv -ss 00:05:30 -i /mnt/video/2015-05-15/MAH00389.MP4 -t 20 -f image2 -q 1 Image-%04d.jpg
```
The -q 1 parameter should produce an image with the same dots as the original, but that really doesn’t mean much in the face of the camera’s relentless video compression.

Here’s a dot-for-dot crop (at 100% JPEG quality = uncompressed) showing the tradeoff between wide field-of-view, detail, and compression:

MAH00389-0548 – Barred Owl on DCRT – 2 – detail

Makes me appreciate my eyesight: I spotted that owl when it covered just a few image pixels. Of course, at first I thought somebody dropped a hoodie on the trail, then maybe it was a chunk of debris, so I eased off the asphalt onto the gravel Just In Case.
2015-05-30
Squirrel Pup Rescue

We recently watched a gray squirrel drag a completely limp and unresponsive companion across the driveway, stopping every few yards to rest. We often see pairs of squirrels frisking / chasing / tussling in the yard, but this was something new.

After 100 feet of dragging, with pauses every few yards, the squirrel had hauled her companion to the fence at the far side of the yard. I leaped to the conclusion that the limp squirrel was dead:

Mother squirrel and pup – 1

But, after perhaps a minute, the “dead” squirrel gradually awoke and both critters slowly clambered up the fence. The squirrel on the right had been doing the dragging and is unquestionably female, the one on the left is much smaller and likely a new pup:

Mother squirrel and pup – 2

So apparently the mother squirrel had hauled one of her pups away from something. Perhaps it was stunned after falling out of a tree or the sole survivor of a hawk attack? We’ll never know The Rest of The Story.

Forgive the anthropomorphism, but if this isn’t motherly love & comfort, then give me another word for it:

Mother squirrel and pup – 3

Taken through two layers of wavy 1955 window glass with the Sony DSC-H5.

2015-05-27