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
They only come out at night:
Two raccoons took turns at the feeder, but I only caught one in the act:
Apparently they enter torpor, rather than hibernate, which means they’re getting hungry right about now.
Taken through two panes of 1955 glass with the Sony DSC-H5, using an LED flashlight for focus assist. Both culprits oozed off the far end of the patio when I opened the door…
A licensed bird rescuer gave a talk before a showing of Pelican Dreams in Rhinebck and presented some of her patients…
A Red Tailed Hawk with a broken left wing, just out of its bandage:
A Barred Owl who, despite having a left eye that no longer dilates, rapidly acquired weapons lock on my camera’s focus assist light:
And a pair of insanely cute Screech Owls, both with eye damage, atop their padded perch:
Most of her patients arrive after collisions with automobiles; it seems carnivorous birds don’t look both ways before pouncing on prey near the roadside.
Contrary to her impassioned claims, however, wind turbines kill essentially zero birds, at least compared to windows, HV power lines, and cats. Some reports with actual numbers that, obviously, won’t convince anybody who already knows what the results should be:
Low light, no flash, long zoom, handheld, good-looking subjects.
They’re everywhere:
Found it while shuffling video cards…
This Cooper’s Hawk (*) kept an eye on us as we walked down the driveway:
We obviously pose no threat, so he let us pass unmolested.
I think the real reason had more to do with the dark brown-red stains on his (?) claws: that hawk just ate a fine meal and wanted time for quiet digestion and contemplation…
Hand-held Canon SX230HS, plenty of zoom, lots of purple fringing, and a cooperative bird.
(*) A juvenile, obviously, who could be either a Cooper’s or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk.
An early snowfall brought down a big branch from a back yard maple:
The split showed signs of rot from the top down, so it wouldn’t have lasted much longer anyway.
Shortly after we pulled it off the driveway, three deer stopped by to see if this new thing might be edible. Deer do not normally eat maple leaves, but there’s not much left for them to eat around here.
Searching for deer will pull up far too many posts on the subject…
A red-bellied woodpecker landed on the seed feeder, but the flapping tells you something’s not right:
After the fluttering stopped, the seeds had vanished:
According to our books, a red-bellied woodpecker weighed 72.5 g = 2.6 oz back in 1952. The feeder counterweight reads 3 oz and that’s confirmed by my pull scale. Perhaps woodpeckers suffer from the obesity epidemic, too?
The feeder closes with one cardinal (44 g) and two tufted titmouses (2 x 22 g), all of whom seem rather surprised at the situation.
Wild Turkeys used to be all over our yard, up in the trees, even stalking the house, but then they got scarce. In fact, we haven’t seen any turkeys for several months.
Apparently the heavy snow just before Thanksgiving pushed the flock out of the creek bottomland to forage along the driveway:
We counted 21 birds… and we’re glad to see they’re doing well.
Welcome back!
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 