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
The Giant Swallowtails once again returned to the Butterfly Bush at the front window this year:
Their wings never stop fluttering while they feed:
I’ve never seen butterfly wings in this position:
All hand-held with the Sony DSC-H5 and no additional lenses. The top picture was underexposed by two stops to remove the background. The bottom picture has fill flash in addition to full sun backlight.
This critter trundled across the driveway after a shower wetted the area:
They do some damage in the garden, but we let them alone elsewhere…
I tagged along on another Master Gardener field trip, this time to Innisfree Garden near Millbrook NY, and took a bunch of closeups. This was supposed to feature just the solitary bee working the blossom, but …
The little gadget off to the left blundered into the depth of field at exactly the right moment. Couldn’t do that again if I tried…
Maybe they’re wasps. It probably matters only to another insect of the opposite polarity.
Taken with the Sony DSC-H5, no lenses, hand-held. The image is a dot-for-dot crop from the full frame that’s exactly sized for my landscape monitor.
Sometimes crickets make their way into the basement. This one, a model that I’ve always known as a Jerusalem Cricket(*) evidently lost a pitched battle with one of the Dust Bunnies guarding the Basement Laboratory:
A rear view:
From the front:
I deported it to the flower garden outside the basement door, where I hope it can brush off the Bunny’s entrapments…
It may not be a Jerusalem Cricket, because they’re more common out west, but that’s the best match in our bug books and that’s what we’ve always called them.
[Update: (*) It’s most likely a Cave Cricket. See the comments for details.]
Mary’s been picking blueberries and freezing them for winter treats, a process that involves inspecting each berry laid out on the tray.
This one failed QC:
A closer look shows some remarkable structures:
Unfortunately, they’ll probably turn into Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs. This is not a Good Thing, because those stink bugs will devastate fruit harvests, including all the apple orchards along the entire Hudson Valley, over the next few years.
They may be Predatory Stink Bugs, which would be unusual in Dutchess County, but not nearly so awful.
Based on this evidence, the hawks seem to be tackling larger prey:
Mary found turkey feathers drifting across the garden, with the largest concentration near this assortment, much along the lines of the pile left at our back door. Given the 6 ft deer fence surrounding the garden and the complete absence of yummy debris, we think this wasn’t the work of a land-based predator.
Parents, guard your children…
Along those lines, once upon a time, long ago and far away, we attended a show-n-tell featuring a (rescued) California Condor. The exhibitors ushered us into a tight group and told parents to keep their small children close beside them, because condors attack stray animals and pay particular attention to infants of herd animals. Of course, one couple didn’t get the word (or didn’t think it applied to them) and let their toddler wander off. As soon as the kid got a few feet away from the pack of people, the inert condor abruptly powered up and got weapons lock on the kid; a warning from the exhibitor sent the parents scurrying to correct collect their blunder.
These guys just weren’t having a good day:
They’re members of the flock of six toms that marches through the neighborhood every day, clearing bugs out of the lawn.
We like ’em!
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 