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

Driveway Concrete Vandalism

Driveway drain concrete

Having missed the fall driveway paving deadline, we will have a gravel section in the middle of the driveway until next spring. All the water from the garage downspouts and the back yard runs down the driveway, which dumps it directly into the gravel patch and the new retaining wall’s foundation. That means the gravel patch, at least, will become a mud hole, which I take to be a Bad Thing.

So I bandsawed some 4 inch DWV pipe & fittings in half lengthwise, glued them together as a gutter to capture the runoff and divert it into 80 feet of DWV pipe leading to the bottom end of the wall, then filled the half-pipes with gravel to let us drive right over the whole mess. Unfortunately, the top end of the gravel patch has the driveway ending in broken asphalt, Item 4 gravel, fine gravel, and rubble that make it impossible to snug the pipes up against the asphalt. That means the runoff would pretty much vanish before it reached the gutters.

So I excavated just barely enough gravel to ensure a downhill slope from the remaining asphalt, mixed up a random bag of mortar that’s been kicking around in the garage for a few years, and troweled an apron from the asphalt to the half-pipes. Generally I sign my work, but this kludge need last only a few months and I left it to cure.

The next morning I discovered one of the chipmunks felt the work really needed a signature:

Chipmunk tracks in concrete

That’s OK with me…

FWIW, this is why you need Too Many Clamps:

Clamping a half-pipe joint

2011-11-28
Northern Saw-Whet Owls at Vassar

We recently attended an evening presentation at the Vassar College Ecological Preserve about their Northern Saw-Whet Owl (aka NSWO) research program. You can read more about both that and the owls elsewhere on the Intertubes, but I was impressed by the owl handling process.

NSWOs arrive from the mist net (the location of which the researchers do not describe in any detail, for obvious reasons) in a bulk carrier made of small tin cans strapped together with duct tape:

Owl carrier

Another container holds the Owl Under Test while being weighed:

Saw-whet owl in can

They express their obvious displeasure at this treatment by clacking their beaks (“KLOK! KLOK!”) and, if given the slightest opportunity, latching onto a finger:

Saw-whet owl vs researcher

Their claws will give you a nasty puncture wound or eight in a heartbeat; note how their feet remain carefully captured at all times. Despite that, the researchers sported many hand scars. FWIW, the owls are murder on mice and other critters, but evidently look a lot like lunch to larger owls and hawks.

NSWOs obey the general rule that anything with ears enjoys being scratched behind them. It may be reflex, rather than true bliss, but it works:

Saw-whet owl – calmed

After weighing, measuring, blood-sampling, and stroking, the handler takes each owl outdoors, gives it a minute to reset its eyes for night flight, and releases it.

2011-11-20
Window Strike: Swainson’s Thrush

Birds flow through the Hudson River Valley during spring and fall migratory seasons, leading to tragedies such as this:

Dead Swainsons Thrush – ventral

We think it’s a Swainson’s Thrush that mistook our bedroom window for open sky:

Dead Swainsons Thrush – left side

We’ve tried several techniques to prevent birds from making that mistake, but to no avail.

It weighed 38 grams, a bit heavier than the typical 30-ish grams reported in our bird books. If I were flying to Mexico I’d want a little extra padding, too.

I put it out for recycling in the back yard; in Nature, nothing goes to waste…

2011-11-01
Praying Mantis

Praying Mantis on bike rack

We met this Praying Mantis on the bike rack outside Skinner Hall at Vassar College. Even knowing they’re harmless, I’d have trouble picking it up; we parked on the other end of the rack.

If these things were any bigger, they’d be terrifying…

2011-10-29
Coopers Hawks Drying Out

One of the Coopers Hawks that keep the rodents under control around here landed atop a pine tree and spread its wings to dry out:

Coopers Hawk drying in pine tree

Shortly thereafter, the second hawk arrived and the pair shared some Quality Body Maintenance time:

Coopers Hawks in pine tree

The first image comes from the Sony DSC-H5 with the 1.7 tele adapter. The second is from the Canon DX230HS with the digital zoom set to 2x “digital tele adapter mode” and the optical zoom cranked all the way out; they’re both small crops from larger images. Not much to choose between the two, although the Canon wins hands-down for convenience.

2011-10-28
Fritillary Butterflies

A pair of fritillary butterflies have been enjoying the butterfly bush at the living room window. The first one has a slightly tattered wing:

Fritillary butterfly – dorsal

The camera can’t do justice to the silver patches on the bottom of the rear wing. They’re not reflective like a sheet of silver, but they shine like metal in the light:

Fritillary butterfly – ventral

The second one has slightly different markings:

Fritillary Butterfly 2 – dorsal

And from the bottom:

Fritillary Butterfly 2 – ventral

We think they’re Great Spangled Fritillaries. Silver Bordered should have a black dot in the middle of the under rear wing.

2011-10-22
Squash Bees

These critters look like bumblebees, but they’re squash bees, native to the Americas, working over a squash blossom just inside the garden gate. Much smaller than carpenter bees that drill holes in nearby garden posts, a bit smaller than bumblebees, and good to have around when you’re raising squash!

Squash bees in flower

I noticed the third bee only after looking closely at the picture.

This is a handheld tight macro with the Canon SX230HS using the flash. Surprisingly, the autofocus target picked out the bees and tracked them quite well. A tripod would help, but not all that much.

2011-10-14