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
That’s pretty much in the midst of the City of Poughkeepsie, but raccoons have figured out that the livin’ is easy around people. I’m sure he’s also figured out dumpster diving, although he’s likely not looking for discarded electronics…
Love those eyes!
We stopped in Alfred NY to try out some trikes at The Bicycle Man, went to The Terra Cotta (not that one) for lunch, and parked on a side street. Every parking meter along the street (free on Saturday, fortunately) had an array of house flies parked along the upper edge.
Perhaps this is the best place for flies to warm up before a flight? Was there a recent hatching?
They swarmed off the meters as we passed, then settled back in the same way.
Weird…
The snows have retreated and it seems the mice have been busy tunneling in the back yard. If we cared more about the lawn, I’m sure I’d be outraged. As it is, the tunnels will be gone after a few mowings and life will move on.
I didn’t spot their grainery, but I’m sure the grass will be greener around the latrine…
Certainly these were different mice than the ones who made far more extensive living quarters out front, but they’re definitely relatives.
This herd, a family unit that’s been traveling around the neighborhood in recent weeks, paused for morning brunch in our neighbor’s yard. They generally cross the road at a dead run, but haven’t gotten themselves or anyone else killed. Yet.
They and their ilk are why our vegetable gardens must have ten-foot fences with robust supports. There are no understory plants left in the wooded areas and precious few young trees; the deer population is literally eating everything in sight.
Vassar College recently culled 60-odd deer on their preserve in about ten hours, much to the dismay of the local animal huggers. It wasn’t a hunt; professional sharpshooters took ’em out.
We have a proposal: if you like deer so much, adopt ’em, haul ’em home, and take care of the things. Let them eat your shrubbery, crap all over your lawn, and infect your children, but keep them off the streets and out of your neighbor’s yards. Fair enough?
And let’s not get started about deer ticks. Dutchess County is the epicenter of Lyme Disease infections, for well and good reason.
I accidentally-on-purpose spilled some sunflower seeds when I refilled the bird feeder, just to see who was awake. Surprisingly, the seeds remained untouched for about two days, then this fellow appeared… and cleaned them up in a matter of minutes.
Spring is on its way, despite the recent storms!
Taken with the Sony DSC-H5 zoomed in all the way (12x) through the 1.7x tele-adapter. It’s not a great combination, but it’s better than no picture at all. This is a crop of about the middle half of the image, with a touch of unsharp mask, then scaled down 2:1 for improved webbishness. After all that, it’s a wonder you don’t mistake the critter for a moose…
We attended a concert at Vassar College and found this fellow flitting about an upstairs hallway in Skinner Hall. He eventually settled down atop a door frame and I took this picture from across the hall; it’s a tiny crop from a much larger image because I didn’t want to spook him.
He’s most likely a Little Brown Bat and perfectly harmless. Anybody who can eat that many insects gets a free pass from me!
He was at least as scared of us as some of the students were of him. Flying in a hallway full of running people must be bewildering…
Somebody called Campus Security and I suppose they wiped the little guy out during the second part of the concert.
Saw this chap on a walk around the neighborhood.
It was quite cold (notice his fluffy down coat) and he was content to watch us go by. In fact, it was so cold the crows were just flying by without doing their usual hawk harassment.
Taken with a Casio ZX-850 pocket camera: no fancy optics. Looks it, too… these are tight crops from much larger images. Click for bigger, but not wonderfully detailed, images.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 