Recycled Photons

Eagles!

2011-12-10T15:52:00.000-05:00

Can you count them all?

I counted over 150 at Conowingo that day. But most, like those in the image, were across the river, perched.

They'll be there all winter. If you go, take a big lens! And dress warmly.

We Have A Winner!

2011-12-07T01:26:00.001-05:00

And once again it is not me.

This year in the DVOC photography contest I achieved a third place and an honorable mention.

My third place image was in the Natural History category, Snake!

My honorable mention shot was in the Birds category, Red Eye.

A pdf of all the winning images can be found here.

Bad Fish Picture of the Week

2011-12-04T17:12:00.001-05:00

And a slightly better bird picture.

Bad Bird Photo of the Week

2011-12-02T12:50:00.000-05:00

Gliding through the trees at Conowingo

Sun Dogs

2011-11-30T19:05:00.000-05:00

The other evening I was traveling to a public star watch my astronomy club was having. Now one thing you do not want for an evening of star gazing is clouds. And there were clouds.

But if there are going to be clouds, at least let them be colorful.

Like these sundogs. Or was it one sundog that was fading in an out? All I know is that I pulled over twice to take pictures. Alas all I had was a digicam.

Snowy

2011-11-29T20:42:00.001-05:00

This past Sunday I went to see a visitor from the arctic. I didn't have to travel quite as far as the bird did, a mere sixty miles for me. I didn't even leave New Jersey to see it. (Well, technically I did, as the GPS took us into Pennsylvania for part of the trip. But I didn't have to go that way.)

The bird was at the Merrill Creek Reservoir, below the main dam.

Way below. We first spotted the bird sitting in this rock outcrop, helped by a number of other birders all looking in the same direction. It was surprisingly obvious.

The bird was quite cooperative, sitting out in the open, and there were a number of folks taking pictures. but we were all over a hundred meters distant. So some folks tried using scopes as lenses; I with just my 400 mm lens (I gotta get a bigger lens, when will Santa ever deliver?).

As we made our way down a rather steep trail, a fox spooked the owl, and it landed on the boulder field behind the dam. At least that's the story we were told. We missed the excitement, the owl out of view as we started down the trail.

It is a gorgeous bird. And a life bird for me. Hopefully it won't be the last. Every few years, in cycle with the lemming population, the snowy's primary food source, there is an irruption of owls heading south. So far this year birds have been seen across southern Canada and the northern United States. And as far south as New Jersey. Maybe I'll have that new lens for the next one.

Above

2011-11-20T14:01:00.000-05:00

That big white blotch in the middle is the overexposed moon. The color rings are a lunar corona. A rare sight for me, it is devilishly difficult to photograph, the colors subtle and dim, the moon bright.

Curiously, I made these images on 11/20/2010, exactly one year ago. I had copied them to my hard drive and forgotten about them. I stumbled upon them yesterday. I wonder what else I've got filed away on my hard drives, waiting to be rediscovered?

Below

2011-11-19T12:56:00.000-05:00

Subsun

Flying back from California to New Jersey I had the window seat. And somewhere around Texas I saw a disk of light floating in the sky, keeping pace with our plane. A UFO perhaps? Maybe a top secret device out of Area 51? A Foo Fighter?

Nope. Just the sun. And ice crystals.

It is not obvious but there are thin clouds between the plane and the ground. Clouds composed of ice crystals, small hexagonal plates. And these plates act like tiny mirrors. When the conditions are right the mirrors line up and just like on the jet engine, reflect the sun.

This image of the sun is known as a subsun. Subsuns are essentially very compact solar pillars. Most are smeared, elongate, due to the fluttering of the crystals as they fall. But here the reflection is very round meaning the crystals very falling smoothly.

I've flown quite a bit and this is the first subsun I've seen. I doubt anyone else on the plane noticed it, mainly because they weren't looking. Which is a pity, because as a wise man once said, you can observe a lot by just looking.

(The wise man was Yogi Berra.)

Above and Below

2011-11-15T22:29:00.003-05:00

Here on the east coast of the US, we have proper squirrels. Which is to say they spend their time up in the trees.

Like this red squirrel. This little guy was one of a pair at Rushton Farm this past Saturday. (We originally thought they were flying squirrels. The folks who were leading the trip were surprised to find red squirrels at the farm.)

Out west the squirrels go about things all wrong, living in holes in the ground!

As with this California ground squirrel, seen here in it's burrow. What's it think it's a rabbit?

I spotted this fellow, and many others, in Rancho San Antonio county park in San Jose, California. I had to be very patient as this individual was rather skittish. I only had a short lens with me, and I was forced to inch slowly towards the hole. And with each step he'd dive down and I'd have to wait for him to slowly poke out again. Others were not so timid, generally ignoring the crowds at the park.

~~~~~~~~~~

Including the chipmunks, there are close to seventy species of squirrel in North America. And most of them are of the ground variety. So I seems my eastern tree climbers are the eccentrics, not those crazy California squirrels.

But squirrels will always be denizens of the trees to me. What are they to you?

Looking

2011-11-15T20:00:00.000-05:00

At us, this horse was.

While we were looking at the hawk in the tree behind and to the left.

See it?

How about now?

A red-tailed hawk, in case your were wondering.

Four and Twenty

2011-11-14T23:48:00.000-05:00

Give or take a couple thousand.

I visited a couple of sites in Chester County, Pennsylvania this past weekend, Kirkwood Preserve and Rushton Farm with the DVOC.

We saw a number of cool things. A red fox hunting, pouncing on unseen prey in a field. Red squirrels scampering high up in the trees. And the highlight of the day, three pileated woodpeckers, their red crests glowing, backlit by the morning sun.

But the most impressive sight was a ginormous flock of common grackles. Several thousand strong. In the image above each black streak is a bird. Or two.

We had heard the chattering of the flock while we were wandering about the Kirkwood Preserve. Out of sight, they were just over the hill. It was as we were driving to the Rushton Farm that we saw them, and I snapped the image above. The flock was huge. Our caravan stopping in the road to gawk.

The birds continued on to Rushton Farm, arriving as we did, roosting all about us. We couldn't hear other birds as these birds chattered away.

Even more impressive was he sound of thousands of birds all taking off at the same time. It sounded like a truck driving by. The wings, all flapping at the same time. Very cool.

I've seen large flocks of birds before, and even blogged about one enormous flock. But I'd never been so close, surrounded by the birds. A truly awesome spectacle.

More from the Pines

2011-08-24T20:50:00.000-04:00

Earthquake!

2011-08-23T23:36:00.000-04:00

Today I experienced a 5.8 magnitude earthquake. As one colleague said, "that was quite un-Jeresy like." It struck at 1:51 PM while I was sitting in my office. Here on the east coast, when the building shakes, you don't think earthquake.

So my first thought was a truck hit the building. But the shaking kept going and going. Then I thought that one of the big air-conditioning units on top of the building had broke free, and like an unbalanced clothes dryer was shaking the building. and then we thought explosion. But when calls started coming in about how the shaking had been felt around the area, well I knew then it had to be a quake.

For three years at the turn of the century I worked in Torrance, California, just south of LA. I lived in New Jersey, same place as I do now. Yeah, it was a hell of a commute. And when it was all over I had 890,000 frequent flyer miles. Now while in California I experienced several earthquakes, including two at 4.7 and one at 5.1. And this wasn't my first in New Jersey, as I had lived through a 2.1 some years ago. So this earthquake thing was old hat to me.

But his was the strongest quake I'd ever felt, 5.8 on the Richter Scale.

Thus it was with some trepidation that I headed home after work, wondering what carnage might await.

I took awhile for me to spot it, but there, on top of a bookshelf, one of my trees had fallen over.

Earthquake Aftermath

No not the books, they're always like that, randomly stacked. No, the tree on the right.

Here's a closeup:

This is the most damage I'm ever experienced in a quake. And it is quite enough for me thank you very much. I was lucky that the epicenter was in Virginia, some thirty miles or so outside of Richmond. This was the strongest earthquake to hit that area, beating the 4.8 magnitude quake of 1875. Given the century plus interval between quakes I don't think I've much to worry about.

It was an exciting twenty or so seconds today, when the building shook. It got just a little bit scary towards the end. And we were all rather surprised to learn how far away the epicenter was. Seems the shockwaves travel farther on the east coast of the US then those out west. In the end it was something interesting to talk about. I'm glad I got to experience it, but I don't think I'd want to experience anything much stronger.

Now, about that hurricane heading up the coast ...

S1

2011-08-21T21:24:00.002-04:00

S1 Critically imperiled in New Jersey because of extreme rarity
(5 or fewer occurrences or very few remaining individuals or acres).
Elements so ranked are often restricted to very specialized
conditions or habitats and/or restricted to an extremely small
geographical area of the state. Also included are elements which
were formerly more abundant, but because of habitat destruction
or some other critical actor of its biology, they have been
demonstrably reduced in abundance. In essence, these are
elements for which, even with intensive searching, sizable
additional occurrences are unlikely to be discovered.
-- Nj Natural Heritage Program

I spent a day looking for orchids in the Pine Barrens. Two species I'd never seen. Spiranthes laciniata (Lace-lip Ladies'-tresses) and Platanthera integra (Yellow Fringeless Orchid). Both S1's.

We've had quite a bit of rain of late. In fact it is the wettest August on record for these parts. And this is what the woods looks like. A river runs through it.

Fortunately my friend Ro new exactly where the plants were, having visited earlier in the week. So after I picked her up we headed off to the sand roads of the Pines.

Our first stop was for the Spiranthes. Ro had her iPad out, using the GPS to find the spot. She needn't have bothered. Four friends and fellow plant geeks were already there. This wasn't a total surprise as we'd all been at a party at Ro's place the night before, discussing our plans to visit these bogs. They had just gotten back from where we were headed and were pulling off boots and dumping bucket loads of water out. "The water is only hip deep today", they told us.

Not owning a pair of wading boots I went a different direction, wearing water shoes and shorts. My shorts got wet. And I almost lost a shoe in the muck (it did come off, but I was able to reach down and pull it up).

The water was cool and refreshing. And we were able to enjoy it for a while as it started to rain (it would rain on and off all day, with heavy thunderstorms in the late afternoon) and rain meant I needed to keep my camera covered.

It was curious to see the bog flooded, and plants usually above completely underwater. But the Spiranthes was a tall plant, the flowers well above the water line. The bog is a big one, yet there were only two of these plants known to be there. We saw but one and didn't fancy slogging through the water to find the other.

Which makes me wonder, how did the ant cross the water to the plant?

We made our way back to the car and drove further into the Pines to find the Platanthera.

This time the iPad came in handy. The rain had stopped, but there was thunder in the distance. So we hopped out and quickly headed down the trail.

Unlike the first site, here there were plenty of plants (this is but a small sample). But like the first site there was plenty of water although not quite as deep. This is where I almost lost my shoe though.

The rain held up as I shot away. Ro told me that this bog is home to eighteen rare and endangered plants. We agreed we'd have to come back once the water subsides to see how many we could find.

Finding these two made for a happy day.

2011-08-18T22:02:00.001-04:00

The Results Are In

Last January, Mackenzie Hall, a Private Lands Biologist with the Conserve Wildlife Fund of NJ (CWF) gave a presentation on bats to the Burlington County Natural Science Club. Mackenzie's enthusiasm for these flying fur-balls was quite infectious.

It helped that I already had an interest in bats. And while I've seen and photographed bats I knew that they were in trouble. Sadly white nose syndrome is taking quite a toll. So when at the end of her talk Mackenzie mentioned a citizen science project consisting of bat surveys and that she was looking for volunteers I made sure to sign up.

Fast forward a few months and my friend Patty, aka Bat Girl, forwards an email asking if I want to do bat surveys. Patty does horseshoe crab and shorebird surveys for CWF and learned of the survey via a call for volunteers email. I don't know if we disappointed Mackenzie when she learned her two volunteers were just one team. She never said, but she made up for it by giving us two routes.

But first there was training. We met a a park in central Jersey and after a brief talk on the bats of NJ we were introduced to the gizmo. The gizmo is more formally known as an AnaBat detector. We learned how to turn on and off the gizmo, how to change the batteries (rechargeable), how to set the controls, and most importantly, to never never ever let it get wet. Apparently even the slightest fog will turn this $2000 + device into useless brick.

We then learned how to put the gizmo into a homemade wooden bracket and strap it to the top of a car. You see, the survey was done by strapping it on, powering up, and then driving at 15 MPH along the specified route.

As I mentioned, Bat Girl and I did two surveys. The first was near my home along the Delaware River. Along back roads through several towns ending in my hometown of Edgewater Park. Fortunately we didn't encounter much traffic. The second route was clear across the state and ran through the Pine Barrens. It was a route selected by Mackenzie by looking at Google maps. No one had ground truthed it. So Bat Girl and I took a Saturday and did a dry run. It took us four hours. The main part of the route was via sand roads in the Pine Barrens. Roads that don't see much traffic. Roads so tight with brush I had to fold in my mirrors and remove my radio antenna. Don't tell Mackenzie, but the gizmo took a beating from the branches. As did my car, all nice and scratched up now (but I bought it to drive these roads so the scratches were expected). Our first try to drive through the Pines ended when the road went into a lake. We saw where it came out on the other side. But it was too deep. So we backtracked. Our second attempted also ended with a water hazard blocking our path. Not wanting a repeat of this we again backtracked.

The third time was a charm, although we needed to make a couple modifications to the route to avoid private property, places with big gates that would have blocked our path. But I was familiar with most of the area, from nightjar and frog surveys, as well as plant geek field trips. There were still plenty of tight spots and large puddles to maneuver around. And for most of the route 15 MPH would have been reckless.

Unlike other surveys I've done for frogs which you can hear or birds which you can see and hear, this survey has only static on the gizmo's speaker. If you're lucky the static is the ultrasonic sounds of the bat converted into human hearable frequency ranges. But you don't really know if your survey found any bats.

We did. Our first survey recorded 37 call sequences of two different species, big brown bat and hoary bat. Our second only 34 call sequences but three species, adding the eastern red bat. The full results for our survey runs can be found here (page one) and here (page two).

I don't know if finding 30+ instances of two or three species of bat is good or bad as I don't know the historical context. I do however think that it is pretty cool that these animals are living within two miles of my home. Also cool is that we did this in the year of the bat.

So the next evening you are outside at twilight look up. And maybe you'll see a bat or two. And be sure to thank them for eating for eating those pesky mosquitos.

2011-08-07T22:21:00.001-04:00

Bog Twayblade

This is the orchid we were hunting for on the trip we found the rattlesnake. Liparis loeselii aka bog twayblade.

I had seen one plant the year before at the same location. It prefers sites in the Pine Barrens around ruins, needing the extra minerals. A small plant, all green, making it hard to discern amongst the surrounding plant community.

When we visited this year we found one plant in bloom.

And then another.

And another.

And another.

And ... (seven more times).

And seven plants which were not in bloom. For a total of eighteen plants. And I'm sure we missed some.

So either there was a bit of a population explosion this season. Or we missed some last year. I'm guessing miss. I wonder what else we're missing?

2011-08-06T23:14:00.002-04:00

Sunbathing

~~~~~~~~~~

I wandered down to Long Beach Island today. I went to try and see a Hooded Crow, a bird not usually found in New Jersey. In fact, it is a bird not usually found in North America. I did not see it, although others did, before and after I searched. Bummer.

I did get to see this gal. I'm told that it is a female Hooded Seal. But it doesn't look like any of the pictures in my field guides nor those I found on the web. Curious. Update 8/16: I've been told through email correspondence that she has been identified as a Gray Seal by the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. But, and my correspondent, still have our doubts. We both think that it is a Harbor Seal.

Whatever species, she had no problem with people. She seemed to be posing, as if she had escaped from SeaWorld or some such, and often maneuvered to be closer to the crowd. In turn prompting the lifeguards to move us back. I wondered if she was thinking, "Hey, I'm doing my routine here! I expect some fish!"

She would occasionally head into the surf but after a quick splash around would lumber back up onto the beach.

I was also told that folks from the local Marine Mammal Stranding Center had visited to check her out and had pronounced her fit. So I guess, like us, she just wanted to work on her tan and splash about in the waves.

Very cool

2011-08-05T21:53:00.001-04:00

You Looking At Me?

While wandering in the New Jersey Pine Barrens looking for a rare orchid (we found it) friends and I decided to head down a road we'd never traveled. This road took us through an open gate, and while we didn't realize it, onto private land.

In time we came to a second gate. This one closed. And locked.

I had gotten out of the car to check said gate. On my way back to the car, Ro, one of my traveling companions, yelled, "snake!". And there on the side of the sand road, working on it's tan, was the beauty seen here.

We first took some pictures from inside the car. I then got out and took some shots. I had only my 100 mm macro lens, I was shooting flowers after all. I approached slowly.

I learned later that rattlers can strike approximately one body length. I think I was right on the edge.

The snake paid me no never-mind. It didn't move, didn't rattle, the entire time I was shooting. We wondered if it was alive. So I gathered a few twigs, and Ro tossed them in the direction of the snake.

After I got back in the car.

She missed. So I got out and gathered a few more. And one finally landed close enough to garner a reaction.

The snake flicked its tongue a few times. That was it. But it was alive.

Once home I read that no one had every died of a rattle snake bite in New Jersey. And that the snakes are quite docile, preferring to retreat then to engage a human. Apparently the only people who get bit are those who try to handle the creatures.

This was my first encounter with a venomous snake. We both survived. Pretty cool.

~~~~~~~~~~

A few days later there was a story in the local paper about a gentleman who had been bitten by a rattler. Not far from where we had our encounter. He claims he found the snake in the road and was trying to move it off, to keep it from becoming road kill. Foolishly, he attempted to pick it up.

Not a good idea.

He got bit.

Alas, his attempt to win a Darwin Award was not successful.

2011-08-03T22:15:00.004-04:00

Island Universe

Or three.

The large object in the image is the Andromeda Galaxy, aka M31, the sister galaxy to our home Milky Way. There are two other galaxies in this image. Almost directly above the center of M31 is M110. At the 4 o'clock position from M31's core is M32 (it looks like a large blurry star). As always, click on the image to bigafy it.

The first known record of the Andromeda galaxy is form the 10th century by the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi. al-Sufi described it as a small cloud, an accurate description of the naked eye appearance at a dark site. To me it is a football (American style) shaped cloud. But is wasn't until the early twentieth century that astronomers figured out what these small clouds were. It was Edwin Hubble who identified cepheid variable stars in what was then known as the Great Nebula in Andromeda. Cepheid variables have a relationship between their intrinsic brightness and the period of variation, allowing them to be used as celestial mileposts. And the Great Nebula was found to be much to far away to be part of the Milky Way.

And thus was born the modern universe.

The Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million light years away, meaning the light that struck the chip in my camera had been traveling for 2.5 million years.

That's a long time.

And this is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way.

The universe is a big place.

2011-07-17T21:46:00.002-04:00

If At First ...

I've made several attempts to photograph the International Space Station as it traversed the lunar and solar disks. I've never been all that happy with the results.

I tried again today.

Clocks synchronized with their atomic brethren at Boulder, CO, I hit the shutter release at 8:09:23 AM. Cries of "there it is" coincided with the shutter clicks. Got it!

Click to Bigafy

This is a composite of nine images, each showing the ISS against the disk of the sun. Four sunspots are also visible.

The sun was relatively low in the sky, approximately 24° above the horizon. This meant that transit would be a long one, 1.49 seconds. The trade off being that the ISS was farther away, and thus smaller than if the transit was overhead.

As with the previous attempts I was not alone, I was with a party of eight this time. Six of us shooting. My camera was set to continuous shooting, a 100-400 mm zoom lens attached, and proper solar filter* on. We all had frames with the ISS (not guaranteed, as my friend Drew tells how he got very nice before and after images one outing!).

*Never look at the sun without proper filtering!

This is a cropped image, 400 mm just isn't enough focal length. Everyone else was imaging with telescopes. I briefly toyed with using my 60 mm Hα scope, but having never shot through it I played it conservatively and used the lens. Perhaps next time.

My best so far, but still not anywhere near what others have accomplished. I guess I'll just have to keep trying.

2011-07-12T23:27:00.001-04:00

More Leps

This past Saturday Patty and I wandered about Palmyra Cove Nature Park looking for butterflies. We found some.

Cabbage Whites were out in force. Dozens on any plant that was in bloom.

Which sometimes led to altercations.

It was in the mid-nineties Fahrenheit and some, (the smarter ones?), were hanging out in the shade.

I don't know what this one is, so feel free to let me know in the comments.

This is a rather worn Horace's Duskywing skipper. But he seemed to have no problems flying about. Especially when we tried to photograph it.

Silver-spotted Skippers, while not as common as the Cabbage Whites, were well represented in the park's gardens. And as more typical for skippers, would hold a pose long enough to get several shots.

Another skipper which was kind enough to hold a pose.

And another for which I do not know the species.

And then there was this fellow.

Clearly not a butterfly. But surprisingly it is a moth. A Sphinx moth. Specifically a Snowberry Clearwing.

I know them as hummingbird moths, and they dart from flower to flower like their namesakes. And like their namesakes they are difficult to photograph.

~~~~~

The heat limited our time in the park, and we didn't wander all that far form the visitor center. And that limited the number of species we saw. But we had fun and look forward to our next Lepidoptera adventure. I'll keep you posted.

2011-07-08T21:54:00.002-04:00

Mothing

My friend Patty has decided to study Lepidoptera, butterflies and moths, this summer. And sometimes she lets me tag along. One such occasion was last Sunday evening when we set up a sheet and some lights at the Rancocas Nature Center. We passed the time sipping wine and eating cheese waiting for the light to do its thing.

If you light it they will come. And they did, helped by some moth bait (rotting bananas, molasses, and beer; yummy!) courtesy of Patty's friend Jenn.

This one is Halysidota tessellaris aka the banded tussock moth. (As with all images on this blog, click it to bigafy.)

Moth ID is a bit of challenge. There are approximately 800 butterflies in North America north of Mexico, making for a fat but manageable field guide.

There are some 12,000 moths. That's fifteen fat field guides. And unfortunately there are no real good up to date field guides for moths. Fortunately, there is the internet. And BugGuide.

BugGuide is "an online community of naturalists who enjoy learning about and sharing our observations of insects, spiders, and other related creatures." In other words, crowd sourced identification. My H. tessellaris was identified by John Maxwell, a BugGuide contributor who lives not fifteen miles from me. Small world.

This fellow is yet to be identified. Feel free to let me know in the comments.

This one is a bit trickier. John thinks it is a member of the genus Acrolophus, the tubeworm moths, albeit a worn individual. Another BugGuide contributor who goes by the handle TurtleDude goes further, calling it an eastern grass-tubeworm moth.

John thinks this one is also in Acrolophus.

~~~~~

I took a number of other images, but none good enough to share. As no insects (except mosquitos!) were harmed in this adventure, and since moths don't listen when told to sit still and pose, I managed a good number of blurry pictures of half a moth. It was frustrating at times but I had fun doing it.

So thanks to Patty for suggesting it; Jenn for the bait; our host Barb, who lives at the Rancocas Nature Center (how cool is that!) who opened her home to human and insect alike; Susan and John who brought the pizza. As well as to John and TurtleDude for the ID suggestions.

It was fun, and I can't wait to give it another go.

2011-05-22T20:04:00.001-04:00

First Visit

Just down the road from me and in the shadows of Philadelphia is the Palmyra Cove Nature Park. Each year the Park hosts an event called Burlington Bird Quest, the object of which is to see the most birds in the county, Burlington, before noon on a specific Saturday in May. And this yellow-crowned night-heron was the star of the day.

I participated on a team, captained by my friend Kristina, who is a naturalist at the Park. While the rules allow for wandering all about the county in search of birds, our team stays within the boundaries of the Park.

Two years ago we won it all. Alas, not this year though.

We had a respectable total, but we missed this guy. Perhaps because we didn't expect to see one. No one expected to see one in the Park, or maybe even in the county. This was the first recorded visit of this species to the Park; its not even on the Park checklist. And it is only the fourth or fifth record of the species in the county, which is quite surprising to me.

After crowning the winners at lunch, Kristina and I headed out to find this bird. She spotted it and it let me get very close, ignoring me as I shot away.

It pays to use the good camera. And the big lens.

2011-05-22T19:39:00.002-04:00

Bad Bird Photo of the Week

Where's my good camera when I need it? And my long lens!

2011-05-10T19:15:00.001-04:00

Mother's Day Buffett

Ovenbird style.

Tasty!

2011-04-24T12:47:00.001-04:00

April Showers

Brings ...

Epigaea repens

:-)

2011-04-23T11:28:00.002-04:00

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

Fusion reactors.

Then ...

... Now

Still not quite there yet.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I recently paid a visit to the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, touring the National Spherical Torus Experiment. For a physics geek like me it was very cool.

After a short video and some introductory remarks, we were off to mission control.

Which recently had a computer upgrade.

The place was empty, save for a couple of technicians, as the system is currently idle. Experiments resume in July and will continue for eight months. Then the system, first used in 1999, will undergo a major upgrade (pending funding). It is targeted to be back online in 2014.

We then wandered through the situation room on our way to the reactor itself.

One wonders what kinds of "situations" there might be. Unlike fission reactors, the fuel for fusion is not radioactive. It is hydrogen. And the by product of fusion is helium. And the amount of fuel in use at anyone time, thanks to E=mc², is rather small, a couple minutes worth (fission plants have six months to a years worth of fuel). And if something goes wrong the plasma simply dissipates.

And those are two of the main appeals of this technology, amble fuel and no harmful waste. Think about that in terms of current events.

Along the way we passed equipment like this tritium monitor, "abandoned in place", old stuff no longer in use but not worth ripping out. Fossils of experiments past.

We walked down a long tunnel, donned hardhats, and pass through giant doors to the reactor room.

Free of Charge!

A sense of scale can be had by comparing the letters on the sign to the person in the image below.

That person is Jackie, a high school student from southern NJ who was visiting on her own. How cool is that? I along with everyone else, were here as part of a tour organized by a local astronomy club, (fusion powers stars). Jackie was here working on a science project for school. She had emailed the lab a couple of times and when she didn't hear back called them. Incredibly cool if you as me. Maybe there is hope.

The brass pipes in the background aren't pipes. They are coaxial cables, like the one plugged into the back of your TV. Only much much larger (note the "Neutral Beam Injector" sign center right). And then realize that this is a "small" test reactor.

It was too large to effectively photograph, to really give the sense scale. There was just no vantage point to "get the big picture". So here are some smaller ones ...

Labels are exempt I guess.

I couldn't find the dilithium.

If the main reactor goes down we're covered.

Hmm ...

A window to the heart of the sun.

(It's not obvious, but people can walk around in there. Yeah, this thing is big. Not as big as the sun though.)

We spent four hours at the lab and we had fun time. A big thank you to the people at the lab who took time out of their day to show us around and answer our (sometimes silly) questions. It it a very cool place.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Unfortunately, it is not as cool a place as it could be.

Fusion research is an international endeavor. Alas, our "leaders" have decided that it is not a technology worth investing in. So the big reactors are being built elsewhere, France, Japan, Russia. Here in the US, we do things like give BP a $13 billion tax break. And call it an energy policy.

A massive failure of leadership.

The OPEC oil embargo occurred in 1973. Thirty-eight years ago. And we've essentially done nothing to gain energy independence in all that time. Instead we spend trillions on wars over oil.

A massive failure of leadership.

Back at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, further layoffs are expected as the current regime enacts their draconian cutbacks.

A massive failure of leadership.

Heaven forbid we should invest in the future.

A massive failure of leadership.

2011-04-04T21:34:00.001-04:00

A Walk in the Woods

It's early yet.

But it is coming.

2011-04-04T19:53:00.001-04:00

An Eight Hour Tour ...

I went on a boat trip.

To see birds. And anything else that might swim by.

It started out good enough, as we spotted a pair of peregrine falcons nesting on the bridge spanning the harbor inlet.

Half a Pair

Bye-bye land.

(If you look real closely, you can see my high school!)

The target birds were alcids: razorbills, murres, dovekies, puffins and the like. The penguins of the north.

Not an Alcid

And while we saw several hundred razorbills, most were at a distance.

Somebody claimed to see a common murre.

I didn't.

And I got no razorbill photos.

:-(

But we did see gulls!

Still not Alcids

Lots of gulls.

Eight different species. (One per hour!) Like the young glaucous of my previous post.

Tasty!

The chumming helped.

We also saw plenty of scoter. Thousands of surf and black, and some white winged too. But like those in this image, they flew as the boat approached. Giving Crossley like views.

Find Them All!

And note the cool mirage ships in the distance.

Other mirages included a whale and some dolphin that others claimed to see.

Hidden behind that common murre no doubt.

The other bird we got good looks at are were northern gannet.

Angry Bird?

Gannets are the birds gulls wannabe.

Torpedos with wings, they dive bomb fish. Very cool to watch.

As you can see the sky was clear and blue. It was a sunny but cold day. I had been worried about rough seas and seasickness, but for the most part it was calm. And no one joined in the chumming.

Braving the Elements

It did get a bit rougher on the way in. Forcing us to abandon the bow, as the waves came crashing over.

While we didn't see the birds I wanted to see and I missed the mammals, it was a good day, spent with new friends and old, most of which I didn't expect to see.

And we got to see gulls (pun!).

Still no Alcids

2011-04-02T12:02:00.001-04:00

An Acquired Taste

And truthfully, one I've not yet fully acquired.

But when life gives you lemons ...

... you take gull photos!

Like this very cooperative first cycle glaucous gull.

Gull identification is one of the more difficult birding challenges, and one I've not yet mastered. Often coming down to foot color, bill color, and subtle feather size and color differences.

Most gulls take three or four years to reach adulthood, with plumage changes each year. There are twenty-seven species of gulls found in North America, many with similar appearances. And a number of them interbreed, upping the degree of difficulty.

Do the math, 27 * 3 = 81 different looks. Not counting hybrids and birds undergoing plumage changes. And then there are the plumage differences between breeding and non-breeding birds.

And it doesn't help that one of the best places to master the craft of gull identification is the local landfill.

I don't know that I would have correctly id'd this bird in the field. Most likely I'd have compared my notes and photos to my field guides, made a guess, and then asked my birding friends if I got it right. So it was nice to have experts along to identify them for me.

2011-04-01T20:54:00.001-04:00

Physics Nerd Alert!

Sign at the gift shop at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab.

2011-03-28T20:06:00.002-04:00

15 More

Read about it here.

(Made the front page, albeit below the fold.)

~~~~~~~~~~

You can read about my previous 15 here.

.

2011-03-27T20:35:00.003-04:00

Walk Like An Egyptian

Goose that is.

Swim like one too.

~~~~~~~~~~

Seen at Etra Lake Park in central

New Jersey, this bird is

most certainly an escapee and not a

wild bird visiting from Africa.

2011-03-22T22:16:00.001-04:00

Domestic Dispute

Clearly he did something wrong.

2011-03-22T20:24:00.004-04:00

Imagine ...

You're young ...

... and rich ...

(at least your parents are rich)

... Carnegie rich ...

... no mere shore house ...

... shore mansions ...

... one for each child ...

(the tire seems to be holding up)

... with indoor pools and tennis courts ...

... on your own private island ...

... with a fleet of cars to get around ...

... imagine.

~~~~~~~~~~

You would be imagining Cumberland Island of days gone by.

.

2011-03-20T22:59:00.001-04:00

A Pornithological Moment

It was a gorgeous day so I decided to take a walk at a local park, Amico Island. The south overlooks overlook a heron rookery.

This is approximately 2/3s of of the rookery. There are thirty some nests in this image. An apartment complex for herons. And if you look closely you can see twenty-five birds.

Including these two.

Who seem to be enjoying each other's company.

And trying to add to that twenty-five number.

Happy Spring!

2011-03-20T22:11:00.001-04:00

Timberdoodle

The american woodcock has an elaborate courtship ritual.

The male bird starts his ritual after sunset. First he "peents" repeatedly, then he takes off and flies in a wide spiral, his wings twittering. He descends from a height of around seventy to one hundred meters, chirping as he does, in a zig-zag pattern. He then lands silently.

And starts the whole thing again. Continuing for about an hour.

Fascinating to watch.

Impossible to photograph.

It took me three days to get this one image. I've plenty of blurry ones. And forget about flight images.

(Most times I couldn't even find the bird in flight.)

But sometimes you get lucky. And luck favors the prepared.

This bird is a creature of habit. Beginning and ending on the same patch of open ground. So on the third day I setup with my camera focused on that spot (I had pre-focused while it was still light). And right on schedule he appeared. I think he liked me because he kept landing closer and closer. Which made focusing nigh impossible in the dark.

And I got one good image. This one.

2011-03-19T22:00:00.001-04:00

Snack Time

(And a hint!)

Feeding time for the gulls on our ferry ride back from Cumberland Island. The birds had been following the boat, seemingly looking for a handout. And this fellow was happy to comply.

Umm ... doritos!

The gulls in Georgia were much more genteel then those in New Jersey. These birds were very tentative when approaching the handout. Our native birds swoop in and steal your food if you're not watching. These would come up to within inches of the chip and then veer off. Except for this one bird, which kept coming back for more.

2011-03-19T21:37:00.001-04:00

Tucked In

The northern saw-whet owl, at eight inches tip to tail the smallest owl we have in these parts.

And as you can see, one which likes to roost in tight spaces.

It is a species I've not seen in the wild since 2007. Until today that is, when a friend led me to this one. First found on a Christmas bird count, it's been hanging around for at least three months.

Given where the bird was in the park and how tucked into the tangle it is it's a wonder anyone found it at all. Despite my friend pointing it out and me looking right at it I did not see it at first. She had to position me exactly before I could see it. I fired off six shots and then made my exit, not wishing to cause the bird any distress (but if it's been there all this time, with people coming to see it, it can't be too perturbed by us humans).

I glad I got to see it (I've been skunked on several other owl excursions this year) and hope it didn't mind my visit.

2011-03-15T21:02:00.001-04:00

Bad Bird Photo of the Week

Taken while on the ferry to Cumberland Island.

Cumberland Island can only be reached by boat (I guess you could swim. Or like a bird, ~~take the ferry~~, err I mean fly.) There is a ferry that makes two trips a day from St Marys. Or you can take a private boat. It is a pleasant ride, take a cup of coffee and your binos. Enjoy!

2011-03-14T21:09:00.001-04:00

Live Oaks

"... she probably meant the trail through the live oak forest ..."

Is there one through the dead oak forest?

"... the wood from live oak trees was used to build Old Ironsides ..."

How did they keep them alive?

"... the British claimed all the live oak trees as property of the king ..."

Who got the dead ones?

-- Rangers at the Cumberland Island National Seashore

-- Thoughts of yours truly

Southern Live Oak, Quercus virginiana

Until recently, I was unfamiliar with the term "live oak". So when the friendly rangers at the Cumberland Island National Seashore used the term, I figured it was a colloquialism.

Rene Noe, a Friendly Ranger

So when I asked Rene, who had been a ranger at Cumberland Island for thirty years, what species they were and she responded, "live oak", it was a bit of a "who's on first" moment. Eventually we got it sorted out. "Live Oak" is a term used to describe any oak that is evergreen, keeping its leaves year round. Southern Live Oak is the common name for the species on the island.

The trees have huge squat trunks and a massive system of branches, some which grow down to the ground for support, spreading widely. Great for climbing! (Of course I did.)

Branches

More Branches

So while I understand the name, trees without leaves appearing dead, while those with leaves appearing live, I think live is a doubly excellent name because these trees are alive with other organisms.

The most notable example is Spanish Moss, an epiphyte, that while not a parasite can have ill effects on the host tree. It blocks the light that would otherwise reach the tree's leaves and can add a substantial weight load, devastating in a hurricane.

But it sure is pretty.

Just Add Water

Ferns, such as this resurrection fern, and mistletoe also find a home on the branches. Adding to both the biomass and beauty of the tree.

The dead parts of the live oak also support life, fungi as shown here, but also insects, squirrels (I had one very upset with me for some reason. Alas it wouldn't pose for a picture.), and woodpeckers (I heard, but did not see, pileated and red-bellied).

An Easy One

Other birds make use of the trees. (I delighted a group of birders from Michigan by ID'd a mocking bird, an apparently rare bird in them there parts.)

Delighted Birder

There are even plants growing in the ridges in the bark.

Gnarly

And the forest is home for a variety of animals. Including ...

Horses.

Armadillos.

~~~~~~~~~~

I spent the better part of seven hours exploring and experienced so very little of the island. There are great sandy beaches, empty of people, populated with only birds. Miles and miles to walk in splendid solitude.

The center of the island is a natural area, no road, no cars, no bikes, no homes. I could spend several days wandering there.

There are wetlands to kayak.

Ruins and historical sites to visit.

There is even a bed and breakfast on the island. (Pricy though, cheapest room $395/night. Maybe when I win the lottery ... ). So next visit it'll be the camp ground for me.

I can't wait to get back and explore some more.

Come On, Let's Go

2011-03-13T22:30:00.001-04:00

Bad Mammal Photo of the Month

Surprisingly speedy little guys.

2011-03-13T21:12:00.001-04:00

What's in a Name?

It's not from Spain.

It's not a moss.

It does make for enchanted forests.

~~~~~~~~~~

These, and the horse images in the previous post, are from Cumberland Island National Seashore.

2011-03-10T21:04:00.001-05:00

"... take pictures of the wild horses (for me) ..."

Ok.

Hope you like them.

2011-03-02T16:48:00.002-05:00

Cloudy Night

Lonely red lights dot the observing field, telescopes stand unattended. Silent sentries gathering no starlight.

Disappointment growing, we sit telling tales of other nights, better, worse, different, same.

Still hoping.

Stars winking out of sucker holes. It's clearing! It's not. It is! It isn't.

We wait still hoping.

The group thins, chairs empty, hopes waning. Some of us wait, inertia now.

But still hoping.

One cloud lit up, curiously bright. Stationary. Flickering. Strange. What is that? Aurora? Aliens? Hand of god?

(which god?)

(which hand?)

Transfixed we watch. Patterns flickering. Intellectually challenged We now welcome the clouds. Needing more data.

(we're a nerdy bunch)

We search for answers. A fishing boat, trawling offshore? Nope.

Customs searching for smugglers? Nope.

Cars on the bridge? Nope.

More folks gather. Transfixed. Brainstorming. Consensus emerges.

Prosaic, a spotlit flag. Over at the scout camp. Curiosity satiated we still watch. Still fascinated.

The rainbow explained is still beautiful.

2011-02-05T11:41:00.001-05:00

At The Shore

In January ...

Gulls are year round residents.

In winter they can't steal french fries from bennies and need fend for themselves.

Bummer for the crabs.

More bad news for the crabs ...

Loons are winter visitors, heading north before the crowds return.

They're also a bit camera shy.

Another winter visitor, snow buntings in my experience are generally very camera shy. Usually seen in small flocks, fleeing as one approaches.

These two were atypical, relaxed in front of the camera, letting us approach to within ten feet. Very cool.

*****

I grew up at the shore, four blocks from the water, but have always preferred the empty beaches of fall and winter to the crowds of summer. Perhaps growing up in New York City metropolitan area, at some of the closest beaches to the city, with the attendant traffic jams, litter, and utter lack of space on the beaches, soured me a bit. But I'd rather spend the day in the company of a few friends and whichever species of wildlife which would care to join us. How about you, what do you prefer?

2011-02-01T19:57:00.001-05:00

Raptor Fest*

Southern New Jersey is a well known spot for raptors, birds of prey. There is the famous Cape May Hawk Watch, the spot to be for raptor migration. But not all of the birds continue south. Some decide to spend the winter in my home state.

Like this red-shouldered hawk. Until this year, I'd only seen this species in Florida. This month alone I've seen eight individuals, including this very cooperative bird, which sat in the tree and let me walk right up under it. Very cool.

Merlins have also been surprisingly common this year. Supposedly rare in New Jersey in the winter months, I've seen five this month. Including these two (I think the prey bird is a dark-eyed junco).

Who you looking at?

Bald eagles have become quite common, with over eighty mating pairs in the state. I've seen over twenty this year. Almost a trash bird.

I was planning to go to Conowingo Dam in Maryland last Saturday, but conditions, in the form of ice covered roads, led to a change in plans. And a jaunt about Cumberland County ensured. That's were I saw all of the birds shown here. At Conowingo one can see 100+ eagles at one place. Still on this trip we saw seven. Not bad for New Jersey.

Northern harriers, like this grey ghost, where actively hunting at every stop we made. Fun to watch, but hard to photograph, as they glide over fields. A lucky shot, this.

And there is the ubiquitous red-tailed hawk, like this one, who as also featured in my Sometimes post. They are starting to pair up and can often be found sitting together this time of year.

Also about, but yet to fly in front of my lens, are rough-legged hawks, kestrels, peregrine falcons, and several species of owls. Maybe I'll get some this weekend.

*****

*This year is the 10th anniversary of the Cumberland County Winter Eagle Festival, to be held this Saturday (February 5th, 2011). In its early years it was known as the Raptor Festival. Rumor has it the name was changed because too many people came looking for dinosaurs ...

2011-01-31T21:34:00.001-05:00

A Walk in the Park

We've had several nice snowfalls this winter and after the last a friend an I decided to go wandering.

"Where do you want to go?", "I don't know, where's somewhere pretty?", "I'd don't know, you live around here", "Yeah but you grew up here" ...

We eventually settled on Allaire State Park.

The village was snow covered, pristine, and except for us and a mother and daughter sledding, empty.

(Well the daughter was sledding, the mom, just watching.)

Just the way I like it.

We fed the titmice and chickadees by hand. To quick to photo though. We tried.

Sure, you hold still now!

There was beauty all about.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

(Can you tell I like snow?)

Not everything was frozen.

Shadows and sparkles.

Should you be inspired to try this for yourself, be aware that the proper footwear is essential to an enjoyable experience.

Have fun!

2011-01-30T21:53:00.001-05:00

Promise

The promise of buds

Waiting as the Earth revolves

Winter becomes spring

2011-01-30T09:56:00.001-05:00

Sometimes ...

You get lucky.

You don't.

(Ok, so my luck wasn't all bad. Just before it departed.)

2011-01-26T22:21:00.001-05:00

Just Chillin ...

I spent Christmas with my sister and her family,

and the day after it was nice out.

(For a while anyways)

So we decided to build a fire.

(My brother-in-law is a bit of a pyromaniac.)

Ah, toasty.

He also likes to cook.

Note the cooler, not really needed ...

(But full of beer!)

((He enjoys a frosty beverage or two.))

(((As do I.)))

Your's truly, enjoying the fine winter's day.

(Time for selsun blue?)

((And another beer!))

The view from the house.

A hardy neighbor joins the party.

(And brought more beer!)

*****

We got six inches of snow here, and were on the edge of the storm.

Back home snow fall amounts were in the ten to twenty inch range.

We stayed out to the beer was gone.

The fire burned on without us.

2011-01-23T20:26:00.005-05:00

Bad Bird Photo of the Week

Sometimes, you just gotta blame the photographer ...

I spotted this bird with a kill (a snow goose?) behind a church in Cumberland County New Jersey as I was driving by. So I pulled into the parking lot ... and the bird flew away.

It flew back across the field to the tree line, meeting up with another eagle, his mate? They circled around and flew off.

I waited. And waited.

Ten minutes later it came back. And I was ready. NOT! I had the camera set on the wrong f-stop, so the exposure times were too long. And I got blurry pictures. D'oh!

I hate when that happens.

*****

These posts are becoming much to frequent ...

(A slightly better shot can be found here.)

2011-01-17T20:29:00.002-05:00

Still Twitchin'

In my Twitchy post I wrote,

"There were also red crossbills in the area. So Steve and I headed off to find them.

In this endeavor we were not successful."

Well if at first ...

My friend Greg had never seen either crossbill species, so I wandered up to the so called "North Shore" once again to meet up with him, and we started searching.

First up we found the red, when a birder named Peter who we met in the parking lot that morning called to say he had them just down the street form us. We arrived to find a pair, male and female, eating pine seeds and avoiding the sunlight (making for difficult photo ops).

The white-winged were not there this week, so we headed off to look elsewhere.

In this endeavor we were successful. Seeing two and perhaps as many as five flitting amongst the tree limbs.

It was actually a rather pleasant day out, colder but not as windy, and sunny.

Maybe I'll go back next week to look for the blue ones ...

*****

For those keeping score at home I'm now up to 71 species (times twelve will give me 852, a North American record me thinks ;-).

2011-01-16T19:46:00.002-05:00

Ephemeral

The incredibly intense colors of this morning's sunrise lasted maybe five minutes. Taken from my kitchen window. Had I gotten dressed and gone outside I would have missed it.

2011-01-13T21:51:00.002-05:00

Twitchy

The term twitcher, sometimes misapplied as a synonym for birder, is reserved for those who travel long distances to see a rare bird that would then be ticked, or checked off, on a list. ... Some birders engage in competition to accumulate the longest species list. The act of the pursuit itself is referred to as a twitch or chase. A rare bird that stays put long enough for people to see it is twitchable or chaseable. -- Wikipdedia

I, and a number of other folks, went twitching this past Sunday. Clearly a form of insanity. There I was, wandering about a oceanside park on a very cold windy day looking for a small bird, an hour and half form home. While wandering about I ran into another twitcher (one of the other Steves who won in the DVOC photo contest). Neither of us had seem the bird. Bummer.

A couple of other birders told us of some red-breasted nuthatches and we wandered over to see them before heading off to find other more twitchable birds. And as we were watching a small bird dropped onto the snow, no more than ten feet away.

This was the object of everyone's attention, a white-winged crossbill. It seemed oblivious to Steve and I. While I shot away, Steve went to get his camera. The bird waited. We moved around to get better light.

Umm ... tasty snow!

We waved other crazies over to see. Of course, as soon as we did that, the bird flew. But we relocated it up in a tree. And everyone was able to tick it off their list.

There were also red crossbills in the area. So Steve and I headed off to find them.

In this endeavor we were not successful.

While we watched and waited, there were plenty of these to keep us entertained. Flitting about from tree to tree.

A variety of sparrows also entertained us.

As did a curious fellow who seemed to think diving loons were harbor seals, sparrows where crossbills, and liked to hear himself talk. (I was not as enamored as he was.)

There was also a large flock of barkers that couldn't decide where the wanted to be. Every ten minutes or so lifting off and flying over. Only to go back a short while later. Back and forth. Back and forth.

Not unlike some of the other twitchers going from side street to side street and back again, looking for the red crossbills.

Steve and I wandered about some more, chasing eared grebe and razorbill (success) and pacific loon (nope). We also looked into a report of an injured penguin ("Imagine that, a penguin. Here." a fellow walking the beach told us). Didn't find that one either.

*****

What you ask, would lead an otherwise sane individual (shut up you!) to wander about in freezing weather to get brief glimpses of often faraway birds? How about TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS!

That is the prize in the Bob Billings Big Year Challenge. (A challenge I have no realistic chance of winning, making this even more insane.) My count is at fifty-three right now (and at fifty a month I'll get six hundred for the year!). Wish me luck!

2011-01-09T22:27:00.001-05:00

2010

Yeah It's been done. But great minds think alike ...

January: Sunbathing

February: Blizzard? What Blizzard?

March: Oh, Mexico ...

April: Why's Everyone Looking Up?

May: ... It's a Hell of a Town!

June: It's an Adventure!

July: Shadows and Light

August: 27 (?) Years and Counting

September: Water and Time

October: Falling, Falling ...

November: Hey, That's My Spot!

December: Light and Shadows

2011-01-08T12:43:00.001-05:00

Bad Bird Pun of the Week

Snow Geese

2011-01-04T18:54:00.002-05:00

Bad Bird Photo of the Week

An easy one. Any guesses?

2011-01-03T18:29:00.001-05:00

Can You ...

... see me now?

How ...

... about ...

... now?

:-)

2011-01-02T18:18:00.001-05:00

Ice Fishing

A forlorn looking great blue heron on the Rancocas Creek today.

2010-12-31T20:04:00.001-05:00

1/1/2011

Tonight's Beverage of Choice.

2010-12-31T18:10:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year!

Here's hoping ...

... 2011 is a wondrous year ...

... and lots of fun!

Partying butterfly images made at the butterfly garden at the Dinosaur Museum.

2010-12-24T10:56:00.003-05:00

Grandma

I never knew my dad's father, my namesake. He passed away six years before I was born. My dad's mom I knew mostly from Sunday visits to her New York City nursing home. Long drives in those pre-Turnpike days. We went to see a old woman confined to wheelchair who spoke little English. Today she'd have a hip replacement and be up and about. She passed away when I was thirteen. I remember little more about the funeral day than a dinner afterwards in a Chinatown restaurant, the Golden Dragon (a big table with lots of unrecognizable but tasty food, shared by all).

My paternal grandparents emigrated from Czechoslovakia in the early 1900's, and had their name changed from "Matava" to "Mattan" by the immigration official who probably couldn't understand a word they said. Family history has it that they were quite proud of their new American name. Grandma Mattan spoke mostly Czech, but spoke English when addressing her grandchildren.

My mom's dad came over from England by ship alone when he was fifteen [correction, I was one generation off, as it was my mom's granddad, my great granddad, who did this. We still have the trunk he brought all his possessions in]. I remember him as grouchy, sitting in his chair smoking a pipe watching TV. Living in Philadelphia, I remember long drives through central Jersey farmland to visit them. Houses now grow on much of that farmland. I also remember that despite the grouchiness, he seemed to like having grandkids around. As long as we didn't make too much noise. He passed when I was young. I remember relatives I didn't know I had at a funeral home where we kids played on the lawn.

The Christmas cactus bloom shown is from a cutting from my grandma's plant. A number of grandkids have cuttings. Mine blooms every year. I leave it on my kitchen windowsill, water it from time to time when doing dishes, and otherwise neglect it. It blooms every year at Christmas time.

My mom's mom came to live with us in 1978. She was there to see me graduate high school and through my college years, admonishing me (in a friendly way) to "do my lessons". We'd watch the Saturday baseball game of the week together, she a Phillies fan, me Mets. I remember her Saturday night baths and card games with my great aunt Marion and my pseudo aunt Julia (lots of arguments!). She passed away in 1995.

*****

Every year the cactus reminds me of grandma and Christmas ...

My mom was in the church choir, so we'd all go to midnight mass.

I liked the music. And the smell of incense. And little else. It was overcrowded and way too long.

All except grandma, as she would go to the 9:00 am mass Christmas morning. After which she'd come home and have breakfast. And we kids would have to wait until grandma was done before we could open our presents. As grandma had no teeth, it took her longer than most to eat.

Actually, she had a set, but preferred not to use them.

So we wouldn't start opening gifts until some time after ten! We couldn't even go downstairs to look until she was ready. Torture!

Our house is on the corner (my parents still live there, 45 years now), two blocks from the church, so my sisters would go up to the third floor, watching out the windows to see her walking home from mass. As soon as they spotted her they'd yell down to mom to start breakfast. And then we'd wait.

I miss those days.

Merry Christmas Grandma.

2010-12-23T20:23:00.001-05:00

Emergence

The moon moves across the sky. We all know that. But you can't really tell by just looking.

At least most of the time.

But when the conditions are right, you can see the moon move. Like on the night of the total lunar eclipse.

Early on in the partial phase of the eclipse, the moon occulted a magnitude 6.7 star with a name only an astronomy geek could love, SAO 77647.

Now I was still setting up my camera gear at ingress, so I've got no shots, but I was shooting away at emergence. If you look really close at the bigafied version of the image above (click on any image to see a larger version) you'll see a tiny bump at the three o'clock position. (You might want to check the below images first, where the star is much more obvious.)

My friend Joe was observed both the start and end of the occultation. And he made a point of how he really got a sense of the moon's motion as he did. Most of the objects in the night sky are much too distant to show motion in real time. Only objects closer to home, those in our solar system, show any such motion.

More distant objects do show motion, but on the scale of decades or centuries. Not something obvious during a nights observing. The first two shots here were taken less than half a minute apart.

I had a similar experience watching Comet Lulin last year, as it moved past the field stars. Perhaps, like the star name, watching an occultation is something only an astronomy geek can get excited about. But I think that knowing something and then seeing it for yourself is really cool.

2010-12-21T21:10:00.005-05:00

"My God, It's Full Of Stars!"

(Click on the image to see a larger version. Do it!)

Go out and look at the sky during the next full moon. What do you think you'll see? It won't look like the image above (maybe it will if you didn't click to bigafy it).

The reason I and three friends traveled to the heart of the Pinelands of New Jersey and braved the sub-freezing temperatures (it hit 28.6 °F = frozen feet) was to see exactly what you see here. The full moon surrounded by stars.

Of course, it required the moon to be eclipsed, to dim the brightness. Otherwise, as you'll see for yourself if you do the exercise noted in the first sentence above, the moonlight washes out all but the brightest of stars. The full moon is the bane of the astronomer's existence. Nature's light pollution.

My friend Laura over at SomewhereInNJ asks, " ... is tonight the longest and the darkest night ever?" Maybe not ever, but it was one of the darkest nights you can have with a full moon. Being on the Winter Solstice (for us northerners) makes the night long, while hiding the moon from the sun makes it dark. It makes for a lovely (if cold!) combination. And a treat to observe.

*****

Astrophotographer extraordinaire and fellow Willingboro Astronomy Club Member and friend Jerry Lodriguss was also out in the Pines, but at a different site form us. His wonderful images can be found here. (Be sure to explore his site for other great images.) We had originally planned to all observe together, but he needed an even darker site to capture those images. Other club members observed from a variety of sites, for most close to or at home. It's been fun reading the reports throughout the day.

*****

My friend and fellow TAREC member Lené at Counting Petals had big plans to snowshoe out to a frozen pond and shoot the spectacle. Alas, she was clouded out (and got to sleep instead). Her story is well worth the read.

*****

Did you brave the cold or look out your bedroom window (like my mom and my friend Barb)? If so leave a comment about your experience.

*****

This image is one of two I took with a wide angle lens. I could not tell if the images were in focus, so I gave up shooting with that lens, and went back to my long lens. I should have stuck with it.

(More images to come ...)

2010-12-19T11:01:00.004-05:00

We Have A Winner!

Alas it wasn't me.

But I was close with two second places and an honorable mention. Not bad for my first try.

I entered the DVOC's member photography contest this year, submitting images in the Birds, Natural History, and Scenery categories (but not the Birders category). And I won three out of a potential twelve prizes (25% for those counting at home :-).

Woo Hoo!

The full list of winners is here and a pdf of the winning photos, including my three, can be found here.

(It was a good night for Steve's overall, with seven of a possible 16 prizes going to us guys.)

Enjoy!

2010-12-13T22:44:00.004-05:00

Beer!

Technically, this is beer. It is also the result of eight plus hours of work.

It started at 8:00 AM sharp at my friend Russell's house. After a cup of coffee I was put to work. The first job, grinding eight pounds of barley malt. Then a few more pounds of specialty malts, black and chocolate. There was then a lot of boiling and cooling and mixing and siphoning and sanitizing and temperature taking and transferring from one carboy to another.

We avoided calculating how much it cost to make the five gallons you see here. Which even after all this work is still a few weeks from being drinkable.

Well, not all the time was spent working. We had time for music. And food (the walnut 'meatballs' were quite tasty!).

And even a bit of backyard birding.

And of course, we sampled the previous efforts.

We did a lot of sampling.

And I can't wait to sample the brew in the carboy at the top of this post.

It was a great way to spend the day.

2010-12-10T21:15:00.001-05:00

The Together Apart Random Event Club

My friend Lené at Counting Petals has proposed a curious non-get together. It started as a suggestion for a full moon snowshoe trip/ski trip/hike amongst scattered participants. I noted that the next full moon was on December 21st, and in the early morning hours of December 21st (the night of December 20th-21st) there would be a total lunar eclipse visible from North America.

August 2007 Lunar Eclipse

So now we are a small group who will be observing the eclipse at the same time from scattered locations, and blogging about it the next day. This is the first "field trip" for what I've dubbed "The Together Apart Random Event Club" (we may need to work on that name).

I plan to to join friends to photograph the event. I'm not sure what Lené's plans are. I'm not even sure who else is participating.

Want to join in? Just observe the eclipse and let us know about it in the comments. And be sure to provide a link to your blog if you've got one.

And feel free to propose ideas for future field trips!

2010-12-09T21:25:00.001-05:00

Ducks and Dinner

This past weekend I joined several members of my WSB team for our annual north shore run, which we call "Ducks and Dinner".

We start at Sandy Hook and head south to Belmar, birding the lakes and ponds and ocean at various spots along the way. (This is the reverse of the trip a friend and I took the week prior.) Ducks and other waterfowl find New Jersey a congenial place to spend the winter.

I found it cold, it didn't break freezing all day, and windy (but that's ok, I like cold).

We end the day at a nice warm restaurant.

(I like warm too.)

Here's some of what we saw. See if you can tell which are ducks and which are not. Bonus points for species names.

Good luck!

3. and 4.

(A subtle difference.)

(I've no idea the species.)

10.

11.

12.

13. and 14.

(Hint: 13 is a repeat.)

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

(Yummy!)

2010-12-01T23:11:00.001-05:00

Visitors from the North

And I got proof!

I visited two banding operations this year, for hummingbirds and saw-whet owls. The hope of these banders is that the birds will be found. And by being found shed some light on the lives of these creatures.

I found a couple of birds.

I know these as Tundra Swans, but the certificate below calls them "Whistling Swan". I don't know who came up with that name, but these birds don't whistle. They bark. Sounds like a pack of dogs from a distance.

The well dressed bird in the image above was visiting the North Slope of Alaska when it was banded (on my birthday!).

The bird with the gold choker is a Greater Snow Goose. Until I got the certificate I didn't know there were greater and lesser snow geese. My something new for the day.

This bird spends its summers in Canada. And winters in New Jersey.

You can get your own fancy certificate, suitable for blogging, in just two easy steps. First find a bird with a band. Second, go here and enter the band number. It's just that easy. Good luck!

2010-11-30T21:31:00.001-05:00

Townies

Not my town alas, but fun to travel about nonetheless.

We also saw ...

A solitary and somewhat camera shy American Wigeon.

Plenty of mallards. Common, but I love the green heads.

In addition to ducks, like this sleeping mallard, there were cormorants and gulls ...

... lots of coot ...

... and night herons, there are at least twelve in this picture.

(And one mallard.)

((Click to bigafy and try to find them all!))

We had a single egret.

And northern shovelers at several spots.

:-)

And many distant gannets.

(Where's that big lens when I need it?)

There were other birds, like the common teal which flew just as I was bringing the camera up. And the sand doves. And the invisible razor bills that didn't check in at the bird observatory (how rude!).

I'll get 'em next time ...

2010-11-29T19:57:00.001-05:00

Sunset, Behind Me

In the mid nineties my brother and I spent two weeks traveling form Kansas City, Missouri to San Mateo, California, visiting a number of parks along the way. One thing he taught me while hiking was to turn around and enjoy the view of where we'd been.

These images were taken in the direction opposite the sunset. They show a particularly vivid Belt of Venus (or more prosaically, the Anti-Twilight Arch). The bluish-gray band at the horizon is the Earth's shadow. The pink, the last rays of the sun.

So turn around every once and awhile. And enjoy the view.

2010-11-27T08:49:00.003-05:00

... Last

The best saved for.

Alas, I had to send that lens back yesterday.

Still haven't gotten your eagle fix? I continue to add images to my SmugMug gallery. I've still got more to go through from the shoot (action sequences and outtakes), but these are some of the best. Hope you like them.

2010-11-26T14:39:00.001-05:00

"A Kingbird with a Long Tail"

That's how the young birder, who had the bird in his scope as I walked up, had described the bird to his mom. They were in Connecticut from Ohio for Thanksgiving.

I was in Connecticut to see a neotropical visitor, a Fork-tailed Flycatcher.

Nobody was sure why the bird was there, nor how long it would stay. The usual haunts for this species is southern Mexico down to Argentina.

As I walked over form my car, having just arrived, I thought, "cool, another walk up rarity" (I'd been pretty lucky this year). Of course, the bird then flew.

(I won't keep you in suspense, it came back.)

I went back to my car and got my camera, along with the big rental lens, and headed over to where the other cameras with big lenses were set up.

One of the reasons I had decided to make the round trip to Connecticut, (on the day before Thanksgiving!), was because I still had the lens and was looking for photo ops.

The bird had flown to the far side of the meadow at Cove Island Wildlife Sanctuary, and a dozen or so birders were scanning for it. It did pop up once, briefly, on a far tree, but a fly-by Coopers Hawk sent it into hiding. While we waited we watched a small flock of Monk Parakeets cavorting in the far tree tops. To far for pictures even with the big lens. But fun to watch.

While we were watching the Parakeets the Flycatcher flew up right next to us, less then twenty feet away. And I'd get my photo op.

It then spent the next thirty or so minutes dive bombing grasshoppers along the path edges right in front of us. Plenty of photo ops.

Enjoying a grasshopper.

There were actually a pair of Coopers working the area. And the Flycatcher kept an eye out for them. And after giving us great looks it flew off into a tangle of trees. Spooked by a hawk? Hunger satiated? No matter, and after waiting a bit I decided to take off as well. I would be a long ride back to New Jersey, fighting traffic on the worst travel day of the year.

And I was glad I did.

2010-11-25T07:44:00.001-05:00

Morning Visitors

A couple of Sundays ago I was debating whether to rollover and go back to sleep or get up and out of bed when I heard them. Turkeys, outside my bedroom window. I jumped up, threw on some clothes, and grabbed my camera.

Wild turkeys disappeared from New Jersey in the 1800’s. Hunting and habit loss were the main reasons. Attempts to reintroduce the species in the early twentieth century, using domestic birds, were not successful.

In 1977 twenty-two wild birds, seven male and fifteen female, were released in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Between 1979 and 2003, two thousand birds were trapped and released within the state, and now wild turkeys can be found in 20 of the 21 counties in New Jersey. Including Burlington.

And more specifically, in Edgewater Park. In my front yard.

I don’t remember ever seeing a turkey as a kid, although I spent quite a bit of time in the woods (I do remember seeing and hearing plenty of quail; sadly, their calls echo in my woods no longer). My life turkey was on November 22, 2001. At was at my cousin’s for Thanksgiving dinner (outside Freehold, NJ) and there were a dozen or so roosting in a tree in her backyard.

Yeah, I got my life turkey on Thanksgiving.

For the next couple of years I saw turkeys occasionally, usually a few birds while wandering the less populated areas of south Jersey. Maybe a half dozen times a year.

Now it is an unusual week where I do not see a turkey, either in town, driving to or from work, or while out in the field.

Now it may be an artifact of my spending most of my time here, but Edgewater Park seems a particularly popular location. In addition to the seventeen birds wandering about the grounds of my condominium, there was another flock of twenty-two birds not more than a quarter-mile away, feeding in and around a retention pond.

Seems that reintroduction of twenty-two wild birds was a success.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-24T20:42:00.002-05:00

Circles in the Sky

As I was driving back form Connecticut (see future post) and stuck in brutal Thanksgiving Traffic I was treated to a wonderful halo display. Fortunately I was able to pull into a parking lot and get some pictures. Alas it wasn't until the display had faded a bit.

I was still able to get a nice shot of a 22˚ halo with a matching pair of sundogs (as always, click the image for bigification).

The first image has a hint of the upper tangent arc, while it is a bit more apparent in this image. The sundogs on the other hand have faded a bit.

Since I was stopped I decided to use the facilities in the fast food place located conveniently nearby. When I came out I noticed that what I thought was the upper tangent arc had brightened considerably. Although it had dimmed by the time I retrieved my camera for this shot. But the upside down rainbow center top of this image is not the upper tangent arc. It is instead a circumzenithal arc. And it is on the 46˚ halo, a somewhat rarer beast then the 22˚ version.

This isn't a very good image, and even when viewing the full sized version (you did remember to click the image) the outer halo and arc are subtle at best (it is most obvious on the left). I didn't realize that I'd mistaken the 22˚ for 46˚ halo until I looked at the images on my computer at home.

(The key lesson here is not to give up on the display to soon, as the clouds and accompanying circles, can change rapidly. I'll be ready next time (yeah, sure).)

2010-11-24T07:21:00.001-05:00

Fly Fishing

Not a good day to be a fish.

(More shots in this sequence, and others, can be found here.)

2010-11-23T19:45:00.001-05:00

Two Tails

2010-11-23T10:33:00.002-05:00

Getting Better

See, that big lens isn't just for pigeon and bad eagle photos!

Gulls!

Great Blue Heron!

(Note that big sharp beak!)

Black Vultures!

And I took a few (a few hundred!) of these:

(To be continued ...)

2010-11-21T22:05:00.001-05:00

Bad Bird Photos of the Week

Wing Clips ...

... focus Fail ...

... and the ever popular decapitation shots ...

Proving it's the photographer, not the equipment.

2010-11-21T11:36:00.001-05:00

Hence the Name

;-)

2010-11-19T00:14:00.002-05:00

Lens Envy

I'm going hunting this weekend.

For eagles and ducks and swans and whatever else may wander in front of my camera.

And I'll have a big lens.

The first stop is Conowingo Dam to photograph eagles.

And I'll be taking along some major glass.

I went last year around this time and lamented my lack of focal length.

I won't be this year.

In front is a Canon 100-400 mm IS L, my workhorse birding lens. The rear camera sports a Canon 500 mm IS L lens, which I've got for the week. As you can see, it is slightly larger.

But it is just a temporary thing. And a week from now I'll be back to just my little lens.

You can visit your favorite camera store and find out why I own the former and only rent the latter.

Wish me luck.

2010-11-16T18:05:00.003-05:00

My 15 Minutes

Read about it here.

2010-11-14T22:24:00.002-05:00

Controlled Conditions

On my recent Catskills photography trip we visited the so called Roundtop Raptor Center. It was off season, but the proprietor was happy to show us some of his birds. For a fee of course.

And for that fee, we were able to photograph the birds up close and personal, as the saying goes.

The birds had no choice.

Harris's Hawk

American Kestrel

Red-Tailed Hawk

Turkey Vulture

In addition to the raptors there were also Red Junglefowl ...

Also known as Roosters

As well as a coop full of ...

Pigeons

There were also camera shy peafowl. A curious collection.

*****

I wasn't sure what to expect when we set out to visit the "Raptor Center", but it wasn't tethered birds sitting in a yard.

Harris's Hawk, Tethered

(note the missing talons (click the image))

The birds, a half dozen tethered, would occasionally try to fly. And they'd come crashing to the ground. You'd think they would learn, but no, they would repeatedly try.

Nor did I expect to find heathy wild birds kept in ramshackle enclosures.

The only other raptor centers I've experience with are involved with bird rehabilitation and public outreach. They have two classes of birds in their care. Those that they expect to release back to the wild, and those with injuries that will preclude such release. The latter become permanent residents and educators. Ambassadors of their kind to we who hold the fate of entire species in our hands.

*****

The Center appeared to be a one man operation. The birds kept to be trained as hunters, the proprietor a falconer.

Glove and Claw

*****

Screaming

I've been working this post for a while, word smithing but not quite getting it to work.

And then my friend Laura did it for me, writing this. Go read it. And be sure to read the comments.

2010-11-14T09:54:00.002-05:00

Batsto Bats

The Bats

The Belfry

2010-11-11T21:49:00.001-05:00

Sunset

It's over.

2010-11-09T20:50:00.001-05:00

Alien Abductions ...

Traveling along a lonely dark flyway, what's that sound?
Toot! Toot! Toot! Toot! Toot!
A challenge? A rival?

A TRAP!

The more struggles the more entwined.

What's that sound? What are those creatures? Cyclops with glowing eyes? What's happening? Stuffed into a bag? Help! Help!

Help ...

Captured.

What is this place?

What are those things?

What is happening?

Bring that finger a little closer ...

NOT THE PROBE!

What the ...

Not happy.

Careful with that thing!

Click! Click! Click! Click!

Bet great horneds don't get treated like this.

Someone's gonna pay!

Enough! Let go already!

*****

Click here to learn more about the abduction program.

2010-11-07T16:51:00.001-05:00

Better Bird Photo of the Weekend

A slightly closer bird this time.

So close you can even see the yellow of its eyes.

(Any guesses as to species?)