Birdbath

In addition to providing caterpillar housing, the birdbath also functions as a ...

... birdbath.

And as you can see, the heater keeps the water liquid, even when snow and ice build up around the rim.

This Tufted Titmouse is just one of the birds that appreciates that.

Yard Critter of the Week - Haploa Caterpillar

Haploa Caterpillar.

Last week it was rather cold. Cold enough to freeze bubbles you might recall. Morning temperatures last week were 6°, 7°, and 5° F when I got out of bed.

And much to my surprise I found this critter crawling about. It is sitting on the crossbar of the support of our heated birdbath.

A rather smart critter, as it found a spot near the heater. These caterpillars do overwinter as such, but generally hunkered down. They become active in early spring and turn into moths similar to this:

I say similar because although while the caterpillar and moth are both in the genus Haploa, I'm not sure that they are the same species. And there are several possibilities in this area. Complicating things is that most of the Haploa caterpillars have yellow striping, yet this one is more white in hue.

Nevertheless,  I wonder how this one found its way here?

Up the pole form the ground to under the bowl. And then onto this blog.

 🐛  🐛  🐛  🐛  🐛

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.

I Got A New Camera!

Well, not really. But I did buy a book (don't tell Patty!).

📷  📖  📷  📖  📷

Here is an image of a lichen from our yard that I made with the 'new' camera. The curious shadows are a clue to the type of camera I used.

Here's another lichen from the yard. We've had some windy days of late and it seems these were blown out of the trees.

Here's a crop of the second image (that's a grain of sand in the lower left). One very cool feature of this new camera is the high resolution files it creates. The files sizes of the TIFFs out of the camera for the two full lichen shots were 284 MB and 189 MB respectively.

Here is another pair of images, this time of a fossil plant (which I found on one of the first adventures Patty and I had together).

Here is the full image.

And here is the crop. Note the detail in the stem and leaves.

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The book is Picturing Science and Engineering by Felice C. Frankel.

The camera is an Epson Perfection 3200 Photo scanner. A flatbed scanner that I've had since the MacOS 9 days, at least ten years. So, not such a 'new' camera at all.

The first chapter is entitled, "Flatbed Scanner" and was the inspiration for this post. I can see lots of uses for this old camera.

This is gonna be fun.

Superb Owl Sunday

We have a local spot that we visit every year around this time to look for owls. And every year we find them. This year was no different, but it was not looking good for most of our visit.

Until Patty spotted this.

That blob in the middle of the image? It's a Northern Saw-whet Owl.

We had made our way to the 'owl area' and started searching. The usual roost was empty. And quick survey found no whitewash nor pellets. Worse, a number of trees had fallen. So we broadened our search area, splitting up to look.

And Patty found some whitewash. Lots of whitewash. But try as she might she couldn't find any owls.

A slightly better view, albeit one for the 'Bird Butt Field Guide'.

Patty had even texted me, "Let's head home ...". I texted back "Ok. Meet you on the trail." (We were both bushwhacking.)

Then I got this text, "I think I have a saw-whet."

And she did.

It was way up in the tree. I'm using a zoom lens at 600mm and it is still a small image. I have no idea how she spotted it. From most angles it is completely hidden.

Even the best viewing angles still have branches blocking the view, as you can see in this cropped image.

🦉  🦉  🦉  🦉  🦉

Here is an 'image of the owl' taken with my iPhone.

That's some good spottin' by Patty.

And this is what made her look up in this tree, "whitewash" ...

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

... which is a nice name for owl poop.

🦉  🦉  🦉  🦉  🦉

The title of this post was stolen from The Atlantic, from this post of superb owl images, sent to me by my friend Adam. Check it out.

Twilight

I went out in to the yard to chase some deer away (more on that later) and when I turned around to head back inside I saw a lit up sky. Realizing how ephemeral such displays are I tried some shots with my phone.

This was the best of the lot, blog worthy at best. So I hurried in to grab a better camera.

Clearly better than the phone shots (an iPhone 6S+, four generations old). You can see it has gotten darker in the few minutes it took to get Sony RX100 MII, a high end digicam (no time to get my DSLR and swap lenses).

And in the time it took to walk back around the house it got darker still. The clasped time from the first iPhone to the last Sony was eight minutes. These things happen fast, so pay attention.

But I still should have taken the time to turn the house lights off though.

Frozen Bubbles

It was again in single digits Fahrenheit when I woke this morning. But today without wind. So I decided to try this again (coincidently it was 7° F this morning as well).

Freeze bubbles that is.

First I had to blow a bubble, and then catch it so I could set it down without bursting. Not as easy as you may think.

Then you wait for the magic to occur (where for "magic" read "physics"). Look closely and you can see it starting to solidify.

Now it has sprung a leak. Being frozen it retains a bubble shape.

But it is too fragile to last.

And it collapses under its own weight.

°  °  °  °  °  °  °  °  °  °

There are some interesting things going on with this one. Well, interesting to me anyway.

First, you can see ice crystals forming on the top and side of the bubble and perhaps some holes. Second you can see thin film interference colors on the top. And third there are some curious optical effects with the reflections of the bubble wand.

Bubbles are usually ephemeral things.

But frozen, it is for a while a fractured bubble.

Soon enough only fragments remain.

°  °  °  °  °  °  °  °  °  °

These didn't freeze in the same fashion as the last time. Those had much more obvious ice crystals forming on the bubble surface. These just seemed to solidify without significant crystal formation. Curious.

Yard Critter of the Week - Northern Cardinal

Northern Cardinal.

This bright red crested bird is an obvious yard critter throughout the year.

The females, while not quite as obvious, are still distinctive. The big orange bill and red crest are sufficient to identify the species.

Northern Cardinals don't migrate nor do they molt to a duller 'non-breeding' plumage. Thus if you have them in your yard you'll have them all year round.

In the winter we'll often see half a dozen or more males in our yard. But come spring time they become very territorial. So much so that so that they'll battle with their reflection in windows and car mirrors, much to the amusement of human spectators.

Fighting for the attention of pretty ladies such as this one.

🐦  🐦  🐦

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.