Blameless

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

Yes, we’re back on the wood ducks again, but let’s be real – they’re the coolest birds and right here on the property; not even god is gonna blame me for posting about them *

mother wood duck Aix sponsa with two of her brood peeking out from under her wings at night
Anyway, after doing the nighttime photos of the mother and ducklings on Turtle Island, I kept watching for them, getting some more shots and then, one evening, spotting the mother just after sunset, realizing that she’d come onto the island while it was still light enough to see. That’s all the encouragement that I need.

There’s a significant difference in the perspectives, naturally, because the night stills done with the flash meant that I was approaching with the spotlight of the headlamp trained on her, preventing her from seeing me (unless I turned around and silhouetted myself against the light falling on the yard,) as long as I approached as stealthily as possible. But while it was still twilight, she could see me easily and so I had to work at a much greater distance from up on the back deck, which did admittedly allow a better view through the pond plants. We’re talking a difference of six or seven meters versus thirty-five though.

Since this video, I’ve tried three more times but they haven’t showed, so whether momma’s found a quieter nighttime roost or is simply cycling her spots around to avoid creating a pattern that predators might figure out, I can’t say, though I’ll keep watching. This pond really is a great spot for them, since it’s too shallow to have largemouth bass or snapping turtles, both significant predators of ducklings, and close enough to the house to discourage foxes a little, and simply chock-full of both food sources and great hiding places, especially with those huge leaves now.

While the Canada geese and mallards are reasonably habituated to us, the wood ducks remain quite wary – the most progress we’ve made is that they only scoot over into thicker cover when we show ourselves out back, though incautious moves will still send them flying down to The Bayou for safety. One pair is semi-mellow and occasionally hangs around in sight, like on the evening that I shot the video:

slightly more mellow wood duck Aix sponsa pair on edge of pond
That’s the railing of the back deck peeking in at the bottom there, but I had no doubt that they could see me easily. Meanwhile, I have never seen a male in the vicinity of the mother duck at any time, so presumably they don’t maintain a protective pairing? I don’t now enough about their habits yet to speak authoritatively on this.

We did obtain some duckling starter food and have been distributing it in likely spots, and one set of locations, visible crossover paths between the pond and the creek at the east side of the property, gets picked clean routinely. By what, we’re not sure, though it’s an encouraging sign, especially when other locations on the pond edge have been untouched, so less likely that it’s by sparrows or something. But yeah, this certainly isn’t the last you’ll see of the wood ducks here.

* Should go without saying, really…

Your April reminders

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

I mean, you can simply look at the posts from previous years on the sidebar, there, to get these, and I can save myself the typing effort, but you’re not gonna do that, are you?

So once again, I’ll remind you that the Lyrids meteor shower is going on right now, but will peak on the night of April 21st, or more accurately, the morning of April 22nd, and I could be outside right now firing off time exposures instead of telling you this again, so since I’m making the sacrifice for you, you should go out some time in the next few nights and do some night sky exposures – chances are you’ll do better than I ever have in all my years of attempting to get a decent meteor trail or fireball.

Earth Day is April 22nd, and you should have big plans for that. My suggestion is, plant something for every post you’ve ever made on Twitter, or whatever it’s called this week. And no, grass seed doesn’t count.

And April 24th is the 35th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, still going strong despite the contributions from the James Webb Space Telescope. Eventually, it will be de-commissioned and you’re going to regret not appreciating it when you could have, so get on that.

You can thank me through that Tip Jar thingy on the sidebar, there. I’m going to go shoot the night sky while it’s nice.

'Mystic Mountain' in Carina Nebula by HST
Hubble Captures View of Mystic Mountain
NASA Hubble Space Telescope captures the chaotic activity atop a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars in a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)

Estate Find XVI

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

A little bit weak this week, mostly because I’ve been doing many other things (among them throwing up, but that’s passed now,) but also because not too much new has crossed my plate. I have some video clips that should be along shortly though.

The property is home to several groves of bamboo, mostly out onto the island on the back side of the pond, but also encroaching into the upper part of the yard. At some point in the past, bamboo became popular as an ornamental plant before people understood how unstoppable it is, and this property was one of the victims. We have no intention of eradicating it entirely, which would take a couple of days with a bulldozer I believe, but we (meaning me) are intending to keep it in check, and this past week was apparently sprouting season.

two large sprouts of unidentified bamboo species displaying nighttime 'dew'
These sprouts are roughly 30-35mm in diameter and 150-200mm in height, but for that, they’re still unsubstantial and easy to break off, though I imagine that this state lasts not more than two weeks, if only a few days. I also know that it isn’t the sprouts that you want to kill, but the roots, though I didn’t have a spade or hatchet with me while getting these pics, so I simply kicked them down after I was done.

sprout of unidentified bamboo species showing 'dew'
Like the hosta that served as last month’s abstract, I don’t believe this is dew at all, but moisture that the bamboo exudes at night instead. At some point, I’ll pick one to observe and perhaps do a time-lapse series to show how fast they grow – it appears I’ll have plenty of opportunities. We’ve noticed that there are, at least, two varieties growing here: the thick ones like this that can get very tall (at least five meters) but are easy to break off at this stage, and thin, spindly ones that remain roughly the diameter of a pencil and grow slower, but are much tougher for that.

Out in the greenhouse, things are developing apace.

‘Pink Panther’ foxglove Digitalis x ‘Pink Panther’ blooming in greenhouse
This is the ‘Pink Panther’ variety of foxglove (Digitalis x ‘Pink Panther’) that we obtained a few years ago, which is definitely pleased with spending the winters in the greenhouse. As far as I’m concerned it should have been moved out by now, but every time I think the weather is amenable, I check the forecasts, and within the week the temperatures are predicted to drop below 10°c overnight again, and so I put it off for another week – that’s been going on for at least a month now. This frame isn’t half-bad for being shot totally blind, you must admit, holding the camera down below waist level because the crowding in the greenhouse wouldn’t allow me to crouch into proper position.

This one, however, was from out in the yard:

likely 'Palibin' Syringa meyeri variety of lilacs in bloom
When growing up in central New York, we had several huge lilac bushes on the farm, and I wanted to have some down here but those varieties won’t grow this far south. This is one that will, though I did not get the particulars from the nursery that recommended it – based on the appearance of the blossoms, I’m going to brashly call this the ‘Palibin’ (Syringa meyeri) variety – certainly a much weaker color than what we had in NY, but they smell the same. This bush got transplanted last fall right after we moved in, hoping to get it established early, and since this is the first that it’s blossomed, I’m going to say that it worked. To all appearances, the soil here is much better than at the old place.

And I just reminded myself of another, from several days back.

blossom clusters of black locust Robinia pseudoacacia
This is a tree growing at the edge of the property, and because of the lighting conditions and the number of other trees around it, the blossoms went unnoticed until I was checking out the yard by headlamp one night. This is a black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia,) which also explained the seed pods that I’d been finding, believing they were from a mimosa tree that I hadn’t yet located. That’s vaguely disappointing, because I would like to get a mimosa established, but the scent of these flowers is fabulous, just about like candy; immediately after smelling them that one night, I went in to get The Girlfriend to check them out, and she agreed.

There are several magnolia trees here that are getting ready to blossom, and the buds from the pond lilies are developing, plus some kind of a water iris I believe, so more will be along eventually. The cardinal flowers that I planted in the fall (or was it winter?) have made no sign of appearing though, which is annoying yet par for the course.

But how? Part 31: What game is this?

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

First off, we’re not really answering any religious questions with this one, but asking a lot of them instead. Second, while I have tried (with varying success) to avoid going on the offensive with posts within this topic, this one is disregarding that restriction entirely, because we’re going hard on the offensive now. I’ve broached aspects of this in one form or another several times before, but now it’s time to get as many of them together into one place. So let’s ask, What kind of game is being played here?

We’ll start with a basic tenet of the abrahamic religions, that only applies in related ways to a few of the others: the concept of eternal reward or punishment – heaven and hell. On the face of it, these seem to make sense: any individual is rewarded for good behavior and punished for bad, until you ask why these are useful and implemented, which always comes down to, it influences future behavior. You cleaned your room when asked, you get a new videogame, or you hit your brother with a pinecone, you lose internet privileges for two days. Whatever. The idea is to promote future behavior that’s beneficial. But let’s face it: if you don’t want something to happen again, boom, kill the child. Done deal. Horrifying, right? Not even a fraction as horrifying as tormenting someone eternally for whatever misdeeds they might have done. What purpose could that possibly serve? And isn’t it enormously sadistic, I mean, really sicko behavior? Further, what use is a perpetually expanding realm of either ultimately happy or ultimately miserable souls? Are they currency of some kind, and for what? Is the supreme being trying to score certain points?

There’s also the bare fact that we only recognize ‘good’ and ‘bad’ living conditions or circumstances in relation to those that aren’t. Is it even possible to be perpetually happy, and if so, how would you know? Is it, like, a constant orgasm? What do you do all day, anyway? Is there any longer such a thing as anticipation or dread? Are there goals? Are there, to be blunt, any of the aspects that we view as ‘life’ in the first place? If you think about it, everything that we experience right now (provided that you’re living while reading this, and not a ghost or something,) reflects on not just the biological needs and desires of a living organism, but a social and finite one at that. We try to get along, we try to perpetuate our genes, we strive to accomplish things and/or be remembered, we even enjoy food that fulfills the evolved desires for proper sustenance. None of those apply to perpetual souls, or indeed have any meaning to such. Even people that have retired from their careers, successful at the primary goal of their survival, end up finding ways to occupy their time – new hobbies, new goals, new challenges, because that’s how our minds work. Does traveling the world or carving more elaborate statues have any meaning in heaven? How about regretting taking the lord’s name in vain, or planting two different crops in the same furrow, while burning in hell?

Oh, the afterlife isn’t actually perpetual, but temporary, a stage before the rebirth cycle, like in hinduism? Sure, whatever; what was it you did in the past life that you now know you shouldn’t do again? You don’t remember? Well, that’s certainly functional. Worse, if you follow the ‘greater/lesser beings’ idea and are reborn a cockroach or something, what, exactly are your choices for behavior now? “I probably shouldn’t have robbed all those people – I’ll be sure to be a good little cockroach now and – “… um, do what? Plant fucking trees? Maybe avoid eating or infecting human food? Sure, I’ll buy that; show me the reborn cockroaches that refuse to get into the breakfast cereal. Or perhaps the ones that recall just enough about their previous existences to hold still and let the shoe slam them back into the cycle to be reborn a step higher…

Which also leads to the question of what point a rebirth cycle has. I mean, it makes slightly more sense than the idea of perpetual good/bad afterlife – but only slightly. Again, where are we going with this – what’s the goal? Ultimate enlightenment, like in buddhism? Sure, what’s that? Does it mean omniscience? Fantastic – and what do we do with that? Knowledge is great, when it can be applied to improve something in our lives. But just to have it? And imagine trying to have a conversation between two omniscient people…

Underlying all of this is the basic tenet that religion overall is intended to guide us towards good behavior, which is fine and commendable, but ultimately unnecessary – we’re actually quite capable of determining what’s beneficial and detrimental, because it’s not actually hard at all. The biggest stumbling block is that we’re too often conflicted between what’s personally beneficial (or desirable) and what’s socially beneficial, or short-term versus long-term benefits, or the fact that winning some form of competition, real or imagined, usually does not actually equate with benefit in any form. It would be far easier if we couldn’t become this confused, since it’s mostly emotional/glandular, but again, that’s the way we were made, right? Though at least, the acceptance and active practice of religion is so adept at thwarting most of these ills, which is why we never, ever hear that religious people commit crimes, or take advantage of others, or engage in bloodshed, or [absolutely fucking huge list of social ills from a long history of religious persecution and abuse.] This is also why the cultures and countries that are the most religious are also the happiest and the most advanced. I’m sorry – did that sound like sarcasm? I do so try to avoid using that…

At this point, by the way, there’s never any shortage of people who protest that none of these heinous acts were committed by those who were really religious, but the nasty question is, could you tell that before they committed these acts? Because, you know, a hell of a lot of people could have used that guidance before the thefts, abuses, and murders occurred…

I’ve covered the inherent flaws in omniscience and omnipotence before, because they’re mutually exclusive (if you know everything, you already know what you’re about to do and thus have no power to do anything else,) but if we admit that maybe the scriptural chroniclers got that bit wrong and the supreme being isn’t ultimately knowledgeable or powerful, we still come back to the idea that we were created to be exactly this way – including our ability to make mistakes. Now, the idea of any master plan thwarts our behavior entirely and eradicates the very concept of free will, because we’re only players in this plan, automatons. Or, okay, said supreme being is only watching to see what we do, because, why? What’s the point? They could create what they wanted, do anything they wanted, with or without our participation, so…? What could possibly motivate a being – a perpetual being, mind you – to accomplish anything? Can they be bored? Can they gain any kind of fulfillment when it’s virtually guaranteed that they’ll succeed in everything because they can make it so instantaneously? Not to mention that there’s evidence in nearly every form of scripture that said being is capricious and capable of changing their mind, but also (much more alarmingly,) often quite emotional and petulant when its creation performs as it was created to be! What kind of a mental case would I be if I made a toaster that could also blow the roof off, by design, and then get mad when it happens? I mean, we know why we have emotions, and still don’t have very good control of them, but why would an infinite being have or need such a thing?

Not to mention that, while this supreme being loves us, it sure has a wicked history of being quite vicious about it. Pardon me for referring once again to the abrahamic scriptures, since I’m far more familiar with those, but we have lots of accounts of god playing obvious favorites when it comes to conflicts and wars, including stopping the sun in the sky (and not the planet from turning,) to provide enough daylight hours for the chosen portions of its creation to slaughter the unchosen bits. Lovingly, of course. Or we have the expulsion from the garden of eden, because this being planted a tree right there and said, “Don’t eat the fruit,” (all-knowing, of course, that it was going to happen anyway,) and then in retribution, made its creation susceptible to sinning. Like they weren’t susceptible to it beforehand when they were tempted by the fruit? And what was the tree, we ask? The tree of knowledge, often given as the knowledge of good and evil. Seriously, what’s the scattered and nonsensical message here?

Notice, too, that all of the animals (in this case meaning non-human) were expelled too, and then learned to prey on one another, because, um, they were complicit in this act? Because god doesn’t love them and so they might as well suffer the consequences too? Because god just likes burdening mankind with guilt? This plays out again in the noachian flood, when the vast majority of the world population (human and non) gets slaughtered too, save for a breeding set, because I guess the act of creating the entire universe made god too tired to do something millions of times easier and target simply the sinners.

We’ll broaden our scope now, and point out that not one of the creation stories, from any of the hundreds of different religions that have peppered the Earth, manages to fit in even slightly with all of the evidence that we have (intermeshing and corroborating as well,) of how the sun and planets started, of how life evolved, how old things are, and so on and so on. Now, the trait of studying cause-and-effect, of figuring out just about every mystery that comes in front of our eyes, is deeply ingrained – and has proven to be enormously useful as well, responsible for every last advancement we’ve ever made as a species. But, this fails when it comes to understanding our origins? It’s, as countless religious pundits have maintained over the centuries, all misleading, “testing our faith,” as it is so often put? First off, why? Seems like a hell of a lot of trouble to go through for a simple test, not to mention that the supreme being already knows what’s in our heads, not to mention that it already knows how it will all play out (oh, wait, we have to ignore that omniscience angle.) And correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t this make it all a huge lie? I thought that was one of those bad things, but I suppose only for us to do, and not the perfect being. So what else is it lying about? I mean, we read or hear about scripture through the same eyes and ears that tell us about fossils and geological deposition and atomic forces, so where does that leave us?

The especially amusing bit about all of this is, religion is repeatedly claimed to provide “all of the answers,” and I cannot count the times that I’ve heard that science can tell us how, but religion tells us why. Feel free to pose any of the above questions to any religious authority that you like and see what kind of answers you actually receive. I’ve been on enough forums to see what they consist of, which is always a dodge along the lines of, “we’re not meant to know,” making the claim of providing answers rather hypocritical of course. I’ve also been on enough forums to hear the countless stories of people who, in their youth, posed such questions honestly and earnestly to their religious instructors, only to be chastised or punished for even asking (which naturally started that distrust and resentment rolling.) Even the explanation of what jesus’ sacrifice (is it a sacrifice if it was all planned, and he went to heaven afterward?) was supposed to provide for mankind somehow isn’t agreed upon by the devout; I’ve heard at least seven different variations personally, none of which made any sense.

Now, I can easily accept that cultures long past were attempting to provide answers, and that’s what most scripture (of any kind) consists of. It is, in fact, the only way that any of this makes sense at all. But to claim that this is how any supernatural being(s) communicated with mankind in order to guide, or inform, or enlighten us? It’s remarkably inept and pathetic, really, hardly the efforts of even average intelligence, much less an enormous intellect, or even one that created the game in the first place.

It’s often maintained that science doesn’t have all of the answers either, but this ignores the bare fact that it never proposed to in the first place, or even proposed anything at all; science is only a methodical process of learning, not any form of pronouncement nor any attempt to guide mankind. That said, using science to understand the origins of this planet and life thereon, as well as the odd and seemingly conflicting emotions that form our motivations, has produced thousands of times more answers than all religious ‘information’ put together, even as our understanding remains incomplete. Yet, this is a misleading comparison, since it’s not an “either/or” situation, a competition between two choices. Even without what science has demonstrated for us, religion does not serve to move us forward or explain our origins or actions or how to behave properly, especially if we take the myriad examples provided within scripture. The moment that anyone feels the motivation for it to make sense and “fit,” it is revealed as sorely lacking in such regards, and the only thing that can be obtained from it is self-indulgence – provided, of course, that one purposefully ignores all of the portions that fail to support such indulgence, or openly contradict it. But answers? Don’t be foolish.

Estate Find XV

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

All week I wasn’t finding a whole lot of new things to photograph, and Thursday was busy all day, so I ended up trying to find something late Thursday night/early Friday morning. I was out with the night rig, and indeed got a glimpse of beavers, twice, but never could get focus before they slipped out of sight, and my attempt to out-patience them failed; I saw some ripples and heard a plop, and I’m vaguely suspicious there’s another lodge that I hadn’t known about, but that was it.

Returning, I was still looking around by the headlamp when I thought that the shapes on Turtle Island didn’t look quite right, and got the lens and focusing light on it.

female wood duck Aix sponsa on Turtle Island
Yep, that’s a female wood duck, which I was pleased to find because there’s been no evidence that they were remaining on the pond overnight – every time I watched in the evening, everyone seemed to head out for the lower part of the pond, dubbed The Bayou. Naturally I zoomed in as much as possible, and Turtle Island really isn’t far from the bank, so I could close in pretty well for a single frame before she slipped into the water. Framing, that’s another matter.

female wood duck Aix sponsa on Turtle Island with wings dropping
It was this shot that made me go out to try again later on, after she’d returned to this roost, because I was annoyed with myself that the one sharp, closeup image was framed so badly. She wasn’t copacetic with the attention and soon slipped almost silently into the water, before I could nail focus, but I had a couple of frames that made me pause, and the drooping wing up there was suddenly explained. It took two more tries to finally get what I was after, and by this time it was beginning to rain seriously.

female wood duck Aix sponsa shielding ducklings from rain on Turtle Island
Ducklings! This was definitely a surprise, because first of all, I had seen no evidence of nesting at all, and second, I would have confidently told you this was too early for ducklings – so much for my judgment. This wasn’t too far from the nest box, either; had she used it, or something else? I have no idea. No male was in evidence in the slightest, by the way, any of the four times I was trying for shots.

By the way, if you go back to the second pic and look right in front of her breast, you’ll see the first confirmation – I hadn’t actually found it until subsequent tries when the rippling I was seeing in the focusing light (which was much less effective than the flash, many times dimmer) made me suspect the ducklings.

But almost immediately after the above frame, the brood shifted and gave me an excellent family portrait:

female wood duck Aix sponsa with several ducklings in rain on Turtle Island
Well, if you’re all going to be that cooperative, I’m amenable. By this point it was raining seriously, and between the risk to the camera equipment and the risk to the ducklings from getting too wet, I abandoned further efforts – the risk to the ducklings wasn’t that high, since it remains 16°c out there and they were exposed to the rain for about 10 seconds before I let them be. Considering that only a couple hours ago I was thinking I’d have to punt the Estate Find, though, this works pretty damn well.

Just because, part 55

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

A few photos sitting largely by themselves, just gotta clear some of the folder out.

full resolution inset of waxing crescent showing Theophilus crater prominently
Out the other night with the long lens attached, I fired off a few frames handheld at the waxing crescent (nearly half, or first quarter) moon high in the sky, adjusting focus manually each time. This one came out the sharpest, and this is a full-resolution crop from the center – that’s Theophilus crater so prominent near the terminator, and yes, it has multiple peaks in the center. It’s 100km in diameter and about 4.2km deep.

Only now realized that the last ‘Just Because’ was also a moon shot, but it was a couple of months ago so it’s okay. Plus we have other subjects.

dusky Canada goose Branta canadensis occidentalis swimming through disappearing open water on pond
Canada geese have several different subspecies, and this appears to be a dusky Canada goose (Branta canadensis occidentalis,) easy to spot because their breast coloration is almost the same as their backs, plus they’re a little smaller. We have a pair that visits semi-regularly now, upsetting another male (probably the most-common Atlantic Canada goose) because he believes this should be his territory. This results in squabbles and lots of honking at times – I’ll have some recordings and video later on. Right now, we look at that pond and recognize that the pond lilies are taking over – no surprise, since the water is quite shallow, but soon it won’t look like water at all.

And finally,

pair of Carolina anoles Anolis carolinensis sleeping stacked above one another in top of thick weed
Out the other night looking for snakes and beavers – yes, I’m biphotographic – I was in one section of the property that had been crawling with green treefrogs just two nights previously, but now was hosting countless Carolina anoles (Anolis carolinensis) asleep in the weeds, grasses, and trees – I could stand in any given spot and find at least three in the light of the headlamp, in any direction, with little effort. But these two demanded that I get their picture, because who could pass this up? It’s actually taken from a moderate distance off with the 150-600mm and Vivitar 285HV, since that’s what I had mounted.

There’s more to come, but these required little exposition, so I could throw this post down easier. You’ll see more shortly.

Welcome, sit down, lend us your mind for a bit

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

“You started off last weekend telling us about the game convention, Al,” you say, “and then you go back to bug and snake pics. What happened with the convention, Nimrod?” Which is a little rude, I must admit, yet deserved nonetheless. So here’s what happened:

room view of Unpub '25 game convention in late March 2025
As I said, Dan Palmer (the driving force behind the Gnomon Deck) and I had two tables; Friday evening and Saturday midday, but we’d also spent a little time before that on Friday poking around and getting an impromptu playtest going. Friday’s table was a little slow, and we were speculating as to the cause: experienced gamers were looking for a more challenging or elaborate game, people were tired of card games, and so on. And there were some truly elaborate games there, looking somewhat daunting to me since I’m not into games that take a long time to learn. Actually, the games that other people had ran the gamut – some simple, some complex, some very professionally created and looking like they were already in production, some hand-drawn from household materials. One, called Lucky Starch, had the most homemade look yet demonstrated that a lot of thought had gone into the design and gameplay – you can’t judge on appearances.

Playtesters Josh, Ethan, John, Liam, and Jen with Gnomon deck creator Dan Palmer at Unpub '25
From left: Josh, Ethan, John, Liam, and Jen, with creator Dan Palmer (in hat)

Saturday was much more encouraging, though – I don’t think there were ten minutes all told that someone wasn’t at the table trying out the game. And everyone had valuable input, even though Dan is uncanny at determining the stumbling blocks of games before he even gets them on paper. We developed some new rules and variations, with me contributing more than aesthetics for once, and got to see how some of the games worked with varying numbers of players and experience. Very few people had problems with the rules or gameplay, and the deck seemed to hold its own in regards to being clear and self-evident.

Playtesters Robin, Maria, Jessie, and Mariah with Gnomon Deck at Unpub '25
From left: Robin, Maria, Jessie, and Mariah

My apologies to anyone I missed or whose name is misspelled – contact me and I’ll correct it immediately. And for anyone who’s developing their own games, I can’t stress enough how much value extensive playtesting has. You’ll find the little things that never occurred to you, or the odd situations that might prove frustrating to the players, or the unresolvable conditions, or new variations or gameplay options that improve things noticeably.

Also (and this applies to damn near everything that receives criticism, which I’ve addressed more than once before,) don’t give too much weight to single data points. In venues such as this, some players feel compelled to find every small detail that might detract from the game experience, which is a large part of the value of such gatherings – you just can’t put too much weight behind them, and instead focus more on the overall trends among player feedback. No game (photo, essay, motorcycle, garbage disposal) will be perfect and no one should feel compelled to seek that, and while potential problems should always be recognized, one should also recognize that in many cases these may affect very few players, or aren’t serious issues to begin with. Notably, the feedback forms provided by the Unpublished Games Network, the host of the convention, asked a specific question therein: “Did you win?” They know that winning or losing can easily color one’s overall opinion of the game.

playtesters Ronald, Steve, and Susan with creator Dan trying out Gnomon Deck at Unpub '25
From left: Ronald, creator Dan (in hat,) Steve, and Susan

From a photography standpoint, I have to mention that trying to get everyone equally in a shot, while they all look enthusiastic, is challenging – getting them all in a flattering manner is damn near impossible, at least for me, but that’s also why I don’t shoot people. Flashbacks of wedding photography with round tables at receptions – what a pain in the ass those are! More backs than faces. But yeah, timing it just right to catch smiles and enthusiasm and above all faces takes a bit of effort and speed on the shutter.

The biggest negative that I have, and it comes up frequently with conventions and seminars of all types, is choice of venue: far, far too many organizers think that getting into a metropolitan hellscape is somehow better for the participants, and this was no exception, being held in Baltimore (well, Linthicum, which is indistinguishable from Baltimore in any way.) By itself, not too bad, but it required too many attendees like myself to pass through the DC region, which is easily the worst urban planning that I’ve ever seen. I purposefully scheduled the drive up for late Thursday night and still caught oppressive traffic, to say nothing of ridiculous spaghetti-junctions with confusing signage. On the return leg I extended my trip by an hour, with nearly $30 in tolls, to come down the Maryland/Virginia peninsula instead and cross the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel, which dodged all of the ultimate stupidity that is DC. I’ll be avoiding all conventions in future where the organizers choose absolute shithole cities.

But back to the positive aspects, which was how valuable this was to the development of the deck and games, and once again we offer our sincere thanks to (in chronological order,) Cary, Natalia, Chris, and Trista on Friday, and Josh, Ethan, John, Liam, Jen, Robin, Maria, Jessie, Mariah, Ronald, Steve, Susan, Gavin, Dan, Sam, and Calvin on Saturday! All of you were both great and helpful, and we gained a lot of information from you all! And for the record, the site for the Gnomon Deck can be found at gnomondeck.com, with all current information therein and the ability to sign up for breaking news.

As for the player with the pink carnation and the suspiciously light pocket change, we’ll be holding you to your promise… ;-)

Not waiting another week

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

I could have shelved this one for another Estate Find, but that’s a week away and I think I should keep you in the loop.

I had a feeling this was looming, yet did my check a little too late in the day to catch anything in progress – still, we have this.

egg case ootheca of Chinese mantis Tenodera sinensis showing chaff from recent hatching
That’s the egg case/ootheca of a Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) that we saw in an earlier, not-quite-Estate-Find, only now displaying the chaff that indicates the new arrival of the bebbies. When I first approached, they were clustered on the branches immediately adjacent to the ootheca, but quickly dispersed even though I didn’t draw too close until I had the camera in hand. Well, most of them dispersed.

newborn Chinese mantis Tenodera sinensis peering over top of egg case ootheca
One was watching me from apparent safety, hoping I wouldn’t notice, which isn’t just wishful thinking: these guys are at most 10mm in length. A casual, or even a mildly observant, glance could easily miss them even though there were dozens on hand.

cluster of newborn Chinese mantids Tenodera sinensis on branch of coastal with alder Fothergilla gardenii with egg case ootheca in background
But in a few places, the leaves looked like they were covered in fine debris – still easy to miss if this failed to strike the viewer as atypical, or if they didn’t watch long enough to realize that the debris was moving a bit too much. Note that this was after a large number of them panicked at my approach and scampered down the branches or simply dropped to the lawn below. We’ll go in for a closer look on this frame, though:

cluster of newborn Chinese mantids Tenodera sinensis on coastal witch alder Fothergilla gardenii leaves
That’s an even dozen, counting the one at top that remains hidden behind the leaf except for its arms beseeching the heavens. I have only past experience to go on, but I’m pegging these as eight hours old at most, probably less.

newborn Chinese mantids Tenodera sinensis on coastal with alder Fothergilla gardenii leaves
The light was quite bright, so while I was using the typical macro rig (mostly,) the lighting looks much more natural and not that nighttime spotlight appearance so typical of macro flash work. This is because the exposure setting for the flash still allowed the background to be exposed properly enough to look balanced – nice when you can get it to work.

newborn Chinese mantis Tenodera sinensis perched on underside of leaf
Meanwhile, I was shifting very carefully since so many of them had dropped to the lawn underneath the sapling (which really only sprouted leaves this past week,) and the danger of crushing them was high. They’re pretty good about fleeing, however, so moving slowly and attempting to clear the area before squatting or sitting down works pretty well. Did I manage to avoid all of them? I doubt it, to be honest, but I did what I could, and it really is impressive watching how quickly they can take themselves from harm’s way. I even saw two damselflies make close passes, though I suspect they were only dueling over territory and not hunting, but the mantids dropped away instantaneously at the perceived threat – those tiny eyes are sharp.

newborn Chinese mantis Tenodera sinensis posing on unidentified pale lavender flowers
Still, I remained too nervous and wasn’t catching any actual hatching action anyway, so this was the last set of images I took – I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity when one was posing so nicely on these unidentified flowers (which I’m not looking up since I’m trying to get this out on the same day.) I’ll keep checking because there are often late hatchers that appear later, but I think I missed those details this year. I’ve gotten them before, so no biggie.

It’s time

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

When did we last feature wood ducks? A couple of weeks ago? That’s enough of a gap.

Yesterday I looked out the office window and found a pair of the wood ducks (Aix sponsa) hanging out on the little log that serves as a turtle basking spot for the smaller species. They had a good view directly into my office window themselves, and so I shut off the lights therein to hopefully not disturb them, since this was the upper portion of the main pond, near the nesting box, where they don’t visit that often. So far, there’s been no further interest in the nest box, but this pair seems to be more mellow and hanging around a lot while all of the others only visit twice a day during their own specified feeding times.

Only a minute or three later, I noticed that the male had switched ends of the log while the female snoozed, and realized that he’d probably shifted to make way for a turtle, so I had to try for the shot.

male and female wood duck Aix sponsa sharing log with unidentified small turtle
The way the place is laid out, my office door leads out back from slightly below grade, so I have a few steps up to ground level, and this stairwell is shielded by latticework. I’ve tried before and the ducks easily notice me moving behind the lattice before I can shift the long lens around the end, so this time I got just clear enough to shoot through the lattice openings. This is far from ideal, since the openings are smaller than the front element of the lens; what happens is, a certain percentage of the light coming in is the white latticework itself, well out of focus but still contributing its pale coloration to the frame, reducing contrast and washing it out a bit. I’m considering how to change this so I can get clear shots from my door, but this is what we have for now.

male and female wood duck Aix sponsa sharing log with unidentified small turtle
I got a couple of frames as they preened, then stopped taking any further chances of them noticing me, but at least these two seem much better about human presence than the rest: even when they notice us outside, often all they’ll do is scoot over a bit to be obscured by branches or trunks, rather than fleeing with alarm calls as most of the others do. They’re nowhere near coming up for food when we appear like the geese and mallards will, but at least they stick around.

A little after this, as The Girlfriend and I watched from an upstairs window with binoculars, the female found something disagreeable with the turtle, leaning down and shoving it back into the water. Would have made a cute video clip, had I been ready.

That evening, I went out exploring by headlamp, mostly in search of snakes but also to see if the beaver(s) might make an appearance. Now, the property layout is, all of the east side is ponds, with a narrow spit of land that separates them from the nearly-still creek that forms the property boundary. Most of the beaver activity is on this creek, though there’s evidence that they come into the ponds on occasion, just not too often. The foliage, primarily bamboo, is quite dense on this spit of land along the creek and there are just a couple of places where clear views of the water can be had, which are the only places I’ll be able to see any beavers in the water. Last night I heard a splash, but not quite the sound of a beaver tail, then a flutter that told me that some waterfowl had launched itself from the water and landed again some ways downstream. I did eventually see the reflections of a beaver’s eye in the headlamp, out in the creek, but it quickly moved further off and was obscured by branches before I could begin to focus (using my trusty Beav Team Six rig.) I stood and waited, and realized I was hearing some soft peeping from right on the other side of the creek. I peered around, watching carefully, and eventually determined that a male wood duck was hanging around immediately opposite me.

male wood duck Aix sponsa shot at night
This was the closest I’ve ever been to one, and I credit it to the bright headlamp and rig focusing light that was preventing the duck from seeing me clearly – this is full-frame at 600mm, by they way, while the duck was perhaps seven or eight meters off. The light is provided by a Vivitar 285 HV, the most powerful strobe I own. Mr Bugg would have been delighted to see me chimping, but it was the quickest way to calculate the proper exposures. Meanwhile, the male wood duck seemed disinclined to vacate the area and continued its calling; I surmised this was to attract the female that had left, so they could stay together, but that’s only a guess.

I worked further on to not disturb him, still looking for other subjects, still hearing beaver activity but not seeing it. On my way back, I returned to the same spot and had a seat to just try and wait one out. I’d looked around quite carefully and had seen nothing as I settled in.

After a few minutes, there was a splash nearby, and as I homed in on it, expecting to see the ripples of a beaver, I found the male wood duck again, who had not been visible there only moments before.

male wood duck Aix sponsa shot at night
Now, I don’t know how good the night vision of a wood duck is. For most birds, it falls somewhere between terrible and nonexistent, and they take pains to have safe perches before full darkness descends. The exceptions that I know of are the owls of course, as well as nightjars and great blue herons, which seem to have no trouble flying at night. Wood ducks? I have no idea, but this one was not only hanging around the area, it might have purposefully landed right near me. And again, it was swimming back and forth, not ostentatiously, but still peeping very softly. It also gave me a brief flapping display, which I was barely fast enough to capture.

male wood duck Aix sponsa flapping briefly at night
I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s a nest nearby, perhaps in one of the trees I was sitting under, and the male was keeping an eye on things, if not actively trying to draw me away. I knew, should the nest exist, I had little chance of spotting it by the headlamp, so I elected to return in daylight to test this theory, because that’s exactly the kind of thing that I want to monitor, if I can find a way to do so without disturbing them – a tall order, that, especially since I’ve found no way to get to the other side of the creek where I could be farther off and less threatening; with luck, should the nest exist, it will be on the far side and I can try to find a safe observation spot on our own property.

By the way, I cannot stress enough how useful a good headlamp is. I’ve had this one for years, having replaced the elastic bands twice and the rechargeable batteries at least that many times, and it’s seen heavy use in not just photography, but household tasks like entering the crawlspace or working in tight quarters where light doesn’t penetrate, and even working on cars at night on the side of the road. It has multiple lighting modes and the batteries last for hours of constant use, which is damn good because I wouldn’t be able to do excursions of this nature without it. I highly recommend that everyone have one.

I close with one little detail that I discovered while reviewing the photos last night, seen here close up:

closeup detail of sides of male wood duck Aix sponsa showing stippled feathers on sides
Every photo I have seemed to show that the sides of the males were simply tan, but now I see that they’re actually stippled very finely, making me feel bad because I don’t have that detail on my wood duck figure (I really am bothered by inaccuracies like that, even though only a small percentage of people would spot it themselves.) Now, do I have the patience and steady hands to correct this oversight? Yeah, not sure about that…

Estate Find XIV

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

This one was a semi-targeted find – I figured some representative of the order would be visible around here soon, but this one showed up when I wasn’t specifically looking for it.

very young banded water snake Nerodia fasciata held in author's hand
Instead of being anyplace along the water’s edge or among roots of trees nearby, this one was found in the middle of the driveway when we took the trash out last night. This is a very young banded water snake (Nerodia fasciata,) but being unfamiliar with exactly what snakes might be in the area (as well as examining it by pocket flashlight,) I did not immediately grab it, instead gettimg down on the ground to examine it closely first. The pattern certainly looked familiar, but the round pupils and stripes along upper and lower jaws pinned it down as a water snake, and the unbroken bands in the hindbody indicated that this was a banded rather than the northern water snakes that I’ve been finding for years. This is much smaller than average adult size, which runs close to a meter in length with quite a thick body.

very young banded water snake Nerodia fasciata held in author's palm
Familiar with the ‘spirited’ defensive traits of the northerns, I grasped my subject here carefully behind the head, but needn’t have bothered – I have rarely handled a more docile snake, who didn’t even struggle feebly but settled into my hand with complete aplomb. I housed it temporarily in a terrarium before I was ready to shoot some images, and it reacted the same way when I took it out again – ain’t no thang.

very young banded water snake Nerodia fasciata held in author's palm, clearly showing pupils and jaw stripes
This image shows the two traits I was looking for when I bent down close before picking it up: the round pupils and the stripes along both jaws, neither of which are possessed by the cottonmouth (the only venomous snake in the area that this even remotely resembled.) There are other definitive traits, such as the more triangular, pit-viper head and the prominent brow ridge, but I wasn’t sure how well these were developed in the immature specimens. Looking at images from others afterwards, it would seem they’re present from the start.

This is where I made the mistake, though. Wanting some more natural-looking portraits, I went outside and chose a spot in the yard with very little grass or weeds, instead a blanket of old dry cypress needles. On setting it down in a likely spot, the snake recognized this as the opportunity that it had been waiting for and quickly nosed into the cypress needles, which were much thicker and yet less packed than I thought, and before I could even put the camera down, the snake was vanishing under this carpet. Completely. I tore up a good swath of needles hoping to unearth it again and found not the faintest hint. See, this is why I make studio settings for this kind of stuff.

Anyway, it was the first water snake found on the property, so that counts nicely. And I have a few other images from the past 24 hours to feature here, probably right after this.

1 2 3 … 305