Sorting finds n+1

It’s happened before: when sorting through recent photos to see what is discarded and what is kept (and subsequently sorted into appropriate categories,) I will find a photo or three that I didn’t feature back around the time that I took them, but feel they deserve some recognition. This happens often enough, in fact, that I decided to make it a category, but since I don’t know how many times I’ve already done it, we’re just assigning that unknown value to n and going from there.

[Does anyone know why the first variable presented is almost always ‘n‘? Is there a clever reason behind this, or is it just short for “number”? Please make up something else if this really is the answer.]

Anyway, I had to go through 1,055 images tonight, but it went quicker than normal because of the large percentage that fit into just two categories: Birds and Mammals. My Mammals folder, always a rather thin one, has expanded nicely courtesy of the beavers, but more on them will be along shortly. For now, we have birds.

great blue heron Ardea herodias silhouetted against sunset ripple patterns
I could have saved this one for the end-of-the-month abstract, but I think I’ve already done one like this – I know I used a similar image for a bullshit post. I just liked how a bare amount of facial detail from this great blue heron (Ardea herodias) remained visible in these lighting conditions.

Next up, we have a cooperative juvenile bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus):

juvenile bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus glaring down from above
I’ve featured images of this same eagle before – maybe even in two separate posts – but I liked how this very tight crop still held up in sharpness and detail, and gives a very different impression from the reality of a remarkably mellow raptor.

And finally, an osprey (Pandion haliaetus):

osprey Pandion haliaetus almost directly overhead preparing to dive
Offered in contrast to the previous image, this isn’t too majestic or noble, and that’s the point – I liked the awkwardness of it. It comes from being underneath the bird as it prepared to dive after a fish, cropped tighter for the drama… or, whatever. It has the look of someone who has definitely bounced too high and not quite accurately on the trampoline. But that goes without saying.

By the way, I always have something to listen to when I’m sorting, and this last batch took one episode of The Geologic Podcast and half an episode of the original Hitchhiker’s Guide. However, there are still 204 video clips awaiting my attention, and those take a lot longer…

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