It’s funny – I finally sat down yesterday to clear out the burgeoning Sort folder of new images, slotting them into their respectful spots (which includes the trash bin,) and less than 24 hours later, that folder is already up to 71 images. Some of those you’ve already seen, since the occultation photos came in there, but some will show up on Friday.
For now, we have a handful that I rediscovered while sorting and set aside to feature as curiosities. Like this one of the cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) that had gathered a few days back:
As I remarked then, cedar waxwings have some of the best coloration, but this view of the chin showed something unexpected: a sharp black point, kind of an underside widow’s peak, right under the chin. I thought, What a cool marking!, but other images showed that it isn’t actually present – it’s only the shadow of the bird’s own beak. Oh well.
But while here, we see another frame of the same bird feeding.
Grasping one of the little indigo berries that the small flock was feeding upon, this one looked right into the camera, or at least appears to, perhaps showing off its meal smugly (or not.) I could have had a few like this, were it not for all the intervening branches that also tended to grab autofocus, but at least here there’s the faintest hint of the deep brown color of the eyes. And it gives an idea of how many images got tossed because of those branches.
After sorting, I also did a tally of the images obtained for 2024, which is below.
Aquatic: 34
Arthropods: 652
Beach: 0 (I think I lamented this earlier)
Birds: 2,458
Invertebrates: 2
Lakes/Streams/Waterfalls: 1,127
Leaves/Plants/Trees: 459
Mammals: 107
Mountain: 35 (I thought this would be lower, but I forgot I went to Tennessee to pick up my brother)
Reptiles/Amphibians: 768
Scenic/Abstract: 332
Science/Miscellaneous: 586
Space: 270 (well, if we count those taken in space, that number is 0)
Sunrise/Sunset: 156
That totals 6,986 – mind you, those are the keepers, so not an accurate tally of how many I actually took, but it’s still lower than other years. Some of them got into multiple categories as well, so reduce by 5-10% if you’re interested in the actual number of distinct images. Oh, you’re not?
But doing this, I found that the first bird images of 2024 were an unexpected subject, a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) visiting the neighborhood pond.
That’s the first, the ‘insurance frame’ taken as it came into sight, in case the bird spooked before I got close enough for better ones, which happens from time to time. It’s full-frame as well, but crops down halfway decently:
The tangle of branches gives entirely the wrong impression, since the eagle was at the edge of the pond with a clear view and a clear flight path. I just liked the idea that the first bird was not only an eagle, but one I wouldn’t have expected to find until going down to Jordan Lake, some kilometers south. This was taken January 24th, and I’ve got that beat this year, since my first bird pics were on the 2nd, but admittedly those are only mallards. The eagle, meanwhile, visited several times over the following couple of weeks, but seems to have vanished at the same time that the red-shouldered hawks began their pre-mating territorial displays, so there’s a distinct possibility that they chased it off.
And finally,
I realized during sorting that this one had a little snide commentary, as a small flock of Canada geese (Branta canadensis) took flight in the thick fog a few weeks back, while another sits complacently alongside a sign indicating its cowardice. Or something. That whole flock ran straight into the masts of the sailboats moored about fifty meters away*, so the joke’s on them, eh?
But that’s it for sorting finds, until the next, which typically comes over a thousand images off, since that’s how I parcel out my time: put on some podcasts and just plod through the folder. I could do it daily, but then how would I catch up on podcasts, huh? Okay, then.
* No they didn’t