Spoke too soon

Looking at the nest box only minutes ago, and it appeared the parents were still trying to feed their nonexistent young, and so I decided to see if the snake was still present. There was a small surprise waiting therein.


Go back down and look at that other image. Do you see any hint of this guy in there? Yeah, me neither, through multiple frames too. But it did explain why read more

The Girlfriend’s gonna be pissed

One of the bluebird boxes has been playing host to a new family of eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis) this spring, but I’ve been too busy to do much about it. Still, I was trying to keep an eye on it to possibly catch the emergence of the fledged youngsters, something I’ve missed every time previously. Many birds will bail the nest but spend time on the ground and low branches, read more

Just because, part 16

A couple of pics from early yesterday morning, while it was cool and humid – I was going to put these up last evening but the internet went down. I haven’t been posting much, and this is likely to continue for a while, but I had the chance to chase a few images in the morning. I made an attempt to spot some of the juvenile mantids, since they’re photogenic when read more

Telegraph Road (live of course)

Dire Straits was a band that, it’s safe to say, forged their own way right from the start. I’ve seen numerous people attempt to define their style, with little agreement, and I’m not even going to try they adopted whatever style suited their song and goals, at times introducing something inherently recognizable, while at others they borrowed and combined freely. read more

Mass challenged


The newborn Chinese mantids have begun to disperse into different locations I have spotted them not only on the azalea bush neighboring the one they were born within, but many meters away near other flowers and on the dog fennel plants. This makes me self-conscious, because they read more

I’m gonna git you, sucker

A couple of years ago, I captured a particular sequence of images that didn’t quite cut it, as far as I was concerned, and I’ve been trying to get a better set ever since. This evening, I was successful.

What you see to the left is a mosquito in larval stage. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in the water, usually a still pool for a particular reason we will eventually get to. They hatch out read more

Mucking out the stall

Anyone who’s ever dealt with livestock housed in a barn knows about the wicked unbalance of energy involved: it takes a lot more effort to remove the shit than it did to deposit it. This is an apt analogy for addressing theology.

Jerry Coyne and the various commenters at Why Evolution Is True had a read more

A saga long in the making

I was examining the progress of the spring revival in the yard yesterday and noticing that the deer had discovered my almond tree the previous night, which means it now sports a few less leaves than it did – this occurs every few weeks in the summer and seems to do the sapling no harm at all. And then I noticed a movement near the base of the reappearing dog fennel plants, and went in for read more

Earth Day suit

I am changing my tactics slightly with this post, in that I am announcing Earth Day early, so you can actually plan to do something or call in sick or whatever strikes your fancy. If you needed more warning than this, well, that’s your problem – get a decent calendar next year.

So tomorrow, get out and stomp up and down on our planet, just to remind to yourself how useful it is. Or if read more

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