A Shot In The Face of Fear – Yep, I PANICKED

That, my friend, is the result of FEAR!

Linda and I were up an agility show in Wisconsin last weekend.  Part of the bribe to actually get me to go with her was the opportunity to head back to the Chain O Lakes Park in Spring Grove.  Well, that and the chance to stop at my favorite chocolate store in Richmond IL.  8+ hours of waiting around to watch my dogs run for a total of about 4 minutes each.  Yes, their chocolate is THAT  good – especially the dark chocolate covered pineapple- yum.  As a shout out to my littlest dog, congratulations to Kerby (and Linda) on making their TACH II Agility Title at the show.

When we made it to the park, we immediately spotted a couple of swans enjoying a swim.  After about 100 shots of them (blog foreshadowing), we packed up and started to head out of the park.  Less than a mile from the exit, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.  On closer inspection, I still was not able to tell exactly what it was, but it was moving in the weeds and figured I’d just go have a look-see.  Linda double back and dropped me off while she tried to find a place to pull off.  My suspicions were confirmed, it was a Sandhill Crane walking in the fall weed stalks.

It was rather amazing how well it was actually camouflaged among the fall coloring.  Unfortunately, the red on the head allowed me to zero in on it once the movement was vectored.  If you recall, the last encounter with these large birds was from pretty far away on the Yellowstone trip.  Here, the distance was less than 40 feet away giving a better perspective on just how huge these birds are.  Not only was I fortunate to see this feathered beauty….

there was actually TWO of them.  Based by the coloring, it looks like a male and female, but I need to verify that with the field guides.  I was actually struggling to get the shots I wanted.  They were very aware of my presence and continued to walk back and forth and every once in awhile adding some distance.  As they did this, they would pass behind the weed stalks driving my glass autofocus nuts.  Manual focus did not help much either as they refused to stop in one spot for more than a second or two to check out something on the ground or shoot me a glaring eye.  I continued to try and close the distance to help alleviate the focus issue and both the mono and tripods were in the car – mental note, at least grab the mono the next time I rush off into the woods.

So, you are probably wondering about the whole PANIC thing.  Well, it eventually dawned on me that I really did not know anything about these birds I was openly stalking.  Couple that with the fact I was totally alone and nursing a badly torn lower quad so if they had any cheetah friends I was a gonner.   Hit the jump if you want to see what happened.

Continue reading A Shot In The Face of Fear – Yep, I PANICKED

An Unwelcome Visitor

About a month ago I was down in the woods cleaning up some brush and downed branches/trees while waiting for the weather to break so I can finish up my bridge work.  At one point something caught my eye swimming in the stream.  Rarely is there anything actually living in the water beyond minnows and tadpoles so it somewhat startled me.  I slowly crept up on it so I could get a better view of this creature.  Based on the fact it was still cold out (so definitely accustomed to the water and not just taking a dip), somewhat brownish fur and flattened facial features I figured it was a beaver.  For the next 15 minutes I watched the critter playing in the water and thinking to myself how cool this was since I had never seen a beaver in the wild (there is your opening, cue the classic beaver jokes!).  It would swim out to the middle, do some back strokes, dive under the ice and pretty much entertain himself (or herself I guess) the entire time.  Disappointed, I did not have my camera with me I eventually went in for a closer look.  It spotted me and dove under the ice not to be seen again.  After patience ran out, I gathered my stuff and headed back to the house thinking how cool that was but with a slight nagging feeling that something didn’t seem right.  As the critter dove under the ice its tail flipped out of the water and it seemed long and thin as opposed to the mexpected paddle.   After some mental gyrations, I decided it was probably due to being a juvenile and the tail comes in later or it was an otter which would make it an even a cooler experience.

The fact there was no picture of the sighting eventually bothered me so much I put my mud clothes on again and headed out with the camera.  As luck would have it, it was out playing again.

So, what does it look like to you?  … Beaver?  … Otter?  If you look close you can see the thinner than expected tail extending out to the bank.  It also seemed a little too furry for an Otter, but it has been a cold winter and wasn’t sure if they fluffed up for the winter.

Any guesses yet, or have you figured it out yet (in which case you were able to come to conclusion significantly faster than I did).  How about another view.

I’ll break the suspense and tell you it is a Muskrat.  Thanks to a colleague at work that is familiar with these creatures and was able to quickly discern what it was based on my brief description.  Turns out he traps these because they are BAD NEWS for rivers/streams.  Apparently, they dig deep into the banks to make their dwellings.  This results in destruction to the bank and causes serious damage especially when it comes to dams and dikes (assuming those jokes are still flashing through your conscious).  I can tell you for a fact I a) did not know what this animal was and b) never seen one before.  This prompted an immediate surf to Wikipedia.  Sure enough, the picture there perfectly matched my specimen.  Interesting enough, they are a rodent, but not part of the Rat genus.

hit the jump to see some other pictures I took

Continue reading An Unwelcome Visitor

An Entry, an Experiment and a Find All for a Penny

So, how is everyone doing out there in L.A.S.  I’m basically fed up with it and will be doing my part come election day to make sure those responsible hear me loud and clear.  Today’s post is actually the result of a single penny.  No, I am not talking about the NOPE initiative.  I actually got a lot of mileage out of this penny as I was able to a) get a blog entry, b) experiment with our new Nikon Macro glass and c) discovered something I did not know before preparing for this post.  Not a bad price if you ask me.

I’ll start with the heart of the blog post, that being the event that started it all.  Last Monday I was coming back from my required Prohibited Harassment training (before you jump to conclusions, it is a required course for all employees whose company gets government contracts).  This is one of those courses where it is best to simply attend and learn while keeping your mouth shut until the event is over.  Why people try to argue this stuff is beyond me, but I’ll spare you that annoying detail.  After keeping my mouth closed that long, I decided to head over to Burger King and catch a bite to eat with some coworkers.  As a general quest I try to keep my lunch  meals around 3 dollars because that is about what it would cost if I bothered to actually bring a lunch.  The success of this personal quest varies significantly from establishment to establishment, but the advent of Value Menus has made this a little easier.  This was the case on Monday, where I ordered a Whopper Jr., 4 chicken nuggets and a drink for a dollar each.  With our crappy fast food tax, that came out to $3.24.  This is a good time to point out something about Arby’s value meal menu.  I snapped a picture for a future post, but in bold letters they have $1 Menu and then about 6 food/drink items under it.  Not thinking I ordered three of those items on a previous visit.  The cashier then proceeds to say the cost which was over the expected $3.24.  Caught off guard, my eyes moved back up to the value meal sign to see what the catch was.  Sure enough, there was little “starting at” lettering before the bold $1 Menu sign.  With both Congress and Arby’s screwing me these days I won’t be able to sit for the next month.  Sorry for digressing, but that peeved me for the rest of the day and figured it would be worth taking the time to warn others.    Back to Burger King.  As the cashier was about to take my $5 bill I remembered I had a quarter in my pocket and decided to fish it out.  Another peeve of mine is change.  Unlike my brother’s friend (who has now passed away) who believed that forcing yourself to break bills will  save money, I try to use up change every chance I get in order to save bills … and keep my pants from rattling all day.  The cashier (who was actually the on duty manager) reaches in the cashier, pulls out $2 and hands me the bills and closes his drawer.  I thought to myself that something was amiss, but the class had left me a little numb.  After a few seconds the mind fogged over the fact that change had been provided causing a false realization that the clerk had given me back too much money and should have only received a dollar and some change.  Trying to be kind and remembering my days when I cashiered at Jewel and having to worry about the till balance I informed the manager that he did not give me the right change back and reached out with the two bills.  The assumption was he would take one of the bills, and replace it with 76 cents.  However, his response was “No I gave you the right change back”.  Like a window defroster, the fog cleared and the memory of digging in my pocket came through.  While waiting for the food, I went to fill my drink with a nagging feeling that something was not right about the change.  Good thing the class was not before a work budget deliverable or there would be some triple checking that day.  I figured out the nagging issue was centered around my missing penny.  Clearly a penny is of little concern to me (the value meal is just a personal quest and not a financial issue) and having cleared up the internal dilemma turned back to the counter to wait for my order.   In mid turn, the manager reaches into his drawer, takes out a penny, shows it to me and proceeds to say “You were right, I didn’t give you the correct change” and places it on my receipt.  Out of curiosity, how would this make you feel?  It felt cheap as hell and somewhat demeaning from my perspective.  Again, the only intent of mentioning it was that I thought he gave me TOO MUCH money back and wanted to pay my fair share.  The trigger for all this was not getting the penny back because that would have immediately told me a quarter was involved.  The food arrived and he called out my name to pick it up while placing the receipt and penny on my tray.  I informed him that it was not about the penny, and that I had forgotten about the extra quarter while putting the penny back on the counter (skipping the step of holding it up for everyone in the restaurant to see) and walked away.  Anybody have any comments on this?  I just hate leaving a place feeling little when the intent was to help someone – not to mention the fact that I was correct in the assessment the change was wrong.

Hit the jump to see the other benefits from the penny incident:

Continue reading An Entry, an Experiment and a Find All for a Penny

A Plea for NO Help

Sorry everyone, you are going to have to wait at least another post for birds.  I know you are all upset, but I wanted to get this observation out before I forgot it.  This one happened a few weeks back while driving home late one night.  For some reason I can’t remember exactly why Linda and I were out that particular night, but since this occurred on I474 near Bartonville, I am guessing it was ..wait.. wait..brain making gyrations… binary tree search through long memory initiated… preempted with an aggressively pruned quicksort and now for a reverse recursive validation loop… Ding – oh yeah, we were heading back from a Dog Show just outside of Forsyth.  We were in our big Toyota cruising down the highway in an unstoppable deathtrap.  At the mercy of the car gods we could make it home without the evil carbot taking over control and sending us on a horrifying journey straight into the nearest wall… although I guess I could just pop it in neutral and coast to the side of the road but that won’t get the journalist to come a running now will it!

Oops, back to the post.  On  our way up the Bartonville hill towards Peoria I was passed by a dark blue (or black, it was night) Toyota Prius.  Chuckling to myself on how tired his legs must be from peddling that hard, I watched the car drift by and merge back into my lane.  As I usually do while on the road or walking through a parking lot, I took note of the license plate to see what clever saying or number they care to display to the world.  If you are curious, the next thing I look for is a Jesus Fish because I find them absolutely annoying and like to point this fact out to my wife – although not nearly as annoying as the little family silhouettes that are so vogue these days – TRUST ME, NO ONE CARES how big your family is or whether you have a dog or a cat.  Then I look for the Obama sticker and thank the driver for putting the US in double digit unemployment and unrecoverable debt.  Unfortunately, I did not get to these secondary items because I was fascinated by the license plate.  On the plate were the letters SUE EM 2.  So apparently this particular driver wants the world to know they have an affinity to take people to court or I guess a slight chance they are named after a chocolate covered peanut candy (get that? hehehe).  After much brain things inside my head, I decided it was the former and pondered on why anyone would want this particular plate.  All I could think of were downsides.  For example, if this person were to have trouble on the road, would you be willing to pull over and try to help them?  Would a service vehicle be willing to provide assistance… or is the thought of being sued by the owner if it doesn’t happen to turn out completely in the car owner’s favor too big of a risk to even bother?  As much as I hate people who abuse the legal system – think Lindsay L’s lawsuit against E-Trade just because they used her name and she thinks she is the only one in world that has rights to it (if she wins this, every Lindsay in the will have a defamation suit against her for ruining it in the tabloids) – I am likely to at a minimum hesitate before providing any immediate assistance.  Couple that with the potential for their Prius carbot to awaken and they have definitely put themselves in a risky situation.  Imagine what the cop would think as he was yelling in his bullhorn to put the car in neutral?

Oh well, I thought it was odd and figured I would share.  I bet the next time you see a Jesus Fish or a family sticker in a car you will think of this post 8^)

All Are Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others

It has been awhile since I actually had a social setting observation, so today’s topic is just that.  Admittedly, this a bit of a rant, but it still calls into question whether there is any such thing as altruism when it comes to the shopping experience.  Having just completed listening to the Super Freakonomics I am now curious to see if this “unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others” is really a human trait and more to the point, whether I can actually witness this trait in action.  By the way, I did enjoy this book (although, maybe not as much as their first one) and would recommend it for those who have similar interests in understanding how micro economics impacts our day to day lives.

One thing is for sure, this trait was not evident the last time I went to WalMart to pick up some quick snacks for a ping pong party I was having that night.  I was running late at work and needed to get to the store and all the way back home before the designated start time of the party.   Figuring WalMart was close I ducked in there to pick up some needed items.  With about 5 items in my hands I made my way up to the registers.  To my surprise, all the checkouts were busy (well, at least the ones that were open, but that is a story for another time).  An internal assessment was initiated based on years of line analysis – cashier age (especially if you have alcohol to buy), clerk gabbiness (less talk, more scanning), product count (estimations based on cart quantities, container sizes etc.) along with a host of other key indicators that are continually tuned to give the best chance of getting out of there as fast as possible.  After a few seconds, the choice was made and the line position taken.  One of the attributes of this line was that it was the express line and MOST of the people seemed to be in an express frame of mind.  I say most, but about two customers from the checkout (I was 6th) was a mobile cart with a basket full of merchandise.  I quickly confirmed the express limit, which was an unusually high 20 item count, and decided to amp up the observation.  One guy was actually sitting in the mobile cart and another lady was standing in front of it.  Thinking this could work in my favor in the sense it would really make me 5th and possibly allow me to add a critical new criteria to the selection process.  When they approached, the lady began pulling the items out of the mobile cart and I spent the next 7 minutes counting items.  This was definitely hampered by having to wait for the cashier to scan items in order to make room for the new ones.  46 items later they had scanned all the items in the cart.  By my quick math this is over the stated express limit … and not by a few.  My selection process was hampered by not seeing the full size of the cart basket in front of the mobile cart.  They finally paid for their purchases and the cashier turned to attend the next in line.  Still focused on the same two customers, I was completely surprised when the guy in the mobile cart quickly rose from the seat, grabbed up all 7 of their bags and started walking to the door with no apparent hardships.  I let my impression stay at the surprised level because it did not fit my original expectations – rarely do I spend any additional time reviewing those particular situations since medical conditions can be tricky.  What did catch my eye and warrant further observation was the lady informed the guy she had forgotten something and was going back for it while he proceeded out the store.

She ended up going a few aisles away and eventually I lost sight of her.  In the meantime, the line progressed quite well to the point where I was putting my items on the counter waiting for the customer ahead of me to pay.  As the cashier reached for my first item, I noticed the lady coming back from the aisle, but not at the expected angle for the line had actually grown to about  7 people behind me.  Sure enough, she walked directly up to the individual behind me who, by the way, was also in a mobile cart but definitely under the 20 item limit.  She threw her item in his cart and said hello.  That guy was somewhat surprised and actually said “I haven’t seen you in a long time, what have you been doing”.  Meanwhile the cashier had finished my order so I drew my attention away in order to complete the transaction.  Okay, now I am officially intrigued enough to stand back out of the way and watch this come to conclusion.  The lady grabs her item out of the cart and puts it on the register and takes out her billfold.  Yes folks, she simply paid for that item said goodbye to the guy behind her and headed out towards the door.  That, in my opinion, takes some balls.  Not only did she inconvenience the line with her original order, she has the nerve to simply jump in front of everybody else.  I am pretty sure if I was standing behind the second mobile cart guy I would have had to say something.  In contrast, the guy that was in that position said nothing (but did look outwardly annoyed).

Needless to say, this was not one of those times that proved altruism is a true human trait.  In fact, it seems the aggressive are bound to dominate the meek (at least when it comes to groceries).  So the next time you see that WalMart greeter – you know, the one with the “How may I help you?” on the back of his blue vest, tell him you would like him to patrol the express lanes so you will not get screwed on your way out by inconsiderate customers… and then show your altruism when he stares at you blankly by smiling and telling him to have a nice day.

By the way, Happy Pie Day!

Operation: On Snap, Block to the Wright

This will be a tough trying to keep my focus on this post while I’m all giddy with excitement due to the Oscars coming on.  In fact, I am so into this star studded affair I’m watching the red carpet shows just to take in the stellar atmosphere.  You know, Seacrest giving me stimulating insights into how such and such mega start became emotionally entwined with her character or some fabulous dude giving me a thorough analysis (yes, even with prompter arrows) on how a particular dress flows with her natural curves and highlights a recent cosmetic surgery… and you? … no… okay, I’m joking, I really don’t give a shit about actor/actresses in general, but I do watch it so I don’t feel bad when I watch one of their downloaded movies.  Do they realize this hurts their “your stealing from the mouths of my shoeless children so stop stealing my movie” mantra when they have awards shows like this?

Oh well, on to something FAR more interesting to me.  This post focuses on a Christmas present my wife got me this year.  Turns out that LEGO  is now producing an Architect line and it turns out they have a Fallingwater set.  We are both big Frank Lloyd Wright fans and had the opportunity to visit a number of his creations throughout the years.  Fallingwater out in Mill Run, Pennsylvania was one of those places.

For starters, the packaging of this kit is quite impressive with a mixture of modern day LEGO construction and Wright featured architecture prints.  I thought the 16+ age recommendation was a little high.  I understand the threat of choking, but clearly any teenager should be smart enough to chew before swallowing and based on the weak cellophane texture of the bagging, those posed no threats to suffocation.

One thing that really stood out was the manual (pictured at the top of the box).   Here is a closer shot.

It consists of a number of pages providing architecture design details of the actual building and related history.  These pictures do not show the crispness of these pages with their gloss black backgrounds.  Clearly there was some graphic artists consulted in the packaging of this product.

Hit the jump to see more details on this project…

Continue reading Operation: On Snap, Block to the Wright

Go Downtown and Have a Rat Gnaw that Thing Off Your Face

I hardy hello to all my readers out there!  It’s a new month and time to get going on my posts wouldn’t ya say?  I was planning to get some pre-work done on a future post today while at our dog’s Agility Trial.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen because I ended up taking pictures all day instead.  The good news is I already had another bird set ready to go.  Actually multiple water fowl earned the post spot today.  I’m going to start with one that apparently got the short straw when it came to appearance draws.  I’m talking about the American White Pelican.

I  spotted this one contently paddling along a small river while on our Yellowstone trip.  The growth on his beak signifies this is a breeding male.  Luckily the chicks apparently dig this blemish and is used in their courtship (no, I don’t want to know how) as well as ritualized combat.  While looking through the lens at this guy, all I could think of was one of my favorite scenes from Uncle Buck when John Candy (rest in peace) lit into the grade school teacher because his niece was characterized as a sillyheart.  Maybe he meant a MUSKRAT (dundun dun dun… blog teaser…).

I was actually disappointed I did not get to see him fish.  At a later time on that trip, I came upon a couple of them out in a marshy lake.

Apparently this is their preferred setting.  It is actually a pretty nice picture with the deep color in the trees contrasted against the bright white of the pelicans.  I had to shrink it down significantly which resulted in losing some of its visual.  Let me bring it in a little for you.

As you can tell (even with the zoom fuzz residuals) that it is another breeding male with likely his trophy wife.  Once again I was unable to witness any fishing activity which sounds pretty interesting.  In one of the descriptions in the bird guide, they described the technique.  They work in groups to herd prey into shallow water or they ease into a school of feeding fish gulping ones that stray close to the surface.  This description did not align with the settings I took these shots based on the most I found together was TWO.

Hit the jump to see two more birds being featured today, the Goldeneye and the Canadian Goose

Continue reading Go Downtown and Have a Rat Gnaw that Thing Off Your Face

Book Recollection: Down Range

As much as I benefited from the long month in January, February is basically a cruel joke on my deadlines.  This being the 6th post of the month, I can rest a little easier now and start prepping for the next month of which I already have two of that set already identified.  But you don’t care about that right now, you want to see if my latest read is worth spending any time with.

Although not at a let down level as the US Women’s hockey team that was essentially owned tonight, Down Range: Navy Seals in the War on Terrorism was not as engaging as the previous novel I read from Dick Couch called Chosen Soldier.  The focus of this particular novel was the early efforts in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.  Chosen Soldier was a slight deviation from Couch’s normal topic in that it focused on the Green Berets.  However, in difference of sorts, this book focused more on the land engagements of the new transformed SEAL engagements as it extends its lethal capabilities into the heart of the enemy country.  Dick is still an excellent writer and is capable of translating the semantics and warrior mindsets into something desk jockeys can relate to.  I think the real let down is a result of the lack of good field examples.   This is largely due to the effectiveness of the SEALS in these environments and what appears to be a deficiency in the local defenses.  This has changed since this book was authored (2005) with the emergence of insurgency fighting, but definitely during the early engagements with the Iraq army it was a route similar to Canada over US tonight.  It also did not go as deep into the training aspects of an elite warrior which is one of the primary reasons I spend my wind down time diving into the chapters.  Note, it did give some excellent insights into the Close Quarter Defense system they employ to clear out hostile rooms which is quite fascinating due to the mental aspect of that.

As always, I was able to find some things in the book that make the precious time spent all worth it.  Take the jump to see a synopsis of those items

Continue reading Book Recollection: Down Range

Game Recollection: Dragon Age Origins

This is a first for the Blog.  Today’s post is a recollection of a PC game that I had been playing through and finally made it through the first time last night around 2AM.  It’s a rarity these days I actually feel I get my money’s worth out of a computer game purchase or the time invested in playing it.  After last night, I have to admit there is at least one game that met (actually exceeded) my expectations.  That game is Dragon Age Origins by Electronic Arts/BioWare.

This is essentially a role playing game (RPG) based in ancient times filled with knights, wizards, elves, dwarves and more evil creatures than you could think up on your own in a year.   In the genre of the Dungeon Siege series (which I really liked), this particular game allows you to control the characters in your party, manage their positions, decide their actions in an expansive world.  However, taking that a step further, Dragon Age almost feels like you are interacting with a movie as a result of hours of cut scenes woven into the game flow.  These scenes continually prompt you for responses and actions to take which directly impacts the storyline.  Maybe you want to play as a heartless champion who cares only about killing every evil doer he come across or someone who actually cares about gaining a better understanding of your companions.  As a result, my content requirement was easily met, but there are two other criteria I have that generally impact my enjoyment.  First of all, I do not want to read manuals to figure out how to play a game.  I spend my life reading technical manuals and research to be successful at work, I do not want to come home and tear into user manuals.  If it is not intuitive, there are better things to spend my free time like reading a book.  In this case, the only part of the Dragon Age manual that had to be read was the back panel with the license key.  Granted, it was similar to the Dungeon Siege game play, but there were numerous in-game hints/tips along the way to easily get you through the game.  The other requirements is ease of use.   I will say, if there is a negative it is the difficulty in getting comfortable with the camera movement.  Basically you can zoom in to be eye level with the surroundings or zoom out for a birds eye view to control the battlefield.  Both modes have a full pan feature which can leave you slightly nauseous  if you are sensitive to motion.  It took me 3 or 4 sessions to really get that down to the point it was fluid.  Beyond that, the two button mouse navigation and hotkeys were very effective.  Contrast that with the FallOut 3 game where I literally ripped out of the CD tray and flung it across the room after 30 minutes of playing the game due to having to designate which part of the enemy to target on every attack.

In almost all role playing games I try to assume the role of an archer.  I am not sure what my affinity is towards that classification, but I have been going that route since the first games that allowed you pick your character.  True to course, I selected an Elf for this time through the game:

Note, the screen captures in this post are not cut scenes, but rather in-game play graphics.  Oftentimes you get duped by the commercials that simply show a video and not the experience you get while interacting with the game.  This was my outfit while engaging other characters in a non-hostile environment.  When the whoop ass needed to be brought, the armor came out.  Here is the end of the game character record for my Jagger which shows some of the different items that can be purchased/found/earned/gifted during the course of the game.

Jagger was basically at one shot kills at the end of the game due to my approach at distributing skill points and item equipping.  Trust me, this came in very very handy at the end of the game when the darkspawn were swarming the castle.   While on the topic of skill points, Dragon Age incorporated the common feature of being able to control the character development through distribution of points across a wide variety of skill sets and special powers.  This actually provides an almost limitless game play characteristic due to how these points are utilized.  Being an archer class, I focused on those skills that gave me the greatest range firepower to compensate for the lack of thick armor.  Here is how my talent sheets turned out at the end of the game.


For those planning to play the game, the bottom two on the far right were the techniques that really got me to the end.  I’ll let you figure out what capabilities those have in battle.

I have a bunch more screen captures after the jump.  Be warned, this is labeled as a M (17+) game and it probably isn’t just due to the graphic violence that permeates the game play.  The graphic designer for some of the characters and clothing is definitely male (or possibly female with appreciation of the female form).  Let’s just say that this fictional world must have been experiencing an equally fictitious global warming.

Continue reading Game Recollection: Dragon Age Origins

Bringing out the Big Birds

Since no one has cried “Uncle” yet on the bird posts from the Yellowstone vacation last year, I’m bringing out another set of birds.  These are what I call the Big Birds of the water.  I actually have a better set of this particular bird from a couple of photo session in Lacon IL, but sticking with the theme, here is one I snapped on that particular trip.

This is the Great Blue Heron and to be honest, outside the Eagle, this is my favorite bird.  Not only is this a fascinating looking bird while on the ground, it has a truly majestic flight.  Along with the 72″ wingspan it has a flight form that recalls impressions of the pterodactyl.  Having stood less than 10′ from one while clearing the brush by our stream last year (recall Operation Parkify) I can assure you these birds are huge.  If I was to guess, this bird’s legs are the same length as body to head.  Obviously this particular fishing spot is a few feet deep.  It was interesting just how calming this setting was and it felt more like a painting.  And yes, that is snow in the upper left.  We were out there in the June timeframe, but snow was still melting off.   Don’t worry, I’ll zoom you in a bit.

Based on the plumage this appears to be an adult breeding male.  Interesting enough, I have never seen one nesting.  According to the field guides, they nest colonially in tall trees.  This one also has his head up pretty high which probably gives a better radius for finding  fish/frogs etc. swimming around him.  They will also fold their neck back on itself (as in pterodactyl)  which quite frankly when combined with that sharp long spear of a beak looks like a serious weapon.

Unfortunately, I did not get this in focus due to the low ISO being used for reduced noise, but at one point a bird (guessing swallow) cruised in next to the Heron momentarily distracting it.  This was the only time while watching him that a ripple appeared in the water.

You can make out the fuzzy image of the pesky swallow in the shot above.  Undaunted the Heron stiffened up again, the water calmed and soon he was back on his fishing game.  Expect to see more sets of this bird in the future.

An clever reader may have noticed I pluralized the title.  “Clearly the little swallow doesn’t count as a big bird and there is only one other bird in pictures -what gives blog boy?”  Well, it’s a bonus day because I am also highlighting another set of birds that managed to catch my attention while driving through the park.  My birding awareness must be improving.  As proof, Linda was driving through the park when this scene caught my eye.

Having never seen this particular bird before, I really wasn’t sure what I was looking at.  The legs were somewhat invisible which made it seem like a couple of ground hogs playing on the side of a hill.  Curious, I had Linda stop on the side of the road and walked back to the spot I saw them.  Still not sure, I focused the zoom and to my surprise it had a long neck and legs.   They were pretty far out there, but I’ll try to bring it in a little.

Pretty cool eh?  Hit the jump to see more pictures of these two Sandhill Cranes.

Continue reading Bringing out the Big Birds