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A few days ago, I went outside to my deck and saw a grisly scene.
Judging from the shattered cover to my outdoor light, the dead bird, and feathers and blood over the pieces and the deck, I surmised that a gray colored bird of some kind (most likely a mockingbird) had flown into the cheap glass covering of my outdoor light fixture with enough force to shatter it. I feel kind of bad, because there used to be a mockingbird that sat on our chimney and made all these songs. But he was swooping and attacking the squirrels and mourning doves that sometimes got on the roof.
I guess he made one dive bomb too low.
But I need a new light fixture anyway.
Posted in:
bird
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chimney
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deck
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house
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Moon-walking the jungle (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach
I'm usually not that big of a
National Geographic fan, but this evening I did happen to run into something nifty. NG run a show called
Deep jungle in which a number of scientists trek through the world's jungles armed with modern-day equipment.
Among their equipment is a high speed camera that shoots film at an amazing 500 FPS, which seems insane to me. This piece of kit is required to shoot footage of the
yellow-thighed manakin's mating rituals since, apparently, the bird's movements are just too quick for the human eye to follow. The little bird's wings actually flit faster than those of a hummingbird at 80 Hz, with the bird bouncing from tree to tree in split seconds.
I usually zap past any nature documentaries on TV, but this one managed to catch my attention:
* That manakin really is a rather cool bird. It even
moonwalks!
*
Kimberley Bostwick is a true geek among ornithologists. She's the first person I've seen who actually demonstrates a bird's mating dance herself :)
Video here
Posted in:
bird
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jungle
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kimberley bostwick
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national geographic
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yellow-thighed manikin
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After much debate on which camera to get (Rebel XT, XTi, 20D) I decided to go with the Rebel XTi after getting a huge discount through Dell. No complaints from me! I got the Rebel XTi with the Kit lens, a 50mm prime lens, and 2 2GB memory cards.
I took some new shots on this camera, hope you like them.
Posted in:
bird
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building
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landscape
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photography
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photos
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sunset
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water