Blog Archives - tropicalbats.com

Lake Fairfax and Accotink Creek

1/31/2014

Today I did a little walk around a bit of forest at Lake Fairfax Park with my son. We were looking for deer, and were out about two hours. After a lot of time not finding any deer, I was noting that we were not seeing any deer when my son called me back up the trail a bit. He saw what I had missed.... deer. He gets big points for this bit!

They were up in a thicket, so couldn't get any great pictures, but of note the two bucks I saw earlier in this area still have their antlers. But the one photo I did get, shows what looks like a buck having just shed its antlers.

A white-tailed deer at Lake Fairfax Park.

The only other picture I took was this one, which is just fluff.

Two planes with con trails.

But I want to put up a few more shots from Accotink Creek in Wakefield. So here they are.

Fox tracks on ice. There were fox tracks all over the place in the fresh snow. This is a little in-feeder stream to the creek.

Raccoon tracks with fox tracks mixed in.

I tried to capture the ice and water, but lighting was bad and didn't do a very good job of it.

Another slightly better attempt, but still not so good.

And a lot of lines. I was amazed at how many power lines were running along this cut.

Rocky Run

1/30/2014

Rocky Run is a out west of Fairfax, Virginia. Just a park I got to today for a short walk. Temps were around freezing, so much warmer than yesterday. Pics are just so-so, but the kingfisher is new to the site and yes, in need of a better shot.

The first animal encountered was a dog, in the middle of the stream having a drink.

Belted kingfisher, which was not really fishing but rather trying to avoid me taking pictures of it.

Looks like a yellow-rumped warbler to me (it had a very yellow rump), but I haven't ID'd warblers for many years and this could need clarification.

And camouflage is the name of the game for White-throated sparrows.

Accotink Creek

1/29/2014

Accotink Creek, near Wakefield Park, half frozen over on a very cold day.

A geometric of a sound barrier between the park and the Beltway.

Peregrine Falcon banding - Blast from the Past

1/28/2014

Back in 1995, I was working for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. I worked in the non-game unit, and specialized in small mammals (bats, woodrats, flying squirrels, voles, shrews, etc.). Part of all this was being capable with ropes, as the winter bat hibernation surveys in caves often needed rappelling skills and rope ascending as well as just plain knowing how to rig the ropes to avoid accidents.

And the folks who worked with non-game birds, in general, didn't have the rope skills, as it wasn't much of what they did. So, when the Peregrine falcons started nesting under bridges, the bird people called us mammal people to come out and do the rope work needed to capture the falcon chicks for banding (and a bit of blood work to assess disease potentials). Note: This wasn't the first time for this stuff, but my first time.

So here I am, under the Turnpike Bridge in Philadelphia (some 210 feet above the water) on the catwalk.

Keith Christenson 210 feet above the Delaware River on the catwalk of the Turnpike Bridge (I think this is actually called the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, but am unsure of that)

I was just the belay person, which was fine with me. I don't like heights at all and not having to rappel down to the nest kept me sane. See, the bridge sways, and vibrates as wind goes by and trucks cross overhead. And then the water is moving along down below. You have to be really focused on things, and my dislike of heights didn't help, but just doing the belay and helping with the rigging of ropes was okay.

However, Cal Butchkoski, at the time a Wildlife Technician for the PGC and my boss, did have to rappel down. And the nest wasn't just sitting there in the open, but in a box beam. So he had to climb into the beam to catch the Peregrine chicks and then ferry them up to a bird person for banding and blood work.

Cal Butchkoski inside a box beam looking out after ferrying a Peregrine chick up to the bird folks.

Lots of photo ops not available to me, as I was quite busy with the ropes while Cal was moving. But along the way the female Peregrine was attacking him fairly regularly and got in at least one really good talon hit on his kayaking helmet. He also wore a welder's leather vest to try and prevent serious injury, as the female was really having at him.

The vet with a Peregrine chick.

This all took quite a while, and eventually Cal was able to climb back out of the beam and ascend the rope back to the catwalk. Again, I was busy for all of this so no photos.

But we weren't done. Given the difficulties of accessing the chicks in the beam (plus the more likely troubles with disease and parasites in such a space), we mounted nesting boxes in an area that could be accessed much more easily with the hopes that the birds would use them instead.

Chris Sanders mounting a nest box over the side of the bridge. And yes, I climbed over the side of the bridge for some of this work. Really airy stuff.

So we mounted nest boxes. While not quite shown in this photo, the safety belay here is rigged to a tow hook on the truck. We rigged a cable ladder to get down to the ironwork, and then got the job done.
And while these photos aren't studio quality, it should be noted that all of this was done with a stiff wind and in a heavy drizzle.

I am happy to have contributed to helping with the Peregrine work in Pennsylvania (and I did this stuff two or three more times), yet I am glad to not be doing it anymore.

Peregrine falcon, here on the Girard St. Bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Blast from the Past - a new occasional series

1/28/2014

So, I have thousands of slides sitting around from back in the day when that was the generally preferred medium for photography. And, quite a lot of them are from when I was doing a lot more wildlife work and caving than I do now. And, also, I was still teaching myself photography at the time, so there are some pretty good pics,and some pretty rough ones (all the true junk was pitched back in the day, and only pics with some value were kept).

And with that warning I start what I hope will be an occasional blog feature, which will fall into a new category of "blast from the past." But this all comes with a caveat. While I have a pretty decent slide scanner, I am not very good at using it (working on getting better). Plus, most of my slide collection has undergone 7 international moves, and lived in the humid tropics for years at a time. There are dust, scratches, mold and who knows what all afflicting the slides. I will take just enough time to try and get some kind of a quality scan (7200dpi), but do not have time to professionally clean them first and all that. I'll then post a web-sized version on the blog.

So, I hope this bit will be an interesting and fun bit for me to add in once in a while, but please be forgiving of the photo quality and enjoy the pics and stories. And with the current cold snap, I'd actually rather be scanning slides than subjecting my current camera to the big temperature swings of being inside and then outside with a 50-degree temperature difference.

Keith

Things

1/27/2014

A link, and a photo.

For the birders that follow this blog, a bit of reality:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25905108

Seems that predators still find the weak worthy of attention even with the Pope's blessing.

And my photo of the day, which has nothing to do with birds or popes.

At the botanical gardens, a desert species.

Would they really?

1/27/2014

Here is a sign at a local Jimmy John's sandwich shop.

While there are quite a few ways to interpret this, the most literal would seem to be that they would love for you to wear as little as possible. With the code requiring shoes and shirt, I suppose you could just plain do without trousers or anything else and show up for lunch. How about wearing just sneakers and a t-shirt that says, "Don't Look Down."

Fairfax, Virginia

1/25/2014

Yesterday, it was 20 degrees outside and I was hiking an urban trail in Fairfax, Virginia. The trail goes along a little stream, and while I had never been there before, I do plan to go back in the spring as it should be full of birds during the migration.

A downy woodpecker.

Black-capped chickadee

Tufted titmouse

And an odd bit. A "throne" seat in the middle of the woods.

More from Scott's Run

1/24/2014

The first two pics from yesterday were done with HDR processing. I find them to be too gray and blue. I can keep editing such photos, but only have so much time.

So here are two more pics of Scott's Run without HDR processing, or any processing other than a light bit of sharpening.

Scott's Run in winter

Scott's Run downstream

And a photo of Scott's Run Falls, all iced over.

Scott's Run Falls during a cold snap.

Scott's Run Nature Preserve

1/23/2014

Back on 8/25/2013 I put up a blog post about this park. It can be found here:

http://www.tropicalbats.com/1/archives/08-2013/1.html

Today I got back there, in rather different weather conditions. We have had a bit of snow and some really cold temps. A good reason to get out of the house! After living in Norway for three years, we have all the right clothing to be outside in low temps for long periods of time. My only concern was my camera gear, but if you want to get the pictures, you have to take the camera.

This post is a bit heavier data-wise than most, so sorry about that if you have a slow connection.

Scott's Run in winter.

Another look at Scott's Run.

An ice geometric.

More ice.

Ice hanging over the water

Another pic of Scott's Run.

And a bald eagle, flying over the Potomac River.

I might have more pics from here, but this is certainly enough for one day.