Blog Archives

Sled riding in Falls Church, VA

1/23/2014

It was apparently too cold or something for school to be in session today, so the kids got a "snow day." Which, many of them used to actually go to the school and sled ride on the hill behind the school. Go figure.

It's not a huge hill, but a fun hill for sledding.

Top of the hill, heading down.

Most stop before the big sinkhole, but some go into it and this one is waving that survival is assured.

And with my little project to figure out time lapse photography, here is a link to a very short video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upLiHWGKNjk

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The snow cometh to Falls Church, VA

1/21/2014

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Today, you don't just get one photo. Nor two or three photos. But 180 photos!!! To save time and make them slightly interesting I have made them into a movie. This is more or less the first three hours of the big snowstorm that that shut down schools and governments all across the northeastern US.

However, I don't pay my server enough to have the "video" option available to insert the video here. So, you can see it on YouTube at:

http://youtu.be/Rdf2St2-5Q8

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Borneo, Sarawak snail

1/20/2014

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This Borneo snail is quite garish, but have never figured out an ID on it.

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Borneo, Sarawak: Peters' Forest Gecko (Cyrtodactylus consobrinus)

1/19/2014

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A wonderful gecko (Cyrtodactylus consobrinus) I saw near the trail at night in the Gunung Mulu National Park.

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Borneo, Sarawak

1/19/2014

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In the forests of Borneo, there are some wild critters and some wild plants. I never had time to research this photo, so pose the question here, what is it? It appears to be some kind of wild plant hopper or tree hopper, but could it be just a flower of the tree (doubtful, but anything goes in Borneo).

Your comments welcome.

You make the call, what is this?

A close up from the same image.

And a more standard insect from Borneo. Here is a true bug, pretty and all, but alas also something I don't have an ID on.

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Beautiful day, few pics

1/18/2014

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I had some expectations today, thinking the pretty day would have the wildlife out. It was not to be. But some photos nonetheless.

The crows were harassing this hawk pretty hard.

And a photo of a Canada Goose standing around isn't something to get excited about.

Another pic of a Carolina wren, as these things are everywhere.

Not the best photo of a female cardinal, but they are always worth a pic.

And to finish, a metal pig outside an antiques shop. The words are "aceite para Motor" which is Spanish for "Motor oil."

All the photos are from the general Vienna, Virginia area.

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The US Capitol Building and nearby things

1/16/2014

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This shot of the US Capitol Building is from the mall side of things. Which one might ordinarily think of as the "front" of the building as other key structures tend to face the mall (like the Lincoln Memorial on the opposite end of the mall). But after walking around the building, and looking at which way the statue on top faces, it would seem that this is the backside of the Capitol. So, like everything in the US legislature, it is backwards.

The US Capitol from the mall side.

And while on the topic of non-normal stuff, here is a little guy painted or taped onto the road pretty close to where I took the previous pic.

Middle of the Road Dude

Little dude in perspective.

I don't now if this is a graffiti artist or something else, but it was just in the middle of the road.

And finally, a pic along the lines of my posts about it being rough out there for animals.

This gray squirrel has either survived a rough attack or has some serious health problems. Either way... It's rough out there.

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The birds return, and a squirrel

1/15/2014

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Two days ago I posted my first pic of a robin, the "harbinger of Spring." Yet it is still just mid-January. I still think there is a bit of winter to get through, but the birds continue to have a different opinion.

Today there were robins foraging in the grass near my place, and a large flock of starlings showed up as well.

Not my best picture of starlings, but shows that there were a bunch of them.

And since I tend to post pictures of squirrels, and haven't done so lately, here is a gray squirrel that was walking along a wooden fence.

An eastern gray squirrel traversing a wooden fence.

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Don McFarlane being a doof

1/14/2014

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Don McFarlane just doing nothing on a bridge. And what's with that hat?

Always fun to put up a photo of a hotshot scientist in the field doing nothing.

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It is still winter, right?

1/14/2014

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With the Polar Vortex that came through a bit ago with bitingly cold temperatures, no one was thinking it was anywhere near springtime. But today in the general Washington, DC area the temperature got up to 58 degrees with mostly clear skies. Quite the contrast.

I didn't have much time, but found an hour to go hiking at Lake Fairfax Park. And found...

A robin! At Lake Fairfax Park.

And in fact, not just one robin, but thirty or so of them. They were the dominant species in a mixed flock that included most of the usual characters, such as downy woodpeckers, blue jays, cardinals, tufted titmice, black-capped chickadees, etc. along with a flicker, which I don't usually see in these flocks.

While some robins do stay around all winter here (I hear them on occasion up in the trees), this is the first flock of them that I have seen since fall.

There was also quite a number of...

A Carolina wren in a mixed flock at Lake Fairfax Park.

Carolina wrens. These are always common around here, but the numbers today were unusually high.

Other things like deer were seen, and a belted kingfisher flying with a fish in its mouth (tried hard to get some photo of that, but the bird was very skittish and the forest very cluttered.

So had a nice hour in the forest. Arriving back home I spotted...