Just wanted to complete the circle on this project for the year. And I am afraid it's bad news. I have been to the nest several times in the last few weeks and have not seen any evidence that the nestlings successfully fledged.
I went to Dauphin Island, AL to cover the oil spill shortly after they had hatched, and since my return in early June I have not spotted any hawks other than the two adults. We have had some pretty bad weather this spring and this tree is very exposed to the wind and other elements. It makes for a great nest to watch and photograph, but perhaps not so good for raising young.
Red-tails are said to reuse nests, so I'll be back next year as long as I can still get access to the property I was using this year.
Speaking for Mother Nature might be a bit presumptuous, so lets just say I want to tell stories of the space and time I was observing her. In this effort I will be posting portfolio galleries that are tighter, more cohesive groups of photographs.
I have started with Eagles In Motion, which is a collection of shots taken in Rock Falls, IL - My boyhood home. The eagles were not present over the Rock River much when I was growing up. It's only been in the last decade that their numbers have recovered, and some have started moving from the Mississippi River up the channel of the Rock, as we call it.
In the winter this area can get several days of subzero temps that freeze tight all but the fastest moving water on the river. It's then that the eagles congregate by the tailwater of the dam on the river. These tailwaters move very fast and do not freeze, allowing the eagles prime fishing.
We had a winter storm blow through last night and dropped a few inches of snow. Not really what you would expect for mid May; even here in Colorado.
I decided to go out and brave the weather in search of some photos of a barn I have been scouting. The barn photos proved to be a challenge in the weather, but I did get to see this horned lark while I was out.
One of the spots in Ft Collins I like to walk when I am stumped for new ideas and short on time is Riverbend Ponds Natural Area. It's a quick drive to get there and it's an easy, level walk around the perimeter. The wind was up today and there were plenty of people with dogs, so I was not expecting much, except perhaps a nice walk.
The swallows are back in force and nesting under the Prospect Rd bridge over the Poudre River, and there are plenty of canadian geese with chicks. I had noticed on my last walk that there was some kind of fly/gnat catcher in the rabbitbrush, but could never get a good look. Turns out it was neither. At least today. I got off to a good start when this Yellow-rumped Warbler decided to come up next to me along the trail.
I continued my walk, happy to have that first encounter, and turned the corner to watched a six member pod of pelicans do a bit of cooperative fishing. A couple miles, a few osprey's, plenty of red-winged blackbirds, and canadian geese later, I was back at the truck. As I was packing up I noticed some movement in a large rabbitbrush next to the parking lot. It turned out to be a pair of yellow-rumped warblers who proved not to want their picture taken. I was packing up again and had started a conversation with a couple young fishermen - one coming and one going - when we spotted something orange in a nearby cottonwood.
Worldwide Pinhole Day is tomorrow, April 25th, and making a pinhole camera has been on my list for years. So I decided to take some time this year and give it a go. Uhg. I did not do so well. Turns out turning your dSLR body cap into a pinhole lens is harder than it looks. And I am pretty good with tools - really.
UPDATE: Since writing this post I have joined the growing ranks of internet citizens who feel that the changes to Facebook's privacy policies are not acceptable. I am deleting my Facebook account. This post will remain as a matter of history.
Geek Warning: If you do not do web development and/or work with Drupal you can probably skip this post.
The weather yesterday was crap, so I decided to stick inside and work in the studio. I was trying not to acknowledge the paper overflowing my inbox and otherwise minding my own business when some friends on Twitter post about Facebook's new Social Widgets. The next thing I know it's past my bed time, and I am sending incoherent tweets about how much IE sucks. But I had managed to completely ignore office work (like I am doing now), and get a few of Facebook's new widgets integrated into the site. Overall, it really was not too hard, but there were a few gotchas I'll cover.
UPDATE: Since writing this post I have joined the growing ranks of internet citizens who feel that the changes to Facebook's privacy policies are not acceptable. I am deleting my Facebook account. This post will remain as a matter of history.
Facebook has just announced the availability of new Social Widgets that allow site builders to integrate important Facebook functionality into their own sites. Perhaps the most recognizable widget is the Like button. Here's how the FB Geeks describe it:
The Like button enables users to make connections to your pages and share content back to their friends on Facebook with one click.
Now, I have not been the quickest person to warm up to Facebook. I have had an account for awhile, but spent most of my time in Twitter to scratch my social networking itch. However, in the last few weeks as I planned and built the new version of this site, I have spent much more time with Facebook and I am starting to see the attraction.
I went out this morning to check on the Red-tailed Hawk's Nest and found thick fog, a bunch of mud, and a hawk still sitting on eggs. So, rather than try to push my luck and annoy the hawks (and myself) I decided to go for a little scouting trip. I have been spending way too much time in front of a computer lately so it was nice to get out and have a closer look around. I am not a Ft Collins native so still getting to know my way around all the good spots.
I decided to stop by Arapaho Bend Natural Area since it's on my way home. At first I was not too hopeful as I was not seeing much of interest and there were plenty of humans with dogs on the trails. But just as I turned around to walk back to the truck I spotted a largish bird coming my way. I knew we had Bald Eagles in the area during the spring, but did not know if there were any still about. I guess so. This looks like it could be a young adult since it's still showing a few white spots.
Photo Battle that is. The folks over at FotoJournal created a cool web app that let's you pick between one of two user submitted pictures placed side by side. If you have photos you want to submit it only takes a few minutes to register and upload up to nine photos. Very simple and slick concept. You'll need to be patient since it looks like at the time of this writing their server is getting slammed. Time for more server iron good people.
I uploaded nine photos to get a feel for what people might like (or not). Fun!
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