sunset

One Lucky Gal!

February 5, 2023 — 11 Comments

F/6.3, 1/250, ISO 500.

Ring-necked Duck

Why can’t you hear a pterodactyl in the bathroom?

Because it has a silent pee.

Interesting Fact: Ring-necked Ducks put their nests among dense sedges and other emergent plants in marshes. Pairs choose these sites by swimming at the vegetation edge or by making low circling flights over potential spots. They typically build their nests directly over the water or on floating vegetation; this helps protect the nests from land-based predators. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ring-necked_Duck/lifehistory )

Dear People, Quit Trying To Look Like Us In Photos… It’s Embarrassing To Our Species.

November 17, 2022 — 14 Comments

F/10.0, 1/400, ISO 320.

Gadwall

Why did the can crusher quit his job?

Because it was soda pressing.

Interesting Fact:  Gadwall are dabbling ducks—they ride fairly high in the water and they tip forward to graze on submerged plants that they can reach with their outstretched necks. They rarely dive. Gadwall sometimes steal food from American Coots. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Gadwall/lifehistory )

Duck You!

March 12, 2022 — 15 Comments

F/8.0, 1/250, ISO 800.

Harlequin Duck Female

At what time does a duck wake up?

At the quack of dawn.

Interesting Fact:  More than half of eastern North American population of Harlequin Ducks winters in coastal Maine, particularly outer reaches of Penobscot and Jericho bays. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Harlequin_Duck/lifehistory )

Quack Addict

January 19, 2022 — 27 Comments

hooded-mergansers-female

F/6.3, 1/500, ISO 220.

Hooded Merganser ( Female )

What did the duck carry his schoolbooks in?

His Quackpack

Interesting Fact: The Hooded Merganser is the second-smallest of the six living species of mergansers (only the Smew of Eurasia is smaller) and is the only one restricted to North America. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hooded_Merganser/lifehistory )

 

 

Who Do I Crap ON Today?

January 15, 2022 — 23 Comments

golden-crowned-kinglet

F/6.3, 1/500, ISO 800.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Why are pirates so mean?

I don’t know, they just arrrrrrrrr!

Interesting Fact: The Golden-crowned Kinglet usually raises two large broods of young, despite the short nesting season of the northern boreal forest. The female feeds her first brood only up until the day after they leave the nest. She then starts laying the second set of eggs while the male takes care of the first brood. The male manages to feed eight or nine nestlings himself, and he occasionally feeds the incubating female too. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Golden-crowned_Kinglet/lifehistory )

Be Someone’s Sunshine Today!

November 6, 2021 — 8 Comments

F/8.0, 1/1000, ISO200

Bayonne Sunset

What is the ratio of a pumpkin’s circumference to its diameter?

Pumpkin Pi

Interesting Fact: The Sun accounts for 99.86% of the mass in the solar system. It has a mass of around 330,000 times that of Earth. It is three quarters hydrogen and most of its remaining mass is helium. ( https://theplanets.org/the-sun/ )

What Are You Looking At?!

February 18, 2021 — 9 Comments

F/6.3, 1/640, ISO 800.

Merlin

Why did the man fall down the well?

He couldn’t see that well.

Interesting Fact: Medieval European noblewomen—including Catherine the Great and Mary Queen of Scots—used Merlins for sport to hunt Skylarks. European and North American falconers continue to work with Merlins, hunting quarry that ranges from sparrow-sized to dove-sized. ( Merlin Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology )

 

 

 

Don’t Give Me That Look!

November 11, 2020 — 26 Comments

F/9.0, 1/320, ISO 320.

Double-crested Cormorant

What did the sick chicken say?

Oh no! I have the people-pox!

Interesting Fact: From a distance, Double-crested Cormorants are dark birds with snaky necks, but up-close they’re quite colorful—with orange-yellow skin on their face and throat, striking aquamarine eyes that sparkle like jewels, and a mouth that is bright blue on the inside. ( https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Double-crested_Cormorant/lifehistory )

Every Sunset Is An Opportunity To Reset.

September 17, 2020 — 30 Comments

F/13.0, 1/640, ISO 250.

San Francisco Sunset Brown Pelican

What do the Starship Enterprise and toilet paper have in common?

They both probe Uranus and wipe out Klingons.

Interesting Fact:   As sunrise and sunset are calculated from the leading and trailing edges of the Sun, respectively, and not the center, the duration of a daytime is slightly longer than nighttime (by about 10 minutes, as seen from temperate latitudes). Further, because the light from the Sun is refracted as it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, the Sun is still visible after it is geometrically below the horizon. Refraction also affects the apparent shape of the Sun when it is very close to the horizon. It makes things appear higher in the sky than they really are. Light from the bottom edge of the Sun’s disk is refracted more than light from the top, since refraction increases as the angle of elevation decreases. This raises the apparent position of the bottom edge more than the top, reducing the apparent height of the solar disk. Its width is unaltered, so the disk appears wider than it is high. (In reality, the Sun is almost exactly spherical.) The Sun also appears larger on the horizon, an optical illusion, similar to the moon illusion.  ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset#Historically )

Don’t Be Afraid To Rock The Boat

July 15, 2020 — 8 Comments

F/13.0, 1/640, ISO 200.

Jersey City Hudson River

What does a cheetah say when someone looks at it?

I’ve been spotted!

Interesting Fact: The land comprising what is now Jersey City was inhabited by the Lenape, a collection of tribes (later called Delaware Indian). In 1609, Henry Hudson, seeking an alternate route to East Asia, anchored his small vessel Halve Maen (English: Half Moon) at Sandy Hook, Harsimus Cove and Weehawken Cove, and elsewhere along what was later named the North River. After spending nine days surveying the area and meeting its inhabitants, he sailed as far north as Albany. By 1621, the Dutch West India Company was organized to manage this new territory and in June 1623, New Netherland became a Dutch province, with headquarters in New Amsterdam. Michael Reyniersz Pauw received a land grant as patroon on the condition that he would establish a settlement of not fewer than fifty persons within four years. He chose the west bank of the North River (Hudson River) and purchased the land from the Lenape. This grant is dated November 22, 1630 and is the earliest known conveyance for what are now Hoboken and Jersey City. Pauw, however, was an absentee landlord who neglected to populate the area and was obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633.[39] That year, a house was built at Communipaw for Jan Evertsen Bout, superintendent of the colony, which had been named Pavonia (the Latinized form of Pauw’s name, which means peacock).[40] Shortly after, another house was built at Harsimus Cove and became the home of Cornelius Van Vorst, who had succeeded Bout as superintendent, and whose family would become influential in the development of the city. Relations with the Lenape deteriorated, in part because of the colonialist’s mismanagement and misunderstanding of the indigenous people, and led to series of raids and reprisals and the virtual destruction of the settlement on the west bank. During Kieft’s War, approximately eighty Lenapes were killed by the Dutch in a massacre at Pavonia on the night of February 25, 1643. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_City,_New_Jersey#History )