Wednesday, April 24, 2013

White Crowned Sparrow

http://youtu.be/SWB2Gx4fbt4




Pics and clip at Point Lobos....hereabout, warm...sunnycloudy...maybe too cloudy for mooonbowers...at Lunch...sighted Coyote between the Rooms...faraway clip...

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Morning Doves



Out early, like five thirty, and rolled down the hill...for errand: oil and lube and check engine warning light, except light went out Yesterday on roll over to the Village for Mail..this after being on for like a thousand miles!...hmmph......so just oil and lube and safety check and passed on new brake fluid...was going to roll right back up, but at Catheys Valley took the Old Road which is a round about to Mariposa...and a corridor of Flowers this Time of...Season...Flower Road!...title for post for sometime...long day and sleepy...rolled out Ben Hur Road too...rk Bobcat thereabout, several days old.. picked up and set among the roadside
Grasses and Flowers... and so a bit sad...anyway, Morning Doves all along the Road calling, and tourist pic I described in previous post...sunny breezy blueblue..a fine day...pohono...oh...I got a second ignition key for Silver made...at Point Lobos, I was changing camera sd card, and key fell into the  Grasses, unbeknownst to me, at Whalers' Cove, and when I got to Silver parked by the Souvenier Stand, no key!...already much tired from walkabout that Day, but paddled in a hurry back over Whalers Knoll, and much happy to find Key...this all jurst before Park Closing...which closes too early!...but promised self to get backup Key!...and I thought I captured Cabin Mousy this morning...rustling in Paper Bag that I closed up quick and put in small Cooler...opened in El Cap Meadow, but nope...and the incessant nibbling continues...

Monday, April 22, 2013

Kite Pair

http://youtu.be/MjNo9_6bnZw


Last Saturday, when I arrived at the Coast, Marina, and after getting a Room, there was Time for an hour walkabout at Elkhorn Slough (closes too early!), and just as I started out, heard Hawk, Redshoulder, call, and trying to locate, sighted Kite, and second Kite, a Nesting Pair, in the same Trees...when I returned from going as far as the Slough, Tide was out, just a couple clips of Long Legs, Kites were still about (Redshoulder too), One Kite hovering like at Fort Bragg, but too far away...very cool Hawks!...hereabout sunnysunny blueblue warm...Merced came over the Bank just a bit...sat awhile at the Cottonwoods...Yesterday, at Lunch thereabout, Blue Jay was waiting for some of my corn muffin, and I dont give an inch... 'dont feed the animals'...but tourists came along, and tried for pic of Blue Jay waiting above my head in the Alder, and I caved...put a crumb on the Second Ozone Boulder that has peaked top, and I smiled to see all the tourists from Japan drop to one knee in a row and wait...clip and pic for sometime...Blue Jay posed, twice, for two crumbs, quickly darting down and back up...report of Bobcat at the Stable Apple Orchard...juat a little Frazil in the Creek...

Friday, April 19, 2013

Sea Elephants

 http://youtu.be/V_JWYMVJMgQ

Bird, Cormorant?, Duck??, near end of clip got away. but almost slurped!....and just as I put the seatbelt on at Piedras Blancas View Sight, about to leave, sighted Grey Whales spouting...very end of clip...very cool...a bookend to seeing Grey Whales going South at Hawk's Perch in December...going North this time...made stop at Hawk's Perch to looksee just a bit before reaching Piedras Blancas, but quiet...scenic though...whole Big Sur rollabout very scenic..blueblue with a horizon blurring fog bank, and windy...and hereabout today, blueblue warm...kinda day the tourists go on about...at lunch has been around 4:30 of late, and I actually snack a bit during the sit awhile...Mallards, Robins, Ravens, Phoebe, Song Sparrow...

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Eggs

 http://youtu.be/g2ETjKDcKXA


American Avocet Eggs....pics and clip from Merced Wildlife Refuge...I saw One Avocet stand up when I rolled near in Silver, and then fly off to nearby and browse with more Avocets, and noted what looked like Eggs..this just a few feet from Gravel Rollabout Road...took pic, and studied, and yes, Eggs!...I have very few Nest and Eggs pics and clips...and then noted Second Avocet, still resting...pics and clip...so Two Nesting Avocets. and probably many more about...as I rolled off Second Avocet remained resting...I had just read on one of the Lore Displays, which are very cool, insomuch as they are a kinda open air 'book' all over the country, about how just observing Terns in England was so disturbing Terns Nersting that numbers were reduced from thousands to just a few...

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Yellow Feet

http://youtu.be/CAqDUlr1TDE



Snowy Egret...Point Lobos, Whalers Cove....the display driver for adobe priemier 9..well. I'm getting one of those messages...tried to update, but no luck(update:..tried stuff, like getting updated drivers, but this was problematic!, and probably good thing not to fool with too much, and after reading different fixes talkeabout in forums tried the delete bad text file fix, and that seems to work...seach c drive for BadDrivers.txt file, it will bring up file (toshiba sattelite is my computer) called badtext, and I crossed my fingers and deleted it (deletes go to trash, and not gone all together), and premier 9 works now...hmmph...see todays Eggs post...end update)...used windows movie maker for clip up, which works fine...in fact, everything else is working fine, so dont know why premier isn't accepting driver...anyway...took awhile!...sunny blueblue cool hereabout...in puzzling over this, I see youTube/google has a movie maker online...try that tomorrowmorrow!!...I think Snowy Egret feet are called 'golden slippers', or something like that!..very cool feet...clip on youTube doesn't seem to show at first...click on 'video manager'. and then the thumbnail...it's one thing to post to the web, and another to view the things posted, and what the poster sees and what the posted to see, well, are often not on the same page!...often reviewing the blog, I have to fiddle with things...

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

American Goldfinch


Goldfinches a new bird, for me...sighted at the Piedras Blancas Sea Elephant Beach....somehow I missed this Beach during the December rollabout, and made the effort to visit with my remaining Vacation Days...Sea Elephant pics and clips, and more Critter pics and clips of the venture, for tomorrowmorrows!...kinda cloudy cool hereabout in the Valley, windy blueblue while on return...pohono...

Friday, April 12, 2013

Phoebe Flying

http://youtu.be/21Iy2lDzL4s





















Phoebe pic and clip from Evening at the Cottonwoods at Lunch...Mallards thenabout too...Daffodils at the Deer House...Lilypads at Bobcat Meadow...Windmill on roll to Town Yesterday, Cow (a favorite seen three times now!--Alfalfa!), Flowers, Birds I need to id, Chinese Wall, on return...Ground Squirrel by Creek Riprap, and Warbler by Deer House, this Afternoon...sunny few clouds warm...Merganser Pair at Creek Bridges...pic and clip for sometime...just missed Bobcat thereabout, 'with Squirrel'....tourists sighted from Creek Bridge....

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Marsh Wren


a new bird, for me...have clip of call from SWR...for sometime...couldn't get pic thereabout...pic up from Tule Lake...and just, as Wren is illusive, but noisy!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Amphora









http://www.colourbox.com/faq#suppliers



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphora




CHAPTER FIVE: PLATO'S MOST
BEAUTIFUL SHAPE

""^^HE Nolan type amphora, here illustrated, 13.188 in the Mu-
seum of Fine Arts, Boston, is an example of a vase design cor-
related by a root-three rectangle. It is remarkable that this
shape is not more often met with in Greek design, for we
know that it was regarded as a beautiful shape. It is mentioned
by Plato, who makes the Pythagorean Timaeus explain: " 'Each straight lined
figure consists of triangles, but all t'tiangles can be dissected into rectangular
ones, which are either isosceles or scalene. Among the latter the most beautiful
is that out of the doubling of which an equilateral arises, or in which the square
of the greater perpendicular is three times that of the smaller, or in which the
smaller perpendicular is half the hypotenuse (in length). But two or four
right-angled isosceles triangles, properly put together, form the square; two
or six of the most beautiful* scalene right-angled triangles form the equi-
lateral triangle; and out of these two figures arise the solids which correspond
with the four elements of the real world, the tetrahedron, octahedron, icosahe-
dron and the cube.' " (Quoted by Allman, "History of Gr^ek Geometry from
Thales to Euclid," p. 38.) Classic art was practically over by Plato's time.

http://archive.org/stream/cu31924019526882/cu31924019526882_djvu.txt

http://gohistoric.com/glossary/nolan-amphora


http://www.mfa.org/search/collections?keyword=amphora



Usually, ...usually, I just snag a low res image from google images...but paid $12.50 for amphora image from colorbox, a stock photo company based in Denmark...see link just below amphora image...next link is wiki on amphora...curious is how old this vase form is, and how common and useful...and quote from 1920 book, which I recall trying to read once, and I often try to understand dynamic symmetry, and was taken with Hawk's pose..Greek vases all have names, and a very detailed study by many...link to 'Nolan'...Boston Museum link...I was much taken when Mandlebrot's Fractal Geometry book came out, an expensive purchase, and another similar book I can't recall, even more, like eighty dollars--I had never spent so much for a book!...this was 'New Age' era, and while looking for archaelogy of ancient Egypt books, found myself bringing home Sacred Geometry, and Power of Limits...there are many, and now much on the web....what always comes to mind when I ponder Symmetries is the Cone Shell...maybe I can find that...it was a photo of a fellow sitting at a computer holding a Cone Shell (I volunteered as a docent, and worked with Seashells for a while at Bower's Museum---many Cone Shells!), and on the computer screen was a fractal program generating a design just like the one on the Cone Shell...brb...

File:Textile cone (cropped).JPG




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterns_in_nature



and...and, I am much taken with wow, world of warcraft, for it's symmetry, and as the artwork, computer assisted, often has about it dynamic symmetry, and the playing itself, there's a lot of repetition, reiteration, 'grindng', resembles the essential of fractals, the reiterated algorithms.... well, I just sorta am at a loss....but did search: world of warcraft dynamic symmetry, which didn't bring up much...a lost guild, and in passing other sites, found this blogger's post, which looks to illustrate Plato's words above!
http://attentiveequations.com/2012/09/01/dynamic-symmetry-and-william-blake/

but let me pin down what a fractal algorithm is, as unclear myownself!...brb...

Fractal algorithms are algorithms used in creating computer-generated images. Using either an iterative or recursive process, simple geometric shapes are divided and replaced by smaller versions of themselves.
Seven of Nine used fractal algorithms in conjunction with Borg sensors to locate "funnels" which the USS Voyager could use to escape the Void. (VOY: "The Void") When Dr. Lewis Zimmerman used a fractal algorithm to realign The Doctor's holographic matrix after it started to degrade while on Jupiter Station, it was mentioned that they are "notoriously unstable in the hands of a novice". (VOY: "Life Line")

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Fractal_algorithm


well, a fine snag from a gamer site!

and now will go pursue my novicenessness in all this, and iterate a bit playing wow....:)....inc!!!










Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Peregrines

http://youtu.be/Ccvm89452bY
 



 
Adult Peregrine on Cottonwood at Sacre4mento Wildlife Refuge (overheared on first visit that this is often Peregrine's Perch--overhearing very much a part of Critter Locating!)...Juvenile Peregrine on Ocean Rock Perch past Cow Bluffs aways, last clip and pic that Day before turning inland at Bodega...and not id until I got back to Valley and studied books and google images!...very lucky pic and clip!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Western Kingbird




The rollabout was a bit problematic insomuch as  Silver's Trouble Light was on...came on during the previous roll to Town...checked Oil and Water, and okay, so so, down the Hill to Williams, Klamath Falls, and Arcata, where I stayed overnights..and it rained and cleared and was foggy and rained and cleared and overcast, and from Arcata I thought to roll to Ft. Bragg and stay at least one Night, and thereabout, I waited to make a left turn to get gas, and waited and waited, and thought, well, I will see the Coast as far as Bodega Bay, very much wanted to make the Big Loop!, and be back in the Valley by midnight, and have some timt to take Silver to the Garage, and so continued...rest stop at Ft. Ross...walked out to the Bluff with pastrami sandwich and potato chips and sat awhile....looked with the binocs for Sea Otters, but just some Scuba Divers, who seemed to be having an awkward time of it!...Windmill pic from thereabout on return to Silver...Coast was clear but cloudycloudy, and Fog was on the Horizon, so thoughts of stopping for the Night, which were many!, kept fluttering away, and at Bodega, whre the Coast Road actually sorta ends, as it turns Inland, and the scenic Bluffs and Rocky Surf lost to view, I made the turn to Petaluma....now, I had a map with, Western States, and sorted out to take 12 to 116, and in Petaluma, everywhere actaully it seemed!, there was Roadwork, and Detour Signs, and knashing of teeth until I found myself on 12 with a straight route to Stockton, and it was night now, and more Roadwork, the concrete barriers in the middle, the road bumpity bump, oncoming lights blinding, cars behind anxious, and I was going 50, which is about the harmonic spot for Silver's DW!...and I'd look at the Trouble Light with lowered eyelids...hmmph...but Silver did fine, and I just hung on with hands at Ten and Two!...reached 5, crossed over to 99, and thereabout ramp announcing the Valley, and once past Groveland up the hill, a sigh of relief!...and back by 12:30...pohono...I still have another week, and thought is to roll out again...Vacatiom is the only time I have to venture far afield, on ventures that take days...anyway...Kingbird pic at Westport Graveyard...was hopeful thereabout to sight Ospreys...did sight at Ten Mile River...pic for sometime...and just a few more pics and clips for sometime from the rollabout...I checked all the spots, well, not all, but spots where I've taken pics...places become memories that I want to revisit...this happens on the Valley walkabouts too...when I sit at lunch at the Cottonwoods, thereabout is filled with the memories of Critter sightings...oh...the Silk Moth!!...on 101, at the end of the Avenue of the Redwoods, stop thereabout to ponder how to find Brown Creepers climbing Redwoods!, I was thinking to take 101 back, and not make the Coast, as the turn to 1, Seasick Road, is thereabout,. and I needed a reststop, and I couldn't recall there being much at that offramp, and noted I woould need to go further regardless and find gas statiom, but I sighted a a little Market, and thereabout sighted Moth, and afterwards while getting coffee in the Market, sighted the Park Orinthologist just back from backpack of the Lost Coast!...so, so, Seasick Road it was, having got a kinda second wind...pivotal moments are continual considerations on the walks and rolls, and while I get about like an expeirenced gymnast doing somersaults now, I can easily recall just how difficult it all is...anyway...hereabout it is still cloudycloudy...played wow all Night, after a week away from the Realms!, so today just a walk back from the Village, and a coffee sit awhile at the Cottonwoods..Mallard Pair on the Cottonwood Snag, and Phoebe...pics and clip...Merced is a little higher...report of Bobcat crossing the Road at the A Rooms with 'just Squirrels Tail' hanging from mouth....last evening I went over the Stables at Last Light to check on report of Owl...Pygmy Owl call heard...and on Shuttle, report of Ringtail Family at the A Rooms living in the Rocky Slope at the Loop...at Last Light these Evenings, Mallards fly high over head going East, and I imagine up Tenaya Canyon or towards Lake Merced, and somewheres far beyond!