Bird On A Wire

A while ago, I had taken this picture, not thinking much about it until coming across it later and thinking that this gull was really good at balancing on the wire. Calm, cool and …just casually sitting on the wire! Here’s an example of how a one dimensional photo lacks the extra information gained by depth perception. Do you see it?

Thanks for viewing, zoom in for a closer look, and comments are always welcome. M 🙂

Outside Our Window as the Rain Fell Lightly

 “Cedar Waxwings” in a feeding frenzy, are seen thru the glass of our kitchen window today. Their colorful wing tips are remarkable, and they love berries… in this case from our Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus Virginian.)

From the rainy New Jersey Shore – thanks for viewing, click-on or finger-stretch for a closer look and comments are always welcome. M 🙂

 Snowy White Egrets – This Morning’s Mini Post

A few quick images from this morning on Barnegat Bay, New Jersey

6:31 AM, muted sunshine. “Here I come. Fishies, look out!!!”

Thirty seconds later…”Walking along, my merry way… Doo de doo!”
 

6:54 AM, clouds over sun. “This is my ‘stalking’ pose…reeaddy to POUNCE!!!”

 Five seconds later… “Yahheeiahhh!” 
 

As usual, thanks for viewing, Comments are demanded…sorry, I mean always welcomed. Click on images for closer view. M 🙂

 

 

Osprey: Time to Fly – Today, July 29th, 2016

DSC_0467

Its time to fly.  Mom and Dad conceive, raise the young and teach!

Above,  Mom (left) sternly begins coaxing the kid to leave the nest, and fly. It happens every year. The mother will fly around the nest, carrying a fish in its claws, sometimes for days at a time, until the young one finally gets the idea – to eat, you must fly! The wordless lesson is priority one.

DSC_0490

Meanwhile, Dad waits patiently a few hundred yards way. 

As Usual, click on images for higher resolution, and comments are always welcome. M 🙂

A Few Favorite images

A few previously unpublished images from the archives – or – what to publish when you are a.) too busy, or b.) at wit’s end (end of wits?) to create anything else!

IMG_4922
Sandy Paws guarding the remote – Northern N.J. 5/4/15
DSC_0493
Tyler guarding the goal, N.J. – 4/25/15
DSC_0721 - Version 3
Gull scrounging for food, Seaside Heights boardwalk, NJ – 5/23/15
DSC_0707
Grazing around at the Senior Equine Retirement Farm, near ATCO, NJ – 5/23/15
DSC_0700
Home for the birds and the buzzin’ bees, Jersey Shore – 5/19/15
DSC_0403
Clouds blowing by the moon on a windy night, Jersey Shore – 2/23/15
DSC_0731 - Version 2
West side of Hudson River, Tompkins Cove, NY – 5/29/15
DSC_0752
Optimism by the Hudson River, Tompkins Cove, N.Y. – 5/29/15

Thanks for viewing. Comments are always welcome. M 🙂

 

Glen Campbell, a Horn Antenna, a 100 ft. Balloon and The BIG Bang…All Here, All There

In Homdel, New  Jersey, less than a mile (~one km) from the often ear splitting outdoor concerts of the Garden State (PNC) Arts Center, sits this odd looking contraption designed and built by Bell Labs, the historic and  prestigious research arm of AT&T. Jeanne and I visited this recently.

DSC_0767

…Known as a “horn” antenna, here facing down for storage, this large (for its day) 15 meter (50 ft.) sheet metal radio telescope was specifically built to bounce and receive radio signals off early satellite experiments using  the 100 ft. diameter Echo I Satellite Balloon, launched August 12, 1960.

DSC_0780

DSC_0776

(On March 14, 1963, I took this 25 minute guided photo showing the Echo I satellite, as a wavering-bright “star trail” due to it’s slight deflation, passing overhead from the then dark skies of Bayville New Jersey.)

1963.03.14 001 4 AM 25 min, Bayville, Echo Sat

But what really ensured the telescope’s place in history was the work of Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who in 1964 could not explain a mysterious background “noise” being picked up by the ultra sensitive cryogenic microwave receiver.

They systematically tried to eliminate any terrrestrial sources. No difference was detected when pointed generally toward New York City for example. Bird droppings, thought to be creating some sort of electrostatic interference, were cleaned from the horn, to no avail. Perhaps if the Arts Center were already there, with its 10,000 patrons and concerts, it too would have been suspected. (Although Jeanne and I would see Glen Cambell perform there four years later, Engene Ormandy (music of “Star Wars”)  was also one of the early classical performers!)

11.100 7-4-69 Holmdel, Garden State Arts Center, Glenn Cambell_edited-1

But, after conferring with Robert Dicke, a particle physicist  at nearby Princeton University – and familiar with the theoretical, but never before detected “background radiation” components of the Big Bang Theory of cosmological evolution, the source of the mysterious  “static” was eventually verified and now the keystone for the theory’s acceptance.

DSC_0764

The telescope is located in a semi-wooded area on Telegraph Hill in Homdel, NJ, on  the private property of Alcatel-Lucent Technologys, and not readily accessible without special permission.

As usual, thanks for viewing, and comments are always welcome. M:-)

(Thanks to Wikipedia for their indispensable resources. Please consider contributing via their site.)

Rainbow, Osprey and Pretty Sunset – Aftermath of a N.J. Summer Thunderstorm

Numerous photos of last night’s photographically awesome storm, rainbow and sunset were posted locally, recording a spectacle which left jaws dropping. Many captures of the boiling storm clouds, intense and full rainbow, and incredibly striking sunset – many far better than these, show how good, and prolific everyday photography has become in recent years. 

DSC_0568
Osprey and the end of the rainbow, on Barnegat Bay, New Jersey
DSC_0585
In my rush to catch the tail end of the show, I left my wide-angle lens behind, but did manage to catch the plane, left of center, above.  Click or stretch for closer look.

…As usual, thanks for viewing, and comments are always welcome. M 🙂

Holy Man Shoos Huge Gull – On The Isle of Capri, Italy

This post contains seven images, and two maps. 

Exploring by boat off the south-west coast of Capri, Italy 2011, we sighted this territorial confrontation.

3-26-11     Italy, day 2, Sorrento and Capri (132)
“Sciò via” (“Shoo,  Away”)

Continuing around the island brought views of rocky shorelines and local boating heritage.

3-26-11     Italy, day 2, Sorrento and Capri (152)

3-26-11     Italy, day 2, Sorrento and Capri (221)
When the sun shines, the island’s coast offers stunning water clarity and colors

Below: Returning from our short excursion to Capri, broken clouds enhanced this nice view of Sorrento and its stunning seaside cliffs.  

3-26-11     Italy, day 2, Sorrento and Capri (242)

Below: Not far, on the next day’s bus tour along the Amalfi Coast, was Positano, typical for this region, it being built over centuries on the steep slopes above the sea.

3-27-11     Italy, Day 3, Amalfi Coast (12)

Below: As seen from off-shore –  a view of a few Italians relaxing on a beach along the Almafi Coast.

3-27-11     Italy, Day 3, Amalfi Coast (110)_edited-1

 

Below: As seen from on-shore, a view of a few (thousand) Jersey Girls (and guys) relaxing on the beach along the New Jersey Coast (?!?)

00.1968.08.481      EV, 08----68    Seaside H, Manasquan, Rockerfeller Plz, Emp 652
Seaside Heights, New Jersey, August 1968!    ‘Music Radio W-A-B-C…Ding’
Screen Shot 2015-04-13 at 9.25.44 AM
Capri is located just left of the Sorrentine Peninsula but not indicated on this map.

Screen Shot 2015-04-13 at 1.48.14 PM

Thanks for viewing…

and comments are always welcome. M 🙂