Persied Meteors 8/12/2018

    Clear moonless conditions have been ideal for the annual Persied  meteor shower.

Big Pink Lightbulb sinks into Lake Michigan

   Although 60 meteors per hour are supposed to be visible from an unobstructed location, I barely saw more than 1 per hour in my tiny patch of sky.

  The photo below shows not a meteor but rather a -4 magnitude Iridium Flare caused by the Sun reflecting off of an Iridium Communication satellite's antenna. Explanation of satellite flares here..Satellite_flare

   A couple of weeks ago I acquired a new friend.  She's a self-walking Larbradoodle.  She'll be 4 months old tomorrow and has already hit the 30 lb. milestone. Between the two vet visits she's had, she grew 18% in 17 days.  I like big mutts and I cannot lie.

Now Where Were We.

 It has been a couple weeks since the last update.  Here are a few photos coinciding with winter's end.

Purple Finch at my house

Red Breasted Merganser at Pt Mouillee

Horned Grebe at Ludington Harbor

Marlboro Man looking for a light

Ludington Light

New Yardbirds (#116)....Cedar Waxwings

Sure sign of spring....Tundra Swans

Venus and Mercury with Little Sable Lighthouse

   From before the days of Aristotle it was thought that certain animals spontaneously generated under the right conditions.  It wasn't until the mid-19th century, through the work of Louis Pasteur and John Tyndall, that fruitflies, mice and raccoons stopped materializing from decaying fruit, grain and sunflower seeds respectively.  I imagine the recipe went something like this.......

   Step 1- Place sunflower seeds in large container with unsecured lid

   Step 2 -Leave overnight in cool dark area.

   Step 3 -Enjoy

Note : For Black Bear replace seeds with Broasted Chicken then place in a restaurant dumpster instead of garbage can

                

   A party can still spontaneously arise when a dog wears a hat.  Whether he gets invited to the party is another matter.

Ludington Oriole

  As I was taking test shots to ensure a properly exposed photo of a Baltimore Oriole, an Oriole dropped down from the Beech tree and flew past the orange that I put out for it. 

White-crowned Sparrow

  The day didn't start out all sunshine and oranges. The cool gusts off of the lake brought a squall of snow pellets that coated the car....

.....the deck.....

...and the dog.

Sparrows in the Snow

   An early spring snowstorm had the lingering winter sparrows sharing scraps under the feeding stations with arriving spring migrants.

American Tree Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Song Sparrow

 

Chipping Sparrow

   The snowstorm had been in the forecast since last weekend but as is often the case with spring storms, the uncertainty of temperatures hovering in the low 30's had the snowfall predictions swinging from 1-3 inches all the way to 12" plus.  We could have hit that one foot level had we not had an influx of warm air in the mid levels of the atmosphere for several hours that melted the precip on the way down only to refreeze on the 31 F ground,  We ended up with 7 or 8 " and maybe 1/4" of ice that took out the power in my neighborhood and beyond.

    The quick walk to the end of the driveway to get the mail left the dog almost covered by the nearly 2" diameter flakes.

Protecting the Shoreline

  With today looking like the last 60 degree day until spring, I figured I'd take Roscoe to the beach and let him take on the waves one last time this season.

  At first he looked a little disappointed that waves were somewhat dampened by an offshore wind.

All leashes shall be dogged

  Soon we found a spot where the breakers were a little more competitive.

    The battle went like this....

Like a shortstop charging a grounder, he faces it head on.

And takes a shot to the chin.

he applies a retaliatory bite on the sea and sand 

As the wave retreats to from where it came... Roscoe does the same.

 We'll call it a draw.

More Ducks and Eagles

     When I left work yesterday morning I had intended to photograph the ducks that are hanging around my worksite, but the -12°F  temperature over the open water created an ice fog that lowered visibility to a couple of hundred feet.  With the poor lighting the only photos I took were of the rime ice that formed on the vegetation around the water. 

 Plan B was to go in early for my afternoon shift and take advantage of the better lighting and warmer temperatures that dissipated the fog.

Female Lesser Scaup

Canvasback

Bufflehead

Bald Eagle

Hooded Merganse

Common Goldeneye

   This afternoon temperatures warmed into the mid-20's, so I headed to Dingell Park in Ecorse to check out the ducks and eagles that are hanging around the open water. At one point there were 32 Bald Eagles on and around Mud Island.

   Of course close views of ducks and eagles are exciting but they don't get the adrenaline flowing like a couple of free-roaming pitbulls.

 I spotted them when they were on the ice about half a mile up the river.  I pointed them out to the two other birders that were also at the park.  One of the men said "I hope they don't come up here". I reassured him that it didn't look like there would be an easy way for them to get up from the ice to the waterfront observation area  because it seemed to be surrounded by dog-filtering railing.   Oops.  A couple of minutes later the two sons-of bitches were in the parking lot of the park and heading in our direction. The dogs had not yet noticed us, as we closed ranks.  I removed the monopod from my camera lens as I considered possible uses for it.  The dogs sniffed around the garbage cans and got within ten feet of us before noticing we were there.  Tension rose as brown dog started to growl and walk toward us.  I took the monopod, pointed it at him and in a calm assertive manner told him to "Get".  He listened. Then the two beasts meandered back up the river where they came from.