Creature Feature 2021 #5

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I snuck out early this morning to beat the forecast thunderstorms. Turns out that was a good idea as the weather started getting convective right around noon.

Last time I was on the lake I was surprised to see an Egret this time of year. Looks like that wasn’t the only one, or maybe this was the same one; birds do get around:

Speaking of getting around:

The usual residents were out and about:


There were several swarms of these guys. These two got caught in a spider web, and there was no untangling them. Another one of those predator-prey relationships:

The water level was down a bit, but no so much that I couldn’t get into at least one of my little hangouts:

And, of course, the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture:

Return to Croft!

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Last week I decided to play hooky for a day (well, ok, I used some PTO, so it was legit) and make a Long overdue trip up to Croft State Park. I really missed being able to do that during the pandemic. In fact, it was so special of an occasion (first time back since the pandemic, first time in the summer, …) I didn’t take many pictures. But I did get some, and here’s the pick of the litter.

These ducks were hanging out on the Fairforest Creek doing some of that “airframe maintenance”:

and weren’t bothered by the bridge being out just upstream. This bridge washed out during a period of heavy rains way back before the pandemic.

It was a pretty substantial bridge. I can only imagine the force involved in ripping it out.

Flowers were blooming here and there throughout the forest:

This looks like one of those little predator-prey relationships. I can make a pretty good guess which is which:

From the moment I first went past the entrance gate, I’ve felt that Croft State Park was somehow different. special, and just a great place to be a bird. Sing it from the treetops!

Creature Feature 2021 #4

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My plan to take advantage of this holiday was to get out on the lake early. But, the weather continues to be screwy and this morning I awoke to a tempeature of 12C (54F). I decided to wait a bit until it warmed up a some. Even then, it was a cool, overcast morning. In fact, it stayed overcast almost all day, contrary to the forecasts. This was another one of those cases where the TAFs keep getting updated to match the reported conditions.

Even the wildlife seemed to be keeping a low profile under these conditions, but the Geese were keeping watch over their gooselets:

As were the Osprey (well, keeping an eye on their osprats, they wouldn’t care about the gooselets):

This Osprey was soaring way up high under a rare break in the clouds:

From there I made my way all the way up the eastern arm of the lake without much to write home about. Arriving at the northern end of the lake, though, Nature threw me another curve ball. I hadn’t seen Egrets around here until late summer and into early fall, but here was one in late Spring:

I’m always interested in how these large birds get around, in particular how one might do something that looks difficult like landing up in a tree.


Made it! And made it look easy…

Killdeer were hunting around the shallows:

For a while anyway, then time to go!

I didn’t see any turtles on my way up the lake, maybe they figured it was warmer in the water. On the way back though there were a few out.


And, of course, the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture:

Creature Feature 2021 #3

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I’ll kick off this creature feature in my back yard. I went out back doing a couple of chores and something caught my eye. There, under a couple low branches, was a small fawn in the grass. He was so small I could probably have picked him up with one hand (not that I’d try of course):

They grow fast though:

There was plenty of “lawn maintenance” going on this morning. These geese were
working on the lake dam:

And crows were working the other side of the lake:

The new nesting platform that was put up for the Osprey looks to have had some activity since I was last out there a few weeks ago. Seems kind of late in the season to be starting a nest, but I’m sure the Osprey know what they’re doing.

And, of course, the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture:

Plus a bonus!

More on Fluffy

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Fluffy had a home here,

and she still does:

Visitation by appointment please.

There’s one more story about Fluffy that needs to be told.

Many years ago now, at work we were putting our first web site up on the wild Internet. There were two groups of people involved with this.

There were the web site developers, sort of like the playwrights and scenery designers. They do all the stuff that you see when you visit a web site: the graphics, text, forms, etc…

The other group, mine, was the system administrators. We were charged with all the stuff you don’t see: making sure the sound and lighting work, the stage doesn’t creak, and making sure everyone comes in through the front entrance and no riff-raff slips in through the stage door.

Normally, for a web server, that stage door is blocked off from the street: you have to go in through the parking garage and through multiple security checkpoints to reach the stage door. You can’t just walk up to the door from the street.

Well, the developers wanted to be able to get in quickly and correct any problems with their web site, and so wanted to have access to that stage door from the street (Internet). The system administrators said that was a Really Bad Idea, because everyone would be trying to get in that door, trying all sorts of user IDs and passwords. A compromise was reached and we left that door accessible for just a few days, in case there were some early problems with the web site that needed to be corrected quickly.

But we watched that door carefully. If someone snuck in there, it would be game over. And as we expected, we saw people trying to log in to our web server with all sorts of known-powerful user IDs: system, admin, oracle, dba, fluffy, root, administrator… Wait… WHAT? Someone was trying to hack into our server with the user ID “fluffy”??

Fast forward to 2012. My Dad and I adopt a cat, whose name just happens to be Fluffy. That started the legend of the l33t hax0r (elite hacker, in the lingo) Fluffy.

Last year as fiber was being run down the road in front of the house, Fluffy watched the crews with great interest, no doubt eager for more bandwidth to support her hacks in to the NSA and Russia and who knows what else…..

After I began working from home due to the pandemic, Fluffy would sometimes come into my home office for something, and I’d have to explain (again) “Fluffy, I’m at work now, if you need something, you need to put in a help desk ticket.” Apparently she didn’t like our ticketing system any more than the rest of us, because she never did hack that system to enter any tickets. Not that I have any doubt that she could.

Fluffy Adametz, circa 2007 – 2021

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Fluffy Adametz passed away today from a malignant growth on her lower jaw. She was believed to be 14 years old and will be missed by many, including, oddly, one bird.

She had been dealing remarkably well with her condition for almost a year, but a few days ago she worsened and finally was unable to eat or drink. After examination by and discussion with her doctor, I decided we had reached an ending. The doctor assured me this was correct, and all expectations had been met or exceeded.

We adopted her in 2012 mainly as a companion for my Dad. It was a hard sell, but we convinced him he should have cat, and it was almost love at first sight (at least for my Dad, cats will be cats).

This is the first picture we got of Fluffy after coaxing her out of her initial hiding place after she moved in with us.

She soon won us over (or, being a cat, maybe took us over).

She enjoyed looking out the windows, and would often be found on the sill of an open window.


The little fur ball….

What, doesn’t everyone like climbing around chair legs?

She had a cat’s balance.

She will be missed, but I know someone who will be happy to see her again: my Dad. As I would often do when my Dad came to visit, as I held her at the end, I told her “go see Daddy!”.

I don’t know how I’m going to sleep now that I can’t just roll over and assume that strange noise in the house was only Fluffy.

Creature Feature 2021 #2

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Spring is defintely happening here! For those of you in more northern latitudes, if you haven’t seen those first Robins of spring, rest assured they’re on the way. I don’t have any tracking, but I suspect they’ll be more reliable than some of our package delivery services lately.

It was a really good day today to get out on the lake, and I couldn’t let it slide by. The camera was going full speed within 10 minutes of launching, but I’m going to back up just a bit to a couple of shots right in my own back yard, a relatively rare sighting:


I’ve seen Pileated Woodpeckers on occasion, but this was the first time I’ve gotten one on camera.

Out on the lake, the Cormorants were having a bit of a dust-up (can you have a dust-up on the water?):

Geting one of these airborne off the water takes some work. Ready…..

Launch!

And a few more hops to get fully weight-on-wings:

There’s a new nesting platform for the Osprey near the lake dam, being checked out:

and these guys were cavorting in the air nearby:

Turtles! Everywhere there was something sticking out of the water, there were turtles!

Follow the leader…

A few Crows gathered before crossing the lake:

Of course, the Geese are still here, but seem to be more dispersed, probably out nesting. This was was doing a little “airframe maintenance”:

I’m please to report that the Bald Eagles are still around too. I saw this one high above the lake:

And, of course, the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture:

As usual, you can click on the pictures to get to a full-resolution version. Enjoy!

Creature Feature 2021 #1

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It’s kind of early in the season, but with these unseasonably warm days, and needing to make up for a nearly-disastrous 2020, I decided to venture out on the lake for a bit. Being so early, I didn’t expect to get much in the way of wildlife pictures, but, well, below are the best of the 329 frames I came back with.

The water sure seemed cold to me, but there were turtle heads poping up all over one area to eyeball me as I went by.

And there were a few out enjoying the early spring sun.

This hawk was enjoying the sun and the wind:

With the rains we’ve had, the lake level was ample to allow me to get into some of my favorite nooks, cranies, backwaters, and feeder creeks. Yes, I was up a creek, but I had my paddle.

The year-rounders were here, of course, like these Mallards:

…just before they flew off…

And the Canada Geese.

The small birds are out and about too, like this Chickadee:

Now if these guys can get along, as different as they are, why can’t we?

By the way, that wasn’t the Obligatory Great Blue Heron picture. Wait for it…..

And a second one to make up for lost time:

After the virtual remembrence

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My Thanks to all who were able to attend. I hope this helped make this somber occasion a little less so.

For those who were unable to attend, or just want to watch again, I’ve posted the recording of the event on YouTube; you can view it here: https://youtu.be/CtuIIeV6ckQ

A couple things that were mentioned:

The first hand account of my Dad’s war experiences: https://wildcorvid.org/media/1941.pdf

The video of him telling stories at the Ford Elementary School in Laurens, SC: http://youtu.be/68HuZiPgVMw

I will inform everyone when we can get together for real for further remembering and the burial. Where is a bit of an open question right now. My Dad’s overriding wish is to be placed with his Wife, who is buried in St. Augustine, FL, however in later years he expressed an interest in going to a military cemetery. Maybe Arlington if he’s eligible, or maybe some place associated with the 3rd Infantry Division he served with, or Ft. Jackson SC where he did his basic training. Either way I’ll be making a trip to Florida. When is also an open question, depending on the course of the pandemic. Stay tuned.

Vince Adametz virtual remembrance, 2021-02-07

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I’m going to [attempt to] host a virtual memorial/remembrance for my Dad on Sunday, February 7th, at 3:00pm EST (noon PST, 20:00 UTC, pick your time zone :)). I’ll be using zoom, which I hope will be easy for everyone to get into: you should be able to join right in your browser via a link I’ll provide; be prepared to tell your browser that it’s ok to use your camera and microphone, if you choose to appear or speak.

If you haven’t already gotten an Email from me, leave a reply here with your Email address (it won’t be shown publicly) and I’ll get you the information.

Please pass this along to anyone you know who might be interested, and if you know someone who may need a bit of technical help that you can provide, please do so.

Thank you, and I hope to see you all on the 7th.