Notices by oldguy52 - resist, live, love (oldguy52@techhub.social)

@GottaLaff

Has Bill Koch’s insanity written throughout. An attack to cut education, science, environmental regulation, and hand the money to billionaires. Blood boil moment.

On a happier note, there are new arrivals every day at the Nature Sanctuary. Migration is in full motion. Some over-winter birds are changing behaviors to bulk up more for the flight north. New arrivals are searching for food sources. All of that means a near cacophony of songs and calls that are challenging to keep separate in my head. More Prothonotary Warblers have arrived, so we may keep a few despite the low water levels. Also seeing Brown Thrashers …

As a note you can track migration for your area using Cornell’s Migration Dashboard
https://birdcast.info/migration-tools/migration-dashboard/

Check all of their migration tools.

#BirdsOfMastodon #BirdPhotography #500mm #ProthonotaryWarbler

A happy note for the morning. Great Crested Kingbirds have been reported in the county. So will be out this morning to search for both Red-eyed Vireo and for the Great-crested. Below, a Red-eyed Vireo from last year.

My challenge in finding photos is remembering or searching through the ~50,000 images over the years. I’ve tried various ways of databasing them without much success, so have to rely on a failing memory to recall a relative date of good representative photos.

#BirdsOfMastodon #BirdPhotograpy #RedEyedVireo #500mm #DarkTable #PhotoMonday

@GottaLaff

Trigger moment: What the hell is there to consider? An innocent man was seized and deported to a hell hole without due process — AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL ACT. Again, what the hell is there to consider. A man’s life is at stake. There are many others in the same situation. ACT! JFC!

No need to reply.

Dr. Richardson’s Letter this morning hits very hard. It details the depths of betrayal by this administration - abandoning former alliances across the world in favor of Russia. This includes deporting Ukrainian refugees. It is heartbreaking to see how far this country has fallen in under 2 months.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-6-2025

My take — This is no longer the nation I grew up in; no longer the country I loved for over 70 years. The GQP is a Russian terror group that has betrayed us all.

#HeatherCoxRichardson #FeelingBetrayed #ImpeachTheBastard

A happy place to start off this Wed after the storm. The snow totals were a bit of a fizzle with only about 6.8 cm (2.7in) average in the back yard. The temps and wind chills were true to the hype. Setting up the breakfast menu for the birds saw -16.6C (2F) with a -25C (-13F) Wind Chill. At times yesterday the WC dropped to -28.8C with blowing snow. We are not used to these temps, and houses certainly are not built for these temps. Normals for the day here would be a low of 0.5C and a high of 12.7C. My fun day will be spent clearing the driveway of ice and snow (several sessions given my age).

Rocky Mountain is one of Gayle's all-time favorites. We return as often as possible.

#LandscapePhotography #FallColors #RockMountainNationalPark #500mm #DarkTable

Had to go to a happy place working on photos this morning. Too cold for this old body to hike.

Love this place for sunrises, sunsets, astrophotography, silence, solace ...

Pre-dawn glimmer at Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Must never forget that this belongs to the Navajo People, not us, not the US -> the Navajo. Respect that. Respect their traditions and culture. Be grateful that they share it with you. This is a place of quiet.

#MonumentValley #NavajoTribalPark #Solace #Silence #Respect #30mm #DarkTable #6seconds

Trying to decompress and filter through all of the BS that came out the disinfo fire hose this past week. Can't help but think we are being played, and that 99% of this was misdirection and cover for actions far more heinous and illegal - such as mass illegal layoffs without due process, wiping open government access portals, and mass data deletion wiping out entire areas of science.

I can only hope those more capable than I are archiving the science, the data, and the websites for open government to protect the most vulnerable. The pattern has been to bury the purges on Saturday nights. What will this night bring?

#Disinformation #WeAreBeingPlayed #ProtectTheData #ProtectThePeople

A critical analysis and read in Dr. Richardson’s Letter this morning. Be sure to read the entire letter; this should frighten every American.

My take — We are witnessing the death of America, brought on by the far right who were empowered by voters who were too ignorant to understand. As Dr. Richardson points out (quoted below)

“…the Framers of the Constitution believed that the Senate would be the key guardrail to stop the rise of an autocrat who would destroy democracy and install himself as a king. They expected that the determination of senators to guard their own power would protect the nation. “

— Given the radicalization of the GQP, I do not see how that guardrail will hold. —

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-12-2024

#HeatherCoxRichardson #DeathOfANation

In today’s letter Dr. Richardson points to a phrase attributed to Amanda Marcotte: “…voters are profoundly ignorant.” That really struck a chord.

My take — Ignorance kills, and will kill millions over the next decade.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-8-2024

#HeatherCoxRichardson

#SilentSunday

Had to take a hike yesterday to walk off the 3rd grade playground reactions of the democrats and press. Take a deep breath, organize behind your candidate = Biden, and get your shit together. They did this with Clinton and it worked, now you fools are reacting the same way with so much more at stake. WAKE UP, get a grip and move on.

During and after the hike had a bit of an issue with heat exhaustion, but better now. Also had a chance to think about depth of field. I rarely change out from my 200-500 zoom, so doing any close focus work really puts an emphasis on choosing focal point. The image below would have a 1.5cm depth of field so I chose the head of the dragonfly for focus. That gave a nice bokeh of the grassland behind. If you need help understanding depth of field or planning photos, I rely on PhotoPills. They have a great app, provide great support and great training.

#DarkTable #500mm #HalloweenPennant #NaturePhotography

#BirdsOfMastodon
#BirdPhotogaphy
#NaturePhotograhpy
#OxleyNatueCenter
#Wetlands
#BaldEagles

A change in size. One of the pairs of Bald Eagles has been out more frequently. This pair nests on the local golf course, so is habituated to noisy humans. They hunt in the local water supply and adjoining wetlands. There are 3 local pairs, one in the North Woods unit (old-growth lowland forest), the other just to the northwest. I frequently see the fledglings and immature Eagles hunting in the wetlands. They do not gain the distinctive coloration until they mature.

#500mm.