Chris' Random Thoughts

Mom: "It's got to be heavy metal."
Me: "Of course, it always has to be Heavy Metal!"
Me: "Wait, you're talking about the new disposal, aren't you?"

New car smell == Great!

New pet smell == Ok, not always great.

New carpet smell == Do I really have to stay here?

Going to news.google.com just broke (it was working 30 minutes ago), and instead of the news aggregation site you get a search result page. The first result of their search is news.google.com, which has the right description but takes you right back to the same search result page.

Oops.

Oh, and the sponsored links box advises you to visit the yellow pages, a korean retailer, and MSN news.

Double oops.

The news link on the google homepage gets a "404 - page not found" error from their server "Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) Server at news.google.com Port 80".

or "We're sorry, we just borked our homepage."

Sigh. Visiting http://google.com gets you "We're sorry...... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application" I didn't make a query. I'm just trying to get to their home page.

Nice bug (or a very poor way to test your captcha code).

My guess is that they are seeing too many requests from corporate firewalls and not handling those correctly (thinking they were all from a single user/system).

Ok, so I don't normally go for the fads and internet hoopla.... but this one is really entertaining.

http://www.drhorrible.com/

The episodes will be available until July 20, hurry -- and don't let your boss hear you laughing out loud.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: A man's gotta do, what a man's gotta do...

I was at Apple's developer conference (WWDC) in San Francisco today, and ran into Debbie Cherry, Darryl Root, and Pete Berger -- all college friends from CMU (that's in Pittsburgh PA, just so ya know).
Wow. Even accounting for the "computing professionals" factor that we share, it's still a big coincidence.

Current Mood: surprised
Current Music: Weezer

Lately, I've seen a lot of user interface designs that just don't work. Sure, they look pretty - but they aren't usable. The designers think their designs are wonderful, and don't seem to grasp why they won't work or what basic principles they have violated. I tried to find some documentation on the fundamentals of user interfaces to help them understand. All I can find are things that specify how UI elements should look under certain toolkits, or nearly useless advice like "less is more" and "discoverability is key". I did find several places that list the basic widgets/building blocks (checkbox, button, text entry, etc.). That's a start, sort of.

But where are the fundamentals? What makes a button a button? What things, if removed, would make the user no longer consider something to be a button? What things, if changed, would make the user confused about the operation of a button? Why can't every application use dark, transparent backgrounds? Why are bright colored buttons useful in some applications and harmful in others? How should a scrolling view behave to make it obvious and useful? Etc.

Those things I can't find.

Am I looking in the wrong places? Or are interface designers too focused on pretty pictures and copying the latest fad to document those things that "everybody knows"?

Current Mood: curious

Ok, I've seen plenty of tagged birds, and a few tagged deer, but until today I don't think I'd even heard of tagged butterflies. ( Photos and details behind the cut )

Current Mood: tired

When I look at a lot of the popular software today, I really wonder why people use it. Much of it is slow, bloated, bug ridden, constantly crashing, difficult to use, and with the features you need hidden or only half implemented. And I'm not talking about just desktop applications - it's Operating Systems, cell phones, ATMs (a Blue Screen on the ATM, just what I needed), cash registers, bank websites, airline reservation systems, etc.

Why do we put up with this?

I think the software situation today is a lot like US cars in the 1970s. Back then, you could buy what boiled down to 2 types of cars:

1. gas guzzling muscle cars that weren't comfortable and needed a lot of maintenance
2. boats with steering wheels, that were comfortable but still guzzled gas and needed a lot of maintenance

Of course, there were better cars available in the 70s - but they were rare, and considered pricey or weird. Most people put up with uncomfortable seats, bad heating/cooling, bad stereos, pollution, creaks and groans, weekly maintenance, rust, excessive noise, etc. etc. etc.
Why?
Without exposure to better cars, most people assumed that they couldn't do any better and other cars would be the same as the clunkers they already knew. The technology to make better cars existed in the 70s, but as long as the US auto makers were making so much money, they didn't see any need to improve the cars they made.

But today, few people would put up with cars made like Detroit did in the 1970s. What changed? We got more practical choices, and we looked around and compared quality. Now we know how crappy they really were, and will no longer tolerate cars made that badly.

So, why is much of our popular software still built like a Chevy Vega? Because most people seem willing to accept marketing hype and don't look under the hood. Because most people don't check out the competition, and don't even try to compare functionality or quality. And maybe, like the 70s, most people don't want to admit that they bought a lemon.

I constantly have people telling me "this software is the standard, we've got to use it." Well, if your standards are that low: fine, you can use it. But I write software, I don't believe in hype, I know what's possible, and I expect more from the software I use.

Shouldn't we all be demanding better software?

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: Heading Out To The Highway

OMG Boston! There are these boxes all over the city, and they've got blinking lights! Some of them blink yellow, some blink red, and some blink in a pattern of yellow, red, green, yellow, red, green! And they're all over the city, practically on every street corner! Some of them have wires, and some of them are in groups hanging on poles above the street! What are you going to do?!

Ok, if you haven't figured out by now that this is satirical and I'm talking about traffic signals: then you might be working for the city of Boston. (Hmm, maybe a new catchphrase for Jeff Foxworthy?)

It's bad enough that the Boston city authorities panicked earlier this year over some LED signs and batteries, now they're panicking over a girl with some LEDs on her sweatshirt? Didn't anyone in Boston learn from the first over-blown incident?

And someone in Boston really, really needs to look up the definition of "hoax". Just because you panic out of ignorance, that does not make it a hoax. There has to be intent and deliberate action to deceive before you can call it a hoax. So far, all you have is hysteria, over-reaction, and poor judgment. But no hoax.


It is past time for the authorities in Boston to apologize for overreacting and start trying to restore the city's image. And if they're not going to do that, maybe they should change the city nickname to "Mr. Bean Town" -- that would be so much more in-line with the city's current public image.

Current Mood: Not Amused
Current Music: Cool the Engines

Bear with me a moment, I'm going to try and explain a computer science problem by analogy.

Lessons from Lego

What I didn't have were kits that make a castle, or kits that make a helicopter. Those kits reduced the complexity and increased the "realism" by creating specialized parts. But just how many ways can you use a catapult shaped part? Are those helicopter shaped pieces going to be useful when you want to build a race car? Probably not.

Heck, there are even theme parks decorated/built with Lego blocks. If you look at the pictures of the parks, you may notice that they're mostly built with the simple blocks, with only a few specialized pieces added for flourish. You know, I did that same thing when I was building with Lego - lots and lots of generic pieces to build the structure, and only a few decorative pieces on the edges. Hmm, that seems to be a pattern.

The lessons:

You get much more flexibility building with generic pieces than with specialized pieces.

When building something complex, you need the generic pieces far more often than you need the decorative pieces on the edges.

Conversely:

Specialized pieces look good, for their specialized purpose, but aren't generally useful for much else.

How do Legos relate to software?

Looking at recent operating system widgets and APIs, toolbox libraries, and even many web kits -- the over-specialized pieces are everywhere. From graphics APIs (like the line drawing example above), to programming languages, UI widgets, and on down to what should be simple operations ("sorry, no square or rectangle pieces, just chrome plated fenders with flashing lasers on top"). And this isn't coming from just one vendor or one group: it looks like a full-on trend. Somewhere along the way, I think the concept of abstraction got way out of hand. (But it will take a whole essay to explain software abstraction to non-developers, so I'll save that for later.)

Judging by their marketing materials and developer training, many vendors think that these uber-widgets are great, and even tout them as their competitive advantage. A few want to go so far as to take away access to the simpler building blocks. (You know: the ones you need most often) But have they really tried to build a professional application with all those over-specialized pieces? (Remember that race car built from helicopter parts?)

Sure, those uber-widgets make it easy to build good-looking demos really quickly, if your vendor wrote the widget needed for that demo. And if someone is making a proof-of-concept application (thesis-ware), then the uber-widgets might be what they need. They don't have to worry about localization, or compatibility, or stability -- they need something that works just well enough to demo on their platform in their language. But "works just well enough" isn't going to cut it for professional software development.

When developers write professional software applications, they have to think about things like making them:

• work the same on multiple platforms
• work well in many languages
• work the same across multiple OS versions (including versions that haven't shipped yet)
• never, ever lose the user's data (crashing or corrupting data)
• work well within the constraints of the customer's system
• maintainable for a very long time (you don't want to rewrite something that already works well)

• have their own behaviors, which can't easily be matched across platforms
• change behavior across OS versions or library releases
• may or may not work correctly in different languages
• have serious bugs, which may change across OS versions or library releases
• include more code or use more memory than necessary for the task
• get removed or replaced with new OS versions or library releases

• the more time they spend trying to make behaviors match
• the more often they have to update their code to deal with changes in widget behavior
• the more time they spend working around language (localization) problems
• the more time they spend chasing bugs in things outside their control
• the more they have to fight to keep things working well on a reasonably equipped system (or give in and bump up the minimum requirements)
• the more often they have to rewrite functionality, or at least rewrite interface/glue layers, because the widgets they use have been removed or replaced

Imagine if you built a helicopter from a Lego kit, then someone swapped all your helicopter pieces for submarine pieces. Or if they just took away all the helicopter pieces and left you with nothing. To build the structure that you wanted, you would have to rethink your design, find new parts, and possibly start over - or just give up and find something else to do.

Sure, that sounds extreme, and maybe unlikely for Lego, but I've been watching it happen more and more often in the software industry. Every time developers use an uber-widget, it becomes another chain that vendors can yank - making the developers spend time and resources to update their own software to meet someone else's goals. Using smaller, simpler widgets means that developers spend less time chasing vendor changes - because the connections aren't as complex, and most of the behavior is in the developer's code instead of the vendor's. And personally, I like setting my own direction for my application (helping customers) - not having that direction set for me by a third party that doesn't care about my application or my customers.

Even when the widgets remain available and unchanged, complex OS supplied widgets are still likely to have bugs that can only be fixed by the OS vendor. Bugs in more complex OS widgets always seem to be more difficult to work around, and frequently more complex to diagnose. In my experience, bugs in simpler OS widgets can usually be worked around, or patched around, far more easily. And customers really don't like to hear that they have to wait for the next major OS release that may, or may not, fix their bug.

Building with smaller widgets and simpler APIs, the developer controls more of the code and can control the size of the generated code, the performance of the code, and the memory footprint. If the developer doesn't want or need the chrome (or the flashing lasers on top), then they don't have to pay for it or use it. With uber-widgets, the developer has to accept the existing code size, performance, and memory footprint - even when they don't meet the developer's goals. Using an uber-widget means you pay for all the features, all the time. And because the code for the uber-widget is in someone else's control: what might have met the goals today might not meet those goals in the next widget release.

In Summary:
When writing professional applications, it is usually better for developers to avoid uber-widgets and write their own functionality based on simpler vendor widgets. This is so that the developer has control over the behaviors, can fix the bugs, can add just the features they need, can tune the performance to meet their needs, and isn't nearly so dependent on vendor code. For these reasons, professional software development needs more of the lower level, simpler widgets and APIs, not so many uber-widgets.

P.S. I also find it amusing that many of the people making decisions for developers are people who have never written a professional application. If you are going to tell other people how to build a better car, you really need more experience than a Lego car kit (Ages 7-12).

Current Music: The Wall

Here's a message I got from a web site today:




Why is it stupid?
Not because it doesn't tell you anything useful (like: what was required, and what is the "correction procedure").
Not because it is repetitive and redundant.
Not because someone thought that an unknown code number would be helpful in any way (I guess they had a -108 or -212).
Not because the popup window gets in the way of doing anything about the error or omission.

No, it's stupid because it advertises the lack of forethought and testing that went into that web site. Comedian Bill Engvall used to have a routine about "stupid people should carry signs" -- well, this is a sign displayed by the web designers. (didn't even have to hand them one, they made their own!) The rest of the web site may look very professional and polished, but when something like this appears - my estimation of the designers' capabilities drops like a rock.

Most software error messages really are trying to tell the user something useful (even if many users won't read the message in front of them, or if they have to look up the terms in the manual they never opened). But messages like this... well, it looks like they didn't even try.

I also have to wonder: how much tech support time and money is wasted because a software or web site developer didn't spend the few extra minutes to provide helpful messages?

Current Mood: blah
Current Music: 90125

I've been trying to keep up with modern physics and astrophysics.
But the more I read, the more confused I get -- and not because of the subject matter.

Let me start with some things that I think most people would agree on:

Religion: a group of people with common beliefs, who think they have the answer(s) to some issue.
Cult: a religion that rejects the possibility that any other religion could be correct.

Scientists are supposed to keep an open mind.
Scientists are supposed to consider alternative hypotheses.
Scientists are always supposed to consider the possibility that their hypothesis could be wrong.

Ok, that's fine.

Then I read about how our observations of the universe don't match our current understanding of the physical laws of our universe, and out comes the Dark Matter discussion.

The (very vocal) Dark Matter supporters appear to be rejecting any other hypotheses, rejecting that their own hypothesis could be wrong, and demonizing anyone who speaks up with an alternate hypothesis. Yeah, Dark Matter has turned into a cult. And they seem to be a very large cult within the astrophysics community.

No, I don't have an alternate hypothesis. All I can honestly say is that our understanding of the universe is incomplete.

But the Dark Matter supporters should have lost their credibility when they stopped acting like scientists.



(Yes, I simplified this a lot. No, most people are not going to get it.)

Why is it that when I post pictures, nobody has any comments?

Current Mood: curious

Today I went out to Calero Resevoir, to the stables and trails on the back side of the park. It was a bit warm, and all the high weeds are now turning into VERY dry tinder -- which the wild turkeys have stomped down nicely, and the horses have eaten all that they can reach. I saw a pair of golden eagles (also could have been immature bald eagles) circling back in the hills, but they were too far away to get a good picture. I still took several shots to identify them when I get a chance.

Just a little ways up the trail from the parking lot and horse pens is a small pond that is used by the local animals. The pond has fish in it, and I frequently see herons or egrets in there fishing. Today the pond was a bit low, but there were a lot of dragonflies circling the pond and every few minutes you'd hear the slap of a fish jumping up to catch some of the bugs. I spent a while watching the dragonflies, trying to figure out if there was a pattern to where or when they land. Sure enough, there is. They fly for only a minute or two between landings, and they prefer to land in the same spot each time. Over a period of twenty minutes, one accomidating dragonfly would land for a few seconds, take off again, circle or chase other dragonflies, and come back to the same spot on the same piece of grass about every 2 minutes. And by standing pretty still, he didn't mind me getting relatively close to his landing spot.



As usual for Calero, ground squirrels were everywhere. I don't see how the horses don't get hurt on all the tunnels in their pastures. Now, ground squirrels are sorta like prarie dogs -- they like to live in groups, and they usually have a few of them out on watch. When something threatening appears, the watch squirrels will bark out a warning, and all the foraging squirrels run back to the tunnels as quick as they can. But most of the ground squirrel's bark is in the ultrasonic (too high pitched for humans to hear). What you do hear is a sort of chirp and echos. It's really not the sort of sound you'd expect from a squirrel. The watchmen will get on top of rocks, fence posts and tree limbs, or just stand up so they can see farther. This little guy was apparently on watch, and kept a close eye on me as I walked past.



I followed a group of wild turkeys over to the creek, but never got a good picture of them. But on the opposite side of the creek were 2 deer eating away quite happily. They kept an eye on me from time to time, but didn't really seem to mind my presence that much.



While I was watching the deer, a blurred shape flew by. It then slowed down and dove on something near the creek edge. A hawk had just scored lunch! Sadly, the hawk is much faster than my camera's focusing motors. So all I have are several blurry pictures where you can just identify the hawk and see that he is carrying something. Darn.

Not long after that, I saw a perigrine falcon hovering above the hill across the creek. Too far away for a good picture, but I got some decent identification shots. The falcon flew off toward a large tree on the hill, and I was surprised by what I saw in the tree. A great egret was sitting low in the tree (sorta normal), but at the top of the tree was something I couldn't identify. It had the shape and size of a hawk, and had some gray on it's wings - but it was almost completely white. And it wasn't a kite (the bird, not the toy). I took some pictures to try and identify it later. And when I got home, I found that the bird's eyes were solid red. This could be an albino hawk. But I need to spend some more time with bird identification books and see if it's an immature form, or a known alternate color for a bird. Whatever it is, it looked weird.

I continued down the creek to the levee at the end of the resevoir. I normally find some egrets or herons fishing there. Not today - it was occupied by a lot of geese and a few ducks. But I did find another dragonfly, and again he returned to the same spot repeatedly.



As I was heading back to the parking lot, I saw a turkey vulture drop a dead squirrel on the road after being scared by a passing car. The vulture circuled a few times, but didn't seem to like me or something else near his dropped meal. I backed off and waited, but he didn't return. After a few minutes, a crow and a bluejay decided that the squirrel carcas was fair game and moved in on it. I'll spare you the pictures.

My cousin Jenifer was in town for a few days and we went up to the Palo Alto Baylands to photograph some of the local wildlife. Unfortunately, we found out that the visitor center has cut back their hours and is closed completely on Mondays. We hiked around a little, and found some of the local swallows sitting still for a change (normally they're moving too quickly to photograph). A few of them were cooperative enough that we could get within a few feet and get a pretty good portrait of them.



While Jenifer took a break at the local facilities, I found a grackle occupying a water fountain. She seemed to be exploring it as if saying "I know there should be water here, but where is it?".



The local ground squirrels were busy (as usual), and a few posed for us. One even approached us and seemed very interested in the motion of our hands. It looks like someone has been feeding the ground squirrels (darnit). The ground squirrels also appear to be undermining the sidewalk near the pier used by a lot of local windsurfers. And we saw a few rats going in and out of the squirrel tunnels as well. A little later one of the squirrels saw us and tried to hide behind a large dry stalk of grass, and actually appeared to be biting his nails while waiting for us to leave.



Back toward the parking lot and bridge, we saw a Cooper's hawk flying around the island just across the slough from us. Unfortuantely, he wasn't close enough for a good picture. But he put on quite a show as he tried again and again to get some animals on the ground. Several times we saw him circle, dive, hover and stretch out his legs - but he never actually caught what he was after. After about 15 minutes he gave up and perched for a while, but still too far away for a good picture.

Further down the slough we saw some white pelicans come in and join some cormorants and other pelicans for a rest. Again, they weren't close enough to get a good picture, but they were interesting to watch.

The duck pond was more of a "geese and seagull pond" on this day, but there were some ducks and some young ducks still hanging around their parents. Quite a few snowy egrets were still in the trees inside the bird sanctuary.



I was very surprised to see a few young egrets there (normally they're gone by summer, so someone started nesting just a bit late...). This one posed for a few minutes and then squawked a few times (egrets are very noisy when nesting), confirming my suspicion that they're actually muppets. ;-)



Out in the slough behind the bird sanctuary there were a bunch of avocets, mostly sleeping. It was high tide, so there weren't too many bugs or much mud for them to forage in. It is interesting to see how they organize themselves into rows as they rest/sleep.



Near the picnic area we found butterflies and colorful bushes. Some of the butterflies appeared to like these particular bushes, and would keep coming back to the same bush even after a few minutes flight around the picnic area. This butterfly gave us lots of opportunities for photos, from a variety of angles.



This whole time I've been keeping an eye on Jenifer and making sure she's ok and not getting sunburnt -- but I fail to keep an eye on my own uncovered arms... So, of course, I notice a few minutes too late that I've achieved a color that should only be worn by a cooked lobster. Fortunately, by that point Jenifer was tired of walking and ready to call it a day. So we headed back to my house to sort out our pictures and let me cover my arms with aloe vera lotion.

These last few photo-less weeks have been brought to you by: yardwork, allergies, housework, allergies, travel, allergies, the flu, allergies, Comic-Con San Diego, power outages, and have I mentioned how bad allergies have been this year?

Current Mood: sneezy

The past few weekends haven't been too exciting: bad weather, bad allergies, bad yard work, etc. This weekend the weather was pretty good, and I got out for some hiking and photography.

When I moved into my new house last year, I noticed a large bird nest HIGH up in a tree nearby. I hadn't seen anyone in the nest until recently, but now there's a family of hawks (red-tailed, I think). This weekend I decided to take a closer look (with the camera, of course), and found 3 young hawks in the nest. After watching for an hour, it became clear that the kids were almost, but not quite ready to fly. The parents perched on nearby trees and called to the kids, but the kids really didn't want to move. They would hop about the nest and use their wings for balance, or glide on the breeze just barely above the nest -- but they didn't want to go outside of the nest. One of them finally tried to move out onto a branch supporting the nest, while his siblings watched. Then he turned around as if to say "Ok, now what? How do I get down again?" Shortly after that they settled down for a nap and I decided to move on (well, that and I was starting to regret the lack of sunblock).

Yes, L - they were awkward hawks.





I drove up to Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Alviso, hoping to find more baby birds and night herons fishing (after applying plenty of sunblock and putting on a wide brimmed hat). I didn't find any night herons fishing (just flying by), and parents moved the babies out of the way long before I got close, but I did find some snowy egrets, great egrets, great blue herons, mallard ducks, ruddy ducks, terns, grebes, cormorants, stilts, avocets, seagulls, and a whole lotta geese. The avocets were pretty aggressive - anyone walking out on the boardwalk at the visitor center would get a close flyby and squawk from the avocets to say "we don't want you here". And the boardwalk is at least 20 yards from the avocet nests! The stilts weren't as aggressive, but were noisy as usual. Unfortunately the egrets and blue herons were skittish (even though nowhere near their nests) - and they'd take off before I could get close enough for a decent picture. But I got some good shots of the birds in flight, and I got in a pretty good hike on the levees while looking for other wildlife.





Closer to the visitor center, I found that you couldn't walk more than 10 feet without disturbing a rabbit. There were at least 2 varieties: long eared jackrabbits (long, thin tail), and short eared rabbits (short, white fluffy tail). One of the jackrabbits was huge - somewhere between the size of a large cat and a small dog. And it seemed used to having people being around - it froze when it saw me, and it was nervous, but it didn't bolt immediately, sat there while I took a bunch of pictures, and didn't even mind me using a flash. (side note: rabbit eyes have a really funny "red eye" color: showing a gradient with violet at the top, to red orange, to yellow.)





On the other side of the visitor center, I heard a hummingbird call (very high pitched squeaks and chirps) and found one sitting on a bush near the parking lot. He had a full pink/magenta bib, and didn't mind posing for me for a few minutes (then he took off to deal with some intruders into his territory). I've included one picture with him looking at the camera so you can see the full colored bib (and the observant will notice that his beak is slightly open and his tongue showing). The second shot has him looking a little off to the side so you can see the fine feathers and less glare. The pictures are larger than life size: this bird is just a little smaller than my thumb.




I also checked in on the burrowing owls near the visitor center, and one was out above the nest - but still too far out for a good picture. The owl I previously found by the side of the road was there again, and he posed for me in several different locations. He didn't mind me getting too close (25 feet) but the combination of myself, other birds, and traffic usually spooked him within a few minutes. Even when I was well out of his flight distance he'd spook for large trucks, turkey vultures, doves, or a gust of wind. And some of his landing spots weren't where I could get a picture, so I'd wait a few minutes for him to move again. He also gave me a bunch of silly poses with winks, glares, and posing on the top of a road sign (with a big white arrow pointing right at him).

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: The Who - Who Are You

I just want to say: "Waterproof Sunblock" is misnamed on both counts.

I went out to the Palo Alto Baylands today. The egrets are finally there and building nests -- a bit later than the past 3 years. Many of the night heron babies are already flying, although a few were still in the nest. I thought there were fewer egrets this year until I took a look further around the bird sanctuary. They're just more spread out than in years past: they've occupied just about every available tree. And the night herons are similarly spreading out. A few snowy egrets and cattle egrets also moved out further and nested in trees with the herons.

The Ring Necked Pheasants weren't out today - but I heard a few of the males crowing (sounds almost exactly like rusty brakes). They're probably nesting at this point - hopefully that means chicks and more photo opportunities in the near future. Also, I found one of the (well fed) gopher snakes in the field across from the visitor center - but it was hiding from some blackbirds who objected to its presence near their nests.

A bird watcher told me about some baby American Avocets. I found 2 adults watching over 3 little brown cotton balls with legs. The babies were wandering over one of the shallower marsh pools, picking up insects. The kids didn't seem to mind my presence, but the adults didn't want to get too close. The adults will react to seagulls or black neck stilts getting too close - they take off and use their long beak as a weapon! I really wanted a family shot, but the insects moved away from the adult birds, and the kids wandered over to where the insects were. With some persistence, I did manage a few pictures of the kids with one adult or the other.



Also, the kids got pretty close to me (I kept telling the parents to call them back, but they didn't listen) - so I got some good closeup shots of the baby birds.

Current Mood: accomplished

I spent most of my day at Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Alviso. It was the "South Bay Bird Fest" aka "Migratory Bird Day", and I volunteered to help.

I got there a bit early and helped setup, then started with face painting for kids (egrets, owls, mallards, or swallows - and some kids came back for a second bird picture). This was next to a sun spotting setup where you could look at sunspots (ok, today there was only one major spot visible, but it was still cool). They also had a spotting scope pointed at some burrowing owls out on the marsh. While the owls are normally nocturnal, when they have young in the nest they sit outside their burrow during the day and keep an eye out for predators. And periodically one flies off to bring back food (snakes, mice, etc.). Imagine 2 adorable balls of fluff about 8 inches high, with razor sharp talons, a nice strong beak and bright yellow eyes. Yeah, they're cute.

Later they moved me to the "color a bird guide" room where the kids were using crayons to color pictures of some of the local birds and put them together into a bird identification booklet. While the kids are coloring, an instructor teaches them a little bit about each of the birds - some of the kids really got into it, and a few just weren't into anything but the crayons. I'm not sure how many magenta and green swallows there are in the world - but now at least one little girl will be able to identify them when she sees them. After completing the booklet, the children are supposed to spot the birds in it and get GOLD STARS for each one they found. Fortunately, all 6 birds in the book were visible on the guided hike today. A couple of times we had a full room with parents, kids and helpers -- the attendance looked pretty good.

After that I was rotated to a migratory bird board game outside. It was interesting, and some of the kids liked it. But it took a while to play and many of the children lost interest. Also, the cards for the game were written in rhymes, and even some of the adults had trouble reading them. Then there was the wind. Did I mention that the refuge is on the edge of the San Francisco Bay? When the sun comes out, the cooler air over the bay starts rushing out into the warming valley. You can always count on a good breeze next to the bay. I was constantly chasing game pieces, game cards, and the fuzzy dice for the game. The booth next to me had a display attached to a sheet of plywood, and it almost blew over onto a few people. We had to add 2 sandbags to it's stand to hold it down, and it still got jostled around a bit. Eventually the wind became too much and I couldn't hold on to all the game pieces, so we folded up the game early. The other displays seemed to be going well -- especially the live animals: a kestrel, a hawk (Coopers? I didn't get to see it up close), and a gopher snake. There was also a live owl show inside, but I didn't get to attend it (darn!).

So I grabbed some lunch around 2, ran a few errands for folks, and eventually ended up doing face painting again until closing time. Of course I stayed to help clean up and get things put away.

Now I go get the camera ;-). The burrowing owls on the marsh were out around their burrow, but a bit far from the walkways for a great picture. But that didn't stop me from trying. The usual avocets and stilts were around, but not being photogenic today. A few cormorants were also out, but they took off when a seagull started making a racket. Then I found a couple of night herons. They were sitting by the edge of the water in front of a lot of kelp and other surface plants. I wondered why (I've only seen them hunt in clear water), until I saw a heron scoop up a 6 inch fish. It seems that the weeds make it hard for the fish to see the heron, but the heron can still spot the fish. Ok. One of the herons thoughtfully set himself down about 20 feet from the walkway. He was a little uneasy about me being there, but I moved closer to him slowly and he didn't spook. Then I found a comfortable position and waited. After only a few minutes, he struck at the water and came up with a fish... and a whole mouthful of weeds. "Great! I've got a fish! Now, how do I get rid of these weeds?" He spent a few minutes trying to shake off the weeds, and eventually flew off with the fish and half the weeds still in his beak. I can just imagine what his mate and children thought: "Thanks for dinner Dad - but what's with the salad?" I tried some other composition shots of the remaining herons, and played a bit with using a fill flash. Then it was time for the refuge center to close their gates and I had to go move my car.

I only drove a little bit outside of the refuge and parked, grabbed my camera gear and walked back towards the refuge. In the marshes along the road were several water birds I hadn't seen before. A bird watcher was there in his car, and he looked the birds up in a book. I can't recall the exact species, but apparently they were just passing through on their way home for the summer and they are normally sea birds - so this was a lucky sighting. They weren't too frightened by me, so I got some good frame filling pictures of them as they swam by. I walked around the entrance area a bit more, and found some Canada geese with babies (both of which are common here this time of year). Along the railroad tracks near the entrance I got a few interesting shots of avocets and stilts against colorful backgrounds (green, yellow, brown, and reflections in the water).

On the way home I saw a burrowing owl sitting by the side of the road next to the highway interchange. This bird was fearless -- I had to stop and see if he would pose for a portrait. Well, maybe he's not completely fearless. He would let me get within about 30 feet, then he'd fly off a little ways. But I got some interesting shots of him sitting on a chain link fence with various wildflowers and bushes in the background, and more shots of him on a utility pole, and a few more of him sitting on the ground, and I now know where he lives - so I can come back for more. By that time the sun was setting, the light was getting too dim for good picture taking, my stomach was grumbling, my feet were tired, and my arms were tired from holding the camera --so I packed everything up and headed for home.


BTW - no matter how carefully you apply sunblock, the sun reflecting off water WILL find some spot(s) that you missed and give you a surprise sunburn.

Current Mood: happy and tired