Friday ~ May 02, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 2, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Swans

Happy Friday  ~  322

You may remember that yesterday I was telling you about the territorial dispute at the duck pond, which occurred on Tuesday of this week.  I was very disappointed that I missed some great shots of the dispute and the aftermath of the skirmish.    So I was still feeling bad that I missed that opportunity.  Then when I drove past the duck pond yesterday morning I saw there were four swans in the water and as I got even with them the resident pair took off in a confrontation with the new comers and I just about had a wreck watching the aerial skirmish in my rear view mirror. Damn another photo opportunity missed.

I had a lunch meeting yesterday so I couldn’t go by the pond until on my way home last evening.  I didn’t give much hope for any images because it was drizzling rain and there were dark gray clouds hanging over the land.  As I approached the pond it looked like there were the ubiquitous geese and coots everywhere but no swans.  I thought I might as well head North and try again tomorrow.

Geese and their eggs

But instead of heading North I decided to take a few minutes extra, so I crossed the highway and saw the swans were in the middle of the marsh land on the West side of the highway.  I did a bat turn and pulled off onto the shoulder trying to sneak up on the swans.  What I didn’t realize was that during the time I was making the u-turn and watching out for traffic they took off and flew back over the highway to the duck pond.   So when I couldn’t find them I made another u-turn and headed North to home.  Then I saw them in the water at the duck pond, so yet another u-turn (it’s not easy being me) and back to the original island where the first skirmish took place on Tuesday.

Swans do their thing

You can see from these images that the swans once again asserted themselves over the geese and tore up the  nest of the geese again in favor of their own design.

It is easy to assign human traits to the geese and swans but I was reading a piece on eagles this morning and it talked about how we humans like to interpret wildlife behavior through our frame of reference and project human inclinations and behavior on their actions.  But as in the case of the eagle it is simply all about hormonal secretions at various stages of life’s cycle that cause body changes and behavioral changes such as the nesting instinct and mating instinct.  Later when the young have grown and can fend for themselves the warm family bond that we admire is no longer present because of changes in the hormonal secretions.

I got to thinking that this may be why the mother goose makes no effort to retrieve her eggs that are in plain sight and why instead she just returned to an empty nest as if nothing had happened.  If you look at like that, then it kind of makes sense.  Anyway it is hard for me to look favorably on the swans now and to accept (as my Friend Ann says, let nature take its course) that those eggs will never hatch.  In reality the swans are just being swans.

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy your Friday.  Thanks as always for stopping by and thanks Denise for your kind words.  Be careful.

Thursday ~ May 01, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 1, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Windmill

Happy Thursday!  ~  323

I have a story for you today that has nothing to do with the above image.  Well it sort of does but it will be hard to connect the dots without an explanation.

Tuesday I had lunch with my good friend Steve at one of the local restaurants in Maquoketa.  We still had 15 minutes left on our lunch break so I took the long way back and went past the duck pond.  If you’ve followed this blog for any period of time you know there are several mounds surrounded by water at the duck pond to protect the eggs and young wildlife from  predictors.

On one of the mounds a pair of Canadian Geese have built a nest and the female goose has sat on the nest for a several days.   When we went by the pond the two (much larger) swans were busily building a nest very close to the goose nest and in fact they had stolen material from that nest to build their own.  Two eggs were strewn about the area and the two geese were standing off to the side looking at the swans in bewilderment.

This was an image I had to capture so I headed back to the office to grab my camera.  I got detained with a couple of issues that I had to take care of first and by the time I got back to the pond it was about 30 minutes later.  The swans were gone, the geese had put some of their nest back together and the female was back on the nest.  The problem was the  eggs were still laying on the ground and not in the nest.

Yesterday on my lunch break I went by the pond hoping to find some images, I saw the lone female goose was again on the nest and I couldn’t see any eggs.    It was cold (38 degrees), cloudy, and there wasn’t anything going on at the duck pond so I grabbed a sandwich and went to a place that I have seen a lot of smaller bird activity, called Horseshoe Pond.

I had positioned my car so I had a good shooting angle at the pond and could capture some of the area where there was a lot of bird activity.  After a few minutes a beautiful male cardinal and then shortly there after a female cardinal showed up and were pecking at the ground.  They were getting close to my camera when another vehicle pulled up and a guy with two overweight terriers got out.

Of course the two dogs tore out after the cardinals and when they flew away they came over to my car and started yapping at me.  And that is the reason why I’m showing you the windmill.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ April 30, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 30, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Angie

Happy Wednesday  ~  324

Twenty-nine years ago at 3:09 p.m. our lives changed dramatically for the better and Angie has been a pure delight for every one of those years.

Yes I went into the delivery room with my camera.  A Pentax ME-1 camera with a motor drive  and the instant Angie was born is preserved on film, much to her dismay.   🙂

I, like many simple-minded men, wanted a Son for my first born and when the doctor first held Angie up I thought I had one and then he said, “It’s a beautiful baby girl!”  Three seconds of mild disappointment and then he put her into my arms.  Oh My God!  I looked in those beautiful eyes and my heart was bonded with hers for ever.

It was two days before I relinquished changing her diapers, holding her, and looking over her.  The only time I would trust Jeanne with her was when she got to feed her.  🙂

Jeanne and I are truly blessed with two wonderful children and both have been gifts from God.

Today I (we) celebrate that wonderful day when the doctor said, “It’s a beautiful girl.”

Happy Birthday Angie!♥

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your wet, cold, soggy day and be careful.

 

Tuesday ~ April 29, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 29, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Geese on a mound

Happy Tuesday!  ~  325

On my way home last evening I drove by the Duck Pond as I almost always do and saw these two geese sitting on top of what looks to me like a muskrat’s mound.  I noticed this small mound a couple of weeks ago but paid it no attention, just thinking the water was low there.  But when I drove by and saw this pair on top of it I pulled over and walked back as close as I could to grab a few images.  It was then I noticed all the little twigs and sticks put together to form this mound.

I am woefully ignorant of many wildlife tendencies and not good at all with identification most of the time, so I could very well be wrong on this speculation that this is a muskrat’s mound.  Fortunately my Friend Ann who works at the Interpretive Center reads this blog and can clarify for me.

The Phantom fleet continues to be grounded because of the weather and looks like it might be another week before I can fly and test out my modified range extender on the Phantom Vision 2.

I’ve been corresponding with a gentleman from Great Britain, who also enjoys flying the Phantom.  I started reading his blog, watching his videos, and asking him questions and now we’ve developed a regular correspondence.   It’s amazing when you stop and think about it.  When I was growing up it was mind-boggling that you get music (AM only where I lived) out of a little box that would fit in the palm of your hand called a transistor radio.  A “Solid State” transistor radio no less.  🙂

I’m headed down memory lane and neither of us has time for that today.  So I’ll leave it there.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your soggy, cloudy, cool day and be careful.

Monday ~ April 28, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 28, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Mississippi River

Happy Monday  ~  326

I have always maintained that all weekends are good.  Some are better than others.  This weekend was on the low-end of the scale for me from a photography standpoint.

Friday I was not feeling well so I decided to take a PTO day and deal with my issues at home.  I won’t go into all the details but as I got to feeling better later in the day I decided to tackle a couple of projects that I had been putting off.   One of those projects was a toilet that wouldn’t shut off properly.  Three trips to the hardware store, a banged up and bloody forehead and four hours later the damn toilet now shuts off properly.  🙂

Next up was to install a range extender antenna on my #2 Phantom.  When I opened the part package they had sent me two male connectors instead of one male and one female.  Now someone of normal tendencies would have logically contacted the company and ask them to send a replacement part.  Waited another two weeks and then do a proper install.

But not me.  So I disassembled the range extender on #1 Phantom (to get an idea of how it looked) and then modified the one male connector so that it would accept the male connector.  It was way too windy to fly Friday but once everything was put back together I tested the controller and it would power up the Phantom, so I’ll have to wait (from the looks of the forecast) at least a week to give it a range test.  My guess is it won’t work and I’ll have to contact the company and ask them to send a replacement part.  🙂

Finally Friday I re-gripped my golf clubs.   When I used to build and work on golf clubs I could re-grip a set in under an hour.  Well, apparently that is another skill that has gone asunder because it was three hours of frustration and two destroyed grips before I was done.  Fortunately I anticipated issues so I ordered three extra grips.

Saturday was a very nice day weather wise.  Too windy to fly so I decided I would mow the yard and then go to Green Island to do a photo shoot.  Halfway through mowing the yard I decided that today was the day I tackle the large bush that has been trying to eat half of the house.  My intent (honestly) was just trim it back to a manageable size.

So with tools in hand and a determination of steel I started my duel with the bush.  9 hours later I had a pile of branches and limbs that towered 6 feet high and a stump that looked like it had plenty of fight left for round two.  But I could see the corner of my home again.  This is the same bush that tried to eat my Phantom this past winter.  By the end of the battle I knew I had been in a fight.  I was sore in places I didn’t even know I had.

Sunday started off windy, cold, gray, and rainy and got progressively worse as the day went on.  Finally around 3:30 p.m. the rain stopped and Jeanne and I went out looking for images.  Nothing (I mean nothing) to shoot at all our normal places so we headed up to Mud Lake to see if we could find the new Owlet.  My friend Andreas has shot some images of the young owl as it prepares to leave the nest.

We hung around for an hour watching and waiting but nothing happened.  This is the only image that I could find to shoot.  The river is very high and there was a strong current.  You can also see the white caps on the water.    I came home with only 6 images on my camera.  As we were driving out of the park and it was starting to rain again I shot 5 images of a Robin and he had his back to me.  🙂

Then to add insult to injury (as they say) I checked Andreas’ blog and he had captured a wonderful image of the young owl sitting on the edge of the nest looking like he was ready to test his independence.   From what I could tell I suspect Andreas got there after we had given up.  Nice job my friend.

With the forecast for rain most of the week I may have to dig out and dust off my micro lens and start looking for small things that don’t move.  It’s hard to get out of a rut when you’re deeply entrenched in one.  Jeanne pointed that out yesterday when I came out of the house with my long lens.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Sorry for the long babble.  Hope you enjoy your week.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Friday ~ April 25, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 25, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Cake & Ice Cream

OMGIF Friday!!  ~  329

Three years ago I lost 85 pounds.  I used as part of my self-discipline the mantra, “Nothing taste as good as thin feels.”  That mind-set and an average of 1 – 2 hours a day of exercise depending on, what time I got started after getting home from work, and the long bike rides on Saturday and Sunday plus being hungry all the time helped lose the weight.  During the last few days of the diet I also caught the dreaded Norovirus and that took an extra eight pounds off that I hadn’t counted on.  🙂

I now weigh with in a couple of pounds of what I weighed when I graduated High School.  Now before you say, way to go consider that if the little school I went to had a football team I could have been the entire front line.  Over the years I have lost conservatively over 500 pounds and put it all back on.  What’s my point?  I don’t have one other than to say that this cake and ice cream from last Friday night blew my mantra all to hell. 🙂

So at some point (probably this Summer) I’ll give it a go again and shed some pounds and as always the goal will be to keep it off.

April-18-2014-2B

Grandmas and Mommy probably won’t enjoy this image but I was ripping off a bunch of shots of Josh last Friday evening and asking him to show me different moods.  This is his “Mad” face.  Hard to convince someone you’re mad with red velvet cake crumbs all over your face.  Josh has such an expressive face I like to capture all of his looks.

April-18-2014-2C

Finally my littlest sweetheart.  I cleaned her face up a little (with Photoshop) but you can see from her dress that she attacked her food with a vengeance.  She has an appetite for about any type of food.

Well that’s it for today.  Not exactly a prize-winning blog from either the photography or pontification standpoint but maybe it will help bring a smile to your face.  That and the fact it’s Friday. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Wednesday ~ April 23, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 23, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

April-22-2014

Happy Hump Day!  ~  331

Abraham Maslow said, He that is good with a hammer tends to see every problem as a nail.  I believe when you apply that basic thought to human nature it can also mean that if you are comfortable with one line of thinking you tend to see only solutions that follow that line of thinking.  Or if I’m only looking for wildlife to shoot then that is all I tend to see and pass up other interesting objects, things, people, events, or whatever else there may be right in front of my lens.

April-22-2014-A

So last evening on the way home, although tempted from time to time, I only looked for things of interest or that might stand out as being unusual or in an unusual place.  Such was the case with this road grader.  Not only did the color of it catch my attention, (I’ve only seen them in yellow) but it was also where it was sitting.  I wasn’t expecting to see it there.

I spent about 30 minutes shooting this grader.  The light was not very good and yes I could have come back when the light was better but I had other things to do so it was then or not then.  🙂

April-22-2014-B

It was an enjoyable experience walking around this old grader and finding interesting things on it.  There was a nice broken glass pattern on one of the doors and I was very careful about my angle when I captured the image, but not careful enough because when I went to process the image there was my ugly mug in the reflection.  😦

Anyway as I was shooting away I wondered about the individual who use to drive this grader and looking at the levers it was easy to see they had been touched thousands of times while adjusting the blade.  It was a fun shoot for sure.

Late night tonight.  I have training all day and then to Cedar Rapids to celebrate the opening of our newly remodeled branch.  Hope to have some more images of non birds for you tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ April 22, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 22, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Gabby's Toy

Happy Tuesday!  ~  332

I’m in a RUT!  There is no question about it.  I was looking through my images on my hard drive, taken this year and 90% of them are of birds.  Mainly eagles, swans, pelicans, gulls, geese, and ducks with an occasional coot thrown in for good measure.  Not that there is anything wrong with capturing images of those wonderful birds, far from it.  It is just that I only seem to look for those kind of shots.  As I look back over previous years I see a wider variety of subjects that caught my interest.  So as I was preparing this post this morning it became abundantly clear to me that I need to broaden my vision and look for other interesting and worthy subjects.

Yesterday was an interesting day, at least the morning was.  Some senior business experts and I met with some of the Monks at the Monastery Southwest of Dubuque.  What a beautiful place and wonderful men.  I met Father Steve who has been with the Monastery since 1957.  He was half way through his Freshman year at college when he decided to join the Monastery and has been there ever since.  He is just a gentle and kind person.  I met another monk as well who has been there since 1972 but I cannot remember his name.  He also was very kind and gracious.

We were there at their request to offer business and HR advice for their Monastery and Casket Company.  I plan to return soon and photograph their beautiful chapel.  It is breathtaking and cried out to be captured.  I plan to do a number of HDR shots to hopefully capture the sheer beauty of the structure.  It was an amazing morning.

On the way home last night I stopped at the Duck Pond.  My friend Ann, had sent me an email earlier in the day and she indicated the swans looked like they were nest-building.  🙂

I couldn’t find them anywhere around the pond but there were lots of coots and geese,  I didn’t take any images because I would have been shooting into the sun, so I passed on any opportunities that might have been.  Last night after dinner I was sitting on the back “patio” with my camera looking for, yep you guessed it,  some birds.  That is when I started thinking I might just be in a rut.  I shot 30 images of a Robin.  I mean really, a Robin!

So today I am going to capture the image of something other than a bird.  Don’t know yet what that may be and if I can’t find anything to peak my interest then I may not have a blog tomorrow.

That’s enough babble for one day.  Thank you for stopping by.  Enjoy your day (it’s getting greener every day) and be careful.

 

Monday ~ April 21, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 21, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Joshua as the Easter Bunny

Happy Monday!  ~  333

I hope you had a wonderful Easter.  We certainly did.  We went to early church and then were guests of Angie and Ben for an Easter Brunch.  It was very nice.  The image of Joshua is the only one I took because I was so busy trying to see how much I could eat.  I just do not get along with buffets and can honestly admit I have no self-control when it comes to being presented with an abundance of food.

Pelicans Grooming

Before going to the Country Club for brunch I scooted down to the 16th Street Basin for a quick look at what was going on.  Found these guys sunning and grooming themselves.  Lucky I grabbed this shot when I did because when Jeanne and I went back late in the afternoon there were only a couple of Pelicans swimming in the middle of the basin.  Yes I was late getting to the brunch and yes I was in trouble.  But it was Easter so soon forgiven.  🙂

In Flight

Later in the day Jeanne and I went to our favorite spots to look for more wildlife.  Couldn’t find anything going on at the Basin or the River, so we decided to go up to Mud Lake Park and see if we could find something going on.   All we could find was this Common Grackle.  He was resting on this little bench and as soon as I started pressing the shutter he took off and I was able to catch him in mid leap.

I had never seen this area from the air and since we had the Phantom with us I flew it up pretty high had a look around.  There was an elderly couple that pulled in while I was flying and they watched the flight and the landing.  Then they came over and talked to us.  They were pretty interested in the Phantom and asked a lot of questions.  So I took it up again for a little demonstration and let each of them look through the flight goggles.  They were very nice and when they left the elderly gentleman said, “Boy will I have something to talk about at coffee in the morning.  They won’t believe it.”  🙂

I have a 6 minute video below.  It’s worth the look especially when you see what I end up chasing around.

That’s it for today.  I hope you enjoy your Monday.  Thank you as always for checking on my blog and be careful.

Sunday ~ April 20, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 20, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

New John Deere Tractor

Happy Easter Sunday!!  ~  334

Happy Easter indeed for today we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave!

A potpourri of images and ramblings for you today.  Friday morning they delivered my new tractor.  The guy asked me if I wanted any help with how things worked and I said no thank you.  I was just standing there taking it all in and looking at the various switches, knobs, and levers.  He came back from his truck to where I was standing and said, “Can I help you with anything?”  I told him I was fine and was just trying to take it all in.  I also told him I had the owner’s manual for help, which I read before ever turning the key.  🙂

For twenty-two years I have mowed the yard in the same pattern and especially the last 14 years I’ve had the other tractor.  Perhaps it wasn’t the safest way, but with my mass leaning on the opposing side I could mow on a pretty good incline sideways without fear of tipping over.  The old tractor had a lower center of gravity and a slightly wider wheelbase, which made it pretty stable.  This new tractor sits up higher and has a little narrower wheelbase so no more parallel mowing the side hills now.  I’ll have to figure that out.

Anyway Friday morning I power raked the yard and got all the winter’s crud and old leaves stirred up along with a lot of the dead thatch.  I’ll sweep that up today or tomorrow evening after work.  I spent the rest of Friday cleaning 1/4 of the garage.  It is going to be a long work-in-progress.  😦

Modified Phantom 2 Controller

Yesterday I decided to tackle the modification of my Phantom Vision 2 controller and WiFi transmitter.  I had watched a few videos on how others have done it and felt confident I could do it as well.  It was a complicated process and required taking the controller apart as well as the WiFi transmitter.  Drilling some holes and fitting new transmission wires but I finally got it done.

I put it all back together and turned it on.  It didn’t smoke and the lights all lit up the way they are supposed to.  So I powered up the Phantom and took it up for a short spin.  I only went up 295 feet just overhead of the house so I didn’t get any sense of the extended range.  I really just wanted to make sure the controller and WiFi was still communicating with the Phantom and they were.  Whew!

It was way too windy to fly and I had some trouble getting set up for a landing.  I wouldn’t call it a good landing, I wouldn’t even call it a bad landing, just a landing that I could walk away from and there were no damaged parts to the copter.  🙂

The modification, according to the maker of the extender kit and statements made by those who have done it before, say it is supposed to extend the range of the Phantom and the WiFi connection up to 1 mile.  We’ll see.

Fire Pit and a Glass of Wine

Finally yesterday evening I put together the fire pit that we bought a couple of weeks ago.  A nice glass of wine and the warmth of the fire made it very nice.  Jeanne and I enjoyed sitting outside just watching the flame.

That’s it for today.  Hope you have a wonderful Easter Day.  We are joining Angie, Ben and the kids for brunch after church this morning and then hopefully later in the day when the light is soft looking for something to capture with my camera.

Thanks for stopping by and be careful.