Canada Geese – A Lofty View

Many of the old Cottonwood and Poplar trees at the Cabin have been transformed into odd shapes – a result of the weakness of heavy old branches in big wind storms. In the spring, the Canada Geese in our area land on the ‘platforms’ that have formed in these trees. The geese carry on loud conversations, and compete for the attention of – the females, I suppose. I’ve only ever seen them do this in the spring.

These two trees are on our property. The wide angle capability of my new Canon PowerShot SX50 lets me take an all encompassing photo like this from a relatively close position. This past week-end six Canada Geese landed in the trees in our yard. Can you see two of them  in these trees?

Can you see them now that I’ve cropped the photo?

One tree branch was big enough for two geese. . .

Until one goose muscled the other off the branch.

This is a photo I took with the zoom lens of the SX50. It is hand held, and the photo has not been  cropped or enhanced. The original photo is a much higher resolution, of course.

Zooming in even closer, this photo has a focal length of 215 mm, which is the maximum for the lens. I could have zoomed in even closer, but then I would have been using a digital zoom, not an optical one (digital zoom is in-camera image processing; optical zoom is the image that the lens captures.)

To put this story into perspective,  six 6kg (15 pound) birds took up positions in my back yard and started to squabble over landing rights. It was truly a memorable morning!

That reminds me, a saltwater crocodile, a great white shark and a Canada Goose walk into a bar….
- Author Unknown -

Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary

Solitary – being alone; without others. As in, “I’m going out to the garden to do some weeding. Who wants to come out and help me?”

I only found one Monarch Butterfly in my garden this year, and it is the only Monarch I’ve ever seen in my part of the world. Here is my story of this solitary experience: Monarch Butterflies Arrive in Alberta.

Ideas don’t stay in some minds very long because they don’t like solitary confinement.
- Unknown -

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WordPress hosts the Weekly Photo Challenge. To see other blogger’s photos for this week, head over to Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary.

As the Crow Flies, so Goes the Pink Ball

If you think it’s hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.
- Jack Lemon -

They call it ‘One Tough Nine’. It is the Golf Course my friends and I play once a week when the weather allows. Three large ponds bring water into play on seven of the nine holes. (Water hazard is just another way of saying mosquitoes.) Large flocks of Canada Geese patrol the fairways and greens – leaving fertilizer calling cards. There is  ample habitat for gopher holes, which are always the right size to lose a golf ball in, and will sometimes grow big enough to take your foot or leg. Sixty eight sand bunkers (most clustered near the greens) provide ample beach time if you tire of trying to find your ball in the grass of the long rough.

Yesterday I discovered yet another hazard. I had an extra good drive off the 5th tee and could see my nice pink golf ball sitting on the top of a small rise at the top of a hill. I lost sight of the ball when I stepped down off the tee box. When I was about half way up the hill, a large crow flew overhead – something pink was clutched in her bill. “That looks like a golf ball,” I thought.

I got to the top of the hill and realized that my golf ball was gone. The crow flew by again, still clutching what was now clearly MY pink golf ball. She continued to circle over head for the rest of that hole, and most of the next one. At one point my friend saw her land, drop the ball, then pick it up again.

There is no penalty if you lose a golf ball to a predator, unless, of course, you keep score like we do. We don’t count our strokes, we just keep track of how many golf balls we lose. The thieving crow meant I was down one. But I had found a white ball earlier in the round, so technically I was even, though one white ball does not equal a coloured ball in my view.

I won’t go into the laws of probability, but I have to wonder – what were the chances that a crow would pick up a golf ball at that location on the golf course at that particular time? Did the colour of the ball affect the crow’s choice, or was the colour the only reason the crow picked up the ball at all? If I had shot another pink ball, would the crow have dropped my first ball and picked up the second one? (It was unfortunate that I had run out of pink balls or I could have found out the answer to that last question.)

When I got home I rummaged through a cupboard in the garage and found the box of pink golf balls that I had got for Christmas. I’m armed and ready for the hazards of the course next week!

My game went so bad today, that I lost two balls in the ball washer.
- Author unknown -

Addendum: I golfed again the following week. I was talking to the course marshal before our tee time.  “Watch out for the crow”, he said. “We had a tournament here a few days ago, and the players were using pink golf balls.  The crow stole at least 9 of them.”

I used my pink golf balls anyhow, but kept an eye out for crows before I teed off. I only lost 2 pink balls that day – none to the crow, though!

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Golfing at the Red House – similar game, different hazards: 144 Years Old and Going Strong!

A Responsive Theme

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
- Charles Darwin -

Mooch

This is Mooch. He is a very large cat (see story The Cat Compendium) that may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but he certainly was extremely responsive to change. It took him about a nanosecond to accept that he no longer lived at our house and had been adopted by the people next door.

But Mooch isn’t what this story is really about. This is about my blog, and your blog, and how everyone reads our blogs. Did you know that more and more people are using their phones or digital tablets to view our ever so entertaining stories? And did you know that a blog that looks just fine on a computer screen can be much more difficult to read on a tiny phone screen if the theme of the blog hasn’t been taught to be Responsive?

My blog uses a WordPress.com theme, and WordPress has recently introduced a number of themes that will morph into whatever shape works best for the machine that is being used to look at the blog. (You can see that your WordPress blog is already a shape shifter by looking at your WordPress Dashboard under Appearance.  ‘Mobile’ and ‘iPad’ are two of the options that set you on your way to being Responsive – if you turn them on!)

Which WordPress.com themes are fully Responsive? Hop over to the responsive width Theme filter to find one that appeals to you. For now, I am using a responsive theme called ‘Bouquet’, but I’ll be test driving a few others because, really, how often do you get to move to a new abode (where the food is better and you get to sleep on the bed) with the simple click of your mouse?