Category Archives: Wildlife & Outdoors

Everything Wildlife & The Outdoors

2019 Purple Martin Season

By | | Wildlife & Outdoors
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We added a new rack for the 2019 season. We currently have 70 pair, with a 72 pair capacity. Almost full capacity. About half of the babies have already fledged, so there is quite a racket out in the yard, specially just before they come pack and land for the night, roosting in the gourds.

They will be all gone in another month and a half, headed back to Brazil, where they spend the winter, and will be back in February next year. Most of these pair will return to our colony, even to the same gourd sometimes.

 

2018 Purple Martin Season is here

By | | Wildlife & Outdoors
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The martins are trickling in from the far south (Brazil) these days, and our colony is filling up. We had 42 cavities (gourds) last year, and we had 39 martin pair nesting and fledging babies.

For this year we added a rack, so we now have a total of 70 cavities. It’s hard to count, but my estimate is about 60 pair so far. So we’ll see if everything fills up.

For more information about Purple Martins, this is a link to the Purple Martin Conservation Association.

 

Total Solar Eclipse 8/21/17

By | | Photography, Wildlife & Outdoors
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Good Day yesterday. Lois and I had the opportunity to witness and photograph the Total Solar Eclipse on 8/21/17. We drove south until we
were within a few miles of the center of Totality for the eclipse.

All the gear loaded up. Lois and me drove down to Summerton, SC, close to the center of the Totality line for the eclipse. Not too busy. We tried I95 first. Nope!! Stuffed with 3 mph cars. Turned around and went 15 all the way down with moderate traffic.

Started shooting at about 1:30pm, when the moon had just started to eclipse the sun. The whole session took about 3 hours.

This shot is a composite of several shots spaced apart about 15 or so minutes. The top shot is what is called “The Diamond Ring”, where the sun is just coming out of totality on the opposite side. The time limit to get this captured is about 3-4 seconds, so pay attention, and have the camera on a good tripod ready to go.

I wouldn’t miss this experience for anything. Totally amazing.

Sun’s Corona is bleeding off the edges of the moon. A few places on the right side the solar prominence is visible in pink / red.

“Diamond Ring” effect. The eclipse is just going out of totality, and the sun is peeking out on right side. This phenomenon is visible only a few seconds before the sun overpowers the camera sensor.