A Gang of Goldfinch

It was a busy week so I am a little slow in posting some pictures taken last weekend.

My husband was staring out the kitchen window when he saw a huge bird feather fall from the sky. When he went outside to see if the bird was visible, all he found was an 8” long feather from either a red shouldered hawk or a marsh hawk. We have a few of each that hang around the yard quite a bit.

When he looked up towards a dead tree that is off to one side of the yard, he noticed six male goldfinch perched high up in the tree, dead still, as if they knew the hawk was still in the area and didn’t want to become its lunch. But, at this time of year the male goldfinch are colored a very bright yellow, so they are hard to hide. Lucky for me that they stuck around for a few minutes in that tree so I could grab a few pictures.

6 Golfinch
(The one round spot on one of the branches was another tiny bird which later hovered over us like a hummingbird.)

Male goldfinch

One male goldfinch on the attack

A downy woodpecker also decided to hang out after the goldfinches left

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Severe Thunderstorm August 20, 2009 (Video)

I mentioned yesterday that we had two strong thunderstorms move through on August 20th . Here is the video of the second storm, as I promised.

The second storm was much stronger and lasted about 20 minutes. The direction of the wind and rain seemed to change several times, and there was plenty of lightning and thunder.

In order to get the video down to size for YouTube, I accelerated the video speed. The sound, however, is normal, to allow everyone to enjoy the sound of the rain and thunder.







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Thunderstorms Bring Ominous Clouds

We had two thunderstorms move through yesterday, the first bringing some dramatic clouds with the rain, the second very tumultuous with very heavy rain and winds. We lost a huge branch from our apple tree that was loaded with apples. I think the weight of the branch was too much for it to withstand the heavy winds.

As the first storm moved through, some very ominous, swirling clouds appeared. In one case, rain falling high in the sky was very evident as some breaks in the clouds appeared. I included many photos from the first storm below. I took video from the second storm, which brought lightning, thunder, and lots of swirling wind and rain. Stay tuned, that should follow in a few days.

But as the first storm moved through and the sky cleared, I noticed that one of the pictures had a very tiny black dot in it. Magnifying the image many times, I saw another black dot behind it in the same field of view. I am not quite sure what they are. Could it be two birds that got caught up in the tail of the storm? Since these objects were very high up in the sky, if they were birds, they had to be very big to show up in the image. I included those pictures below in case anyone has any other ideas as to what they could be. Did my camera catch my second “UFO” in less than a week - or just big birds or weird storm debris?

The storm moves in

Rain falling high in the sky

More Clouds

View of sky as "black objects" appear

Close up of black objects. Birds flying through the tail of storm, or something else?

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Venus, The Moon, Earthshine…UFO?

Considering the frequency that I point my camera to the sky, I’m bound to get something in the picture that doesn’t seem to belong. This morning I was out photographing Venus and the moon (along with some “earthshine” on the moon). The sky was crystal clear which made for some nice shots. But when I opened the files to look at the photos, one of them appeared to have a smudge on it. I zoomed in to see what got in the way, and, well, I am not quite sure what it is. My best guess is that it was a high flying bird that flew into the camera’s field of view, but it’s just more fun to call it a UFO.

The Moon, with Venus to the upper right

The Moon and "Earthshine"

The "UFO" - probably a bird

A little close up

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Pop Up Thunderstorms Bring Crepuscular Rays

It’s been hot here the last few days – in the 90s – and on Sunday, we had two very localized thunderstorms with heavy rain pop up and move through the area. Between storms, I stepped outside to see the clouds bubbling up, and caught a few pictures of crepuscular rays as the sun shone between them.








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Trying to Catch the Perseids

Stars - and a red glow

I got up before 3:00 AM to try to catch a few photographs of the Perseid meteor shower. While I did see two meteors streak across the sky, my camera was not so lucky. It managed to get a flare of one as it streaked through the camera’s field of view just a second before the shutter closed. The only evidence are two tiny green streaky blobs in one of the pictures.

I did manage to snap a few pictures with some stars and Jupiter, along with a few high clouds that happened to drift into the photos. One of the photos picked up a reddish glow in the area when the sun rises. Since the photo was taken at 3:15 AM, it is likely some advance light from the sun was reflecting on the high clouds as they moved in. (There are actually quite a few stars in these photos but they are hard to see in these smaller pictures.)

The meteor trail are the 2 small dots in the upper right of the photograph, just to the left of the shadow of the tree. It looked much better in person, trust me.

The picture below was taken at 3:05 AM, some stars are visible, but the length of exposure makes the photograph look like it is past dawn.

That small bright dot just left of center is Jupiter, which is still hanging around in the southern sky. This photo was taken at 2:55 AM.

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Identified Flying Objects

Unlike the infamous “Unidentified Flying Objects,” I saw a few flying objects that were easily identifiable, right in my own backyard. While I was outside with the camera this afternoon, a friendly black-capped chickadee decided to pose for a few pictures. Some larger flying objects also came into view; one was a prop airplane, and another a high-flying jet with contrails. Unlike the chickadee, they couldn’t stop to pose, but I snapped their picture anyway.












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The Moon, Jupiter, and Its Moons (Photos)

Today’s early morning sky was crystal clear and the setting moon was full. Just to the left of the moon was a bright object that was likely a planet. I got out my camera to take a few photographs before I researched which planet I was seeing.

Imagine my surprise when I viewed the photos on my computer to find that the planet- Jupiter – was also surrounded by a few of its moons. Granted, the shot shows a slight “trail” from the movement cause by the earth’s rotation and my long camera exposure, but it is still amazing to see the moons so clearly despite the brightness of the full moon.

I got another surprise when I looked at a photo of a random grouping of stars to the west and saw a faint streak in the image of the sky. I think I captured a meteor!

The Moon, with Jupiter at upper left

Jupiter and its Moons

Faint meteor at bottom left

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