Obstructions

Ryan Cousineau

In article <e214e3t718ko1ppkvrabu1gof48t2nlh46@4ax.com>,
carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

> On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

> A magpie was probably what tried to cut the head off this poor devil,
> posing next to an 18-inch ruler:
>
> http://i3.tinypic.com/5yb74fq.jpg
>
> It was a full-grown two-foot smooth green snake, somewhat rare in
> Colorado. I saw it lying in the gutter close enough to home that I
> went back and picked it up while walking my dog.

Being the kind of nerd I am, I was even more interested in exploring the
rich data contained in the background of that photo:

-Carl likes Vivaldi a lot
-Carl is googling smooth green snakes
-Carl has a notepad from the "Army Reserve Health Care Team"
-Carl uses Internet Explorer, and it looks like version 6 still.
-Carl keeps the phone number for his local sheriff by his computer.

> In my neighborhood, uneaten snakes with neck wounds like this are
> usually the work of the magpies that are slowly returning after West
> Nile virus wiped them out a few years ago. Mapgies are charming birds
> in many ways, but they kill any snake near their nests,

I was in Greece recently, and the most common reptile, by far, were some
sort of lizard that ranged in size from about 5 cm to 25 cm, tip to
tail, but often missing the tail.

--
Ryan Cousineau rcousine@sfu.ca http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Sat, 08 Sep 2007 05:10:41 GMT, Ryan Cousineau <rcousine@sfu.ca>
wrote:

>In article <e214e3t718ko1ppkvrabu1gof48t2nlh46@4ax.com>,
> carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>
>> A magpie was probably what tried to cut the head off this poor devil,
>> posing next to an 18-inch ruler:
>>
>> http://i3.tinypic.com/5yb74fq.jpg
>>
>> It was a full-grown two-foot smooth green snake, somewhat rare in
>> Colorado. I saw it lying in the gutter close enough to home that I
>> went back and picked it up while walking my dog.
>
>Being the kind of nerd I am, I was even more interested in exploring the
>rich data contained in the background of that photo:
>
>-Carl likes Vivaldi a lot
>-Carl is googling smooth green snakes
>-Carl has a notepad from the "Army Reserve Health Care Team"
>-Carl uses Internet Explorer, and it looks like version 6 still.
>-Carl keeps the phone number for his local sheriff by his computer.
>
>> In my neighborhood, uneaten snakes with neck wounds like this are
>> usually the work of the magpies that are slowly returning after West
>> Nile virus wiped them out a few years ago. Mapgies are charming birds
>> in many ways, but they kill any snake near their nests,
>
>I was in Greece recently, and the most common reptile, by far, were some
>sort of lizard that ranged in size from about 5 cm to 25 cm, tip to
>tail, but often missing the tail.

Dear Ryan,

Dashiell Hammett recalled a somewhat similar case in his memoirs of
his years as a Pinkerton's detective:

"21. The chief of police of a Southern city once gave me a description
of a man, complete even to the mole on his neck, but neglected to
mention that he had only one arm."

http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/hammett2.html

Your list might begin with this:

--Carl stretches dead snakes out on his desk

And things can change . . .

http://i3.tinypic.com/5yb74fq.jpg

http://i4.tinypic.com/6g041fm.jpg

Brelew on the left, beaver on the right, other differences left as an
exercise to the reader.

As for the more interesting question of Greek lizards, a size range
and missing tail is not exactly a description brimming with detail,
but . . .

Best guess, Agama stellio, the starred Agama, common in daytime in
Greece, right size, and coloring unremarkable enough to have deserved
no comment.

Here's a fair range of pictures, with some truncated tails:

http://www.club100.net/species/L_stellio/L_stellio.html

Really fast agamas wear numbers in the Tour de Rhodes:

http://www.biol.lu.se/zooekologi/jon/herpbild/hb36.htm

Other suspects tend to be nocturnal or more colorful.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Ryan Cousineau

In article <qag4e3dkkn7s5b14k6fotjq680mpn1ijr9@4ax.com>,
carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

> On Sat, 08 Sep 2007 05:10:41 GMT, Ryan Cousineau <rcousine@sfu.ca>
> wrote:
>
> >In article <e214e3t718ko1ppkvrabu1gof48t2nlh46@4ax.com>,
> > carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
> >
> >> On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
> >
> >> A magpie was probably what tried to cut the head off this poor devil,
> >> posing next to an 18-inch ruler:
> >>
> >> http://i3.tinypic.com/5yb74fq.jpg
> >>
> >> It was a full-grown two-foot smooth green snake, somewhat rare in
> >> Colorado. I saw it lying in the gutter close enough to home that I
> >> went back and picked it up while walking my dog.
> >
> >Being the kind of nerd I am, I was even more interested in exploring the
> >rich data contained in the background of that photo:
> >
> >-Carl likes Vivaldi a lot
> >-Carl is googling smooth green snakes
> >-Carl has a notepad from the "Army Reserve Health Care Team"
> >-Carl uses Internet Explorer, and it looks like version 6 still.
> >-Carl keeps the phone number for his local sheriff by his computer.
> >
> >> In my neighborhood, uneaten snakes with neck wounds like this are
> >> usually the work of the magpies that are slowly returning after West
> >> Nile virus wiped them out a few years ago. Mapgies are charming birds
> >> in many ways, but they kill any snake near their nests,
> >
> >I was in Greece recently, and the most common reptile, by far, were some
> >sort of lizard that ranged in size from about 5 cm to 25 cm, tip to
> >tail, but often missing the tail.
>
> Dear Ryan,
>
> Dashiell Hammett recalled a somewhat similar case in his memoirs of
> his years as a Pinkerton's detective:
>
> "21. The chief of police of a Southern city once gave me a description
> of a man, complete even to the mole on his neck, but neglected to
> mention that he had only one arm."
>
> http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/hammett2.html
>
> Your list might begin with this:
>
> --Carl stretches dead snakes out on his desk
>
> And things can change . . .
>
> http://i3.tinypic.com/5yb74fq.jpg
>
> http://i4.tinypic.com/6g041fm.jpg

I like what you've done with the place! As a person with a French name,
I admire your taste in the cuisine of my homeland.

> As for the more interesting question of Greek lizards, a size range
> and missing tail is not exactly a description brimming with detail,
> but . . .
>
> Best guess, Agama stellio, the starred Agama, common in daytime in
> Greece, right size, and coloring unremarkable enough to have deserved
> no comment.

Could be. I have a fair number of photos, but they're not up yet.

> Here's a fair range of pictures, with some truncated tails:
>
> http://www.club100.net/species/L_stellio/L_stellio.html

Those ones look rather pudgy, but close. I'll check my pictures (on the
other computer...).

> Really fast agamas wear numbers in the Tour de Rhodes:
>
> http://www.biol.lu.se/zooekologi/jon/herpbild/hb36.htm
>
> Other suspects tend to be nocturnal or more colorful.

These were very active in daytime and routinely startled as we came
close. It sometimes seemed you couldn't walk 30m without scaring the
living daylights out of a lizard.

--
Ryan Cousineau rcousine@sfu.ca http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 04:29:34 GMT, Ryan Cousineau <rcousine@sfu.ca>
wrote:

>In article <qag4e3dkkn7s5b14k6fotjq680mpn1ijr9@4ax.com>,
> carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

[snip]

>> As for the more interesting question of Greek lizards, a size range
>> and missing tail is not exactly a description brimming with detail,
>> but . . .
>>
>> Best guess, Agama stellio, the starred Agama, common in daytime in
>> Greece, right size, and coloring unremarkable enough to have deserved
>> no comment.
>
>Could be. I have a fair number of photos, but they're not up yet.
>
>> Here's a fair range of pictures, with some truncated tails:
>>
>> http://www.club100.net/species/L_stellio/L_stellio.html
>
>Those ones look rather pudgy, but close. I'll check my pictures (on the
>other computer...).
>
>> Really fast agamas wear numbers in the Tour de Rhodes:
>>
>> http://www.biol.lu.se/zooekologi/jon/herpbild/hb36.htm
>>
>> Other suspects tend to be nocturnal or more colorful.
>
>These were very active in daytime and routinely startled as we came
>close. It sometimes seemed you couldn't walk 30m without scaring the
>living daylights out of a lizard.

Dear Ryan,

The pudginess may be an artifact of technology.

Female agamas often protest that the camera adds ten grams.

Desperate ones will even shed their tails to lose weight.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

[snip]

So at mid-Spetember I noticed a great blue heron standing just inside
the chain link fence at the fish hatchery pond, half-way up the long
grade along the front of the dam at the Pueblo reservoir.

I stopped, fumbled out my camera, turned, and swore because the huge
bird had silently vanished, without even a flapping sound. Apparently,
he didn't like me watching over his shoulder while he decided which
trout hatchlings to eat for dinner.

I spotted him standing in the water at the far end of the hatchery
pond, so I walked across the road, stuck my camera's snout through the
chain link fence, and took a picture of him at the far shore:

http://i19.tinypic.com/4oqfs6s.jpg

Then I pedalled off to collect my 34th flat tire of the year.

When I looked at the picture full-size on the screen, it turned out
that the great blue heron had flown off to the other end of the pond
because he had a dinner date waiting for him there, just to his left
in the tall grass.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

[snip]

I nearly ran over this nitwit, who was squatting on a lonely asphalt
bicycle path in 88F weather, probably wondering where the water was
(half a mile away) and why there was no cool vegetation (too much
cactus).

I caught him with my Nashbar-approved toad-handling gloves, popped him
in a plastic bag with a sliding tab left partly open, took him home,
and released him in a silly Toad-in-the-Hole pottery that my elder
sister swears works:

http://i9.tinypic.com/4zldao3.jpg

http://i1.tinypic.com/4uk7507.jpg

I suspect that the toad logo and label on the pottery is for the
benefit of the owner.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Ryan Cousineau

In article <r0s8f3pme71hua57v68fbb8sdn8kh4jva1@4ax.com>,
carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

> On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> I nearly ran over this nitwit, who was squatting on a lonely asphalt
> bicycle path in 88F weather, probably wondering where the water was
> (half a mile away) and why there was no cool vegetation (too much
> cactus).
>
> I caught him with my Nashbar-approved toad-handling gloves, popped him
> in a plastic bag with a sliding tab left partly open, took him home,
> and released him in a silly Toad-in-the-Hole pottery that my elder
> sister swears works:
>
> http://i9.tinypic.com/4zldao3.jpg
>
> http://i1.tinypic.com/4uk7507.jpg
>
> I suspect that the toad logo and label on the pottery is for the
> benefit of the owner.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel

Your nitwit animal companion seems mighty unimpressed by his new adobe
hut.

Mine tries to bite the hand that feeds it, stupid terrier...

--
Ryan Cousineau rcousine@sfu.ca http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Hobbes@spnb&s.com

On Sat, 22 Sep 2007 04:22:53 GMT, Ryan Cousineau <rcousine@sfu.ca> wrote:

>In article <r0s8f3pme71hua57v68fbb8sdn8kh4jva1@4ax.com>,
> carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> I nearly ran over this nitwit, who was squatting on a lonely asphalt
>> bicycle path in 88F weather, probably wondering where the water was
>> (half a mile away) and why there was no cool vegetation (too much
>> cactus).
>>
>> I caught him with my Nashbar-approved toad-handling gloves, popped him
>> in a plastic bag with a sliding tab left partly open, took him home,
>> and released him in a silly Toad-in-the-Hole pottery that my elder
>> sister swears works:
>>
>> http://i9.tinypic.com/4zldao3.jpg
>>
>> http://i1.tinypic.com/4uk7507.jpg
>>
>> I suspect that the toad logo and label on the pottery is for the
>> benefit of the owner.

No, it's for the toads, they read backward.

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

[snip]

Plump and placid, a typical 18-inch obstruction, poses for a portrait:

http://i21.tinypic.com/2hoia6p.jpg

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

[snip]

I thought that I recognized this shell as I went by, but I thought
that it was empty.

When I went back, the obstruction turned out to be live, so I picked
it up, brought it home, and took its picture:

http://i21.tinypic.com/al6qac.jpg

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

[snip]

Yesterday I had to pump my front tire up 20 psi, but I leapt to no
conclusions because a Slime tube often seals goathead punctures.

When I went out to the garage to see if the front tire had leaked
overnight, this obstruction was on a window screen:

http://i23.tinypic.com/2qc0y1w.jpg

A plastic jar served to remove the obstruction, increasing air-flow
through the window screen:

http://i21.tinypic.com/23ib3x5.jpg

The detail in the picture is ridiculous.

I placed the obstruction on some sunny lace vines on the back fence,
but even an auto-everything camera has trouble with that much sun:

http://i20.tinypic.com/2hnyz4p.jpg

I took a few pictures like this of the obstruction posing on my hand:

http://i22.tinypic.com/28h06ti.jpg

Each picture turned out to be just as badly out of focus, though they
all showed the alley quite nicely. It's hard for aging eyes to see the
cursed little LCD screen in bright sunlight.

So I went back to the lace vines, where the obstruction was waiting
upside down:

http://i24.tinypic.com/2dj4w3.jpg

And took three in-focus pictures of it on my hand:

http://i20.tinypic.com/aubapx.jpg

http://i21.tinypic.com/muwh05.jpg

http://i21.tinypic.com/15hy8wh.jpg

It's probably a descendant of the Chinese praying mantises whose egg
cases I bought years ago and put in the garden to eat other bugs. I
sometimes see their hardened foam egg cases, which look like brown
styrofoam packing peanuts.

These pictures show even better than usual just how incredibly good
even low-end digital cameras are, able to show details as fine as
fingerprints on an outstretched hand and the tiny dot, antenna, and
leg spikes of 3-inch insect, even when wielded one-handed by a
squinting PHD-camera incompetent.

"PHD" means "Point here, dummy!" as a newspaper article explained to
me this morning.

I suspect that a lot of RBT posters are as old or older than I am and
are just as doubtful as I was that they can take pictures clear enough
to show details, but the modern cameras really are just point and
shoot. Borrow one from a friend, take a few pictures of a bike part,
and see how easy it is.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Kerry Montgomery

<carlfogel@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1g00g31nfp5f48fautj8auhu9pnvp0egrb@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> Yesterday I had to pump my front tire up 20 psi, but I leapt to no
> conclusions because a Slime tube often seals goathead punctures.
>
> When I went out to the garage to see if the front tire had leaked
> overnight, this obstruction was on a window screen:
>
> http://i23.tinypic.com/2qc0y1w.jpg
>
> A plastic jar served to remove the obstruction, increasing air-flow
> through the window screen:
>
> http://i21.tinypic.com/23ib3x5.jpg
>
> The detail in the picture is ridiculous.
>
> I placed the obstruction on some sunny lace vines on the back fence,
> but even an auto-everything camera has trouble with that much sun:
>
> http://i20.tinypic.com/2hnyz4p.jpg
>
> I took a few pictures like this of the obstruction posing on my hand:
>
> http://i22.tinypic.com/28h06ti.jpg
>
> Each picture turned out to be just as badly out of focus, though they
> all showed the alley quite nicely. It's hard for aging eyes to see the
> cursed little LCD screen in bright sunlight.
>
> So I went back to the lace vines, where the obstruction was waiting
> upside down:
>
> http://i24.tinypic.com/2dj4w3.jpg
>
> And took three in-focus pictures of it on my hand:
>
> http://i20.tinypic.com/aubapx.jpg
>
> http://i21.tinypic.com/muwh05.jpg
>
> http://i21.tinypic.com/15hy8wh.jpg
>
> It's probably a descendant of the Chinese praying mantises whose egg
> cases I bought years ago and put in the garden to eat other bugs. I
> sometimes see their hardened foam egg cases, which look like brown
> styrofoam packing peanuts.
>
> These pictures show even better than usual just how incredibly good
> even low-end digital cameras are, able to show details as fine as
> fingerprints on an outstretched hand and the tiny dot, antenna, and
> leg spikes of 3-inch insect, even when wielded one-handed by a
> squinting PHD-camera incompetent.
>
> "PHD" means "Point here, dummy!" as a newspaper article explained to
> me this morning.
>
> I suspect that a lot of RBT posters are as old or older than I am and
> are just as doubtful as I was that they can take pictures clear enough
> to show details, but the modern cameras really are just point and
> shoot. Borrow one from a friend, take a few pictures of a bike part,
> and see how easy it is.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel

Carl,
And for those as old or older than you and I, the modern cameras that still
have optical viewfinders are much nicer than those that rely on the LCD. I
tried a couple without optical viewfinders, and it seemed troublesome to put
on reading glasses to see what was on the LCD when I could see the actual
object with no trouble.
Kerry

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Sun, 30 Sep 2007 13:43:06 -0700, "Kerry Montgomery"
<kamontgo@teleport.com> wrote:

>
><carlfogel@comcast.net> wrote in message
>news:1g00g31nfp5f48fautj8auhu9pnvp0egrb@4ax.com...
>> On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> Yesterday I had to pump my front tire up 20 psi, but I leapt to no
>> conclusions because a Slime tube often seals goathead punctures.
>>
>> When I went out to the garage to see if the front tire had leaked
>> overnight, this obstruction was on a window screen:
>>
>> http://i23.tinypic.com/2qc0y1w.jpg
>>
>> A plastic jar served to remove the obstruction, increasing air-flow
>> through the window screen:
>>
>> http://i21.tinypic.com/23ib3x5.jpg
>>
>> The detail in the picture is ridiculous.
>>
>> I placed the obstruction on some sunny lace vines on the back fence,
>> but even an auto-everything camera has trouble with that much sun:
>>
>> http://i20.tinypic.com/2hnyz4p.jpg
>>
>> I took a few pictures like this of the obstruction posing on my hand:
>>
>> http://i22.tinypic.com/28h06ti.jpg
>>
>> Each picture turned out to be just as badly out of focus, though they
>> all showed the alley quite nicely. It's hard for aging eyes to see the
>> cursed little LCD screen in bright sunlight.
>>
>> So I went back to the lace vines, where the obstruction was waiting
>> upside down:
>>
>> http://i24.tinypic.com/2dj4w3.jpg
>>
>> And took three in-focus pictures of it on my hand:
>>
>> http://i20.tinypic.com/aubapx.jpg
>>
>> http://i21.tinypic.com/muwh05.jpg
>>
>> http://i21.tinypic.com/15hy8wh.jpg
>>
>> It's probably a descendant of the Chinese praying mantises whose egg
>> cases I bought years ago and put in the garden to eat other bugs. I
>> sometimes see their hardened foam egg cases, which look like brown
>> styrofoam packing peanuts.
>>
>> These pictures show even better than usual just how incredibly good
>> even low-end digital cameras are, able to show details as fine as
>> fingerprints on an outstretched hand and the tiny dot, antenna, and
>> leg spikes of 3-inch insect, even when wielded one-handed by a
>> squinting PHD-camera incompetent.
>>
>> "PHD" means "Point here, dummy!" as a newspaper article explained to
>> me this morning.
>>
>> I suspect that a lot of RBT posters are as old or older than I am and
>> are just as doubtful as I was that they can take pictures clear enough
>> to show details, but the modern cameras really are just point and
>> shoot. Borrow one from a friend, take a few pictures of a bike part,
>> and see how easy it is.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Carl Fogel
>
>Carl,
>And for those as old or older than you and I, the modern cameras that still
>have optical viewfinders are much nicer than those that rely on the LCD. I
>tried a couple without optical viewfinders, and it seemed troublesome to put
>on reading glasses to see what was on the LCD when I could see the actual
>object with no trouble.
>Kerry

Dear Kerry,

Mine has a nice optical viewfinder above the LCD screen--I use hte
optical sight for most pictures.

But it's the LCD that puts up the little green rectangle around
whatever the camera plans to focus on. My optical sight has only a
green and red LED nearby to tell me if it plans to flash and slow the
exposure for bad light (which usually means a fuzzy picture).

Up close, the optical sight tends to cut the heads off tiny subjects,
since it's mounted above the actualy lens.

Embarrassingly, I didn't use the optical sight for quite a while.

When I first got the camera, I used the LCD screen for close-ups of
very small bike parts, which meant putting the camera on a mount and
peering over the tops of my glasses at the LCD to overcome presbyopia.

Later, I tried taking normal pictures of ordinary scenes the same way
and found the optical sight was uselessly blurry, so I ignored it.

Luckily, my sister visited and asked why I was struggling with the LCD
screen against the sunlight to take a picture of a dog outdoors--why
not just look through the little optical sight?

Because it doesn't work, I explained. It's a useless blur.

Maybe, she suggested politely, it would help if you used your glasses.

D'oh!

(I've mentioned that I'm camera-incompetent.)

Looking through my glasses made the optical sight work fine. It
focusses differently than binoculars and requires me to use my
glasses.

So now I peer over the tops of my glasses at the LCD screen when I
need to see where the camera is focussing and to get close-ups
properly framed, instead of cutting off their heads.

But mostly I just look through my glasses and the optical sight to
take pictures of things over 4 feet away.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:48:12 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

>On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>I thought that I recognized this shell as I went by, but I thought
>that it was empty.
>
>When I went back, the obstruction turned out to be live, so I picked
>it up, brought it home, and took its picture:
>
>http://i21.tinypic.com/al6qac.jpg
>
>Cheers,
>
>Carl Fogel

Friday, this red-tailed obstruction posed on the sign next to the road
that prevents terrorists from destroying the Pueblo Dam:

http://i21.tinypic.com/mmdabo.jpg

http://i21.tinypic.com/6zr5l3.jpg

http://i24.tinypic.com/2dhbi1w.jpg

http://i21.tinypic.com/350mgds.jpg

The two rectangles on the horizo are phone or power boxes on top of
the dam, whose position changed as I crept closer.

Saturday, I rode up the same road below the dam and saw two
red-tailed obstructions. One flew away, but the other stayed up in
the rabbit brush on the dam to finish its lunch.

I stopped a bit further up the road, trudged up the face of the dam,
and spotted greediguts through the grass, its head pointing downhill:

http://i24.tinypic.com/biuno1.jpg

Look at that exquisite detail! (Things get better below.)

Annoyingly, the heavy traffic--three cars!--shows up much better. (The
truck and SUV at the turnoff had stopped to stare at the bicyclist
climbing the face of the dam.)

I shuffled closer, camouflaged by a bright yellow shirt and helmet,
and took more pictures from below, but the grass needs mowing. The
obstruction also needed better table manners--the blurring in the last
picture is due more to its head bobbing as it rips strips off its
dinner than to any failing of the automatic camera:

http://i21.tinypic.com/24xgfx2.jpg

http://i23.tinypic.com/24vln2s.jpg

http://i21.tinypic.com/10wv6du.jpg

http://i23.tinypic.com/20pc31v.jpg

Eventually, lunch was hauled a few feet uphill with some awkward
hopping and flapping to a more private spot.

This shows why they're called redtails:

http://i21.tinypic.com/wl4n46.jpg

But this is the main dish, not a red front:

http://i24.tinypic.com/2h4kvhe.jpg

If the waiter can't see my head, I'm invisible:

http://i21.tinypic.com/2clro9.jpg

The obstruction finally decided that take-out was better than being
stared at and flew off with its meal:

http://i20.tinypic.com/2wrncat.jpg

http://i20.tinypic.com/27yvnd1.jpg

Cheers,

Carl Fogel