It’s the end of November and the Hibiscus we hacked back to a stump last fall has grown back and finally decided that it’s time to bloom…
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
I’m home today waiting on a plumber to come and fix a leaking pipe in the ceiling. Since I am home in the daylight I took the opportunity to break out the 300mm telephoto lens and see if I could catch the Sapsucker in action.
He’s losing his fear of me and tends to just go to the other side of the tree trunk as I circle him. I backed off and was able to squeeze off a few shots.
Look how his markings blend with the tree!
And in this next picture notice how the red on his head mimics the redness of the holes he’s pecked in the tree trunk…
Lyre Bird
I consider my bird Dooley to be a master mimic. He can imitate most noises he’s heard including cell phones, pagers, car alarms, the microwave and so on. He pales in comparison to this guy….
Thanks to Bill Shirley for the heads up…
Xmas 2007
Thanksgiving weekend, the traditional time in our home for putting up the tree and setting up the decorations.
Birdage
This guy’s been hanging around the front yard, diggin’ at our pear tree. Judging by the uniform rows of “sap” holes in the trunk of the tree and the muted markings on the bird I am fairly certain it’s a female Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker which winter here in Texas between October and March.
Stop Making Fun Of Us
Geek Grattitude
Barrett, one of my co-hosts on Technology Bytes and writer of the Geekspeak Blog at the Houston Chronicle came up with this Thanksgiving thought for last night Barrett Time segment…
I was originally going to come up with a list of the top ten techy things that I am thankful for this year, but with the DMCA, my broken oh key and the makings of another exploding battery, I thought I’d go back and borrow from what other people in technology had been thankful for over the years.
In 1899, Charles H. Duell, Commissioner of the U.S. Office of Patents, was thankful that everything that could be invented already had.
In 1927, H.M. Warner of Warner Brothers was thankful that his audiences would never want to hear actors talk.
In 1943, Thomas Watson, the then chairman of IBM, was thankful that there was a world market for maybe five computers.
In 1949, popular mechanics was thankful that computers may one day weigh no more than 1.5 tons.
In 1957, the Prentice Hall editor in charge of business books was thankful that this data processing fad wouldn’t last the year.
In 1981, Bill Gates was thankful that he’d never need more than 640k of memory.
In 1995, Wall Street was thankful for all those new dotcom companies.
In 1999, Nigeria was thankful that Al Gore invented the Internet.
In 2003, SCO’s Darl McBride was thankful that there would be a “day of reckoning” for Red Hat and SuSE.
And today, you might be thankful that that’s it for BarretTime.
La Torre Del Oro
On our last night in Madrid (Oct. 24th) we hung out at La Torre Del Oro, a very interesting tapas bar in the Plaza Mayor dedicated to bull fighting.
Neither Cynthia nor myself are fans of this sport and we had no intention of witnessing a bull fight, but this little place was fascinating. Mounted on the wall were the heads of some notable bulls from previous fights as well as photo after photo of various toreadors.
And in the corner was a small television set showing previously recorded bull fights. It was like a bull fighting sports bar!
The bartender and Cynthia had a very animated discussion (in Spanish) wherein the rules and nuances of the sport were explained and discussed. I must confess, it was compelling to watch as the drama played out on the small TV. It was especially odd when they would show a slow motion replay of some particularly noteworthy cape swooshing.
I picked up bits and pieces of what was being said and I recall at one point, as the time was drawing near when the toreador would actually strike the killing blow, the matter of taking an ear as a trophy came up. That was when Cynthia looked at the mounted heads in the room and exclaimed “THEY HAVE NO EARS!”
I enjoyed a few beers while this was going on, all the while just looking around and snapping a few pics like this one of a shrine/alter I can only presume was intended to keep the bull fighters safe from harm.
All in all, a very fun evening.
[tags] Spain, Madrid, Bull Fighting, Tapas [/tags]