@alameth@sfba.social
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

alameth

@alameth@sfba.social

Dad, husband, computer geek, photographer, genealogist. #BackyardBirds, #BloomScrolling, #Walking, #Trains, #SilentSunday, #StairsSunday, and #Gardening. Pictures are my own. He/Him. Proud member of the Woke Mob.

Avatar: white male in brimmed hat. Banner: man in a hoody taking a picture of a city bridge.

Please understand, my toots are public and hashtagged but I only accept followers I know in real life.

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Catlynn, to random
@Catlynn@nerdculture.de avatar

I have a weird fascination with HOA’s, they seem like such a weird thing to me. I have never lived anywhere where there is an HOA and never would but I enjoy hearing stories about them. Are you guys pro or anti HOA’s? Or no opinion? Any good stories?

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@jake4480 @Catlynn I do not live under an HOA myself, but that is the main complaint from every one of my friends who do: Obsession about the trivial (what color window blinds), indifference to the important (air conditioning units that are dangerously not up to code).

Catlynn, to random
@Catlynn@nerdculture.de avatar

Little Crow looks fetching after a nice bath. I’m trying not to be upset with my crow friends but they have been up to some dastardly deeds 😒 not sure if Little Crow was involved or just the parent crows.

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@Catlynn I'm afraid to ask, but what qualifies as “dastardly” among your crows? Mine will rip up plants, menace the gray squirrels, and occasionally break a feeder from their sheer mass, but they seem to co-exist nicely with the songbirds. The other day, I noticed that the songbirds took the presence of crows in the yard as an “all clear” after a hawk had been patrolling the yard.

At the other extreme, the scrub jays will threaten anything that comes into my back yard, and I witnessed one murder a chickadee. 😭

Catlynn, to random
@Catlynn@nerdculture.de avatar

What the actual heck? 🧐🫣 I thought I was hallucinating. I kept seeing something out of the corner of my eye

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@dbc3 @Catlynn Yep, pocket gopher. Not dangerous, but incredibly destructive unfortunately. My garden plots are lined with hardware cloth to keep them out. They can also undermine the foundation of the house; something to be mindful of.

That's a terrific photo, BTW. I don't think I've ever seen one for more than a half second.

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@Catlynn @dbc3 There's a lot of advice online about setting up barriers, planting plants they don't like, natural chemical repellents, flooding their tunnels with water, and ultrasound repellents. Unfortunately none of those worked for us because they'd taken over four (at least) residential yards. We and our neighbors ended up having them professionally trapped.

alameth, to Birds
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

Hello old friend! So glad to see you back!

(Actually, this is a fledgling, and although chattery as ever still very skittish. The first year I got serious about watching my birds, I panicked when all the chickadees vanished in March and April. Then I realized they were busy making more chickadees.)

Catlynn, to random
@Catlynn@nerdculture.de avatar

Whoa, who are you? The house finch looks as surprised as I was! What a beauty!!

The grosbeak is on top of the feeder looking down on two house finches eating from it, one finch seems to look up in surprise at this unusual visitor

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@Catlynn That looks like a Black-headed Grosbeak to me, which is a variety of Cardinal. The birding websites claim we have them here in NorCal, too, but he's nothing like anything I've seen before. Nice shot! (Usually when I try to get a picture of their back, I just get a picture of their butt. 🤦‍♂️ )

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

The macro lens has forced me to rethink pretty much everything about photography. Which at my age is a Good Thing. I will learn patience, even if it takes me forever.

Today's lesson: what qualifies as “ideal” shooting conditions. I didn't even notice there was a breeze until I set up the camera. And no, the boxes didn't help much. It was tempting to look for a cardboard tube and stand that up around the flower. (Canon 70D, Tamron 105mm macro with a 31mm extension, ⅟400 f/7.1. And literally everything was moving.)

A camera mounted on a tripod and pointing straight down, surrounded by boxes and a wooden shelf in an attempt to block the wind.
A rather out-of-focus picture of a bright yellow flower. The flower was about 1cm across.
A rather out-of-focus picture of a bright yellow flower. The flower was about 1cm across.

Catlynn, to nature
@Catlynn@nerdculture.de avatar

Gracefully maneuvering through the garden bed. Much harder to catch him amongst all the salvia stalks but it’s a lot of fun trying. I love looking through hummingbird photos because you never know what you captured. Or didn’t! 😆

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@Catlynn I love your pictures of the Allen's; I never see those here, only the Anna's. I've seen Allen's in the botanical gardens in Oakland, so I know they're here; but in the garden they were very aloof and difficult to photograph.

Catlynn, to random
@Catlynn@nerdculture.de avatar

Now he’s doing some wall walking like no big deal 🤗

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@Catlynn I just love the way they enjoy climbing things, almost as if they forgot they can fly.

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@Catlynn I'll keep an eye out for that! Even my scrub jays, who normally make a dramatic entrance every time, hide silently in the scrubiest trees when the hawks are around. Nothing scares a bully like a bigger bully, I guess; and I've never seen the woodpeckers bullying the other birds.

(I named the scrub jays “Jack and Jill” after the “Puss In Boots” couple.)

Catlynn, to random
@Catlynn@nerdculture.de avatar

A dawdler, a malingerer, a hanger-on. This sparrow is having a hard time saying goodbye and hitting the road. There are still a few around but the sound of squabbling sparrows has mostly given way to the sound of squabbling finches. Don’t worry buddy, we’ll be here waiting for you in the fall ☺️

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@Catlynn The white crowned seem to be all gone here; we still have a few golden crowns, tanking up at the nyjer feeder. They seem to arrive later and leave later. (Pics are from Monday.)

image/jpeg

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@Catlynn Oh my, I just assumed their range included you! The California gold miners considered them a bad omen, interpreting their sad, three-downward-note trill as “I'm so tired” or “no gold here.” I think they're fun, and excellent subjects, showing up in all kinds of unexpected places, and very patient with me. They arrived early this year, in late September, but seem to be hanging around until their usual departure in late April or early May.

https://sfba.social/@alameth/109844906294399219

alameth, to dadjokes
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

Of everything that was invented in the 1970's, the dry-erase board is the most remarkable.

Catlynn, to nature
@Catlynn@nerdculture.de avatar

Oh boy, a foraging champ 💪

alameth,
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@Catlynn 😄

Catlynn, to random
@Catlynn@nerdculture.de avatar

Launch at sunset

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@Catlynn Falcon 9 from Vandenberg?

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@Catlynn I need to get down there (Vandenberg) to watch a launch. I had planned for months to watch the last Delta Heavy launch, but ended up having to be in L.A. that day. I was with a number of Boy Scouts, all of whom knew exactly when the launch was and were looking for the exhaust trail, but there was too much cloud cover in L.A. that day.

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@Catlynn Hoping to see Falcon Heavy launch from SLC-6. That pad has such a history of projects never finishing, though. 🙁

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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A riot of pink and white for a soggy cold

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

Who can use a small purple flower today? I really need a small purple flower.

(These are growing all over my “lawn,” almost invisible from eye level. They're about 5mm across.)

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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Another of my wife's plants from the front porch. I always thought thought it looked rather drab until I saw it with my macro lens. 🙂 (This image is about 3cm tall.)

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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The squirrels completely ate the middle out of this succulent last summer; all that remained was two rows of the large red-tipped leaves.

This is how it grew back. 😮

#BloomScrolling #Succulent #Flowers #FlowerPhotography

alameth,
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Our squirrel-assaulted succulent is blooming for the first time ever, and it's AMAZING. 🙂

(This started out as a cutting my wife picked up off the concrete at her uncle's condo three years ago.)

A close-up view of the tiny yellow daisy-like flowers growing on the flowerhead of a big succulent.
A close-up view of the tiny yellow and green flower buds on the flowerhead of a big succulent. The buds look like spiral-shelled acorns.

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

The plums are blooming, too, and they were feeling neglected. So here's a branchful of plum blossoms for . 🙂

alameth, to Bloomscrolling
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More cherry blossoms for 🙂

Catlynn, to random
@Catlynn@nerdculture.de avatar

Right in front of me OMG

alameth,
@alameth@sfba.social avatar

@Catlynn Scrolling past, I thought she was hyperventilating. 😄

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