Shadee’s Blog

… Well, not really.

But last night as I was cooking dinner I saw a bug on our kitchen window screen which I’d never seen before (Since I’m used to European wildlife, a lot of things out here are new to me). It looked kinda freaky so I had Mord take a few pictures of it for me, and after I was done burning dinner, melting plastic food storage containers and ruining kitchen towels cleaning the plastic off the stove (I was a real klutz last night and I made sure to sit my ass down for the rest of the evening so I wouldn’t hurt myself or anyone else) I took a shot of it too.

This is the one I took:

Neither of us had a clue what it was and I didn’t bother to post it last night because the camera’s battery was empty (which took a long time to get empty unlike my old camera’s so yay!).

But this morning I put the recharged battery back in and actually had a chance to look at the photo’s. It’s even creepier this close up. And of course I had to find out what it was. So after a bit of searching on the net I believe I’ve found a match. It seems to be the Nymph (young version) of a Wheel Bug. Which is one of the largest members of the assassin bug family. (If anyone disagrees then please correct me. )

So I’m glad we didn’t kill it, because they’re very useful since they eat a lot of pests.
And I’m also glad I didn’t pick it up, since I also read that it can give you a pretty nasty bite when it’s ticked off. Well the adult version can anyway, don’t know about the nymphs but I’m not going to take any chances

So yeah, another weird but interesting back yard discovery

-Dee.

I was out in the back yard this morning when out of the corner of my eye I spotted something tiny hovering above a flower bush in our neighbors’ yard. When I had a better look I found out that it was a hummingbird! I didn’t know we had those around here so that’s pretty cool. It was searching the flowers for nectar. So I quickly went inside to grab my camera. Of course by the time I managed to grab my camera, fumble around to attach the telephoto zoom lens and get back outside the little hummingbird was long gone. I was kinda expecting it but worth a try anyway.

Then when I was about to go back inside I noticed this large shadow gliding over the trees. And again.
And again…

So I looked up to try and find out what was casting it. Then I spotted this guy

So yeah, it’s not what I went out to take a picture of but I’ll take it
He was really high up so I’m amazed that between the distance, the bird moving and my shaky hands I managed to actually get him in the shot.

Can’t say I know for sure what kind of bird he is. My first guess would be a red-tailed hawk though.

-Dee.

If it hadn’t been for that damn chain link fence some of the other shots which I took but hadn’t posted before might have turned out alright.
(That’s not entirely true though, because yes, I’m aware, if it hadn’t been for that “damn” chain link fence I probably would have been mauled and/or eaten before I could have taken any of the shots but let’s look past that for a sec :P)

I wasn’t going to post any of the shots with the chain link in them because they’re just not very good. But I’ve been requested to put them up anyway, just to try and look past the obvious problem which I couldn’t really do much about and instead look at them from a caption-that-could’ve-been-had-there-not-been-a-fence-in-the-way perspective and maybe still learn a bit from these shots. (Note that some might not look like they have any chain link in there but they do, sometimes the focus almost manages to blur it out. I sneaked that wolf pic I posted in the other thread in for that reason too because you almost couldn’t see it.) The shots have all been re-sized to 20% of their original size btw. I didn’t really see the point of posting the huge versions in this case. I’m also aware that some shots are taken from weird angles and that the composition of the shot is a tad weird, but in most of those cases I was just trying to find a way to get the animal in the shot while trying to bypass at least one of the layers of fencing.

So anyway, here are some of them for the people who were interested :

Aoudad (African Goat)
Fisher
Fisher closeup
Fishers in and on a log
Fox
Fox itching
Kodiak Bear closeup
Ringtail Lemur
Ringtail Lemur closeup
Ringtail Lemur sleeping closeup
Lioness closeup
Lioness lol
Rhesus Monkey
Vulture eating
Hyena (this one hurts the most. He was looking right at me and I love Hyenas, so I really wish I’d had a chance to get a clean shot But understandably these were behind triple chain link fencing so there really was no way around it)

Guess I’ll just have to go on safari one of these days

-Dee.

Our hermit crab Stumpy has been with us for almost 4 years now. And he’s gone through quite a few molts and shells. Today I was giving him some fresh food and water and noticed that he was really active and showing off how big he was. He tends to get really active after he’s fully recovered from a molt and goes into a really energetic almost hyperactive state, digging, climbing.

Which should not be confused with the occasions when he’s digging up all his little plastic trees, throwing things, including his food bowl, around his enclosure when he’s in a fit of rage because I did something wrong, like not organize his food exactly the way he likes it or put his plastic trees and shells in the wrong places (Yes, he’s a very opinionated and high maintenance crab, and even though I’ve been known to exaggerate things a bit once in a while for the sake of comedic value I’m not making it up this time).

Anyway, back to the point.
As he was stretching his limbs I realized how insanely huge he is now compared to when we first got him. So I dug up the little shell he was wearing when we bought him, got Stumpy out and had Mord take a comparison picture for me while I was making sure he didn’t run off.
He’s got his legs pulled in a bit in this shot but I’m sure you can still see the difference

Click the pic for the omghuge-version.

-Dee.

Letting the dog out for a quick last pee in the evening on bare feet = bad idea.

This morning I found out that my feet are covered in mosquito bites
I always thought having a bite on your finger or hand is the worst place because they tend to start itching a lot when you pick things up and are doing every day stuff. But man was I wrong. At least when they’re on your hand you can try to avoid touching things with those particular fingers/places on your hand. But you can’t really avoid walking

So ya. Major pain in the butt (well, feet). Especially since the bastards didn’t just get the top but also managed to get a few bites out of the very bottom of the side and the hollows of my feet (I was wearing a short sleeve T-shirt btw, so why they had to go for those near impossible places instead of my bare arms is beyond me).

So blah, I’m gonna put on some shorts. That way at least I’ll only be annoyed by the ones I’ll be walking on and not by my pant legs constantly making the top ones itch as well

-Itchy Dee.

Just received a mail from Blizzard telling me: “Hilarious comic. We just posted it as Honorable mention!”
So hahahaaaaah aaahah! I made it in! And as an honorable mention no less
Didn’t think it would make it in at all since I didn’t realize that they weren’t allowing any more inventory pics until after I’d already submitted it. But I guess it made them chuckle enough to look past that

So yeah, if anyone reads this today you can find my comic featured on the worldofwarcraft main page. If not, then it’ll still be listed in the honorable mentions section of the comics

But ya…

That just made my day

-Dee.

That’s right.

I always liked my biological clock and the fact that it would wake me up when it needed to. When I used to have my alarm set for work I would always wake up a few minutes before it was set to go off, which was great, cause there’s no better way to ruin my day and get me in a horrible mood than to wake me up with that annoying alarm clock sound.

Yesterday however, my biological clock decided to be an asshole and try something new.
I was sleeping comfortably, when all of a sudden I heard what sounded like someone banging on a metal garage door a few times really hard… We don’t have a garage door. And come to think of it, none of our neighbors do either. Besides, it was so loud that it was more like what it would sound like if you were in the garage when it happened. So obviously it was something my brain produced while I was sleeping. So anyway, of course it scared the crap outta me and I sat right up. Looked at the clock and it was 6 AM. It was somewhat amusing (well it was after I was done being grumpy about having been woken up like that that morning anyway).

So this morning…

Again, I was sleeping comfortably, when all of a sudden I heard what sounded like a large dog barking loudly 3 times. Our dog hardly ever barks, and when she does it’s always just one bark. And again, it sounded way too loud for it to have come from downstairs. So again I get startled and woken up, I sit up, stare at the clock. 6 AM.

So of course I’m in an even shittier mood today, seeing as how it’s happened twice in a row now. I really hope this was the last of it. I didn’t really need to wake up that early on either of those days. Yesterday was trash day and today they pick up recyclable plastic, but they never show up very early. But I guess trying to remember to put both of those out might have been the cause of it.

Still annoying as hell though :/

-Cranky Dee.

I decided to make a lolcats caption out of one of the squirrel pictures I took while I was at the zoo

Submitting it to icanhascheezburger and maybe lolcats too.
But you guys get the full size version right here!

-Dee.

Turns out today was a pretty decent day after all. (Well it looked that way anyway, we did get one big downpour but luckily it didn’t last more than a few minutes). So we ended up going to the zoo. Well, it’s not really a “zoo” but it’s a family run thing at a farm where they have a bunch of (mainly rescued) animals, ranging from groundhogs to Kodiak bears. So it’s always a fun place to visit.

I managed to give the camera a good test run. I got a lot of crap which is to be expected, some actual decent shots. And also some which were decent given the circumstances (sometimes there’s just no way around the chain link fencing unfortunately.
Also got some unexpected entertainment. Two young squirrels were play fighting on/under a bench. Took a bunch of shots which aren’t great quality, because we didn’t want to get too close and disturb them, but they certainly more than make up for it in comedic value. So I’ll see if I can compile them in a way that makes for easy viewing and sharing

Not right now though, it was a very long day. So I’m completely exhausted

I will post a comparison between a groundhog photo with my old camera and my new one though.
(Just so you know, the shot I posted of the new camera is resized to 25% and saved as a jpg so the file size wouldn’t be insanely big).

Old camera groundhog

New camera groundhog

More to come later when I have more energy

-Dee.

[edit]
Posted some more shots here.
[/edit]

Since my new camera and the fact that it’s just so much more awesome than my old one had really put me in the photography mood I went on-line to search for extra bits and pieces to actually make wildlife photography fun. The first thing I searched for was a telephoto zoom lens. The lens it came with is great for standard photography, but when you’re taking shots of skittish creatures it’s nice to have a long range option.

After a bit of research I decided to go with the… *takes a deep breath*… Canon Zoom Telephoto EF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III USM Autofocus Lens (Oh yes, I copy and pasted that one). It’s a great lens and since it’s a bit of an older model it’s not as expensive as most either. So I figured it was a good choice all around and will be great for me to learn the ropes with. After already having ordered it I came across it on Amazon too and was amused by the fact that it seems to be the most bought lens in combination with the new camera I have. So I guess I did alright.

Also, a great tip for your avid gardeners btw:
If you want to keep unwanted pests and wildlife out of your yard, my advice would be to buy a new camera with the intention of taking wildlife shots and get excited about testing it out on “insert any and all local wildlife species” in your back yard.

I swear, everything’s been making a detour around our yard ever since I got the stinking lens Well, except for one squirrel. Unfortunately since it was my first attempt they all turned out blurry. Though I was very much amused by the fact that I managed to get the stereotypical newbie photographer shot of the blurry back end of a squirrel as it’s darting out of the frame lol.

Unfortunately the rest of mother nature refuses to humor me too. It’s supposed to be nasty and rainy all weekend So no fun trips to test the camera out yet I’m afraid.

-Dee.