It was pointed out to me that I hadn't posted anything for quite a while, so I thought I'd post a little blog article on some of the bird watching I've been doing this fall. This also gives me an opportunity to use Opera's new album widget. If you click on any of the little photos above, the selected photo will replace the big photo.
This is another mini-video from me (less than a minute and a half). I am still fooling around as I try to figure out how to use an Open Source video editor. This video was edited with Open Shot and the title screen was made with Inkscape.
I haven't been spending much time online this summer. I've been looking for work, so far unsuccessfully. I did have a phone screening last week. But I just heard today that even though I was a good candidate, other candidates more closely matched the technical requirements of the job.
Anyway just to say "hi" I'm publishing the little, one-minute video below of Whirligig beetles. They're a water bug that whirls around on the water surface and does a gig... or something. Toward the end of the video the beetles become turbo charged.
I realize that there are lots of squirrels that aren't albinos but this one was particularly interesting because at first glance it looked like one.
However if you look more closely, you'll notice that it has dark eyes instead of the pink ones that you would expect to see in an albino squirrel. It's nose is also relatively dark. The white fur is due to a genetic mutation know as leucism, so this is a leucistic squirrel.
In a previous post, A little bit of bird drama, I described a finch nest which had two cowbird eggs in it. Supposedly there was a 56% chance of the mother cowbird engaging in "mafia-style" retaliation if anything happened to her eggs. However since both the cowbird and finch babies were unlikely to survive, I decided to try removing the cowbird eggs anyways. On day 5 since the initial hatching of the finch eggs, I took this photo of the nest.
As you can see, every single baby is gone. I am guessing that this is the mafia-style retaliation that I read about. Both finch parents had been very devoted in their care for the young. Here's what the nest looked like two days before.
Supposedly the mafia retaliation is to get the host birds to start over, so the cowbird can try laying a new egg in their nest. I think I'm going to go out now and remove the empty nest before new drama ensues.
But I just heard today that even though I was a good candidate, other candidates more closely matched the technical requirements of the job. 
Toward the end of the video the beetles become turbo charged.
My Opera
