tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1052423616384287462012-01-22T18:36:24.290-05:00Occasional polemics and pictures.Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.comBlogger7401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-35852075495189295062012-01-22T18:36:00.001-05:002012-01-22T18:36:24.304-05:00

 There were (I think) two kestrels; this tercel and a falcon who amused the company assembled by hovering.  Scaup.  Very likely greater scaup, of which there are a great plenty along the Lake Ontario waterfront at this time of year.  All dressed up and just not spring yet.  Male hooded merganser; reflective white and light-drinking black feathers on the same head is in some sense

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-85433581513021024662011-12-23T23:04:00.001-05:002011-12-23T23:04:24.505-05:00

It was bright, too; clear and crisp and sunny.  But only modestly chilly, even with the wind, and not much like winter.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-39521594066563040962011-12-05T20:46:00.001-05:002011-12-05T20:52:43.039-05:00

Aoife's generally fairly tough to photograph, since she's a Stealth Cat. Getting a shot of this pose -- her typical paw-over-nose-sleeping-on-the-top-of-her-head sleeping posture -- is especially tough because if she hears the camera, she wakes up and uncurls enough to look at me.  Clicky noises might mean something interesting, after all. So I'm kinda pleased about this one, white balance

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-21393655949274893692011-12-01T21:31:00.001-05:002011-12-01T21:32:40.206-05:00

It's the sort of scene that makes me want a longer lens and a tripod and more time, instantly and all together, but it could have come out a lot worse.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-57894812791477538892011-11-26T17:45:00.001-05:002011-11-26T18:01:40.999-05:00

Spot the killdeer: A late egret: The lake is down, most leaves have fallen, but it was 12 C today and there are still a few wild flowers blooming.  Quite a nice day; nothing spectacular, but the White-throated sparrow, Northern Pintail, and both of the above were all notable in the season. The ducks, well, winter has come; the long-tailed ducks are back on the lake in the distribution

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-14593486935888847142011-11-13T17:57:00.001-05:002011-11-13T17:58:35.771-05:00

Not a whole lot—much too spread about by the temperature and the day length being out of customary alignment—but there was some.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-5365475018145872142011-11-01T21:09:00.000-04:002011-11-01T21:09:23.895-04:00

It doesn't work. The focus is off, just for starters -- just too far back, so that front leaf is a bit out of focus and that really doesn't help -- and there isn't any kind of real isolating angle (one can only do so much with DOF, and I'm lawful enough to Stay On The Path) and the camera can't really see like eyes, so while the purple isn't, surprisingly enough to me, all that far off, there's

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-77457692763925720042011-11-01T20:43:00.002-04:002011-11-01T20:43:27.316-04:00

Taken when she was on the very top of the bookshelf; that background is mostly plaster ceiling in the Italianate swoopy/swirly style.  Also taken about three weeks ago, so her winter coat was still coming in.  She's back to being all sleekit now, and there is rather less demanding of brushings about the head.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-56109047605967602011-10-10T17:37:00.004-04:002011-10-10T17:37:45.194-04:00

The DA*55 is supposed to be a portrait lens; a direct APS-C replacement for the traditional 85/1.4 portrait lenses of yore.  It certainly has the suitable lovely bokeh.  What it doesn't have is any notion of mercy, producing extremely sharp images.  I suppose the Pentax engineers could have concluded that it's easy enough to blur it in post, and still rather harder to un-blur it in post, but the

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-41181508580294938832011-10-10T17:27:00.001-04:002011-10-10T17:27:59.511-04:00

Proof that bicycle components are lamentably fragile, that's what.  Brand new SRAM Rival crankset; failed at kilometer 48 of its first ride.  Given that the Apex crankset has 1380 km on it, I'm going to suppose that this particular chain ring made it out of QC and should not have. I don't think it's spalling, as such, since it looks like some kind of ductile failure making the teeth smaller,

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-15711044133793251552011-10-09T23:11:00.000-04:002011-10-10T17:17:05.688-04:00

Partially because I want to be able to run 12-36 cassettes, and if I'm going to do that—which implies a "mountain", in this case X9, rear derailleur—I thought I might as well move the rest of the drive train up the food chain one notch to SRAM's Rival, instead of Apex, components.  Probably not a huge improvement in quality but that little bit tougher can be a good thing. SRAM Apex bottom

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-62644220736388191532011-09-26T20:01:00.003-04:002011-09-26T20:01:36.509-04:00

Once the work on the water mains gets finished, the City of Toronto has been coming back through and resurfacing the street and replacing stretches of sidewalk.  (Something this section of Dundas probably needed before the water main work.) So there have been these strangely mobile piles of signs and new manhole covers and such, and this is from the day the pile drifted up to my usual morning

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-68952521265456106782011-09-25T19:01:00.000-04:002011-09-25T19:01:20.520-04:00

But I'm not sure the natural world is entirely convinced. No pictures of birds, despite having a good day on the TOC Durham waterfront bird walk.  Much nicer weather than the forecast, and an opportunity for the trip leader to tell the Solitary Sandpiper joke. ("Can't be a Solitary; there are three of them.")

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-17929977810049685822011-09-06T21:05:00.001-04:002011-09-06T21:05:30.524-04:00

At least, I believe so, in the canal-side park in Port Colborne: the whole thing all the bird-pixels, one for one. I am pleased about this not because I could identify it at the time, but because something prompted me to take the picture on the basis of "that's not a starling". My hind brain may be slowly getting the hang of this.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-73063975873898460892011-09-05T19:29:00.003-04:002011-09-05T19:32:02.656-04:00

I have been wondering if the gearing—straight up SRAM Apex, 50/32, 11/34, which gives, with 180mm cranks, gain ratios between 8.6 and 2.0—on the Experiment is really suitable for loaded touring.  It's obviously suitable for axial-bag-only riding about, but it wasn't at all clear I'd want to go anywhere the least bit hilly with panniers.  Since there are a number of nice multi-day touristy sorts

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-10092763197125050072011-08-30T23:13:00.000-04:002011-08-30T23:13:50.775-04:00

It's actually 1055.87; I passed a 1,000 km for the Experiment very early in this ride.  But I really didn't want, for what are purely superstitious reasons, to tackle this weekend's ride-round-Niagara with its couple of 100 km days (though thankfully not adjacent 100 km days) without getting past 1,000 km on the summer first and there were mailing list posts about interesting birds in Rattray

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-9597326240196933342011-08-27T22:21:00.000-04:002011-08-27T22:21:56.915-04:00

Toronto Police Pipes & Drums, at the head of Jack Layton's funeral procession where it started by Osgoode Hall. Taken from a streetcar that almost made it around its diversion off King St. and along Queen, but not quite. There were an awful lot of people in the vicinity of that funeral, even knowing they wouldn't be able to get into Roy Thompson Hall.  (They don't stop the streetcars for much;

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-43993636733201845042011-08-25T22:16:00.000-04:002011-08-25T22:16:51.632-04:00

Looking north from the lighthouse hill at the eastern edge of Tommy Thompson park, where they're still adding fill. It was a really lovely night for a bike ride.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-27312389909031205292011-08-18T21:57:00.000-04:002011-08-18T21:57:40.690-04:00

I find myself hoping I have a long and productive interaction with the DFA100WR.  (Not to be confused with the DFA100.)

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-85053241435990951702011-08-15T20:56:00.000-04:002011-08-15T20:56:42.942-04:00

Absent some surrounding foliage: 1:1 crop

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-70360098972003117942011-08-14T19:02:00.000-04:002011-08-14T19:02:21.498-04:00

Avoiding the bad leg cramps[1] might be as simple as an average speed under 5 m/s, which makes me feel like an utter slug but a slug who must acknowledge that the cycling isn't happening as much as once a week, never mind more than once a week. (Curse you, combination of deadlines and determined work ethic!) This was not a planned loop; this was a "let's go down to the Martin Goodman and see if

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-67404680725430067632011-08-14T09:47:00.000-04:002011-08-14T09:47:05.857-04:00

I don't normally see these guys in the summer, or so low in a tree—this one wasn't all that much above eye level—so I was very pleased to get a whole-bird shot.  Even if the branches behind are running into limits-of-bokeh issues.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-312795504942858482011-08-13T22:34:00.000-04:002011-08-13T22:34:37.199-04:00

At least if you're a winter hat. I like to think the owner will see it and rescue it from where someone, following the custom, has stuck it over something visible and too high to let the hat be lost back into the snow, but, well.  August.  It's been there a good long time now.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-13507380072956833442011-08-07T18:35:00.000-04:002011-08-07T18:35:56.797-04:00

Due to the kindness of a friend and colleague, I wound up spending five hours on a sailboat on Saturday, the prototype of one of these. "These" being a 25 foot, cat-boat rigged, not-necessarily-provided-with-booms, flat-bottomed sail boat that had what were to my mostly inexperienced view really remarkably good sailing characteristics.  I wouldn't want to take one across the broad Atlantic, but

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-29654584033661432252011-08-07T18:25:00.000-04:002011-08-07T18:25:18.560-04:00

Shot through the abjectly filthy plastic-and-polyester-canvas sheet that gets strapped over the rear of the last car,  presumptively to discourage any addled passengers from walking straight out the back of the train.  Which is probably a good idea, much as I should have preferred that it wasn't there for photographic purposes.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-23410318952955021402011-07-31T10:20:00.000-04:002011-07-31T10:20:55.609-04:00

So July -- counting yesterday -- looks to be a 140km month.  (Bleck.)  Some of that is a sinus isssue, thankfully responding to treatment; some of that is a couple weeks where exercise outside would have been a "do you want to die?" issue (Humidex of 48 C. Gah.) and some of it is this whole count-the-commute-and-it's-a-50-hour-week thing, which leads to getting home falling over tired when it's

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-61311865333271106532011-07-17T17:17:00.000-04:002011-07-17T17:17:08.162-04:00

From early in July, before all the flowers wilted. (There are any number of very tall tiger lilies out there crisping inward from the petal edges.) No idea what they are; the hanging basket is on my walk home from the subway station. Not bad for a point-and-shoot.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-32855372206396640782011-07-17T13:46:00.000-04:002011-07-17T13:46:01.926-04:00

It's been wretchedly hot, and work has been alternating between "sooner than now!" and "twiddle, twiddle, wait for specification" and my general supply of neurons to rub together has been somewhat sub-optimal. So it has taken me awhile to get various things both on the bike and photographed. Here we have the Experiment being held up by a combination of set brakes (those little dark lines around

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-26310424321577501052011-07-07T20:46:00.000-04:002011-07-07T20:46:46.913-04:00

The small-centre-hole cap on a bottle of goo-be-gone is not sufficient to prevent gouting from the bottle if the bottle is squeezed. I do not believe I have ever, or would ever, plan on having a navel full of de-greaser, but at least no portion of my anatomy appears to have dissolved.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-24967491476886759172011-07-03T19:15:00.000-04:002011-07-03T19:15:48.784-04:00

At the present moment, there's a bunch of lengthy discussions going on in various places over how Rebecca Watson noted very publicly that being propositioned in an elevator at 04h00 was an indication of the kind of behavior that discourages women from showing up at atheist conferences, and these discussions are full of the usual total gibbering failure of communication one might expect. What

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-34848522626414101932011-06-27T20:24:00.001-04:002011-06-28T18:26:58.666-04:00

Just shy of 570 km and the molding bead down the centre has worn flush with the tyre surface.  It wasn't quite flush—is still not everywhere flush—with that surface at 500km. I hope this may bode well for the expected lifetime of the tyre.  (Schwalbe Marathon Plus; they have a remarkable reputation, but Toronto has some rather nasty streets.  So I've been finding the reputation cheering.) The

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-32584351695598792962011-06-26T17:42:00.000-04:002011-06-26T17:42:33.156-04:00

So instead of going birding or grabbing a camera, I went for a bike ride this morning. (I dread the probable consequences of trying to stick to my end-of-summer trip plans if I don't manage to get into much better shape first.)  The route, well, the route had some issues, especially around getting back from the Birchmont Ave end, but the rolling average stayed above 5m/s and I went a bit further

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-84316499479546906122011-06-25T20:40:00.000-04:002011-06-25T20:40:40.442-04:00

That's not too far off, colour-wise, when the clouds thinned a little and there was a softening of the morning rain.  (By afternoon it was a case of being a bright sky, occasionally intimating that it had not forgotten how to rain.  But for most of the morning it just plain rained, with varying degrees of haste and thoroughness.)  Happy Valley is billed as old-growth; it's not, it's not even

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-27729056433432830812011-06-19T11:51:00.000-04:002011-06-19T11:51:15.989-04:00

I managed to lose a Tubus rack stay through the floor some time ago (rolled under the skirting board, and instead of a minor bit of ragged edge in the flooring and then solid subfloor, there was a hole. I'm still moderately appalled about that hole). So I ordered a replacement via MBS Tandems, who are the local-for-at-least-Ontario values of local Tubus dealer, and can make good on Tubus' policy

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-84636318862510439792011-06-15T22:16:00.000-04:002011-06-15T22:16:08.347-04:00

The zebra enclosure is such that taking pictures through the fence is kinda challenging; the traditional solution is to  hold the camera over the fence and use live view focusing on the rear LCD.  I am pleased to report that the K5 (unlike the K20D) seems to manage this pretty well.  Have to try attaching it to a telescope next. And yes, it really is that green; lots of rain and several warm

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-23964131186465965782011-06-12T18:15:00.000-04:002011-06-12T18:15:18.459-04:00

Momma Wood Duck and all nine ducklings weren't especially co-operative about being sufficiently concentrated that I could get them all in the frame, but it did sometimes happen. The green is about right; the duckweed is lamentably shiny; I could have wished for a different sun angle, too, but oh well.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-45553464443102607652011-06-12T17:40:00.000-04:002011-06-12T17:40:28.176-04:00

The lions—at least so far as I was able to notice—were not out at the Zoo.  It's possible that it's still a bit chilly for them, or they're still shedding winter coat and not looking the least bit regal, I don't know.  But the lion enclosure, as a sort of "for the love of wisdom, child, don't climb this fence" last-ditch (well, right before the ditch, and a substantial plummet is the ditch)

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-59599374039591620522011-06-08T20:25:00.000-04:002011-06-08T20:25:11.735-04:00

The tradition being that one's first pictures with a new camera are of one's cat; the marvel is that this is a handheld 1/11 second exposure of a stealth cat on a white thing and next to a shiny thing.  At ISO 3200, because it was that seriously dim. I am so very glad I'm not trying to do this with wet chemistry.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-18946299431173715222011-06-04T20:19:00.000-04:002011-06-04T20:19:00.563-04:00

One of a goodly patch I walked past yesterday.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-20840484678247037332011-06-03T22:16:00.001-04:002011-06-04T16:42:46.275-04:00

So the plan was to cycle around the Niagara Peninsula this weekend; take the GO train to Aldershot, and away off past Hamilton and into the Niagara Region, specific routing to be determined by actual prevailing winds on arrival.  (Clockwise or anti-clockwise, that is the question...)  B&B all booked, maps printed, everything packed, etc. What I didn't plan on was getting hit by a car on the way

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-80434841511376225342011-05-24T22:02:00.000-04:002011-05-24T22:02:28.956-04:00

This is mostly plausible, except for that somewhat sparse east-west straight line that involves walking on water: and most of this is plausible, but the peak speed would require some explanation: But, still, a reasonably representative depiction all in all. Saw more birds than I want to type in; highlights include a pair of house wrens nesting in a concrete light standard, a cooper's hawk

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-72305622931315858142011-05-24T21:06:00.000-04:002011-05-24T21:06:37.809-04:00

So the idea was, since you can (by doing three sides of the curvy square) go from Guildwood GO station to Rouge Hill GO station entirely on a (lovely, paved) trail, to see if the upper part of the trail was as pleasant as the lower part of the trail. Which meant getting to Guildwood, and the nigh-traditional Exhibition Station start. The entire park was gorgeous; there's a variety of habitat,

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-51681241916439754632011-05-24T19:42:00.000-04:002011-05-24T19:42:25.500-04:00

Or, at least, so I presume it to be.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-55881591896262961262011-05-13T20:40:00.000-04:002011-05-13T20:40:38.655-04:00

So I found out that, contra the (very nice, and just as surprised as I was) director at the company I'm consulting for, the property company has an inflexible policy that there are no bicycles permitted in the building; they do, after all, have dedicated exterior bicycle parking.  Said dedicated bike parking is, well, it's adjacent to the parking lot, which has no access controls and is behind

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-91080271246442813572011-05-08T15:58:00.000-04:002011-05-08T15:58:58.346-04:00

Very wee; 20 km. Enough to be reasonably sure I haven't utterly flubbed the handlebar re-alignment and to make Aoife look concerned when I get home. There were perhaps 10,000 people in High Park, mostly looking at the cherry blossoms. (And the flanking apple blossoms, and probably also the waterfowl, new leaves, and general indications of the greening spring.)  Which made that part of the wee

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-21082984617086602232011-05-04T22:23:00.000-04:002011-05-04T22:23:20.851-04:00

Even in two widely separated roughly same-distance chunks. Managed to ride to work without getting direly lost, squashed, or collapsing in a heap, and I learning something—Google doesn't want to route cyclists going north onto Old Yonge St. for the good and excellent reason that it's a bit steep, and has really inconvenient stop signs.  Google also thinks McGlashan Road is a through street west

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-34198817666510232282011-05-01T21:48:00.000-04:002011-05-01T21:48:18.674-04:00

This is the "looking away after the last bikket leaves her looking down at me from the top of a side pillar of the big bookshelf" expression. It is very reliable of occurrence.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-74003774481254861232011-04-26T06:20:00.001-04:002011-04-26T21:11:41.994-04:00

In this kind of thing is that my fellow Canadians are plenty smart enough to figure out that if you want different policies than those of the Harper government, you don't vote for Iggy.  (Iggy would doubtless present them with less of a kitten-eating snarl.  But he's the tool of the Liberal party corporatism faction, which basically means Bay Street and Bell get whatever they want.) And yeah,

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-40608093784619780042011-04-24T17:50:00.000-04:002011-04-24T17:50:15.956-04:00

Sometime after 15h00 there was an exterior clock/thermometer thing, in the bright sun on Gerard St., and it said that it was 10 C. ("Cooler near the water" has some bite to it, this time of year; the forecast high of 14℃) 45 km, no actual ow (though the right SPD cleat needs a bit of tweaking); legs apparently getting toward the slightly-underdone end of noodly.  Did not expect the parade, or

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-32296863138531855092011-04-22T21:48:00.000-04:002011-04-22T21:48:15.877-04:00

The plan had been to take the GO train out to Oshawa and cycle back to Guildwood GO station.  That gets around the wind direction -- forecast to be from the east -- and the horrible problem of the Hunt Club Hole, the section of the Toronto waterfront where there just isn't any good route to ride a bicycle.  It would also have let me check out what Lower Highland Creek looks like from a birding

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-12458245971039578962011-04-16T16:44:00.000-04:002011-04-16T16:44:03.778-04:00

In no particular order: the Brafasco at 31 Parliament, so far downtown that it isn't really downtown anymore (it was, once, but then downtown drifted west in the late 19th) carries copper anti-seize in a small, portable tube-of-paste format suitable for sticking in the rack bag with the rest of the implementia. if you need bike fasteners, particularly metric sizes of socket head cap screws, you

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-14267669187621866862011-04-13T22:51:00.000-04:002011-04-13T22:51:18.434-04:00

Didn't get lost, even with route finding in the dark; 42 km at a rolling average speed of just under 5 m/s (4.97) which wasn't too bad and can be attributed to my noodle-like legs and the route finding in the dark. The ping noise was both main bolts -- the ones into the rear dropouts -- of the rear rack coming lose, no doubt encouraged by a ferocious pothole or two at the southern end of Royal

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-36494913275901001092011-04-10T19:53:00.000-04:002011-04-10T19:53:36.697-04:00

Every now and again I manage to sneak up on Aoife quietly enough that she's not completely unpacked from whatever cute pose she was sleeping in by the time I take the picture. It would have been better with the chin on pile of paws, tail over nose, pose, but I'll take what I can get.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-11694562749496842192011-04-10T19:49:00.001-04:002011-04-10T19:57:44.838-04:00

The Town Bike, with racks and fenders but without any actual bags on the racks: 16.65 kg The Experiment, with racks and fenders but without any actual bags on the racks: 15.88 kg The Town Bike has less frame and what frame it does have is aluminium.  It also has smaller handlebars and an aluminium front rack, versus stainless on the Experiment.  I would have thought the wheels on the Experiment

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-22037582708224049722011-04-03T22:18:00.001-04:002011-04-03T22:19:16.387-04:00

One of the things that has been bothering me, in a ghosts-of-Scottish-ancestors sort of way, is that going out and getting the Experiment was expensive. So I've been somewhat grimly expecting to be paying the usual 10x for 10% worth of improvement at the top of a utility curve, at which point I would have to admit to myself that I was being Profligate. (Profligacy is not, precisely, a sin, but

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-91409711138359774582011-03-16T22:41:00.000-04:002011-03-16T22:41:11.827-04:00

From the viewpoint of airline standard luggage, anyway. I expect it will be a good deal more straightforward on the train. The mock-box winds up being 75cm x 75cm by 35cm; probably not any harder to buy than the 71x71x28-ish I was hoping for, but rather bigger.  Getting both racks—the rear rack, really, the front rack is pretty easy—and the fenders in there complicates the problem quite a bit.  

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-26088107266281514772011-03-06T13:11:00.000-05:002011-03-06T13:11:21.598-05:00

Walk bike out into snowy landscape, because at least there's sunlight and sufficient linear distance out there.  Find place to prop bike.  Notice huge, horrible, yellow-of-the-soul-of-evil-mustard "ATM inside" sign in background.  Move bike.  Take pictures of bike.  Bring bike back inside.  Notice, lo!, no memory card in camera.  Curse stupidity of self.  Wait 20 minutes for snow to melt off

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-17273547364968845892011-03-05T20:20:00.000-05:002011-03-05T20:20:49.795-05:00

It's official spring; I've seen a singing male red-winged blackbird. In, it must be admitted, hard cold rain, and lots of it; it rained solid from 08h30 until 13h00 or so, when, conscious of the dropping temperature, the chill creeping into everyone's bones, and the increasing and distressful tendency of the rain to rattle[1], we called it a day. During said day I saw 25 species; I may have

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-2114550174681398812011-03-05T20:02:00.000-05:002011-03-05T20:02:39.400-05:00

So, what started last year as (the frame builder's laudable habit of putting height marks on the wall) looks like this now: I still have to find an opportunity to take a full picture outside, in good light, when the entire province of Ontario is not just emerging from two days of rainfall warning, but I have a new bike that fits. It would be difficult to overestimate how pleased I am about that

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-37472129938492510302011-02-27T14:14:00.002-05:002011-03-20T17:58:32.606-04:00

Yesterday (26 Feb 2011) I accompanied birding buddies Dave and Bob on a walk around Tommy Thompson Park, in the hopes of seeing the pair of juvenile King Eider reported there.  Which we did, with good stable views with the birds on the water in the open sounds in East Cove. Resorting to on-line GPX viewers (because today is not a good gpx-viewer software day), I get:Length: 11.25 kmDuration: 4

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-10983872202105156242011-02-24T11:34:00.001-05:002011-02-27T00:04:15.268-05:00

There's been a remarkable amount of commentary about a Volokh Conspiracy assertion that it is immoral to tax[1] to build defenses against an expected, humanity-eradicating, asteroid impact.  I'm firmly on the "barking mad" side of things, but I think takes such as Brad DeLong's are missing something. Libertarians are the sincerely Creationist wing of the American Right.  The fundamentalist wing

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-79182693054801414502011-02-19T22:21:00.001-05:002011-02-19T22:41:48.407-05:00

Last weekend I went to Guelph to take a weekend Park Tool School course from Winterborne Bicycle Services, without knowing all that much about what would be involved. As it turned out, what's involved is an absolute minimum of theory (mostly of the "threads are left or right handed" sort), then taking everything (except the seat) off a mountain bike sort of bicycle and putting it all back on

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-41232954309098273912011-01-08T19:25:00.000-05:002011-01-08T19:25:06.286-05:00

There's a chunk of living space that matches the following checklist. But swelp me if I can figure out an efficient way to find it. --- Want about 800 square feet if I can get it; under 700 is rash. Space allocation is to purpose; should not be considered a room count requirement. Hallways, landing, etc. 50 Kitchen 80 □ - room for 3'wx2'dx3'h chest freezer □ - double sink very nice □ - room

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-88783484339227230802011-01-01T19:16:00.000-05:002011-01-01T19:16:07.784-05:00

Aoife's been trying to figure out this computer thing, and very carefully watching me type. Which is good -- no hand batting, no assaulting the pointer on the screen, and great care not to step on the keyboard, because she knows it does something but not what -- and less good, should she figure out how to mail-order live mice, or, more plausibly, deduce that getting me to get up and throw things

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-13854598106582699622010-12-31T19:44:00.000-05:002010-12-31T19:44:24.225-05:00

Well, I've got all the emergency lights charged up, which is a normal end-of-month thing. I thought "hey, I haven't used the camp cookware at all this year; I should make sure nothing has gone wrong in there", and, well, about 100 L of water later, I have the remnants of the Sea Suds out of the dry bag that holds the camp cookware, and am considering what to do with the rest of said soap, since

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-75690302395555518982010-12-27T20:31:00.001-05:002010-12-27T20:32:52.488-05:00

One of the zoo's prairie dogs, sound asleep in its food dish. (Obviously breathing, and didn't budge between going past one way and coming back the other, ten or so minutes later.)

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-21664380294550134072010-12-12T14:44:00.000-05:002010-12-12T14:44:44.732-05:00

You have to look at the full size image to get the mad yellow eyes. Arctic fox at the metro zoo; I'm pleased with getting detail out of the fur and the rock in the this one, and while I wish from a visual perspective that fence wasn't there I should never had taken the picture without it, because a wild arctic fox would never let me half that close.  So, heh, everything is trade-offs.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-12385332082312316442010-12-12T14:07:00.001-05:002010-12-12T14:08:12.601-05:00

Well, no, probably not; it's some sort of toucan, possibly an aracari, but which aracari is beyond my ken. I presume it's a temporary visitor to the Americans pavillion free-flight bird room (familiar to parents as the place to go play "spot the mot-mot") because it's not on the sign.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-26794937967845204792010-11-07T19:58:00.000-05:002010-11-07T19:58:53.227-05:00

I have no idea what some component of the Governor General's Horse Guards, what looked like all of  a Legion branch, an Army cadet unit, and some guys in dazzle cammo uniforms with the officers carrying dress swords were doing out today; Thursday, Nov 11, yes, that would be unsurprising in the extreme, but there was a small parade, complete with brass band, wreath bearers, and horse cavalry,

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-2068242496337529962010-11-07T18:53:00.000-05:002010-11-07T18:53:21.720-05:00

Well, or it could be feral engineers; I can't tell. From a more-or-less waist level lintel of a window on McCaul Street; saw it yesterday, and was able to arrange to be riding by with a camera today.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-81103607192336776002010-10-24T20:13:00.000-04:002010-10-24T20:13:13.365-04:00

I'm not best pleased with this one; the sky is quite blown and I don't seem to be able to recover it, raw file or no raw file. On the plus side, hey, I took a picture with intent—something I have not been good about doing these last several-six months—and it doesn't cause bleeding from the eyes.  Since it started to rain roughly a second and a half after I took this picture, I also don't feel too

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-64349194621616595192010-10-03T15:53:00.001-04:002010-10-03T16:11:56.776-04:00

After a September plagued by poor timing, a bit of bronchitis, and badly-labeled ice-cream substitute (label claimed no soy; distraught innards asserted that, yes, yes there was soy in there), I finally got out on a Fall Migration walk. With, as is perhaps obvious, the brand-new Delorme PN-60 GPS I got primarily because cycling in strange places is a whole lot more fun when I feel like I know

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-16527125350003289032010-09-08T20:18:00.000-04:002010-09-08T20:18:01.565-04:00

that are just starting to get unconfused.  Things have been very confused the last couple weeks and they still have the whole road-replacement step to go on Roncy, but there has been definite progress.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-25453175379211296502010-09-05T12:47:00.000-04:002010-09-05T12:47:31.528-04:00

At least, I think it's Rose of Sharon. From down at the bottom of Roncy, after mostly taking pictures of streetcar track construction.  The light was getting fairly dim by then but I think this still serves as a decent example of why I think the DA35 does a good job of flower purples.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-39386326807092863232010-09-04T19:28:00.000-04:002010-09-04T19:28:12.832-04:00

Opportunistic sunflower, opportunistic bee. It was something of a pity what happened to the -- remarkably vigorous, and growing in a corner between two garages in a back lane -- sunflower as a whole, since various people appear to have hacked blossoms off it and hit it with cars, but there were two shining days back in August when it was a glory.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-1044844448966248662010-08-29T21:28:00.002-04:002010-08-29T21:28:50.085-04:00

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-54728217279123964072010-08-22T11:55:00.000-04:002010-08-22T11:55:15.838-04:00

I believe this handsome fellow rejoices in the name of Ginger. That wall is an internal divider in a barn, and the bokeh is courtesy of needing to shoot at f1.8 because it wasn't at all bright in there. The whole thing seems very cat-like to me somehow.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-68123845064191034792010-08-15T11:26:00.000-04:002010-08-15T11:26:17.426-04:00

My sister intends to keep sheep; where you have sheep, you soon enough have coyotes.  Llamas have a dubious view of coyotes, and are marginally more tractable than mules, so she has llamas.  The llamas look, more or less inescapably, like they know they were really drawn by Dr. Seus, and are just daring one to say anything about it.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-24973094329479663292010-08-15T11:06:00.001-04:002010-08-15T11:09:57.527-04:00

The streetcar track up Roncesvalles Ave. is being replaced—very fast, a block every 2 days or so—after a substantial period of time of not being there at all, due to the impossibility of maintaining the tracks and fixing the water mains.  The water mains being done, the tracks are being replaced, and after that the lane of road to each side will presumably get rendered non-sinusoidal.  (Very much

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-71858682517412675992010-08-08T19:39:00.000-04:002010-08-08T19:39:31.247-04:00

is the pelican. This particular American White Pelican has been at Second Marsh in Oshawa for the last month and a half, and while they nest in Ontario this is generally in remote lakes between Thunder Bay and Manitoba.  So having one in Oshawa is a cool thing and I've been meaning to go see it for awhile.  Indeed, I have been trying to go see it on available Saturdays, with the general plan

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-64131034854641367922010-08-05T21:53:00.000-04:002010-08-05T21:53:04.558-04:00

They're replacing the streetcar tracks on Roncesvalles.  This is, well, not a view one can expect to have often.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-24518300132999375362010-07-04T22:22:00.000-04:002010-07-04T22:22:39.265-04:00

In the visible case, mostly of the camera flash.  In the general case, I am obviously a bad monkey who has broken the thermostat and should put it back, now if not sooner.  (I should also stop Going Out.  Aoife does not at all approve of me going out, and explanations that at least some Going Out is required for food to continue to arrive have so far proved unconvincing.)

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-6213165371200610412010-06-24T21:44:00.000-04:002010-06-24T21:44:06.425-04:00

So, the landlord sold the place; the folks busy renovating the restaurant on the ground floor have, over the last three weeks, managed to shut off—at, thankfully, different times—the hot water, the electricity, the gas, and my internet connection.  My front door has had total lock failure, and I have just tonight discovered that not only are the washer, dryer, fridge, printer, microwave, and

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-25508028245297108012010-05-23T19:27:00.000-04:002010-05-23T19:27:30.614-04:00

I have long harboured an ambition to go see the bit of lake shore path by the Rouge Hill GO Station.  ("GO" = "Government of Ontario"; it's a regional transit system, in this case commuter trains.)  Today I finally did so, in company with a friend, and could wish I'd done so earlier. The initial start was not entirely auspicious, though I know now I can change an bicycle inner tube expeditiously

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-20106866943988002682010-05-18T20:18:00.000-04:002010-05-18T20:18:06.198-04:00

I suspect it's mostly that they're trying desperately to really warm up, but the turtles all seemed a bit hung-over and grumpy at the Pelee marsh.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-60674161075053702972010-05-17T21:17:00.001-04:002010-05-18T20:46:55.148-04:00

There are more pictures, but not more time to process them. Thanks to the kindness of a friend, I got down to Point Pelee this weekend.  From a birding perspective, it was a definite success; two lifers (black tern, Wilson's Warbler), an immature-or-female Summer Tanager, a possible snowy plover (didn't get close enough to be definitive about this, but much smaller than a killdeer (since some

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-44009365835502093172010-05-05T22:26:00.000-04:002010-05-05T22:26:14.904-04:00

Rather than giving the (fairly lengthy) list of birds for the May 1st TOC bird walk in High Park, I'm going to note highlights. Which for birds observed was definitely the cerulean warbler; all 40+ people on the walk managed to see it, too, despite its best efforts involving not holding still and occupying the upper parts of the canopy of large oak trees.  (The cerulean warbler is small, scarce,

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-74980433770644653672010-04-29T21:47:00.001-04:002010-04-29T21:47:23.773-04:00

Killdeer seem to be just fine with parking lots, it's the people they can't stand: Blossoms by the side of the road: The book arrived courtesy of Canpar; I must say that getting zero brokerage charges (coming from the UK, as opposed to coming from the States), finding the package waiting at the security gate guard house, rather than having to wait 15 minutes (after waiting 2 hours to get to the

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-76298986235506793062010-04-25T19:26:00.000-04:002010-04-25T19:26:14.766-04:00

More ROM shelves; I remember the darker skull from the old dinosaur hall but could be quite mistaken.  (Telling theropod skulls apart reliably is a bit beyond me.)  And I liked the little purple guy with the spikes. No birding today; I woke with a thick head and a scratchy throat and elected to believe that a day spent being a slug would do this more good than a walk in the rain.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-73823249183598080482010-04-24T18:55:00.003-04:002010-04-24T20:45:17.764-04:00

The official start time, at the observation platform for Oshawa Second Marsh, was 09h00. Tyler Hoar, the walk leader, had suggested that reliable presence of little gulls could not be guaranteed past about 08h00 due to the presence of a peregrine falcon. So I got there, courtesy of a fellow TOC member with a kind streak and a car, by a little after 07h00. Tyler, a dedicated soul, had been at

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-26990373256631516002010-04-23T18:39:00.000-04:002010-04-23T18:39:04.592-04:00

This is the skull end view of the Maiasaurus hatchling that was in the old ROM dinosaur gallery for a number of years, in a glass box that made getting a good shot really really hard. This is on the storage shelf; it's dim under there, and it was a fairly quick tour, but I'm still happy with the result.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-71131860444609789352010-04-20T19:57:00.000-04:002010-04-20T19:57:19.523-04:00

I think it's the yellow eye in the purple head and monkey prejudices, but all grackles look at least a little mad. The X90 appears to really like bright daylight; it's a trick to hold at full zoom, and the (useful in cases of bright sunlight) EVF has visible lag, but I can't complain about the feather detail here at all. Took this walking across one side of Nathan Phillips Square.

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-75865392381225021692010-04-11T13:19:00.000-04:002010-04-11T13:19:09.928-04:00

"We don't defend Canon Space; we destroy Canon's enemies.  It's different." That's a quote from Glen Cook's The Dragon Never Sleeps, an interesting and much-neglected and recently back in print space opera.  (And the Guard Ships do destroy Canon's enemies.) If you want a complex social structure that allows lots of individual exercise of choice, you need to enact and defend a bunch of complex

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-67690908534132647832010-04-07T20:37:00.000-04:002010-04-07T20:37:36.717-04:00

I wound up walking home in the rain this evening, since the streetcars were stopped and the buses were detouring. This was why.  (Well, this, and the consequent four police cars, paramedic vehicles, etc.; no sign of an ambulance, which I hope means the pedestrian was already well on their way to hospital.) I suppose this is also why I think carrying a camera all the time is a good idea; pictures

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-53566523189393781122010-04-07T20:30:00.000-04:002010-04-07T20:30:23.327-04:00

Taken with the Pentax Optio X90. This was acquired on the grounds that I can't take the K20D everywhere, and would really like both a take-everywhere camera and a some-hope-of-enough-zoom-for-birds camera.  I'm still making friends with it, but I think it did a quite respectable job of managing Aoife's fur, here, admittedly at the expense of a great deal of white cardboard.  (Aoife is very fond

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-57788318650129775432010-04-04T10:07:00.000-04:002010-04-04T10:07:42.622-04:00

Sunday, 4 April 2010; starting 07h00 (right around true dawn; late for the dawn chorus) at Queen and Roncesvalles, crossing via the pedestrian bridge to the beach.  Still air, about 8 C, and light scattered cloud; mostly sunny. Ended getting on the Lakeshore streetcar at Ellis Avenue at 08h30. In between, I was walking mostly west, with some north to head up Colborne Lodge drive to walk along

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-8098454107044966532010-04-02T21:08:00.000-04:002010-04-02T21:08:26.177-04:00

It wasn't as sunny as predicted, but it was 23℃ and otherwise quite lovely.  If things had leafed out, I should have found it impossible to convince my brain it wasn't June.  (And I don't think I entirely succeeded; it kept seeming later than it was.) I am most pleased with the current bike setup (I am now convinced that the persistent and troubling squeak that I'd blamed on the front disk brake

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-82128966123998264182010-03-30T20:33:00.000-04:002010-03-30T20:33:22.738-04:00

Generally speaking, pictures of birds that get out in the world are good pictures of birds. The problem with this is that it greatly misleads; sparrows actually look like the top image, thus: Images like the two below, the rough equivalent of 12 power binoculars, are what you get after throwing out the even worse ones, post processing, and tossing—even with the x12 effect—almost all the pixels

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-82494479563555159892010-02-21T21:31:00.000-05:002010-02-21T21:31:14.383-05:00

It was sunny, and warm—high of 5℃— as forecast, so I took me, my contact lenses, and my new attempt at a birding bag out to Tommy Thompson park to see what I could see. The attempt at a birding bag is the Think Tank Change Up which has the considerable virtue of being deep enough for my binoculars, large enough to contain something like lunch as well as the binoculars, and not so large my

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105242361638428746.post-65459462859106021442010-02-14T16:03:00.000-05:002010-02-14T16:03:12.677-05:00

Having no other plans for the day, I went down to the western section of the Toronto lake front, starting at the mouth of the Humber and proceeding generally eastwards, and looked at birds.  I saw 18 species in two hours, before I decided I was cold enough (major drawback of aluminium tripods, or at least carrying same, in the winter: one gets a very cold hand) to call it a day. American crow

Graydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09839374676813519438noreply@blogger.com0