Held up

 

Today’s title implies no robbery. On September 19th along the beach at Galveston Island I found a feather on the sand and held it up to photograph it. Hours later, back on the mainland and heading for home, I stopped to photograph more-dramatic clouds in their own right.

 

 

 

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If you’re interested in history and biography as well as photography, you may want to watch the slide show “Historical Figures Who Lived Long Enough to Be Photographed.” It includes photographs of some people born in the 18th century—in fact as early as 1749!—though of course they didn’t get photographed until late in their lives, as photography first became practical only after the invention of the daguerreotype in 1839.

 

© 2022 Steven Schwartzman

 

 

 

A figurative feather in my cap, a literal one in my hand

A wanderer in nature is inevitably a finder of feathers. When I came upon this one in my neighborhood on January 2nd, I held it up in front of me and made a portrait. Call so close and tight a view monumental, and you may have given an idea to a sculptor or architect. Actually that feathered inspiration isn’t new.

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  You can’t make this stuff up.

If you or I want to fly on a commercial airplane in the United States we have to show a picture ID, typically a driver’s license or passport. Now the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has confirmed that it allows illegal immigrants to use arrest warrants as an alternative form of ID to enter airports and board airplanes. You can read about that or watch a 4-minute video about it.

© 2022 Steven Schwartzman

Avian remains two days apart

At Brushy Creek Lake Park on December 14th I found a small white feather covered with dewdrops. Two days later while walking a trail in my neighborhood I somehow noticed a small dead bird on the ground. Shannon Westveer has identified it as a chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina). It didn’t seem to have been dead for long but already ants had found it. Because you might not care to see that scene, I’ve not included a photograph in today’s post but only a link to it that you can click if you wish. And this sparrow, seen or unseen, may remind you of a New Testament passage: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

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As someone who has taught math and statistics, and of course as a citizen, I find it disturbing when a governmental agency cites a flawed study to support an agenda, then refuses to disavow the study even after the many problems with it, including persistent lack of transparency, are pointed out. You can read about that in David Zweig’s article “The CDC’s Flawed Case for Wearing Masks in School” in the December 2021 issue of The Atlantic, which by no stretch of the imagination qualifies as a right-wing publication. In fact David Zweig has written for plenty of left-leaning organizations; among them are The New Yorker, The New York Times, CNN, Salon, Slate, The New Republic, and New York Magazine.

You can also get a much more detailed and animated account in a December 17th Megyn Kelly interview with David Zweig that goes from about 1:00 to about 49:00 in this YouTube video. (The timeline slider lets you skip through a couple of two-minute commercials; one or two very brief commercials dismiss themselves, and in another one or two you can click to dismiss the ads.)

© 2021 Steven Schwartzman

Two kinds of feathers

At Raab Park in Round Rock on August 18th I noticed quite a bunch of small feathers on the ground that seemed to tell the story of a bird having met its demise there. Because the feathers were so small and light, a few of them had gotten caught on nearby plants, including the firewheel seed head (Gaillardia pulchella) above and the camphorweed seed head (Heterotheca subaxillaris) below.

Eventually I noticed a much larger feather near by, which I picked up and photographed. I began to wonder if it came from a raptor that had killed the bird that all the small feathers belonged to. If an avian maven among you can shed light on these feathers, please fly to our rescue.

© 2020 Steven Schwartzman

Owl feather

As I began heading back from the farthest point on my April 17th outing under the power lines west of Morado Circle, I noticed a feather on the ground. Picking it up, I held it in front of me and took pictures of it in several positions. Chuck Sexton, a local expert on birds, says the feather is likely from the right wing of a great horned owl, Bubo virginianus. That’s the same species you caught a glimpse of, and only a glimpse of, in a recent post. Here’s a closer look at one part of the feather:

This feather proved to be the first of maybe half a dozen I found scattered at intervals along the trail. Seems likely the owl met its demise near by.

© 2018 Steven Schwartzman

Okay, so here’s the spider

Click for better clarity and contrast.

Now you get to see the Argiope aurantia spider that spun the web that snagged the feather that caught the attention of the photographer in Great Hills Park on October 19th.

© 2014 Steven Schwartzman

Small white feather caught in spiderweb

A few posts ago you saw an October 19th photograph of a hover fly on frostweed flowers in Great Hills Park (in fact only about a hundred feet from the place where, a month later, I took the frostweed ice trick picture you saw last time). Another thing I found during the October jaunt was a small white feather caught in the web of an Argiope aurantia spider. I tried my hand at a bunch of photographs, but due to the low light and the breeze—even a little air movement causes a lot of feather movement—I had trouble getting the whole feather in focus at the same time. In this image fortune favored me and most all the parts came out sharp.

© 2014 Steven Schwartzman