An Olympus Revival

What could the Greco-Roman Deities do to get their itsha together and revive the celestial heights of their vaunted otherworld? Not much, probably. But the camera company of the same name has just now slightly redeemed itself with the Crumby Ovate. How did that come about since Crumby was seriously fed up with Olympus not many moons ago?

What has revived Crumby's reverence? Certainly not the ridiculously lame micro 4/3rds offerings. How those ucksa magnifico, including the latest Super Duper Penta Bessamacoola. No.

Instead Crumby found himself still using his Oly mount Bugma and his 14-54 on the antiquated E 330 bodkin. So when Crumby got the chance to purchase a slightly more advanced camera body at a fairly low price, he jumped like a bean of the Mexican jumping variety or subspecies. It's a helluva deal!

Yes. For $237.90, including shipping, Crumby glommed onto an E600 with slightly under 1200 shutter activations. It all works too. Now Crumby has 12.3 megapixels at his diposal for dealing with the tiny, the far away and whatever the 14-54 does, or is supposed to do.

Sadly, Crumby just could not pony up for Canon mount replacements for the Bugma and the 14-54. Everything else was good to go. But not those two. Thus we are twain systems. How low rent is that?

Gotch Eye Cowbird

Why is this Cowbird letting me sneak up?. That's what Crumby thought as he crept closer and closer.

Anon, a wave of nostalgia or deja vous overlapped Crumby. There he sat in the deceased vertebrate skinning room. The fetid flesh scent plus corn meal dust filled the air. But it was the chewing that got to Crumby. Yes. Crumby could hear the dermestids chewing their lunch.

Mercy! Anyone that has spent time stuffing cotton balls into the noggins or occipital cavities of Class Aves knows what Crumby is speaking thereof. Yes. That's what we are now discussing.

This particular cowbird is blind on his left side. Looks like his bill aint normal either. Get a cripple sticker if your fixing to park there, buddy!

More Examples of Wide Angle Florals

Mostly, these make Crumby grumpy. Crumby feels like his copy of the Canon 10-22 is not sharp. How many are? Anyway, these shots were done in RAW and seriously post-processed.

Tradescantia muypendecho


















Mercy! See how the Onosmodium sports!

An Obscure Native Weed

Crumby has posessed the Canon 10-22mm lens for a spell. Generally, the spell has not worked. Fretful that the lens is no count (autofocus is off), Crumby has experimented.
But now push has come to shove. Cause Crumby has an important mission upcoming. And he needs to immediately figure out if the lens is no count, or we are dealing with user error.

Unlike many, Crumby wants the Canon 10-22 for wide angle shots of flora that are difficult to photograph with other lenses for a vaiety of reasons, possibly more user error. Also, Crumby figured a wide angle lens would do well on the bigger serpents crossing roads or trails. Alas, Crumby has not encountered any of those phenomena.



















Well, here we espy one of the littlest of all the wildflowers at the CB. It is Hedyotis greenmanii also known as Houstonia parviflora. The associates are the vetch, Vicia ludoviciana or leavenworthii, whatever, and the celery, Apium leptophyllum, favored by swallowtail caterpillars because it is so delicious.

Crumby is fairly happy with this picture. Si. That's cause the peekture shows a generous swath of Hedyotis greenmanii habitat. Yet when an average person magnifies the view, the flowers remain fairly sharp. This is close to what Crumby is seeking.

Crane Flies Survive Human Made Climate Change

If anyone was wondering, the crane flies (Tipula sp.), judging by the great numbers that have moved into the CB living quarters, and the vast hordes outsides, seem to be doing OK. Yes. They are nectaring here and there. They also like bananas.

















The big ones are difficult to frame with a 150mm macro. Crumby had to keep backing up. He almost ran out of Boys Comfort Station. Even so, he cut some of its feet off. For heaven's sake!

Happy as a crane fly in the Boys Comfort Station.

Stinky Valley Environmental News

A few years ago, the responsible party at Booger Center decided to replace the Eurasian weed cultivar grass situated on the football field with a synthetic “turf”. But because mercurial water that falls upon the Booger Center soon drains into semi- hallowed Barton Creek, the increase in impervious cover and assorted environmental evil doing needed to be mitigated . Therefore, the responsible party agreed to dig up a bunch of parking lot pavement and replace that pavement with this construct. This (see peekture) is the mitigation.

So far, so good. Yet recall that a bunch of nastiness from the Booger Center pavement gets washed off into this structure as the rain rarely falls. That’s ingredients like French fry grease, motor oil or flag twirler vaginal secretions. So, since this is actually Austink, the weird city, that we all work hard to keep weird, and since many of us are pseudo-environmentalists, let’s think of a way we could abrogate the mitigation by piling on to the various greases and secretions. Yes. How could we negate the intent of the mitigation and still appear, weird? Easy that, we can herbicide the Eurasian weeds, mostly shepherd’s purse and prickly sow thistle, growing up on the fence. That way the herbicide residue will wash into the sewer. Won’t that be weird?

Uh. Why not herbicide all the weeds, not just the ones growing up the fence? Well. If we herbicided all the weeds, there would be no plants left at all. A tall, a tall. That might be too weird.

Slime Mold

What's the official mold of Stinky Valley? Easy that, it's slime mold (Fuligo septica). And yes, slime mold is, slimy. Mercy!
















Here we see a fairly young one dining on wood chips, it's favorite foodstuff.

Slime molds are actually, highly intelligent compared to, for example, fungi. Like this young one can already do arithmetic.
















Here's another slime mold, bigger and older. See how it's reaching out toward the photographer. It's friendly.

O! Have you seen Rapistrum?

O! Have you seen Rapistrum?
Cause I’ve looked high and low.
And I can not find Rapistrum.
No matter where I go.
Alas, alack, so sad to say,
I surely miss Ray so.
And if you chance to see him,
Be sure to let me know.

Molothrus ater

The specific eptithet, ater, comes from the Latin, past tense. A sentence using ater in Latin would read like, Moluthrus ater ater mio semen. Or something like that.

In any event, these dang vermin are messing up the Bosom Brotherhoods bird feeding enjoyment. How can we enjoy feeding the birds when we know these particular cowbirds are eating our seed all up? And to what end do these cowbirds put the energy derived from our seed? Easy that, these boys use our seed to make sperm. Sperm that may eventually unite with an ovum that may be deposited in the nest of some hapless songbird that is fixing to go extinct. And if the hapless songbird goes extinct, whose fault will that be? Maybe Crumby's, maybe Ray's, maybe your fault.

Take the dern feeders down! When the cowbirds show up.

East Vs. West, cont.

Few recall how the east meets the west at the CB as per the ranges of the twain woodpeckers, Golden-fronted (gofr) and Red-bellied (rebe). Yet now, we have documentation for both those supposedly closely related peckers, right here at the CB, where east meets west. Yes they do, don't they?

But a goofy part is, the CB gofr loves suet. That's right. She can't get enough Woodpecker Treat suet. She also liked the Pepper Suet. Yet the rebes totally eschew the suet, preferring the nearby Gourmet Wild Bird Mix.




















Actually though, this particular photo may not be sufficient for identifying a gofr. However, we have more proof. Yes we do, don't we?

This situation is the same difference as the Pyrrhuloxia and the Cardinals which also meet at the juncture of east and west at the CB. But the behavioral difference with these twain is the Pyrrhuloxia is too dumb to operate the bird feeder by itself.

Meantime, the danged Brown-headed cowbirds have arrived. Mercy! It's like Papists at a miracle.

Sad for the resident good birds, but Ray is fixing to pull the feeders until the plague of cowbirds departs. Probably, we should kill them all, the cowbirds, but some of us already feature bad karma over that. Mmm. Cowbird pie.

Say. If everyone knew how delicious cowbirds are, that deliciousness would solve many problems. Like, we could export delicious cowbirds to France or Leander. Or, what about this fact. Cowbird sperm is a well-known aphrodisiac. Would cowbird sperm sell big in Asia or what?

How about this! The best cowbird sperm for lifting a limpy is cowbird sperm that has already been transferred to the female cowbird. But you have to catch the female immediately post fornicantion and eat her right then. Therefore, the particular sperm we are now discussing is extremely rare and valuable.

Goldfinch Goodbyes

Sadly for many, the American Goldfinches have just about departed these parts for cooler climes already. Praise the Goddess, somebody else is now responsible for feeding the departed Americans. Now, only the lessers are front and center at the sock feeders. Yet the lessers being well, lesser, don't each as much. So the bird seed bill is fixing to drop precipitously.

Crumby hypothesized that there would be plenty of interspecific squabbling over the Nyjer seed. And the twain species did squabble some. But not as much as Crumby expected. Generally, the kingdom of the nyjer socks was a peaceable kingdom.





















Here's a couple of average goldfinches mugging for the camera. American on bottom.

Is Shrew Chow Legal on Federal Lands?

Now just suppose an average naturalist headed out to federal land. Like if you were an average naturalist that dwelt in the Booblico duh Tejas, you'd need to get out of state practically before you could visit the federal land. But suppose you did? And the primary reason for your journey would be to espy shrews. Like maybe you have never espied shrews. Or maybe, the only shrew you ever espied, was dead. Morte! Mercy! Not surpising that forty years of espying vermin in these parts would lead up to one dead shrew. That's because nature haters are overwhelmingly dominant in these parts. Goodness! Nature haters kill shrews on sight. So shrews are hard to come by hereabouts.

Be that as it may, the query is, Is shrew chow legal on Federal Lands? Like Crumby is no total umbassda. He knows that generally speaking, an average person should not feed the animals on federal land. Itshauckfa. Any umbassda knows that.

But shrews may be exempt. That's because shrews are tiny plus inconspicuous. So what's the harm in feeding a little tiny shrew chow to your average little tiny shrew?

That's right. Crumby is desperate to bait a shrew or too. That's because some shrew photographs are liable to give Crumby plenty of ease in his dotage. So why not? Why can't an old Ovate bait shrews for comfort or intellectual stimulation in prepation for the last roundup, the end of the trail, the boat ride to Hades, the last fling in the fairy ring. Goodness gracious!

You may know that there could be issues with shrew chow in bear country. But maybe bears don't like shrew chow. Could a bear eat shrew chow? Would a bear eat shrew chow? Would a bear eat a shrew?

Oh my Goddess! Crumby needs answers.

East Meets West is the Same Difference as West Meets East

At Red’s Good Vs. Evil Cow Barn, east meets west. That means, some species of this or that may be at their eastern limit of distribution at the CB, while other species may be at their most westerly limit at the CB. An example of all this may be two kinds of peckerwoods that habitate hereabouts in these parts.

OK. We have your red-bellied woodpecker at the CB. And, we probably have the golden-fronted woodpecker at the CB. So all the red-bellied peckers that don’t dwell at the CB, only dwell east of the CB. While most, maybe all, the golden-fronted peckers, peckerwoods or peckerheads dwell west of the CB. Jeez Louise!

Except this is not true. For one thing, some golden-fronts formerly, allegedly dwelt in a cemetery east of I 35 and way east of the CB. Dang! Maybe those wayward peckers are still there in that grim cemetery. Plus, the likelihood is high that a red-belly or two dwell west of the CB. Likely! Yes.

Anyway, generally considered, the golden fronts dwell west, while the red belly dwell east of somewhere. And that somewhere may be a point on a latitude, maybe. Goodness sakes alive!

OK. You may know that many would like to change the common name of the red belly woodpecker to red neck peckerwood. Like besides Crumby, the many would probably include Rev. Sharpton. But there are many, many more besides Crumby Ovate and Rev. Sharprton. A great multitude. Tousands!

But we are roaring off task. Today, Ray again espied a probable golden-fronted woodpecker at the suet feeder. But now hold yer horse or pecker. Every solitary day as this miserable world turns or spins, twain red-bellied, amated pair, apply for assistance at the regular seed feeders. But they never, ever, go to the suet feeder. Que paso, amigo? The other time Ray espied a large, ladder backed wp at the feeder, that wp grabbed off a big chunk of moldy suet, then sped away south. What does all this mean?

Well. Today, Ray got a fair look at that wp again at the suet feeder. What’s more, it looked golden-fronted. Course then we tried to take its picture. But it flew off before Crumby could change the camera settings from when he had the 10-22mm on the camera. Changing lenses. How universally mediocre is that? So now we need to get a picture of the golden-fronted because such would be a lifer for the CB yard list. Gracious sakes alive!

But what about the waterproof backpack (see below)? All righty. Like many before us, the Bosom Brotherhood has decided upon the Overboard Pro-Action 30L in red. Alas! That model is temporarily out of stock at B&H, our preferred vendor. Goodness! Sometimes stuff that is temporarily out of stock at B&H never gets back in, stock. Yikes!

Note: East may meet west, everywhere, actually.