Sunday bird blogging

I assumed I'd eventually figure out what kind of hummingbird this is, but I haven't, and it seems a shame to let such a beautiful bird go unseen just because I don't have a name for it.

From Monteverde.

Saturday reflections

I took this picture on Lexington Avenue today, during my very short lunch break between classes.

I haven't had the time or energy to write much about the teaching experience this semester. Prepping the classes is a ridiculous amount of work, and teaching them is exhausting. Sometimes I realize halfway through an activity that it's too hard or too easy or too confusing and I have to rethink everything on the fly. But the students are a joy. I am loving spending my Saturdays with them.

Astronomy Tuesday

This picture of Earth was taken a few weeks ago by the Lucy probe, which is on a twelve year mission to the Trojan asteroids.

What I love about this picture is what you can barely see: the moon, on the far left of the picture. I'm always astonished by the distance between the Earth and our moon; it feels as though the moon should be larger, and not so far away, and makes the fact that multiple missions have crossed that terrifying distance even more astonishing.

Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI

Sunday bird blogging

If I had to pick a favorite water bird, I think it would be the hooded merganser. They are so adorable.

Saturday reflections

Reflections on the side of a bus on 42nd Street, taken from an Uber with my phone.

Astronomy Tuesday

Some nondescript sandy rocks. On Mars.

I never stop being amazed by all the ways we can now see our own Solar System in such detail.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Sunday bird blogging

I hear that wood ducks have been back at the reservoir in Central Park, but I haven't had time to go there myself. I saw this one last winter.

Saturday reflections

Another puddle picture. I think this one looks like an oil painting.

I have the usual Saturday night exhaustion, but today one of my students told me that I'm her favorite teacher and that may have been the best compliment I ever got.

Astronomy Tuesday

I have to admit that I've always found the Hubble images of the famous Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula spooky, even a little creepy. But when seen in infrared, so that all of the previously hidden stars are no longer obscured by space dust, it's awe-inspiring, and now in a good way.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team

Sunday bird blogging

We can always use another cardinal.

I walked across Central Park on my way home from school yesterday and it was a perfect October day. I'd forgotten how splendid they can be.

Saturday reflections

Yes, I know it's actually Sunday.

I meant to click publish last night and post this, and as usual on Saturday nights, I was simply too tired to think straight.

I was so happy when I found out there was a new season of The Great British Baking Show, with episodes released every Friday, because I thought that would be a great way to unwind from my Saturday classes.

I've yet to make it all the way through an episode; I end up watching it during the week instead.

Topsy-turvy

I got the latest Covid booster and my flu shot on Wednesday and unexpectedly got knocked on my ass. I am somewhat better today, although I seem to have grown a third breast at the injection site, and basically everything still aches. Teaching will be fun tomorrow.

This is one of the trails in Monteverde. If you look at the trees in the background you can see that it wasn't the camera that was tilted. That was me yesterday.

Astronomy Tuesday

Hubble captured this closeup of one of the dust pillars in the Eagle Nebula.

Image Credit: Image Credit: NASA, ESA, The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Travel flashback

As an apology for missing Saturday Reflections, here's an example of some fun architectural geometries, and a few reflections, in the Central Business District in Sydney in 2016.

Sunday bird blogging

Oops.

Not really keeping up with the old blog here, and I'm starting to suspect that backlog of photos is never going to go down.

I think this hummingbird in Fort Tryon Park this week was a female ruby-throated, mostly because that's what most of the hummers people are reporting around here are. Hummingbirds are almost as difficult to identify as they are to photograph (as my many pictures of unidentified hummers from Costa Rica would attest). The colors may only be visible when the light catches them a certain way, so most of them look nothing like the field guides.