Sunday bird blogging

Ok, I guess I really am in Costa Rica. I left my bird guide back in New York because my suitcase was already too heavy, so I will probably not be able to identify many of the birds I see here until I get home.

This hummingbird outside the wildlife sanctuary we visited yesterday turned out to be easy, however. I just Googled large purple hummingbird Costa Rica and there it was: the violet sabrewing.

Saturday reflections

It was a fourteen hour day today and I'm too tired to say anything intelligent or even list today's many activities. But here's a reflection from downtown San José yesterday.

La mañana en San José

I made it. Estoy en Costa Rica.

My AirBnb is gorgeous—all glass windows and doors set in a garden behind high walls so it's completely private. The neighboorhood is uninspiring, to put it mildly, with a highway at the end of the street, but I think it's worth it to have this oasis. (And I decide it's not, I'll move to a hotel in a more charming location.)

I'll take better pictures later but in the meantime, here's the view from my bed taken with my phone. I've already seen a hummingbird in the flowers.

Now I have to get dressed and try to navigate the insanely convoluted San José streets and find the language school that's going to be our home base.

Astronomy Tuesday

Of course, I was going to post this one: the first image released from the new James Webb Space Telescope. I always love deep space images and this one, of the galactic cluster SMACS 0723, is spectacular. They will be releasing more images today and I can't wait to see them.

I've seen the image on the right, taken by the Hubble, used to compare the level of detail captured by the two telescopes. Although I have seen many stunning deep space images taken by the Hubble, the Webb is able to capture light from much farther away—and therefore from farther back in the past. I saw someone call the Webb image “the first photograph” because it's the oldest light ever captured by a human camera.

I'm also fascinated by the way the nearby stars are different in the two images. Stars in Hubble images have four points; the Webb images have six points, because of the hexagonal mirrors on the telescope.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

Sunday bird blogging

Grackles always look as though they're really pissed off about something, but I can't help but love them for those colors.

If all goes according to plan—I don't have any reason to think it won't, but history and that pesky ongoing pandemic are making me cautious—next week I'll be in Costa Rica learning some new bird names.

Saturday reflection

A road in Woodstock. I know the mirror is there for safety, but I prefer to think of it as an art installation.

Saugerties Lighthouse

The Saugerties Lighthouse.

The current lighthouse was built in 1869, and there were lightkeepers living there until the 1950's. The top floor is now a bed and breakfast, and I thought I would love to spend a night or two there, until I found out it was $525 a night, and there are no vacancies until next January.

I love that kid who ignored the big, beautiful river and claimed the muddy puddle instead.

Summertime and the livin' is easy

The trail to the Saugerties Lighthouse, on the Hudson in Ulster County.

Astronomy Tuesday

Sunset on Mars.

Lately it feels as though the news every week somehow manages to be worse than the week before. I do find some comfort in knowing that horrible as so many humans manage to be, we are also capable of endless curiosity and innovation, giving us the technology to see sights like this.

Image credit: NASA

Houses

Two of the lovely houses I saw on my trip. The house on the left is in Woodstock; the one on the right is in Rhinebeck, across the Hudson from where I was staying.

 

Sunday bird blogging

Another souvenir from my trip upstate: a young barred owl. Mama was hovering back in the trees, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her.

Saturday reflections

A very summery reflection in Woodstock, where I spent several days this weeks catching up with some old friends and (mostly) staying off the Internet.