Maybe lazy?

 I had not realized the interest in the lunar occultation of Mars this past  Monday until I received letters from Ottawa and Tokyo, incidentally 12 hours ahead of me - thanks, "Hagi"and your students for asking:

I an hard against our building to shellter my and the camera from a cold wind, stronger than a breeze.  When I went out around 8PM/20:00 the Moon was clear and all was well.

However, when I returned to start the sequence of "ingression", it had so clouded up that I could not see even a hint of where the Moon might be. So I missed the start. And I was not optimistic about seeing the exit. But still I ought to try.

Howeverm as you will note, I was several minutes late and the occultation was over. That is Mars above and to the right of the Moon;

I did some stretching of the intensity scale as well as colour  - in that first shot of this sequence - to explore possibilities for another time. The last shot is close to what one would see through binoculars. I used my Nikon 1000 to take these images and Paint Shop Pro for "processing".

Thanks for spurring me on - WOB

I used to be apathetic ...

 Now I am a person who gets excited seeing a North American Robin flitting about in a forest.

A month ago I got carried away with a Snowy Owl. Since then I have seen nothing, So you can imagine how I felt the other day when I saw:

These "birds" just don't give a "hoot". Maybe they have been disconnected?

It is a rough life in winter - WOB

The Trial of Winter

 Your Honour, Winter claims to have been framed:

One talks about wind-chill, but the motion of air can be gentle and bind liquid with solid in what might almost be described as a dance:

The swirl of ice responding to the motion of air is like a ballerina responding to music.

The music continues:

In the previous blog the ice was presented as threatening teeth. However, that is not in keeping with these wild ice forms moulded by Winter's breath;

Dress appropriately and enjoy the sculpture of Winter's breath.

WOB

The Teeth of Winter

 It really is about poor insulation.

Too much heat loss - like loosing hair on the head -

Pretty, but also pretty dangerous, too.

WOB

It's raining, it's pouring, "Gorilla" is snoaring!

 How about that: +10°C, rain and mist and fog with visibility under 200m.

How about this for poor insulation:

Okay, these Reds are from a few kilometers further north of here.

WOB

Moutain Ash and Rowans, Elephants and Pelicans

 It was a bad day, wet, cold, no real birds to speak of. The stream at Centennial Park, Washago was actually frozen over this afternoon - no open water, except around the road bridge pylons.

What to do?

I was thinking(?) I haven't seen any elephants recently!

How about that.

Then I thought back to yesterday morning.

No elephants in Rowan trees:

Do you see any? Elephants hide in Rowan trees because they can.

And why can they? They paint their toe nails red. 

Why didn't I think of that?

And now we know why Pelicans are so good, too:

Never stop learning. I had never seen this on any of my walks in Tudhope Park!

>  >  W O B ->

The "eyes" have it

 This afternoon I felt I must try harder! I wanted an owl.

What did I find? A few gulls circling in an agitated manner. Several dozen doves were very calm and collected. Then maybe more than 100 gulls flew over, probably on their way to the city dump?

There are photos, but I'll skip them tonight. I settled back and began to prepare to call it a day. Clouds were covering the sun so I didn't even get a shot at sunspots. But like "Kim's game" the scene in front of me was somehow different from what it had been before the gulls had distracted me. But what? So I used binoculars to scan the snow bank. And there it was, a new arrival. I got out of the car and took a quick "documentary" photo. And then I relaxed and took some more.

Here are the initial 3 shots:

Between the 2nd and 3rd photos I changed my position slightly to get the owl in front of a background tree, (I moved a few feet, my 2 feet, to the east so the owl!s position shifted to the right, How boring.)

I think the owl has been through this before:

I hope I'll see her again,

WOB