Cooper’s Hawk (Takeoff!)

A Cooper’s Hawk I spotted on a walk around the neighborhood.

I heard a *lot* of sparrows chirping in a tree behind a house. Then this hawk flew up and perched on the nearest telephone pole and the sparrows all just dropped silent. It stayed up there for a few minutes, then flew to the next pole, then flew off out of view.

The photos aren’t great, but I like that I managed to catch it this clearly. The last one I saw, I only had my phone with me.

#hawk #bird #nature #photo

A mottled brown bird with a hooked beak and yellow eyes, perched on top of a wooden pole and looking off to the side.

The same bird leaping from the top of the pole and spreading out its wings.

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As I was walking through a residential neighborhood, I heard a *lot* of sparrows chirping in a tree behind a house. Then this bird flew up and perched on the nearest telephone pole and the sparrows all just dropped silent. It stayed up there for a few minutes, then flew to the next pole, then flew off out of view.

On iNaturalist

Sunset over the ocean.

Sunset over the ocean. In the zoomed shot, just moments after sunset, you can see the silhouette of Santa Barbara Island. There’s a park up in the hills that also has a clear view of the ocean, where you can see the more distant San Nicolas Island next to it. But down here near sea level, it’s below the horizon.

#photo #sunset #ocean

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Kid wants to learn animation. He’s used Wick, but it can’t do everything he wants …

Kid wants to learn animation. He’s used Wick, but it can’t do everything he wants to do, and he’s used up a trial of Adobe Animate.

I don’t want to support Adobe’s Creative Cloud keep-paying-every-month-forever subscription model.

Question for the fediverse: What animation drawing programs have you used? Which ones have you found to be easy to learn, capable, reasonably priced, etc?

We’ve looked at some of the other programs here, but I’m hoping for more context:
https://alternativeto.net/software/adobe-flash/

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covid

I’m shocked, shocked to find that a student at the kid’s elementary school has tested positive for covid-19 during the week after (checks notes) a holiday that traditionally involves large gatherings over an extended period of time with lots of talking and eating.

OK, not that shocked. Especially with cases *already surging* in the LA area before Thanksgiving.

I wonder if they’re still planning on opening up the TK-2 grades to hybrid on-campus learning.

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Picked out the best shots of the Point Vicente bluffs.

Picked out the best shots of the #PointVicente bluffs. I got there mid-afternoon & took some photos of the #cove with the historic #lighthouse (and could actually see Catalina Island in the distance!)

Then I walked along the blufftop path along the nature reserve for a while, before turning back to reach the lighthouse area by sunset.

#photo #ocean #california #PalosVerdes #coast

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Two more shots from Bluff Cove, this time looking out at the ocean.

Two more shots from Bluff Cove, this time looking out at the ocean.

Small boat sailing on the bay seems like a good way to get out while staying isolated, and surfboards look like they’d be handy to measure minimum distance.

It’s been years since I’ve been on a boat of any sort. But I do remember enjoying small sailboats. Maybe I’ll look for a class when it’s safe to interact with people in person again.

#ocean #sailing

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On the way to and from Point Vicente, I stopped at Bluff Cove

On the way to and from Point Vicente, I stopped at Bluff Cove (also on the Palos Verdes peninsula). I was surprised to find that I could plainly see the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles in the distance. I guess I’d never been there on a clear enough day before.

There were more people than I expected, but everyone was maintaining distance and most of them were masked up.

Really wish I’d had a tripod for the evening shot, though

#photo #coast #California #LosAngeles #cove #ocean #PalosVerdes

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A white-crowned sparrow, spotted in the brush at the top of the bluffs at Point Vicente

A white-crowned sparrow, spotted in the brush at the top of the bluffs at Point Vicente.

These birds *really* blend in well with the dry brush and dirt – it was really hard to see them except when they stopped somewhere with contrast like this.

#photo #birds #sparrow #nature

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On iNaturalist

This is cool: recycling discarded PPE into plastic bricks

This is cool: recycling discarded PPE into plastic bricks for construction.

“First, the PPE material from body coverings, masks and head caps is isolated for three days. Then Desai’s team of 20 employees sanitizes the fabric and uses a machine to shred it before sanitizing it again. Next it is mixed with 47 percent paper sludge and a binding agent and pressed by hand into various molds. Each brick weighs around 3 pounds and costs about 4 cents.”

The pandemic is generating tons of discarded PPE. This entrepreneur is turning them into bricks.

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