Scientific Ink

Tag: Flight

  • Owl Scream Social

    Young Bald Eagle

    Guy invited us to his house tonight for an ice cream social. He had all the usual trimmings: chocolate sprinkles, almonds, various ice cream flavors (strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate), chocolate syrup, neighborhood kids, and raptors.

    Ummm…raptors?

    Yup, raptors.

    A woman from the Leslie Science Center brought a kestrel, a barred owl, and a juvenile bald eagle. All the birds were injured (kestrel, owl) or imprinted on humans (eagle) and so would not survive in the wild. The birds were wonderful. The day reminded me of the amazing Raptor Trust in New Jersey. And, of course, the Onion article about owls.

    You should have heard the birds in the nearby trees all twittering away “Do. Not. Want.”

  • KARB – > CNR4 = dream come true


    On Friday, husband and I flew from Ann Arbor municipal airport (KARB) to Tobermory (CNR4) at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula. We stopped to clear customs at Kincardine. Friday was wonderfully smooth–so smooth that I fell asleep in midair while Dave piloted the plane. (I think this new job thing must be more exhausting than I’d expected–I slept away much of the weekend, slept in the car, slept in the hammock, slept in the plane…).

    Visibility was good, and we circled over Gillies Lake twice. Above is a shot from the first pass over it, and our family cabin is in the little triangular nub at the top left corner of the Lake. Beyond the trees, the waters of Georgian Bay and the horizon blend together. These photos really show how Gillies Lake is perched on the edge of the Niagara Escarpment.

    Anyway, I wanted to note that ever since I was small it has been my dream to fly to the cabin. Currently I’m riding on my husband’s license. I will get certified too, though I am taking things one at a time: settle in new job, then start an intense new hobby.

    Someday we’ll have a float plane and land on the lake. Til then, landing in spectacular Tobermory will do.

  • Eagle in Flight

    We took to the air around lunchtime today. There was a bit of wind, so the plane wanted to fly, pulling up in response to the gusts as soon as we rolled it from the hangar. The wind also created somewhat nauseating turbulence in flight, but the combination of wind and the thermals off of unevenly warming ground and frozen lakes brought out soaring birds. We saw more birds on this trip than I’ve ever seen, including a bald eagle.

    eagle in flight

    The eagle was below us, at maybe 2000 feet, its black wings and white tail fan outstretched and immobile – in full soar. It was big, even from far away. No, it isn’t my photograph, but the words of the post seemed insufficient without the image. Imagine inverting the photo and seeing the eagle from above, it was farther away than this, but the wings seemed just as wide and even darker.

    (photo credit: Eagles 2 050, originally uploaded to Flickr by FadderUri.)

  • Calendar

    Everybody is cheap about different, weird things. I’m cheap about calendars. I balk at purchasing a calendar in December when one can be had half-price or better in January. I am the calendar-buyer in the house. Each year I pick up a few in January, one for the house, one for my husband’s work, one for my work…

    A couple of charities sent me tolerable calendars this year – the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, the Nature Conservancy – so the only calendar we needed was the one for my husband’s office. Well, I have been fooling around a lot with taking aerial photos while my husband enjoys his pilot’s license. And I have been posting some aerial and some candid photos onto Flickr.

    Flickr has all sorts of relationships with vendors who will happily slap your photos onto business cards, mugs, t-shirts, calendars, and whathaveyou. So I decided not to cheap out this year; I’d custom-make a flight calendar for my husband for Christmas.

    (more…)

  • Aerial photos

    So, another sunset joy ride. This time, I decided to try opening the window and sticking the camera out into the breeze. The wind pushed in the zoom lens, so I’d have to keep my hand on it to hold the zoom. The photos are better, of course, without the layer of plexiglass and reflection, but still somehow whiter and less vibrant than my memory. I played around with the sliders in Picasa and made them look more vivid, but I feel like I’m cheating. Any thoughts?

    Farm landscape photo as taken – kind of hazy/whitish

    aerial photo 1

    Farm landscape doctored photo – I moved the “shadows” slider to the right is this better?

    doctored aerial photo

    Lakes and trees original

    Lakes and forest original

    Lakes and trees – doctored

    Lakes and trees after fooling

  • Flight photos

    Eric took some fantastic photos on a flight Saturday.