Tag Archives: video

Mole Destroying My Lawn

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Having struggled to keep rabbits out of the backyard to help the grass grow without weeds (and lost that battle), things took a far worse turn this year. Moles moved in and they managed to destroy things far more effectively than any weed could manage. I tried pushing down the ground where they had been but they soon came back and made things worse. One afternoon, I had barely finished treading down the ground when I saw it moving again. I decided to film the motion of this mole under the lawn since it had clearly won the war.

How Nervous are the Coots?

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I have posted shots of coots on Juanita Bay getting attacked by bald eagles and trying to get away while staying as a pack. I was back there a while back and there was a large flock of them out on the lake and they seemed to be constantly taking off and landing. They seemed to be spooked by something and bolting but then settling down before being spooked again. Strangely, there was nothing there. I think they were spooking each other. I did get some shots but it seemed that a video was a better way to convey what was going on so the clip below gives you some idea of how they were behaving.

First of the Weekend Flyovers – The F-35C

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The Navy brought three F-35Cs to Boeing Field to provide a flyover for one of the UW Huskies’ games. It would have been great to catch them landing but that wasn’t possible, but the game was on a Saturday that I was free, so I headed out to catch them. The conditions were really nice with that sort of fall lighting that can be so welcome. Two jets were going to do the flyover so the spare could wait on the ramp.

They got airborne long in advance of the game itself. Whether this was to allow a little sightseeing or to buy time if there was a need to jump to the spare, I don’t know. I did decide to get some video as they taxied out since it showed off the wings being unfolded. The video is below and is actually a combination of two different departures.

I haven’t seen much of the Charlie models of the F-35 so was happy to have these jets operating locally. The motor in the F-35 is a big one and the take off is not subtle – they do seem to come out of burner pretty early, though. I guess that much power gets you going fast enough pretty quickly. I picked my mid field location for the take offs to get a reasonable angle on the jets as they rotated and climbed out. Then it was time to relocate.

The return of the jets after the flyover had been completed gave the opportunity to get some touchdown shots which I had missed from the day they arrived in Seattle. More good light so all was well. They stayed overnight and then headed back home the following day. A different flyover was happening that day which will be a different post but, in the meantime, there are some bonus shots of the three jets heading back to base.

Crows Eating the Berries

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Two years in a row, I have seen this in Juanita Bay Park. There are some trees that have some red berries on them in the fall and the crows seem to love them. They can flock to the trees in large numbers sometimes. I assume the fruity casing of the berries is appealing as they do like them. However, when I get closer, the crows seem to get nervous. A little video to add to show one of the crows having a good chomp.

The Seals They Be a Frolicking

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On a sunny weekend afternoon at Ballard Locks, we were treated to a lot of seal activity. The salmon were not running so I am not sure why the seals were there in such numbers, but they were. Two in particular, seemed to be having a bunch of fun together. They were playing a lot – occasionally pausing to just cruise around before getting back into their play. Everyone was fascinated and I imagine there was a lot of cell phone footage of them from that day.

Plenty of Rail Traffic Through Canmore

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The location we were staying at in Canmore was very close to the railroad. This is the Canadian Pacific mainline across Canada after leaving Calgary. We had a lot of trains come through night and day, but it was really not terribly disturbing. Not long ago, Canadian Pacific merged with Kansas City Southern to create CPKC. The trains often had a mix of locos from both original companies. I imagine it will be a long time before they are all painted in new colors. Quite a scenic view with the trains in the foreground and the mountains in the background. We did have other operator equipment occasionally showing up in the trains but not too often. I knew someone that would be fascinated by the length of the trains, so I videoed one as it passed. It makes for a long video so be prepared if you watch the link below.

The Northern Flicker is Bug Hunting

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I have written in previous posts about how skittish the local flicker population can be.  These woodpeckers are interesting looking birds but hard to get shots of because they fly off whenever they see you. Nancy and I were sitting on our deck when we saw some movement under the eaves of the house behind us. At first, we couldn’t work out what it was. Then we realized it was a flicker. It was moving around under the eaves looking for bugs

A little while later it popped out and then started to move along the rooftop poking under the joints to see what bugs might be there. A progressive examination of the roof followed and then, once it had checked out all that seemed of use there, it moved to the next house to repeat the process. Strangely, it never seemed bothered by my presence watching it.  Maybe the food was just so good, it was worth the risk of me being around. Video tells the story better than stills se take a look at some footage I shot below.

Video of Overflying A380

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I happened to be out in the parking lot at work when I noticed the approaching contrail of a large jet. Being next to the car, I grabbed the camera with my longest lens and focused on what turned out to be an Emirates A380 heading to California. I grabbed a few shots as it approached but the view through the viewfinder was more interesting as I watched the contrails curl up in the trailing vortices from the wing. The motion of the ice crystals made me think that video was a more appropriate idea. The stabilization of my lens is so good that handholding this video at 800mm was not a problem and the video below is the result.

Conair Q400 Water Drop Testing

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I went to Abbotsford for the day to see the arrivals of the planes for an event on the airport that weekend.  Abbotsford is also home to Conair with them undertaking conversion of aircraft for firefighting duties as well as maintaining their in service fleet.  They have a fleet of de Havilland Canada DHC8-400s that have been converted to waterbombing duties for fighting wildfires.  One of them was undertaking some test flying while I was there.

It took off while I was waiting for some other arrivals and then started undertaking a series of water drops at the far end of the field.  I did try getting some shots of it, but it was far away, and the heat haze was brutal, so this was not going to be a good result.  After eight drops, they landed and taxied back to the ramp.  Fortunately, later in the afternoon, they came back out for some more runs.  This time, since I was about to leave anyway, I headed to the other end of the field to get some shots of the test drops. 

Unfortunately, the weather became rather damp, and I was standing out trying to get some shots without getting drenched.  Seeing something like this without being in a dangerous spot where real fires are raging was a nice bonus.  I did also try a little video while I was at it so that is lower down too.