Seagulls-on-Hudson

February 12, 2025 by Howard Dale Posted in Wildlife & Animals Leave a comment

Last week I went down to the Hudson River to take some pictures, (See: By the Ossining Boat and Canoe Club) some of which were pictures of seagulls. While some of them were OK, the birds were some distance away and I didn’t have a camera that was well suited to taking pictures of birds.

So, I went back yesterday. It was still pretty cold, but nowhere near as cold as it was last week. And this time I took a camera with a 24-600mm lens, fast and accurate autofocus and tracking, and 24fps burst speed.

While I still have to practice a lot more as well as learning more about where to find bird, and how to have enough patience to wait, I got a couple of photographs that I liked.

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV

A bug in my coffee cup

February 10, 2025 by Howard Dale Posted in Wildlife & Animals Leave a comment

As is my habit I’d got up and had a coffee. After reading for a bit, I decided I wanted another as I was about to fill up my cup again, I noticed that the cup was inhabited by this bug.

It’s brown marmorated stink bug. It’s an insect in the family Pentatomidae, native to China, Japan, Korea, and other Asian regions. In September 1998, it was collected in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where it is believed to have been accidentally introduced. The nymphs and adults of the brown marmorated stink bug feed on over 100 species of plants, including many agricultural crops, and by 2010–11 had become a season-long pest in orchards in the Eastern United States. In 2010, in the Mid-Atlantic United States, $37 million in apple crops were lost, and some stone fruit growers lost more than 90% of their crops. Since the 2010s, the bug has spread to countries such as Georgia and Turkey and caused extensive damage to hazelnut production. It is now established in many parts of North America and has recently become established in Europe and South America.

It’s armored and is quite hard to kill and if you try it emits an unpleasant smell. As in all stink bugs, the glands that produce the defensive chemicals (the smell) are located on the underside of the thorax, between the first and second pair of legs. The smell has been characterized as a “pungent odor that smells like coriander.” The stink bug’s ability to emit an odor through holes in its thorax is a defense mechanism evolved to prevent it from being eaten by birds and lizards. However, simply handling the bug, injuring it, or attempting to move it can trigger it to release the odor.

Reports on human cases are rare, but the stink bug’s body fluids are toxic and irritating to the human skin and eyes. One case of keratitis has been reported in Taiwan. So, it’s probably not a good idea to touch one. Since it’s an invasive pest I should probably killed it. But I don’t like to kill anything, even bugs. So, I just took the mug outside and ejected the bug.

I’m glad I spotted it before I filled the cup though!

Taken with a Sony A7IV and Venus Optics Laowa 85mm f5.6

By the Ossining Boat and Canoe Club

February 1, 2025 by Howard Dale Posted in Buildings/Structures, Memorial, Things, Wildlife & Animals Leave a comment

I went down to the river the other day. It was really too cold to take photographs. I had to take a few photographs, put my camera and my hands in pocket (luckily, I was using a very small, pocketable camera). Wait until my hands warmed up. Then take a few more quick pictures and repeat the whole process until I’d taken as many pictures as I could.

The pictures were taken around the Ossining Boat and Canoe Club. According to the Club’s website:

The Ossining Boat and Canoe Club was founded in 1915. At first it doesn’t sound like it was that long ago, but then we realize that cars were not all that common and that the highways in our area were not yet built. There were no malls or shopping centers and all goods where bought on Main Street or from a catalogue. The Tappan Zee Bridge would not exist to take us to the other side of the river for another forty years. Canoeing was an active national sport in those days and the club put a group in the water called the “Black Hawks”. This team competed as far away as Canada in a four-man racing canoe.

Building. The original clubhouse was erected by the members on the present site, just south of the Ossining RR Station on Westerly Road, in 1921. With the exception of some minor changes to the façade, the structure remains identical to its original frame. Some recent renovations to the club property include: a newly constructed ramp from the clubhouse to the docks, ample docking space for visitors and boaters in distress, and a completely refurbished upper deck offering magnificent views of the Hudson River and its shores. In addition to these, heating and air-conditioning were added to the club building.

Today the clubhouse is owned by the Town of Ossining and is exclusively licensed to the boat club.

Function. The boat basin itself is not so different from the days of the original site though modern moorings have replaced the wooden tree poles of the past. The club’s location on the east bank of the Tappan Zee has always provided sailors with miles of open water and fishermen with ample fishing spots. The club was conceived so that members could have access to the river at a reasonable rate. In order to maintain these reasonable rates all clubhouse maintenance and repairs are completed by the membership. There have always been two classifications of membership – working and associate. To accommodate schedules that do not allow for volunteer work hours, a third status was added as non-working. Our application form requests that the applicant list his or her skills and professions – in that way we make use of an invaluable pool of resources.

Taken with a Sony RX100 M3

In Ossining again – Geese

January 22, 2025 by Howard Dale Posted in Wildlife & Animals Leave a comment

In a number of posts on this blog I’ve described my frustration with never being able to find birds to photograph. Because of this I tend to take the opportunity to photograph any birds, no matter how plain or uninteresting. Hence the pictures of these Canada geese. However, I do like the way the trio in the first picture have arranged themselves. It’s almost as if they’re posing.