Fri May 06 06:56:03 PST Hummingbird TV:

Almost as soon as we moved into this apartment in Pacific Palisades, CA, I put up a hummingbird feeder. There are tons of them in this neighborhood, and I've always enjoyed them. Then, A couple years ago, I took cuttings from the ivy growing in our hedge and planted it on our porch. It grew pretty well and soon started its way across the ceiling of our little porch cubicle.

Well, a few weeks ago, I noticed something weird on a branch but didn't pay any attention to it. Until I noticed that a hummingbird was very often on the branch -- and zoomed away every time I opened the door. Then, one day I was working on the porch, watering the plants, and the hummer zoomed up with a mouth full of fluff and spiderwebs and it all clicked -- the bird was building a nest in our ivy.

Now, what else is there for a computer nerd to do than to webcast the whole thing?

Vital statistics: I think it's a female Allen's Hummingbird, but I'm not exactly sure. Yes, that is an egg in the nest. There is one small egg [Update: now two eggs!], about the size of a large jelly bean. I've read online that they usually lay two eggs, but there's definitely just one in the nest. The nest itself is probably 6cm long, about an inch and a half. The bird was working on the nest less than a week ago but the egg is visible in the earliest pictures I took with the webcam on 5/4.

The weirdest thing is that the bird is only on the nest maybe 20 minutes out of the hour, or less, and it's not (usually) because of interruptions from us. I don't know if that means the egg really isn't going to hatch, or if that's acceptable in a warmer climate, or what. I'm hoping that if it doesn't hatch, she might "double brood" -- have another round. There are h-birds year round here so that's not impossible.

Images are updated between 6AM and 8PM every night, although I may shrink that some, as you can see, the cameras don't handle the low light very well. I will probably document my setup in a few days for those out there that are interested, but in short, it's basic webcams being driven by a Linksys NSLU2 running Debian Linux.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Sun Jul 26 08:43:17 PST "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry..." OR "Dr. Jekyll and Jiminy Cricket":

I'm a collector of odd facts. I remember hearing this one some time ago, about how grasshoppers morph into brutal locusts under certain conditions but I find that often the "facts" you hear word of mouth aren't always factual. (Unfortunately, a lot of facts in those 1001 Fascinating Fact books are often wrong too... I've thought of writing a 1001 Fascinating Falsehoods [you thought were facts!], but I'll just have to add that to my to do list.)

Anyway, it's true!. I guess grasshoppers are the poster-insect for serotonin induced mania.

Wed Sep 06 16:29:34 PST great horny toads!:

I never thought that natural, wild creatures and beauty would be my favorite thing about Los Angeles, but I really think it is. The plants here are fabulous (although most of them couldn't survive without our help and associated environmental cost), but more specifically the hummingbirds that have been to my feeder -- lately it has been a non-stop drivethrough -- mcdonalds eat your heart out. And unlike mcdonalds, even though I purvey sugary water to young creatures, I don't have to suffer with the guilt of creating a generation of diabetics.

Anyway, today in Temescal Gateway Park I saw a huge (12 inches nose to tail) horned lizard (aka horny toad on my run. It scared the crap out of me because it was just laying in the middle of the trail and usually you don't expect anything to be there. He seemed almost completely unconcerned by my presence. He just turned his head (never moved his body) and stared at me with one big eye. A dragonfly or somesuch landed on his nose; he looked at that and then back at me. I kept expecting him to dispatch the dragonfly, but he pretty much ignored it and just stared me down until I left. I tried to spook him into leaving the trail but he wasn't having any of it.

I have spent more time than I should have trying to ID the species of this guy online, but nothing seems to look right given what I've read about their ranges... and I didn't know enough to memorize his horn configuration. Seriously though, this guy was gigantic.