Friday, September 10, 2010

I dip another toe into the ocean of technology

The cell phone I bought to replace the one that wound up in the washing machine came with a camera as I guess any self-respecting cell phone will now. I took some pictures with it just to play around. That's not my personal advance in technology--I can take photos all right. But I couldn't find a port on it to attach it to my computer so I could transfer the photos. Into the manual I delved and found that I was supposed to transfer files via Bluetooth. 

As if I knew what Bluetooth was. 

However, after 15 or 20 minutes of perplexing instructions:
Here is a  photo, taken on my cell phone, in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden yesterday. Looks very impressionistic doesn't it? 

Today I went to Salt Marsh Nature Center--the first bird I saw, hopping around right in front of me, was a juvenile American Redstart. Here is documentary evidence. 

Hmm, this camera idea may need a little work. Sometimes you don't want that impressionism effect. I've cropped the photo, by the way, to eliminate the big piece of dog sh*t from which the bird was catching little flies. Ah, nature.

It was high tide when I arrived so walking without waders was impossible. I entered the drier trails about 1/4 of mile south of the entrance. Since the tide was in and had covered almost all the wooden posts that are all that remains of the former Gerritsen Mill, there was no place for gulls, egrets, cormorants, etc to roost. Aside from a couple of stray gulls, the only bird I saw on the water was a Pied-billed Grebe, first of the season. Quite a few warblers were darting in & out of the reeds. The ones I could identify are listed below. Dogs off the leash and guys riding dirt bikes and ATV's along the trails (and trashing the habitat) didn't help the birding experience today. 
Salt Marsh Nature Center--West
Notes:    High Tide
Number of species
:    21
Pied-billed Grebe    1
Great Egret    1
Osprey    2
Spotted Sandpiper    1
Ring-billed Gull    X
Herring Gull    X
Rock Pigeon
    1
Mourning Dove    25
American Crow    1
American Robin    12
Gray Catbird    15
Northern Mockingbird    10
European Starling    8
Yellow Warbler    1
Palm Warbler    1
American Redstart    2
Common Yellowthroat    3
Song Sparrow    2
Swamp Sparrow    1
Northern Cardinal    3
American Goldfinch    2

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