Birders' Nest

[Kalevala]

@owlice

Custom framing can get rather pricey (particularly if you want museum quality non-reflective glass); however, there are other options.  A friend of mine regularly buys stock frames for photos from Michaels (a chain shop here in the US):  https://www.michaels.com [ just type in frames into the search engine].

He also is handy with tools.  Onetime, he bought a pretty large poster that an outdoor enthusiast took of some mountains, had Michaels drymount it, and then built a basic wooden frame for it.

K

p.s.  So sorry to hear about your arms!  What happened?    

[owlice]

A parade of Kingfishers
I did sort of warn of this

Perhaps this is Ruskin's Kingfisher? These are small Kingfishers, about the size of a sparrow, and common to Eurasia.

Common Kingfisher

But perhaps it isn't, so here are some other possibilities and improbabilities, but probably mostly the latter...


Malachite Kingfisher (Did Ruskin travel to sub-Saharan Africa?)


And Malachite Kingfisher with breakfast


American Pygmy Kingfisher (improbable unless he traveled to Central/South America)


African Pied Kingfisher (definitely not)


Amazon Kingfisher (probable? improbable? It would take a Ruskin expert to let us know!)

This is the only Kingfisher where I live; it is the common North American Kingfisher and generally the only Kingfisher in its range. Not the best photo, but it does show male and female so you can see the difference between them. Surprisingly, the female is more colorful (and slightly larger) than the male.
(Unsurprisingly, I have learned this over and over and over again, because this fact slides out of my brain over and over and over again.)

Belted Kingfisher (maybe improbable)


Belted Kingfisher chowing down

Check out the beak on this one! This is the Belted Kingfisher's closest (living) relative and occurs in southern Texas and southward.

Ringed Kingfisher (maybe improbable)

This Kingfisher also occurs in southern Texas (which gets a lot of Central American birds).

Green Kingfisher (also maybe improbable)


Woodland Kingfisher (probably improbable; these are sub-Saharan birds)


Gray-headed Kingfisher with a cicada snackie (probably improbable, but what says our expert??)


Brown-headed Kingfisher and member of the Smokey-eyed Bird Club (probably improbable)


Giant Kingfisher (and once again, probably improbable)

[owlice]

I suppose you'd have been perched on the edge of a cliff, inching forward to get that slightly better shot of a puffin, or something? And then again later with the other arm?!

So sorry to hear about your arms!  What happened?   

I wish I had an exciting story to tell for either or both of these unfortunate occurrences, though I did a few times tell people, "Roller derby." But the facts are much more mundane: I tripped. Both times, but not in the same way.

The first one -- left arm -- was broken when I tripped on an uneven sidewalk in downtown DC; I was working and had to go from one of my employer's buildings to another. By good fortune, just that morning I'd had an elevator-lobby conversation with a fellow employee I had just then met; a few hours later, he was driving up the street, saw me on the sidewalk, and said to himself, as he told me, "That looks like the lady I was talking to this morning!" And so it was. He and others provided assistance. I'd also hit my head hard enough to get a really fabulous black eye.

The second time -- right arm -- was almost two years ago. I was driving from Maryland to Arizona for a conference, a trip of 2K miles. At the halfway point, while making my morning coffee, I tripped and fell at my campsite; my face landed on a railroad tie used for landscaping. (I do not recommend this! The faceplant, I mean; railroad ties for landscaping are perfectly acceptable.) In addition to breaking my nose (not for the first time, alas), I also broke my right arm. (I don't recommend that, either.) I did make it to the conference, though, and was able to present, and this time, even with the broken nose (which I might eventually get fixed), no black eye, woo-hoo!

[Elgarian Redux]

A parade of Kingfishers
I did sort of warn of this

Perhaps this is Ruskin's Kingfisher? These are small Kingfishers, about the size of a sparrow, and common to Eurasia.

Common Kingfisher

I think it's almost certainly this one. He travelled often in Europe, but we can rule out all the American kingfishers because he never went to America (he didn't like the idea of a country that didn't have any castles). Similarly, I presume, for Africa.

But heck - look at all the kingfishers he missed!

There are reputedly kingfishers down by the river near here, but in all the years we've lived here, and all the miles I've walked or run or cycled or simply sat by the river during those years, I've only ever spotted a very few. Two? Three? The odd blue streak that might've been?

[Elgarian Redux]

I'm posting this image not because it shows unusual birds (it doesn't), or because it's a good photo (it isn't), but because there were several reed buntings accompanying us along today's walk, playing that game they play called 'Here I am! Take my picture! No, sorry I'm gone!'. Eventually I managed to see two together on the same bush at a considerable distance: the only thing worth preserving of the attempts I made - but it was a fine walk.

[Elgarian Redux]

I wish I had an exciting story to tell for either or both of these unfortunate occurrences, though I did a few times tell people, "Roller derby." But the facts are much more mundane: I tripped. Both times, but not in the same way.

The first one -- left arm -- was broken when I tripped on an uneven sidewalk in downtown DC; I was working and had to go from one of my employer's buildings to another. By good fortune, just that morning I'd had an elevator-lobby conversation with a fellow employee I had just then met; a few hours later, he was driving up the street, saw me on the sidewalk, and said to himself, as he told me, "That looks like the lady I was talking to this morning!" And so it was. He and others provided assistance. I'd also hit my head hard enough to get a really fabulous black eye.

The second time -- right arm -- was almost two years ago. I was driving from Maryland to Arizona for a conference, a trip of 2K miles. At the halfway point, while making my morning coffee, I tripped and fell at my campsite; my face landed on a railroad tie used for landscaping. (I do not recommend this! The faceplant, I mean; railroad ties for landscaping are perfectly acceptable.) In addition to breaking my nose (not for the first time, alas), I also broke my right arm. (I don't recommend that, either.) I did make it to the conference, though, and was able to present, and this time, even with the broken nose (which I might eventually get fixed), no black eye, woo-hoo!

It's extraordinary how the most horrible injuries are often caused by something almost trivial - a minor misjudgement while doing an every-day sort of thing. One can't even learn from such mistakes.

It all sounds horribly painful, but with a noble touch of heroism - getting to the conference and getting the job done in conditions of extreme adversity. It could become the stuff of legends, like Davy Crockett. (I am sitting here thinking of the pitiful fuss I made over an insect bite just a few days ago...)

[owlice]

It's extraordinary how the most horrible injuries are often caused by something almost trivial - a minor misjudgement while doing an every-day sort of thing. One can't even learn from such mistakes.

It all sounds horribly painful, but with a noble touch of heroism - getting to the conference and getting the job done in conditions of extreme adversity. It could become the stuff of legends, like Davy Crockett. (I am sitting here thinking of the pitiful fuss I made over an insect bite just a few days ago...)

Insect bites can literally be deadly; broken arms, not so much. So your fuss was definitely warranted!!

The thing that caused the most physical pain was the dislocation when I fell in DC. Once the fracture was reduced and the bones in their right places again, I felt much much much better.

What hurt the most for the fall a couple of years ago was, as I put it elsewhere: "As I can't car camp with just one good arm, and can't hold a camera, the wildlifeing portion of this trip has ended, darn it. A few photos, taken before the fall, below...." But as you saw from a previous hummingbird photo (taken at the conference), I did find a way to sling (hahahaha) my camera into action and some wildlifeing did happen anyway.

What was soothing and lovely was other people; so many kindnesses were extended to me in both incidents, by both friends and strangers, I get teary-eyed even thinking about it. If there is any heroism in these events, that is their heroism and they are truly the heroes.

It wasn't the journey I'd planned but was the one I got.

[owlice]

I echo the sentiment, and it's such great fun. It was a grand idea of Fate to put us within each other's orbit again.

Indeed!!            

Well it's a magnificent image. How big is he?

Thank you. I'm so glad he (or she; I have no idea how to tell the difference) stayed still. He's an average size for a dragonfly, not one of those little dainties that are so small and thin they are almost invisible, and not one of the huge ones that seem able to take a saddle slung over them for a quick ride.

Dainty

Ebony Jewelwing (technically a damselfly)

Biplane

Eastern Pondhawk

[owlice]

There are reputedly kingfishers down by the river near here, but in all the years we've lived here, and all the miles I've walked or run or cycled or simply sat by the river during those years, I've only ever spotted a very few. Two? Three? The odd blue streak that might've been?

I usually hear kingfishers before I see them, and that of course prompts me to look for them. No wonder it is hard to see your local kingfisher: it's tiny!

I'm posting this image not because it shows unusual birds (it doesn't), or because it's a good photo (it isn't), but because there were several reed buntings accompanying us along today's walk, playing that game they play called 'Here I am! Take my picture! No, sorry I'm gone!'. Eventually I managed to see two together on the same bush at a considerable distance: the only thing worth preserving of the attempts I made - but it was a fine walk.

It's a fine photo of lovely birds! I am glad you got in a nice walk; I hope to do the same this evening, as the weather is very nice today... blue sky, comfortable temperature.

[Elgarian Redux]

I have dreams of commissioning oil or acrylic miniatures of a set of HiRISE images someday... ).

I am not surprised! I've never seen these Mars images before, but they are spectacular and very beautiful, and I'm reminded of the tremendous excitement, in my teens, when the wonderful Ranger series of Moon missions started, followed by Mariner 4, with its Mars flyby. Those images seem crude now, but they were immensely superior to any Earth-based photos. I had  photographs of the Moon, and Mars, all over my bedroom wall. In those days there was the US Information Service, situated in the US Embassy in London, and you could write to them, and they would send free packs of glorious photos from the space missions.

At that time I was trying to decide whether I wanted to be a pop singer (unrealistic because I couldn't sing or play guitar very well) or an astronomer. Astronomy won, and in due course I got to do some postgraduate radio astronomy, only to find that although I loved astronomy, I was a poor radio astronomer. So I changed tack at that point, and astronomy gradually fell by the wayside as an active pursuit. I still keep up my Fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society, but if I'm honest, it's really just a kind of comfort blanket.

I can stretch the off-topicness of this even further by posting a chart recording of a radio interferometer scan of the quasar CTA102, which I made in 1972, and might be of interest (as an antique), even though there are certainly no birds anywhere near CTA102.

[Elgarian Redux]

It wasn't the journey I'd planned but was the one I got.

I think we could quote this as a useful observation on life in general.

[Elgarian Redux]

Dainty

Ebony Jewelwing (technically a damselfly)

The colour!!!

Biplane

Eastern Pondhawk

It really is a biplane. Watch the skies!

[owlice]

Astronomy won, and in due course I got to do some postgraduate radio astronomy

I need a head-exploding emoji again. HOW did I not know this years ago?! How? How???

[Elgarian Redux]

I need a head-exploding emoji again. HOW did I not know this years ago?! How? How???

I don't think I ever mentioned it!

[owlice]

Are you perchance familiar with Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)?

[Elgarian Redux]

Are you perchance familiar with Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)?

No, but I clicked your link (thank you) and saw the Ring nebula image (gosh!), and remembered standing in my garden for ages looking at the space between the two bottom stars in Lyra with my homemade 4" reflector, until I could convince myself that I could just see it as a tiny fuzzy blob. L-o-n-g time ago! 1964? 'A Hard Day's Night' sort of period I should think.

Do you ask for some particular reason?

Addendum
I just dug out my battered little notebook of astronomical observations and sure enough - August 1964. Very schoolboy-ish!

[Thread duty: the constellation of Lyra was often depicted on star maps in days of yore as an eagle carrying a lyre.]

[owlice]

Do you ask for some particular reason?

Mostly because a lot of people who like astronomy who know of APOD really like it, so I thought if you didn't know about it, you should!

Addendum
I just dug out my battered little notebook of astronomical observations and sure enough - August 1964. Very schoolboy-ish!

I would say that's quite scholarly for a young person, and I'm amazed you still have (and could easily find) that notebook.

Ooof, meeting. More later.