Photo by Michael Siebold
This little one is a Flammulated Owl I saw on a hike in Death Valley last month. It's also a perfect example of why I love my new landscape lenses. I found the little one on the back end of a 2 mile hike in 100+ degree heat in Golden Canyon. I had decided to take the hike for some landscape photography and to walk through some of the filming spots from Star Wars: A New Hope. Loved the hike and I think I got some nice shots from it, but on the way back I saw what I knew had to be an owl I'd never seen before sitting in the shadows on the canyon wall. Normally I would have had a 70-200 as my long landscape lens and to bring a wildlife lens along I would have had to lug an 8 lb behemoth with me. Since I moved tot he R5, I picked up a 100-500 for landscapes and while I love it for those, it's also proved extremely useful as a hiking wildlife lens. There have been two or three once-in-a-long-time opportunities just like this one that I would have missed had I been limited to 200 mm. All that to say, it's been a lot of fun to be that much more ready for those unexpected gifts.
According to the mice, you've got to nuke them from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
On a serious note, I have a report I did on that, but removed it because it was too depressing for here, but I haven't found a better place to post it yet.
As much as certain people try to make windmills appear to be the death trap for birds...uncontrolled methane flares are a very real danger. They're invisible, burn at thousands of degrees, and come out of what would be a great place for raptors to perch if it wouldn't roast them the second they get near it.
If anyone has a good spot to share depressing environmental news, let me know.
[email protected] may be a good place, especially if you have some information on its impact on biodiversity. It's not a community dedicated to depressing news, but anything that has to do with science goes on Mander.xyz, even when it's sad.
I myself would be interested in articles you have to share, I never heard of this before!
Thanks. I feel I don't explore specific subs as much these days. My habits have become quite different since focusing on creating posts instead of being a lurker. All that scrolling time is mainly finding things to share with you all now.
I'll rework my article a bit for a more general audience and get it up there. I feel it's important info as places are still pushing natural gas as a more earth friendly fuel, but it's not a pretty subject. I accidentally deleted it a few hours after I posted it, and decided to keep it deleted since it felt too dark for the vibe we have going on here.