An Old Farts Outdoor Thread

[Mark1T]

you're thinking of the Scottish, right? Yes and hairy and wear kilts and value strength sports (highland games for example) and talking funny

On a serious note, there are no equivalent stories in the UK anyone takes seriously, with the possibile exception of the "giant" that's periodically seen or heard around Ben Macdui and has scared people sleeping under the Shelterstone on a number of occasions.

I've always dismissed big foot, but that old-time-lifter post seems totally genuine. Food for thought!

There are a few places in UK where there are credible stories from reliable witnesses of big cats. I don't mean some idiot who saw a black labrador from a distance and freaked out there was a panther, I mean things like the animal walking along a railroad rail, dogs don't have the balance to walk cat-like along a single rail (possible exception with fox) so they seem to be cat. My biggest doubt is nobody has been able to produce any 5h1t. If the animal is real it will have to take a 5h1t at some point

LOL on the Scottish. I have recently read an article about a possible Black Panther/Mountain Lion in the UK. I also saw a show dedicated on the subject on Josh Gates show Expedition X on the Discovery Channel. There are actual extremely credible videos of the big cat(s).

[Mark1T]

I am here to report that another big-ass Cottonmouth has been eliminated. I would post a photo, but you not ready.

[steffo99]

Went to a lake today and it was a bit difficult. Was a lot less birds than expected and either I got strong sun in the eye or they were tiny or too far away. Got some ok ones though.

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGD1pm..._source=editor

[mtpockets]

Good stuff Steffo

Well done Mark, are these slithering fukkers up on your land or in the water?

[Mark1T]

Good stuff Steffo

Well done Mark, are these slithering fukkers up on your land or in the water?

steffo-daddio, great shots and awesome assortment to entertain us

MT, it rained yesterday like a repeat of Noah's Ark times. Water level rose 4 feet. Catfish and Gar were swimming by my front deck.

The snakes get out more in big rains because it flushes them out and in the open because no where else to go. Saw that snake earlier and I scared him off. He came back. It was over in a few seconds.

[paulinkansas]

it rained yesterday like a repeat of Noah's Ark times. Water level rose 4 feet.

Same here. The lake that I normally take my boat out to hunt ducks has been 5 feet low the last 3 years. The boat ramp ends in dirt. No ducks either.

The lake rose 15 feet in water level in the last 24 hours because of upstream rain.

https://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/we...1.current.html

[steffo99]

Found this tiny flower by the side of the road and got an id through google again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardamine_pratensis

"In folklore it was said to be sacred to the fairies, and so was unlucky if brought indoors."

[Mark1T]

Same here. The lake that I normally take my boat out to hunt ducks has been 5 feet low the last 3 years. The boat ramp ends in dirt. No ducks either.

The lake rose 15 feet in water level in the last 24 hours because of upstream rain.

https://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/we...1.current.html

That is a lot of water.

Found this tiny flower by the side of the road and got an id through google again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardamine_pratensis

"In folklore it was said to be sacred to the fairies, and so was unlucky if brought indoors."

Great shot.

[OldFartTom]

Found this tiny flower by the side of the road and got an id through google again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardamine_pratensis

"In folklore it was said to be sacred to the fairies, and so was unlucky if brought indoors."

Steffo, your photos are excellent, but what's astonishing me most isn't that you're getting a great photo here and there -- you're producing so many of them so fast. I hope you're weight training is even half of your photography because if it is, I'm picturing you as a bigger version of Magnus Samuelsson

[steffo99]

Thanks dudes, and lol Tom. Maybe cause most of it is kinda new still it is exciting and all that - suspect I'll slow down eventually. Have a good evening all. I am starting to watch a 1966 sci fi I found right now so will kick back a bit - The Time Tunnel. Exciting stuff!

[paulinkansas]

That is a lot of water.

A 12" pipeline is being constructed from that lake to supply water to a soybean processing plant, another soybean plant, a bio fuel plant, and an animal food plant that uses soybeans. $3.5 billion is the total cost of all the construction. It's impossible to find a house for sale or rent here. I get several calls a week from people looking for a place to stay while they are here for work. I tell them all to buy a camper and sell it when their job is done in 2-4 years.

[Mark1T]

A 12" pipeline is being constructed from that lake to supply water to a soybean processing plant, another soybean plant, a bio fuel plant, and an animal food plant that uses soybeans. $3.5 billion is the total cost of all the construction. It's impossible to find a house for sale or rent here. I get several calls a week from people looking for a place to stay while they are here for work. I tell them all to buy a camper and sell it when their job is done in 2-4 years.

Good use of the water supply. I offer to do that job for only $2 Billion.

[mtpockets]

steffo-daddio, great shots and awesome assortment to entertain us

MT, it rained yesterday like a repeat of Noah's Ark times. Water level rose 4 feet. Catfish and Gar were swimming by my front deck.

The snakes get out more in big rains because it flushes them out and in the open because no where else to go. Saw that snake earlier and I scared him off. He came back. It was over in a few seconds.

Dang that's a lot of water Mark!

Steffo, I have never seen that plant in our neck of the woods.

[Mark1T]

This is Ellie



This is Oscar

[OldFartTom]

This is Ellie



This is Oscar

I know less than fk all about cattle, but my wife's uncle is an expert (he's in his 80s and still picks up 20kg feed sacks and tosses them like a pillow). Anyway... he told me about that chunky square look on good cattle and Oscar has that. Fine looking animal

[Mark1T]

I know less than fk all about cattle, but my wife's uncle is an expert (he's in his 80s and still picks up 20kg feed sacks and tosses them like a pillow). Anyway... he told me about that chunky square look on good cattle and Oscar has that. Fine looking animal

They have plenty to eat plus protein. Yes, they are very healthy. And they don't complain much and give me a write-off.

[steffo99]

Speaking of cattle, they've just been having the yearly "cow releases" (kosläpp) around the country. It's turned into events that sometimes thousands of people come to watch - to see the emotion and joy of the animals smelling the fresh air again.

[steffo99]

Crazy warm here today (26 C/ 79F), then supposed to get back down to 8C/46F next week again.

[Mark1T]

steffonolius, those cattle are very well taken care of. Very pretty and happy

[steffo99]

steffonolius, those cattle are very well taken care of. Very pretty and happy

Don't know much about cattle either (just had a summer job shoveling their **** every morning that's it.) but hoping happy cattle equals good tasting steak. Horse poop smells much worse btw.

[OldFartTom]

They have plenty to eat plus protein....

I had no idea they could even hold the shaker with their hooves? But it seems to be working for them

[Mark1T]

I had no idea they could even hold the shaker with their hooves? But it seems to be working for them

BB.com has a whole line of products specifically designed for cows and horses. The cows and horses can order online. The keyboard is just a lot bigger and they take turns.

[steffo99]

Lol, started bringing a plastic box to collect some stuff and potentially take pics of at home. Can't always id what things are, but trying...and forcing you along for the ride.

Hope I got this one right (Elm.)

[steffo99]

Cherry Tree (one of 2 possible European kinds as far as I can tell.) Came across it on my way to a park and had to sneak into somebody's property a bit. Just had the 500 mm with me for birds and such so only got close ups of the flowers.

[Mark1T]

steffinicious, fabulous shots.

Are those shots called Macro photography? Focuses on the subject with the background blurred out - is that another feature of Macro photography?

A girlfriend of mine took this shot of a Woodpecker. Nice detail.

[steffo99]

Thanks Mark, and no not macro. It's with the 500 mm lens which has about 0.25X and to get that you need to be at closest focusing distance. To be considered macro it's 1X or 1:1., but noticed these longer lenses often give great normal close up shots since the longer the focal length the more they blow out the background in a nice way. You can acheive the same background blowout with normal size lenses, but then you need something usually a bit pricey like a 1.4 or 2.8, and even then you couldn't get close enough to these flowers up in the tree. Thanks for sharing the pecker (not yours thankfully) - would love to see a woodpecker irl.

Also, to get the "blurred out" backgrounds, you normally need a lens that can open up wide (less of the image in focus, and more of background gone), which for normal lenses translates to a 1.4 or a 1.8 for something like a 50 mm, 2.8 for let's say a 200-300 mm, but for my 500 mm f4.5 the same thing happens. The ones that don't care about that stuff are landscape photographers that mostly shoot at f11 or even higher (saying is "closed down" to that aperture since opening is smaller), but they then get most of what is in the image in focus. That also reduces the amount of light they can take in by several times, hence why a tripod to keep things steady during a longer exposure time (to compenate for that light loss) is needed.




Common Blackbird, Female this time around (male is black with yellow beak, male youngster grey/black with dark beak.) Hoping to learn a bird a day – should make me an expert by next year or so, lol. After that, I'll attempt their language and chirp away.

[steffo99]

Extreme crop in on a goofy Canadian goose pic. Just found it interesting to see serrated tongue and inside beak – neat evolutionary things perhaps.

Googled:

Their bills are serrated for cutting stems and threshing grain. Their tongues have serrated edges for sieving water from each mouthful of underwater food.

[steffo99]

Think I have this one ID'd correctly (Herring Gull) - was 2 different gulls that looked very similar.







That's it for me tonight, good sleep to ya'll.

[mtpockets]

Steffo I am really enjoying looking at the flora and fauna from your neck of the woods. I especially like that you are making it educational...

Mark those cattle look Dandies, I don't know much about cattle but Oscar looks like he could fuk me up...

That's a great woodpecker shot.




I haven't taken a picture or video in a hot Minute, been living in the moment since the ice left fishing my ass off. No big fish yet but lots of fish. Got my spring bear a while back so spent a couple of days dealing with that. Lots of big bears this year, it took a while to find a small one but I eventually found one and it's in the freezer now. We have been gettin a lot of rain, got another soaker coming home on the atv this morning, stayed fishing a bit too long ha ha.

Have a great day fukkers.....

[Mark1T]

steffonitus, great shots.

Steffo I am really enjoying looking at the flora and fauna from your neck of the woods. I especially like that you are making it educational...

Mark those cattle look Dandies, I don't know much about cattle but Oscar looks like he could fuk me up...

That's a great woodpecker shot.

I haven't taken a picture or video in a hot Minute, been living in the moment since the ice left fishing my ass off. No big fish yet but lots of fish. Got my spring bear a while back so spent a couple of days dealing with that. Lots of big bears this year, it took a while to find a small one but I eventually found one and it's in the freezer now. We have been gettin a lot of rain, got another soaker coming home on the atv this morning, stayed fishing a bit too long ha ha.

Have a great day fukkers.....

Any fish is a great day. Stay safe, my man. BTW, Oscar is a big pussy cat