U.S. land management agencies losing Chevron deference will be madness. Generally judges accept that agencies know what they’re doing as they do it day in and day out and have skillful people with the latest science. This will be a disaster. #SCOTUS #ChevronDeference

How about some American White Pelicans doing some formation flying last weekend. They were real far so was glad to be present enough to enjoy their presence. Always surprised to find them in deep in California #SacramentoWildlifeRefuge #AmericanWhitePelicans Four American pelicans, all white except black wingtips, flying over a grassy field with mountains in the background.

Fujifilm just released firmware updates that include, for some models, the Reala Ace film simulation. Looking forward to trying it out on my X-T5 this weekend. #Fujifilm #StraightOutOfCamera

A different kind of common bird one can see from the nearby refuge. An Air Tractor. The heat shimmer was super bad though. #AvGeek #AirTractor A small yellow propeller Air Tractor airplane is flying in a clear blue sky. It’s hazy with heat shimmer.

Here’s that Northern Harrier, a bit distant & blurred in the center of this photo, that I mentioned Friday. Was lovely to see it on the hunt, swooping low to find prey. #SacramentoWildlifeRefuge #NorthernHarrier 🪶 On a sunny day, in the distance, a Northern Harrier is gliding through a grassy field with tall, dry grass. It looks similar to a Hawk but its head is conspicuously dark compared to the rest of its body. Its chest and underwings are a bright tan with dark speckles. The background includes dense green trees with no view of the sky. The photo is slightly motion blurred.

We saw a Double Crested Cormorant at the wildlife refuge today. Not shown here, but there was also a Northern Harrier patrolling the seasonally drained artificial marshes with long, low and slow swoops. Really cool. #DoubleCrestedCormorant #SacramentoWildlifeRefuge A cormorant swimming in murky water, partially submerged with its head and neck above the surface. Its tail is fanned out on the water surface.

A helicopter has been flying a lot over my town so I looked up their previous flights. Okay… guess I shouldn’t be surprised they drew a phallus in the air with their seemingly purposeless flying 🫢 A screenshot from Flightradar24 showing the flight path of aircraft N10KX between Chico (CIC) and Oroville (OVE) airports. The path includes a loop and deviations. One of the patterns looks like a penis. The date and time in the image are Tuesday, June 11, 2024

On PetaPixel: Scientists Capture Never-Before-Seen Footage of Deep-Sea Squid Cradling Huge Eggs

Windows 11’s File Explorer’s Forward and Back buttons randomly not working is quite the treat. The insane part is that after moving the window, they then work. Did not realize how much I use those those

Stories on California ghost towns are always entertaining. The latest one is from SF Gate: It was supposed to be a California utopia. It turned into a ghost town

I received a new kind of spam text message today: “Hey, is this Ryan?” Guess spammers/scammers are now personalizing their phishing expeditions with the data dumps they buy. I can see how that can be very effective. Yuck. Report As Junk!

Our resident scrub jays didn’t have much of a green thumb this year. Or they did a great job eating their cache. This is the only sunflower they grew A single sunflower with a bright yellow bloom and green leaves stands in a garden. A wooden fence and various green foliage are visible in the blurred background. The ground around the sunflower is covered with small pebbles and sparse grass.

Our avocado tree seems to be producing now. But I won’t bet on any of the fruit making it to maturity sometime between this November and next March. Brutal heat is inbound though we’ve got our shade cloth up to protect the small trees A small, unripe avocado held in a person’s hand, surrounded by green leaves on the tree.

Just as most non-native plants stop flowering in time for summer, the California Fuchsias have just begun adding a splash of red. Currently the native toyon, elderberry, and roses are flowering. California Buckwheat is on its way. We have flowers nearly year-round. Native plants are awesome. A close-up of a plant with silvery green leaves and vibrant red tubular flowers. The background is out of focus, showing more greenery and a hint of a structure, likely a house. The plant is bathed in bright sunlight.

Paramount+'s Strategy is Baffling

Paramount+ still has nothing to watch once a season of Star Trek is over. Paramount cancelled Star Trek: Discovery and there’s only one more season of Lower Decks. Funny thing is, in the past I subscribed to their ad-free product. But Paramount+ greatly increased the cost of the ad-free subscription so I went with the ad-supported. Guess what? No ads while watching Star Trek. So they got less monthly money from us than if they’d kept the ad-free subscription cost reasonable.

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Marestail weeds are impossible to pull out of compacted ground. I’m avoiding herbicide so I’ve resorted to using hand pruners to cut Marestail weeds down to bare mineral earth. It’s as tedious and zen as it sounds. Problem is, they refuse to die. It is as if they have infinite resources in their roots.

The Flight Simulator Navigation Data Economy

Flight Simulation has quite the economy surrounding it. I’m not particularly fond of the navigation data sector of that economy. If you want the latest navigation data, you must subscribe or buy it from Aerosoft or Navigraph. But those companies that sell it to you must buy the raw data from Jeppesen or Lufthansa Systems. That data is delivered as ARINC424 format files or in a more reasonable tailored database format.

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The Capay Unit refuge was bustling today. Here’s a Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar and a Black headed Grosbeak. Also saw Orioles, Black Phoebes, possibly an inflight juvenile Bald Eagle, Osprey, Ash Throated Flycatcher, Lesser Gold Finches & Red Tailed Hawks #SacramentoWildlifeRefuge Image of a black caterpillar with orange spots and spikes, crawling on the ground covered with dried leaves and small branches.

A serene riverside scene with greenery and a dry tree in the foreground. A large beaked bird with black with white spots and yellow breast feathers perches on a branch of the tree. In the background, three people are sitting on the opposite riverbank. The river flows calmly between the bird and people.

Sonos Ace headphones are not for me since all I ever wanted from such a thing was to transfer my music seamlessly between speakers and headphones. And then there’s the Sonos app mess. It’ll be a while before I can trust Sonos enough to resume buying their hardware. WTFs all around.

Western Wood-Pewee! A first for us. Spotted at the Pine Creek Unit of the #SacramentoWildlifeRefuge #WesternWoodPeWee #Fujifilm

Auto-generated description: A small bird is perched on a bare tree branch against a clear blue sky.