Large Scale Central

My other interests...

Let’s see…

I cook, bake, and smoke meat. I cure and smoke all our bacon, pastrami, and corned beef. I just took a ten pound batch of Absinthe bacon out of the smoker, and have ten pounds of green chili bacon curing right now, and need to do a similar sized batch of maple pepper.

I also do photography, specifically, birds, insects and landscape.

Here’s a hummingbird moth I took last night while it was feeding from our mimosa tree…

A red-tailed hawk circling the house…

A Western Pond Hawk…\

A Kingbird gathering nesting materials…

Daniel Collins said:

Let’s see…

I cook, bake, and smoke meat. I cure and smoke all our bacon, pastrami, and corned beef. I just took a ten pound batch of Absinthe bacon out of the smoker, and have ten pounds of green chili bacon curing right now, and need to do a similar sized batch of maple pepper.

Dan, you are my new best friend!!!

Adds another name to the list…

My last batch of green chili bacon…

Vacuum packed green chili bacon curing…

GREAT nature photography.

What do you use for camera, film and lens?

Any tricks to share for stopping the wings?

Since it unlikely I’ll ever get to where you are would you share to us drooling forum members:

  1. Smoker
  2. Wood, wood chips, pellets…?
  3. Recipes
  4. Recipe source, if not your own

THANKS!

Welcome Daniel

Let’s see. my camera setup is a Canon 1D MKII, with a Tamron 70-300mm VC USD lens. The Tamron has great optical vibration control, along with using 400-800 ISO allows high shutter speeds to stop wings.

As far as my smoker set-up, this is what I use…

It’s a Masterbuilt Electric, which I use to set temp, and a side burner ducted in that I use for smoke.

I can use anything in it, charcoal, wood splits, chips, or pellets.

My last batch of pork shoulder…

What ship?

Daniel Collins said:

Oh, dragonflies have always been a favorite bug. And that hummingbird moth is quite cool.
Somewhere I’ve see/read/both, that the solid spots on wing leading edges are some kind of mass balance weights.
And that unlike most other insects with only one set of wing muscles, dragonflies have sets of muscles which pull on their wings for both downstroke and sets of muscles for upstroke.

Steve Featherkile said:

What ship?

U.S.S Iowa.

Daniel Collins said:

Steve Featherkile said:

What ship?

U.S.S Iowa.

No shit. My Dad served on the Iowa during the Korean War.

Beautiful photos Daniel. Well done. The bacon sure looks tasty too!

Ken Brunt said:

Daniel Collins said:

Steve Featherkile said:

What ship?

U.S.S Iowa.

No ****. My Dad served on the Iowa during the Korean War.

I was on the crew of the Iowa when it cam out of mothballs in the 80’s.

Went cruising bookmarks and general web for some dragonfly wing info. I don’t remember the details, just remember where to find them.

From Minnesota Dragonfly Society http://www.mndragonfly.org/html/biology.html

"Their vision probably allows them to discern individual wing beats, which to us would appear as a blur. They can see ultraviolet and polarized light. Many species also see well in dim light.

“Their two short bristly antennae are thought to function as windsocks or anemometers, measuring wind direction and speed, thereby giving them a method with which to assess their flight. By the way, dragonflies have no sense of hearing, only a rudimentary ability to smell and are unable to vocalize.”

“The most obvious feature of a clear, unpatterned wing is the stigma, located on the leading edge of each wing out towards the wingtips. It is thought that the stigma may be used for signaling mates or rivals and may also act as a tiny weight that dampens wing vibrations.”

https://asknature.org/strategy/wing-structure-allows-rapid-acceleration/

“Despite that complexity, two general results emerge: The aerodynamic power expended is reduced when the wings move out of phase, and the force is enhanced when the wings move in phase. When the fore and hind wings beat out of phase, they approach each other from opposite sides and cross near the midstroke. The fore wings experience an induced flow due to the hind wings, and vice versa. As a consequence, the drag on the wings is reduced, as is the power expended in flapping. But the reduction in drag on the two types of wing points in opposite directions, so the net force is essentially unaffected.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/04/02/3720030.htm

Why do dragonfly wings look glassy? What are they made of?— Catherine

Dragonflies are among the most ancient of insects — they were darting across rivers and lakes long before dinosaurs appeared — and have evolved many mechanisms to survive, says Dr Dan Bickel, an entomologist with the Australian Museum.

This vein structure is held together by a very thin, shiny film made from chitin (pronounced kite-en); a starch variation that makes up the exoskeletons of most insects.

A great number of invertebrates — including prawns, spiders and insects — have exo or external skeletons; meaning that unlike humans they are “soft on the inside, hard on the outside,” Bickel says.

Chitin, says Bickel, is not elastic so that when the animal wants to grow, it has to push out of its wings, split open the structure and wait for a new exoskeleton to harden. The most well known example of this is the cicada pushing out of its shell.

Bickel says the wings are “really smooth, with no bumps” which makes the chitin appear glassy and reflective.

Ken Walker, insect curator with Museum Victoria says chitin in its natural form is translucent and it’s the “extreme thinness” of dragonfly wings that make them appear glassy.

From 2014, https://phys.org/news/2014-11-secret-dragonflies-flight.html

"Dragonflies can easily right themselves and maneuver tight turns while flying. Each of their four wings is controlled by separate muscles, giving them exquisite control over their flight.

Researchers from Cornell University are investigating the physics behind this ability by recording high-speed video footage of dragonflies in flight and integrating the data into computer models, and they will present their findings at the 67th annual meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics, held Nov. 23-25 in San Francisco."

Interesting, One year I had a 3 winged dragonfly flying around my yard and pond. He seamed just as nimble and fast as the 4 winged ones.

Truly great wildlife photos!

I remember an occasion years ago, I was attending a rocket launch out in the desert. The cars were all parked in a line, side by side, and there was a dragonfly on the tip of every car’s radio antenna. And of course, they were all facing the same direction, into the wind. It was very cool to look down this line of cars and see all those dragonflies looking like delicate antenna ornaments.

Oh, Ray, that would be the coolest!