Time to shake off the post-Thanksgiving torpor and get out to enjoy the long weekend!
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First Weasel
I spent a great evening with @fledglingbirder waiting for a weasel he’d spotted earlier in the day to emerge from its burrow. The sun had dipped below the dunes behind us, its last rays raking across the far end of the field, when the weasel finally made a bounding appearance out of its burrow. I gingerly raised my camera and squeezed off three frames before the weasel disappeared into another seemingly invisible hole in the ground.
Like all the best wildlife photography experiences it was immensely satisfying and also left me wanting more. Opportunities to photograph this fierce and enigmatic little predator are hard to come by, but hopefully it won’t be as long before the next one.
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Misty Morning Elk
As every photographer knows, the best light occurs right around sunrise and right around sunset. The two aren’t interchangeable either. The light has a very different quality when filtered through cool misty morning air than through warm and hazy evening air. I know all these things, and yet I can’t usually bring myself to get out and shoot at sunrise. I’m just not a morning person.
The day before daylight saving time ends, sunrise is the latest it will be all year. If it’s a clear morning, I do my best to get up early and head out to experience what I’ve been missing for the rest of the year.
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Down the Hatch
A Great Blue Heron devouring a gopher whole. While Great Blue Herons are best known for eating fish, in California they can often be found stalking through fields, plucking insects, voles, and even gophers from the grass. Similar behavior has been observed in Idaho, where one study showed over 25% of their diet came from voles.
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Coyote Growth Spurt
They sure grow up quickly! I’ve started to recognize a few of the Coyotes in Point Reyes, especially the more bold and curious ones. I first photographed this one in early September when it was still a coltish adolescent with fine fur.
Two months later I saw it again in the same area. It’s still bold and curious, but really filling out into a full-grown coyote. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to have outgrown its habit of hanging out on the road. Hopefully it soon learns to look both ways and cross without stopping.
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Fixing Borderless Printing Issues on Epson SureColor P700 and P900 Printers
I occasionally make cards from my photos. One of my favorite papers for cards is River Linen by Red River Paper. It’s got a good weight and a nice surface texture embossed during the manufacturing process. The paper works great for designs with or without borders, but I like the borderless look.
While working out some printing issues, I ended up updating all of my software, including updating to the most recent (as of mid-November 2023) KHo4NA firmware for my Epson P700 printer. After that update, I couldn’t do borderless prints on the River Linen paper anymore. Every time I tried, I got this error message: “The loaded paper does not support borderless printing. Print without setting borderless printing.”
After a bunch of experimentation, I finally tracked it down to a setting in the Epson media file provided by Red River Paper. They like to turn off the “Check Paper Size” option because they’ve seen it cause some spurious printing failures. Unfortunately, it looks like the printer now requires this setting for some borderless printing.
I followed Red River’s instructions for editing EMY files using Epson Media Installer. After turning off the Check Paper Size option for the RR River Linen paper, I was able to do borderless prints again.
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Evening Hunt
A badger returns to its burrow after trundling around a field on an early morning hunt.
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Hanger
This juvenile Great Horned Owl is due to be sent packing any day now, but in the meantime it’s still begging its very indulgent parents for food every night.
