Of Science, Art, and Society

Dec

Auld Lang Syne – For Old Times

“Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?” I think not. For everyone I have known, loved and lost there was something of them that I shall always keep close to my heart.

It’s Later Than You Think!

I saw a Facebook entry one of my relatives posted this week that got me to thinking about all of the people I have known who are no longer alive, but still live quite vibrantly in my memories. The post was a quote my father-in-law, Dock Ringo, told his daughter on many occasions, “It’s later than you think.” The quote is from a song recorded by Guy Lombardo in November of 1949, entitled “Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)”. Now that I think about my father-in-law’s profession and strong association with music, it makes sense he would make that quote. He was in the juke box business. He owned many of them and as a result was aware of every popular song on the charts for many decades. This one in particular strikes a chord for those of us who are still alive, working hard to make ends meet and think we still have time to put off those simple pleasures for later when we will have more time and money, or so we think.

The song lyrics go as follows:

You work and work for years and years, you’re always on the go
You never take a minute off, too busy makin’ dough
Someday, you say, you’ll have your fun, when you’re a millionaire
Imagine all the fun you’ll have in your old rockin’ chair

Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think

You’re gonna take that ocean trip, no matter, come what may
You’ve got your reservations made, but you just can’t get away
Next year for sure, you’ll see the world, you’ll really get around
But how far can you travel when you’re six feet underground?

Your heart of hearts, your dream of dreams, your ravishing brunette
She’s left you and she’s now become somebody else’s pet
Lay down that gun, don’t try, my friend, to reach the great beyond
You’ll have more fun by reaching for a redhead or a blonde

Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think

My father-in-law lived his life having fun making his fortune. He took the time off to spend time with us, taking us on numerous vacations and celebrating holidays with us as well. He had many traits I admired, his strength and strong will I appreciated the most.

To other old acquaintances I will not forget:

To my grandfather George De Ridder, I owe my love of art for it was him who taught me to let go of my inhibitions and not be afraid to draw.

To my father Marinus, who taught me to be strong and instilled in me an appreciation of science, literature and mathematics. He guarded his feelings and emotions, but inside was a very tender man who dearly loved his dogs, cats and my mother.

To Mammy, my husband’s grandmother, who was remarkably outspoken and definitely not afraid to speak her mind or walk to the beat of her own drummer, I learned was it truly means to be bold.

To my mother-in-law Eleanor, who wore her heart out in the open revealing her real emotions for everyone to see. She was one of the kindest souls I have ever known, for even though her temper was legendary her forgiveness was complete and infinite.

To my sister-in-law Liz, who had such a dry sense of humor that I can not begin to describe how great it was. She helped me see humor in the unexpected.

To Louis Duca, who worked with me at Glitsch Inc. and who taught me the fine art of selling fractionation equipment with a smile and sense of humor.

To Bill Young, who taught both me and Danny to love the finer things in life (like single malt scotch). Such a presence he had indeed.

To Cathy Streetman, my best friend and sister in heart. Her friendship and acceptance was so enormous, it was only matched by her generosity and teasing sense of humor.

A Final Salute

All of these friends, relatives and business associates are gone in the physical sense but have left indelible marks in both heart and memory. I can’t think of a finer tribute to them than to acknowledge their contributions to my own life and how their existence influenced me for the positive. I can only hope that someday someone will feel the same about me. For those of you who have also lost past acquaintances, friends or family, but kept a part of them in your heart, I dedicate this post to you. At last, I finally understand the lyrics of Auld Lang Syne. Read them below and perhaps you too will see what I see in them.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you buy your pint cup !
and surely I buy mine !
And we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’ a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !

And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

References and links:

Auld Lang Syne – Wikipedia Definitions

Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think) – YouTube Guy Lombardo Version

Auld Lang Syne – Guy Lombardo – Seeburg Juke Box Version – Complete with scratches on the 45 RP! – YouTube

Dec

The Craft of Guitar Lutherie – Strength in Numbers

By Danny Ringo | Art, Guitar, Science

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Introduction

The Next Two Wood Ring Classical Guitars to be Completed Before the End of 2011.

Aaron and I have been working very hard to finish two beautiful classical guitars that he has been building, side by side. One has a Western Red Cedar top with Cocobolo sides and back. It has Bocote trim and a Spanish Cedar neck. The other guitar has a German Spruce top with Indian Rosewood sides and back. It has Bloodwood trim and a Spanish Cedar neck. We have been working on these two guitars for over two months now.

Although much of this time was spent in crafting the two instruments from their component pieces of wood, a significant amount of time was spent performing extensive tests at every level of construction. Our goal in doing such thorough testing is to have a very thorough scientific understanding of every step in the process of building each classical guitar we produce.

Although this testing and record keeping takes a lot of time and work, we believe it is well worth it for three reasons.

We want to be absolutely sure that each Wood Ring Guitar is built to last a lifetime. This is done by applying both theoretical and empirical data to our building approach in order to make sure that the most vulnerable parts of the guitar are strong enough to endure decades of playing (strength testing).
We want to be able to reliably reproduce the qualities that contribute to a great sounding guitar (acoustic testing).
We want to continually improve the building process and the finished product from both an acoustic and artistic point of view (record keeping, feedback, and analysis).

Our aim is lofty but we feel strongly about it. We are committed to creating instruments that will gain in value over time because of their unique artistic beauty, their outstanding sound qualities, and a look and feel that gives each owner that special feeling that only a select few instruments throughout the world can bestow upon them.

Today, I want to discuss the process we use to test the strength of our soundboards. This testing process is very important because:

It allows us to fine tune the soundboard such that we are absolutely sure that each guitar is strong and built to last.
It gives us feedback in fine tuning the top and bracing system such that we can obtain the optimum sound characteristics possible.
It backs up our commitment that the guitar will sound as good or better 10, 20 or 30 years in the future as it does the day it is purchased.

Sound Board Strength Testing

It is the soundboard that is responsible for most of the sound that eminates from a guitar. When the player plucks or strums the strings, they start vibrating. This vibration is transferred through the bridge and into the soundboard. For standard guitar tuning, frequencies from 82.407 Hz (Open 6th string – E2) to 880 Hz (17th fret on 1st string – A5) are generated. To achieve this, a lot of tension (both static and dynamic) is exerted by the strings onto the bridge and the soundboard. The tension exerted by each string depends on several variables including (a) active string length, (b) frequency of the string, and (c) mass per unit length of the string. For a classical guitar the total tension exerted by all six strings is approximately 85 – 95 lbs. of force. Due to the way the strings are attached to the bridge, the force of this string tension applies a rotational torque on the bridge and soundboard with the front of the bridge pushing down on the area between the bridge and the soundhole and pulling up on the area between the bridge and the bottom edge of the guitar.

Torque Exerted by Strings on Bridge and Soundboard

As a general rule of thumb, the less mass there is in the soundboard and bracing, the louder and more responsive the instrument will be. Of course there is a limit to this and in reality a luthier must find a balance between the soundboard strength and the amount of mass that the soundboard will have. As mass is removed from the thickness of the soundboard plate and the thickness and height of the braces, the more the soundboard will deflect and warp in response to the tension placed on the bridge by the strings. This is good to a point and every classical and acoustic guitar top deflects a small amount downward between the bridge and soundhole and upward between the bridge and bottom of the guitar. As long as this deflection is kept within some well established design parameter guidelines this results in great sound and a very durable instrument. If this deflection exceeds these guidelines, then over time, the top will start to deform and cracks may appear around the bridge. Ultimately the soundboard may collapse. This effect can be magnified if the guitar is exposed to extreme conditions of varying temperature and humidity.

Testing Apparatus and Procedure

As part of our testing process, we use a method of soundboard stiffness testing and deflection compliance that was first suggested by David Hurd in his book Left-Brain Lutherie – Using Physics and Engineering Concepts for Building Guitar Family Instruments. This is an outstanding book on the application of science and engineering to the craft of Lutherie. In this book, David proposes that deflection measurements of the soundboard be taken at the point in the building process where the soundboard has just been attached to the sides and the back has not been attached yet. This allows the lutheir to make both soundboard thickness adjustments and bracing height and thickness adjustments based on results of the deflection tests and Chladni pattern tests.

The apparatus that we use for deflection measurement was hand made and is based on David’s Luthiers Forum series of articles which outline how to build the apparatus and how to use it. The apparatus is simple and is cheap to build. It is a well thought out apparatus for measuring guitar top deflections. After we built it and calibrated it, we performed extensive testing to establish repeatability and error values and we found that it can reliably measure deflections of a top within +/- 0.001″ which is very acceptable.

There are several stages in the guitar construction process where it makes sense to perform deflection tests involving the soundboard. The first test is done during the selection of the tone wood material as part of the criteria in making sure that we start with an optimal piece of tonewood. The next is done before the braces are added to the soundboard in order to determine an optimal starting thickness for the top. The next is done during the final thicknessing and brace shaving step of soundboard tuning (which is what this blog article is about). The next one is done after the bridge is added to the soundboard. Finally, as the instrument approaches completion, the deflection caused by the tension of the strings is measured above and below the bridge and recorded.

Generally, the procedure we use for measuring and recording deflections is as follows.

Measuring the deflection from a weight placed at various points on a grid placed over the soundboard.

Before we start the deflection tests for the final thicknessing and brace carving stage of construction, we create a very thin paper template with a 1″ x 1″ grid on it which we place over the soundboard so that it is protected from scratches and dents. We use a very thin paper which we tested to confirm that it does not affect the deflection values. Initially we perform a full set of measurements before the bridge is attached to the soundboard. Once the deflection measurements are taken, we normalize them based on a standard force value of 2 lbs. This is done so that data can be compared with values taken by other luthiers (as proposed by David Hurd).

Next we use a contouring program to map the deflection values for the entire soundboard.

Contour Map of Deflections produced by one of several free contouring applications available on the Internet.

This map is then reproduced on the full size Grid template.

Contour Map - Full Scale for Use in Tuning the Soundboard Braces

This sheet is initially used as a guide for where to take the deflection values and after the data is contoured, it is used as a guideline along with Chladni patterns in tuning the soundboard by adjusting the plate thickness and by adjusting the height and thickness of the braces. This is an iterative process. We carefully carve and adjust thicknesses and then take deflection values and perform Chladni tests again.

Chladni Pattern of 2nd Mode for the German Spruce Soundboard

This pain staking process is repeated until we reach the pre-established guidelines we have worked out regarding the deflection pattern that we want in the final product. It is these guidelines that each luthier must develop and refine as part of their artistic contribution to this process. This allows us to achieve the ultimate balance between strength and the tonal quality we are wanting to achieve for each guitar. There is a lot of work and time involved in doing this but the payoff in a masterfully constructed hand crafted classical guitar is well worth it. I wanted to write this article so that our customers know how much care is taken to be sure the value of these guitars far exceeds the cost and that each Wood Ring guitar is truly an investment that is built to give them a lifetime of enjoyment.

Links of Interest

Wood Ring Guitars – Unique Hand Crafted Guitars for Exceptional Musicians. Dallas, Fort Worth, Weatherford, Texas.

Left-Brain Lutherie by David Hurd – http://www.ukuleles.com/LBLBook/TOC.html

David Hurd’s Ukulele Website – http://www.ukuleles.com

Review of David Hurd’s Book – Left-Brain Lutherie

Quick Grid – Open Source Contouring Program

Of Science, Art, and Society Blog Entry on “Reading Tea Leaves to Predict the Future – Using Chladni Patterns to Create Extraordinary Classical Guitars”

Nov

The Science and Art of HDR Photography

By Danny Ringo | Photography, Technology

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Introduction

There are very few arts that have had as much influence from science on their creation and improvement as photography. Having done photography for many years now, I feel that I understand the basics of good photography. I have studied the amazing features of my D700 Nikon DSLR camera and understand how to use them well enough to get a good photo under varying conditions. I have studied composition, lighting, exposure, color and many other topics that are important to good photography.

Even after mastering the aspects of photography, there are still many scenarios where what I see or what I want to emphasize in a scene is considerably different than what is produced by taking a single photo. This is because the relatively simple mechanism by which a camera works cannot reproduce what the human eye working directly with the brain can. For instance, when it comes to capturing and processing scenes of high contrast and widely varying areas of light and darkness, the biochemical and neurological processes which lead to sight are far superior to a simple mechanical aperture exposing some film in a camera (or a photosensor in a digital camera).

Three exposures of some trees and a sunlit cloud. None show the way the scene really looked.

Until recently, unless you had access to sophisticated and expensive film processing equipment and the considerable time and knowledge required to use it, your only alternative was to say “you had to be there to appreciate it“. Since the early 1800′s, when photography was invented, photographers have worked very hard to reproduce what they see in their mind’s eye and have used a myriad of techniques to do this. Because of the cost, expertise and time involved, these techniques were not practical though for anyone but the most accomplished of professional photographers. That has changed.

With the advent of the personal computer, the digital camera, and ever more sophisticated image manipulation software applications, almost anyone with some time and a little study can learn to adjust images taken on their digital cameras, including those with highly varying light and dark areas, to produce first class photos. Now you and I can recreate those scenes photographically that previously required the image plus an embellishment of verbal descriptions of how beautiful it was to get the point across. This technique is called High Dynamic Range Photography or simply HDR.

A more realistic image created from the three exposures using HDR photography techniques.

What is HDR Photography?

HDR photography is a method of combining different exposures of the same scene to allow the photographer to capture a wider range of tonal detail than could be captured by a single shot. Since photography was invented in the early 1880′s, one of the classic problems that photographers have faced was creating a photo that was representative of what the eye could see in scenarios where the shot included areas of intense lighting as well as very dark areas. In such shots the resulting photo might show adequate detail in highly lit areas but the darker areas would all be very dark or black with little or no detail. Alternatively the shot might show detail in the darker areas but the lighter areas would be washed out with little detail.

Camera vs the Human Eye

Three exposures taken of a poorly lit room which were used to create a composite image using HDR photography.

Dynamic range for a camera can be described in terms of Exposure Value differences between the brightest and darkest parts of an image. In a camera, a combination of the shutter speed and aperture setting controls the exposure. One purpose of the aperture of a camera is to control the amount of light that is allowed to enter the camera. This limits the brightness of the image by restricting the size of the aperture to stop some of the light from entering the camera. Rather than allowing continuous control of the aperture size, cameras allow the photographer to increase or decrease the size of the camera’s aperture in discrete steps. These are called stops. As you go up the stop scale for a camera, each stop allows 1/2 the light intensity to enter the camera as the previous stop. I did a survey of several photography oriented websites and the consensus regarding the dynamic range of cameras vs the human eyeball measured in stops are as follows. Most point and shoot compact cameras have a dynamic range of 5-7 stops. Most high end SLR cameras have a dynamic range of 8-11 stops. The human eyeball static dynamic range has been estimated to be between 10 to 14 stops. Given a minute or so to adjust, the human eye can see a total dynamic range of approximately 20 stops. This is much higher than even the best SLR camera image.

Why do we see more dynamic range than what is shown in the photos we take? It mostly has to do with our brain’s interpretation of the image transmitted to it by the eyeball. The brain and eyes work together in real time to evaluate multiple exposures in a continuous way such that the mind’s eye sees an image that is far superior to what the camera is mechanically capable of capturing in a single moment.

Interior room imaged processed through HDR techniques has much better lighting characteristics.

HDR Photography Can be Learned by Almost Anyone

Due to the great image manipulation tools that have emerged in the last 10 years, HDR photography can now be done by anyone with a camera with basic features like aperture and shutter speed controls. There are a couple of free software applications available for doing HDR. For the better HDR software you will need to spend from $30 – $700 in software tools depending on how good you want the resulting images to look. Most of these tools offer a 30 day free trial if you want to try this out. There are lots of websites that explain how to do HDR photography in detail so I will just briefly go over the process based on some photography that I did recently that required HDR to make them look correct. For anyone that wants to learn how to do this in very detailed steps, check out the links at the end of this post.

The Process

Take at least three photos of the same scene but with different exposure settings. One will be taken at the “ideal” exposure for the scene as determined by a light meter or automatically by your camera. One will be taken one F-Stop below the ideal exposure to create an over-exposed photo. One will be taken one F-Stop above the ideal exposure to create an under-exposed photo. Most high end cameras allow you to do this automatically using a feature called automatic exposure braketing.
Move the images to your computer.
Use an HDR software application to merge the photos and adjust the tone mapping using various controls to achieve the desired look.
Correct various problems that are sometimes introduced in the process of merging the photos. Among these are (a) ghosting caused by things moving while you were taking the shots, (b) chromatic abberation caused by the camera lens reacting to different wavelengths of light by offsetting them in shots that were taken, (c) noise that shows up in some areas of the photo as pixels of various colors. There are automated tools that allow you to fix all of these.
Save the image and post it to the desired medium.

The detail of the clouds and the beautiful colors of the foilage cannot be captured in the same image.

Examples

The examples included with this post include a landscape shot with some trees and a beautifully sunlit cloud, an interior shot, and a landscape with some menacing storm clouds. I have included three shots of different exposures for each along with the final HDR photo. For the shot with the trees and the brightly lit cloud I was able to show the beauty of the cloud with the orange highlights from the late afternoon sunlight while lighting up the trees so that they didn’t show up as a bunch of dark shadows. For the interior shot I was able to use HDR photography to enhance the lighting in the poorly lit room without having to use a bunch of expensive lighting equipment. For the landscape with the menacing storm clouds I was able to bring out the details and textures in the clouds while still being able to show the color of the trees. It takes a little more time and work to do this but as you can see it is worth it to get a final image that represents pretty much what I saw with my eyes.

With HDR techniques we can capture both the cloud texture and the beautiful foilage colors.

Still a Way to Go But We’re Getting there Fast!

Even with the amazing technology of HDR photography, it is still not quite as good as the eye can see. The physical mediums that we currently use to view photographs like film, high resolution monitors, etc. do not have the dynamic range of human sight. To resolve this issue, HDR techniques currently reduce the range of contrast for the photo while allowing more detail to be seen in the brighter and darker areas than in a traditional photograph. This results in some darkening up the brighter areas and lightening of the darker areas. This means that a really good HDR photograph is tuned to the medium that it will be displayed on. As time goes by though, improvements will be made both in image manipulation capability and in the output media to increase the dynamic range of what can be displayed.

We are already seeing cameras come out with an HDR mode that allows the photographer the option of doing HDR photography in real time with no post processing. The i-Phone 4 was one of the first devices to offer this option on its camera and it works reasonably well considering all you have to do is point and shoot. Now all the major digital camera manufacturers have at least one camera model that offers this feature. Still, if you want to be able to produce amazing HDR photographs on the order that some of the best HDR photographers produce, you will need to invest in a good digital SLR camera as well as some of the software mentioned below and spend some time learning the techniques involved. To me it is certainly worth the investment in both time and money.

Links of Interest and Further Information

Photography Basics

About.com – Photography Basics Article - Offers a good discussion of the basics of good photography.

LifeHacker Article – How a Digital Camera Works

Photography Basics – A very good photography basics article.

Digital Photography School – A good site with tutorials. Also allows you to submit photos and get the critiqued and to write articles.

The Luminous Landscape – One of the web’s most comprehensive sites devoted to the art of landscape, nature and documentary photography using digital as well as traditional image processing techniques.

The following are four good posts from the same website.

Digital Photography Basics: The Camera

Digital Photography Tips for Beginners

20 Must-Reads for Amateur Photographer

Top 8 Photography Websites

Great Image Software Tools for Producing HDR Photography.

Top 10 HDR Applications for 2011

Essays on What the Eye Sees vs What the Camera Captures

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/eye-camera.shtml

HDR Photography Tutorials

http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-tutorial/ - One of the better HDR tutorials on the Internet.

19 Good Tutorials for Doing HDR Photography

Nov

Summer of the Hawk

By Danny Ringo | Nature's Art, Science

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Hawks of Summer 2011

Birds have fascinated me and my family for many years. We have had a Double Yellow Headed Amazon Parrot as a pet for over 20 years. We have always named our computers after bird types. Our consulting company’s website (http://www.odycc.com/) uses various types of birds as a metaphor for traits necessary to be successful in the use of computer technology to meet your business goals. Sandra has been inspired by the subject of birds in her artistic endeavors. An example line drawing of a hawk drawn by Sandra is shown at the end of this post.

A mother Cooper's Hawk looking down at her newly hatched babies in the nest.

You can imagine our pleasure when this summer my family and I had the unique privilege of having a pair of Cooper’s Hawks build a nest at the top of an oak tree in our front yard. Within a few days after the nest was completed, it was apparent that the female had laid eggs in the nest and was sitting on them. After a few more weeks we began to see a behavioral change in the parents. While the female stayed on or near the nest most of the time, the male was constantly out hunting for food. After a couple of more days of observation we began to see little downy heads popping up from time to time, especially when one of the parent birds showed up with a mouse or a lizard for dinner.

It became a daily ritual in our family to check on the hawk nest. As days passed by the baby hawks were rapidly growing. We were able to see more and more of their heads and their gaping mouths as they made themselves available at feeding time. After a couple of weeks the female joined the male in the hunt for food for the demanding chicks. They were extremely dedicated parents, working from sunup to sundown to bring sustenance to the baby birds.

If you do a search on the word “hawk” or “hawk science” in Google or Bing, you will find the search results page littered with aerospace engineering companies, NASA missions, and military hardware or possibly news about a sports team. The very nature of the hawk’s natural abilities evokes a strong symbolism that is appealing to organizations like sports teams or the military. In earlier times, hawks and eagles were symbols of strength and wisdom to Native Americans. Their feathers were used as symbols of social standing and achievement in the tribe. Hawks are swift and alert. They have keen eyesight. The shrill call of a hawk sends smaller creatures scurrying for the safety of shelter. Little did we know that we would be able to observe these qualities and more in the family of hawks that lived in a tree in our front yard in the summer of 2011.

From Crisis to Opportunity

Baby Cooper's Hawk had fallen from the nest into the front lawn.

One hot morning in late June something unanticipated happened. Sandra went out into the front yard to view the nest and found that one of the baby hawks had fallen to the ground. He was lying in the shade in a patch of St. Augustine grass that covers much of our front yard. As she approached the baby bird to determine his status, she found that although he was unable to fly, he was able to walk around on the ground. He seemed to be ok despite falling at least 30 feet! She immediately came back inside the house and informed me and Aaron about the situation.

After taking a look at the small helpless hawk, many questions started racing through my mind. How is this helpless bird going to make it? Will his parents come down to the ground to feed him? How will he survive the hot Texas days on the ground. We had already had 20 days of 100+ degree rainless weather with no relief in sight. Even if he could survive in this harsh environment, how would he escape other predators now that he was in the worst place possible for a baby bird – on the ground.

Baby hawk being coaxed onto a stick so he can be placed back into a tree.

We realized that there was only so much we could do to help. We immediately decided to try to get him off of the ground. I went and got a pair of heavy duty leather gloves and approached the baby hawk. He tried to run but immediately decided he could not escape me so he hunkered down into the grass, opened his wings as wide as possible, and opened his mouth in a threatening gesture. I carefully folded his wings back down over his body and gently grabbed him. I took him over to a low lying branch of a smaller tree and placed him on the branch. Initially he was reluctant to grab onto the branch but after a couple of tries, he did grab on and maintained his balance. He stayed there for the remainder of the afternoon and into the evening. As darkness moved in, I thought to myself that it will be a miracle if he makes it through the night.

Baby hawk after being placed back on a tree branch.

We woke up early the next morning and looked out the window, wondering if he would still be alive. Sure enough, there he was, in the exact same place that we had left him the night before. At least he had sense enough to stay put. Somehow he had managed to avoid detection by predators of the Texas night like cats, raccoons, opossums, snakes, and owls. At first we were extremely happy. We had thought the bird’s chances were very slim and that it probably would not survive the first night. Now that he had survived, a new reality began to sink in. We realized that it would take days if not weeks for this bird to mature enough to fly. How was he going to survive the hot Texas days without nourishment and water? Then it happened. The baby bird began to call out a familiar sound. It was a loud shrill whistle srr-sssrrrrrr. We saw a parent bird circling the area. The baby was calling to its parents. The circles became smaller and smaller as the bird flew lower and lower. Then it landed on a tree branch just above the baby bird. Finally it flew down next to the baby bird and began to feed it what looked like a piece of a small reptile it had caught.

Over the next three weeks this process continued. Both parent birds were involved. One would stay fairly close to the area while the other would go out hunting for food. The parents worked very hard taking care of the birds in the nest as well as the one who had fallen out. It was amazing to see how dedicated these two parent birds were in taking care of their young. They very quickly adapted to the situation. We had a heart felt sense of amazement to be able to witness this.

Ground School and Flight Training

During the course of the next three weeks, the baby bird bailed out of the tree onto the ground several times. We tried to not interfere except when it looked like the baby was wandering into harms way. For instance the tiny hawk tried to cross the hot asphalt street during the busy part of the day. We grabbed it and put it back into the tree before it was inadvertently run over by a neighbor as they were headed home from work. By this time, Aaron had refined the process by getting the baby bird to step onto a parrot cage perch. This was less trauma to the baby bird with less risk to the person (the baby bird was growing rapidly and the beak and claws looked very sharp and menacing).

We did observe that after a three week period, the baby bird finally started making short flights, although we did not see if fly. We speculated that he was able to fly because we would leave him sitting on the low lying branch that had been his home for over two weeks. When we went back out later in the day to see how he was doing, he was gone. Looking around revealed that he was on a branch of the same tree which was five or six feet higher. We would also find him on low lying branches of other trees in the front yard. All throughout this time his parents continued locate him and feed him.

Also after about three weeks after the baby initially fell from the nest, the baby bird’s siblings began to leave the nest. One in particular made a habit of flying down and sitting next to its smaller sibling. At first we thought that the larger bird came down to keep his smaller sibling company, but it also made it more likely he would be fed more often because it was easier for the parents to feed the two birds when they were sitting so close to one another.

The larger chick came down to join its smaller sibling on a lower tree branch.

After another week or two the baby bird increased its mobility until it eventually worked its way back up to the nest and beyond. The hawks stayed in the area for another month or so as the babies learned to fly. In mid August we were blessed with a nice rain storm after months of heat and drought. The resulting gusts of wind were a perfect training exercise for the baby hawks. We spent at least an hour watching the babies following the parent birds as they rode the air currents several hundred feet in the air and then did practice dives toward the tree tops. It reminded me of my childhood dream of wanting desperately to learn to fly like a bird.

As time progressed, the baby hawk moved higher up into the tree top canopy.

After another week we noticed the hawks were gone. Sometimes we could hear their calls in the trees down the street but even this ceased after a couple of days. The only evidence that remains is the large nest that still sits at the top of our oak tree in the front yard. I don’t know if they will be back next spring or not. I hope so. Nevertheless, in the future, when I think of the year 2011 I will always remember the Cooper’s hawks that chose to raise their family in a way that allowed us the amazing experience of being able to observe their way of life so closely. I have a new found respect for the intelligence and instincts that nature has given these beautiful creatures to successfully raise their young.

One of our last photos of the young Cooper's Hawk calling to its parents for food.

"Hawk Landing" by Sandra Ringo

Other Great Resources

Birds in General

http://www.birding.com/ - Lots of information about birds and bird watching around the world. Contains lots of information about birds in general with many excellent links for further study.

http://www.birding.com/wheretobird/texas.asp - A great resource for bird watchers in Texas.

http://texasbirds.org/ - Website of the Texas Ornithological Society.

http://texasbirds.org/tbrc/statelst.htm#hawks - A list of all the types of hawks found in Texas.

Hawks

http://www.jaybat.com/birdsahoy/hawks/ - A website that has many excellent links to sites about hawks and other raptors.

http://birdsbybent.com/ch1-10/coopers.html - Everything you want to know about Cooper’s Hawks and more!

Birds and Art

http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Bird_Art.html - A short essay on art inspired by birds.

http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/SUFRAME.html - An interesting website done by that is dedicated to the birds of Stanford. It emphasizes both the science and art associated with birds.

http://www.hawksaloft.com/ - A website dedicated to the art and science of hawks. Excellent resource!

http://ottgallerymv.com/lannymcdowellavianart/index.php/2009/07/raptor-photos-young-coopers-hawks-on-marthas-vineyard/ - Some great photography of some Cooper’s Hawks and their babies on Martha’s Vinyard.

Oct

Good Morning Rainbow

By Danny Ringo | Nature's Art

2 Comments

Rainbow across the morning sky.

Sandra came in from retrieving the morning paper early today and exclaimed “Danny, come out. You have got to see this rainbow!” I quickly grabbed our camera and ran out to see what she was so excited about. She was standing out in the front yard and pointing toward the western sky. I looked and arching up above the oak trees was one of the most vivid and beautiful rainbows I have seen in quite a while. This was not expected because there were just a scattering of clouds across the sky with no rain in the forecast. Nevertheless it was a wonderful sight to behold.

Birds flying across the rainbow in the sky.

The Size of a Rainbow is Relative to the Sun’s Angle

This rainbow had some beautiful qualities. The arc was quite steep (almost vertical at the base on the horizon) and the top of the rainbow was very high in the sky. It turns out that this is due to the fact that it appeared early in the morning. The Sun was near the horizon and the Sun’s visible light rays forming the rainbow were nearly horizontal. The arc of a rainbow that occurs at sunrise or sunset appears to be larger that one that occurs when the sun is higher in the sky. The apparent height of a rainbow decreases as the height of the sun in the sky increases. When the Sun exceeds an angle of 42 degrees above the horizon no rainbow can be seen by an observer on the ground.

Another view of the rainbow arc across the morning sky.

Morning and Evening Rainbows

Also the composition of the sunlight that reaches earth at sunrise or sunset generally has more red hues and less blue hues. This is because of atmospheric scattering of the sunlight due to dust, smog, and water vapor in the air. It is more prominent in the mornings and evenings because the light passes through a longer stretch of atmosphere at those times than it does when the Sun is higher in the sky. This affected the color of our morning rainbow by emphasizing the bands on the red side and muting the bands on the blue side. You can see this emphasized even more by the color of the clouds in the photos. We were certainly the benefactor of these phenomena and I am grateful that Sandra observed this beautiful rainbow and called it to my attention. The affect of the Sun’s angle on rainbow geometry and color has been understood since the 1600′s. The phenomena is explained in more detail in this post on Rainbow Angles.

A Sight that Evokes Happiness

There is something about rainbows that makes most people feel good. A rainbow is an elegant and sweeping display of color across the sky. It is amazing to me how quickly nature can summon up the ingredients and conditions necessary to form the pallette of visible colors that we humans can see. Viewing a rainbow is a fleeting experience. After five minutes the rainbow quickly dissappeard as the Sun rose. I can certainly tell you that this sight put a smile on my face and gave me a great feeling of happiness.

The Science of Rainbows

The science of rainbows is fairly simple and is taught to most of us in elementary school. All it takes is the Sun shining across some water droplets suspended in the atmosphere. In order to see the rainbow, the viewer of course must be in the right place in relation to the Sun and the water vapor. The water droplets act like a huge prism and through refraction and dispersion of light, the droplets break the sunlight down into its component freqencies forming the band of colors of the rainbow. We commonly say that a rainbow is comprised of the colors Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. Historically these component colors of a rainbow were first identified by Isaac Newton. In reality, a rainbow is a continuum of light frequencies that extends from the infrared to the ultra-violet frequencies and includes the entire band of frequencies that humans percieve as the colors of the rainbow.

Nature’s Art

With this post we are creating a new category called Nature’s Art. From time to time we will be posting many more articles to this category as there are an infinite number of instinces where Nature either inspires art or is a naturally occurring art form in and of itself.

Interesting Links

The Wikipedia article on rainbows is very good. It describes the science of rainbows, the scientific history, and the cultural influence the rainbow has had.

There many websites that explain very effectively how rainbows work.

There is a very nice interactive app on the National Taiwon Normal University website that effectively demonstrates the physics of rainbows.
The Watching the World Wakeup blog has a good post called How a Rainbow Works which is worth looking at.
The site How Rainbows Happen explains all the physics concepts required to understand how rainbows happen.
This web page called Rainbow Physics explains very simply how a rainbow works. It was posted by a photographer and has some good rainbow photos. It is one part of a 5 part series on how to photograph rainbows.
This website has some Interesting Rainbow Facts .

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Auld Lang Syne – For Old Times

The Craft of Guitar Lutherie – Strength in Numbers

The Science and Art of HDR Photography

Summer of the Hawk

Auld Lang Syne – For Old Times

It’s Later Than You Think!

To other old acquaintances I will not forget:

A Final Salute

References and links:

The Craft of Guitar Lutherie – Strength in Numbers

The Science and Art of HDR Photography

Summer of the Hawk

Good Morning Rainbow

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