Some news is bad news...

We were at Boyscout Woods when the Fork-tailed Flycatcher was found at Smith Oaks (less than 1/2 mile away) - but we didn't find out about the sighting until late that night, when we were on the north side of Houston.

Another call came in today; nice resume, but someone else got the job.

And my darling hand-me-down Minolta G400 point-and-shoot is gradually losing its shutter speed control. At least that's my guess, since regular shots are seriously overexposed and a few with slight zoom and dark backgrounds are coming out tolerably (in fewer than one out of five tries). For a 2004 model digital camera, the obsolescence may be understandable. But I like this one, I can work with this one. I can digi-bin photos that would make other people cry* (they still end up feeble, but they're better than nothing). There's a new one online for $300, a used one on ebay for $200 and a broken one on ebay for $25 - but those are the ONLY ones I could find at all. Maybe I dropped this one a few too many times. It got a brand new spare battery last year before the honeymoon, perhaps it couldn't keep up. The anthropomorphism is horrible there, but at least it has no name.

Example: I had about 10 photos that looked like the one below.



Finally, after zooming in and re-centering the photo, 1 turned out. It seems to wash out regardless of flash.



Agonizingly enough, it does the same with macro. If you're wondering, the photos are from Boy Scout Woods at High Island. They were taken while we should have been at Smith Oaks! Ah well.