Wing Surfers
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: #Wild and #Weird Perspectives

This week’s theme of “wild and weird” offers photobloggers a chance to share your random photos for Sunday Stills. You know, the ones you take that you can’t classify or end up in the miscellaneous file?

I have quite the collection, but will share just a few with you today.

Take Your Medicine…

…If you can catch it. I take a daily medication each morning and sometimes if I have a headache I add some behind-the-counter Sudafed (red pills) and aspirin. One morning, as I placed the handful on the counter, they fell into this pattern.

Pills

Amazing the tiny little Sudafed even stayed on its side! Of course, I ran to get my phone and capture the weird moment. Yes, I felt better after I swallowed them.

WING Surfing? Say what now?

Wing, not wind! Most of you know we spend summer weekends in the Sacramento River Delta. Because of COVID, we got a delayed start but drove down to the County park for a day trip in early May. Hubby windsurfed while I sat in the truck bundled up against the too cool wind. Out in the water, I kept seeing what I thought was a kiteboarder struggling with his sail in the water. A moment later, I looked again and saw this:

Wing Surfers

I had my good camera with me and zoomed in and stood in awe as I watched the birth of a new water sport: wing surfing, also called wing foiling. Foiling is a newer sport that adds a special hydrofoil to a modified windsurf board or kiteboard. The foil has a propeller that pushes the board above the waves and surf for a smoother ride.

The wing is connected to a leash attached to both the wrist and ankle, so it doesn’t get lost with the inevitable crash, or fly away out of control.

“Although it was conceived to be used with a foil board, it can also be adopted for riding stand-up paddleboards (SUP), windsurf and kiteboards, and even skateboards and snowboards. It is also a lot of fun on a big touring SUP board. It’s difficult to paddle when it’s windy, especially with five or ten knots. With an inflatable wing, it’s easy and entertaining,” notes Robby Naish, the developer of the Wing-Surfer.”



https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/what-is-wing-surfing

I would try it with my paddleboard, sans foil…

How Does a Bumble Bee Fly?

bumblebee on sweetpea

Did you know that bumblebees should not be able to fly, based on their large bodies and disproportionate small wings? According to a 2005 study, high-speed photography showed that they flap their wings back and forth rather than up and down, reminiscent of hummingbirds.

“The wing sweeping is a bit like a partial spin of a helicopter propeller, researcher Michael Dickinson, a professor of biology and insect flight expert at the University of Washington. The angle to the wing also creates vortices in the air — like small hurricanes. The eyes of those mini-hurricanes have lower pressure than the surrounding air, so, keeping those eddies of air above its wings helps the bee stay aloft.”

https://www.livescience.com/57509-bumblebee-facts.html

Speaking of Insects

Have you ever seen a dragon fly? Maybe not a “real” dragon–wouldn’t that be weird!

orange dragonfly

Of course, we have, but this rust-colored one that has been hanging around my backyard lately is spectacular.

Backyard Alien Bird

My backyard attracts quite a few birds when the feeders are full, including hummingbirds, crows, kites, turkeys, robins, blue jays, mockingbirds, and finches.

  • orange bird on feeder
    Mine, all mine!
  • orange and black finch

But this guy is one I’ve never seen before and he put on quite the show with his acrobatics on the feeder. I took a LOT of photos. Anyone know what kind of bird this is? I’m thinking some kind of finch as I look at his beak. Hopefully, they will stay away from the dragonflies!

A Neighbor’s Alien Flower

Out during my usual dog-walking, and mesmerized by a neighbor’s sunflower in April, I spotted this unusual flower.

passionflower

I’ve never seen anything like it and it looks like several different parts of other flowers cobbled together. It took my brother-in-law who lived in Chile until age 9 to recognize it as a passionflower! Who knew? And how is it growing in hot, dry Sacramento? Pretty, but weird. Sharing for Cee’s Flower of the Day.

Over the Moon

And speaking of alien and spacey subjects, June 20th is the 51st anniversary of the US moon landing. Because you have seen all my moon shots, how about a weird shot of a SpaceX launch caught flying over the top of our family home in San Diego in December 2017?

SpaceX Launch
SpaceX Launched 10 satellites into space from Southern California

Or this image of apple pie flavored moonshine to celebrate? I may feel a little weird and spacey after a couple of shots of this stuff!

Got moonshine?
Got moonshine?

Wild and weird images create fun and unique perspectives and are also submitted for Becky B’s Square Perspectives Challenge.

I look forward to your wild and weird photos this week for Sunday Stills. C’mon, you know you have them! Dust them off and share away!

Until next week!

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64 comments

  1. Good morning, both the bird and flower both unknown to me. The beak of the tells me that it belongs to the same family as the evening grosbeak group. I haven’t a bullfinch. Good luck with finding the answers. To identify and a plant, you need the leaves and information about what kind of roots are it has. Wear your mask.

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  2. Love these photos, Terri. I recognised the passionflower. We used to have one. And the space launch…wow, that must have been a sight to see. That’s a lovely little bird, does it have the look of a finch?

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  3. Love this collection of outstanding photos and especially the comments that accompany. I’m surprised you didn’t know the passion flower – I first saw them when we lived in Hawaii, 1959-1961, and would have thought you’d have seen them there as well. Your avian visitor is a male black-headed Grosbeak. The most wondrous photo is the SpaceX, especially since it seems to have electrified the house below it. Happy windsurfing to you, Terri.

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  6. This post could have been about aliens with the close ups of insects, the unidentified bird, passion flower and the odd looking Space X shot. I have never seen a passion flower- it looks like something alien for sure! How cool and interesting it is. I also have not seen anything like the windfoiling. Weird and wonderful stuff!

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  18. Hi, Terri,
    This is an impressive collection of photographs, but your skills are even more impressive. A few of the pictures (Bumblebee and Dragonfly) required a massive amount of patience, I’m certain. As for the moonshine…it is distilled about 30 miles from our home in Tennessee. I have quite a collection of flavors, including my favorite–a jar filled with chocolate cherries marinating in moonshine. Enjoy! Joe

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  20. Wow, a wing-board! Who knew?!?! It looks like one more way to knock me into the water so no thank you LOL. Quite the collection of images Terri – but I must admit the photo of your meds is TRULY odd-ball!!!

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  24. I’ve seen the Passionflower before, and it is a strange but beautiful piece of nature, Terri.

    The Moonshine drink got me thinking about all the weird flavour gins and vodkas that the UK seems to have gone crazy about. We even have gin and vodka bars because there are so many different flavours of them. Once upon a time, gin tasted like gin, and vodka tasted of vodka, but somebody started adding some flavourings to them, and now there are hundreds of different flavours of both. My favourite is marmalade vodka. Mix it with ginger beer and a slice of lime, and it’s a refreshing drink.

    I wouldn’t mind tasting some of that Midnight Moon moonshine.

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    • I am all about unique flavors of alcohol, Hugh! Gin and tonics are so refreshing, even with diet tonic, lol! I’ve had pineapple flavored vodka and it tastes amazing. The apple pie moonshine is really incredible and sipping a shot might be better than a slice of apple pie!

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      • Apple pie flavour sounds divine, Terri. I’m sure I’ve seen ice-cream in that flavour. I wonder what it would be like with a splash of Moonshine on it?
        I’ve not seen pineapple flavoured vodka, but I’d like the sound of it. I’ll look out for it.

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  26. Glad to read this post for suggestions and ideas on wild and weird subjects for our photos this week. Somehow I was thinking wildebeest or lion!! Thought a trip to the zoo – if it’s open – might be in my future.

    Amazing capture of the dragonfly. Magnificent details on his/her wings. They are like glass.

    I think I remember a flower similar to the passion flower in your post growing in Boston when I was a child. But that seems a very unlikely place for such an exotic bloom.

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