Eccentric Central
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Apparently, a Blue Jay's feathers do not actually have a blue pigment. What we are seeing is the refracted sunlight which casts a blue light.
"Blue and green are oddball colors in the animal kingdom. They are structural colors. In birds, they are caused by microscopic structures in the feather that refract light like a prism. When this light passes through a dark layer of melanin, some wavelengths are filtered out, and the bird looks blue..." Blue jays, indigo buntings and bluebirds all get their color from structure, not pigment.
If you are interested here is a link that further describes pigment versus structural coloring in birds
bangordailynews.com/2014/01/10/outdoors/blue-jays-bluenes...
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Every October we overseed our lawn to have lush green grass for the winter. But that means staying off the lawn for about 4 weeks while the new grass gets established. Finally, this weekend we let Jasper back into the yard for play. He was thrilled. And remains thrilled. Nothing like a vigorous game of Oddball in the new winter grass.
Jasper is the undisputed OddBall champ. Other toys get used but OddBall is the enduring favorite. I'm often amazed at some of the catches Jasper makes. He can be like some kind of ninja snapping it out of the air with blinding speed
432 Park Avenue (is the name of the hirise) is the tallest residential hirise (not the tallest building) in the world topping out at 1,396 ft (425.5m).It's the second tallest building in NYC after One World Trade Center.For those of you who might be wondering,the tallest residential building in Dubai is the Princess Tower which tops out at 1,358 ft (414m).The shot was taken from the observatory deck at 30 Rockefeller Center,also known as The Rock.
Despite it being about 100ºF (~38ºC) Jasper wanted a little outdoor play time on Saturday evening. So bucket of ice water in hand we indulged him. For a few minutes anyway 😎
I'm not sure question I asked Jasper, but it apparently stunned him. He's all wide-eyed, like I might have said, "I think there's a squirrel in the yard!"
And now back to our regularly scheduled Oddball Channel. For years, the Oddball has been Jasper's go-to toy. His other toys certainly get play, but every day we get in a least a little Oddball play. He's an Oddball champ, you know. Probably a world champ.
Illinois and Midland #31, an EMD RS1325 of which only 2 were built, leads a photo freight west over Camp Creek in Monticello Illinois
I thought it was cute the way Jasper set his OddBall on his front paws, looking at me as if to dare me to try and grab the ball. This particular OddBall has been with us for a month now and is still in tip-top shape.
Jasper presents the Oddball as if he'll let you have a chance at getting it. Yeah right! The slightest indication that we're making a move for that Oddball and Jasper jaws are around it. Humans are so slow and dumb.
Play time is definitely Jasper's happy time. Yes, a late afternoon rumble in the yard with an Oddball or frisbee is just what the doctor ordered.
At first I thought this bull moose was growing its antlers abnormally, but upon close look, it appears his left side has been broken off at the tips. Perhaps they got stuck in some branches when he was trying to scrape off the velvet. He would have been a monster this year had it not been for that. So I've nicknamed him Oddball for this year. It doesn't seem to have impacted his interest in the ladies. Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA, September 2025
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It's funny, Jasper will often hang his oddball or frisbee on his canine tooth, as if its some sort of storage hook.
Wisconsin Central SD35 2500 was leading train 243 at Leithton as it was picking up some traffic from the EJ&E in 1998. It was built by EMD in 1965 as Southern Railway 3024.
It went on to the Fox River Valley and had its high nose chopped while retaining its Southern Paint. Wisconsin Central inherited it when it took over the FRV.
It was eventually painted in the classic WC paint, and it ran amuck until the Canadian National takeover, and it was sent to NRE in Silvis to be scrapped.
St. Aidan's Bucyrus Erie Dragline BE1150 "Oddball", This massive 1200 Ton Machine use to walk!
This is 4 wide angle images stitched together its that big.
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I watched in sordid fascination as the man levered his car back and forward, trying to park it in precisely the spot he’d chosen, each clumsy movement reminiscent of the death throes of some large beast. We were at Chippenham Services, on the way home from the rugby international at Twickenham. Once he’d finally manoeuvred his steed exactly as planned, neither he nor his wife could get out of the car without having to hold in the doors carefully for fear of smashing them into those of the two they’d squeezed in between. The row behind was completely empty. Thirty spaces or more, with not a single vehicle, and no discernable disadvantage in pulling up in one of them, other than having to walk an additional four yards to get to the queue for McDonalds. And this was a young couple, neither of them blighted by any apparent mobility issues. They’d lost far more time with all of that elaborate back and forth, and then having to escape from the car like contestants on The Krypton Factor. Why on earth didn’t he park in one of the spaces in that huge empty row? Why had nobody else parked in that gloriously unsullied swathe?
It’s one of my prime sources of first world irritation. I’m the one who parks as far away as I can from the supermarket door, just to give myself the best chance of returning to my car to find it standing alone with at least one space on either side. And if I really must park next to another car, it will be a brand new Mercedes or BMW - something like that, where the owner is going to be particularly precious about their paintwork. Never a Citroen Picasso, or anything that has a sticker saying “Baby on Board.” And If I do emerge with my purchases to find my car has formed some kind of union with a new neighbour in an otherwise empty row of spaces, Captain Grumpy takes over. I mean, why park next to the one other car when there are twenty unused spaces on either side? Even when I write about this imaginary (but sometimes real) scenario, I can feel my heckles rising. Is it that humans want to bond, or do they just mostly follow each other in a trance-like form of psychological programming? Is my compulsion to go out of my way to keep my distance from everyone else just another sign that I’m a loner at heart? Probably.
I was making this point most forcibly as we parked at Morrison’s in Tavistock, having of course selected as isolated a parking space as I could find. Dave and Lee, having heard this all before, had stuffed their ears with cheese so as not to have to endure it again. “Don’t start him off again,” Dave sighed, as Lee banged his head on the tarmac to see if it would stop him hearing my tirade. “And then there’s George Ezra!” I continued with a non-sequitur so obscure that it even surprised me. “What about George Ezra?” came the response. “Well his songs are all the same. He does a high bit, and then he does a low bit, and then he does it all again!” Quite why I’d chosen a random celebrity songsmith to rant about next, not even I could tell you, but even the mere notion of someone unnecessarily parking alongside sets me off into a world of fury. Imagine if George parked next me in a huge empty row, wound down his window and started singing at me? And there’s another one. Other people’s music choices being played at me. I can’t stand that either. Not even when it’s bands that I like. Maybe I need to relocate to a Pacific atoll and live on coconuts and bananas. One with good sunsets of course. Some of us just aren’t cut out for the wider world. Dave did concede that I had a point about George Ezra.
It was a good job that we were going somewhere quiet and remote this morning; a forest where we could spread out and roam alone. A place which wasn’t feted as a togs’ hotspot. But we’d passed it as evening drew in on the way back from our outing the previous afternoon and immediately added it to the itinerary. We made it our first port of call the following morning, and after picking up our lunch without any parking related commotion at Morrison’s we pulled up here, piled out of the car and disappeared into the dark mist filled spruce columns.
And talking of oddballs and loners, there were one or two interesting characters lurking under the canopy. I’ll bet nobody’s brave enough to park right alongside this one when he takes the Land Rover into Widecombe on the Moor to stock up on fresh supplies of moss and woodlice. With his unicorn horn, he’s not going to be taking any nonsense from anyone is he?
He wasn’t the only oddball we found in the woods, so I may bring you back here for another story. Next time I promise not to rant about anything at all. But just in case you happen to parking in a supermarket in West Cornwall, and you notice a metallic blue Skoda Yeti sitting over there in the far corner on its own, please don’t feel the need to pull up alongside it if you don’t mind. You never know what kind of spleen venting monster you might set off when the owner returns. Especially if your surname is Ezra and you like a bit of a sing song now and again.
Agapanthus is usually in blossom in summer here. But this one and only oddball is blooming against the cold.
The "Chicago" F40 brings Westbound Union Pacific West train #59 through Tower A2 at the end of rush hour.
Built by EMD in 1951 as Chicago and North Western GP7 1534 and rebuilt in 1980 as CNW HE15 4252, KJRY 252 was an oddball,
It was one of 2 CNW motors used to test Cummins diesel motors for a possible re-engine program, They were not a success.
It was switching BN interchange traffic at Keokuk in 1996 as Keokuk Junction's 252 along with a former Santa Fe CF7.
We're missing Jasper on our Christmas trip to Wisconsin to visit family. But we've got pics to help us through :-) Plus the matriarch of the family he's staying with in Arizona has sent us a couple of pics so we know he's doing well.
This was taken with my iPhone XS. I used portrait mode then adjusted the depth of field so that he was in focus and the tree went out of focus. Interesting to play with. Ultimately not a replacement for the DSLR, but amazing what comes out of phones
We still get some walks in, but with the Stay at Home order we're getting some exercise in the backyard. Normally I like more even lighting but I liked the dappled light as Jasper emerged from the shadows with his OddBall.
Jasper the OddBaller jogs back victorious after an awesome catch of the OddBall. Rock on my furry friend. Shot blind, cuz I like to
After having fallen under Jasper's mind control spell, we had a rousing game of Oddball, finishing on his Ottoman Empire
BNSF Y-NTW1501 makes a move out of Northtown Yard in Minneapolis Minnesota with a former Santa Fe C44-9W leading an SD60M.
Although CN ordered hundreds of both EMD's SD75Is and GE's C44-9Ws, they also ordered a small handful of their "oddball" siblings. Pictured here is both the SD70I and C44-9WL, bringing in a load of sulfur through the lush last few miles of the Coronado Subdivision.
CN Coronado Subdivision
CN S71851 (Sulfur Loads)
CN SD70I 5606
CN C44-9WL 2515
Canon EOS R6 | Canon 24-70 f/2.8 II
July 25, 2025 - 4:39 PM MT
Oddball is the nickname given to this BE1150 walking dragline excavator at St. Aiden’s RSPB reserve. The reserve was once an opencast mine operated by British Coal, now a thriving and popular nature reserve. This machine weighs around 1200 tons, check out the people in the top left to get a sense of scale.
www.walkingdragline.org/ Friends of St. Aidans BE 1150 Walking Dragline
Jasper dug out his old red Oddball this weekend. Fun to switch it up (his current main Oddball is blue). Shot blind as we took a breather.
A 5 shot merge of 'Oddball' a Bucyrus Erie BE 1150 Walking Dragline Excavator,
initially identified as B-E No. 47858 the machine left the factory in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 30th December 1948 and started work in 1949 for the company A E Dick Construction at Phillipi, West Virginia, where it worked for four years before coming to Britain. It worked first at Tirpentwys opencast site near Pontypool from 1954 until 1963. Unlike the other three BE 1150-Bs working on opencast sites in Britain this one had electrical equipment built by General Electric (others in the UK had electrical equipment by Westinghouse) and was consequently known as “Oddball”.
In 1963 Oddball was dismantled at Tirpentwys and transferred to the Poplars site near Cannock, Staffordshire, where it worked from 1964 to 1972. It was dismantled and moved again to start work in 1974 at its final site at St Aidans where it worked until the site became inundated by the flood of March 1988. she was handed over to the St Aidans Trust in 2020. The Friends of St. Aidans BE 1150 Walking Dragline have cared for and attended to her since 1997.
In the utmost last light of the day squeezing between the tree's we have empty fertilizer hoppers rolling through Rose Center, Michigan. Powered with an oddball pairing of MP15 1502 and SD50-3 6352 - September 18, 2020.
With the heat of summer draped over the Phoenix area, we're doing a lot of indoor play. Good thing Jasper is agile and very rarely knocks into anything.
Pristimantis sp. - Buenaventura Reserve, Euador
I was thrilled to find these nestled underneath a bit of moss in the Ecuadorian cloud forest. Initially I thought they might be the eggs of either the Hyloxalus or Epipedobates which were common in the area, infact I even photographed these eggs together with a Hyloxalus that was sharing the same hiding place. However after further consideration I'm pretty certain these are the eggs of a Pristimantis likely P. achatinus. A few different characteristics of these eggs made me think that, first of all the size seemed to big for the other species I mentioned. There also seemed to be too many of them and lastly and most importantly it looks to me that the developing embryos in the eggs are turning into little frogs rather than tadoles. This is a life trait known as direct development and is present in Pristimantis but not in the other frogs mentioned. An adult Pristimantis will deposit its eggs somewhere wet and hidden and they will remain there and develop until they hatch as tiny versions of the adults! This was the first time I came across a cache of these eggs and was very excited about the opportunity to photograph them. What I would have really loved to have done is gone back every few days to photograph them but unfortunately I had other commitments and could not remain in the area.
Making a rare run to Carntown, 2 new SD23T4s lead L218 west across the bridge at Wellsburg. Easily some of the most odd units I have ever pointed a camera at, these locomotives retain an EMD style body and cab with GE internals and radiators. They even sound unlike anything I've ever heard, with the closest comparison I can make being to that of a vacuum cleaner. While I have mixed feelings about them, I'll never turn down the chance to shoot fresh standard cabs.