Disaster: Many readers’ wildlife photographs lost! Replacements requested.

December 23, 2015 • 9:00 am

Because I hadn’t yet had my coffee, I accidentally put my folder of readers’ wildlife photographs in the trash and emptied the trash! This is a terrible disaster. I think I can recover many of them as I always save the readers’ emails with the photographs, but I have thousands of emails and it would be difficult. If you’ve sent me some photos and you haven’t yet seen them posted, could you re-send them? My apologies.

This is a big time screw up!  To fill in the gap today, we have two new photos by reader Anne-Marie Cournoyer in Montreal:

Parc du Mont St-Bruno. Today [Dec. 19] was colder. And these big travelers allowed us to come closer. Canada goose (Branta canadensis):
DSCN0658

Here to show that I learned from my mistake. I found a male today in the Parc National du Mont St-Bruno. Downy woodpecker, Picoides pubescens [she previously misidentified the species]:

DSCN0625

36 thoughts on “Disaster: Many readers’ wildlife photographs lost! Replacements requested.”

  1. There are tools available to recover deleted files for macs. I personally haven’t used any – I let my coffee do it’s work before I get on my computer 🙂 – but I’m sure someone could recommend one of the better tools.

  2. The Canadian appears to be well feed. Regarding the woodpecker, I get them wrong all the time – unless it happens to be a Canadian goose.

    1. Note–the official common name is actually Canada Goose. Just like the Canada Warbler. No one knows why the official namers didn’t go with “Canadian.” Probably just to trip everyone up.

      Or maybe so you can tell the goose–“look at that Canada”–from Diana: “look at that Canadian.”

      1. If I’m pointing out a Canadian in Canada, I would probably say, “look at that hoser” because she would probably be really Canadian for a Canadian to point out her Canadianness whilst in Canada.

  4. I never delete anything or file anything. I have a ginormous inbox for every mail program, wherever I go. This is because if I delete it, I’ll need it & if I file it, I won’t be able to find it, so I just search or filter my inbox.

  5. If a Mac is being used by PCCe as suggested in (1), then perhaps Time Machine is being used. If so, no problem. Just open ™ and travel back before the flub.

    I can’t recommend any data recovery tools, not having used anything other than recovery from backups.

    I do recommend Backblaze to avoid future problems.

      1. Windows and Linux both have trash cans. They may be called something else but they’ll be colloquially known as ‘trash’.

        (Umm… LXDE running on Debian calls it ‘Trash’ anyway)

        cr

        1. I use Carbon Copy Cloner that backs up to external drives (which I unplug and one of which is always stored offsite) then to a secondary external drive that is always plugged into my Mac Mini then to an array and to drobos. I also do network back ups monthly for any new movies I’ve put on my Mac Mini in the living room. It’s all scheduled except for the drives I need to plug in, but when I plug them in, the back up process begins immediately.

          1. Since we are talking tech, I have everything on the cloud, mostly raw, some encrypted.

            Yes, I still have a fire alarm … still waiting for a personal backup system. 😉

          2. I use cloud storage to back up my phone pictures & to keep my resume. I also use Evernote a lot. My problem is I have so many cloud drives: box, Dropbox, one drive, iCloud, etc that I forget where I put what.

          3. I have three hard drives (on my server) and about seven data partitions. So if I backup, it’s to a partition on a different drive (all my emails get backed up daily that way).

            But I have the same trouble – I forget where I put what.

            cr

      1. I read that as ‘Transcendental Meditation’. (TM).

        It almost made sense on a metaphorical level.

        cr

  6. Not to quibble, but by the size of the bill, I would suspect it to be a hairy woodpecker (Picoides villosus).

    1. I agree. It’s a hairy. I get both species here. The length of the bill is diagnostic. The hairy is also a little bigger.

      1. I concur, the length of bill as well as the absence of horizontal dark markings on the lateral tail feathers would indicate Hairy.

      1. Thanks guys!
        Always happy to learn.
        I doubted myself when I wrote the name, but, as I say to my students, try and don’t be afraid to make mistake. It’s the best way to learn.

        1. When I lived in Western Massachusetts, I took lots of bird photos–many woodpeckers. I recall when someone first pointed out the beak distinction between Hairy’s and Downy’s. Knowing just that little bit about their beaks really contributed to my sense of birding fun. Bonus about Hairy’s tending to be larger.

          I like your photos, Anne-Marie.

      2. Is that the school where you learn to beat your head against a tree until the tree gives up?
        I think I work there.

  8. Don’t you have a backup? If not, you should. If you use a Mac I recommend an Apple Time Capsule, which doubles as a WIFI router. I’ll also occasionally save a CarbonCopyClone on a separate SSD.

  13. If you find your picture tank is low, even though this is a photograph with d*gs, it really is rather good. I had sent it to you before and it may well be one you lost or not. I appreciate it’s not really wildlife as you usually show it. Below is my original note.

    Dear Professor Coyne, before going any further I have been a follower of W.E.I.T. for quite long enough to know that d*gs are not altogether “your thing”. So having thus prepared you for the subject of this e-mail I hope you won’t dismiss it out of hand. Attached is rather a good photograph of not one but two of afore mentioned d*gs but if you view it you will, I hope, see my reason for sending it. Facing (in the photo) is Captain Haddock, his one blue eye and one brown eye showing up well, and his brother Bob with his back to the camera. As you can see they are both chasing the Frisbee ring and it would appear that Bob has been successful in catching it. However, the shadow to the left shows, on closer examination, that the ring is still in mid-air and not yet caught by either d*g. The question is, should you care to accept it: did Bob catch the ring or was it Haddock. The answer is that Haddock cleverly ran ahead to position himself ahead of the flying ring whereas Bob was content chasing it. The result being that Haddock snatched victory from what on first appearance seems to be ignominious defeat. The who-got-the-ring-first photo of 2015 was played out on Laig Beach on the Isle of Eigg, Scotland. The photographer, Ben Cormack. Best Regards, Greg (Reggie) Cormack

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