Impressions...

 Bird impression on window...

 Clear in the afternoon sun

 Looks like an owl!!

 Using the sky as a backdrop..

It was a couple of weeks ago. I heard the thud. Even w/out ever having heard this sound (other than in the movies or on TV), I knew exactly what it was. A bird had flown into, or was blown into one of the large windows of the house. I completely forgot about it until yesterday. The sun is now higher in the sky w/ Spring on the horizon, and we are getting direct sunlight around 3:30-4:30ish. Great beams of sunshine! Edward noticed it. That bird who had made such a familiar sound, even though I never heard it 'for real', left his/her mark in great detail on the window he/she slammed into. The afternoon light picked it up, clear as a bell. Edward said that there was a technical term for the 'impression', called 'volumetric lighting'. Volumetric lighting is a technique used in 3D computer graphics to add lighting effects to a rendered scene. It allows the viewer to see beams of light shining through the environment; seeing sunbeams streaming through an open window is an example of volumetric lighting, also known as crepuscular rays. The term seems to have been introduced from cinematography and is now widely applied to 3D modelling and rendering. However, in this case, the beams of light are for real, as is the bird....we hope that the bird is okay after leaving such an impression!

The bottom pic is from this AM, as weather has been so much of everybody's discussion. We are expecting a snow storm tomorrow, hence, the clouds today.