Obstructions
carl...@comcast.net
annoying traffic light on my daily ride. Most them expand in Explorer
if you click on the lower right. None of them are squirrels or dogs.
Absolutely limp, motionless, and hoping that it won't be noticed,
stretched across the path:
http://i11.tinypic.com/52fvkno.jpg
Obviously, it _was_ noticed, but my first attempt at one-handed
photography is embarrassingly fuzzy:
http://i15.tinypic.com/4utq8mh.jpg
This unharmed idiot was sunbathing on the path a few days later. The
one-handed focus is better, but a more intelligent photographer would
have checked that his automatic shutter had opened all the way:
http://i15.tinypic.com/6ccz2iw.jpg
Another unharmed idiot, caught a few minutes later, also sunbathing on
the path:
http://i10.tinypic.com/673ty4n.jpg
This poor foot-long devil was still alive, but couldn't rattle, coil,
crawl, or hiss, so I had to put it out of its misery. (Handling this
kind is foolish--most fatal bites in the U.S. involve the head or neck
and a bizarre religious belief that rattlers won't resent handling.)
At first I thought that a car had hit it, but it was almost undamaged.
The fatal wound, an ugly, unseen gash on the far side of its neck,
probably came from a beak:
http://i13.tinypic.com/53rtreu.jpg
These two camera hogs were too big for one-handed photography. The
first is about three feet long, the second about four feet long:
http://i6.tinypic.com/4ztygba.jpg
http://i18.tinypic.com/4xqogfs.jpg
This nitwit was playing why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road, as they
often do, and finally ran over my shoe. They have a disconcerting
habit of near-sightedly charging at you instead of fleeing:
http://i16.tinypic.com/5z6l5y8.jpg
Here's his little brother, next to a bottle of bug repellant:
http://i9.tinypic.com/4uxcfa1.jpg
These three adults just stood there, while the two recently born kids
ran happily back and forth past them. The second kid is just visible
between the middle and right hand adults:
http://i13.tinypic.com/6g1xe1s.jpg
One kid has already zoomed past the left edge of the picture. The
other is following:
http://i14.tinypic.com/5z20k09.jpg
If you look closely, you can see the other kid, now running back the
other way, its head just past its sibling's tail:
http://i7.tinypic.com/4muhbbl.jpg
And now it's raced back the other way, past all three adults:
http://i7.tinypic.com/4yhvh42.jpg
These two versions of four horns have already been posted, but you
might as well see them again if you've browsed this far:
http://i8.tinypic.com/4yjyjvn.jpg
http://i7.tinypic.com/4y7cbgx.jpg
Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
Tails are often broken or truncated, but this tail is pristine, ready
for the show ring. (Yes, I once kept them as pets, but no, there are
no formal best-of-show competitions.)
http://i13.tinypic.com/4zvf9nb.jpg
Excellent shell, little moss, no leeches, no holes:
http://i17.tinypic.com/6434ia9.jpg
The tail has been moved to one side to show to advantage, while the
eye catches the camera flash:
http://i8.tinypic.com/5y9huds.jpg
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
lime...@gmail.com
> Some recent obstructions remind me not to complain too much about that
> annoying traffic light on my daily ride. Most them expand in Explorer
> if you click on the lower right. None of them are squirrels or dogs.
>
> Absolutely limp, motionless, and hoping that it won't be noticed,
> stretched across the path:http://i11.tinypic.com/52fvkno.jpg
>
> Obviously, it _was_ noticed, but my first attempt at one-handed
> photography is embarrassingly fuzzy:
>
> http://i15.tinypic.com/4utq8mh.jpg
>
> This unharmed idiot was sunbathing on the path a few days later. The
> one-handed focus is better, but a more intelligent photographer would
> have checked that his automatic shutter had opened all the way:
>
> http://i15.tinypic.com/6ccz2iw.jpg
>
> Another unharmed idiot, caught a few minutes later, also sunbathing on
> the path:http://i10.tinypic.com/673ty4n.jpg
>
> This poor foot-long devil was still alive, but couldn't rattle, coil,
> crawl, or hiss, so I had to put it out of its misery. (Handling this
> kind is foolish--most fatal bites in the U.S. involve the head or neck
> and a bizarre religious belief that rattlers won't resent handling.)
> At first I thought that a car had hit it, but it was almost undamaged.
> The fatal wound, an ugly, unseen gash on the far side of its neck,
> probably came from a beak:http://i13.tinypic.com/53rtreu.jpg
>
> These two camera hogs were too big for one-handed photography. The
>
> This nitwit was playing why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road, as they
> often do, and finally ran over my shoe. They have a disconcerting
> habit of near-sightedly charging at you instead of fleeing:http://i16.tinypic.com/5z6l5y8.jpg
>
> Here's his little brother, next to a bottle of bug repellant:http://i9.tinypic.com/4uxcfa1.jpg
>
> These three adults just stood there, while the two recently born kids
> ran happily back and forth past them. The second kid is just visible
> between the middle and right hand adults:http://i13.tinypic.com/6g1xe1s.jpg
>
> One kid has already zoomed past the left edge of the picture. The
> other is following:http://i14.tinypic.com/5z20k09.jpg
>
> If you look closely, you can see the other kid, now running back the
> other way, its head just past its sibling's tail:http://i7.tinypic.com/4muhbbl.jpg
>
> And now it's raced back the other way, past all three adults:http://i7.tinypic.com/4yhvh42.jpg
>
> These two versions of four horns have already been posted, but you
>
> Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
> than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
> nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
> road, fifteen feet from her marsh:http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>
> Tails are often broken or truncated, but this tail is pristine, ready
> for the show ring. (Yes, I once kept them as pets, but no, there are
>
> Excellent shell, little moss, no leeches, no holes:http://i17.tinypic.com/6434ia9.jpg
>
> The tail has been moved to one side to show to advantage, while the
> eye catches the camera flash:http://i8.tinypic.com/5y9huds.jpg
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel
Great photos, Carl, thanks for sharing.
Lewis.
*****
dusto...@mac.com
> Absolutely limp, motionless, and hoping that it won't be noticed,
> stretched across the path:http://i11.tinypic.com/52fvkno.jpg
Dr. Fogel: Snake, hope: an uplifting assumption. Many sermons will
fall far short of that today.
Thank you. --D-y
Tim McNamara
here in the Twin Cities metro. Although in SE MN I have encountered 3
foot long rattlers out sunning themselves, and snappers along the river
and the backwaters. No big hairy spiders, though.
Dogs are the main form of fauna that bicyclists encounter around here,
roaming about the countryside singly or in packs thanks to ignorant
owners who saw "Born Free" as children. Had to outsprint a boxer
yesterday. Riding on the other side of the river, I note that
Wisconsonites tend to be more responsible owners and keep their dogs
under control.
* * Chas
Put yer hand on the radio - now shake that snake...
That looked like a prairie rattler, the kind that I accidentally ran over
on my bike.
I was surprised the first time I saw a tarantula run across the road in
front of me. I had never known that they were native to the SW.
Chas.
<carl...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:sql46358g49lado23...@4ax.com...
Reid Priedhorsky
> You have more interesting creatures in your neck of the woods than we do
> here in the Twin Cities metro. Although in SE MN I have encountered 3
> foot long rattlers out sunning themselves, and snappers along the river
> and the backwaters. No big hairy spiders, though.
I don't know... I've seen three bald eagles in the middle of town: one
along the Mississippi south of Franklin Ave. and two near Lake Nokomis.
Also four egrets (three near Lake Nokomis and one at Battle Creek)
lots of turtles, and two wild turkeys (on the top of the bluff near the
East Bank of the U). And ducklings! Lots of ducklings.
My favorite was when I was stopped on the river path not far from Franklin
Ave. (Bridal Veil Falls?) and I heard thumping and clunking coming down
the wooded slope that towers a hundred feet or so over the path.
Obviously a rock... but no, it was a large, grizzled turtle! He gave
me the hairy eyeball.
Reid
Bill
> On Jun 3, 2:13 am, carlfo...@comcast.net wrote:
>> This nitwit was playing why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road, as they
>> often do, and finally ran over my shoe. They have a disconcerting
>> habit of near-sightedly charging at you instead of fleeing:http://i16.tinypic.com/5z6l5y8.jpg
This one reminds me of a nature break I took for about an hour while
driving between L.A. and S.F. by a man made reservoir. I was just laying
back and watching the clouds when I felt more than one something on my
legs. Looking down at my legs I saw about 15 adult Tarantulas marching
over my legs just like any other obstruction heading for where ever it
was they were going. I got up and put my hand in front of one and he
just walked over it like any other object.
Migrating?
All in all, an interesting but odd experience.
Bill Baka
Bill
> Carl, I thought you lived in Pueblo not Appalachia or the Ozarks.
>
> Put yer hand on the radio - now shake that snake...
>
> That looked like a prairie rattler, the kind that I accidentally ran over
> on my bike.
>
> I was surprised the first time I saw a tarantula run across the road in
> front of me. I had never known that they were native to the SW.
>
> Chas.
They are in California and Arkansas that I know of. The California ones
will let you pick them up and the ones in Arkansas will rear up for a
fight. Completely different temperaments.
Bill Baka
Luke
>Some recent obstructions ...
<snip>
Great pics Carl. Were you riding through a preserve? Or does a casual
ride through your neighbourhood involve such encounters with (to me
anyway) exotic wildlife?
carl...@comcast.net
wrote:
Dear Luke,
I just ride up the bike path along the Arkansas River to the dam at
the Pueblo Reservoir, then up to the top of the ridge west of town on
the highway:
http://i19.tinypic.com/4kynamo.jpg
I start and end at the tiny red tail on the far right. All the housing
on the south side of the river is up on the bluffs.
The houses on my side of town line the bluffs above the river, but
there's practically nothing on the river bottom, so thirty seconds
from my unremarkable suburban driveway I turn down a gully and am in
the countryside, but still about four miles from the city limits.
Technically, parts of the path are a riparian area, but the wildlife
isn't too sure about the distinctions and happily wanders into
traffic. Deer, foxes, and the occasional black bear or elk wander into
the city, following the river. (No antelope--they prefer the open
plains on top of the bluffs.) Beavers, muskrats, raccoons, badgers,
rabbits, skunks, and prairie dogs are common.
Oddly, I've never seen coyotes in my neighborhood, though I heard them
singing this evening out by the reservoir. The only creatures that I
noticed today were a crow, a hawk, and a great blue heron, none close
enough to justify hauling out a camera.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
R Brickston
>lime...@gmail.com wrote:
>> On Jun 3, 2:13 am, carlfo...@comcast.net wrote:
>>> This nitwit was playing why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road, as they
>>> often do, and finally ran over my shoe. They have a disconcerting
>>> habit of near-sightedly charging at you instead of fleeing:http://i16.tinypic.com/5z6l5y8.jpg
>
>This one reminds me of a nature break I took for about an hour while
>driving between L.A. and S.F. by a man made reservoir. I was just laying
>back and watching the clouds when I felt more than one something on my
>legs. Looking down at my legs I saw about 15 adult Tarantulas marching
>over my legs just like any other obstruction heading for where ever it
>was they were going. I got up and put my hand in front of one and he
>just walked over it like any other object.
>Migrating?
>All in all, an interesting but odd experience.
>Bill Baka
The species in this country live in solitude. Another tall tale from
Planet Baka. If you're going to bullshit, Billy, at least try and make
it entertaining. Like going down the highway at 120 doing one of your
world famous wheelies and seeing a tarantula... no wait... make that a
swarm of tarantulas, coming down both arms.
R Brickston
>* * Chas wrote:
>> Carl, I thought you lived in Pueblo not Appalachia or the Ozarks.
>>
>> Put yer hand on the radio - now shake that snake...
>>
>> That looked like a prairie rattler, the kind that I accidentally ran over
>> on my bike.
>>
>> I was surprised the first time I saw a tarantula run across the road in
>> front of me. I had never known that they were native to the SW.
>>
>> Chas.
>
>They are in California and Arkansas that I know of. The California ones
>will let you pick them up and the ones in Arkansas will rear up for a
>fight. Completely different temperaments.
>Bill Baka
Billy Baka, the Spider Whisperer
Bill Sornson
ROTFL
* * Chas
<carl...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:pf376391uk3s54und...@4ax.com...
I've never seen pronghorns up that close except dropping down into
Cheyenne
on I80. They used to hang out along the freeway.
Chas.
Bill
None of these groups needs you, moron.
I wasn't bragging about the big bad spiders, just a comment on something
that happened while I was taking a 'car' break.
At any rate I would rather a swarm of Tarantulas migrate over me than a
herd of cattle.
Go home to your mommy.
Bill Baka
Bill
Just for you, Bricky boy, just try to pick one up in Arkansas.
Have a nice trip to the hospital.
I'll be cheering for the spider.
Bill Baka
Bill
carl...@comcast.net
<rb20170REMOVE.yahoo.com@> wrote:
Dear RB,
I've never seen such a thing, but I'll keep an open mind about lines
or groups of tarantulas.
"Groups of tarantulas are often seen in the evenings at Desert View,
scuttling back into the warmth of the [Grand] canyon for the night."
http://www.travelotica.com/travelguide/47167/united-states/arizona/south-rim-47220.htm
"I live in the country and during certain times of the year you'll see
a line of tarantulas crossing the highway."
http://community.cookinglight.com/archive/index.php?t-27548.html
The mass migrations in search of mates are well-known in Texas:
"Exactly when male brown tarantulas go a-roaming seems determined by
the weather. Their movements tend to occur after a rain in early
morning or late afternoon. Mass sightings are rare but memorable.
Arachnologist David Sissom of West Texas A&M University in Canyon
recalls braking to a stop on Highway 385 just south of Odessa early
one summer morning in 1986. 'There were hundreds of tarantulas
crossing the road, all moving in the same direction,' he says. 'For
100 yards or so, there was easily a tarantula every meter or two. It
was pretty incredible.'"
http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife/article.cfm?articleId=988&issueId=70
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
R Brickston
Tarantulas migrate? What were these Army Tarantulas? Or perhaps a new
sub-species of traveling Tarantula somehow related to the Monarch
butterfly.
R Brickston
Billy, just stick to your Spiderman comic books.
R Brickston
What were you like before the lobotamy?
R Brickston
C'mon Carl, everone knows that Sissom is Bill Baka's mad uncle.
Bill
I don't know what they were doing but a bunch of them just walked over
my legs and paid no attention to me. Why there were a dozen or so, I
don't know, only that they seemed determined to get someplace.
>
> "Groups of tarantulas are often seen in the evenings at Desert View,
> scuttling back into the warmth of the [Grand] canyon for the night."
>
> http://www.travelotica.com/travelguide/47167/united-states/arizona/south-rim-47220.htm
>
> "I live in the country and during certain times of the year you'll see
> a line of tarantulas crossing the highway."
>
> http://community.cookinglight.com/archive/index.php?t-27548.html
>
> The mass migrations in search of mates are well-known in Texas:
That is a possible explanation. I was on highway 152 (the Pacheco pass
road) and stopped at an access to the new Melones reservoir, just to
kick back and relax after about 6 hours of driving. They appeared to see
me as a non threat and just kept marching. I thought it was strange
behavior too.
>
> "Exactly when male brown tarantulas go a-roaming seems determined by
> the weather. Their movements tend to occur after a rain in early
> morning or late afternoon. Mass sightings are rare but memorable.
> Arachnologist David Sissom of West Texas A&M University in Canyon
> recalls braking to a stop on Highway 385 just south of Odessa early
> one summer morning in 1986. 'There were hundreds of tarantulas
> crossing the road, all moving in the same direction,' he says. 'For
> 100 yards or so, there was easily a tarantula every meter or two. It
> was pretty incredible.'"
I had a dozen or so in a cluster of about 1 meter so it had to be some
kind of social event, maybe looking for mates. I know absolutely nothing
about spider rituals so I am not making any assumptions here.
Bill Baka
R Brickston
Billy, did they have little Spidey suits on?
bdbafh
> I don't know what they were doing but a bunch of them just walked over
> my legs and paid no attention to me. Why there were a dozen or so, I
> don't know, only that they seemed determined to get someplace.
>
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/meth_addicts_demand_government
Bill
Put your tin foil cap back on. You seem to be picking up some noise, or
is God speaking to you?
Bill
It's in the Onion, a parody of a real magazine.
Geesh.
Bill
carl...@comcast.net
<rb20170REMOVE.yahoo.com@> wrote:
>Tarantulas migrate? What were these Army Tarantulas? Or perhaps a new
>sub-species of traveling Tarantula somehow related to the Monarch
>butterfly.
Dear RB,
Yes, male tarantulas "migrate" in search of females, both singly and
in large, mindless swarms, which is one reason that they're so often
seen crossing roads:
"Exactly when male brown tarantulas go a-roaming seems determined by
the weather. Their movements tend to occur after a rain in early
morning or late afternoon. Mass sightings are rare but memorable.
Arachnologist David Sissom of West Texas A&M University in Canyon
recalls braking to a stop on Highway 385 just south of Odessa early
one summer morning in 1986. 'There were hundreds of tarantulas
crossing the road, all moving in the same direction,' he says. 'For
100 yards or so, there was easily a tarantula every meter or two. It
was pretty incredible.'"
http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife/article.cfm?articleId=988&issueId=70
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
R Brickston
Dear Carl,
While I don't dispute what Sissom saw, the article doesn't reveal
whether that occurance was normal, a rarity or even a one off.
RB
carl...@comcast.net
<rb20170REMOVE.yahoo.com@> wrote:
Dear RB,
http://www.k6sgh.com/migration.htm
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
R Brickston
Egads! Carl...
As you can see from the picture from the above quoted site:
http://www.k6sgh.com/migration_2006/one.jpg
there are thousands of them!
carl...@comcast.net
<rb20170REMOVE.yahoo.com@> wrote:
Dear RB,
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=%22tarantula+migration%22
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
R Brickston
Someone must have taken at least one photo of this event. Please post.
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
>Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
>than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
>nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
>road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
>http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>
>Tails are often broken or truncated, but this tail is pristine, ready
>for the show ring. (Yes, I once kept them as pets, but no, there are
>no formal best-of-show competitions.)
>http://i13.tinypic.com/4zvf9nb.jpg
>
>Excellent shell, little moss, no leeches, no holes:
>http://i17.tinypic.com/6434ia9.jpg
>
>The tail has been moved to one side to show to advantage, while the
>eye catches the camera flash:
>http://i8.tinypic.com/5y9huds.jpg
>
>Cheers,
>
>Carl Fogel
Snapping turtles don't bask much, but they often float far out on a
nearby pond, so this evening I was looking for the tell-tale shell and
head just barely above the water.
Alas, I saw nothing but ducks and geese.
However, part of a cottonwood log covered with dry gray bark was
sticking up out of the water in a nearby narrow channel.
After watching the log for a while, I climbed a convenient tree and
took some pictures of the log, which was close to three feet long from
the tip of its nose to the end of its tail:
http://i9.tinypic.com/5xzxetu.jpg
You can see that my Tarzan act has disturbed the log, which has raised
its head and is ready to deal with any irritating ducklings that come
too close. The two bottles give some idea of the size of the log, most
of which is below the waterline. Judging by the logs that I kept as
pets, this one is easily over twenty pounds.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Bill
Looking at the apparent size of the 'log' I can tell I would not want to
mess with it. I picked some up on interstate 40 in Oklahoma to put them
out of harm's way and they did their level best to bite me. I tried the
pencil test since I had one in the car and the test turtle bit it clean
in half. Feisty little buggers.
Bill Baka
Bill
Now you know I didn't make it up. I thought it was strange behavior for
spiders who normally fight for territory. In the march over my legs they
were only about 6" apart from each other. I guess they were focused on
their mission of marching.
Nature is fun to participate with, and not just watch Animal Planet.
Bill Baka
carl...@comcast.net
Dear Bill,
Usually, the claim is a broomstick.
In practical tests, even large common snappers were barely able to
break a pencil. This is unsurprising, since they don't eat sticks or
gnaw bones.
The tell-tale sign of the myth is that the stick/pencil/broom-handle
is always bitten in _half_, which is impossible.
A turtle's beak would have to divide any stick into _three_ pieces,
leaving the middle section hopelessly wedged in the lower beak. No one
ever mentions having to remove the chunk of wood stuck in the turtle's
mouth.
A large common snapper's head is about the size of a big fist--and all
the jaw muscles are right there on the side of the skull, not lurking
up the elbow.
Common snappers are chiefly bottom-dwelling carrion feeders, but will
grab live crayfish, frogs, ducklings, small snakes, and unwary fish.
If you keep common snappers as pets, you learn that they seize freshly
killed bullfrogs with their beaks and then tear them to pieces with
their powerful clawed forelegs. My largest pet was a plump 28-pound
female. She couldn't bite through a bullfrog leg, but she could rip
the amphibians in half with her claws and gulp them down.
A foolish claim is floating around the internet about snapping turtles
having thousand-pound bites. Possibly someone was thinking of a 150-lb
alligator snapper, an entirely different beast than a common snapper,
which is huge in the wild at 40 pounds.
(The record weight for a wild common snapper was a 68-lb Nebraskan,
much to the embarrassment of certain Southern states. The commonly
cited 86-lb common snapper was a huge, overfed captive, which was kept
in a swill barrel and bore about as much resemblance to a normal
snapper as Chalo does to a typical RBT poster.)
Here's a fair example of a wild snapper record:
http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us/news/layout/set/print/kdwp_info/news/web_news/2006_web_news/december_2006/arkansas_river_yields_new_state_record_snapping_turtle
And another state wild record:
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/midorcas/research/StResearch/bigturtle/bigturtle.htm
(It's not uncommon to catch two snappers in the same trap like the
North Carolina giant and his little friend. You bait a simple box trap
with liver scraps, and the snappers follow the scent through the
water. I once had a hell of a time getting a pair of 18-pound males
out of a large box-trap that I'd foolishly built when I expected only
a single 10-lb snapper if I was lucky.)
Here's a pdf with some details about record weights:
http://wfs.sdstate.edu/wfsdept/Publications/Theses/Hammer,%20Donald%20A.%20M.S.-1968.pdf
"What perhaps makes chelydrids most interesting is what they eat, or
at least what they bite. ‘Large individuals are known to have caused
injury to people unwary enough to step into or swim in the water near
them, and they are quite capable of removing a toe or finger if given
the opportunity’ (Alderton 1988, p. 112). Indeed, they are anecdotally
credited with being able to ‘bite through a broom handle’. For his
excellent TV series ‘O’Shea’s Dangerous Reptiles’, Mark O’Shea decided
to test this dubious assertion. With the help of a colleague he caught
the largest and nastiest alligator snappers he could, pissed them off
by poking them, and then pissed them off some more by shoving a broom
handle into their mouths. All the turtles bit happily, and bit hard.
And as impressive as it was, sad to say not one turtle was powerful
enough to cleave neatly through 25 thick mm of solid wood, which to be
honest isn’t much of a surprise."
"Rather more rigorous tests were applied by Herrel et al. (2002) who
tested the bite force of numerous diverse turtles, including both
snappers and alligator snappers. They found snappers to have bite
forces of between 208 and 226 Newtons, and alligator snappers of
between 158 and 176 N."
http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/2006/05/snapping-turtles-part-iii-bite-lunge.html
Here's the scholarly Herrel et al. article mentioned above, with
enough graphs to please Robert Chung and an early table of bite forces
for a variety of turtles, with a common snapper (chelydra serpentina)
6th on the awkwardly rotated alphabetical list:
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1420-9101.2002.00459.x
The roughly 10-lb common snapper managed a bite force of 209 Newtons,
or about 47 pounds, only 5% of the wild thousand-pound claims. Most
RBT posters can break a hundred pounds.
You do not, however, want to let even a baby snapper with a 2-inch
shell get its jaws on your finger, whose flesh is considerably easier
to damage than a pencil and much more sensitive. (Guess how I know.)
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Bill
Interesting stuff. I forwarded this to myself so I can look it all up.
Saying the turtle bit the pencil 'clean' in half was a bit of
overstatement, but I still had a broken pencil, so I wasn't about to get
my fingers near his mouth. The ones I tried to move off the freeway were
in the 5 to 10 pound range, so no spectacular whoppers in that bunch.
Still the number of flat turtles on the road was a grim testament to the
fact that cars trump shells.
If you got bit as you say that kind of means you tried keeping one as a
pet, and I had a baby alligator who would bite my finger but not draw
blood. The alligator would not let go and I could pick him up while he
was clamped to my finger. I would not want to try that with a snapping
turtle.
Good day.
Bill Baka
carl...@comcast.net
Something always goofs up my pictures of great blue herons.
Yesterday, a flock of idiots rafting down the river on inner tubes
began waving, splashing, and yelling, "Hey, mister, look at that big
duck!" as I tried to get my camera out of the bag with a heron
standing only fifty feet away:
http://i13.tinypic.com/54eccjn.jpg
By the time I pushed the button, the bird was a few hundred yards
upstream toward the dam. Those power cables hang across a mile-wide
valley.
Today, I stopped, got the camera out with my back to another heron,
fumbled the switches to get the camera ready, and was just turning to
take a picture when a recumbent--one of the four bicycles that I saw
in fifteen miles--pedalled past and spooked the bird.
By sheer luck, the camera caught a glimpse of the heron through the
chain-link fence:
http://i8.tinypic.com/5y7j8cg.jpg
Apart from the chain-link fence, that setting looks almost natural,
doesn't it?
Regrettably, the heron landed further down the beach and posed,
letting me stick the camera's snout through the fence and capture the
truly hideous nature of the pond:
http://i19.tinypic.com/6ewmk43.jpg
Some claim that the odd circles on the pond are caused by drops of
water falling from the sky, but there is little evidence to support
this strange belief.
I'll spare you the sight of the almost always unused three-story blue
waterslide to the left of that hideous artificial beach. What a
fenced-off and usually abandoned watersport park with its pedal-boats
and enormous empty parking lot is doing in the middle of nowhere in a
state park is as much a mystery as those odd circles in the pond.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Bill
I can relate to your problems. My first digital camera had a horrendous
boot time and shutter delay which cost me many fine shots. Now I carry
my 35mm Minolta and a bag of lenses but still have to get it focused and
set the exposure for the shot..
Maybe I'll just take all my lunch money for the year and buy an
overpriced super digital, which will be old news by next year.
It ain't easy riding AND taking pictures.
Bill Baka
carl...@comcast.net
Aha! Whining and complaining works!
Today, a great blue heron posed for me against the tasteful backdrop
of a brick outhouse, a dumpster, and a trash barrel:
http://i13.tinypic.com/62p5gk8.jpg
Then it flew off:
http://i8.tinypic.com/6gl6l28.jpg
An email asked me about the absurd water slide mentioned elsewhere:
http://i10.tinypic.com/4xwp82e.jpg
That's what a water slide is, and that's how this one usually
looks--unused. Mostly, it serves to justify part of the maintenance
budget for the state park. A cheerful sign warns that the pond is
filled with untreated river water, a tactful method of warning
swimmers that they could get sick if they let any of that stuff get up
their noses.
The chain-link fence through which the picture was taken keeps out
beavers, which gnawed down the ornamental trees years ago. The fence
also stops softshell turtles, which I sometimes find on the path next
to the fence, imitating green manhole covers, baffled and furious
because they can't reach the sandy beach, which would be perfect for
laying eggs.
Later, I came across this fiend, lurking in one of the wooden
bird-boxes nailed to the cottonwoods:
http://i9.tinypic.com/637fyqf.jpg
Apologists for the creature may try to excuse it for gnawing that huge
hole in the bird box, but what can they say about this hideous debris
at the foot of the tree?
http://i8.tinypic.com/62h8bch.jpg
Yes, that's a nail sticking up from a board, a plank that has
obviously torn off the tree where it supported the lower part of the
bird house and thrown down by the squirrel to endanger passing bicycle
tires.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Bill
Carl,
I'm in the need for a digital camera since I loaned one to my daughter
to take pictures at a party and guess what, she lost it.
Can you recommend any decent ones for pocket use or at least not to
break the bank. My old one was a whopping 1.3Mp Vivitar fixed focus but
did use rechargeable AA NiMH batteries and standard SD memory cards.
For all that matter does anyone have any camera ideas for a budget
camera that I won't cry about falling on??
Bill Baka
TIA
carl...@comcast.net
Dear Bill,
Mine's a--uh, let's see . . . a Canon A530 with 4x optical. One
advantage was that it was just a step below the model that allowed you
to add expensive accessories
I buy 30 batteries for about ten bucks at Home Depot.
Its only mechanical failing is an occasional half-hearted effort to
open the protective lens shutter, either due to poor quality
(unlikely) or else a careless owner who carries and uses it in dusty
conditions (embarrassing).
It's ridiculously good at automatically taking good ordinary pictures
and can be forced to focus up close. Long hand-held shots with fading
afternoon light require either steadier hands or setting shorter
exposure times.
I'm resisting the urge to get a 10x with auto-stabilizer, figuring
that the increased zoom would just about offset the stabilizer, even
though the new toy would be fun.
Legions of RBT posters are hoping that I don't give in and plague them
even more. Slightly smaller legions have forgotten more about cameras
than I'll ever know.
The new issue of Consumer Reports reviews recent digital cameras and
is always a good place to start.
Gratuitous obstructions the windstorm Wednesday, starting with a
familiar creature:
http://i14.tinypic.com/6bv8tja.jpg
That was the only snake that stayed on the path long enough to be
photographed. There were several others, since no one else was fool
enough to ride in the high winds and the path was pleasantly deserted.
The wind was 25 to 45 mph where I was, with several trees blown down
across the path, but I expect that Peter Chisholm saw much worse up in
Boulder.
This little fellow (the males are smaller, as is common outside our
species) was marching stupidly up the road that climbs up the south
side of the Pueblo dam, sticking next to the yellow center line:
http://i18.tinypic.com/664uhoj.jpg
Normally, they cross roads instead of following them, but maybe he
wanted to head straight into the wind--which was what I was stupidly
doing, mashing away at 5 to 6 mph up into the wind. When I shooed him
off the pavement, he flipped in the wind (twice) and lay on his back
before reaching the grass.
Both pictures were just point and shoot.
For resizing and converting to other formats, the free IrfanView
program is good for Windows. I use it for converting the odd format
that the patent office prefers, which requires a plugin and which
takes forever to load--I figure that anyone curious enough to look at
whatever catches my bizarre fancy would be discouraged if they had to
download and install plugins and then wade through the patent office
tarpit.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Bill
>
> Dear Bill,
>
> Mine's a--uh, let's see . . . a Canon A530 with 4x optical. One
> advantage was that it was just a step below the model that allowed you
> to add expensive accessories
>
> I buy 30 batteries for about ten bucks at Home Depot.
>
> Its only mechanical failing is an occasional half-hearted effort to
> open the protective lens shutter, either due to poor quality
> (unlikely) or else a careless owner who carries and uses it in dusty
> conditions (embarrassing).
>
> It's ridiculously good at automatically taking good ordinary pictures
> and can be forced to focus up close. Long hand-held shots with fading
> afternoon light require either steadier hands or setting shorter
> exposure times.
The Canon would be a step up for me and the 4x optical sounds good.
Those stupid digital zooms are a complete joke.
>
> I'm resisting the urge to get a 10x with auto-stabilizer, figuring
> that the increased zoom would just about offset the stabilizer, even
> though the new toy would be fun.
If I could pick one up for about $300 I probably would would go for a
10x zoom, but now they are pushing 4Mp and up, even at a bottom end
store like Wal-mart. Even that is five times what will fill a computer
screen.
>
> Legions of RBT posters are hoping that I don't give in and plague them
> even more. Slightly smaller legions have forgotten more about cameras
> than I'll ever know.
>
> The new issue of Consumer Reports reviews recent digital cameras and
> is always a good place to start.
Their reviews and my uses are really different points of view.
I'm avoiding proprietary Lithium Ion batteries since if one goes dead,
the replacement will kill you.
>
> Gratuitous obstructions the windstorm Wednesday, starting with a
> familiar creature:
>
> http://i14.tinypic.com/6bv8tja.jpg
Good quick shot. We had a windstorm in sunny Ca. that had them putting
out tornado warnings. What they would call a tornado in California would
barely be a gust in the midwest.
>
> That was the only snake that stayed on the path long enough to be
> photographed. There were several others, since no one else was fool
> enough to ride in the high winds and the path was pleasantly deserted.
> The wind was 25 to 45 mph where I was, with several trees blown down
> across the path, but I expect that Peter Chisholm saw much worse up in
> Boulder.
Sort of what I encountered after the storm since I really did not want
to ride in it. I did go out for a run in the storm and nearly got blown
over a few times.
>
> This little fellow (the males are smaller, as is common outside our
> species) was marching stupidly up the road that climbs up the south
> side of the Pueblo dam, sticking next to the yellow center line:
>
> http://i18.tinypic.com/664uhoj.jpg
>
> Normally, they cross roads instead of following them, but maybe he
> wanted to head straight into the wind--which was what I was stupidly
> doing, mashing away at 5 to 6 mph up into the wind. When I shooed him
> off the pavement, he flipped in the wind (twice) and lay on his back
> before reaching the grass.
>
> Both pictures were just point and shoot.
Fast auto focus?
>
> For resizing and converting to other formats, the free IrfanView
> program is good for Windows. I use it for converting the odd format
> that the patent office prefers, which requires a plugin and which
> takes forever to load--I figure that anyone curious enough to look at
> whatever catches my bizarre fancy would be discouraged if they had to
> download and install plugins and then wade through the patent office
> tarpit.
Are you talking MrSID? I have run into that on the Smithsonian site.
I'm using IrfanView now as my main viewer and some picture manipulation
but I got a free package with both my Visioneer and HP scanners.
I'll have to check out the patent sight a little more carefully because
I am working on some patent projects right now. (Energy related).
Bill Baka
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel
Johnny Sunset
> You have more interesting creatures in your neck of the woods than we do
> here in the Twin Cities metro. Although in SE MN I have encountered 3
> foot long rattlers out sunning themselves, and snappers along the river
> and the backwaters. No big hairy spiders, though.
I have seen llamas, alpacas, camels, peafowl, ostriches, bison,
miniature donkeys, miniature horses and burros while riding in
Illinois, all kept as exotic pets or livestock.
> Dogs are the main form of fauna that bicyclists encounter around here,
> roaming about the countryside singly or in packs thanks to ignorant
> owners who saw "Born Free" as children. Had to outsprint a boxer
> yesterday. Riding on the other side of the river, I note that
> Wisconsonites tend to be more responsible owners and keep their dogs
> under control.
Loose dogs chasing the Holstein-Friesians are not considered
acceptable. However, I have had some unpleasant experiences with
Shepards (aka Alsatians) who think the public road is part of the
territory they need to guard.
--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful
Bill
come up to you for a quick petting encounter. Most of the dogs on my
regular ride roads now know that I will stop and engage them in some
friendly interaction. Of course there are some hard cases that need a
2x4 upside the head, but they are rare. There is one pair that I ride by
and one comes up to get attention while the other hangs back and growls.
Some dogs are dense, some are not.
If you get the chance to dismount and put the bike between you and the
dog, my experience is that they will think twice when you are staring
them down.
Patience usually wins.
I've only been bitten once and that was a complete ambush, but animal
control made that one go away for keeps.
There is a leash/yard law in California but nobody obeys that particular
law.
Happy (unbitten) trails.
Bill Baka
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
Another great blue heron decided to tease me, flapping off and then
perching on a distant juniper across a deep gully:
http://i9.tinypic.com/62f7gpv.jpg
Silly bird looks like a misplaced weathervane.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Bill
I've managed to scare a few, while riding on pavement, and they look
like a small plane taking off. We have rice fields next to the road
where I'm at.
Bill Baka
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
This was as close as I expected to get to a great blue heron today:
http://i8.tinypic.com/4pniy5g.jpg
You need binoculars to see that's a great blue heron out on its nest
in the dead tree in the middle of the reservoir.
On top of another bluff, I was annoyed by a great blue heron that
flapped away into the deep gully below us. I hadn't noticed it
perching right below me on the steep slope.
It landed on a tree far down the slope, so I dug my camera out to take
a picture, but it flew off again before I was ready.
"Drat!" I said, or words to that effect, and put the camera away.
As soon as I had everything zipped up, two more great blue herons
flapped away from where they had been perching right below me, just
out of sight on the steep slope and even nearer than the first bird.
"Bother!" I said, or perhaps a slightly different phrase, one that
Christopher Robin took care not to let Winnie the Pooh hear. I hate
being mocked by these large birds.
They both flew off out of sight.
I was about to leave when a juniper tree just below me cautiously
moved its foot-long bill to see what I was doing. I took the camera
out again and took some bad pictures in poor light. Here's one:
http://i14.tinypic.com/5y84lg4.jpg
The bird is about fifty feet below me, down a steep slope. The brown
water and white shale much further down are below a fifty-foot drop
beyond the greenery. The first three herons were much closer. Here's
the fourth bird, fuzzily flying off:
http://i16.tinypic.com/6b26fzp.jpg
Instead of vanishing, this fourth great blue heron landed on another
juniper tree, far below me, so I plodded down the slope, trying to
keep an eye on the bird. I soon lost sight of the huge bird, but I
kept looking up hopefully at every juniper.
Meanwhile, the great blue heron was down on the ground, playing turkey
or roadrunner. I noticed it by accident and took more bad pictures
like this one:
http://i11.tinypic.com/4t71kk7.jpg
The stupid heron finally gave up imitating a roadrunner, flew across
the bottom of the gully, and perched on a dead juniper on the far
side:
http://i17.tinypic.com/5z78oc5.jpg
The light was bad, at least for an automatic camera and an incompetent
photographer, but the heron stayed on its tree while I trudged up
through the weeds, taking more pictures like these:
http://i15.tinypic.com/54dsakg.jpg
http://i12.tinypic.com/4mk0l02.jpg
http://i10.tinypic.com/63j5bo7.jpg
http://i10.tinypic.com/52gav87.jpg
http://i10.tinypic.com/5x3f98n.jpg
Note the clawed feet. It may have decided to stay where it was because
unclipping those things from a dead juniper isn't easy.
By then, I was right under the bird, so I moved away and climbed up
the shale to the left and ended up about thirty feet away, almost at
eye-level with the bird. By sheer luck, I stumbled onto an angle with
better lighting:
http://i17.tinypic.com/4vi8aas.jpg
There! That'll teach those tall birds to tease me!
CF
G.T.
<carl...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:sql46358g49lado23...@4ax.com...
>
> Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
> than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
> nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
> road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
> http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>
Damn, that is one ugly turtle, but I guess I prefer tortoises:
http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3645128
Greg
--
Ticketbastard tax tracker:
http://ticketmastersucks.org/tracker.html
"Run over your friends in stolen Volkswagens
And tell them I sent you, and tell them I sent ... you" - Mclusky
Dane Buson
>
> <carl...@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:sql46358g49lado23...@4ax.com...
>>
>> Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
>> than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
>> nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
>> road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
>> http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>>
>
> Damn, that is one ugly turtle, but I guess I prefer tortoises:
Now, now I'm sure he's very attractive to a turtle of the appropriate sex.
> http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3645128
It looks drier, but not noticably more attractive to my eye. Your
mileage obviously varies.
--
Dane Buson - sig...@unixbigots.org
Hark, the Herald Tribune sings,
Advertising wondrous things.
Angels we have heard on High
Tell us to go out and Buy.
-- Tom Lehrer
G.T.
"Dane Buson" <da...@unseen.edu> wrote in message
news:f911k4-...@curare.zuvembi.homelinux.org...
> G.T. <getn...@dslextreme.com> wrote:
>>
>> <carl...@comcast.net> wrote in message
>> news:sql46358g49lado23...@4ax.com...
>>>
>>> Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
>>> than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
>>> nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
>>> road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
>>> http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>>>
>>
>> Damn, that is one ugly turtle, but I guess I prefer tortoises:
>
> Now, now I'm sure he's very attractive to a turtle of the appropriate sex.
>
>> http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3645128
>
> It looks drier, but not noticably more attractive to my eye. Your
> mileage obviously varies.
>
I think for me it's mostly that the desert tortoises have thin elegant
necks, albeit very wrinkly necks. Whatever turtle that is in Mr Fogel's
photos has a big triangular blob of a neck/head.
Greg
--
Ticketbastard tax tracker:
http://ticketmastersucks.org/tracker.html
"Run over you friends in stolen Volkswagens
carl...@comcast.net
wrote:
>
>"Dane Buson" <da...@unseen.edu> wrote in message
>news:f911k4-...@curare.zuvembi.homelinux.org...
>> G.T. <getn...@dslextreme.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> <carl...@comcast.net> wrote in message
>>> news:sql46358g49lado23...@4ax.com...
>>>>
>>>> Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
>>>> than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
>>>> nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
>>>> road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
>>>> http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>>>>
>>>
>>> Damn, that is one ugly turtle, but I guess I prefer tortoises:
>>
>> Now, now I'm sure he's very attractive to a turtle of the appropriate sex.
>>
>>> http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3645128
>>
>> It looks drier, but not noticably more attractive to my eye. Your
>> mileage obviously varies.
>>
>
>I think for me it's mostly that the desert tortoises have thin elegant
>necks, albeit very wrinkly necks. Whatever turtle that is in Mr Fogel's
>photos has a big triangular blob of a neck/head.
>
>Greg
Dear Greg,
On land, common snapping turtles extend their necks only slightly,
unless striking, which is too fast to see.
Underwater, the common snapper often extends its neck fully as it
wanders about on the bottoms of ponds. Here are some pictures of a
small common snapper with its neck extended in the natural fasion,
underwater:
http://www.chelydra.org/guest_pg11.html
If anything, snappers have longer necks relative to shell size than
other turtles.
Try to stay calm when you look at the neck exposed by the Playboy-pose
of the modest snapper in the second photograph on this page:
http://www.chelydra.org/snapping_turtle_identification.html
Those who prefer exotic models may enjoy this creature, which occupies
much the same niche in South America that the common snapper occupies
in North America:
http://whozoo.org/Anlife99/diegoben/finalmataindex.htm
Caution: explicit long neck pictures!
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
Just before my ride, today's 10% chance of thunderstorms rose to 60%
and then 100%. The rain led a large female snapping turtle to lay her
eggs on the far side of a chain link fence by the path.
Like an idiot, I was so busy trying to shield the camera from the rain
blowing into my face that I forgot that the sight is _above_ the
damned lens, so all the pictures hark back to the half-faced Wilson
character in "Tool Time":
http://i14.tinypic.com/4yzd45w.jpg
To my surprise, you can see her face and eye if you view the picture
full size. She was about the size of two 18-pounders that I kept as
pets.
When the rain stopped, I looked hopefully for spiny softshell turtles
out laying eggs, but they continue to elude me this year. Instead, I
stumbled upon a beast closer to three feet than two.
Better focus on its head:
http://i18.tinypic.com/6baor3k.jpg
Whole beast:
http://i10.tinypic.com/66uy8ec.jpg
It's a corn snake at the northwest edge of its range, rarer, but
easily confused with a bullsnake until you see the face stripe.
Alas, this was a mature bullsnake:
http://i17.tinypic.com/61n6niq.jpg
Wheelbase is about 41 inches, so the poor thing was about four feet
long and might have grown twice as long.
CF
carl...@comcast.net
Embarrassingly, I grew suspicious, looked back, and found an example
of someone (me) mis-identifying a corn snake as a bullsnake.
This was actually a small corn snake, not a bullsnake:
http://i6.tinypic.com/5y13okk.jpg
The coloring, scale pattern, and facial stripe were painfully obvious
in my memory. Sure enough, when I found the picture, it was about as
bad as mistaking a tubular for a clincher.
In contrast, this really was a small bullsnake:
http://i11.tinypic.com/52fvkno.jpg
Bullsnakes are yellower than corn snakes, their scale patterns are
less regular, and they lack the facial stripe. Now I know that staring
through the view-finder can lead to really silly mistakes.
Here's a bullsnake face with no corn-snake stripe on either side, much
less two of them coming to a vee on the forehead:
http://i6.tinypic.com/4ztygba.jpg
Whew! Now I can sleep tonight.
CF
Chuck Davis
news:98ou63d4gm0umn4sl...@4ax.com...> ......
> Embarrassingly, I grew suspicious, looked back, and found an example
> of someone (me) mis-identifying a corn snake as a bullsnake.
>
> This was actually a small corn snake, not a bullsnake:
>
> http://i6.tinypic.com/5y13okk.jpg
>
> The coloring, scale pattern, and facial stripe were painfully obvious
> in my memory. Sure enough, when I found the picture, it was about as
> bad as mistaking a tubular for a clincher.
>
> In contrast, this really was a small bullsnake:
>
> http://i11.tinypic.com/52fvkno.jpg
>
The difference is obvious. One has its head on the right, the other's head
is on the left. 8)
ChuckD
carl...@comcast.net
Dear Chuck,
Sometimes even that handy rule doesn't help. Thelma and Louise were
_both_ corn snakes:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/05/images/0313_twoheadsnake.jpg
Some details:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/03/0318_0319_twoheadsnake.html
Naturally, there was a Mary-Kate and Ashley:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/10/17/offbeat.twoheaded.snake.ap/
"We" is frankly an uninspired name:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14391706/
An unnamed Spanish entry:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1910471.stm
And more . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycephaly
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
Small bullfrogs, politely staying off the course and reflecting the
silly camera flash on a cloudy evening:
http://i19.tinypic.com/4zan9s8.jpg
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
An email asked if there are any botanical obstructions on my daily
ride, so here's a picture of the strangest plant that I notice, a
blooming century plant about ten feet high just around the corner from
my driveway:
http://i12.tinypic.com/61t603o.jpg
Before blooming, it looks like a gigantic asparagus growing out of a
bayonet plant. This one is about two feet taller than the street sign.
A more common and shorter obstruction:
http://i14.tinypic.com/52pukk9.jpg
And at last a lesser earless Colorado relative of the Komodo dragon
stayed still long enough for a picture:
http://i11.tinypic.com/524co79.jpg
Usually I see Holbrookia maculata only as it skitters off the pavement
at high speed. As a boy, I admired but could never match friends who
caught specimens using fishing poles with tiny nooses.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
In honor of Independence Day, this frankly plump female was playing
don't-tread-on-me with her head lifted as I went by:
http://i18.tinypic.com/5x6k56w.jpg
Click on the lower right for full-size in explorer.
Note the black stump of her abbreviated tail, probably from previous
defiance of bicycles (or perhaps a lucky escape from some hungrier
predator).
The white fluff on the glove and ground is just cottonwood seedlings,
sometimes mistaken by indignant visitors for evidence that old cotton
mattresses must be littering the nature trail and bursting nearby.
After a mile or so, the angry ecologists usually realize that there's
a more natural explanation.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
> Some recent obstructions remind me not to complain too much about that
> annoying traffic light on my daily ride. Most them expand in Explorer
> if you click on the lower right. None of them are squirrels or dogs.
>
> Absolutely limp, motionless, and hoping that it won't be noticed,
> stretched across the path:http://i11.tinypic.com/52fvkno.jpg
>
> Obviously, it _was_ noticed, but my first attempt at one-handed
> photography is embarrassingly fuzzy:
>
> http://i15.tinypic.com/4utq8mh.jpg
>
> This unharmed idiot was sunbathing on the path a few days later. The
> one-handed focus is better, but a more intelligent photographer would
> have checked that his automatic shutter had opened all the way:
>
> http://i15.tinypic.com/6ccz2iw.jpg
>
> Another unharmed idiot, caught a few minutes later, also sunbathing on
> the path:http://i10.tinypic.com/673ty4n.jpg
>
> This poor foot-long devil was still alive, but couldn't rattle, coil,
> crawl, or hiss, so I had to put it out of its misery. (Handling this
> kind is foolish--most fatal bites in the U.S. involve the head or neck
> and a bizarre religious belief that rattlers won't resent handling.)
> At first I thought that a car had hit it, but it was almost undamaged.
> The fatal wound, an ugly, unseen gash on the far side of its neck,
> probably came from a beak:http://i13.tinypic.com/53rtreu.jpg
>
> These two camera hogs were too big for one-handed photography. The
> first is about three feet long, the second about four feet long:http://i6.tinypic.com/4ztygba.jpghttp://i18.tinypic.com/4xqogfs.jpg
>
> This nitwit was playing why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road, as they
> often do, and finally ran over my shoe. They have a disconcerting
> habit of near-sightedly charging at you instead of fleeing:http://i16.tinypic.com/5z6l5y8.jpg
>
> Here's his little brother, next to a bottle of bug repellant:http://i9.tinypic.com/4uxcfa1.jpg
>
> These three adults just stood there, while the two recently born kids
> ran happily back and forth past them. The second kid is just visible
> between the middle and right hand adults:http://i13.tinypic.com/6g1xe1s.jpg
>
> One kid has already zoomed past the left edge of the picture. The
> other is following:http://i14.tinypic.com/5z20k09.jpg
>
> If you look closely, you can see the other kid, now running back the
> other way, its head just past its sibling's tail:http://i7.tinypic.com/4muhbbl.jpg
>
> And now it's raced back the other way, past all three adults:http://i7.tinypic.com/4yhvh42.jpg
>
> These two versions of four horns have already been posted, but you
> might as well see them again if you've browsed this far:http://i8.tinypic.com/4yjyjvn.jpghttp://i7.tinypic.com/4y7cbgx.jpg
>
> Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
> than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
> nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
> road, fifteen feet from her marsh:http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>
> for the show ring. (Yes, I once kept them as pets, but no, there are
>
> Excellent shell, little moss, no leeches, no holes:http://i17.tinypic.com/6434ia9.jpg
>
> The tail has been moved to one side to show to advantage, while the
> eye catches the camera flash:http://i8.tinypic.com/5y9huds.jpg
>
> Cheers,
>
> CarlFogel
The crowd today was sparse and betrayed little enthusiasm, but at
least stayed at the edge of the course:
http://i16.tinypic.com/4m7j6te.jpg
http://i14.tinypic.com/4mv6gpy.jpg
A glove dropped nearby for scale caused the crowd to hop into the
brush.
Later, a thinner spectator was seized and warned not to wriggle across
the course in front of the peloton:
http://i19.tinypic.com/4kee9hl.jpg
Left-handed photography is awkard, so things are fuzzy. Even in focus,
the picture would be deceptive, since thumbs are rarely as thick as
wrists.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
A real obstruction, blown down by fierce winds:
http://i14.tinypic.com/642i3oj.jpg
But the wind had some help:
http://i12.tinypic.com/4y79i52.jpg
Here's the lumberjack's late relative:
http://i15.tinypic.com/54og1vo.jpg
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
RonSonic
>On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carl...@comcast.net wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>A real obstruction, blown down by fierce winds:
>
>http://i14.tinypic.com/642i3oj.jpg
Those were some fierce winds to blow your bike upside down like that.
Ron
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
A flash flood left some large puddles and even larger mounds of mud
and gravel near my daily ride, along with a handsome gimme-cap.
Here's what I first thought might be a small bullfrog when I noticed
it out of the corner of my eye, darting away in a big puddle:
http://i14.tinypic.com/4pnkokm.jpg
As you can see, the claws have as usual grown faster than the body:
http://i8.tinypic.com/4lxktht.jpg
Here it holds the cap in the air at arm level:
http://i7.tinypic.com/662zzbc.jpg
I'm _almost_ sure that the claw tip wouldn't penetrate a 700c tire,
even if you ran over it at an awkward angle.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
The obstruction in this post had foolishly wandered a mile up from the
reservoir after a recent thunderstorm and found itself stranded in a
bare, dry shale gully.
Not knowing what else to do, it wedged itself head-first into a rocky
hole the size of a 5-gallon bucket, where there was still some water,
and wondered where all the water had gone.
Since a new thunderstorm was soaking me and threatening to bury the
obstruction alive under the debris of a gully-washer, I took no
pictures at the scene.
Instead, I pulled and tugged until the obstruction reluctantly let go
of its ill-chosen refuge, carried it home, and kept it overnight.
Here it is in a 25 X 19 mortar tub with an 18-inch ruler:
http://i13.tinypic.com/53sdipy.jpg
This shows the well-healed edge of the shell to the right of the tail,
where the normal saw-tooth pattern is gone:
http://i17.tinypic.com/68bgg47.jpg
Here's a coy three-quarter profile, showing the camouflaged eye, tiny
nostrils, and absurdly small beak-hook:
http://i14.tinypic.com/61w9qmw.jpg
As these clips show, the obstruction reacts to being placed in the
comfort of shallow water like Eddie Merckx being placed on a trainer:
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=4qyfr6x
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=4uvpjex
The obstruction is ten inches wide at the hips, fond of crayfish, and
now living the large pond filling an abandoned gravel pit.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
The lone spectator at the daily Tour de Pueblo seems unimpressed
moments after I swerved around it:
http://i12.tinypic.com/53r9nv9.jpg
Moments after the next picture, the spectator leapt over the seated
photographer's right leg, leaving liquid evidence of what frightened
amphibians do to reduce non-rotating weight:
http://i16.tinypic.com/4ujthn8.jpg
Earlier on the weekend, this familiar obstruction lay motionless in
the brush, exercising its first line of defense and hoping that its
feeble imitation of a hognose snake would let it escape my notice:
http://i9.tinypic.com/6gtbg5s.jpg
Its reluctance to wriggle away let me walk around it, take off my
gloves, and grab its tail, about four feet from the head. It switched
to its second line of defense, hissing and striking and vibrating its
tail in my hand in a furious imitation of a rattlesnake:
http://i17.tinypic.com/5yvdi6v.jpg
It calmed down after I trapped its head gently under one shoe, grabbed
it by the neck with my other hand, and gave it something to coil
around:
http://i16.tinypic.com/6cptwef.jpg
Having posed, it was released and fell back on its third set of
tactics, slithering off under the nearest juniper:
http://i16.tinypic.com/5yhlzqe.jpg
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
Next to the road today, a red-tailed obstruction was perched on one of
the stern signs posted to keep terrorists off the dam at the Pueblo
Reservoir:
http://i10.tinypic.com/4t903tv.jpg
The foothills rising to the left turn into Pikes Peak.
The obstruction let me approach with my head down, so the next picture
looking upward while sitting next to the road includes some of the
roadside weeds:
http://i16.tinypic.com/6azj37s.jpg
When I crept closer, a sunflower crept into the frame:
http://i19.tinypic.com/5xxzdlc.jpg
Alas, an even closer shot auto-focussed on the damned weeds, with the
sunflower up in one corner:
http://i18.tinypic.com/5z5c506.jpg
Here's one of the items on the obstruction's menu, a checkered
whiptail:
http://i15.tinypic.com/4l5bo8k.jpg
Whiptails skitter off the bike path so fast that it's hard to get a
picture of them.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
The daily 10% chance of afternoon or evening thunderstorms caught and
soaked me on the bike path.
It also caught Lord Nelson, below, who I hope will serve as breeder
stock for the toad herd at Fogel Labs:
http://i11.tinypic.com/4l60yms.jpg
Why he was sitting on the bike path in the rain with his left hand
missing is a mystery.
Unlike Hardy, I declined to kiss him; unlike his namesake, he lost his
left arm, not his right; and unlike Trafalgar, it all ended happily,
with him released in the garden, where his missing limb will be a
minor nuisance.
Should Lady Hamilton find his honorable wound irresistible (she lives
in the corner by the car-port), the back yard may soon swarm with tiny
Horatias.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
By coincidence, today's obstruction is a distant relative of Lord
Nelson, judging by his missing two legs. Luckily, he can afford to
lose two legs more easily than most creatures, and eventually crept
off the highway into the grass.
Here's a view from the bottom, after a wind gust upended him:
http://i17.tinypic.com/4ka9q1z.jpg
A more normal view from the top:
http://i12.tinypic.com/61tgsaw.jpg
For anyone wondering if the obstruction's eight-armed mother was
involved in a sordid affair with a ten-armed squid, the two small
"legs" in the front are not really legs--those are a tarantula's
impressive pedipalps.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
This evening, I was toiling up the road next to the dam at the Pueblo
Reservoir about an hour before sunset with no traffic.
Half-way to the top of the dam, a large, dark butterfly began pacing
me, flying next to me on the other side of the center stripe, a foot
or two higher than my head.
It was quite large for a butterfly, its flight was a bit heavier than
a butterfly's normal airy fluttering, and it was rather dark for a
butterfly.
After a few moments, I realized that this obstruction was no butterfly
and that I hadn't the ghost of a chance of stopping, getting my camera
out, and taking a picture.
So I just kept pedalling up the road and enjoyed the show until the
slowly fluttering predator crossed in front of me, flapped up the
slope of the dam, and disappeared into the setting sun.
Here's what it looks like when it poses for other people:
http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/edits/images/pipihesp.jpg
It looks much darker when it flies because its bare wings are black
and much bigger than the blondish body when unfolded.
My neck of the woods is the extreme northern edge of the range of
Pipistrellus hesperus. It's fond of dams, probably because the
shoreline provides a belt of tasty insects, and often flies before
dusk.
Years ago, I trotted back and forth along the flagstone-lined bank of
a much smaller dam, up in the mountains at San Isabel, chasing the
same creature. That I could keep up with it on foot tells you just how
slowly it flies. That one grew tired and landed several times on the
rocks and even let me gently poke at its incredibly tiny hind claws
with a twig before it flew off again.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
Someone forgot to clean the course after the hail hit the cottonwoods
yesterday, which left the normally bare path up the Arkansas River
looking like a feeble wooden imitation of Paris-Roubaix, with branches
and inch-thick chunks of bark hiding amidst the leaves:
http://i14.tinypic.com/4qsre6s.jpg
http://i13.tinypic.com/5yj9w6c.jpg
http://i17.tinypic.com/4l62f5s.jpg
Maybe the fellows who sweep the route of the Tour de France are idle
and willing to work cheap?
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
Only a panic-stricken bunny-hop saved today's obstruction.
I wasn't paying enough attention on a cloudy afternoon and mistook it
for a branch or some other debris left on the bike path by a recent
hailstorm.
Cursing the four-foot-long obstruction for lying limp and still across
the bike path in hopes of not being seen, I stopped and went back to
see if I'd managed to avoid killing it.
By the time I got my camera out, it had curled up a bit:
http://i11.tinypic.com/4yi2ssm.jpg
Honest, it was a lot harder to see when I was coming the other way at
about 20 mph.
While I swatted mosquitoes and looked for a branch to pin its head,
the obstruction curled up more:
http://i5.tinypic.com/4z09fcz.jpg
I shooed it off the path, where its camouflage makes more sense:
http://i15.tinypic.com/4vrd340.jpg
Then I pinned it, grabbed it by the neck, and practiced my one-handed
photography, but the obstruction was so long that the coils on my
elbow and upper arm are completely out of the frame:
http://i5.tinypic.com/4xm8eis.jpg
And here's the stupid obstruction, off the path and showing that its
camouflage works fine against a natural background:
http://i9.tinypic.com/61mwqjs.jpg
I wish they'd lie length-wise down the path instead of draping
themselves across it at right angles.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Luke
<carl...@comcast.net> wrote:
> Then I pinned it, grabbed it by the neck, and practiced my one-handed
> photography, but the obstruction was so long that the coils on my
> elbow and upper arm are completely out of the frame:
>
> http://i5.tinypic.com/4xm8eis.jpg
Lotsa questions. Pin it with what? How did you get close enough without
the snake striking to immobilize it? There's no rattle, what kind of
snake is this?
carl...@comcast.net
wrote:
Dear Luke,
With a little experience, the snakes around here are fairly easy to
catch. This one is a harmless bullsnake, a common sight east of the
Rockies, often mistaken for a rattler.
I pinned this one with the branch that I mentioned looking for, about
two feet long. Like most snakes, bullsnakes don't strike at a branch.
They're not terribly bright, but they're smart enough not to attack
wooden sticks.
You prod and push, the bullsnake tends to curve around the stick, you
press the neck gently against the ground, and then you grab the snake,
just behind the stick.
The larger the snake, the easier you can grab it behind the head.
Small snakes are much trickier. Even a short length of free neck may
let a small snake turn enough to bite you.
I grabbed this bullsnake because it's fun to catch them, because I
hope that it scares them enough to stay the hell off the path, and
because I had to check it to make sure that my careless bunny-hop had
been successful. Fortunately, it was unhurt, so I was able to let it
go instead of putting it out of its misery.
Alas, I've never interrupted a snake in the middle of a meal. A few
days ago, a friend sent me this picture of a garter snake having lunch
with a field mouse:
http://i8.tinypic.com/4m1zaco.jpg
He and his wife happened on the scene while hiking. The bullsnake that
I grabbed today does the same thing with the ground squirrels that run
back and forth across the bike path.
Cheersssss,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
This obstruction had the grace to lie in plain sight on a sunny
evening and waited while I stopped, walked back, and took a picture:
http://i9.tinypic.com/4yj6hlg.jpg
It's a good example of just how limp a motionless bullsnake lies when
hoping not to be noticed.
I put the camera down and grabbed the bullsnake by the tail, which it
vibrated in imitation of a rattlesnake, but I had a fearful time
avoiding its outraged attempts to bite me with its gaping jaws because
its head was only about the size of my little finger. Small snakes are
harder to grab.
Eventually I won, practiced my one-handed photography, and let it
slither off into the weeds, hopefully never to bask on the bike path
again.
Regrettably, my one-handed photography skills need work, since I cut
the head off the bullsnake in both pictures:
http://i17.tinypic.com/6g1p828.jpg
http://i19.tinypic.com/5zmktiw.jpg
A magpie was probably what tried to cut the head off this poor devil,
posing next to an 18-inch ruler:
http://i3.tinypic.com/5yb74fq.jpg
It was a full-grown two-foot smooth green snake, somewhat rare in
Colorado. I saw it lying in the gutter close enough to home that I
went back and picked it up while walking my dog.
In my neighborhood, uneaten snakes with neck wounds like this are
usually the work of the magpies that are slowly returning after West
Nile virus wiped them out a few years ago. Mapgies are charming birds
in many ways, but they kill any snake near their nests, usually
without bothering to eat their victims, even though the local snakes
neither climb trees nor eat eggs--I've seen magpies kill garter snakes
in my back yard, leave the corpses on the walk, and flap back up to
their nests.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Ryan Cousineau
carl...@comcast.net wrote:
> On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carl...@comcast.net wrote:
> A magpie was probably what tried to cut the head off this poor devil,
> posing next to an 18-inch ruler:
>
> http://i3.tinypic.com/5yb74fq.jpg
>
> It was a full-grown two-foot smooth green snake, somewhat rare in
> Colorado. I saw it lying in the gutter close enough to home that I
> went back and picked it up while walking my dog.
Being the kind of nerd I am, I was even more interested in exploring the
rich data contained in the background of that photo:
-Carl likes Vivaldi a lot
-Carl is googling smooth green snakes
-Carl has a notepad from the "Army Reserve Health Care Team"
-Carl uses Internet Explorer, and it looks like version 6 still.
-Carl keeps the phone number for his local sheriff by his computer.
> In my neighborhood, uneaten snakes with neck wounds like this are
> usually the work of the magpies that are slowly returning after West
> Nile virus wiped them out a few years ago. Mapgies are charming birds
> in many ways, but they kill any snake near their nests,
I was in Greece recently, and the most common reptile, by far, were some
sort of lizard that ranged in size from about 5 cm to 25 cm, tip to
tail, but often missing the tail.
--
Ryan Cousineau rcou...@sfu.ca http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos
carl...@comcast.net
wrote:
>In article <e214e3t718ko1ppkv...@4ax.com>,
> carl...@comcast.net wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carl...@comcast.net wrote:
>
>> A magpie was probably what tried to cut the head off this poor devil,
>> posing next to an 18-inch ruler:
>>
>> http://i3.tinypic.com/5yb74fq.jpg
>>
>> It was a full-grown two-foot smooth green snake, somewhat rare in
>> Colorado. I saw it lying in the gutter close enough to home that I
>> went back and picked it up while walking my dog.
>
>Being the kind of nerd I am, I was even more interested in exploring the
>rich data contained in the background of that photo:
>
>-Carl likes Vivaldi a lot
>-Carl is googling smooth green snakes
>-Carl has a notepad from the "Army Reserve Health Care Team"
>-Carl uses Internet Explorer, and it looks like version 6 still.
>-Carl keeps the phone number for his local sheriff by his computer.
>
>> In my neighborhood, uneaten snakes with neck wounds like this are
>> usually the work of the magpies that are slowly returning after West
>> Nile virus wiped them out a few years ago. Mapgies are charming birds
>> in many ways, but they kill any snake near their nests,
>
>I was in Greece recently, and the most common reptile, by far, were some
>sort of lizard that ranged in size from about 5 cm to 25 cm, tip to
>tail, but often missing the tail.
Dear Ryan,
Dashiell Hammett recalled a somewhat similar case in his memoirs of
his years as a Pinkerton's detective:
"21. The chief of police of a Southern city once gave me a description
of a man, complete even to the mole on his neck, but neglected to
mention that he had only one arm."
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/hammett2.html
Your list might begin with this:
--Carl stretches dead snakes out on his desk
And things can change . . .
http://i3.tinypic.com/5yb74fq.jpg
http://i4.tinypic.com/6g041fm.jpg
Brelew on the left, beaver on the right, other differences left as an
exercise to the reader.
As for the more interesting question of Greek lizards, a size range
and missing tail is not exactly a description brimming with detail,
but . . .
Best guess, Agama stellio, the starred Agama, common in daytime in
Greece, right size, and coloring unremarkable enough to have deserved
no comment.
Here's a fair range of pictures, with some truncated tails:
http://www.club100.net/species/L_stellio/L_stellio.html
Really fast agamas wear numbers in the Tour de Rhodes:
http://www.biol.lu.se/zooekologi/jon/herpbild/hb36.htm
Other suspects tend to be nocturnal or more colorful.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Ryan Cousineau
carl...@comcast.net wrote:
I like what you've done with the place! As a person with a French name,
I admire your taste in the cuisine of my homeland.
> As for the more interesting question of Greek lizards, a size range
> and missing tail is not exactly a description brimming with detail,
> but . . .
>
> Best guess, Agama stellio, the starred Agama, common in daytime in
> Greece, right size, and coloring unremarkable enough to have deserved
> no comment.
Could be. I have a fair number of photos, but they're not up yet.
> Here's a fair range of pictures, with some truncated tails:
>
> http://www.club100.net/species/L_stellio/L_stellio.html
Those ones look rather pudgy, but close. I'll check my pictures (on the
other computer...).
> Really fast agamas wear numbers in the Tour de Rhodes:
>
> http://www.biol.lu.se/zooekologi/jon/herpbild/hb36.htm
>
> Other suspects tend to be nocturnal or more colorful.
These were very active in daytime and routinely startled as we came
close. It sometimes seemed you couldn't walk 30m without scaring the
living daylights out of a lizard.
carl...@comcast.net
wrote:
>In article <qag4e3dkkn7s5b14k...@4ax.com>,
> carl...@comcast.net wrote:
[snip]
>> As for the more interesting question of Greek lizards, a size range
>> and missing tail is not exactly a description brimming with detail,
>> but . . .
>>
>> Best guess, Agama stellio, the starred Agama, common in daytime in
>> Greece, right size, and coloring unremarkable enough to have deserved
>> no comment.
>
>Could be. I have a fair number of photos, but they're not up yet.
>
>> Here's a fair range of pictures, with some truncated tails:
>>
>> http://www.club100.net/species/L_stellio/L_stellio.html
>
>Those ones look rather pudgy, but close. I'll check my pictures (on the
>other computer...).
>
>> Really fast agamas wear numbers in the Tour de Rhodes:
>>
>> http://www.biol.lu.se/zooekologi/jon/herpbild/hb36.htm
>>
>> Other suspects tend to be nocturnal or more colorful.
>
>These were very active in daytime and routinely startled as we came
>close. It sometimes seemed you couldn't walk 30m without scaring the
>living daylights out of a lizard.
Dear Ryan,
The pudginess may be an artifact of technology.
Female agamas often protest that the camera adds ten grams.
Desperate ones will even shed their tails to lose weight.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
So at mid-Spetember I noticed a great blue heron standing just inside
the chain link fence at the fish hatchery pond, half-way up the long
grade along the front of the dam at the Pueblo reservoir.
I stopped, fumbled out my camera, turned, and swore because the huge
bird had silently vanished, without even a flapping sound. Apparently,
he didn't like me watching over his shoulder while he decided which
trout hatchlings to eat for dinner.
I spotted him standing in the water at the far end of the hatchery
pond, so I walked across the road, stuck my camera's snout through the
chain link fence, and took a picture of him at the far shore:
http://i19.tinypic.com/4oqfs6s.jpg
Then I pedalled off to collect my 34th flat tire of the year.
When I looked at the picture full-size on the screen, it turned out
that the great blue heron had flown off to the other end of the pond
because he had a dinner date waiting for him there, just to his left
in the tall grass.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
I nearly ran over this nitwit, who was squatting on a lonely asphalt
bicycle path in 88F weather, probably wondering where the water was
(half a mile away) and why there was no cool vegetation (too much
cactus).
I caught him with my Nashbar-approved toad-handling gloves, popped him
in a plastic bag with a sliding tab left partly open, took him home,
and released him in a silly Toad-in-the-Hole pottery that my elder
sister swears works:
http://i9.tinypic.com/4zldao3.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/4uk7507.jpg
I suspect that the toad logo and label on the pottery is for the
benefit of the owner.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Ryan Cousineau
carl...@comcast.net wrote:
Your nitwit animal companion seems mighty unimpressed by his new adobe
hut.
Mine tries to bite the hand that feeds it, stupid terrier...
Hob...@spnb&s.com
>In article <r0s8f3pme71hua57v...@4ax.com>,
> carl...@comcast.net wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, carl...@comcast.net wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> I nearly ran over this nitwit, who was squatting on a lonely asphalt
>> bicycle path in 88F weather, probably wondering where the water was
>> (half a mile away) and why there was no cool vegetation (too much
>> cactus).
>>
>> I caught him with my Nashbar-approved toad-handling gloves, popped him
>> in a plastic bag with a sliding tab left partly open, took him home,
>> and released him in a silly Toad-in-the-Hole pottery that my elder
>> sister swears works:
>>
>> http://i9.tinypic.com/4zldao3.jpg
>>
>> http://i1.tinypic.com/4uk7507.jpg
>>
>> I suspect that the toad logo and label on the pottery is for the
>> benefit of the owner.
No, it's for the toads, they read backward.
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
Plump and placid, a typical 18-inch obstruction, poses for a portrait:
http://i21.tinypic.com/2hoia6p.jpg
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
I thought that I recognized this shell as I went by, but I thought
that it was empty.
When I went back, the obstruction turned out to be live, so I picked
it up, brought it home, and took its picture:
http://i21.tinypic.com/al6qac.jpg
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
Yesterday I had to pump my front tire up 20 psi, but I leapt to no
conclusions because a Slime tube often seals goathead punctures.
When I went out to the garage to see if the front tire had leaked
overnight, this obstruction was on a window screen:
http://i23.tinypic.com/2qc0y1w.jpg
A plastic jar served to remove the obstruction, increasing air-flow
through the window screen:
http://i21.tinypic.com/23ib3x5.jpg
The detail in the picture is ridiculous.
I placed the obstruction on some sunny lace vines on the back fence,
but even an auto-everything camera has trouble with that much sun:
http://i20.tinypic.com/2hnyz4p.jpg
I took a few pictures like this of the obstruction posing on my hand:
http://i22.tinypic.com/28h06ti.jpg
Each picture turned out to be just as badly out of focus, though they
all showed the alley quite nicely. It's hard for aging eyes to see the
cursed little LCD screen in bright sunlight.
So I went back to the lace vines, where the obstruction was waiting
upside down:
http://i24.tinypic.com/2dj4w3.jpg
And took three in-focus pictures of it on my hand:
http://i20.tinypic.com/aubapx.jpg
http://i21.tinypic.com/muwh05.jpg
http://i21.tinypic.com/15hy8wh.jpg
It's probably a descendant of the Chinese praying mantises whose egg
cases I bought years ago and put in the garden to eat other bugs. I
sometimes see their hardened foam egg cases, which look like brown
styrofoam packing peanuts.
These pictures show even better than usual just how incredibly good
even low-end digital cameras are, able to show details as fine as
fingerprints on an outstretched hand and the tiny dot, antenna, and
leg spikes of 3-inch insect, even when wielded one-handed by a
squinting PHD-camera incompetent.
"PHD" means "Point here, dummy!" as a newspaper article explained to
me this morning.
I suspect that a lot of RBT posters are as old or older than I am and
are just as doubtful as I was that they can take pictures clear enough
to show details, but the modern cameras really are just point and
shoot. Borrow one from a friend, take a few pictures of a bike part,
and see how easy it is.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Kerry Montgomery
<carl...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1g00g31nfp5f48fau...@4ax.com...
Carl,
And for those as old or older than you and I, the modern cameras that still
have optical viewfinders are much nicer than those that rely on the LCD. I
tried a couple without optical viewfinders, and it seemed troublesome to put
on reading glasses to see what was on the LCD when I could see the actual
object with no trouble.
Kerry
carl...@comcast.net
Dear Kerry,
Mine has a nice optical viewfinder above the LCD screen--I use hte
optical sight for most pictures.
But it's the LCD that puts up the little green rectangle around
whatever the camera plans to focus on. My optical sight has only a
green and red LED nearby to tell me if it plans to flash and slow the
exposure for bad light (which usually means a fuzzy picture).
Up close, the optical sight tends to cut the heads off tiny subjects,
since it's mounted above the actualy lens.
Embarrassingly, I didn't use the optical sight for quite a while.
When I first got the camera, I used the LCD screen for close-ups of
very small bike parts, which meant putting the camera on a mount and
peering over the tops of my glasses at the LCD to overcome presbyopia.
Later, I tried taking normal pictures of ordinary scenes the same way
and found the optical sight was uselessly blurry, so I ignored it.
Luckily, my sister visited and asked why I was struggling with the LCD
screen against the sunlight to take a picture of a dog outdoors--why
not just look through the little optical sight?
Because it doesn't work, I explained. It's a useless blur.
Maybe, she suggested politely, it would help if you used your glasses.
D'oh!
(I've mentioned that I'm camera-incompetent.)
Looking through my glasses made the optical sight work fine. It
focusses differently than binoculars and requires me to use my
glasses.
So now I peer over the tops of my glasses at the LCD screen when I
need to see where the camera is focussing and to get close-ups
properly framed, instead of cutting off their heads.
But mostly I just look through my glasses and the optical sight to
take pictures of things over 4 feet away.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
Friday, this red-tailed obstruction posed on the sign next to the road
that prevents terrorists from destroying the Pueblo Dam:
http://i21.tinypic.com/mmdabo.jpg
http://i21.tinypic.com/6zr5l3.jpg
http://i24.tinypic.com/2dhbi1w.jpg
http://i21.tinypic.com/350mgds.jpg
The two rectangles on the horizo are phone or power boxes on top of
the dam, whose position changed as I crept closer.
Saturday, I rode up the same road below the dam and saw two
red-tailed obstructions. One flew away, but the other stayed up in
the rabbit brush on the dam to finish its lunch.
I stopped a bit further up the road, trudged up the face of the dam,
and spotted greediguts through the grass, its head pointing downhill:
http://i24.tinypic.com/biuno1.jpg
Look at that exquisite detail! (Things get better below.)
Annoyingly, the heavy traffic--three cars!--shows up much better. (The
truck and SUV at the turnoff had stopped to stare at the bicyclist
climbing the face of the dam.)
I shuffled closer, camouflaged by a bright yellow shirt and helmet,
and took more pictures from below, but the grass needs mowing. The
obstruction also needed better table manners--the blurring in the last
picture is due more to its head bobbing as it rips strips off its
dinner than to any failing of the automatic camera:
http://i21.tinypic.com/24xgfx2.jpg
http://i23.tinypic.com/24vln2s.jpg
http://i21.tinypic.com/10wv6du.jpg
http://i23.tinypic.com/20pc31v.jpg
Eventually, lunch was hauled a few feet uphill with some awkward
hopping and flapping to a more private spot.
This shows why they're called redtails:
http://i21.tinypic.com/wl4n46.jpg
But this is the main dish, not a red front:
http://i24.tinypic.com/2h4kvhe.jpg
If the waiter can't see my head, I'm invisible:
http://i21.tinypic.com/2clro9.jpg
The obstruction finally decided that take-out was better than being
stared at and flew off with its meal:
http://i20.tinypic.com/2wrncat.jpg
http://i20.tinypic.com/27yvnd1.jpg
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
A chinook was blowing today, so I was riding in my shorts and keeping
alert in case one of the ramshackle magpie nests up in the bare
cottonwoods turned out to be a porcupine.
I used to see several porcupines every year until I bought my camera,
whereupon they became shy and stealthy.
Anyway, I spotted this great horned porcupine in a side gully:
http://i18.tinypic.com/6sb6t5e.jpg
Usually they just flash silently past me when I'm walking up the
juniper and cottonwood gullies eroded into the shale bluffs above the
Arkansas River. Unless they warn me by hooting, they startle the
bejesus out of me, since they go past only a few feet away, doing
twenty or thirty mph.
This one just sat in its cottonwood and let me take bad pictures from
various angles. This photo shows how well their camouflage blends in
to cottonwood bark:
http://i7.tinypic.com/6p529s8.jpg
The tree is down in the shadows of a deep gully on a sunny afternoon,
so it's not really as dark as it looks. Another angle:
http://i13.tinypic.com/6y55ap2.jpg
After a few minutes, it flew off. It's easy to see in this snap shot:
http://i4.tinypic.com/8e6gpw7.jpg
But a moment later, it's practically vanished in mid air:
http://i6.tinypic.com/89q437o.jpg
Can't see it? Same picture with helpful red circle:
http://i17.tinypic.com/8f1osxh.jpg
(I ended up taking more pictures from next to the rabbit brush bush on
the upper left.)
By sheer luck, the camera caught it a second later in the sunlight
coming down yet another gully, as it zoomed up to land on the cliff:
http://i10.tinypic.com/6ycyclk.jpg
It glared at me from the shadow under the walking-stick cactus for a
few more pictures before it vanished down the gully without a hoot:
http://i18.tinypic.com/817ow3m.jpg
http://i11.tinypic.com/6jxw3fc.jpg
"When you call me that, smile!" --Bubo virginianus
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Paul Myron Hobson
> On Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:48:12 -0600, carl...@comcast.net wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> A chinook was blowing today, so I was riding in my shorts and keeping
> alert in case one of the ramshackle magpie nests up in the bare
> cottonwoods turned out to be a porcupine.
>
> I used to see several porcupines every year until I bought my camera,
> whereupon they became shy and stealthy.
>
> Anyway, I spotted this great horned porcupine in a side gully:
>
> http://i18.tinypic.com/6sb6t5e.jpg
>
Thanks, Carl. They are simply magnificent and fascinating creatures.
About this time last year, I developed a fancy for owls and made this
out of boredom during my Thanksgiving break away from my first (and
hardest) semester at graduate school:
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg611a/pics/owl.JPG
Not quite as good as seeing the real thing, but my parents' house in
Birmingham can be pretty boring. Here's the puppy you barely see in the
top:
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg611a/pics/puppy.JPG
He protects you from flat tires.
\\paul
carl...@comcast.net
More fine weather today on my ride, so I was watching for hawks
sitting on fence posts or flocks of the magpies that are slowly
returning after West Nile wiped them out.
Instead this flock posed for me, about forty strong:
http://i6.tinypic.com/6tx61ll.jpg
They were spread out so far that I couldn't fit them all in the
picture. That stretch of the Wet Mountains is about 10,000 feet high.
A few stragglers were to the left, below the more picturesque south
end of the range, where the Greenhorn is over 12,000 feet and the snow
is visible:
http://i2.tinypic.com/733dqpw.jpg
Sometimes it's hard to tell which are cactus and which aren't:
http://i10.tinypic.com/6ty1qgn.jpg
The cactus doesn't crawl under barb-wire fences, make odd barking
noises, turn to stare at you, or outrun cars.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
datakoll
dems coyote?
Wildlife? If I get a camera for whale photos, I'll upload a group shot
of prostitutes coming across the superduper parking lot. They crawl
underfences and operate SUV's, for the day.
carl...@comcast.net
> dems coyote?
Dear Gene,
No, coyotes howl and sing, but they rarely make any noise like a bark.
They can't outrun cars and are low enough to slip under barb-wire
fences without crawling. Other subtle distinguishing marks include
long tails, a lack of horns, and a tendency to be seen vanishing
rapidly toward the horizon.
Pronghorns, on the other hand, make an odd barking noise, crawl under
fences instead of leaping them, can outrun cars, cast horn sheaths,
and are known for 'satiable curiosity that rivals the elephant's
child--they stand and stare at you as you approach.
Long ago, the Plains Indians hunted pronghorns by the simple ruse of
lying on the ground, thrashing about, and then letting fly with bow
and arrow at the curious pronghorns, who would walk up to see what was
going on. Nowadays, pronghorns are fewer and warier, but still easy
targets.
This picture shows the horn sheaths still in place on the bone, along
with the huge eye sockets (42 mm at the opening for a 100-lb beast)
that lets them watch for the extinct cheetahs that used to prey on
them:
http://i12.tinypic.com/717newm.jpg
The first prongs on both horn sheaths were gnawed off by rodents after
the funeral. The remnants change from smooth black to split brown in
the sun, which makes old ones hard to notice--they look a lot like
broken-off juniper branches.
Dogs (and possibly coyotes) love to chew on cast sheaths, which are
tough and springy. My dog was quite indignant when I insisted that I
found the skull, so its horn sheaths were mine, not his.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
>[snip]
It was too cold and snowy to ride for fun today, but if I _had_ gone
for a ride, the road would have been obstructed by these two foxes,
who were playing and running around in circles:
http://i6.tinypic.com/6qbly6t.jpg
Foxes are very wary and well-camouflaged, so here's the same picture
trimmed to show them in opposite corners:
http://i19.tinypic.com/7x44e41.jpg
Here two foxes are hiding behind a tree, but only one is visible:
http://i4.tinypic.com/6jyc22g.jpg
Yes, two of them:
http://i11.tinypic.com/6nvm39e.jpg
Their camouflage makes them almost invisible against the ruts in the
snow:
http://i3.tinypic.com/7wuaoh2.jpg
The camouflage works just as well in the other direction:
http://i18.tinypic.com/7x9rz34.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/6siw8cx.jpg
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
A few days ago the same two foxes were down in a gully, watching ducks
on a pond.
This one noticed me first and ran off:
http://i12.tinypic.com/8esfsew.jpg
This one was just below me and puzzled by its companion's flight:
http://i4.tinypic.com/8bpz7td.jpg
Eventually it noticed me and fled:
http://i16.tinypic.com/8dwo2m9.jpg
Today was too cold and snowpacked to bicycle, so I walked my dog out
my daily route. A pair of redtail hawks decided to tease me by
swooping overhead or heading into the wind and hanging motionless, but
then disappearing whenever I got my camera out.
This is as close as I got to a photo of them together:
http://i13.tinypic.com/8207uxl.jpg
http://i10.tinypic.com/8fkjcjm.jpg
And this is as good as I got of just one:
http://i7.tinypic.com/8ei8qa1.jpg
After half an hour I began to suspect that the pair was just hunting
back and forth along the bluffs and amusing themselves by seeing if
they could make me fall over backward as I tried to take their picture
when they zoomed overhead, briefly visible through the trees.
Once the snow melts, I can bicycle again and won't have to watch the
silly things overhead.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
carl...@comcast.net
[snip]
Ah, the joys of bicycling through the countryside and seeing wildlife
in its natural habitat! How I pity RBT posters condemned to see
nothing but buildings and alleys!
This beast trotted across the road as I came around a corner, but it
didn't see me, so I fumbled out my camera and managed a few pictures.
http://i12.tinypic.com/85orjfl.jpg
http://i3.tinypic.com/8e9l0k6.jpg
http://i7.tinypic.com/8245tus.jpg
http://i6.tinypic.com/82ixy5g.jpg
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Ryan Cousineau
carl...@comcast.net wrote:
That is clearly a domestic trashcan (ratis purgamentum), which has sadly
been felled by one of its many natural enemies. Owing to the location
and how the poor creature has been left, this was likely either the work
of vulpes vulpes or carruca domesticus.
It might also have been carruca alienus, an introduced species which has
been remarkably successful throughout the Americas.
Was completely surprised to find that I had trash service today,
--
Ryan Cousineau rcou...@sfu.ca http://www.wiredcola.com/
"My scenarios may give the impression I could be an excellent crook.
Not true - I am a talented lawyer." - Sandy in rec.bicycles.racing
carl...@comcast.net
wrote:
>In article <n6q5n3t0oaidkiuqr...@4ax.com>,
> carl...@comcast.net wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:48:12 -0600, carl...@comcast.net wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> Ah, the joys of bicycling through the countryside and seeing wildlife
>> in its natural habitat! How I pity RBT posters condemned to see
>> nothing but buildings and alleys!
>>
>> This beast trotted across the road as I came around a corner, but it
>> didn't see me, so I fumbled out my camera and managed a few pictures.
>>
>> http://i12.tinypic.com/85orjfl.jpg
>> http://i3.tinypic.com/8e9l0k6.jpg
>> http://i7.tinypic.com/8245tus.jpg
>> http://i6.tinypic.com/82ixy5g.jpg
>
>That is clearly a domestic trashcan (ratis purgamentum), which has sadly
>been felled by one of its many natural enemies. Owing to the location
>and how the poor creature has been left, this was likely either the work
>of vulpes vulpes or carruca domesticus.
>
>It might also have been carruca alienus, an introduced species which has
>been remarkably successful throughout the Americas.
>
>Was completely surprised to find that I had trash service today,
Dear Ryan,
An email just asked me (quite seriously) why I'm taking pictures of
toppled trash cans, citing your post and asking what my point was.
Some trimmed views for those who saw only prone garbage cans:
http://i9.tinypic.com/81gazq9.jpg
http://i6.tinypic.com/6jwzsw6.jpg
http://i4.tinypic.com/73li39i.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/7xm886e.jpg
Sometimes I wonder if everyone knows how to view images full size.
And no, before I get any other puzzled emails, that isn't a squirrel
with a red coat, white ruff, black forelegs, and white-tipped tail.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
Ryan Cousineau
carl...@comcast.net wrote:
My work here is done.
> Some trimmed views for those who saw only prone garbage cans:
> http://i9.tinypic.com/81gazq9.jpg
> http://i6.tinypic.com/6jwzsw6.jpg
> http://i4.tinypic.com/73li39i.jpg
> http://i1.tinypic.com/7xm886e.jpg
You're only making trouble for yourself by leaving the ratis prugamentum
in frame along with the vulpes vulpes.
> Sometimes I wonder if everyone knows how to view images full size.
That was a really small fox! Or perhaps it was just far away.
> And no, before I get any other puzzled emails, that isn't a squirrel
> with a red coat, white ruff, black forelegs, and white-tipped tail.
Of course not. It's a red heeler:
<http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/images7/Australian_Cattle_Dog_Red_Griffy.jpg
>
<http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/australiancattledogphotos.htm>