Belizian bark!

Honestly cannot remember if this was in Belize or Guatemala, but I suspect Guatemala. I LOVE the patterns of lichen on the bark, there. No such thing as simple, in the tropics, including "bark" which, on the surface, is closer to a crazy conglomeration of living things, fighting for space.

Kind of like the "surface" of a boulder in the rocky intertidal (marine) zone--very little rock to be seen, often, especially if it's a place where people are not allowed to climb all over and pry things off. Instead it's covered in species of algae, barnacles, muscles, limpets, and populated with crabs, and other animals skittering to and fro. It's amazing what you'll see if you take the time.

My charming assistant pointing to two goodies we found on Guatemalan bark. Click on it to see what looks like eggs up top vs. the sealed thingy below where, perchance, they were still brewing? 

Guatemala is SO crazy diverse re: species, that even our VERY experienced guide, who grew up in the forest, an amazing naturalist, saw two things that day he said he'd never seen. This is a man who spent months on end, as a child, camping deep in the forest to harvest gum from trees, so he knows his stuff. 

One of the new-to-him things was what looked like a trap-door spider, along the lines of a tarantula; we found it under a rock a herpetologist (part of our gang) had lifted in his perpetual search for herps. The other newbie were these crazy ant-like-things (no pics, darn it) with huge, oddly shaped heads, marching down a tree (bark!).

Leaf-cutter ants (I presume...) marching down yet more, amazing, beautiful "bark." Charming little movers.

So, next time you're out and about, take a close look at the bark near you. Perchance I will take some pics of bark around here, to share and acknowledge the diversity right under our noses.

Thus ends today's bark-tastic tour of Belize and Guatemala.

the biobabbler

illin' so make-up-photo to distract from lack of creative post

            
Turned out I was exhausted ALL day yesterday, and super thirsty, 'cause a cold was brewing. Today is drippy (raining), as am I (on more than one level), so here's a pic to stand in as today's post (and another abstract-ish for my blog visitor):

You can probably guess what this is, but probably not where it's from. Maybe next post I'll show you more of the same for a tiny bit of context.

biobabbler

watching the watcher

    
So, later yesterday afternoon, the bobcat returned. I was walking through my livingroom, glanced out one of the big windows, and saw a bobcat, sitting tidily, as cats do, looking right at me.

Oh. Hello.

So, of course, I went for my camera. By the time I returned, it had moved west, hunting-mode fully engaged:

It was dusk, so the pictures aren't the sharpest, but you can most certainly tell who it is and what he/she is doing. These are in sequence.

And after it attemped (and failed, this is common for predators) to tackle whatever-this-was (gopher, California vole, etc.), it cruised up our driveway to swing around and behind our house (and the coops).

What a beauty.

Then I went outside to supervise it's hunting in case it was irresistibly drawn to the chickens. It allowed me to hang out while it hunted in the grassy fields behind the coops. I used cat language whenever it looked at me by looking back briefly, then looking elsewhere, as if fascinated by my shoes, the coop to my left, the sky. Cat language for "I'm just hanging out here, not a threat, not interested in a confrontation. Just hanging."

Pay no attention to the blonde behind the camera.

No pics from that, as it was getting too dark, and Max (forgot I named him/her) was too far for good shots. And I really didn't want to mess up it's hunting by making noise. That'd be gauche.

So, I just stood silently and watched.

And was thankful for every moment that I got to witness the natural behavior of this wild creature.

xoxo the biobabbler

man--the shots I miss to keep my chickens alive... (plus spring flowers)

                
I just chased off our local bobcat, who was SIX FEET outside my window, IN THE SUN. Holy cow. Whatta photo-op.

I hesitated 2 beats, DYING to pick up my camera vs. scare it off, but it was aiming at our Rhode Island red, Fanny, who was foraging innocently in our garden, another 20 yards (i.e. a few bobcat-bounds) away.

So,  I got up and knocked on the window. It turned 180 degrees and ran away. Here are the best shots I got, OB-viously not as good as I could have, but I'm quite sure the only reason I get to see this animal so regularly is that we have tasty, charming chickens luring it from the periphery.

 (per usual, click to enlarge)

(good reminder to get rid of that blue tarp...)

It also set me to wondering if we are now seeing the bobcat more than we had because the fox is gone. I learned years ago (from Kevin Crooks, http://warnercnr.colostate.edu/~kcrooks/, while he was becoming a Dr.) that in southern California, foxes and coyotes don't seem to share territories. Also, just looked it up on Wikipedia (I know, not a thorough literature search), and the ONE study they cite re: this issue indicates that bobcats are not competitively excluded by red foxes or coyotes. In Maine. Which means, for here, who knows? =)

So, on to other matters, like my documenting Spring in the Sticks via photos, and the promised red maids, and other participants...

Charming Calandrinia ciliata, a.k.a. red maids, making my flagstone step welcome and attractive.

Closer shot of actual flower and happy grass.

Also saw this, which is, I believe, red-stemmed filaree, Erodium cicutarium, a non-native little flower who's seed can stab through just about any footwear. A-MA-zing. AND, the dried, detached seed moves with changes in humidity to corkscrew into the soil. Incredible adaptation.

Next up is this charmer, which I did NOT expect. However, thanks to you and what I'm learning from this spring bloom log, I may learn to expect it this early next year.

Baby blue-eyes, Nemophila menziesii, is native. Be sure and click on the photo to see it's charming companion--v. cool bug with great eyes. Also, to see this flower's interesting anthers--I'd never noticed that before.

Not far from here is a place that gets nearly solid fields of the stuff, so when (and if) it's really going this year, I'll try and get some pics for you.

xoxo the biobabbler

P.S. Am right now surrounded by yellow-rumped warblers and western bluebirds, swooping and hopping all over our grasses.

abstract photographs... Que?

                
In going through my pics, to assemble a few more abstracts to fulfill a blog visitor's request, I'm pondering what an abstract photograph is.

As a minimalist, things that are spare make me happy, and some feel to me that they're abstract, when in fact, they may not be. What I suspect is more truly abstract, is when the focus is the form of the thing, or color, versus the whole of what that thing actually is.

Some of my favorite nature pictures are those where you really cannot tell what you are looking at, initially, and especially if you cannot tell the scale. LOVE that.

Mind you, I've had basically NO liberal arts education, so, off to Merriam-Webster.com for a second opinion:

Main Entry: ¹ab·stract  

Pronunciation: \ab-ˈstrakt, ˈab-ˌ\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Medieval Latin abstractus, from Latin, past participle of abstrahere to drag away, from abs-, ab- +trahere to pull, draw

Date: 14th century

1 a : disassociated from any specific instance  b : difficult to understand : abstruse  c : insufficiently factual : formal 
2 : expressing a quality apart from an object poem is concrete, poetry is abstract>
3 a : dealing with a subject in its abstract aspects : theoretical  b : impersonal, detached Time>
4 : having only intrinsic form with little or no attempt at pictorial representation or narrative content 

What to you comprises an abstract photographic image? What is required to fulfill that definition? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

(meanwhile I'll keep sorting through pics to post)

the biobabbler

Incoming!

Tonight Chance Showers Lo 41 °F

Saturday Slight Chc Showers Hi 54 °F

Saturday Night Chance Showers Lo 41 °F

Sunday Chance Showers Hi 48 °F

Sunday Night Showers Likely Lo 34 °F

Monday Slight Chc Showers Hi 49 °F

Monday Night Slight Chc Showers Lo 34 °F

Tuesday

Forecast..... (yikes!) 

Can't get this to line up properly, so please enjoy the jazzy arrangement.

=) biobabbler

(PS off this weekend to costume party!)

(PPS I got on the list of folks volunteering for the COOLEST sampling adventure. Will tell more later. SO PSYCHED!)

lovely bones

        
I was looking for still-open red maids, as promised. Daylight was fading, so was running around our property for any sunny patches, scanning for open red maids.

This is what I found:

                    the scene

         

                                      profile

                                    dorsal view

Looking at the mammal field guide, the sagittal crest (ridge starting behind the eyes, going to the back of the head) is pretty definitive, along with the other evidence, indicating that this was a gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus).

The gray fox is the first bold wild animal I ever encountered (not counting animals acclimated to people). Once I was walking along a trail at a park I worked at, looked up, and saw it standing on the pavement, staring at me. I stopped. It did not run. It didn't even look nervous. It just looked right at me and stood it's ground. This was a first. A brave, and interesting creature, not to mention very seriously beautiful. So, I though about it a bit, and went back the way I came. I figured I was a visitor in it's home, so it'd be the polite thing to do. 

It's the only canid in North America that can climb trees. They are gorgeous (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_fox), and I've seen them stalking the neighborhoods of a posh neighborhood in San Diego at night. Seen from afar, it looks like a long cat with the biggest, fluffiest tail you've ever seen, held straight out behind. They are a stunning combination of grey and rust, with a black-tipped tail.

Today's find makes me wonder what happened. Since the skull and spine and pelvis, etc. were all there, I expect it died there, although I suppose something could have dragged it's carcass here from elsewhere. I wonder when it happened. When there was snow on the ground?

Anyhow, I went searching for signs of spring, and found evidence of a last winter.

xoxo the biobabbler

first flowers!

      
Just for the record, today I noticed the first blooming wildflowers I've seen on our property this year. I swear I was mid-sentence with the man who was drywalling near our back door, saying "Wow, it really feels like spr-" and I stopped short 'cause I saw blooming flowers!

They've gone to bed for the day, so I'll take a pic tomorrow, but they were, oh, heck, learned them (again) last year... red maids? Yes, Calandrinia ciliata.

Very interesting info on same at http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/calandrinia_ciliata.shtml. Apparently, the plants are edible (in moderation), and the black, oily seeds were very important in the diets of some Native Americans.

Stunning, intense hot pink/red. LOVE those little things. And, they were kind enough to decorate my new flagstone "staircase" which ascends to the new coop--making my work look MUCH more planned out and clever than it was. =)

Apparently, they don't mind a little disturbance, bless them. "I never did mind about the little things..."

the biobabbler

squeaking scarabs!

        
Just rescued this little guy from our window (stuck in the depression between upper and lower window panes) and he/she squeaked in the most adorable way, poor thing, when I was trying to get it out via random soft piece of bark. Here's a picture of it--not the best, but I was reluctant to stress it any further. Who knows how long it'd been there before I noticed it.

SO CUTE!

btw, am NOT an entomologist, so am assuming from it's basic shape, etc., that it is related to scarab beetles, and read via the web that scarabs (at least some) do squeak when handled. As would I....

the biobabbler

p.s. Squeak sounded like the sound people make to sound like an injured rabbit. And the beetle was about as big as my pinky nail, but fatter, so about 1 cm long? Maybe a bit more...those are TINY tiny clover leaves in the pic...

photo quiz for you...from Yosemite Valley

What is this, specifically?

And, what is this feature?

=) biobabbler

(p.s. pictures taken Saturday, as in yesterday...)

Yosemite Valley, here I come!

    
A friend is visiting, he's NEVER been to Yosemite, so we're off to the valley this a.m. He's all psyched, and cleaned his camera last night, so we're ready to go. Oh, and he's a FREAK for waterfalls...

Here's a pic from dental day. Nice to be able to hike around here after a dentist visit.

Look at the frozen spray accumulation on either side of the fall. That's the upper part of Yosemite Falls.

Here's to getting outside today!

xoxobiobabbler

random color gift for you...

  

c/o San Francisco's Ferry Building Farmer's Market

the biobabbler

invaded...

  
by blue birds, yellow-rumped warblers, dark-eyed juncos, scrub jays, plus the local jack rabbit, and 10 deer (4 sitting in cluster, chewing cud, 6 eating grass).

We are surROUNded by Disney (registered trademark??) characters.

Crazy.

And occasionally Moby, the biggest white chicken we have, takes off on a HUGE run to roust the little birds out of the garden. Which works for about 10 seconds.

biobabbler

local commentary on the tastiness of our foliage...

    
... offered up this a.m.

xoxo biobabbler

flashes of summer color, while I wait....

    
The wire that connects my camera to my computer is...
     in the camera case
          which is in the car
               which is miles away
                    and will not be here till 6:30 p.m. or so...

Y'all (and I) have to wait. Meanwhile my camera is RIGHT HERE, filled with images I'm DYING to take a look at (on Mac) and I CANNOT.

arf.

Soon!

In the meantime, here's a few to add color on a gray day. Remember farmer's markets in August (no. hemisphere folks)?

pretty peppers in the port (of San Francisco)

sunny tomatoes beaming

who couldn't love that face??

=) xoxo the biobabbler

ouchie at Ahwahnee...

ooof. there are worse places to suffer a toothache.

Just came from the dentist, have to wait another hour and 10 minutes for the bus out of here, and my tooth is throbbing. Don’t have any pain killer. Ouch.

But, as toothaches go, it could be worse.

1. I could NOT be in the Ahwahnee bar in Yosemite National Park

2. It could be cold,

3. rainy,

4. loud,

5. crowded,

6. and too bright.

As it is

1. I AM in the lovely Ahwahnee bar,

2. It is warm and cozy inside

3. It’s sunny outside

4. It’s quiet in here--there is mild, old school but slightly out of the ordinary rock on the speakers, on low

5. The place is dimly lit

6. and only 4 other tables are filled, and they are all quiet, bless them.

Thank heaven.

Got to wander around the valley a bit, after my appointment, to where I might have seen half dome were it not obscured by clouds, but it was beautiful so I took photos, saw 3 people total, 1 dog and a very friendly cat, and schlepped back to Ahwahnee, to slurp salmon/mustard greens soup.

Not overly hot, slurpable soup is great if you’ve had a bit of a tough day at the dentist. And for once, hidden benefit of dental work, I’m able to resist the bread tray. Not even tempting.

Walking on the path to the Ahwahnee, I was looking at yet another oak tree that’d gone down in the last storm, and wasn’t there more than 20 seconds when the birds re-appeared. Watched a junco scratch at the ground and jump back to see what he’d come up with, and I realized it was just what the chickens do. Paw at the ground with their feet, then jump back and look down for anything interesting. It made me smile, and made me realize that I appreciate ground-dwelling birds more than I used to because of our chickens.

The all powerful chicken just keeps on giving.

Ah…a mild reggae song gently puffs out the fuzzy speakers in the bar. Heaven.

Tooth still throbbing, but really, could be worse. Could  be much worse.

Could be Haiti.

woah! Close encounter of the raptor kind...

You'll have to use your imagination a little on this...

Here's the scene (oh, 5 min ago):

So, the bare-looking tree on the extreme right of the photo is where a red-tail hawk landed. I, of course, immediately head out to charge it. No (externally obvious) response. Though I don't throw anything. Just stared.

Then I think, well, I'll just be practical and put my chicken away (Fanny, who was grazing in the garden attached to the dark coop you can see on the right).

Fine. So, I do.

Then, I'm back in the house just a few moments later see this creature flying VERY NEAR and LOW and think WHAT?!? Is it trying to get to the chickens in the light colored coop on the left? (if you click on the photo, you can see 2 of the hens)

It lands right at the base of the central Pondorosa pine in the above picture, between  the two coops.

A second later it flies up with a small mammal of some sort (terrified, doomed) in it's talons, and heads south to rest in another tree (a snag) on our property (see fuzzy pic below). Dining in peace, further from that nosey biologist who keeps taking pictures or yelling.

Guess I'm wildlife's version of paparazzi.

Anyhow, pretty thrilling to witness. That is a SERIOUSLY BIG BIRD.

Crikey. Pulse still a little elevated from it all.

Cool!

xo biobabbler

baaa-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-GAWK-chomp!

  
Edie, the smaller of our two light Brahma chickens, while excitedly announcing to all the world that she'd just laid an egg, ba-ba-ba-ba-be-GAWK!, mid-GAWK! lept up for a bite of cabbage.


?!


And proceeded to quietly, then, munch. Announcement OVER.


Guess it's hungry work. =)

I caught this micro-drama sitting at my office (desk with non-coincidental view of both coops), and laughed out loud. Typically, the egg announcement goes on and on and on, so yes, she was excited about that egg, but there's no sense in letting a perfectly good cabbage go to waste.


Who knew chickens were so entertaining?


xoxobiobabbler


(picture of Edie, selected to protect her identify...)
(P.S. having new problems with the blog editing software, so it's lookin' a bit spacey today...)