Backyard Bear

I went down to the River's edge near Half Stump...lots of Brush...to see what the Ravens were making a ruckus about on the opposite shore...and found the Kayak Paddles...what to do??...I gathered them up and took them along!...Owl Woods was quiet...and so was Two Top Pine Meadow when I got there...but I thought to sit and watch the sun rise spread light on the Rims, and down to the Meadow...maybe I might hear Hawk....a Young Buck came to the Path...I was holding the Paddles and tried to get the 2ox out...and the Buck was really startled and scared by Paddles waving about...the Deer seldom look startled!...something to think on, I thought, and put the Deer's reaction to the Paddles in a ThoughtHobby...which I have a few!...then I thought to take a self portrait with the Paddles...Two Top for background...and it came out pretty neat!...and just as I finished the pic, I heard Hawk...way on the other side of the Meadow again...I dropped the Paddles to the ground beside Path...someone with a Kayak is welcome to them!...and off I went at a kinda slow trot...fast as I could without losing gear!....and Hawk's call towed me all the way to Beaver Bend again...Sandpiper clip and pic in the early sun on the way..for sometime...Hawk's call was deep in the Forest on the opposite bank...I think Hawk may roost there by Sentinel Beach...and I slowed and was stumped...but then I heard the call up on Rocky Point...oh!...I got a neat call clip there., and nearly a pic..for sometime...and I thought that would be the post up tonight....just a glimpse of Hawk flying...paddled back through Camp 4...and thereabout, got clips and pics of Two Flickers together...very neat...and I thought that would be the post up!..but for sometime...continued on, and as I reached the Grinding Stone near Lower Falls, I heard wood breaking..that sound Bear makes looking for termites...and I got the camera out just in case...and Bear appeared!...and walked out into the Mini Meadow...clip for sometime...Japanese tourists got all excited...I almost got clip of Bear crossing the Road at Creek Bridge...right by the Speed Kills Bears sign...which would have been cool...but I lost sight...I gave my attention to trying to stop the Tourists from crowding around Bear...but didn't need to..the Tour Guide was bellowing loudly something in Japanese, and they all pulled back!...I'm half asleep through all this, by the way...having gone out at five thirty!...I crossed the Road to the Cabin...and thought to go back to the Creek on just the chance Bear would be there...and before going very far...in fact right behind the Neighborhood, I found Bear...clips and pics...and lots of them, as Bear meandered about right behind the Rooms for a good while...and for sometime, is an observation of Bear that has to do with the Paddles and the Deer....but let me get to the clip up!...up aways on the Path, I tried to stay ahead of Bear, and happened on Deer watching Bear...Deer do this when Bear is about...they watch just like tourists!...and this one left off...and then turned around, went back, and watched some more!...anyway, just that I find charming and the stuff of a post!...the rest of the clip is routine Bear in Appletree!...a few tourists from the Rooms gathered and got some good views of Bear...and fortunately, Bear had gone out into the Woods, instead of climbing into a Tour Bus...which at one time in the Bearabout, was like just thirty yards away..oh...I'll do another post and relate this better!...had Breakfast and went to sleep...and to sleep now too in a minute or two, and all the way to worktime tomorrow!...the lure of maybe hearing maybe Owls or Hawks at five thirty in the morning has sorta taken hold!....sunny hot blue....and just a couple mosquito bites!!...oh...Bear number 99...or 66...I have to check...but I think I have clip of this Bear from long time ago...thought it was Fir Bear...46...or 49!

Marmot Road

Pic and clip from up in Tuolumne Tuesday..along Soda Springs Road...I think it was called....Shuttle pulled up after Breakfast, hopped on and over to the Post Office...thought to walk back, but return Shuttle pulled up, and hopped on...it's like that sometime...I just go where the 'wind' takes me....back at the Cabin, the entry door was papered over...masking...the painters were spray painting the neighborhood...I had the 20x along, so started out on a walkabout...at Creek's End discovered Hairy Woodpecker's Nest Hole Tree had been opened up by Bear overnight... like the Chapel Bridge Post!...contents gone of course..hmph...related this to friend at work, and they said, 'tragic'...and it is...it reminds me somehow of the old Greek tragedies....it just broke my heart!...Mama Woodpecker was up in Heron Pine, chattering away..disconsolate I'm sure...and I think it was Bear...no footprints or smashed down grasses...but there are what look like two small claw scratches on the Tree...for awhile suspected Owl...had my Sherlock Holmes hat on...but couldn't figure it out for certain...walked out the Channel..a slow walk, hoping to see Owls...didn't want to think about vandals...Woods all quiet...at Swinging Bridge, made a right out into Two Top Pine Meadow...flower pics along the way...stirred up a couple sunbathers out in the middle...the tall grasses fortunately concealing...back through Camp 4 and to the Cabin...a quiet walk, but pretty and scenic...sunny hot blue with a breeze that wouldn't be quiet long enough to take the flower pics!...Raccoon tonight at Last Chance...didn't see Raccoon my own self...saw tourists outside the windows watching....Coyote howling while uploading clip...a concern, as the Fawns are about...and at the beginning of the walk took clip and pic of pregnant Doe browsing in the Backyard...water in Two Top..at the Slough too..almost dried up...I haven't seen anything like the Mallard and Mergansers I saw last year...just the one Merganser with Meganserlings..and the Two Mallards with Ducklings...and just that one time!..I think one reason for this is the grasses grew up in what was open water last year...and that water was open from the control burn...and it attracted the water fowl...a conjecture!!

Baby Ground Squirrel

Shuttled over to the Post Office...hopped off at Lower Falls on the way back...went out in the Delta and sat awhile...here and there...quiet....had time, so crossed the Road and walked along the Creek...and at the Swath Pole Tree, happened on the White Headed Woodpecker....clip..oh!...the Squirrel clip was by the Post Office..the Babies were pulling down the Grass stems...wanted clip of that...hard to see in one up...rafters at Creek's End...and there are like little patrols of Tourists about...out in the Delta...and too in Owl Woods..which was quiet...'cept for work on the Tiki Temples....holes being drilled in the cement walls for small pipes...that's the noise in the background while Woodpecker's working on the Pole Tree hole!...report of Mama Doe and New Two by Last Chance...Coyote howling last night close outside the Cabin...at work, talkabout about the possibility of Ravens being a kind of new population hereabout...not many reports of Ravens in the old reports....sunny hot blue with animating breeze...this to say, out in the Delta the Tree Leaves rustle in the mysterious Valley wind...

Blog of the Day

http://caulludriga.blogspot.com/

(has Oso pic...)

Killdeer

Got up and out early over to Two Top Pine Meadow...check for Hawks!...but quiet...quiet when I passed Owl Woods too...found a noisy hammering Flicker..pic and clip...for sometime...was sleepy, and the Hiker Bus was departing...thought, I can sleep on the Bus...and did!...a beautiful afternoon up in Tuolumne...lots of pics and clips of Marmots and Picket Pins...this beside the Dirt Road to Soda Springs....for sometime...sat a long while at 1915 Bridge....scenics and another Pin pic...walking back to the Store on the Use Path, I spotted the Killdeer...tough to get pics and clips because of distance...and wind!!...had both digi and 20x set up...new camera pic too!....when I reviewed the clip, I saw the little Bird scoot across in the foreground....put this portion up in slow motion...dont know what kind of Bird it is!...napped again on the Bus coming back..had some nachos at the Cabin, and curled up....went out at twilight, but Owl Woods still quiet...'cept for Hairy Woodpecker at Creek's End...and thereabout Violet Green Swallows...clips for sometime...and Mama Mallard with Ducklings...looks to be same bunch I saw in the Delta....they sailed by below Owl in one of the clips last evening...didn't see them until I reviewed the clip....when I'm filming with two cameras this happens....I capture things I dont know I have...some of the Marmot and Pin clips of today are really neat...not enough time to edit tonight...sunny blue and cool with a slight breeze..and that alpine feel to things up in the Meadows...mosquitoes not so bad....and mostly just the little Popcorn Flowers...the rest yet to blossom...Valley crowded, hot, and still a little smokey...could see the fires from Road on ride back..they looked tamed...no smoke at all in the Meadows...flowers are blossoming at White Wolf...no Bears...maybe just a glimpse of one at Crane Flat...report one I saw first Meadow Bus ride was in auto accident...drive safe.

Webpage of the Day (somewhere in this should be current Tuolumne chit chat...)

http://yosemitenews.info/forum/list.php?1

Peregrine Falcon And Owls

Woke up early...Dawn Chorus outside...it's gotten to be a small chorus...a few Blue Jays, a few Robins...nonetheless, always pleasant to hear...geared up, with the thought to go out to Two Top Pine Meadow, where I haven't been for a few days, and started out with a swing to Creek's End... in Owl Woods though, I found all three Owls almost immediately...and I had both tripods with...set them up, the digi on one, the 20x 0n the other...and it kinda works....Fledgelings were curious!...to start, both were together, but one flew off after just a few seconds of clip...then Mama Owl flew out from right over my head and off to a far Cottonwood...but one Fledgling remained...the pics up...and I have clips too....for sometime...picked up, and did go to Creek's End...then back along the Merced out to Two Top....very pretty when I got there with the morning light...much like the Solstice Morning post up....and way in the distance, out beyond the Broken Cottonwood, and in the Tree Line along the Merced, I saw three Big Wings..and when I heard them call too...exclaimed...in my thoughts as I do!...Hawks!!...I didn't run...but kept the Trees where I last saw them always in view...and went out the Use Path...I still had both tripods set up (one carried in each hand!)...and when I got to the Broken Cottonwood, I set up the 20x for a wide view, on the chance the Hawks would fly out of the Trees, while I tried to sneak up with the new camera...the digi I just left....being just keen to get a still, and to do that needing the quickness of the new camera....the 20x recorded me going ahead, and one Hawk flies out...and I tried to sight with the new camera...but no luck...oh!!!...I forgot...before all this, one of the Hawks had flown right towards me...and I tried to sight it with the 2ox still on the tripod...this is the backpacking pod and very light...but it was an impossible kind of effort..and I had the camera at chest level...and I watched Hawk fly a circle over head around me in the Magnificent Blue Sky...and could see by it's swept wings it was a Falcon...a Peregrine Falcon, my thoughts exclaimed!!....so it was with much anxiety that I was sneaking up!...I had no luck on this effort, the pics with the new camera were just sky and rock, the Hawk I tried to sight flying off all the way to Rocky Point....and the clip shows me walking back...disconsolate...I gathered up the pods, and went ahead, as the Use Trail goes along the Merced, with the hope of maybe a Hawk still in the Trees....and there was...Hawk went Tree to Tree...and I was able to get two pics with the 2ox..one zoomed...blurry..Hawk was far away...but I've never seen Peregrine!....blurry is just fine!!...now way ahead of me, Hawk flew even further, all the way around Beaver Bend....I was hopeful, as I could hear Hawk calling...and I'm wondering if the three Hawks I saw, were all Peregrines, because the sound I was hearing was like Red Shoulder Hawk...I recorded the call a couple times...for sometime...I went around the Bend, and downriver along the Trail aways, the call leading me...last I heard Hawk, Hawk was somewhere across the Road up in Rocky Point....I would have kept pursuing, but was really tired....and hungry...so paddled back along the Rocky Slope to Lower Falls..and to Last Chance for Breakfast, and to the Cabin for sleep!...woke up around one, downloaded the pics and clips...very happy to see it is Peregrine in the pics when I checked the books...and Shuttled over to the Village for lunch...and Shuttled back to the Cabin for more sleep!....but Heavy Metal drove me out again...which was okay...twilight time arrived.... best for critter pics....and I went to Creek's End..and heard Blue Jay scolding...and found Mama Owl where I have often wished to find Owl....perched in the Leaning Cedars...again, I had both tripod set ups....and I filled up both cards...these are eight gig cards!...though some space has saved favorites...nonetheless, I took a lot of pics and clips!...Owl posed and posed...I have views looking out towards the Merced, views from across the Creek at Zeke's Perch...and finally views up Creek right by Lodgepole Point...to get those, I took the boots off, and waded out into the Creek (kept my socks on...helped a little to cushion against the gravel!)...I was quite a sight, standing in the Creek, with both cameras on their respective tripods...and quite a view to the two kayakers that came by!...they were quiet, and I think delighted to see Owl....the clip up is the view I had there....it...it is the most remarkable clip I've taken...clips!..both cameras!...and on a remarkable day, with the morning Owls and the Peregrine!!....Owl flies off because Ravens came by...but didn't go far, and I hung around Creek's End awhile listening to the hoo hoo hoos...and then Owl flew back to the Leaning Cedars!...one last clip in the fading light, and I picked up and went out the Channel towards Ozone Beach...and along the way, found one Fledgling in the Grasses...clips and pics for sometime...picked up, and when I got to the River, found, sadly, the Cedar that I hid behind to see Merganser the first time, and startled Coop (Red Shoulder Hawk) hiding there too, Coop was eyeing Merganser, this Cedar has fallen into the River...more shore erosion...oh...I am really fond of that Tree!...another Aspen across the River has fallen too...so there's like three major Tree falls thereabout from shore edge erosion...made it in time to Last Chance for dinner...a last lookback at the last pink glow on Half Dome...a fine evening!...a fine morning!...sunny blue hot...but cooled off in the evening...some pink smoke over the Cathedrals...portions of the many Owl clips of the last few days I'll post from time to time...report that the bird with the band on it's foot is a Homing Pigeon...owner is hoping the effort to catch it is successful!...actually has two bands, one on each foot...showed a feather at the Visitor Center...found it in the Delta a few days ago...no one sure what Bird its from..but in looking at Owl pics...I think it's Owl's...so Owl hunts in the Delta...I've never seen Owl there...maybe that's next!!...and always hopeful for Pygmy Owl, which I believe I've heard there....Owl hoo hoos twice in the clip...and clicks beak...but just barely discernable...

Webpage about 'scoping'...

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2009/07/yosemite-national-park-returns-square-one-yosemite-valley-plan

Granite

Paddled over to the Visitor Center....pics of the exhibit...and the Grey Owl pic, which is knockdown!...handheld manual exposure...it's a plastic model of course...but very cool!...with Granite on my mind, went over to the Bookstore, thinking to get one book I've been meaning to buy on the Valley's Geology, but there was one there I hadn't seen before, and bought that one...Shuttled to Lower Falls, hopped off, and went out into the Delta and found a shady spot to sit and read the book....review after I've gone through it more thoroughly, but here's the title:The Geomorphic Evolution of the Yosemite Valley and Sierra Nevada Landscapes, Solving the Riddle of the Rocks, by Jeffery P. Schaffer...I bedeviled a friend at work who has degree in Geology with some questions...and..well, let me present those...

How does Granite form?

No one's sure.

Plutons under Volcanoes?

Yes, and under Volcanoes that haven't erupted too, or partially formed.

The Continents are made of Granite?

Yes, and the Ocean floors basalt.

Mountains under the ocean where the tectonic plates are separating, have a serrated look, does that happen to Mountains on the Continents?

Perhaps, one idea has it that the Western Basin and Range Mountains are from plates separating.

Again, how is Granite made?

Under pressure and heat, and conditions that cant be recreated in the laboratory...

No ones made Granite?

No...

(a side spur here about Diamond anvils!)

By Elephant Rock are the Cookie Boulders, they look like chocolate chips, how'd that happen?

Solidified Granite will have molten Granite (magma) intrude into it...

Oh, and Granite will melt, and re solidify...all kinds of possibilities of mixing...??

Yes...

Again, the Continents are all Granite, is that all the Granite there is?

One idea has it that Granite is formed where one Tectonic Plate is being subducted under another, and this under the ocean, where the water plays a part.

Uranium decay is how Granite is dated, do I have it right that the decay 'time' begins when the Granite solidifies?

Yes.

Is molten Granite radioactive too?

Yes. But it cant be dated as the lead atoms are in molten state. When the Granite is rock, the lead atoms can be measured.

(Uranium is in all Granite, and when it decays, it has a 'half life time'...the time it takes for half of the Uranium's mass to turn to lead...my questions next latched on to this!)

Is molten Uranium deep in the earth turning to Lead?

Yes.

Will it all turn to lead?

It has a very very long half life.

Uranium turns to Lead, do other heavy elements decay and become other elements?

Yes, but they have very short half lives, and are made only in laboroities.

How are elements made?

The lighter elements, under great pressure, form the heavier elements.

And here I relented, and released my friend, but went away wondering if how elements are made is the other way around...heavy elements making the lighter ones...maybe through the same decay process that makes uranium into lead.

While working, another friend was in the food line, and I asked, How are elements formed?

And they suggested I search up the new collider in Europe!

Anyway, there are a couple things I want to look up...one is the heavy element decaying into lighter ones...and the bit about the Granite being made where a plate is subducting under another...do that one first...brb....

quote

Surface volcanism (volcanoes at the ocean floor or the Earth's surface) typically appears above the melts which form directly above downgoing plates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

unquote

and now the element idea...

quote

In the latest news, focus has turned to the companion star of GRO J1655-40. Researchers from the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands and the University of California, Berkeley have detected large abundances of heavy elements in this companion star - elements created in such abundances only in supernova explosions. They think that the supernova that created GRO J1655-40 may be responsible for flinging this material into its companion star.

Astronomers Find First Direct Evidence Linking Black Holes and Supernovae

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/features/news/21sep99.html

unquote..

quote

LEAD TURNS TO GOLD?
It would be handy if lead turned to gold, but it doesn't usually go that way, as lead isn't unstable. What usually happens is that a heavy radioactive element turns into another radioactive element which then turns into lead.
THE TIMESCALE
Each different radioactive element has its own characteristic and will turn into another material at a particular rate. The timescale at which this happens is known as "the half life".

http://www.zyra.tv/halflife.htm

unquote

Well...what I'm fishing for here is the matter inside Black Holes...and if it ever comes out again...apparently it can...small ones may 'evaporate'...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole

but what I'm fishing for is if the elements 'evaporate' out of Black Holes!....this from because it seems like the pressure and heat inside a Hole would be the equal of the Supernovas, where it's said the elements form...or at least the heavy ones...bit mystified by this where the light elements come from!...but all elements, or a lot of them anyway, appear to have half lives, and transform like uranium to lead, from what they are to a lighter element lower on the Periodic Table.

So, again, How are elements made?

Look up the Collider...

hmmph...brb...well...here's a link to one of the usual stories about it..

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/sep/07/local/chi-fermilab-explainer_bd07sep07

....curiosly, the same folk that made it, made the world wide web!..hmmphmmph!

sunny hot blue, and the fires made the news...

oh!...here's a good page...and answers a few doubts...and a question of why Granite has big crystals (the magma cools very slowly..over millions of years)

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/po-halos/gentry.html

This post up, and the previous, go together...and I likely wont add any more on Granite!...bit like wading the Merced...snow cold water up to my hips...and barefoot!...but the Valley is entirely made of Granite, from the Walls to the gravel and sand riverbottom I walkabout on...ouchouch...

Noon Owls

Paddled out to Creek's End...with a stop to check on the Owls...fast asleep, except for a momentary looksee at me!....Hairy Woodpecker was calling by Owl Log...up in the Three Cedars in fact...looking for grubs...thought to get some more pics and clips, but rafters had hauled out their rafts...the little beach there is popular...went up the Creek to the Great Turf Log...sat awhile, but too sunny....went up to the Swath...sat awhile, and had my breakfast..late breakfast!...one chocolate croissant...Sandpipers, Grosbeak, Phoebes, Robins, Blue Jays, heard peeps and went up to the Twin Fallen Cedars...tried for some Brown Creeper pics...and a small all yellowish green Bird was taking a bath by the edge of the gravel...clip...hard to tell what Bird...sunny hot blue...some smoke, but not a lot...at work I got to wondering if there is any thing, any major thing!, in history that I hadn't heard reported, and tonight on Nat Geo show about the Grand Canyon, there was report of something called The Great Unconformity, which I indeed had never heard of before!...brb...

quote from wiki:

At Frenchman Mountain in Nevada, there is a gap of about 1.2 billion years where the rock jumps from 500 million years old to 1.7 billion years old. In the Grand Canyon, the clearly visible discontinuity represents a time gap that varies from about 250 million years to 1.2 billion years. The Great Unconformity's missing 1.2 billion years represents about 25% of the earth's history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Unconformity

unquote
and the link wiki links...
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/treiman/greatdesert/workshop/greatunconf/index.html

well...that search led to polonium radio halos, which of course I had never heard of before either!!...but hereabouts there is discussion of such!...

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/arj/v2/n1/radiohalos-in-yosemite-granites

That's a page trying to martial evidence for a near instantaneously created earth...brb


oh..here another like above...
http://store.nwcreation.net/fiofcr.html

maybe youTub has clip...brb...oh..but first a refutation...the opposing view!

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/po-halos/gentry.html

now see if I can find clip...brb...well..here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEMDqTxfkmM

well...it's late...but the little video brings up 'what is the origin of Granite?'....one quick look..brb...well...I get to work RajaRaja into this!!..

quote
Many large Hindu temples in southern India, particularly those built by the 11th century king Rajaraja Chola I, were made of granite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granite
unquote

I'll have to go looksee tomorrow what the Visitor center exhibit has to say about Granite...brb...well...I lookedabout to see if Muir ever considered how granite formed...but he seems to have only concerned with how it was scuplted by the Glaciers..

http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/frameindex.html?http://www.sierraclub.org/JOHN_MUIR_EXHIBIT/writings/studies_in_the_sierra/chapter_2.html

enough...