Rainy Day Robin

Paddled over to the Post Office...picked up tax forms....on the way through Bobcat Meadow, sighted a half dozen or so Robins perched in the Apple Tree...clip....(still haven't quite figured out how to upload clips with the new laptop!)....had raincoat and hat on, but levis getting wet, so Shuttled back....cold too...and the walk was the only out and about...puttered about in the Cabin...put up the Cuckoo clock...which doesn't seem to be keeping very good time...but looks and sounds cool...and assembled a kinda oriental looking floor lamp, which would probably look better if I could figure out where to set it!...rainy cloudy cool...report a few days ago of how an organic farm rehabs honey bees......oh...Backyard was full of Juncos looking for grubs...went back inside to get the digi...but they'd all flown off in the short time returning!...Little Birds come to ground on Rainy Days...so will try again tomorrow...

Redwing Blackbird

After Breakfast...curled up and took a nap...after the nap, paddled out to Bobcat Meadow and around to the Post Office...on the way back, sighted what I thought was Bobcat on the Boardwalk on the way to the Artist's Grove...trotted out into the Hummocks...set the snack, danish, crangrape, hershys, down, and the mini digi on the tripod too...and thought Bobcat might be in the Azaleas....Does were there!...bit disappointed, went back and retrieved the snack and tripod...but when I got to the Boardwalk, sighted Coyote over by the Woodpecker Tree...tried to sight the minidigi, but Coyote trotted over to the Road...tourists about got a good looksee...Redwing Blackbird was in the Azaleas, and paused for pic before following Coyote... following Coyote, I ended up by the Merced across from Housekeeping...did get a couple more Coyote pics...came up on Coyote across the Road really close, but camera not ready...sat awhile and ate the snack...Mallards about..blurry flight pic...picked up, and went back to where I was before the Coyote diversion, by the Azaleas beside the Boardwalk...and the Redwings were still about...pic and clip up.....Robins too....nice to hear the Birds calling over the Meadow...sat awhile at the Deer House...Does were over along the Road...sunny hot blue early on, but in the evening clouds and cool...snowstorm in the forecast for Wednesday...friend got pics of Mama Bear and Cub near the Cabin...film camera, so delay to see pics!

Daffodil And Robin

Paddled out to Bobcat Meadow....first Daffodil bloom at the Deer House...pic...Robin at Chapel Bridge...pic...and almost a neat clip, but too slow...Robin was singing, and another Robin swooped in...thought Hawk!...and together they flew off and overabout the Merced....Flicker call at Flicker Grove, but couldn't locate...orange fence is gone...was sitting at the Cottonwoods (Ants found my pants leg again!), and thought to walk along the shore to Sentinel Bridge, and not by the Appletree to the Path, which I usually did before the fence...but when I swiveled about, no fence!...so paddled direct to Flicker Grove...curious I didn't notice it gone right away...sunny warm blue...Phoebe was at the Fallen Cedar at lunch...two Phoebes in fact...and a Little Bird in the Willow thereabout...tried for pics....no luck, and moved on to the Hummock, and then to the Young Lodgpole...Chickadees and Bluebirds thereabout, but time.....

Phoebe Flight

Slept in, and only time for short walk and sit awhile back by the Creek...quiet...two Flickers calling....sunny blue warm....at Lunch, sat by the Fallen Cedar...Phoebe was there, but flew across the Merced...flycatching thereabout...some of the flies are really tiny, moving just above the water...Song Sparrow came by...pics...but obscured by branches....then Phoebe came back...I'd been hoping for a chance at flight pics of Phoebe's fluttering forays...much fun...would have liked to have stayed longer, but time...

Black Phoebe

Paddled out to Bobcat Meadow...oh...tried for Flicker pic before Breakfast in the Backyard...farfaraway high in a Ponderosa...Flickers are making their courting calls....crossed Chapel Bridge and sat awhile at Cottonwood Beach....Hummocks are being submerged....quiet...moved downstream about midway where there's a Giant Log, and sat awhile there...quiet too...but Whiteheaded Woodpecker pair showed in a nearby Cottonwood...Mallard pair foraging along the opposite bank...Ouzel flew by downstream, then upstream....picked up and returned...Mixed Flock of Little Birds behind the Cabin...tried for pics...but no luck...still time, and snoozed until work time...sunny blue warm....SnowIce on the Falls Wall in the morning....just a bit of Winter left....at Lunch, Does by the River...pic...and Black Phoebe came by where I was sitting at the Fallen Cedar...pic...on return, small flock of Juncos on the Path...pics...faraways!...Juncos are shy...one Robin with them...oh...lots of Robins at the Deer House lawn...Happy Birth Day Robert Frost....well, I got lucky and found one:

quote

‘The Need of Being Versed in Country Things’

The house had gone to bring again
To the midnight sky a sunset glow.
Now the chimney was all of the house that stood,
Like a pistil after the petals go.
The barn opposed across the way,
That would have joined the house in flame
Had it been the will of the wind, was left
To bear forsaken the place’s name.
No more it opened with all one end
For teams that came by the stony road
To drum on the floor with scurrying hoofs
And brush the mow with the summer load.
The birds that came to it through the air
At broken windows flew out and in,
Their murmur more like the sigh we sigh
From too much dwelling on what has been.
Yet for them the lilac renewed its leaf,
And the aged elm, though touched with fire;
And the dry pump flung up an awkward arm;
And the fence post carried a strand of wire.
For them there was really nothing sad.
But though they rejoiced in the nest they kept,
One had to be versed in country things
Not to believe the phoebes wept.

–Robert Frost

which was snagged from here:

http://10000birds.com/phoebes.htm

Phoebe was at the Air Test Shack the other day...the little Mud Nest under the eves still there.

no pics today

Inspection loomed, so cleaned house, did laundry, and snoozed until knockknock.....inspector reached up and pressed the smoke alarm test button...beeeeep...and that was that, and I went back to sleep until worktime....on the way to work, Blue Jays beginning the Impossible Nest under the Bus Port...tried for pic, but no time...kinda cloudy... later at lunch very cloudy, with a breeze, cool...and quiet...sat the short while by the Fallen Cedar....Merced rising a bit each day...too cloudy tonight it looks for Moonbow....

Morning Walk

Out and about early, like seven!, but was out and about...paddled back to Creek's End...pic...and around through the Woods....Redwings, Blue Jays, Robins, calling...Robins were singing the other morning...think they do that at very first light....thought I heard a hoo and a hoo, but just hopeful imagining I suspect...back up around onto the Path, I did hear one soft scree scree scree scree, from Hawk...looked all about, but no luck....put the gear up, and had Breakfast, and then a snooze until work...oh...took pic of Falls being wind tossed...cool in the morning...think it was sunny blue when I walked to work...cant recall for sure...clouds later on the lunch walk out to the Lodepole...couple Blue Birds about, and Redwings, Song Sparrow, and Black Phoebe...chased after Blue Jays scolding call....but no sighting....Blue Jays are calling to one another a lot, and it sounds like the scold call, so I'm chasing about and being disappointed!...hooey..the new laptop highlights words misspelled, but doesn't offer corrections to choose from...then when I spell it right, it's still highlighted...hmph...Hummocks make good perches...

Link of the Day (about the Bees declining...on the trip to town we passed the White Bee Boxes set beside the road, and slowed down, sos not to windshield bees...I dont know if anyone has ever done a Grinnell like transit of insects in the park....I've thought myself to put out coffee cans, and maybe acquire a butterfly net, and enlist my childhood backyard trapping skills....a big black carpenter bee did do circles around me at lunch...in truth, any study of decline in species, needs to begin with the smallest things, like insects on land, like phytoplankton in the ocean...I'll have to start having a looksee at the tour bus big windshields when they arrive, and before the drivers wash them off! )...the link:

quote

This year bees seem to be in bigger trouble than normal after a bad winter, according to an informal survey of commercial bee brokers cited in an internal USDA document. One-third of those surveyed had trouble finding enough hives to pollinate California's blossoming nut trees, which grow the bulk of the world's almonds. A more formal survey will be done in April.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100324/ap_on_sc/us_food_and_farm_disappearing_bees

unquote

Bluebird

Paddled over to the Post Office, with a roundabout Bobcat Meadow....Song Bird clip....Shuttled back...hopped off at Camp 4 stop... along the Path to the Cabin, heard Pileated Pair back in the Woods, here and there, but couldn't locate...just a short glimpse in the Backyard...and to the Cabin for a snooze!....out in the late afternoon to Ozone Beach...Mixed Flock about a Small Lodgepole Pine....Chickadees, Yellow Rump Warblers, Blue Birds, Kinglets, Nuthatch, Robin....tried for pics and clips, but wind kicking up, tourists crunchcrunching on the gravel shore, or my just being clumsy, I wasn't having much luck!....Ouzel singing had brought me to where I was upstream from the Beach, but Ouzel had left too!....one Downy Woodpecker was across the Merced all the while, and before picking up, I sighted the minidigi...and Downy popped in its home!....I had the big scope with too, and set it up, and got a closer clip of Downy....and Ouzel came back...clips with both scopes!....Ouzel quieted down, and I picked up, a bit tired, and back to the Cabin...sunny bluebirdblue warm...some evening puff clouds....report of Big Wings yesterday overhead hereabout...I suspect Buzz Birds....oh...and Mallard pair over Bobcat Meadow...another in the River, but didnt cross the orange fence for pic..hmph...and in the evening Mallard going upstream, and later, downstream....I usually hear Mallard before Mallard reaches me, and next time..times...I might have the camera ready!!

Tiny Movie

Well, rested up in the Cabin all day...watched Baseball on mlb.com that I subscribed to....and main reason for the new laptop purchase!...then snoozed some more....earlier, paddled over to Last Chance for Breakfast...cheerios, danish, orange juice...at 4pm!...sunny blueblue hot...and later tuna, mango tea, cheetos, and chocolate cake...checked to see if the old movie editor has a crop feature...it doesn't...which consigns it to the out of date box, with a great many other things!...and the new editor has a lot of beeps and whistles....clip up is blurry at tiny movie upload mode...but it was made from porthole pic and clip....and it has promise!!...one of the problems with the didgi scope, is that I can often get all of the critter in a porthole, but was stuck in editing with the porthole vignette...now I can crop....and the little pan on the pic is cool too!...tomorrow out and about...

Link of the Day (reviewed post of March, 2008, and wondered when, or if!, I'll sight Band Tail Pigeon--Grinnell's ponder awhile back)

http://www.jstor.org/pss/1361868

no pics today

bit of a cold...no walk, but got through work okay, sat awhile at the Lunch Sit Log...Ravens, Robins, Acorn, and HairyOrDowny Woodpecker, Junco call....hazy overcast warm, cool on walk to Cabin after work....but maybe that's the cold!...report of Harrier Hawk, Killdeer, and Meadowlark--this in Mariposa about...off tomorrow, and looking forward to just an off day!

Robin and Hairy Woodpecker

Well, I tired to upload clip made with the new laptop's movie editor....dont know quite what's wrong...and too tired to work more on it!....clip is of Robin and Hairy Woodpecker out in Bobcat Meadow...Robin by the Merced...Woodpecker in Flicker Grove...sat awhile at Lodgepole Point...Ouzel and Black Phoebe....sunny hazy and warmwarm...had hoped for blueblue on first day of Spring!...walked back to the Creek at the Swath, and sat a bit at lunch..quiet...oh!..read about Mandrill Hordes while sitting by the River...Chickaree was somewhere overhead dropping bits of Pine Cone...

well..tried again with different format...and okay...Robin clips are crops, first bit from a porthole clip...I dont know if the old movie editor can crop...will have to check tomorrow!...that's a useful feature, as I have a lot of portholes....took awhile to upload...Swallows or Swifts overhead too out in the Meadow...SweptWings!

Link of the Day (youTub clip from BBC about Mandrills)

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

Furious Flight

Tow truck came in the morning to get the Bus, so had to hang around the Cabin and wait, and not much time for a walk...paddled out to Bobcat Meadow and sat awhile by the Merced between the Bridges....quiet....Three DownyOrHairy Woodpeckers at Flicker Grove, chasing and calling..thought at first they were Flicker...same kinda call, but not as loud....sunny warm blue with a few hazy clouds....at Lunch, went to Ozone Beach, hoping to find a quiet window from tourists about, but they were about...but sighted Merganser, male, floating along, and followed, trying to get pics almost all the way to Swinging Bridge...nearing there, Merganser picked up and flew under the Bridge...pics are dim...and motion blurred...but the flight pic is a treasure...Merganser furiously flying is one of my favorite sights, and for the longest time, I didn't know what bird it was flying by at such a clip!!....sometime hope for an in focus bright pic...Male Merganser is veryvery hard to photograph because of the high contrast white and black feathers!!!....sad to see the Bus go...very cool to see Merganser...reports at break of Moose collisions with cars in new Hampshire near the border with Canada..and more talk of Bear and Deer collisions...and it dawned on me that the Two Deer at Lower Falls last Winter were likely killed from collisions...

some grims statistics:

quote

Car Crash Stats: There were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States in 2005. The financial cost of these crashes is more than 230 Billion dollars. 2.9 million people were injured and 42,636 people killed. About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States -- one death every 13 minutes.

In 2003 there were 6,328,000 car accidents in the US. There were 2.9 million injuries and 42,643 people were killed in auto accidents.

In 2002, there were an estimated 6,316,000 car accidents in the USA. There were about 2.9 million injuries and 42,815 people were killed in auto accidents in 2002.

There were an estimated 6,356,000 car accidents in the US in 2000. There were about 3.2 million injuries and 41,821 people were killed in auto accidents in 2000 based on data collected by the Federal Highway Administration.

http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/stats.html

unquote

and

quote

In an insurance claims statistics study conducted in 2004-2005 the top ten states for deer accidents were listed. According to this study, Pennsylvania drivers experience more deer collisions than any other state. The number of accidents increases with the deer migrating and mating season which occurs between the months of October and December.

Worst states for deer collisions based on total number of claims filed with one of the countries largest auto insurers:

1) Pennsylvania
2) Michigan
3) Illinois
4) Ohio
5) Georgia
6) Minnesota
7) Virginia
8) Indiana
9) Texas
10) Wisconsin

Tips to avoid deer accidents:

1) Be attentive when driving! And Slow Down!
2) Use high-beam headlights when driving in deer territory to increase your vision and will increase your time to react to a deer hiding on the roadside who decides to jump in front of your car.
3) The use of car-mounted 'deer whistles,' do not seem to affect deer and may result in drivers being less aware. These devices don't work! Watch out!
4) If a collision with a deer is unavoidable, it is usually best not to swerve to avoid it, brake and hold the wheel straight. Turning the wheel to avoid the deer may result in a worse accident with another car, or cause the car to spin out of control resulting a in much more serious crash.

http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/deer-accident-statistics.html

unquote

and

quote

The late Will Rogers after a visit to Yosemite remarked, “They warn you not to feed the bears, but they have a hospital for those that do.”

Bears of Yosemite (1943) by M. E. Beatty

THE PRESENT BEAR POLICY AND ITS PROBLEMS

http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/bears/bear_policy.html

unquote

that's a 1943 report and advisory...and has link to current Bear policy...

which reminds me to look up the current status of Bear Bags...on overnights, I always use a Bear Can, which really work...brb..

quote

January 13, 2010

It appears that Ursack will be allowed almost everywhere in the Sierra this year except Yosemite National Park and three areas (Rae Lakes, Dusy Basin, Rock Creek) of SEKI. We calculate that Ursack may be used on more than 98% of the Pacific Crest Trail. SIBBG, the Sierra Agency Black Bear Group, no longer exists. There are no standardized bear canister tests--each Superintendent of Forest Service Manager makes the decision for his or her own area. While Ursack will likely submit the S29 AllWhite Hybrid for consideration by Yosemite and SEKI, there can be no assurance of approval given those parks lack of testing criteria and/or their historical antipathy toward Ursack.

http://www.ursack.com/ursack-update.htm

unquote

technology married to an intelligent species will co-evolve

Song Sparrow

Forgot to change time on one of the clocks...thought I had an hour and a half for a walk...but really just twenty minutes!....did get a clip of Mallard Pair at the Lilypad Pond....sunny hazy blue and warmwarm....Falls are going strong...at lunch, sat awhile at the Fallen Cedar by Ozone Beach...pics of Song Sparrow and Black Phoebe...light dim, so pics blurry...I'd like to sit at the River for lunch, but tourists keep coming by, last evening and this evening too...diverted both times into the Woods and around to work...Does and Two Fawns were by the Lunch Sit Log this evening...pics....last evening Song Sparrow in same spot, and let loose with one riff...have in mind a post called 'riffs'....

quote

Convergent evolution describes the acquisition of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages.

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

unquote

a 'trait' might be what I'm thinking of when I think of 'riff'....

more on this for sometime!!

Link of the Day...this continues yesterday's post....about an island in Lake Michigan that has a unique population of Wolves and Moose....

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

and here I found the term I searched for in last night's post...

quote

When two interacting species, for example predator and prey, evolve together, they can influence the evolution of the other. This is referred to as coevolution.

http://animals.about.com/od/zoologybasics/a/populationinct.htm

unquote

Moth

It might be an 'Underwing Moth"...but not sure...I have a Butterfly book, but no Moth Book...paddled over to the Village to look for bolts for bracket repair, but no luck (friend later at work had one that fit!)....but spotted the little Moths....and pic...and that was it for pics today!...another quiet day...wandered about the Artists Grove after Flicker call....but that was about the only pursuit...sunny hazy blue warm...

Link of the Day

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

One of my thoughtHobbies is about how technology can take on a life of its own...the monster move theme of flics like Terminator, and a very old flic, called Gog and Magog...the usual idea is a giant computer begins using robots and hardware devices to menace...if I remember right, Hal shut the airlock door stranding Dave out in space in 2001....all this is sometimes referred to as AI, Artificial Intelligence--DATA on Star Trek comes to mind...and R2D2 and C3Po....but that's machine using machine....there's people using machines...and I'd been thinking last night of machines using people....which is a bit like pets mastering their masters.....which they do!...dogs know how to play up to our feelings....cats purr...and so forth....dont know if this can be followed!...but I sometimes think that cars can sidle up with their looks....anyway...I googled up a search..'.machine man symbiosis'...and found the curio called 'IA'

quote

Intelligence amplification (IA) (also referred to as cognitive augmentation andmachine augmented intelligence) refers to the effective use of information technology in augmenting human intelligence. The idea was first proposed in the 1950s and 1960s by cybernetics and early computer pioneers.

IA is sometimes contrasted with AI (Artificial Intelligence), that is, the project of building a human-like intelligence in the form of an autonomous technological system such as a computer or robot. AI has encountered many fundamental obstacles, practical as well as theoretical, which for IA seem moot, as it needs technology merely as an extra support for an autonomous intelligence that has already proven to function. Moreover, IA has a long history of success, since all forms of information technology, from the abacus via writing to the Internet, have been developed basically to extend the information processing capabilities of the human mind (see extended mind and distributed cognition).

unquote

the 'autonomous intelligence' is us--people....there are a lot of symbiotic relationships in Nature...as Muir put it, one finds one thing hitched to another thing....here's a bit called:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotka–Volterra_equation

which goes into how predator and prey populations change...lots of Squirrels increase Coyotes food supply, and so more Coyotes, but too many Coyotes means fewer Squirrels, and then fewer Coyotes, and then more Squirrels, and so on...

dont know but that's just the sorta thing the auto industry goes through....

but what I'm trying to wrap my thoughts around is how Squirrels being chased by Coyotes got to look like and behave like Squirrels, and visa versa for Coyotes...it's a symbiosis of some sort--and I suspect, in principle, the same thing happens with people and technology....hmmph...dont know but that judgement may be out still on whether people have been 'proven to function'!

Leaning Falls

Went about Village errands, then out to Bobcat Meadow...at Chapel Bridge, found a Hummock to sit on at Cottonwood Beach....two Mallards flying about, and Black Phoebe...had lunch thereabout...tuna, orange juice, chips...oh!...just before, Does and Fawns crossed over the Merced from the Deer House...and then began grazing right behind me...swiveled about and took some minidigi closeup clips....broke the new bracket, and back to rubber bands....hmmph...picked up, and paddled out to Swinging Bridge through Chapel Meadow...Bluebirds at the Cottonwoods, but no pics...too quick and too far away..crossed the Bridge and sat a short while at the Broken Cottonwood...YIs on patrol came walking by one by one, and I diverted across the Meadow and found the Burnt Log to perch on...pic thereabout....and quiet, though I think I heard Pileated Woodpecker in the Burnt Forest....picked up and headed back the way I came, and around on the Path and then along the River to Owl Woods...and quietquiet....there was a bit of a breeze, maybe that's why...at the Cabin, happened on friend just off work, with car, and suggested a ride up to Crane Flat...but had to settle for a short rideabout to Bridal Veil...which was fine...but quiet!!!.... Bridal Veil is the most difficult Falls to photograph...and paint or draw!....and pic up is frustrated resort to humor!!.....sunny hazy blue and warm in the high seventies....Raccoons and Mountain Lion from yesterday....

Link of the Day: (new Peregrine Flacon nest with web cams)

http://www.youtube.com/SanJosePFA

Nuthatch On Ponderosa Bark

On the way to Last Chance to catch a ride to town with friend, I heard Nuthatches in the Courtyard...sighted one, and pics....on the ride saw a Raptor Nest with two Big Wings' heads poking up just before Cathys Valley on the right....driver friend couldn't stop, and I couldn't locate on the way back...saw one Hawk perched by Farm House...couldn't stop there either...did stop on the edge of town to pick up yet another road killed Barn Owl and move it to a Field...hmmph....and after shopping, we visited Applegate Zoo...pics and clips for sometime...sunny hazy sky cool hereabout in the seventies thereabout....the nest would be a great photo...the Road was going over a knoll right by it, and was at Tree Top level....visited the junkyard to arrange services for the Bus, and thereabout was a doublebackwheels pickup for sale...cheap...I feel a bit restrained like Mr. Toad without his motorcar!....the junkyard had bird feeders out...pics of Little Birds for sometime....Poppies are showing color past Savages, but only just....Hills all green and bucolic with resting and grazing Cows...lots of Ravens and Buzzbirds soaring...maybe saw one or two Hawks soaring....one Blue Heron, one White Crane by irrigation ditches, Wooducks in farm pond...but couldnt stop!

Quiet Day

Pic is from the day before yesterday...along the Path in the Backyard...took a bit to upload on the new laptop....had to resort to reading directions!....anyway, lost an hour to daylight savings time, and so a short walk....out and around Bobcat Meadow with a sitawhile at the Elm...of note: Robin was padding about on the ground, and an Acorn Woodpecker dived down on Robin, and Robin flew off...almost a flight pic...wanted to keep trying for one, but time...sunny blueblue warm...and no pics at lunch either...walked back to Creek's End...looked to be Bear tracks in Snow thereabout, but track so melted, hard to tell....Ouzel singing.....my hiking friend emailed following newsbit--

Link of the Day: Dillie

http://www.dilliethedeer.net/

Red-breasted Nuthatch

After Breakfast, Shuttled back and forth to check mail, then paddled out to Two Top Pine Meadow.....thought to go to the Broken Cottonwood, but Coyote tracks were going over Swinging Bridge, so diverted thataway...made the Outside Loop....lost track at Swinging Bridge...couldn't have been far behind Coyote...quiet until I got to Lower Falls and the Little Birds about...a mixed flock...pics of Nuthatch....sunnyblueblue with puff clouds...Half Dome covered in white all the way to the Valley...warm....last night's snow fall all gone by evening...lunch sit quiet too...Robins and Acorn Woodpeckers....Ground Squirrel out and about two days ago by Last Chance...pics...forgot report..tourists all had their cameras out, and cued me on the way to work!

Link for Moonbow fans...

http://uweb.txstate.edu/~do01/

Hairy Woodpecker And Robin

Paddled out to Two Top Pine Meadow...quiet all the way across (passed under Two Top--pic), and around to Rocky Slope....by Camp 4, heard and sighted Hairy Woodpecker Pair...clips and far away pics....bit further along sighted Robin....thought to just walk by Robin, but Robin was staying put, unlike yesterday!, so took a clip....overcast grey, and a wind announcing the rainy afternoon and evening to come...snowrain falling when I got off work...cool...lots of Gopher mounds and tunnel roofs in the Meadow....

Robin Catches A Worm

Paddled out to Bobcat Meadow...Robins were at the Deer House Lawn again...with Blue Jays, White Headed Woodpecker, and Little Birds....set up the mini digi next to the Ground and tried for clips...but Robins run and stop, and run and stop....I wasn't having much luck, until something frightened them all...maybe Hawk...and it was like Captain May I....see beginning of clip...after awhile, all the Robins went back to business of catching Worms and such...my first post up to Fauna Flora has clip of Robin catching a Worm, so there's some nostalgia!..made a quiet loop of the Meadow, and return..sunny blue warm...at Lunch found a group of Does and Fawns in the Woods...pics...in the morning found them by the Path in the Backyard...saw a pair of Mallards fly over the Meadow...think they'd been at the Lilypads....quackquacking

Deer House Coyote

Shuttled over to to the Village for a haircut...Shuttled back to Last Chance for breakfast....and then paddled out to Bobcat Meadow...at the Lilypad Pond, sighted Coyote coming out of Flicker Grove...pics...and tried to sight the mini digi....Coyote had just sat down in the sunshine....but two tourists came along the Path from the Grove, and Coyote walked off towards the Deer House....tried to follow....Coyote went behind the House out of sight, and when I got to the Creek, could see tracks going across the New Fallen Oak...a narrow bridge!...and too narrow for me...returned to the Meadow and looped around...quiet...thought I think I saw a Finch...bit of red on top....sunny blue with puff clouds...it snowed again last night like the night before...and...I was too sleepy for an early walk....so feel remiss....by eleven the snow was gone...cool though because of a breeze....barber shared critter tales...friend was in the chair yesterday, and mentioned my effort....tale of Robins raising their chicks in a window box on an upper Dorm sill....Bears sending their Cubs up the Apple Trees in Siberia to toss down Apples...this at night...this in the eighties!...a fine haircut, though my ears were a bit chilled in the breeze during the walk!

Morning Snow

Well, I acquired a new laptop, and have been busy with it all afternoon, but in the morning paddled about....made the Bigger Loop counterclockwise....this route takes one aroundabout all the Meadows...Two Top Pine, Chapel, and Bobcat (Liedig Liedig and Cook's--the middle one between is sometimes called Liedig, or Sentinel, or Chapel!, and I dont know if it is Cooks or Cook's...hmmph...the Cabin is sometimes called Cook's cabin)...anyway, it was quietquetquiet all the way around, except for Redwings at the start, and Acorns at the Oak Grove, and Ravens everywhere....sunny bluebirdblue and cold....it snowed like for a half hour around seven thirty last night...covered everything in white.... a frosty early morning...by noon all gone...and more clouds came in in the afternoon....two day old report of the Merganser pair at Chapel Bridge....forgot to post....the new lap top's browser wraps text different than the old lap top....things just happen that I have no control over!!..in web class we were taught to try a page in different browsers...sigh...videos are working okay again...what one sees on the page may not be arrayed the way I see it!!...tonight, I began the text at the very top, and it will wrap...usually I begin at the very bottom, below the last clip or pic...oh!!....all the way around the walk...I mean exactly where I went...from the Cabin to the Inner Creek Footbridge...there was one Coyote Track...on Swinging Bridge, Coyote went halfway, and returned...see pic...and from the other side, some one's bootprints went halfway and returned to the other side...curious!!...dont know how Coyote crossed the River, but track started up again on the other side...maybe a second Coyote....saw Raccoon track, and a tiny track I couldn't id, too...

Link of th Day...I was looking for the Bird that makes a sound by vibrating its wings...clip was up on msn the other night...will find it...meanwhile...this page links to links to links..:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/celebration/resources-for-celebrating/bird-blogs

and the Bird, Machaeropterus deliciosus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMetl4ekRIQ

Meadow Coyote

Paddled out to Rocky Slope and around across the Road to Two Top Pine Meadow...half way across towards the Merced on the Use Path sighted Coyote...which I thought fortunate, as I was just being disconsolate thinking a whole afternoon was lost to quietness in drizzly rain...and was quite happy to follow Coyote about for the better part of an hour with the mini digiscope!...lots of clips...mostly Coyote padding about...in one Coyote walks right up to the Broken Cottonwood....and for awhile I was very close while Coyote was searching among the Fallen Branches thereabout...even had the big scope with and took a few clips with it too!...first time to take both scopes along, but I'm finding the mini works very well with the new bracket...and I can pan with it...well sorta...can't pan very well at all with the big scope...I followed Coyote pretty much from one end of the Meadow to the other, and then back...last sight Coyote was nearing Beaver Bend...and my fingers were nearing frozen....circulation came painfully back on the return to the Cabin!....cloudy drizzly even some hail and cool...and the walk was enough for one day, and I skipped a dusk walkabout!....Coyote caught two 'snacks'...messed up the first clip of catch when I was switching scopes, but the second, with the mini, well, I dont know how Coyote does it....terrific hearing I imagine!!...poor Gopher........