Owl Pellets

When at Great Basin National Park, I hurried back from the Bristlecone Pine Trail and Alpine Lake Trail (pics for sometime), to try and reach the Lehman Cave afternoon cave tour....just before Three, I started up the Visitor Center steps thereabout, and sighted ranger out front calling for stragglers for the Tour..."am I in time to take the tour?" NO was the answer, and the Ranger abruptly turned about to  begin the tour...somewhat dissappointed,  I went into the Visitor Center, and while looking at the Books, overheard conversations at the Desk...apparently the Cave Tour is very popular, with a kinda make a reservation ahead of time..though I'm not so sure how that works...and as GGNP is kinda out in the middle of nowhere....I mean, the Basin and Range countryside may define 'nowhere'!....it is vast....and someone, like myself, that finds a place like the Carizzo Plain charming, is just overwhelmed!....but being in the middle of nowhere, when people arrive, they are not quite sure how to get about...a headsup: make a reservation for the Cave Tour...and for Campgrounds too--didn't seem to be too many with facilities...oh....it is a difficult place to visit!....but no crowds, 'cept for the  Cave Tour, I think...anyway, I continued looking at the Books...Book looking is a kinda conjuring effort for me....and I lighted on: The Great Basin, People and Place in Ancient Times....Book is a history of the ancient people and ancient Fauna and Flora of the Basin and Range....part of the Blog effort has been to get a sense of the present day Fauna and Flora in the Valley, and how it compares with previous times......I have a post in the works called '24 Species'...one of the old accounts lists 24 Park Species of Birds that can be said to be the Valley Resident Species....manymany Species just pass through, or are seasonal visitors, but I want to scope out how many of these 24  I've recorded in the Blog...anywayanyway, what I'm working on is a Now and Then, or Then and Now!....Anderson Cooper just did one in Somalia coverage....he was in Mogadishu 19 years ago, and made much the same comments he's making in the recent broadcasts....while watching the tv, a comment I made in a thread on the net, or what passed for the net, about twenty years ago (1988 about)  was, 'The Planet is Drying Out!'. came to mind....what ever ones view of the global warming notion is, there is one irrefutable fact, things are getting dryer...which doesn't make much sense, considering how big the Oceans are, but my thought is that for Rain to be made, the Sun needs to heat the Ocean...the Sun is getting cooler....or is sometimes blocked by dust or something...anyway anyway...consider:

Owl Pellets

quote

These pellets accumulate beneath the roost and over time and generations of owls build up into a deposits that contain millions of bones and other faunal remains. Holmstead Cave, a small shelter near Great Salt Lake, holds an 11,000-year record of faunal changes in the form of accumulated owl pellets.
p21

end quote

no pics today...sunny hot blue smokey..

there are observations in the Book that apply to the Sierra..in fact, the Sierra is very much part of the Basin and Range...and I'll grab a few now and then for sometime here....


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