Coyote Dusk

hd youTube clip
http://youtu.be/f8wzPU5SLSc

Last week, Saturday?, at work, at Lunch, I thought, 'why not go out to Two Top Pine?, maybe Bobcat?'....this because of last week's Bobcat sighting thereabout....now, in the maybe twentyfive minutes I have (five minutes to get gear from locker, and coffee on way out!), I might, I thought, have just have enough time for an out and back...I got to Two Top in Time, and even stretched a little, and got to the Burnt Log, from whereabout I can see all the way to Beaver Bend, and most all the Meadow...but no luck that evening..twirled about and took some scenics, and then noticed Ravens in the Burnt Forest scolding a bit it seemed, so, thought to go thataway on return...and once in the Woods, sighted Coyote, just a glimpse...oh, I'll be late!...followed a bit towards the Bend, but no luck...oh...one farfar away handheld clip glimpse...left off, paddled back, and sixteen minutes late...hmmph...anyway, since, since Bobcat then Coyote in the Meadow, the Meadow has been the go-to-if-I-can rather than Ozone Beach at Lunch...might begin using the Bike...anyway, plenty of time this evening, and last evening too--days off...but this evening storm coming, last evening storm leaving, and both windy and cold--not best Critter sighting conditions!...this evening, at the Meadow, quiet, but while being a bit disconsolate over this, been a lot of quiet walks this 'winter'!, I heard Coyotes calling way over by Rocky Point...see Clip!...wish I had been quicker with 30x to record calls, which were really loud and echoing off the Wall to begin...couldn't see Coyotes, but followed...no luck, but when at Beaver Bend, I heard Owl!...Owl was deep in the Woods on the other side of the Merced....stood a long while on the Shore Sand, hope was Owl fly to the Meadow with enough light for pic...but no luck...cool to hear Owl though!...paddled back across the Meadow, and just when I reached Swinging Brige, sighted Coyote on the same Use Path Bobcat was on before, and it was a guess I was seeing Coyote in the darkness...reviewing pic taken at one half second and 6400 iso, I could see Ears--Coyote...tried for more pics, realizing Coyote will pose perfecty still while listening for Mice and such, and I could use long exposure, which point this long post is trying to reach--I can take Critter pics in near Dark, maybe just plain Dark, because all of the Critters do this, pose, staying still, learned from hunting, or being hunted!...anyway, I saw a Shadow scurry by coming from behind near the Path--another Coyote...pics...tried for pics!...anyway, a curious walk..each time I go out, I've come to expect something of 'character'--some moment of mood and insight...cloudy cool to cold...at Lunch Sunday, Pygmy Owl, Raven, Robin, Acorn...Saturday Lunch: Ouzel, Pileated, Robin, Raven, Acorn...this evening hereandthere, lots of Robins, a maybe sighting of Pygmy Owl swooping down to a thick Bush--glimpsed barred Tail--Raven, Mallard flyover just before sighting Coyote...oh...the Museum show has started up...went to look see...friend there too, who I told...'it looks like work from a design class!'...dissappointing, I'd say, not that the works aren't good...just that there's a general lack of Valley 'character'....hmmmph...Tara Tara!!!!...I've been playing a lot of wow of late (world of warcraft)...have discoverd the Battlegrounds...Aretha Basin a favorite...not doing to well, yet--lots to learn!!!...Tara Tara!!!...well, there's that scene in the second Lost World movie when the palentologists tells everyone to stay still a T. Rex approaches---sometimes that works!...see link:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/grizzly-bear-charges-alaskan-tourists-video-010559736.html

Tiny Snowflakes

http://youtu.be/WmFuHDVNyn8

Paddled out to Two Top Pine Meadow, and got out of the Wind a bit in the lee of Two Top Pine...and watched the Snow...continued around the Outside Loop counterclockwise, over Chapel Bridge, around Bobcat Meadow, and back to the Cabin at Last Light...Ravens, Robins, Acorn Woodpeckers, and Ouzel at Creek Bridge....quietquiet...overcast with light snowfall in the afternoon, cool to cold....pic up is still from clip, and the pics from clips with the 30x have a good resolution for the blog, and I like the wideness!...link above to hd youTube clip...

Raccoon

At Lunch: sat awhile at the Ozone Beach Cottonwoods....Raven, Ouzel, Robin, Mallards flyover, Pygmy Owl...on return, happened on Raccoon at the Corner Back Door of Last Chance (hereabout a hangout for smokers), and chased Raccoon away from litter, but not before clip!...trying to think of captions...hd youTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfEtes5J3Pk&list=UUjXAk71lLu-S_lc4tVafvrQ&index=1&feature=plcp

Please Dont Litter
Trash Kills Critters

and,

Why Use A Straw
When One Has a Paw?

sunny blueblue warm

Report of Eagle along the Merced on 140...another earlier last week too!...these are very cool sightings, as Eagle flys along at eye level above the River as one is riding in Bus or Car...such Eagle sighting yet to be seen, and photo oped by me!....oh...

Why Use Straws
When One Has Paws???

Pygmy Owl Sunset

http://youtu.be/pptUQTScQHI


Gathered the gear, and paddled out to Two Top Pine Meadow...Sky very hazy, so didn't give Horsetail much thought...but like last Evening, Sun shown through at Last Light, and Horsetail good for pics, in spite of not much water!--I'm guessing!....paddled to Two Top Pine Meadow...sat awhile at the Slough, which is drydry...Mountain Blue Birds, Pileated, Acorns, about...glimpsed Hawk at the Snag near where the Diversion Channel begins...and Bobcat not about...Ouzel singing clip...for maybe tonight--uploading to youTube has become quicker than to the blog!....thought to make the Outside loop counterclockwise, maybe hear Owl...along the Road, passed a photog and tried not to get in their pic...heard Pygmy Owl in Pine across the Road...passed the photog, trying not to get in their pic...Pygmy flew out, and over to the Boardwalk Cottonwoods...passed the photog, trying not to get in their pic!....and by the Cottonwoods, located Pygmy calling, and the 30x took another cool clip!!!...see youTube link...after Pygmy flew back to the Road Pines, I paddled back around to Last Chance for dinner...one more Sunset pic at Swinging Bridge....oh..at beginning of walk, Three Does and Three Fawns by the Rooms...clip...sunny blueblue hazy, warm...oh....in the Dark, nearing Swinging Bridge, heard Owl...very cool...Pygmy chases small Birds, and flys like Robins and such....

Bobcat

Gathered all the gear, and some snacks from the Store, and started out to El Cap and the Horsetail Falls show...didn't get far...stopped at Two Top Pine Meadow, just across the Road from Camp 4 (maybe twelve tents), to take a scenic pic of Sentinel, actually a clip..and just when picking up, sighted Bobcat farfar away (actually got farfar away Bobcat Leaping in the scenic clip by chance), and reset quickly, and put the new 30x to work for its first real chance at far away Critter--and the little camera does very well, I'd say!....will work on clips in a bit, and upload mpeg later tonight...needless to say, I was diverted from Horsetail, and followed Bobcat about until Dark...even have clip in Dark of Bobcat starting to cross Swinging Bridge...may be able to lighten it enough, like the Owl clips I did once...anyway..much fun to see Bobcat!...and below link is one of the clips that I posted in hd to youTube...clips of Kinglet, and Acorn Woodpeckers too, for sometime...sunny blueblue warm...Horsetail in the news, and this evening, while it looked hazy, at just the right time, the Sun shown through against the indigo Sky, so Horsetail photogs likely got good pics in spite of not much Water coming off El Cap...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY6MmjIFxwg&feature=plcp&context=C3260481UDOEgsToPDskLpPpD7Y3NyOOuQ6Gr6iDPE

Otters And Kayak

At Lunch: sat awhile under the Cottonwoods at Ozone Beach...Pileated call...Raven, Robin, Acorns, too...Ouzel came around to putz about the Fallen Cottonwoods in the Merced, which have disintegrated a lot...Ouzel did same at Lunch yesterday too...hand held clips, for sometime...yesterday, Ouzel, Ravens, Acorns...sunny blueblue, some evening haze, both days, storm clearing clouds in the morning yesterday...pic up from last visit to Moss Landing Otters...photog in Kayak was too close, Otters in pic are swimming away, and away from where I was trying to take Otters' pics--and that's too close!...report of Bobcat in Two top Pine Meadow...oh...and headsup...report Horsetail Falls is okay for pics now...

Ben Hur Road

Gathered the gear, and went for a rollabout down the hill on Ben Hur Road, and a short walk out the Trail to Eastman Lake...Redtail Hawks thereabout, calling in the Late Afternoon...tried for pics, but Hawks farfar away...Coyote was too...and most all Birds I saw!...roadside pics are tough...and didn't have time to explore the Lake...not sure even if Trail Walk is permissible...Gate open, but warning signs on Trees...'sensitive area'...went as far as the Bench...Digger Pine thereabout has Nest, but no Raptors thereabout...still early for Nesting, which is when the Gate will be closed, I imagine...sunny cloudy cool...Fiddlenecks first, and only, Flowers I saw beside the Road...Green Grasses just coming up...One Kestrel on Wire...maybe Owl at very last Light....and Bird call I've heard hereabout once in the Valley--call sounds like a little bomb falling in a cartoon--deeeee deeee deee dee...and maybe an Owl other than Great Horned calling by the Bridge Parking...call like Fledgling Owl thereabout too, but that doesn't seem possible--too early!...thought best to stay on Trail at Last Light, so didn't take a look for both....

Acorn Woodpeckers

After Breakfast, paddled over to the Village...scenic pics along the way...looked for Tracks...Squirrel, Deer, Raven...Juncos about...looked for Bird making clear one tone call by Lower Falls that I wasn't sure of, but no luck...Blue Jays, Robins...returning on the Shuttle, heard report of Coyote in Chapel Meadow, old report from earlier in morning, but hopped off Shuttle anyway at Lower Falls and paddled over Chapel Bridge to looksee...found Tracks, which took me along the Outside Loop...continued around, thinking maybe Coyote in Two Top Pine Meadow...quiet there too...sighted Varied Thrush at Ozone Beach...tried for pics...30x camera is slower to use...oh...Acorn Woodpecker on Owl's Burnt Snag, on Chapel Side of Merced opposite Creek's End...30x in video mode, auto focuses okay zoomed out...but I haven't got the knack of taking just zoomed out in focus pics yet, and was having trouble in all the modes with exposure... was only able to get Snowy Day pics in manual...a puzzle...had all the gear with, even the small tripod, but walk very quiet, and Snowfall light, like two inches...sunny with breaking storm clouds, cool...at Ozone Beach, heard another unrecognized call, a kinda wheezy one tone...Flicker at Ozone (making laughing call), Ouzels by Swinging Bridge, Juncos again on the Path by the Cabin...talked with friend that lives in El Portal...lots of Birds thereabout....

Clouds

At Lunch: sat under the Cottonwoods at Ozone Beach, and contemplated the Clouds over Two Top Pine Meadow...'it might rain, it might snow, I'll take anything'....well, a little Rain on the way back to the Cabin after work...Ravens in a Kettle, Robins in Bare Branch Tree Top, Acorn call, Ouzel singing, quiet...cloudy a bit, yesterday and today, warm....Acorns, Ouzel, Robins, Ravens, about Ozone yesterday too at Lunch...weather report says 'snow'...

Flicker

At Lunch: on the way to the Ozone Cottonwoods, heard, and sighted Flicker...pics up with the 30x...clip of Mallards passing by the Cottonwoods on the Merced too...zoomed all the way out, hand held, the auto focus struggles, though it is just miraculous what the point and shoots with the big zooms can do...28mm out to 800 something....pics and clip up to give an idea of this...Robins, Acorns, Ravens, Ouzel about...sunny blueblue warm....a google search, Spirit Bear, National Geographic, will take one to pics and clip of these Bears in Canada...oh...lemmee go find it..brb...here's link:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/08/kermode-bear/spirit-bear-video
....note the narration...I have sometimes doubts about including narration hereabout, but, well there are antecedents, Muir and Adams, and here an example of a current-cedent!...one plods along as one can...note their gear in the clip too...very good stuff!...thanks to my hiking friend for headsup...

Raccoon

Raccoon pic by the Cabin after work...neighbor got pics too, and too of Bobcat in the Daytime by Chapel Bridge...'Chapel side of the River?'...'yes...'...friend yesterday reported another friend getting Bobcat Pics at Creek's End...report of Hawk calling yesterday too...at Lunch, today and yesterday: sat under the Cottonwoods...Ouzel, Ravens, Acorns...sunnyblueblue both days, horsetails turning pink at sunset today, warm...

Rainy Day

Returning from the Village, sighted Deer from the Shuttle...hopped off...haven't been too many pic and clip opportunities to try the newest camera...handheld, and at max zoom, it's a bit shaky...see clip...otherwise, the hd clips are fine...and in near darkness, I took some more Deer pics out in Coop's Meadow...sat thereabout at CAD Beach until Dark, thinking to hear Owl...too drizzly, I think...did hear Pygmy Owl after dinner at the Cabin...Moon in an almost clear Night Sky now....just misty haze...light rain, cool...report Hawk calling by the Rooms....oh...foraging on the Rainy Ground, as often happens, Junco Flock in Bobcat Meadow...and Four Mallards, then One Mallard, flying downriver at Dusk, again...curious where Mallards are during Day...

Nearly all my posts go through a day of mulling over at work, while at work, and often I tell them to friends hereabout--lately, Bobcat pic, and Bobcat and Coyote, the book, have had routine story verbally related while viewing, and not just by me!.... everyone tells critter stories, something I noted at a friends poetry  reading--we were all in a circle, passing a 'story stick', and once a Bear story was told, it was followed by more Bear encounters!, and I took note....and one of the nagging anoyances of poetry readings, for me, for years and years, for me, is that no one, I mean no one, could or would do their poems from memory!...I had the good fortune, at the outset, to hear  Anthony Zerbe and Roscoe Lee Brown  do a two man show of e.e. cummings...all from memory, but these two are actors!...so, maybe it takes acting training to do poems from memory...whatever it takes, it needs taking, and I happened on an effort to do just this...good for them...see link:  Poety Out Loud
http://www.poetryoutloud.org/

Moon and Half Dome

Paddled back to the Woods in the Late Afternoon...looking for Flicker, happened on Pileated...clip for sometime...had just the newest camera along, and photog about reminded me of the Full Moonrise...waitedwaited sitting on the Hummock at Cottonwood Bend...and Moon came over Half Dome and  I tried out the camera taking clips and pics...didn't have the remote with (which I have from the small kodak video camera I bought awhile back), and dont know yet where the shutter timer is, so, maybe missed some pics...first two, I pressed shutter button, third is still from hd clip, which is cool clip, along with some earlier clips when the Moon was just behind Half Dome's Shoulder..clip is shortened mp4...the other photog had left, and I had wanted to give them a headsup that the Clouds were going to make for pics--Clouds dim down the overexposure the Moon causes...I suspect photog was somewhere with a view...where I was, was just about right!...I may try all this next month...for several months now, there have been Moon over Half Dome opportunities...while taking clips, heard Great Horned Owl, not sure Sentinel, or Ponderosa, or both!, way over by the Wall across the Merced..and heard Three Pygmy Owls!...two across the River, one in the Woods...in some of the clips, one can hear Pygmy...sunny blueblue cool...early February, and taking clips and pics after Dusk, and no gloves...Ravens, Ouzel...flyover by Five, then Three, then One, Mallard(s)...

no pics today

At Lunch: sat awhile under the Cottonwoods at Ozone Beach....Robins (Robin behind the Cabin this morning too), Ravens, Acorn, Ouzel...sunny blueblue cool....maybe Storm this Tuesday, and I think it's the beginning of Firefall Time...brb...middle to late February....

quote
Particular scientific fields like molecular biology, cognitive ethology, cognitive science, robotics, and neurobiology deal with information processes at various levels and thus spontaneously contribute to knowledge about biosemiosis (sign action in living systems). However, biosemiotics proper is not yet a specific disciplinary research programme, but a general perspective on the need for investigating the role that "sign" use plays in life processes, and attempts to integrate such findings, and to build a semiotic foundation for biology. It may also help to resolve some forms of Cartesian dualism that still haunt the philosophy of mind. By describing the continuity between body and mind, or by showing this to be a false or at least unhelpful distinction, biosemiotics may also help us to understand how human "mindedness" may naturally emerge from more primitive processes of embodied animal "knowing."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosemiotics
unquote

the term 'biosemiotics' is taken from the term 'semiotics' which is here:
quote
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or (in the Saussurean tradition) semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication. Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which, for its part, studies the structure and meaning of language more specifically. Semiotics is often divided into three branches:

• Semantics: Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata, or meaning
• Syntactics: Relations among signs in formal structures
• Pragmatics: Relation between signs and the effects they have on the people who use them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics
unquote

and

quote
"Language is no longer regarded as peripheral to our grasp of the world we live in, but as central to it. Words are not mere vocal labels or communicational adjuncts superimposed upon an already given order of things. They are collective products of social interaction, essential instruments through which human beings constitute and articulate their world. This typically twentieth-centery view of language has profoundly influenced developments throughout the whole range of human sciences. It is particularly marked in linguistics, philosophy, psychology, sociology and anthropology".^[7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure
unquote

Well, I was going to try, and still may,  try and tie all this into the Language of the Trees....the above research is trying to articulate what poety has been at for a long time...looking about, I happened on Robert Grave's Paris Review interview, which I read when very young with a very dour disposition, and now find I smile, just a bit, while reading, though circumstances are no less dour!!
link to interview:
http://books.google.com/books?id=B-hxaHat4kYC&pg=PA92&lpg=PA92&dq=the+language+of+the+trees+robert+graves&source=bl&ots=pwmmivHbIC&sig=zI3yTGb35g17COUn7n1yBHrPuXU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cywuT-GxIcPaiQK-p9WxCg&sqi=2&ved=0CFoQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=the%20language%20of%20the%20trees%20robert%20graves&f=false

Experts

Out and about early...wanted to try out the new camera...kodak easy share z990....Kingfisher was at Chapel Bridge...paused to set up, but Kingfisher moved upriver, and a jogger jogged across the Bridge, and I couldn't relocate Kingfisher...tried, made the Outside Loop staying close to the Merced...quiet...Ouzel, Flicker, Pileated, DownyOrHairy, Ravens, all faraway sightings or calls, and Robin at Ozone Beach piping...at Lunch, Two Robins at same location piping, and Ouzel, Raven, Acorn, calls, and at very last light, a flight of Mallards, six?, going downriver....sunnyblueblue, cold in the morning, cool...and I didn't take any pics of note...took an hd movie to try the zoom, 30x optical...I might leave the digiscope behind a lot on walks to come!...and a pic...sky is too green, and at 12 megapixels pics compares to the canon d10, though the d10 pixellation doesn't look as jaggedy...I have to take more pics to see what all is happening...camera is very much like the canon s3....same on and off toggle, and separate toggle zoom...I think these cameras all use the same internal parts, or something...this is the fourth point and shoot of this sort, long zoom lenses, that I have...first three were canons: one I broke the fold out lcd screen, and still can use the view window, another I've bent the edge of the lens bezel, and it's useless...oh...the one with the hd, the hd quit....and the old s3 always had a problem with the usb connnetion...had to wiggle it to download pics...I'm trying to be extra careful with this new camera...keep the lens cap on, and remember to remove it before pics...I carry it, like all the cameras, in a pouch...I dont understand the photogs wandering about hereabout with cameras dangling at their sides from neckstaps!...one, from europe, had no strap, and hand carried his camera, and made a living with it going around the world...sometimes I use the neckstrap...within a few steps, I can be scrambling up a slope, or in the river, or crowded by rocks and trees, but the most hazardous places for cameras is inside dwellings and such--bumps and falls, and changes in humidity!....anywayanyway, at break I had one of the usual roundabout conversations, that went a bit like this...

"...sure!...you're an expert of some sort!"
"oh, I think not...if I were, folk would be coming up to me for advise!....but let me think on this...well, if  I taught a kid to tie their shoes, I might be an expert of that, shoe tying, from the kids perspective...and I suppose we all have some skills of this sort....expertese is relative...if you have something someone else doesn't, you're an expert to them...oh!...like being able to see, and being an expert to blind people for this!"
"you would be king of the blind!"
at this, my thoughts were brought up short, do we consider our leaders as having sight expertise we don't have?...hmmph...."I suppose I would be king, but how would the blind know I was telling the truth?...I could just be making things up, and blind as the rest..."
"they would know, people can tell if you are not telling the truth..."
"oh!, then blind people can see!"
"yes"
"I suppose if I stepped up to the plate, and asked the catcher, 'will the pitch be a fastball?'...and he said. 'yes', I could tell if he was lying?..."
"yes"
"....that could be useful"...and I recounted a scene on tv show ncis where the interrogators gave the suspect a donut, and asked questions while he was eating, commenting on the truth of his answers by how he ate the donut!...."but back to the blind, they have no way of telling if the one with sight's reports are true..."
and break was over....

the conversation has a backstory, or back conversation, that I mull over often, and the subject is what the Critters see...a bit more on this for sometime!....