The Marmot

The marmot is as round and smooth as the granite rocks he glides over are angular and rough. Wary and secretive but often seen at a distance, the Marmot in the Sierra Nevada mountains is a delight to watch. Click here or on the small picture below to call up a much larger image. It was taken by my friend Donna.

New Mammal Spotted

I wrote these remarks a year or two ago:

Last Sunday afternoon I saw a new mammal, the yellow bellied marmot or or Marmota flaviventris, denizen of the upper Sierra Nevada. It was quite a treat watching him, a rolly-polly creature, as soft and rounded as the rocks he scrambled on were hard and angular. The size of a small beaver without a tail.

Another website describes the marmot this way: "Yellow-bellied marmots are the best studied marmot species. Dr. Kenneth B. Armitage and a number of his students have studied a population in Gothic, Colorado since 1962. Yellow-bellied marmots have a "harem-polygynous" social system whereby a male defends and mates with one or more females in a subalpine meadow. Female daughters may not disperse and may settle around their mothers. Sons invariably disperse as yearlings and try to find and defend one or more females. Females tend to breed as 2-year olds. Litter sizes average a bit over four pups, of which about half survive their first year. Yellow-bellied marmots chuck, whistle, and trill when alarmed by predators; only the whistles and trills are loud alarm calls."

Hmm. I guess I would chuck, whistle and trill, too, if I had a harem in a sub-alpine meadow.

View more images of Marmots by going to http://www.google.com (external link) and selecting their Image Search feature from their home page.

Joy to the world!

October 19, 2001 - 8:52am

Cat, Kittens Found Alive in WTC Rubble Story by Jeannie Piper and 9NEWS Staff

While the chance of finding any survivors in the World Trade Center rubble vanished long ago, there is a survivor story.

A cat apparently trapped under the debris has been found alive, with a new litter of three kittens.

Mom with one of her babies. Rescuers found the cats curled up in a carton of napkins. They were in the basement of what used to be a restaurant at the World Trade Center.

Rescue workers rushed mom and the kittens to a vet.

Mom was thin and dehydrated, however, vets say all of the cats will be just fine.

Pigeons and You

 

The October 2001 Communications International reports that "Hundreds of pigeon lovers in the UK are reportedly preparing to sue mobile operators claiming that emissions from the increasing number of cellphone antennas are destroying the birds' sense of direction. The first litigant is expected to be Scottish farmer David Blain who claims that since a mobile phone base station was built next to his land two years ago two-thirds of the birds that used to arrive for the past 40 years no longer do so. Britains Royal Pigeon Racing Associations expected to back the legal action." The magazine then jokes that "Mobile operators insist there is no evidence for any such claim but will be offering any affected pigeons a free location-based service as and when 3G arrives."

Pigeons played a small but important communications' role in World War II. Even the United States Army Signal Corps had a trained group of birds. The Royal Pigeon Racing Association (external link) says,

"Despite all the tribulations of pigeon racing in the 20th century, our members have risen to the call during two periods of national emergency, many giving the ultimate sacrifice for their country with many thousands more maimed for life during active service. Over these periods, thousands of pigeons were bred by our members and used for communication purposes during the periods of conflict, carrying important and secret information or conveying messages that actually saved the lives of servicemen. During the last war, of the 53 Dickin medals presented for animal bravery, 31 of them were presented to pigeons and this speaks volumes for the role played by our humble racing pigeons at a time of national emergency."

More information on electrical energy problems for racing pigeons: http://www.boglinmarsh.fsnet.co.uk/bilco.htm (external links)

"A bird of the air shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall tell the matter." Ecclesiastes

Great Horny Toads!

 

 

April 22, 2001: Chanced upon a spiny lizard while walking through the chaparral of Mount Diablo State Park, some forty miles from San Francisco. I had never seen such a lizard and did not know what I was looking at, the entire creature was covered in horns and spikes. From John Sullivan's site: http://www.wildherps.com/species/P.coronatum.html#3/31/2001 I learned that was I saw was the California Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma coronatum, possibly subspecies frontale. This is what Americans call a horny toad although, of course, it has no relation to the toad. Four inches long the creature minded me not all, allowing me to look it over for a few brief moments. I've added arrows to John's photograph of the species. If you look closely you'll see the head is covered in spikes, it is these occipital lobes that help key the many different species. Whenever I go to Diablo I always see something different. The link above takes you to a slightly out of date but informative page on the park. If you want some pHun call this number for the latest temperatures and wind speed at the top of the 3,814 foot summit: 1-925-838-9225. It's automated so you won't have to talk to anyone. Don't forget to calculate the windchill factor!

 

Walking with the Chipmunks

 

Along the way back from the top of Mount Vaca I spotted a chipmunk, small animals are as rare to see on this trip as wildflowers are easy. This is the California chipmunk, Tamias senex, of the family Sciuridae. The hike is about ten miles and takes about three hours to get to the top, an hour and a half to descend. The main hazard are a few uncontrolled dogs along the way, indeed, I had a pit bull charge at me while I was walking on the public road. The beast came at me through an opening in a fence and ran at me barking, with fangs bared. Only my hiking stick pushed into his face made him stop. He retreated a little at this and at the same time was called back by his owner. I am still considering filing a police report, I am troubled that another walker, someone without a stiff bamboo cane, might be seriously hurt by this out of control dog. Still, this was not enough to ruin my day and I came away with many wonderful spring memories.

Mr. Bill

Trying to do too many things at once. Took my cat into the vet yesterday for a checkup. Montel is recovering from his runny eye condition, thanks to an antibiotic. Many people have asked me why I named a black cat Montel, since there is an African American talk show host in this country by that same name. The answer is that I didn't, he already had that name when I adopted him. I am in fact the third person to adopt Montel. Anyway, I just kept his name the same, rather than naming him Telco or T1. Pictured above and to the left is another fine animal, Bill the Cat. To the right is a friend's cat, Daisy, doing her best to imitate Mr. Bill.

The Clown of the Camp

Spent a few hours hiking on Saturday in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Placerville, California. A recent storm had dropped snow as low as 2100 feet. A happy note was spotting a Stellers Jay. In the central valley where I live the Stellers Jay does not, instead, another bird called the Scrub Jay resides. The Scrub is similar looking to the Steller but does not enjoy the same jaunty cap. The two species rarely overlap and I always know that I am in the mountains when I spot a Stellers Jay. As Phil & Loretta Hermann put it, "Stellers Jay (Cyanocitta ctelleri) is a raucous bird that lives throughout the West. The Jays watch from the trees and steal any morsel of food left out by a camper. Their flashes of blue and black color combined with their frantic call makes them the clown of the camp." http://www.plh-photos.com/Stellers%20Jay.htm

Stalking the wiley Jackalope

Last week I took a drive during a beautiful fall day in the great central valley of California. Besides exploring, what drove me on was the hope of seeing a Jackalope again; years ago a grocery store in Knights Landing had one stuffed and mounted above the counter, and I was eager to see if it remained. Like the Snipe, the Jackalope is shrouded in mystery and contradictory tales. One web site says "The Jackalope (Lepus-temperamentalus) is one of the rarest animals in the world. A cross between a now extinct pygmy-deer and a species of killer-rabbit, they are extremely shy unless approached. None have ever been captured alive and this rare photo (often criticized as fake) shows a mighty buck about to strike." Although the photograph at their site is obviously contrived, I have located a picture that shows what I saw years ago: a Jackalope in the only safe position to man, stuffed and nailed to a board. Alas, someone had made off with the one in the storre, proving again the elusiveness of the beast, in life and in death.

Godzilla Gets Domesticated

 

Last Friday I spent the night in San Francisco. The next day Saturday I visited the Sausalito Art Festival in Sausalito, Marin County, California. It bills itself as "The Nations' #1 Fine Arts Outdoor Festival" and I think they are probably right.

 

It was impressive and humbling, art seems so real and permanent compared to what we do on the web. It is discouraging but also encouraging, somewhat, to think that something like "Godzilla Gets Domesticated" will be around when I am dead and buried, still entertaining people a hundred years from now. That neon, fluorescent colored tube, imitating flame from his breath, lighting a burner on the stove, will keep it in the collectable kitsch category forever. But where will anything I do be? It reminds me of the old quote, "Life is short and art is long and success is very far off."

 

 

Art endures, that's what's encouraging and life giving. Some things do go on, even if we don't. Still, educational, hobbyist sites like mine have worth while they exist, even if built of ephemeral electrons. TelecomWriting.com got 950 hits on Friday. The thing or two each person learns from this site produces results unseen by me. People learn and ask questions and I learn myself everyday. It's just difficult to see the finished product. With art you do have something you can hold in your hands. Even if it is Godzilla in an apron.

Doves on the driveway

Thirty doves on the driveway! I put out feed for my neighborhood birds each morning. The grain attracts many doves. On Monday at least thirty mourning doves gathered and it made me very happy, I feel after several months of feeding that they are my little charges. What's a mourning dove? Cornell says this:

"A Mourning Dove is a long (approximately 12 inches), slim, gray-brown bird with a small head and a long, pointed tail. The outer tail feathers have white tips with a black marking midway, so that the tail is edged with a black and white stripe. Wings show dark primaries, and wing coverts and scapulars are boldly spotted with black. The dove's crown, nape, and hindneck are slate in color, turning to grayish brown over the rest of the upperparts. The face is pinkish buff, the underparts have a pinkish wash, and the belly is buff-colored. Legs are reddish in color. The eye has a bluish ring of bare skin, and there is a small black spot and a larger iridescent purplish area on the side of the neck. This area is larger in males. Females have more brown coloring overall."