August 2008 Archives

I've been sitting on this one for a couple of weeks and had actually planned to upload this one when the badger came along last week. Roxy and I were on our way to the reservoir when we came upon a small (4 individuals) bachelor herd of Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana). There was one who looked to have a well developed set of horns that you see first; the others all looked to be about the same age based upon the size of their horns. The latter part of the clip shows two of them in a little sparring match, preparing for the time when they, too, can challenge the big bucks for a chance at "gettin' the girl(s)".

(P.S. - If you would like to see what I've been up to lately - and the primary reason I've been ignoring the blog - some test files are here. They are Flash and will be revised somewhat before officially published in the next week or so - let me know what you think . . .)

(P.P.S. - I just learned something about the video player that, at least on my end, is only a problem with Firefox since IE and Opera do not display the player and you have to click a link to see it. And it may an issue with Safari and/or others on Macs, too. I'll have to try and figure it out but, for some reason and even though the links are all correct, the player wants to show the badger, the last video I posted, instead of the Pronghorn. If you click the "permalink" at the bottom of this entry it works correctly. This may explain what was happening with you and the badger last week, Lisa. Very strange, indeed, and surprising that I never noticed it before.)

The answer to last week's quiz was Western Kingbird and, for this week, I dug down into my film archives for this group of birds making use of a large rock along the coast for a rookery. Good luck and good birding!

Something a little different occurred today - an earthquake. Though I didn't feel it, a lot of other folks did - it was only a 3.3 magnitude and, having spent a pretty large piece of my life in California, I guess it takes a little more than that to get my attention. Anyway, the epicenter was just outside the park about 3 miles west of the Natural Bridge or 12 miles south of the Visitor Center (I was in my office working at the time).

One cool aspect is that someone pointed out a great website - if such things interest you - the USGS Earthquake site. You can see where there have been earthquake all over the world and click a map for details. There were also links to maps as well as GoogleEarth if you have that software installed. That's how we figured out where it was in relation to the park. Pretty cool stuff; I was looking at details within the first hour after the quake.

Timing is everything.

Yesterday I needed a couple of things from the store and went right after work. Had I gone home first, I probably would have missed the opportunity to not only see this animal, but shoot the video, too. The other stroke of luck was that I just happened to be taking the park's video camera home to download the footage I shot of yesterday's prescribed fire (we don't have a Firewire cable at work, so I have to use mine).

It's an American Badger (Taxidea taxus)!

Too cool, though I imagined them to be somewhat larger but, at 20-30 lbs, there not exactly lightweights either. And it was prowling around not far from the prairie dogs which is kind of scary since they say one badger can decimate a colony of them in a matter of a few days.

After a couple of weeks of quizzes with birds that are mostly shades of brown, for this time we'll round just a touch of color. The answer to last week's quiz was Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammacus).

Though I haven't been writing much lately due to other distractions, others have been, so don't forget that, being Friday, John over at A D.C. Birding Blog has another edition of Loose Feathers posted. And the 82nd edition of I and the Bird is being hosted by Sycamore Canyon. I do have a couple of things to post, I just need to find time to work it around other projects I have happening.

Last week we had a big brown bird, a Barred Owl. This week's little brown bird might be a little more difficult - if there is any one family of birds that makes me crazy, it's this one. As always, good luck and good birding!

Okay, so the title is a play on something you might hear in an old western movie, but one thing I've learned in my years of photographing and watching birds is that the two fish eating North American raptors don't exactly get along. Probably has something to do with the larger of the them regularly pirating fish from its smaller cousin (I'm sure that the events I witnessed yesterday also had something to do with the fact there were also 3 recently fledged "locals" in the area, too).

Yesterday I was on an evening program shift, which meant that I did not have to work until the early afternoon, and so used the free morning to take the Ol' Girl over to the reservoir for a swim. As I was backing in to get parked I noticed a rather large white-headed bird perched up in a pine tree. I was surprised, to say the least, since last year I didn't my first Bald Eagle in the area until November. And just as I was getting parked an Osprey came charging toward the eagle. As luck would have it, I happened to have my video camera along for the ride. Below you'll find some of the video I took of the events (unfortunately the day was rather gray except for a few brief moments), the next to last clip is there in real time, followed by repeat in slow motion. The sequence is a little over 1 min. 30 secs. and about 10 megabytes. The audio volume is a little low but you can hear them screaming at each other. Enjoy!

Are 1's and 8's wild today? Quiz #111 on 8-8-08?

Anyway, the answer for last week's quiz is Clapper Rail, seen out in the open in a rare pose rather than deep in the tall grasses of a marsh. For this week, our bird is from a family that I don't think we've quizzed before. Good luck and good birding!

I figure it is past time that I blog about something, so here we go.

I'm still deeply involved in work related things that kind of keep me from doing much photography when I'm actually off work. I think of it as a short term loss for, hopefully, long term gain. Around the neighborhood it seems like a lot of birds are already starting to check out. The only birds I see coming to my dripper are a few Pygmy Nuthatches and a steady stream of Cassin's Finches (with young now in tow). The Western Bluebird family is still around, the juveniles now hunting on their own, though mom and dad are still around. Haven't seen a warbler or tanager for several days; hard to believe that the southbound migration is starting.

The creature in the photo was over by the reservoir the other day when I had Roxy over for a swim. I have no idea what that snake might be, only that it is not a rattler. There's only four non-venomous snakes on the list for here and I haven't found any on it that look anything like it. Probably doesn't help that it was pretty small (less than a foot), so juvenile "plumage" may be making it harder. I'm leaning Desert Striped Whipsnake because of the head pattern, but where are the stripes? I'll let you know if/when I figure it out.

Last week our bird in question was a not-very-blue Little Blue Heron, an immature in the early stages of molt to the, shall we say. proper color. For this week I've dug into my film archives for a bird you will rarely see out in the open like this. As always, good luck and good birding!