Recently in Other Stuff Category

I decided a couple of days ago that it might be time to look into some different blogging software for several reasons. I've been using MovableType ever since I began blogging, but there were some quirks that I just couldn't seem to find a workaround for since the last update. Problems uploading images, previously accomplished with the push of a button, required that I hand code everything when placing images in post. For the most part it was simply a matter of copying and pasting, then changing the file name, but it still wasn't the way to do things.

Another problem following the upgrade was that it was impossible to get to all of the archived posts. Not that most would want to do that, but once in a while folks do plus there are times that I want to go look through some of the older stuff, too (I found 3 species I hadn't included in my "life list" that way!). It's all there again with the change over to Wordpress.

I haven't exactly settled on what I'm going to use for the "theme" (the blog's layout and appearance), so you may find that it looks a little different from visit to visit over the first few weeks. Most importantly, however, is that the address has changed slightly so you will need to update your Favorites/Bookmarks to the following:

Last week's bird was a particularly colorful member of the Icterid family found only deep in the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, Altamira Oriole (Icterus gularis). This week's entry might be a little tricky, too.

Since I'm here and writing, in other news, sorry about the dearth of entries of late - just been busy with other things. Meant to put up a post about last week's wildflower excursion to Cedar Breaks National Monument, but never got to it. I did post a number of photos from there on my Flickr page. Had planned to do some more wildflower and butterfly work this week on my days off, but brisk winds prevented that from happening. Birding around here is a little tougher these days as most species are now pretty quiet and tricky to find. I did lead a bird walk last Monday which yielded 18 species, highlights being a male Western Tanager feeding a couple of fledglings, a couple of Rock Wrens, and a small flock of Black-headed Grosbeaks (first I've seen this year). Around home the only thing interesting/unusual was seeing both male and female Rufous Hummingbirds. Oh, and the "less-than-a-week-old" Mule Deer fawns who were unfortunately seen too far past sunset to even think about a photo.

Good luck with the quiz and hope you find some good birds this week!

The Astronomy Festival last week created a little havoc with my work schedule and I went seven straight days without a day off. By the end of all that, I was tired. The fact that 4 of those 7 days were during the festival and I never hit the sack before 1:30 or 2:00 a.m. - way past my normal bedtime - helped with wearing me out. I can take those late nights here and there, but 4 in a row was tough and then we had small post-festival night sky party on Sunday night for a few members of staff only. Skies were mixed during the festival: Two were pretty cloudy, the other two were clear but with a lot of moisture in the air (especially Saturday).

Sunday the air was dry without a single cloud. Just above the southern horizon we used binoculars to look at Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest of the globular clusters that orbit the Milky Way Galaxy. We looked at a lot of different objects once the evening twilight disappeared, but the real highlight for me was peering into a portion of the Virgo (galaxy) Cluster. The section we were looking at contained two Messier objects, galaxies M84 and M86, the two brightest in that particular region of the cluster. But there were another SIX in the same field of view. M86 is about 52 million light years away, while M84 is about 60 million. All in all it was a fantastic evening, seeing galaxies and nebulae with far greater detail than I have ever seen before (it doesn't hurt that some of the staff and volunteers have huge telescopes I can only dream of owning . . . ).

Today I'm packing a lunch, loading up Roxy, and going to roam out in the forest looking for birds, butterflies, and wildflowers. I'll let you know if we find anything of interest.

It all started yesterday morning when I thought I heard a noise that I didn't really want to hear. My suspicions were confirmed when I arrived home for my dinner break: Just across the fence separating the park from the national forest I was greeted by about 40 head of cattle. Just peachy. Though they cleared the area fairly quickly, this morning I knew they were still in the neighborhood since I had to listen to their obnoxious freakin' mooing interspersed among the bird songs.

And of course it will be some time before walking in the area they were in yesterday will be safe, since it is now almost certainly filled with "land mines". What's really sad is I don't think I've found a spot in the forest here on the plateau that didn't have "signs left behind" by cattle.

The crossbills were really chatty this morning, too. Would have been nice to record that, but, just as I decided to to get out the recording equipment, a very noisy ultralight began buzzing the park. Which is totally legal as long as they maintain a minimum altitude, but even at 500 feet they are extremely annoying.

And for Saturday morning it's an idiot out there ravaging the forest landscape with a 2-wheeled, unmuffled and drowning out the birds "off-highway vehicle". Oh well.


On a more positive note, even though the weather hasn't exactly been the best, I made a few images this week.

Living here in rural Utah, I frequently see dead animals along the side of the road, and more than a few are cattle that have wandered beyond the fences. However, I couldn't help but laugh after seeing this sign. Now what has actually happened here is the top screw has rusted out and the sign is hanging upside down, and it only took a second to actually put that together.

Still, my first thing that crossed my mind was "Huh? Watch for dead cows . . .????!!!!!"

A few snow flurries, cold north winds, and this morning's low is -6C/21F. Not a lot of activity in terms of birds, needless to say. I did watch a robin collecting nesting material the other day, Steller's Jays are very much in evidence as are some Brewer's Blackbirds (who hang out a lot over at the stables).Still looking for the first Western Tanager of the season, though a quick check of last year's blog entries and the date was May 7, in '07 the date was May 1, so it could be any day now.

A few days ago I heard an early morning chorus of Coyotes coming from out in the forest and I have some chipmunks (Least or Uinta? Not sure or, maybe, both.) and Golden-mantled Ground-squirrels in addition to lots of Utah Prairie Dogs a couple hundred feet away.

I have to go to the dentist tomorrow (yippee!) in Richfield; if I can find my birding guide for Utah I might check around there for some birds. Depends on how long they keep me in the damn chair . . .

Yesterday Roxy and I settled in to a new location here at the park, somewhat off the beaten path in an area closed to the public, where we'd been living in the main campgrounds previously. This new site is just a few hundred feet away from the stables that horse/mule ride concessionaire uses and, yesterday afternoon, I had to listen to one of the mules braying a little more than I would have liked. We are also very close to the largest Utah Prairie Dog colony in the park (they were barking a lot, which I can live with), and from the looks of things it might be pretty birdy around here, too. The first bird I saw after getting here was a Brown Creeper - my first of the year - and there are robins, bluebirds, chickadees, Steller's Jays, ravens, woodpeckers, and almost certainly a few more to be seen as time goes by. I'll get my dripper going as soon as it warms up a little (another "winter" storm on the way). Then there was the Badger; hope it keeps hanging around - some photos of it would be great!