Boy Needs A Bib!

Scott's Oriole feeding on Ocotillo

The last couple of months in and around the yard have been like an amateur birder's wet dream.  The short list of birds is pretty stunning.  In addition to the pollen-covered Scott's Oriole, above we've seen-

• Bullock's Oriole
• Blackchinned Hummingbird
• Roadrunner
• Mockingbird
• Curve-billed Thrasher
• House Finch
• Red Tail Hawk
• Turkey Vulture
• Cactus Wren
• Western Kingbird
• Ferruginous Hawk
• Kestrel
• Cooper's Hawk
• Harrier
• Golden Eagle
• Gambel's Quail
• Scaled Quail
• White Winged Dove
• Gila Woodpecker
• Loggerhead Shrike
• Western Bluebird
• Lark Bunting
• Western Meadowlark
• Horned Lark
• Pyrrhuloxia
• Lesser Goldfinch
• Slate Colored Junco
• White Crowned (or White Throated) Sparrow
• Boat Tailed Grackle
• Common Raven

And probably more that I can't remember right now, or haven't seen yet.

The hummingbirds are probably happy the Ocotillo finally began to bloom, as it's now keeping the Orioles out of the feeder...

Persistence Hunting

The pronghorn. The fastest mammal in North America.. the second fastest animal in the world, capable of running 55mph for extended periods.

In another part of the state of New Mexico, hundreds of miles from where I'm sitting, human beings tried to run a pronghorn down, using only their lung capacity, their legs, and their brainpower.  What the hell are they up to?

"The pronghorn is the second-fastest animal on earth, while the men are merely elite marathon runners who are trying to verify a theory about human evolution. Some scientists believe that our ancestors evolved into endurance athletes in order to hunt quad­rupeds by running them to exhaustion. If the theory holds up, the antelope I'm watching will eventually tire and the men will catch it. Then they'll have to decide whether to kill it for food or let it go."

I'm not sure whether or not I can buy into that theory, but it's really tantalizing to picture it.  Read the whole article to find out how these world class marathoners fared against our New Mexico Pronghorn.

This, of course, is not the only animal that is run down by humans.  There are numerous, incredibly fast and agile football players in college and pro ranks, including the University of Michigan who hale from a poor, rural location in Florida called Pahokee.  They  hone their skills like this..



Cottontails and "muck rabbits" (whatever they are)are one thing. Our blacktail jackrabbits are another thing altogether. Nobody is going to catch one on foot. That's why we use another method that's nearly as old as persistance hunting-

Simple Mathmatics

I can do the simple cipherin'. For instance, if I know that we have a healthy sized swarm of honeybees that hang around the leaky faucet in the yard (1), and I walk into the living room and find Buffy has changed her name to Puffy (1), then I can posit that the silly girl has put her face where it doesn't belong, and is likely       not to ever go again.That equals "2".   (1 + 1 = 2. Get it?)

Sooper Dooper Moon.

Everybody and their brother (and aunts, uncles, and nieces and grandsons, no doubt) took pictures of the closest "Perigee Moon" in almost 20 years. Why should I be an exception?

Now, every time I've shot the moon since we've lived here, it's been from the back porch, and I've caught it rising over the Little Florida Mountains which, you should know by now, are basically in our back yard.

I needed to find a new location to shoot from in this case, because I knew that once the moon got a few degrees above the horizon it would begin to look like any full moon. I needed the horizon in the picture when the moon was appearing to be at its largest. It was time to pack the little Montero and head up into the Little Floridas.

We were going to a spot about 2 miles east of the house, but the drive was more like 6 miles on fairly easy jeep trails. Our vantage point would give us unobstructed view all the way to the Organ Mountains east of Las Cruces... nearly 100 miles away! I had my horizon, and had only to wait for the moon to rise.

Problem was, I had no way of knowing exactly where the moon would appear. So we arranged it so we'd be there early. Real early. Not wanting to be rushing around at the last minute, we arrived at our lookout around 6:15. Moonrise was scheduled for 7:44!

I got the camera, with 300mm lens on the tripod, and wandered around with another camera and shot a bunch of pretty much forgettable ambience shots. I've been to this location many times before.

I took my position at the tailgate when there were about 20 minutes remaining before moonrise. Margaret thought my verbal countdown ever five minutes was overkill, but hey, that's how I roll. When I finally saw the glow on the still quite light horizon, I had only about 10 seconds to get focused in and start shooting. It moves fast, and yes, it really did look 30% larger than a normal moonrise:

Moonrise, W. Potrillo Mtns., NM

f4.0 1/8sec, ISO400

For a while.. meaning 2 or 3 minutes.. I was able to shoot on auto, and still get detail in the foreground, and also in the moon itself, along with its beautiful orange cast. Also, the whispy clouds add much to the drama of the image. Unfortunately, as anyone who has tried to capture images of the full moon knows, (and judging from the interwebz, that's nearly everyone) there comes a point when you have to choose between detail on the ground and detail in the moon. You can't have both. Again, as evidenced by the images on the internet, most of the people who shoot the moon, have no idea how to do it properly. If you let the camera have its way, you end up with a white disk in the middle of the frame that looks very much like an Alka-Seltzer tablet.

f8, 1/250th sec., ISO400

If you want a properly exposed moon, with lots of detail, you expose exactly as you would at high noon, because what is moonlight, after all, but reflected sunlight! At ISO 200, shoot it at f5.6 and 1/500th of a second. Or thereabouts. Just don't be looking for any details in the surrounding frame. To get that you have to "take one from column A, and one from column b", mix in a little Photoshop magic, and voilá...

Moonrise, Little Florida Mtns., NM

That image was taken from the old stand-by location.. the rear porch of the house.  After we'd used up almost all of the daylight up on the mountain, we drove back down as quickly as was prudent, and got set up on the porch in time to catch a second "rising".  Moonbats.

A Holiday Message from Ricky Gervais: Why I'm An Atheist - Speakeasy - WSJ

A Holiday Message from Ricky Gervais: Why I'm An Atheist - Speakeasy - WSJ:

.... It’s when belief starts infringing on other people’s rights when it worries me. I would never deny your right to believe in a god. I would just rather you didn’t kill people who believe in a different god, say. Or stone someone to death because your rulebook says their sexuality is immoral. It’s strange that anyone who believes that an all-powerful all-knowing, omniscient power responsible for everything that happens, would also want to judge and punish people for what they are. From what I can gather, pretty much the worst type of person you can be is an atheist. The first four commandments hammer this point home. There is a god, I’m him, no one else is, you’re not as good and don’t forget it. (Don’t murder anyone, doesn’t get a mention till number 6.)...

...But what are atheists really being accused of?

The dictionary definition of God is “a supernatural creator and overseer of the universe.” Included in this definition are all deities, goddesses and supernatural beings. Since the beginning of recorded history, which is defined by the invention of writing by the Sumerians around 6,000 years ago, historians have cataloged over 3700 supernatural beings, of which 2870 can be considered deities.

So next time someone tells me they believe in God, I’ll say “Oh which one? Zeus? Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra?…” If they say “Just God. I only believe in the one God,” I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869.

RTWT, but if you don't, the gist of the entire essay is distilled in the final two sentences: "You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway."

Fun For a Winter's Day..

Among the many and sundry email alerts and newsletters I receive, is the Tech Talk from PC Pitstop. And among the topics in the newsletter I received today, is one titled, "Steve Bass's Top 15 Time Wasters of 2010"... How could I resist?

I haven't checked out all of the time wasters yet, but there were two I really need to share.. Ball Droppings.. has all the elements of a classic time waster, as you work harder and harder to come up with more and more complex sounds and visuals.

The other is just stunning.. as you tour the known Universe in six and a half minutes..

I've reduced the size to fit here, but make sure you go to YouTube and watch the full size version. This reminds me of a film that first blew my mind at the Ontario Science Centre way, way back in 70s...

...but which takes the concept many steps further by not stopping when it returns to Earth.

Lots of other fun time wasters at the link. Have fun!

Tumbleweed Road Kill..

Because we had an El Nino winter, and a fairly wet summer, we've got about 40 million acres of tumbleweeds.. or so it seems. Therefore, we don't miss them when they run in front of the car..

Make a gif

I was surprised to learn that this ubiquitous symbol of the Old West, didn't exist in the US before the 1870's, when they hitch-hiked with the flaxseed that were imported to South Dakota by Ukrainian farmers. Like so many invasive species of plant and animal, I guess they liked it here.

Hello There.

(Please cue soundtrack, below)

Hello there..

I'm Indiana Gauss.

I'm a famed dashing and handsome blog-cheologist.  I seem to have stumbled upon this ancient and neglected blog.  It appears to have been vacated by some early race of idealistic, energetic blogger.  I've seen this before.  You would think that these indigenous writers would have vanished mysteriously from the face of the earth, but that's not so.  In true nomadic fashion, they've become part of the diaspora to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other so-called "social networking" sights.  Their laziness had gotten the better of them, and they no longer wanted to make the effort to toil at their thankless blogging tasks.

Fortunately, the final history of bloggers in general, and this blog in particular is far from being written.  Enough empirical evidence exists to predict that this blogging malaise is reversible, and that this blog will become a hive of literary activity very soon, (in blog-cheologic time, that is).

In fact, I can pretty fairly predict that soon you will here be reading about such diverse topics as:

• Geocaching

• The Pack Hunt, and Desert Hare Classic

• Driving miles and miles of desert and mountain jeep trails

• Desert wildflower reports

And probably a whole lot more.  You would be wise to monitor this location closely.  That is my professional opinion.  Now, I must be off to kill some Nazis and eat monkey brains.

And That's Why Glenn Beck's Crying Like a Little Girl.

Voters' Testosterone Affected By Presidential Election Outcomes - Really - Air America

Posted using ShareThis

Who would have thought anything worthwhile would come out of Duke?

Putting Those Donations to Good Use.

No.

Not the donations sent here to help out Dutch Salmon's family. I'm talking about the money donated to PETA. (Not by anyone who reads this blog, of course, but those other people.) They're not going to be able to help out all those widdle cuddewy-wuddewy furry critters... you know, the ones they end up euthanizing... if they're blowing 3 million bucks on a pornographic Super Bowl commercial.

Alas, we won't get to see the cute lady do herself with a broccoli. NBC decided the ad was too racy. It's OK though... PETA was just going to lie to us.

Like always.

Good Luck Little Guy

I mentioned the other day that I've seen Wood Ducks in the trees over the RVs. These are shots from earlier in the Spring.. end of April, early May. I fact, they're among the first images I captured with the D300.. way before I knew how to manipulate the menu for optimal color! This is the spectacularly colored male, or drake.

I didn't see the pair again until just the other day, while I was punishing myself walking Rally. (She has to make interminable circles on the flexi lead before she will do her thing... there have been times I swear I've fallen asleep waiting for her to pee!). Naturally, I don't have the camera with me when I'm doing this, so it was really frustrating when I glanced up and saw the pair of ducks fly to a nearby tree and disappear. I kept my eye on the spot, thinking they were perching on a limb. I didn't see them fly away, so when Rally finally finished her chore, I tossed her in the door and grabbed the camera, and ran to the base of the tree thinking I would get them taking off- (they're very skittish and shy).

Nothing. I know I would have seen them leave while I was out, and with a little searching, I spotted a trail of down hanging out of a cavity about 50 feet up.

A nest!

This tree's about 200 yards from the nearest water, but that's not all that unusual, nor is the way the young leave the nest when it's time:

"The Wood Duck nests in trees near water, sometimes directly over water, but other times up to 2 km (1.2 mi) away. After hatching, the ducklings jump down from the nest tree and make their way to water. The mother calls them to her, but does not help them in any way. The ducklings may jump from heights of up to 89 m (290 ft) without injury." (emphasis mine- DG)

Which brings us to today's tale. Once again, walking Rally sans camera, I saw a quick-moving bird crossing the campground road, heading in our direction. Baby duckling. Cursing the dog and my luck, my impatience finally won over, and I took her back to the Express and tossed her in to do whatever she was going to do inside, but I was not going to miss this picture!

Aix Sponsa (Wood duck)

I hope the little guy makes it to the water.. this was not the best of all possible weekends to be hatching here.. it's a race weekend in our part of Michigan, and there are more than the usual number of NASCAR Bubba's at the campground- you know, the guys who build giant campfires when the overnight low is only going to be the upper 70's and that number matches the humidity, and they're drinking Miller Lite. Need I say more?

Anyway, he moves pretty quickly for a tiny tot, when you approach him, so I couldn't interfere with "nature" even if I wanted to. Still, the odds are against him, which must be why the hens typically lay 6-15 eggs, and can sometimes lay up to 40 (!). And they do it twice a year. Their numbers are solid, and trail only Mallards in numbers shot each season.

I could be seeing more.

Life Comes At You Fast...

..at least here in New Mexico. And I like fast stuff, so was enthralled by this news of a new "land speed record" out of Holloman Air Force Base. (and not just because the puppy's name is mentioned in the article!)

No indication if Amtrak is looking into the technology for getting the trains to run on time.

T-Rex vs. Blind Faith

So, we managed to extricate ourselves from the trial site last Sunday while there was still a lot of daylight left. That gave us our opportunity to spend the night at the very nice campground of the Dinosaur Valley State Park. As a bonus, there were only 3 other campers in the entire park, so we were able to spread out considerably.

We got hooked up, fed the dogs, and went back into Glen Rose for a damn good Italian dinner at Juliany's. (No review links or web page). Second time we've eaten there, and it was just as good this time as the first.

Monday morning we were able to hit a part of the park's extensive hiking trail system. Extensive enough to have a lot of back country camping locations. Our objective, however, was to follow the trail along the river to see the dinosaur tracks, left in the sand over a hundred million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period. The tracks were left by the two critters below,

one vegetarian, one meat eater. The tracks can be seen clearly in the below image, and also in more detail if you click on the new slide show on the sidebar. There's something just really cool about being able to "time travel" like this.

We spent a couple of hours on the trail, ending up at the two models (see the slide show), before returning to the Express to pack up and get out before the very generous 2PM check out time.

As we left the park, we drove by a neighboring enterprise:

The cleverly named, "Creation Evidence Museum". Yin and Yang? Fact and Fantasy? Interesting juxtaposition. We certainly didn't have the time to go in and visit, and I would have most certainly gotten us tossed out if we did. I expect we'd see a model of Fred Flintstone and his pet, Dino. Overall, it appeared pretty low budget. A bigger-budget, much more subversive version is in operation in Kentucky.
Not to worry, though. Look at those teeth. My T-Rex can shred their Dog-ma.

If You Have to Ask... You Must be Dick Cheney.

The Question? Are Liberals Smarter?

William Saletan at Slate.Com reports on a study that shows that "Liberals' brains 'are more responsive to informational complexity".

Where's the news there? I knew that. Didn't you know that?