Canis latrans

These came from the belly of the beast: my external hard drive. These are oldies, took 'em way back in August 2008, while Zac and I were playing (and sometimes working) near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (what an awesome field site!).

I see coyotes fairly regularly but never seem to have the camera or the 500mm on me so these are the only coyote photos I've got.

I remember seeing this guy cruising through this sweet field of flowers. He came pretty close to us and I got overly excited as I tend to do, and had the camera settings all wrong. Totally wrong. ISO was bumped up to something crazy stupid and the f-stop was way too high. I was mildly angry at myself afterwards (just ask Zac). The camera and lens were pretty new at that point, I had only had them for a few months and hadn't even come close to learning proper technique. So, I have a lot of issues with these photos but either way, this coyote is a looker and he was awfully generous to pose for photos so nicely, even though I didn't know what I was doing at the time. I loved watching him trot through the flowers. He was a healthy looking guy and really quite pretty. Abc Wednesday (C) Outdoor Wednesday Nature Notes

Not your brain

More fungi from underneath. Some weird stuff going on there.

Macro Monday Mellow Yellow

Strix varia

Barred Owls! We've been seeing and hearing all sorts of them lately. This one was deep in the trees just around sunset and then flew away. About 35 minutes later when it was much darker, he was back in the same area, perched pretty perfectly on a thick piece of grass. He being all photogenic and stuff. Fairly high ISO shot but I still really like the way it turned out. I think the profile shot is my favorite . Bird Photography Weekly My World World Bird Wednesday

Way up there

Today's Flowers Wordless

The Ranch (Days 27,28)

15, 16 September.

After leaving Guadalupe National Park in West Texas, we hit the road (driving through some serious storm systems) again towards Hill Country. I'm talking about Leakey again, where I'm headed in about a month and where I did field work 2007-2009. Spent some time with Audrey and Mike, basked in the Frio and pretty much just relaxed.

Set up the tents because it was supposed to be a pretty nice night. It ended up being cloudy for a little while but then it got all nice and clear and those gorgeous skies appeared. I took the fly off my tent because I wanted to stare at the stars for a while.

I woke up sometime in the middle of the night, after hearing a rather unsettling noise. I looked up to see a 7 foot rack of steer horns hovering a couple feet from my head. Ah hah! Explained the heavy breathing. It took me a few seconds to realize it was Duke (who I have run into a few times over the years) and I think I said something along the lines of "Duke! Don't step on me!" SOOC

I kinda spooked him and he stomped/ran off. Duke's a little older, harmless, but I wasn't sure how well he could see me or if he had an issue with the tent on his turf so I was a little worried he might possibly squish it, heh heh. Alas, that wasn't his plan and I was glad.

The next day went on a trail ride up to the springs, the headwaters of the Frio River and saw some friends. Then the next day it was time to start driving to Mississippi.

So...finally finished the travel log of the summer roadtrip! (only took me a few months, huh?)

Alligator mississippiensis

This guy is much better in black and white because the water was all brown and murky and meh. Monochrome is a little more fitting. (Taken at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, East Texas last month) Weekend Reflections Black and White Weekend

Century Plant and Sotol

I've been a fan of the Century Plant (Agave americana) for a long time, ever since I lived in Northern Arizona 10 years ago. They don't flower often and die after they do, which is rather tragic, eh? But that's not so bad because there are shoots that are produced at the base of the agave that will grow into it's own. (kinda like when you see one of those weird shoots on the stump of a tree). These guys can get up to almost 30 feet high - impressive and awesome. I really love seeing them scattered around desert landscapes. Sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri) isn't so shabby either. They can get to be around 16 feet or so and have a really nice huge plume of good lookin' flowers. Sotol fiber is crazy strong and used to make all sorts of stuff from walking sticks to shoes to liquor, yeehaw! (Century Plant is the below 2 photos, Sotol the top photo) Skywatch Scenic Sunday

Encounters with Big Cats, Rattlesnakes and Goofy Towhees (Day 26)

(Mountain Short-horned Lizard above, Rainbow Grasshoppers below)

14 September.

After the incident the night before, I was out of the tent by 0630, right at sunrise. I took my camera and some water and hiked down the trail for an hour or so, really quite happy to be alive and kickin.' I was hoping there'd be some nice morning light, but the cloud cover was pushing 100 percent. Still pretty awesome either way. You can see a whole lot of the desert from up there. Good stuff. (Rock Rattlesnake..I think..below)

I got back to my tent and packed it up. It was pretty gross. Since it got flooded the night before, it was caked with mud and dirt and still soaking wet. That was a little lame, I never like packing a wet tent.

Decided to drop the pack and take a detour down another trail. Found a Mountain Short-horned Lizard just off the trail. Ahh! I love these little fellows, and don't get to see them nearly enough. Also tons of the crazy Rainbow Grasshoppers all over the place. I've never seen so many grasshoppers. Everywhere!There were a couple really big Warbler Flocks, saw a few Grace's Warblers (nice).

Started the hike down Bear Canyon, the steepest trail in the park. Pretty steep stuff, uh huh. 3.5 miles of straight downhill. I got to a tight, rocky spot in the canyon and had that feeling that something was there. Yup, a mountain lion. Turned his butt on me and took off, he was about 60 feet away. Pretty close. But given the night before, this cat didn't phase me. I did the thing you're supposed to do when you see a cougar- clapped and acted all big and tough, but he was gone even before I had a chance to do that.

That's the 4th mountain lion encounter I've had. Kind of badass. Not a lot of people get to see those guys in the wild. And I've run into them four times. Four really close times, like one jump and they'd be all over me. It's a pretty thrilling experience. I guess when you're outside all the time like I am, in a lot of really remote places, it happens. Anyway, that was pretty spectacular, but I was actually kind of thinking I'd run into one there. Such a perfect spot for them. So it wasn't all that surprising, oddly enough. I thought maybe this one would be standing on a rock outcrop or something after he bolted, checking me out, but I didn't see him again.

When we got back to the car, ate a bunch of food and attempted to put my tent out to dry a little bit. On my way to the bathroom, I heard a rattle. I look down and there is a coiled Rock Rattlesnake about a half inch from my sandal-clad foot. That one kinda took me by surprise. He was all coiled and rattling and had his head out like he wasn't digging my being there so close. Eh! Nature Notes

Obviously I ran back to the car and grabbed the camera. He had gone under some trees by that point and wasn't in the best position for a photo, but I got a couple of him. Nice! That was the ONLY snake the entire trip. I'm kinda surprised, since I run into snakes pretty often, so I was happy this guy made an appearance.

Oh yeah, while packing the car and drying the tent and stuff, there were a bunch of juvie Canyon Towhees hanging around. They are pretty approachable birds but they were acting all House Sparrow-y, jumping on the table and checking out my food and stuff. How goofy of them! Camera Critters

(where I thought I was going to die the night before, above. Yucca fruit below)

Here Comes the Sun

Big Bend National Park (Texas)

Abc Wednesday (B, Big Bend), Watery Wednesday, Wordless Shadow Shot

White-crowned Sparrows

White-crowned Sparrows. They're adorable. Here they are to prove it. Taken in Big Bend National Park last month. (Juvenile with adult in the background in the top photo, adult in the second photo) Bird Photography Weekly Outdoor Wednesday World Bird Wednesday

West Texas Blooms

A few flowers and some prickly pear fruit from the Guadalupe Mountains in West Texas. I knew what they were at one point but alas, I should have written it down. I can't keep up with flora identification. Boo! But either way, there were tons of wildflowers in the mountains in September. All sorts of colorful stuff. Today's Flowers Mellow Yellow Ruby Teusday

Squirrel Appreciation Day!

It was brought to my attention that today (Jan 21) is Squirrel Appreciation Day. Well, hot damn! How appropriate for various squirrel photos then, right? Mmhmm. I seem to still have a surplus of squirrely photos from this summer, so here's some cuties for you. (From the top: Belding's Ground Squirrels in Mono, California. Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel in the Ruby Mountains, Nevada. Eastern Gray Squirrel in Middle Tennessee) Camera Critters

Blowing in the Wind

Black and White Weekend Macro Monday

And then the lightening tried to kill me. (Day 25)

13 September.

3,000+ feet of elevation gain in less than 5 miles...good stuff there! That was a pretty intense little jaunt with a big pack, but well worth it. Uphill is much more fun than downhill anyway, in my opinion. Also, I was in a crazy rush to get to the backcountry site because of some gnarly clouds hovering around. Really didn't have the desire to be stuck on the side of a mountain, all exposed and stuff, ya know?

Saw a peregrine falcon on the way up, lots of little cacti and flowers too. Gorgeous trail. We set up the tents when we got to the top, it rained for a couple hours but when it stopped there was still enough daylight for a good hike.

Then it was time to make dinner. While this was happening, it started sprinkling. Some lightening. A little thunder. Still far away, no fretting. Yet.

Around 8 30 pm is when my freak out started to unleash itself. It lasted for just under 5 hours, until around 1 am. I'm not totally sure how to convey just how horrified I was. There was a pretty serious meltdown. (it was a good thing Melissa's tent was 100 feet away or so, because it would have been awfully embarrassing if anyone had witnessed the crazy was happening in my tent)

I've seen some kickass storms. I've had wind and rain tear down tents and break two different sets of tent poles. I've spent plenty of time in crappy weather, had to shove myself into two different overhangs while hiking because of lightening storms. I've had all the hair stand up on my body because of extremely close lightening strikes, been knocked over by wind, mild hypothermia, the list goes on.

That stuff was nothing compared to this. Almost 5 hours of continuous lightening. Not the pretty stuff that just goes across the sky, the kind that was hitting the ground all around you, taunting and laughing at you. The furthest away it ever got was 4 miles. The closest it got was RIGHT THERE. It just hung around that entire time. 5 hours. There was some seriously unhealthy things happening in my tent during this time. (Like rocking and shaking, lots of hyperventilating, crying of course, singing the same 3 Peter, Paul, and Mary songs over and over and over again all while lying as flat and spread out as I could, barely moving - minus the uncontrollable shaking).

I started to write in my journal but then came to the conclusion that was pointless, since I was apparently about to die. So I actually considered writing letters to my family. Yeah, really, it was that bad. The thunder was painfully loud and the lightening was brutally bright.

I should mention that the highest point in Texas was just a stone's throw away, more or less, at 8751 feet. We were at about 8400. I debated at one point, when the storm was 4 miles off, to just leave the tent and run down the trail 5-6 miles in the middle of the night and rain. (Unwise, I know). Then thought about just going down in elevation to the more forested area but that would for sure have resulted in some serious navigation issues (and probably being impaled by agave).

Around 1 am (actually, it was 12 53) is when the lightening finally started to die off. Then the downpour started. It had been raining the whole time but not like this. My 6 year old tent started to leak like crazy and it felt like I was on a waterbed because there was ~2 inches of water underneath the tent. I got pretty soaked inside, along with my bag and pad, but I really didn't care at that point. I was just glad to be freaking breathing normally.

I've had some sketchy experiences but they were all generally short lived. Up to this point, there were two (one in particular) mountain lion encounters that were at the top of that list. There was also an issue on the Mexico border in West Texas that was rather disturbing. Nope. The 5 hour lightening storm that wanted me dead has been moved to the top. (The next day I actually saw a mountain lion hiking down the canyon, about 60 feet from me. I didn't even flinch. I'll take the big cats over the bolts, please). Scenic Sunday SOOC My World