Mountain Goats

These guys are from Glacier National Park, Montana (taken in September). Abc Wednesday (G) Wordless

Bloom Time

Macro Monday Mellow Yellow

Birds in Snow

Well, not heaps of snow. More like some flurries, it is the south after all. The Cedar Waxwings and the Junco (okay, so that appears to be at least a couple inches of snow) are from late December in Tennessee and the Chipping Sparrows and Cardinal are from a couple weeks ago in Mississippi. Birds in snow always make me smile. Bird Photography Weekly World Bird Wednesday

Pika! Pika!

Pikas (Ochotona princeps) have been a favorite animal of mine for a long time. I dunno how I haven't dedicated a blog entry (or few) to them yet, what was I thinking!? I first remember seeing a pika in the Tetons (Wyoming) in 2007. There were a few by my campsite and this caused me to be overcome with excitement. (there was also a chipmunk who jumped into an empty cooking pot and a moose nearby. Cool stuff).

The one shown here is from the Ruby Mountains in Northern Nevada (one of my favorite places). There were quite a few pikas around- I saw at least 9 of them and heard more than that. Holy pika overstimulation!

(fresh food cache above) So. Pikas. They're not the easiest animal to see. In the US, they live in a variety of Western states at pretty high elevations (generally 8,000 feet or more) on rocky slopes near those excellent mountain lakes. They have pretty sweet homes. Unfortunately, they can't tolerate high temperatures well, and have been greatly affected by climate change. That sucks.

(above: doing the pika scream, below: Pika habitat)

Whenever I'm hiking in the mountains I keep an ear out for their adorable and recognizable scream. The first time I heard it I had no idea what it was - took me hours to figure it out. But when I did I just smiled. Side note: I can do an uncanny pika vocalization.

They're pretty social little buggers but also extremely territorial. They spend their days collecting flowers and vegetation and shoving it under rocks, creating some pretty serious food caches. They let it dry and when it's done drying, they'll move it inside to their little humble abode and snarf it up during the winter months. (below: carrying a root of some sort to his cache)

If you haven't seen a pika scramble over rocks with a mouthful of green stuff, you haven't lived ! It is seriously one of the cutest things I have ever seen in the wild.

(Pika land above)

The American Pika needs to be on the endangered list, but that excellent government of ours decided to be the asses they usually are and not list it. This has been going on since 2007 I think- looks like California is going to give it a go this year again. Keep your fingers crossed and petitions signed cause this little friend needs all the help he can get. Camera Critters SOOC My World

Boquillas Canyon

I'm not 100% into this photo but here it is anyway. Early morning shadows on the Rio Grande. I'm not really in a writing mood, so if you want some interesting odds and ends about Boquillas Canyon, listen to this Npr story. (though I have to admit, Npr tends to make me yawn...). Weekend Reflections Weekend in Black and White Shadow Show

Lonesome Old Wind

Lonesome Old Wind is a song by Mike Scott (The Waterboys), the greatest musician of all time. Don't even try to argue with me on this one. He's a genius and I've been listening to his stuff since I was eight years old. Yeah, I'm pretty loyal. And I got to meet him in 2007 which prompted some serious freaking out on my part. But anyway, Lonesome Old Wind seemed like an apt title for this photo. I was out in the field (Carmen Valley in the Sierra Nevada) by myself and it was kinda breezy and I got to watch one of the most beautiful sunrises I've ever seen. (click here, here , and here for other photos of the same sunrise). And I remember I was listening to this song on my way to the site. So, there you have it. Highly recommend that you listen to it. The youtube video has nothing to do with the song or the Waterboys but just listen to it. (really, listen to all of 'em) Skywatch

Big Bend, yup, again.

16 December.

This was our last full day in Big Bend (sad). I guess I forgot to write a journal entry for this day, hmm. We did another desert hike but didn't get started until later in the day. The morning was spent checking out birds at a tiny watering hole we found. I spotted the Crissal Thrasher (two of them) which was a life bird, so that was all exciting for the bird nerds (us). I got a totally crap photo of it just for the record but it's too bad to post here.

I'll post the bird photos from that spot later - though I already put some up of the Hermit Thrushes andRuby-crowned Kinglet.

The hike, like everything in Big Bend, did not dissappoint and I was pretty pumped about it being 80something degrees, since I thrive in the heat. Heat! Sun! Two beautiful things I require. Let's not laugh about that hat I'm rocking. That thing is badass. It's not one of the kinda goofy ones you're thinking of, I promise. And if you saw it up close you'd learn to love it too.

Anyway, the hike followed a sandy wash, with fairly deep sand. Since it was kind of the middle of the day, there were not a lot of wildlife sightings (though we did see another Crissal Thrasher). And that is all. We went back to the watering hole later in the afternoon but there was no action so we left and figured we hit it up one more time before we left the park in the morning. Alphabe-Thursday (T, Texas)

American Alligator

Watery Wednesday Wordless

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers

Smitten, are you? With this badass flycatcher, Tyrannus forficatus? Well, you should be. This first guy's tail was so out of control I had a really hard time getting it in the frame. I took about 25 photos but his gigantic tail was cut off in most of them. (these are three different birds, all within 100 feet of each other)

I took these in the Texas Hill Country in 2009. But since I'm headed back there soon, I was thinking about these birds and looking forward to seeing them in a couple months again. They winter in Central America (though there's a low number of them wintering in Florida now). In the summer they hang out in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, etc. and spreading into surrounding areas after they breed. They look awesome just perching there nonchalantly (and chowing on insects) but they look pretty swell in flight too. Really good looking birds. *Side note, I had a dream about Fork-tailed Flycatchers a couple nights ago. Sigh...I wanna see them* World Bird Wednesday Abc Wednesday (Flycatcher)

Big Bend Continued...

15 December.

We got up all early and stuff again, just around sunrise. Started a 10 mile hike at 0900, after a fairly leisurely breakfast. We were in the shade the first couple of miles and it was pretty cold, but luckily it was all uphill which helped me not freeze too much. Despite being mid December, there were some awesome fall colors surrounding us.

Lots of towhees, hermit thrushes and Mexican Jays, a few White-throated Swifts. Saw some mule deer also. (the birds from the top: Verdin, Roadrunner, Hermit Thrush)

Ate lunch near Emory Peak in the craaaazzzy wind. Lots of Alligator Junipers (one of my favorite trees). We got back down to the trailhead around 3:15. I wasn't done playing yet though, much to Zac's dismay.

After about 30 minutes of begging and a little bitching, I convinced him to hike 5 more miles with me. So we headed to the Lost Mine trail (a pretty popular one, but we went late enough that we only passed 4 people on their way out, yes!). Zac wasn't quite sharing my enthusiasm for this hike, but I practically ran up the trail. Sometimes my energy level concerns me. I should have been tired from the previous ten miles but nope. It was a pretty great day. We played a bunch of yahtzee and ate a scary amount of soup when we got back to the tent. Good stuff! My World Outdoor Wednesday

(Zac took this cool night/morning shot. I guess morning cause this was around 5 am I think. That's Venus over the peak!)