Month: April 2009

Public Enemy #1

It has been a struggle, but looks like I am going to make my minimum 6 posts a month goal after all.  I must say that I seriously underestimated the amount of extra time it takes to maintain this goal while fulfilling my commitment to jazz the site up more with images.  Hopefully you noticed that every single post for the new year has had either an accompanying photo or topic relevant graphic.  What this translates to is extra time required for every post.  But I am committed to my loyal but demanding readers, so we journey on.

“Thy Enemy Has Fur!”  Today we set our sites on my wildlife nemesis. That’s right, I am talking about this beast.

Squirrel

Do not be fooled by the cute brown-gray fur or the sparkling in the eyes because this monster is pure evil.  I believe he spends his day scheming how to circumvent every one of the bird feeder protections I can think up.  He’ll first use ninja like stealth to shimmy up the tree and wait until the coast is clear.  Using his cunning ability to blend with the tree trunk colors, he will navigate towards the prize.

Squirrel

Look at him with that smirk on his face.   But what he doesn’t know is I’m on to his little game.  I’ll turn my back to give a false sense of security. Slowly he creeps out of the shadows and begins his decent.  Claw over claw he makes his way to shiny brass container with the belly filling seed.

Squirrel

Actually it is a pretty impressive ability as he basically does a pawstand to stretch as far as possible down the twine.  But what would you expect from devil-spawn?  Once shimmed down the rope, he has to maintain his balance on the slippery top of the feeder.  A top supposedly designed to hurl the rodent to is final resting place.  But no, it doesn’t even seem to give an ounce of concern.

Squirrel

Another check to verify the coast is clear and over the side he goes.   I would love to know what his strength to body weight ratio is.  This must be where the heart gets pumping.  With a constant eye on the nearby doors and windows the feet are put in place to give optimal support yet freedom to totally mangle my feeder.

Squirrel

I can’t take it anymore so I turn to face him… to strike fear in his eyes… to end this folly.  Our eyes remain fixed as he assesses the danger and braces for my attack.  At least that is what I though he was going to do.  Instead, the coward literally leaps from the bird feeder and grabs on to the side of the tree.  The leaping ability puts the twine crawling capability to shame.  Back on solid ground he scampers back up to a position of authority.  What’s he doing now?  You have got to be kidding me?

Squirrel

The little SOB has taunted me a second time with a full flip-off.  Enraged I fling open the door in protest.  In a flash of the tail (yes, he waved it in my face for a third level of taunt) he bolts down the tree and heads out into the forest.  He may have be able to get away clean this time, but I’ve got the camera charged up and waiting his return.  Come to think of it, I’m a little hungry.  I wonder if they really taste like chicken.

Until the NEXT time!

Night Dwellers Part 2

Figured I would go ahead and get another night shot out of the way.  As with the spiders in the previous post these shots were taken late night on our porch.  Some people have bird dogs other rabbit dogs.  I happen to own a frog and toad dog.  When our poodle heads outside, he always does a quick look around the porch to see if there are any toads or frogs hanging around and makes sure he puts his nose no farther than a millimeter away.  The running joke is that Rizzi is a junkie and likes to lick the frogs to get his fix.  That was the case the night I took this frog shot.

Frog

It was definitely started by the flood of lights (not to mention the personal space violation from Rizzi).  I was afraid to get to close so I didn’t have a chance to give a visual size reference, but this one was around 3 inches.  The flash gave some pop to the eyes but again lost in the ‘shopping.  I am guessing this little creature is impossible to see on a tree trunk or in the dead leaves.  Not such great cover on the cement.

Frog

I probably need to pick up a frog reference when I go to pick up my spider reference book.  After quick searches on the web and a follow up with the trusty Wikipedia, the consensus is Gray Treefrog or Hyla versicolor.  Apparently if I had waited for it to jump there would have been color under the legs.  You don’t believe that did you?  Of course I did not just “wait” for it to jump.  After 5 minutes of trying to entice it with my toe in order to get the super cool jumping shot, I gave up and went to bed.

Well, I hope Mr. Gray has a fulfilling life and my thanks to him for being a willing subject.  RIIIIIBBBBBEEETTT

Night Dwellers (part 1 of likely many throughout the year)

One of my chores, if you will, is to take our dogs out before retiring for the night.  Due to the potential for coyotes and other non-friendly pet wildlife we coexists with out in the country, this involves hitting our flood lights which illuminates our entire porch and a large section of the yard.  You cannot be too careful when taking care of a 5 pound dog.  This instant light tends to surprise animals, insects and the like.  As a result, I tend to see some interesting (and sometimes scary) things previously undercover of the night.  I decided to snap a few shots to share the experience with my readers – especially those people who have not experienced the country life.

The first subject for the night dwellers collection is the Wolf Spider.

Wolf Spider

Interesting enough, I have often heard these spiders referred to as Timber Spiders, but I was unable to find that name on the web.  It may be time to hit the bookstores and pick up a spider reference book since at least once a week a new species pops up around here.  They are not venomous to humans, but their hairy texture and potentially large size have a tendency to provoke pretty aggressive stomping by those caught off guard.  As an FYI, the Brown Recluse is really the only venomous spider we have to worry about around here.  Those tend to avoid any contact and therefore not a big concern but I do give a quick scan of the woodpiles and such just in case.

Wolf Spider

My general rule is to let all insects and arachnids live if they are not found inside the house or are smaller than a Loon coin.  This specimen was definitely on the larger end of that (if not bigger) but since it tolerated my flash photography it was given a second chance.  I have a new lens coming for my camera that will give me much sharper shots, but hopefully you can tell these things are extremely hairy and look quite formidable.  The eye reflection was pretty neat through the glass, but did not really make it through the reduction process which makes the image web friendly.  By eye, I mean the reflection coming off of one or more of their eight eyes.

Follow the jump to see another image of the wolf spider taken a few days later.  That one has an egg sac.

Continue reading Night Dwellers (part 1 of likely many throughout the year)

Newspapers RIP 1690 – 2009

Newspapers Tombstone“Newspapers … Black and White but Never Re[a]d and Therefore Dead”

At the beginning of April, I came across a web article where the New York Times Editor Bill Kerry stated that “Saving the New York Times now ranks with saving Darfur as a high-minded cause.”  I was absolutely stunned by this opinion for a number of reasons.  First being the ironic aspect that without disasters such as Darfur, Somalia, Virginia Tech etc. etc. most of these print rags wouldn’t have anything to pontificate their Liberal views about.  As a result, Bill thinks the industry based on talking about what other people do is more important than the actual event.  Second is an assumption that the emerging generations do not actually bother getting their fingers dirty reading newspapers.  There are way to many avenues for information flow these days from the ubiquitous nature of the web and the instant gratification of a Tweet.  Additionally, once a readership is obtained, the roving journalist is no longer tied to a media outlet much like musicians no longer need the middleman to reach their listeners.

The other major issue newspapers have is the press time lag.  As of late, I have been teasing my wife at the breakfast table.  She will start reading me an article she finds interesting in the local paper and I’ll quickly give her the details from the Yahoo News, Drudge Report or local news webs I read at least a day or more previously.  Quite frankly, the only reason I get the newspaper these days is for the Sunday adds and the Police Beat of the Local Section … with a little effort I could even obtain this information on the web.

But there is still one reason Bill’s comments are way off base.  That reason is pure and simply the fact most articles are horribly written or do not focus on the aspects I want to know and care about.  I have scanned in a few articles from our paper to help prove this point.  Follow the jump to see them.
Continue reading Newspapers RIP 1690 – 2009

Would You Like Some “Screw You” On That?

Burger Money

First off, go check out the latest posts at the Dead Reckonings Forum for some fascinating discussion on the impact metal had on naval navigation.  When you are done you can come back here and read my stupid rant on McDonalds.

Back so soon? … or were you captivated by my less than stellar graphic?  Anyway, on to my rant.  My wife and I were on our way to a dog show in Caseyville, IL when we stopped off at a Mickey D’s in Bartonville.  As a note, there were other places we could have stopped to that point including Subway, Hardees and KFC, but I had a taste for some yellow arches.  As we walked up to the counter I noticed a sign had been added to the menu detailing their new policy involving an ADDITIONAL charge for any condiments added to an item that doesn’t normally come on it.  I then immediately recalled that my wife had come home griping about this policy when she went to one in Peoria.

I decided to read it slowly again in order to understand all the nuances, but it basically just resulted in more questions.  The clerk finished ringing up my wife’s order and then prompted me for my selection.  I decided to lead with “so if I get my sandwich plain, do I get it for less?”  This resulted in an answer explaining how the meal is a few cents cheaper than ordering everything together. Apparently, this request went sailing over her head.  I restated the question and emphasized the plain “sandwich” part.  This got a strange look so I tried again and referenced the fact the sign above her stated that adding a condiment increased the priced so removing the standard available condiment should be less.  “No, we don’t do that” was the response … as in not discounting the sandwich.  I decided continuing this discussion was going to get me nowhere, so I ordered by plain sandwich and made a personal decision to contact McDonalds and talk to a graduate of their fine McDonald’s University.  I am still awaiting a response (no, not holding my breadth), but the way I see it, I am obviously paying the cost of a fully condimented (is that a word?) sandwich.  This mean I have been increasing their profit margin every time I order there.  This makes me sick and from this point on I will choose one of the other establishments and get the sandwich the way I want it.

By the way, my wife ended up answering my second question as to whether removing something off the sandwich from the standard condiment list would allow me to get option added for free.  That answer is a big NOPE! – kudos for my wife for actually getting an answer to that scenario.

The good thing about a bad economy (thank you money lending criminals) is I have many many choices to spend my money and you would therefore think establishments would be a little more customer friendly and not jeopardize future sales for the price of a condiment.

Oh well, was that a Quiznos over there?

Happy Easter!!

Easter Bunny

Just a quick post today to wish everyone a happy holiday.  So what do you think of my image today?  I was on my way back from my parents’ house and all of a sudden some rogue synapse fired bringing into memory recall a doodle I had made some years back.  I was with my brother (also at my parents’ house) on Easter Eve.  I think all of his kids are beyond this age now so I will not ruin anything for them, but we were doing some prep for a standard Easter morning surprise.  My brother wanted to add a card to the things we were making to signify who they were left from.  I decided to whip up this little image which quite frankly was going pretty good until in my haste, a rogue whisker was made.  Working in the medium of ink, I was unable to repair it so I embellished a little bit.  I call it “Easter Bunny Smoking Plastic Grass”.  Obviously, my brother vetoed it, but since I can remember, I’ve actually saved and scanned all my various doodles… a bad habit formed from sitting in too many unproductive meetings with an active imagination.  My intent is someday to print them out and bound them into a coffee table book as an interesting conversation piece.

By the way, I was curious enough about the origin of rabbits and eggs I decided to Wiki It.  Interestingly, it is a tradition brought to America from the Germans and was really focused on the hare and not the rabbit.  The association might have originated from a similar nesting trait between the hare and a Lapwing (bird).  Each uses a ground nest and resulted in the myth that hare’s laid eggs in the Spring.

Oh well, hope you had a good holiday.  I’ve been working on some posts so there should be some additional output coming soon.  Until then, I hope Alice isn’t haunted by my grass smoking white rabbit.