Obstructions

Bill

Johnny Sunset wrote:
> On Jun 3, 10:26 am, Tim McNamara wrote:
>> You have more interesting creatures in your neck of the woods than we do
>> here in the Twin Cities metro. Although in SE MN I have encountered 3
>> foot long rattlers out sunning themselves, and snappers along the river
>> and the backwaters. No big hairy spiders, though.
>
> I have seen llamas, alpacas, camels, peafowl, ostriches, bison,
> miniature donkeys, miniature horses and burros while riding in
> Illinois, all kept as exotic pets or livestock.
>
>> Dogs are the main form of fauna that bicyclists encounter around here,
>> roaming about the countryside singly or in packs thanks to ignorant
>> owners who saw "Born Free" as children. Had to outsprint a boxer
>> yesterday. Riding on the other side of the river, I note that
>> Wisconsonites tend to be more responsible owners and keep their dogs
>> under control.
>
> Loose dogs chasing the Holstein-Friesians are not considered
> acceptable. However, I have had some unpleasant experiences with
> Shepards (aka Alsatians) who think the public road is part of the
> territory they need to guard.
>
> --
> Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
> The weather is here, wish you were beautiful
>
If you get the chance to befriend them without getting bit they will
come up to you for a quick petting encounter. Most of the dogs on my
regular ride roads now know that I will stop and engage them in some
friendly interaction. Of course there are some hard cases that need a
2x4 upside the head, but they are rare. There is one pair that I ride by
and one comes up to get attention while the other hangs back and growls.
Some dogs are dense, some are not.
If you get the chance to dismount and put the bike between you and the
dog, my experience is that they will think twice when you are staring
them down.
Patience usually wins.
I've only been bitten once and that was a complete ambush, but animal
control made that one go away for keeps.
There is a leash/yard law in California but nobody obeys that particular
law.
Happy (unbitten) trails.
Bill Baka

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

[snip]

Another great blue heron decided to tease me, flapping off and then
perching on a distant juniper across a deep gully:

http://i9.tinypic.com/62f7gpv.jpg

Silly bird looks like a misplaced weathervane.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Bill

carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
> On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> Another great blue heron decided to tease me, flapping off and then
> perching on a distant juniper across a deep gully:
>
> http://i9.tinypic.com/62f7gpv.jpg
>
> Silly bird looks like a misplaced weathervane.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel

I've managed to scare a few, while riding on pavement, and they look
like a small plane taking off. We have rice fields next to the road
where I'm at.
Bill Baka

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

[snip]

This was as close as I expected to get to a great blue heron today:

http://i8.tinypic.com/4pniy5g.jpg

You need binoculars to see that's a great blue heron out on its nest
in the dead tree in the middle of the reservoir.

On top of another bluff, I was annoyed by a great blue heron that
flapped away into the deep gully below us. I hadn't noticed it
perching right below me on the steep slope.

It landed on a tree far down the slope, so I dug my camera out to take
a picture, but it flew off again before I was ready.

"Drat!" I said, or words to that effect, and put the camera away.

As soon as I had everything zipped up, two more great blue herons
flapped away from where they had been perching right below me, just
out of sight on the steep slope and even nearer than the first bird.

"Bother!" I said, or perhaps a slightly different phrase, one that
Christopher Robin took care not to let Winnie the Pooh hear. I hate
being mocked by these large birds.

They both flew off out of sight.

I was about to leave when a juniper tree just below me cautiously
moved its foot-long bill to see what I was doing. I took the camera
out again and took some bad pictures in poor light. Here's one:

http://i14.tinypic.com/5y84lg4.jpg

The bird is about fifty feet below me, down a steep slope. The brown
water and white shale much further down are below a fifty-foot drop
beyond the greenery. The first three herons were much closer. Here's
the fourth bird, fuzzily flying off:

http://i16.tinypic.com/6b26fzp.jpg

Instead of vanishing, this fourth great blue heron landed on another
juniper tree, far below me, so I plodded down the slope, trying to
keep an eye on the bird. I soon lost sight of the huge bird, but I
kept looking up hopefully at every juniper.

Meanwhile, the great blue heron was down on the ground, playing turkey
or roadrunner. I noticed it by accident and took more bad pictures
like this one:

http://i11.tinypic.com/4t71kk7.jpg

The stupid heron finally gave up imitating a roadrunner, flew across
the bottom of the gully, and perched on a dead juniper on the far
side:

http://i17.tinypic.com/5z78oc5.jpg

The light was bad, at least for an automatic camera and an incompetent
photographer, but the heron stayed on its tree while I trudged up
through the weeds, taking more pictures like these:

http://i15.tinypic.com/54dsakg.jpg

http://i12.tinypic.com/4mk0l02.jpg

http://i10.tinypic.com/63j5bo7.jpg

http://i10.tinypic.com/52gav87.jpg

http://i10.tinypic.com/5x3f98n.jpg

Note the clawed feet. It may have decided to stay where it was because
unclipping those things from a dead juniper isn't easy.

By then, I was right under the bird, so I moved away and climbed up
the shale to the left and ended up about thirty feet away, almost at
eye-level with the bird. By sheer luck, I stumbled onto an angle with
better lighting:

http://i17.tinypic.com/4vi8aas.jpg

There! That'll teach those tall birds to tease me!

CF

G.T.

<carlfogel@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:sql46358g49lado23egmsv90eq1do5o0p9@4ax.com...
>
> Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
> than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
> nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
> road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
> http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>

Damn, that is one ugly turtle, but I guess I prefer tortoises:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3645128

Greg
--
Ticketbastard tax tracker:
http://ticketmastersucks.org/tracker.html
"Run over your friends in stolen Volkswagens
And tell them I sent you, and tell them I sent ... you" - Mclusky

Dane Buson

G.T. <getnews1@dslextreme.com> wrote:
>
> <carlfogel@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:sql46358g49lado23egmsv90eq1do5o0p9@4ax.com...
>>
>> Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
>> than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
>> nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
>> road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
>> http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>>
>
> Damn, that is one ugly turtle, but I guess I prefer tortoises:

Now, now I'm sure he's very attractive to a turtle of the appropriate sex.

> http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3645128

It looks drier, but not noticably more attractive to my eye. Your
mileage obviously varies.

--
Dane Buson - sigdane@unixbigots.org
Hark, the Herald Tribune sings,
Advertising wondrous things.

Angels we have heard on High
Tell us to go out and Buy.
-- Tom Lehrer

G.T.

"Dane Buson" <dane@unseen.edu> wrote in message
news:f911k4-uac.ln1@curare.zuvembi.homelinux.org...
> G.T. <getnews1@dslextreme.com> wrote:
>>
>> <carlfogel@comcast.net> wrote in message
>> news:sql46358g49lado23egmsv90eq1do5o0p9@4ax.com...
>>>
>>> Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
>>> than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
>>> nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
>>> road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
>>> http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>>>
>>
>> Damn, that is one ugly turtle, but I guess I prefer tortoises:
>
> Now, now I'm sure he's very attractive to a turtle of the appropriate sex.
>
>> http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3645128
>
> It looks drier, but not noticably more attractive to my eye. Your
> mileage obviously varies.
>

I think for me it's mostly that the desert tortoises have thin elegant
necks, albeit very wrinkly necks. Whatever turtle that is in Mr Fogel's
photos has a big triangular blob of a neck/head.

Greg
--
Ticketbastard tax tracker:
http://ticketmastersucks.org/tracker.html
"Run over you friends in stolen Volkswagens
And tell them I sent you, and tell them I sent ... you" - Mclusky

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:17:28 -0700, "G.T." <getnews1@dslextreme.com>
wrote:

>
>"Dane Buson" <dane@unseen.edu> wrote in message
>news:f911k4-uac.ln1@curare.zuvembi.homelinux.org...
>> G.T. <getnews1@dslextreme.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> <carlfogel@comcast.net> wrote in message
>>> news:sql46358g49lado23egmsv90eq1do5o0p9@4ax.com...
>>>>
>>>> Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
>>>> than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
>>>> nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
>>>> road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
>>>> http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>>>>
>>>
>>> Damn, that is one ugly turtle, but I guess I prefer tortoises:
>>
>> Now, now I'm sure he's very attractive to a turtle of the appropriate sex.
>>
>>> http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3645128
>>
>> It looks drier, but not noticably more attractive to my eye. Your
>> mileage obviously varies.
>>
>
>I think for me it's mostly that the desert tortoises have thin elegant
>necks, albeit very wrinkly necks. Whatever turtle that is in Mr Fogel's
>photos has a big triangular blob of a neck/head.
>
>Greg

Dear Greg,

On land, common snapping turtles extend their necks only slightly,
unless striking, which is too fast to see.

Underwater, the common snapper often extends its neck fully as it
wanders about on the bottoms of ponds. Here are some pictures of a
small common snapper with its neck extended in the natural fasion,
underwater:

http://www.chelydra.org/guest_pg11.html

If anything, snappers have longer necks relative to shell size than
other turtles.

Try to stay calm when you look at the neck exposed by the Playboy-pose
of the modest snapper in the second photograph on this page:

http://www.chelydra.org/snapping_tu...tification.html

Those who prefer exotic models may enjoy this creature, which occupies
much the same niche in South America that the common snapper occupies
in North America:

http://whozoo.org/Anlife99/diegoben/finalmataindex.htm

Caution: explicit long neck pictures!

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

[snip]

Just before my ride, today's 10% chance of thunderstorms rose to 60%
and then 100%. The rain led a large female snapping turtle to lay her
eggs on the far side of a chain link fence by the path.

Like an idiot, I was so busy trying to shield the camera from the rain
blowing into my face that I forgot that the sight is _above_ the
damned lens, so all the pictures hark back to the half-faced Wilson
character in "Tool Time":

http://i14.tinypic.com/4yzd45w.jpg

To my surprise, you can see her face and eye if you view the picture
full size. She was about the size of two 18-pounders that I kept as
pets.

When the rain stopped, I looked hopefully for spiny softshell turtles
out laying eggs, but they continue to elude me this year. Instead, I
stumbled upon a beast closer to three feet than two.

Better focus on its head:

http://i18.tinypic.com/6baor3k.jpg

Whole beast:

http://i10.tinypic.com/66uy8ec.jpg

It's a corn snake at the northwest edge of its range, rarer, but
easily confused with a bullsnake until you see the face stripe.

Alas, this was a mature bullsnake:

http://i17.tinypic.com/61n6niq.jpg

Wheelbase is about 41 inches, so the poor thing was about four feet
long and might have grown twice as long.

CF

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:09:11 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

>On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

>I stumbled upon a beast closer to three feet than two.
>
>Better focus on its head:
>
>http://i18.tinypic.com/6baor3k.jpg
>
>Whole beast:
>
>http://i10.tinypic.com/66uy8ec.jpg
>
>It's a corn snake at the northwest edge of its range, rarer, but
>easily confused with a bullsnake until you see the face stripe.
>
>Alas, this was a mature bullsnake:
>
>http://i17.tinypic.com/61n6niq.jpg
>
>Wheelbase is about 41 inches, so the poor thing was about four feet
>long and might have grown twice as long.
>
>CF

Embarrassingly, I grew suspicious, looked back, and found an example
of someone (me) mis-identifying a corn snake as a bullsnake.

This was actually a small corn snake, not a bullsnake:

http://i6.tinypic.com/5y13okk.jpg

The coloring, scale pattern, and facial stripe were painfully obvious
in my memory. Sure enough, when I found the picture, it was about as
bad as mistaking a tubular for a clincher.

In contrast, this really was a small bullsnake:

http://i11.tinypic.com/52fvkno.jpg

Bullsnakes are yellower than corn snakes, their scale patterns are
less regular, and they lack the facial stripe. Now I know that staring
through the view-finder can lead to really silly mistakes.

Here's a bullsnake face with no corn-snake stripe on either side, much
less two of them coming to a vee on the forehead:

http://i6.tinypic.com/4ztygba.jpg

Whew! Now I can sleep tonight.

CF

Chuck Davis

<carlfogel@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:98ou63d4gm0umn4slrro099a473vap3r8l@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:09:11 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
> ......
> Embarrassingly, I grew suspicious, looked back, and found an example
> of someone (me) mis-identifying a corn snake as a bullsnake.
>
> This was actually a small corn snake, not a bullsnake:
>
> http://i6.tinypic.com/5y13okk.jpg
>
> The coloring, scale pattern, and facial stripe were painfully obvious
> in my memory. Sure enough, when I found the picture, it was about as
> bad as mistaking a tubular for a clincher.
>
> In contrast, this really was a small bullsnake:
>
> http://i11.tinypic.com/52fvkno.jpg
>
> ......

The difference is obvious. One has its head on the right, the other's head
is on the left. 8)

ChuckD

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 04:34:34 GMT, "Chuck Davis"
<Newsgroup@hiscastle.net> wrote:

><carlfogel@comcast.net> wrote in message
>news:98ou63d4gm0umn4slrro099a473vap3r8l@4ax.com...
>> On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:09:11 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>> ......
>> Embarrassingly, I grew suspicious, looked back, and found an example
>> of someone (me) mis-identifying a corn snake as a bullsnake.
>>
>> This was actually a small corn snake, not a bullsnake:
>>
>> http://i6.tinypic.com/5y13okk.jpg
>>
>> The coloring, scale pattern, and facial stripe were painfully obvious
>> in my memory. Sure enough, when I found the picture, it was about as
>> bad as mistaking a tubular for a clincher.
>>
>> In contrast, this really was a small bullsnake:
>>
>> http://i11.tinypic.com/52fvkno.jpg
>>
>> ......
>
>The difference is obvious. One has its head on the right, the other's head
>is on the left. 8)
>
>ChuckD

Dear Chuck,

Sometimes even that handy rule doesn't help. Thelma and Louise were
_both_ corn snakes:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...woheadsnake.jpg

Some details:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...oheadsnake.html

Naturally, there was a Mary-Kate and Ashley:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/scienc...eaded.snake.ap/

"We" is frankly an uninspired name:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14391706/

An unnamed Spanish entry:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1910471.stm

And more . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycephaly

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

[snip]

Small bullfrogs, politely staying off the course and reflecting the
silly camera flash on a cloudy evening:

http://i19.tinypic.com/4zan9s8.jpg

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

[snip]

An email asked if there are any botanical obstructions on my daily
ride, so here's a picture of the strangest plant that I notice, a
blooming century plant about ten feet high just around the corner from
my driveway:

http://i12.tinypic.com/61t603o.jpg

Before blooming, it looks like a gigantic asparagus growing out of a
bayonet plant. This one is about two feet taller than the street sign.

A more common and shorter obstruction:

http://i14.tinypic.com/52pukk9.jpg

And at last a lesser earless Colorado relative of the Komodo dragon
stayed still long enough for a picture:

http://i11.tinypic.com/524co79.jpg

Usually I see Holbrookia maculata only as it skitters off the pavement
at high speed. As a boy, I admired but could never match friends who
caught specimens using fishing poles with tiny nooses.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel