GBBC. Get outside and make a difference

Valentines, shmalentines! Do something that really matters - take part in the upcoming Great Backyard Bird Count, sponsored by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society.
The count dates are February 15–18, as in this upcoming Friday through Monday.
Anybody can do it. You don’t have to be an expert, you can do [...]

Geococcyx californianus, aka Badass!

It’s a difficult, and ultimately pointless, exercise to pick a favorite from the local avian wildlife but I will say I’m awfully fond of the roadrunner. Look at him! Isn’t he a magnificent creature?
As some of you may know, roadrunners are in the cuckoo family. The Peterson’s entry begins thusly:
The cuckoo that [...]

Hummingbird Nest

Nests are first constructed from spiderwebs and moss, then twigs, leaves and other material are added on the outside for camouflage.

Bambi-blog

White-tailed deer are ubiquitous where I live, like pigeons in Manhattan. It’s easy to get so accustomed to them that you don’t notice them, other than when they are eating the landscaping or jumping in front of the car.
But then comes fawn season….

It’s all about the legs, baby.

A friend of mine [...]

Just because Sunday creatures great and small pictures.

Ira! He’s pretty much completely shed his winter coat.

Sceloporus olivaceus, aka Texas Spiny Lizard. Actually, this was taken at the same intersection as the Ron Paul sign, just a day later. These are wonderful lizards, primarily found in trees or on roofs, getting up to a maximum of 11 inches in length. This [...]

Eyesore? I think not!

As noted before, I’ve allowed my spare lot to run rampant this spring, and while the thistles are, at chest-high, admittedly ungainly and unkempt, it’s like a Luby’s cafeteria after Sunday church out there! The patch is crowded with bees, their hind legs packed full of pollen, their buzzing audible from a distance, and I’ve [...]

New monarch

Here’s a sample of the offspring of those battered and ragged travelers that arrived from Mexico during March and April: a large, perfect young Monarch.  Its estimated lifespan is possibly five to six weeks, likely much shorter.

Maybe it was trying to find the haunted railroad crossing?

SAN ANTONIO — Police turned on their sirens, then tried to soothe the troublemaker with a lullaby, but this was one stubborn traffic problem on the freeway.
“I don’t remember any of this in the academy,” said Officer Albert Silva, the first to arrive on the scene of the traffic jam. “As far as I know, [...]

Drunk monkeys make better leaders than drunk humans

Being a sub-sub-consonant level blogger, I have only the most humble response to Atrios and Unqualified Offering speculating on this gossip. Rather than opine, I offer only this key bit of research, gleaned from the video below:
“Heavy-drinking monkeys seem to make better leaders than alcoholic humans, and also seem to enjoy greater respect.”

Thanks to [...]

Some portion of their spirit

“And as the dead came back in the sprouting corn, so they might be thought to return in the spring flowers, waked from their long sleep by the soft vernal airs. They had been laid to their rest under the sod. What more natural than to imagine that the violets and the hyacinths, the roses [...]