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| Great Blue Heron with catfish (Click on photos to enlarge) |
In Boca Raton, Florida, a Great Blue Heron caught a catfish as
large as its head. Standing in the water, it spent minute upon minute upon
minute repositioning the fish in its beak, at times shaking the fish, placing
the fish on the shore to start over, or dipping it in the water.
A bicyclist is riding the wrong way on a one-way street, next
to the line-up of parked cars. A pedestrian steps out…
A bicyclist is riding the wrong way on a one-way street, next
to the line-up of parked cars. A car door opens…
A bicyclist is riding the right way (with traffic) on a
two-way street, next to the line-up of parked cars. A door opens…
Griffith Park, entirely within the City of Los Angeles, has
signs at every entrance warning visitors that the Park contains rattlesnakes. One
LA newbie exclaimed “Why did they put rattlesnakes in the Park!?” The answer
was that the snakes were there long before it was designated a park. Snakes can
strike to a distance of 1/3 to 1/2 body length. More to the point, snake strikes
occur in one-twentieth to one-tenth of a second, whereas human reaction time is
about one-fifth of a second. Snake beats human every time.
In addition to rattlesnakes (and coyotes), Griffith Park is
home to one male mountain lion known as “P22.” The lion has a GPS tracking collar,
so park staff know its location at all times. This did not prevent P-22 from
entering the Griffith Park Zoo in March 2016, scaling a fence, then killing and
carrying off a koala. P22 has TWO Facebook accounts.
The Assabet River rises after every rainstorm, after every snow-melting
day. During winter weeks the water level can slowly drop while the air temperature
is below freezing. Along the branches of trees that have fallen into the river,
icicles form. Rather than tapering to a sharp point, the bottoms are blunt-ended,
terminating just about the water’s surface. In sunlight, a long row of these,
each several inches long, look like the pendant glass of a chandelier, shimmering
white.
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| Great Blue Heron preparing to swallow fish |
The same river, summer, observed from a bridge: there are
fish down there, swimming just fast enough to counter the flow of the sluggish
low-water river. The fish are doubly camouflaged. From above, the dark upper surface
blends into the dark tones of the river bottom. From below, silvery scales blend
into the brightly refractive surface of the water above. One way to spot fish
is to look for shadows on the bottom, then find the fish above.
Get in the habit of throwing food scraps out the back door
and there will be visitors. Footprints from cats, skunks, raccoons and opossums
can be differentiated in a night’s dusting of snow. The morning after tossing out
some lamb shanks a murder of crows was working over the remains, scattering
when a pair of ravens dropped in.
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| Great Blue Heron swallowing fish |
One sunny late August day, gusting cold front blowing in, water
temperature in the 70s but air temperature in the low 60s – the result for one
small-boat sailor tacking into the wind was gradually progressive hypothermia.
Each splash of water felt warm on a cotton T-shirt. Between splashes, evaporative
cooling chilled. Physical clumsiness set in, and a touch of mental fog. A gust
tipped the boat over. Swimming to the overturned hull, flipping the boat back
upright and climbing in was more wearying than it should have been. Same the
second time. The sailor turned toward home, miles away.
Roadside, rural Pennsylvania: A fawn was thrashing about in
the ditch next to the road, unable to stand, legs broken from being hit by a
car, but otherwise apparently not seriously hurt. A doe stood in the wooded
edge of the road. Cars drove by, occupants observing or oblivious. A bicyclist
rode by. Stopped. Laid down the bike. Picked up a rock. Walked back…
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