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Wildlife update: yesterday's sightings include a big snapping turtle near a friend's house, an unidentified falcon/kestrel/small hawk in my neighborhood, a giant Argiope spider in the same friend's yard, and a woodpecker dining in a tree near my bus stop. Not bad for spending most of the day cooped up in the lab.
Also yesterday, as my bus passed the same lovely stretch of forest that it always passes, and I stared out the window as I often do when I've left my book at home, I couldn't help but think, "Man, I'm gonna be sad when they turn this into condos." Though that particular area is presently state-owned, there are several forested areas in town with big wooden signs that say "AVAILABLE: shopping center site" (acutal sign just barely a mile from my house) or "AVAILABLE: zoned multifamily" or some such. Every time I pass one, I really wish I could buy those tracts of land, to keep them from cutting down the trees and draining the swamps. (What's better than a swamp? Seriously.) I don't have the hundreds of thousands it would take to save those areas, and most likely there will be condos or a mall on those forests before too long, but all hope is not lost: organizations like the Nature Conservancy exist for those of us who can't afford such things to pool our resources for this very purpose, and that makes me feel a bit better.
Posted by lld at 10:08 PM | TrackBack
Owls have the best genus names. Tyto, Asio, Bubo, Otus, Strix, to name a few. Species names like Strix nebulosa. Of course nothing beats the best genus/species name of all time, Monstera deliciosa, in the plant kingdom. I'm also quite fond of the simple names like Rattus rattus--there's just something about Rattus rattus that's charming and poetic.
Our backyard has been full of wildlife lately. Today I saw two bird species I'd never seen in our yard before--several brown-headed nuthatches and a summer tanager. I also heard a call I have never before heard, but I couldn't get sight of it. I spotted the first few hummingbirds of the year recently, and a few days ago I'm pretty sure I saw a veery.
Saturday night while we were driving back to the Toyota dealership to get our new Prius, we saw in the headlights something jumping across the road. "Look at that huge grasshopper--or--is it a frog?" "It's a frog!" It stopped before reaching the safety of the lawn on the other side of the road, so I got out of the car to help it along. As I approached it, I figured it would get scared and hop away, but it just sat there frozen in the lights. I leaned in and it still didn't move, so I scooped it up in my hands. It was really slimy; I used to play with frogs all the time when I was a kid, but they were the long, green, creek-dwelling frogs, and this one was likely a treefrog. I don't think I've ever handled a treefrog before. I put the frog down in the grass and it immediately took a giant hop into the night.
Posted by lld at 09:57 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
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