Mammals of Assateague Island - Photos

Bottlenose dolphin

Eastern cottontail

Sika deer

Harp seal

Virginia opossum

Raccoon

River otter

Delmarva fox squirrel

Assateague ponies playing at sunset - Happy and Bodacious Bob

Spring Baby Photos

Local Colorado Predators - Photos

Black bear

Bobcat

Coyote

Fox

Mink

Raccoon

Skunk

Mountain lion - photo taken two days ago within the

Boulder city limits

More Assateague Island (Maryland) Photos

Young seal

Kite flying in February

The old ferry landing

Trail along a gut...

and the maker of the trail

Allison Turner explains the wear of teeth on a horse skull to an

author who was visiting to gather information

Adult harbor seal

Assateague Island Photos

Stretching piping plover chick

Maryland stallion chasing a mare

Assateague mushrooms

An Earth Day request

Assateague raccoon

Assateague Sika deer

Northern Assateague, looking toward Ocean City

Deafness and Death

I read with great interest the small news item from the Journal of Neuroscience stating that if a person is immersed, or concentrating, on something visual, they may experience "inattentional deafness" and ignore someone speaking to them.  Just about everyone in my family suffers from this "inattentional deafness" - especially when reading, writing, or creating art.  I thought that most people suffered from it.  The distracting items that they tested people with were books, music, and video games.  I don't play video games, but I do read and listen to music and become deaf to other things in the world around me.
   Both of my parents became deaf when reading, and Dad did it when listening to operas, too.  Both I and my sister become lost in books we're reading, and we cannot listen to music with headphones or earbuds and operate machinery (for instance, driving a car).  We become a part of the story and/or a part of the music - and the rest of the world ceases to exist.  We become deaf and dumb and totally non-responsive, unless we are touched.  Being touched by someone, or something (a cat or dog tongue) will break the spell of immersion.  In a way, it's wonderful - one can escape from the world.  However, being able to escape so easily sometimes makes one avoid responsibilities.  I try to never do that, although I once did....
   I blogged about the death of Gladys, the Rhode Island Red hen the other week.  The owners of the hens and cats returned home Monday afternoon.  Tuesday evening, as it grew dark, Jan was puttering around the back of the garden, with the hens in close proximity - they were on the look-out for treats.  As it became quite dark, Jan led the hens back to the coop at the front of the garden.  Usually the hens are happy to hop inside once it's dark, but they didn't want to go in last night.  Jan closed the front door, which had been open all day, and picked the hens up and placed them, one by one, inside the main nesting box.   When she went out this morning and opened the front door, she expected the usual parade of clucking hens to appear.  She found, instead, Dagma, dead and covered in blood at the front threshold.  She opened the lower side door, and a huge raccoon ran past her, hissing.  She opened the top door and saw that all of the hens were dead.  She's going to give up chickens for a while....    And I can't blame her.....

Assateague National Seashore Sights

Horseshoe crab on the beach

Raccoon

Japanese elk fawn (aka Sika deer)

Pink see-through fantasia - a sea cucumber

Mare and foal

Marsh sunrise

Surf pony

Ernie Visit

Another half-inch of snow yesterday - definitely not what was predicted...  We're supposed to reach 40 degrees today - but it's very grey and overcast outside; I don't know if we'll warm up that much (it's all of 10 degrees F, right now).  The kits went out and ran around for 35 minutes this morning, and both are curled up asleep at the moment.  Rodney, who lives next door, has had a guest this weekend and a huge dog.  Lovey keeps growling at it when it comes onto our patio.  
   Lovey was growling around midnight this morning, so I walked over to the door and peeked out - no dog, but Ernie, the young raccoon, was sitting directly under the door handle, while helping himself to peanuts that the squirrels had left.  We held eye contact for a few minutes; then I went to the refrigerator and grabbed a small chunk of broccoli, and took it back to the patio.  Ernie scooted away about two feet when I opened the door, and I closed it as soon as I had placed the vegetable outside.  Ernie appeared to be delighted with his greenery...  He sat down and ate every bit of the broccoli.  If I had been able to take a photo of him without the flash going off, I would have.
   I finished reading the five volumes of  Herbie Brennan's Faerie Wars last night.  I enjoyed them, and I'm sure, that I had I read them as a youngster, I would have totally loved them.  There's always the good versus evil aspect, and teenagers rebelling against authority and having scary adventures; there is magic and spells, and high camp scenes, as well as thoughtful observations.  If you have a child who's between, say, ten and fourteen, and they like to read,I highly recommend this series!

Dirty Vehicles

Today my sister is having her third chemo-therapy treatment; and I hope that everything goes well.  The adventure car from last Friday finally got a bath - but I'm discovering that these sport-utility vehicles have a lot of spots on their "backside" that automated car washes don't touch.  There's a lip over the top of the rear window, and the area under the lip doesn't get touched; most of the license tag stays filthy; and the vehicles that have a rear-view camera set into the tag surround always need a hand-wash, as well.  And, of course, since it's a semi-warm day, with no precipitation expected until Tuesday, the lines at the car wash were huge.  One place washed over 1200 cars in 8 hours yesterday.  At least I only had 4 cars in front of me - but it still took 50 minutes to get inside and have the automated machine start running through the 7 cycles.  Yes, seven.  With all the salt and other chemicals on our roads, I always get a hub scrub and a turbo power rinse for the undercarriage.  Thank goodness I don't actually own a car of my own.  It costs $6 to $25 for each wash, deciding on how much you want done...  And the owner will reimburse me - I only drove the car home, to the car wash, and will drive back to the Denver Airport to pick the family up Saturday evening.....  Between dirt, sand, grit, and all the chemicals, cars get extremely filthy in a very short time on the roads.
   There is a very large raccoon that visits Rosie's house. The critter's hind feet are almost half the size of one of my hands....  Either a giant of it's kind, and/or, extremely well fed...
   We've been having from 8 to 10 squirrels in sight at one time at the apartment - I'm hoping that the suspected tularemia has either passed, or never was.  Ernie, our local apartment raccoon, has been missing for the last few months.  But we seem to have a great number of smaller birds, as well as the regular visits of a red-shafted flicker and the red-tailed hawk.  I just have to keep a close watch on Lovey and Nedi, if they're outside, when the hawk is is sunning on our fence line.

Sinister-Looking Critters - Photos

Tortoise

Raccoon

Mouse

Shoebill

Frog

Husky

Cat