Animal stories and news
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about our trip to Point Reyes National Seashore and the lighthouse. This time, I thought I would share a few photos of the wildlife we saw.
Point Reyes has a vast amount of wildlife. It’s a wonderful site for bird watching, whale watching and more.
Continue reading “Point Reyes: The Wildlife”
Jesse, the Jack Russell terrier has returned with more useful dog tricks. He’s amazing. Please visit his YouTube page for more of his videos.
If you look at the sidebar, you’ll see that we have a link to Adventures of A Naked Cat. We have been following Nofuratu’s adventures for a while now. He is an activist and marches in the Pride Parade in his hometown in Canada. He refuses to bend to gender stereotypes and because of that, he looks just as wonderful in a tux as he does in a dress. One of the most fashionable kitties out there, Nofur is also a certified therapy pet who does charity work. In his blog, Nofur writes about the places he visits to and provides wonderful reviews.
Nofur is very sad today because his brother Vlad had to have half his tail amputated after a nasty incident with a door. It comes at a difficult time financially, so if any of you want to chip in a little bit, they have Paypal account: it’s sinful_scarlet@yahoo.com
You can follow the news about Vlad at the their Facebook page.
Vlad update: He’s on his way home from the hospital. Hooray!
A note about the above photos. The copyright is held by Nofur and his family. His mom gave me permission to use them. His blog has a lot more pictures and commentary and we heartily suggest you go see them.
Here are some flowers for Vlad and his family. Get well soon!
The other day, I made a post about musical blinds. Tito is strumming as I type. However, first thing in the morning, Tito and Jenny go into berserker mode and careen around the apartment at full speed. Of course, going at full speed means drifting around the corners and leaping over and on the furniture.
Action as exciting as theirs deserves some good theme music and here it is. It’s called Devil’s Galop, by Charles Williams. Please forgive the typo on the YouTube video. It is named after the galop, a French dance.
And now onward to the cute stuff. We came across some geese and goslings when we went to Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. It was the day we saw the nesting herons.
Have a happy Sunday everybody
The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) is one of the most elegant and beautiful birds to grace our wetlands. The largest of the herons, they stand around 4 ft (122 cm). tall with a wing span of around 6ft (183 cm). They range from Mexico and the United States up through the West Coast of Canada into Alaska. These amazing birds have been living and nesting in San Francisco since 1993.
San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is home to more than just bison, raccoons, and coyotes. It’s home to at least one nesting pair of Great Blue Herons. They live here year round have a nest high in the top of a Monterrey Cypress. They hunt fish in the ponds and lakes in the park. I once saw a heron next to an intersection with a large gopher in its mouth. I couldn’t get a photo, darn it.
I looked them up on the intertubes and discovered that San Francisco Nature Education has a heron watch every year. The herons lay their eggs between January and March and the chicks hatch in April. Volunteers meet at Stow Lake with spotting scopes and spend time educating the public about these beautiful birds. This year, the last one is May 19th. I didn’t find out about it soon enough to go this year. Nest year I’ll try to go.
Here is a great video by the California Academy of Sciences, which is located in Golden Gate Park.
Please forgive the abominable purple fringe in the photos. I adore my San Francisco fog, but it does make some photos difficult with a point and shoot. I’ll have a good DSLR eventually.
The rains are almost done for the season and the clouds will make way for the summer fog, but it has been glorious. When the clouds are that great, it means a trip to Sierra Point with the camera.
After that, we went to McLaren Park to take a walk around the reservoir and watch the dogs play in the water.
The dog never did catch up with the duck. When the dog got too close, the duck would flap partway across the pond to lengthen the lead. Then the dog would chase the duck until it got too close and then it would start all over again. Twenty minutes later, the duck was still leading the dog around the reservoir. The dog got his/her exercise for the day.
After the entertainment provided by the dog and the duck, we headed back to the car. On the way, we found a pair of lizards enjoying the sunshine. The male lizard was doing a little romantic dance for his lady lizard that alternated between head bobbing and push ups. He was quite enthusiastic. We moved past quietly so as to avoid disturbing their budding romance.
We had a few good storms and it rained cats and dogs. I think it rained a guinea pig or two as well. Monday is here and it’s the day before taxes are due. Yeah, sorry for the reminder. This Monday is a good example of the need to escape. I decided to help you escape with cats, dogs, and some good music.
Many of you will remember the Ultimate Dog Tease video by klaatu42 at YouTube. Well, here is the Ultimate Cat Tease by the same. If the screen goes wonky and sputters, it’s deliberate. Just wait. It’s worth it.
It’s time for the dogs. Here is OK Go with a wonderful song and video starring dogs and OK Go, of course.
Here is a LOL from Cheezburger cute enough to make your head ‘splode.
Spring has arrived and the local wildflowers have erupted everywhere. More about that tomorrow. Today, I present a funny LOL starring sphynx kitties and a new video by OK Go. This new video is as colorful as the season. You can visit their YouTube page or their homepage.
It’s 3:40 a.m. and I’m trying to work up a movie review. The boys are pooped and crashed in their spots on the computer desk: Tito in the basket above and Maz in the doggie bed to the side.
Miss Jenny still wants to play and is getting bratty about it. She’s carrying this balled up piece of paper, dropping it in Maz’ bed and steps on him to get a reaction. No dice.
She jumps up to Tito’s lair, almost knocking the desk lamp clipped to the side. I can hear Tito sigh, but he doesn’t budge. Down she comes again, picking up her toy once more.
She bats it into the space between the TV table and the wall and lunges after it, wedging her front end down there while back-pedaling with her rear.
She farts. Oh God she farted.
She comes up victorious with paper in mouth, I guess. I can’t really tell, my eyes watering and the fumes affecting my inner ear: the image and sound on the TV seem out of sync, because sound travels at a different speed after she ‘alters’ the atmosphere. I put my hands down on the desk to steady myself, Jeez… We need to change her diet progressively, but soon. Much depends on this.
Like, the future…
Here are some happy cows for you to enjoy. This video was shot by Compassion in World Farming. I’m not a vegetarian (almost, but not quite), but I feel that all livestock should be raised in this manner, rather than in factory farms.
In addition to happy cows, we have some happy cats wearing hats. They belong to YouTube user Shironekoshiro.
A happy post just wouldn’t be the same without a Maru LOL picture.
