Saturday was spent outside.

1. On Saturday I met Cody. He's a registered Quarter Horse and was born in Hawaii. Yup, born in Hawaii and sent to Iowa. Mudd didn't know what to make of him at first (just a tiny bark or two) but I figure its best to get the dog used to horses. It lessens the chances of a brutal horse stomping.
2. Another day another fossil. Not to mention a very nice circular stone with a symmetrical hole in the center and flattened on the bottom.....my best guess, Native American bead. But, who knows...it's my rock. Other then that: some horned coral, some dead clams, the center of a geode, and a rock that looks like a bird standing on a stick.

Birding.

A tree full of bald eagles.
Trumpeter Swans!? Well, I'm pretty sure these big white birds are trumpeter swans. I saw them floating in the Des Moines River last Saturday and they peaked my interest. I've only seen swans in ponds, never in a river. I did some research and read that the Midwest is working on restoration projects to reintroduce these FORTY POUND birds back into the ecosystem. Looks like it may be working.

a snake tail.

UPDATE! : I've been told that this is not a young bull snake but is an adult brown snake. I've got some smart friends. nov.2

The dog and I have been taking a lot of walks. Every time there's a walk there's an adventure. Saturday, Mudd's ears perked up and he began to paw at dry grass. Of course, this perked my human interest and I bent over to separate the grass blades and maybe figure out what the dog was looking at.
This is what I found. But it's kind of an odd story. The snake was small, about seven inches long, maybe 9. I reached down to pull the snake off the grass and had a hell of a time trying to get it to release it's grip. A small snake couldn't hold on that strong, right?

I was partially correct. I finally got the snake off the grass and it was super heavy. I looked at the bottom of the snake and a small grey mammal was voraciously gnawing, biting, shaking, and HANGING from the snakes tail. It was a shrew and it was trying to eat the snake! Wow. Eventually the shrew released it's death grip and disappeared into the tall grass. I stood there, befuddled.

I shook off the shock, photographed the snake and returned it to the wild.

an interesting optical illusion.

I managed to catch a pretty great optical illusion on camera.

Highlight of my trip to the Blank Park Zoo: the carp pond. Holy hell was that pond packed with gigantic goldfish. These things had to be 10 pounds a piece and were hungry as hell. I'm kind of scared of fish so I decided to do something bold....I stuck my finger in a carp mouth! It bit me! But it made me laugh so hard I almost fell into the stinky fish pond.

Check out this beastly caterpillar. Regular sized spoon...gigantic caterpillar.

animal photos from vacation-time!

1. An afternoon jaunt turned into a rare animal sighting. Apparently, albino squirrels are fairly common around the Minneapolis area and every local has several albino squirrel sighting stories. It's lucky Rachel spotted one, now we have a story as well.

2. I found a fuzzy and hilarious caterpillar at the Springdale Cemetary in Peoria. Poor buddy, we harassed him for a full ten minute photo session before releasing him on a nearby tree. (identification: the Banded Tussock Moth, Halysidota tessellaris.)
3. The sheep donned fancy outfits at the Minnesota State Fair. I can't decide if I think the outfits are adorable or clannish.
4. I almost stepped on this gnarly fellow.
5. Suckling pigs! They're cute but those teets are kind of grossing me out. Have a nice Friday, guys

Check out what I almost Hit on the way to work.

Its 6:30am and I'm heading to my car and I'm mad. I've got to go to work. I've got a bunch of deadlines. I need to exercise. I'm hungry. I'm in a bad mood and when I'm in a bad mood I like to drive faster then necessary.

I slam my car door, buckle up, turn on the engine, drive down the alley and turn onto the country road that heads towards work. Driving 80 feels great at the moment. I'm living dangerously and crack the windows to feel the morning air. My mood improves.

At the bottom of a hill I can see large shadows loitering in the road. I have no idea what they are. I'm going 80 mph and these shadowss are huge! I brake as hard as I can, the car begins to swerve and there are SEVEN horses right in front of me. I finally stop and need a paper bag to breathe into. I'm 10 feet away from the horses that almost did me in. Jittery as hell and barely able to hold the steering wheel I try to gain composure but all I can smell is burning rubber.

I honk at those stupid horses until they start running, I follow them with my car into the area where I assume they came from. And I drive to work.

Stupid fucking morning. I was so happy I didn't hit them I brought doughnuts to work.

This is my beta fish, Meatloaf. This week was our one year anniversary. We made it, Meatloaf! I've kept your bowl clean and you haven't kicked the bucket (knock on wood, knock on wood!).

Other Stupid names I've given my Beta Fish.

1. Vanillaroma (named after a car air freshener, the name rolls off the tongue)
2. Beef Wellington (Mr. Beefy for short)
3. John Fredrick Esq. (named after my English boyfriend...I think it freaked him out, I was 18)
4. Opie-Fish (he creeped me out. I think he was an albino)

Happy Anniversary, Fish. May we celebrate again next year...but i won't hold my breath.

everything is so small.

http://www.herpnet.net/Iowa-Herpetology/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=43

While I walk, I stare at my feet...that's why I find so many things. I found this guy by my big toe. He was about as big as my thumbnail. What a neat lil' specimen for my photo archives.

its been a good bird week.

This Robin, named Bandit Rodchester, has a zip tie on his ankle. My only guess is someone hand raised him before he flew the coop. He's been hanging out at the campsite for over two weeks. I can hand feed him mulberries.
These are the turkey vultures of Buzzard Island. I don't know why they hang out on the wood pile but sometimes there's as many as 50 turkey vultures walking around. It's pretty gruesome.
Cranes from the wall of Fongs Pizza.
Iowa has pelicans. This still shocks me. Why are you here? Why?

Small brown bat. Photographed on the hood of my Honda by the DesMoines River.

Animal specimens helps inform the content of my work (no animals are ever harmed by my hands and have died natural deaths). I am able to get an up close encounter without all the hassle of harassing small mammals. The photographs are often incorporated into complicated paintings or drawings. Real observations of real animals are important to my work and its more personal then picking an image to draw off of google image search (not that I don't do that occasionally).

cute guys.

The toad has a natural defense mechanism. Urine. Noone likes to get peed on. He tried to pee on me but only managed to pee all over the porch. His natural defense didn't work on me...but I'm pretty sure his skin secretions gave me a mini-rash.
This slug was about 4 inches long. Brag-able? nope.

poor baby.

I noticed a lot of bird chatter. Oriole bird chatter, to be exact. Frantic and concerned oriole chatter. I couldn't figure out why two adult birds were so upset with me...until I almost stepped on their reason. A tiny baby bird was sitting, scared, next to my big toe. I knew I couldn't do much for the baby bird but I could at least keep him from becoming a dog's breakfast or a mess on someone's shoe.
I put the lil' guy a tree and he scooted up the bark like an old pro. He was safe for the time being. Little baby oriole perched himself on a branch and began to sing at his parents. This went on for over three hours until he lost his balance and fell into the bushes. His parents, who were never far away, began to freak out...again.
We all know there's not much you can do for a baby bird, it's the circle of life. I picked him out of the bush, set him on a tree branch, and let nature take it's course. He sang to his parents for the rest of the afternoon.

a gift from the dog.

We own a puppy now. I am constantly yanking objects out of his curious mouth. Bottle caps, paper goods, rotten food, underpants, pennies. All sorts of fun things.

While camping, Mudd pranced up to me like he'd found something good, something super good. his tail was wagging.

"drop it, Mudd!" yells jane.

Mudd droped his treasure. A flattened and dehydrated leopard frog. Good eye, dog!

meet mudd.

This is why I've taken a blog hiatus. Meet Mudd. A little rat terrier that has stolen my heart and my time. Dang, he's cute.

baby birds kind of creep me out.

the sights of Cozumel.

1. The palm and shoe filled skies of Cozumel, Mexico.2. I think this may be the DMV.

3. An immature brown pelican chillin with floating garbage.

4. tagged.

5. We saw a dolphin and his trainer on our way back to the boat. I waved to the pair and the trainer asked the dolphin to wave his flipper at me. Amused, I pulled out my camera to take a shot. The trainer signaled the dolphin to shake his head "NO". It was pretty damn funny.

(a feral chicken race in the Cayman Islands. They're nose to nose!) The Cayman Islands were beautiful. The water was clear and blue. The sky was cloudless and infinite. The ancient ocean left behind limestone structures that looked like mini mountainsides. There were sea turtles and stingrays to touch and feed.

Feral chickens?

Oh, yes. I learned a lot about stingrays and aquatic turtles while cruising round' the Caymans. But I was totally fascinated by the ubiquitous feral chickens. The lil' fuckers were everywhere. They were at the gas stations, the Pizza Hut, on the side of the roads, they were in Hell (hell was an attraction we visited...so, yes, there are chickens in Hell).

How'd the chikens get there, Jane? Well, the tour guide told us that hurricanes knock fences down. When a fence gets knocked down whatever resided inside that fence has "flown the coop."

After a particularly bad hurricane in 2004, the chickens took over.

So, there you have it...Feral Chickens in paradise.

A coyote on the snow covered ice of the Desmoines River. (this photo was taken during mating season...about a month ago)