Say Hello to my Little Friend

This is the second snake and the only rattlesnake we have seen in the field here. Though the daytime highs are in the 80s, it’s still only in the mid to low 40s at night and I think these fellows are still pretty torpid. This one never moved (other than a couple of tongue flicks) …

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Atomic Nerds

Although they have been commenting here for a while I had somehow not discovered the wonderful blog Atomic Nerds. They are a young couple, Stingray (male) and LabRat (female) who write from the ever- strange city of Los Alamos (strange even in our odd state!) They write on dogs, guns, evo- bio, religion, and other …

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Altai Falcon

In his monograph on the Gyrfalcon Eugene Potapov confirms that, in the high mountains of Central Asia, there are areas of hybridization between those recently and imperfectly separated species, the Gyrfalcon and the Saker. These are doubtless the semi – legendary “Altai falcon” or Shunkar of classical falconry. I made a probable sighting on my …

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The Cost of Eating Well

I’d really like some feedback on this one. In his excellent (and not at all snobbish) food blog “Bitten”, which I discovered via Rod Dreher, NYT writer Mark Bittman presents the now – notorious viewpoint of English celebrity cook Delia Smith. “Delia Smith, probably Britain’s best-known and best-selling cookbook author, says celebrity chefs should stay …

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Book Meme

This particular meme, via Eve Tushnet, seems irresistible for the bookish. 1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).2. Open the book to page 123.3. Find the fifth sentence.4. Post the next three sentences.5. Tag five people. OK: as usual I am reading about eight books but the nearest physically is John …

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Convergent Pigeons

Reader Mike Spies, who has a place in Jamaica, noticed that wild White- crowned pigeons (Columba leucocephala) resident there resembled some white- capped Catalonian tumblers he had seen on the blog. Of course, “Cats” are only one of the myriad breeds of Darwin’s pets, domestic pigeons descended from the Rock dove (Columba livia.) But the …

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AR, ID, and Evo

In the fascinating blog “ERV”, scroll down the post to the header “Tard Fight”, where blogger S. A. Smith gives us the edifying spectacle of two creationists bashing each other over Animal Rights, one arguing that if evolution is right then so is PETA and the other, I guess, that Jesus was a veggie and …

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Monday Links

A movie I must see: a so- called “Mongol Western” about Chengiz. See also here; director Sergei Bodrov has also made a Kazakh epic. Beelzebufo: “prehistoric frog from Hell”. (Do not confuse horned frogs with horned lizards!) The best way to handle invasive species. I want his forthcoming book– his last was very good. Peculiar …

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Late entry

I just got around to posting a couple of Steve’s pics in a blog below “Seasons Change.” Scroll on down and check it out.