Arrant Nonsense

And thus I bring you...

PICSPAM.

First, we went to the Layton Marsh Preserve, where we saw...eh, not much, actually. A Bullock's Oriole when we first went in, and then it was pretty high and dry, bird-wise. Or anything-wise. Saw some eggs that had hatched, one of which was pretty big. We surmised that it belonged to a Great Blue Heron.

Then we attempted to wander down to the Farmington Wetlands place, but couldn't find it. They're doing construction in the area, and so it's all messed up. However, we found a little pond thingy next to a landfill that looked promising, so we got out and walked around it.

We saw pelicans, avocets, a cormorant, turkey vultures, a great blue heron, barn swallows, seagulls, mallards, geese, and a garter snake. The avocets appeared to be nesting, and one of them got kind of agitated as we went by, flapping its wings and trying to draw us away. That was neat; we've only seen avocets being avocets before, not engaging in actual behavior. I'm still unsure as to whether it was being "I'm big and threatening" or "My wing's broke--chase me!"

The cormorant was weird too. He was hanging out with the pelicans. He'd go underwater (presumably to fish), and then pop up among the pelicans. The pelicans were all "That's a funny-looking kid," which, if you've seen their kids? Is pretty comical.

( Fourteen under the cut... )

In other news, I'm going to call the Faerie Show Fic done and start shipping it around. Yayness.

to the lovely and effulgent myfeetshowit! May your day be filled with prezzies and calorie-free cake, hon.

We spent the day at Antelope Island. We saw, in no particular order:
pronghorns
bison (with babies)
jackrabbits
California gulls
Franklin's gulls
ring-billed gulls
avocets
yellow-headed blackbirds
red-winged blackbirds
regular blackbirds
meadowlarks
loggerhead shrikes (new to my life list!)
chukars
burrowing owls
long-billed curlews (new to my life list!)
barn swallows
ravens
a ring-necked pheasant
horned larks
Canada geese
cormorants
eared grebes
a cinnamon teal
several different raptor species I couldn't identify
some sort of little gray tweety bird I also couldn't identify
two species of lizards
numerous different species of butterflies
white-lined sphinx moths
a snake tail disappearing into the grass-type stuff that passes for vegetation

Yes, I took pictures. No, you can't see them yet.

Seriously, y'all, when you go to your state and national parks? Get out of the car and hike at least one pretty long path. You'll see things that you totally would have missed.

Of course, I have new blisters now. But it was a very satisfying day.

kantayra, did you see this? I nearly died of cute.

The Tracy Aviary is having a free day tomorrow to thank us for raising our own taxes. We're going to go and take advantage of that, and make it a field trip. It'll be chilly, but worth it, I think. They have four species of toucans!

Next week, we're going to San Diego to visit the Zoo, the Aviary, and Emerald Gardens. After that, we'll make a final decision on the aracari. My main questions at this point have to do with feeding the critter, honestly. I know it eats fruit, but how much does a bird that weighs as much as a cheeseburger consume in a day?

We also want to visit Yellowstone sometime toward the beginning of May, possibly making a motor home trip out of it and pulling the PT behind us. We have a friend who may or may not accompany us on the trip. BABY ANIMALS!!!

And I found a very useful Calendar of Events that are kid-friendly and educational. Antelope Island is having some interesting things later in the month, and I've also found a new wildlife center that we need to visit.

Looks like a busy Spring!

Now, if the weather would just turn a leetle cooperative...

In other news, New Amsterdam bored the crap out of me this week. I'm not sure I'd bother tuning in next week if we were going to be home. It's gone from "Hey, this is kind of neat" to a big fat "MEH." The fact that the Love of His Life is separated from her husband because he's a lying cheating bastard does not mitigate the fact that John Amsterdam himself is a lying cheating bastard--we found out this week that not only is he currently sleeping with a married woman (even if she's separated, separated /= divorced), he once cheated on one of his wives with (of all women) a "lady" (I use the term loosely) he was painting.

So, yeah. Way to NOT get me on his side, people. FAIL. Making me root for your character--ur doin it rong.

But I wanted it today...

Yeah, we went to Cougar Park and grocery shopping today. We saw three doves at the park, and that was the sum total of birds. However, we also saw coyote poop, deer poop, mouse trails, and gopher mounds, along with wolf spiders. And we engaged in some cleanup, because trash apparently gets blown into the park a lot. So it wasn't a total loss. We saw the bones of something that had died there as well, but the skull was missing so we don't know what it was. Leg bones were pretty decent sized; might have been a dog, or a coyote. I allowed Da Boy to bring one home.

And then I got home to a notice on my doorstep. My little laptop is in town. I can pick it up tomorrow. Usually the mail carrier gets here before two, and we left somewhere around three. *sigh*

NO REDONKOLOUSLY ADORKABLE LAPTOP FOR YOU.

Antelope Island!

"What?" you say. "AGAIN?"

Well, yes, sez I. Because you see something different everytime you go.

We saw the aforementioned seagulls and avocets and grebes. Yay for that.

But we also saw Black-Necked Stilts. And a Peregrine Falcon!

Most people go their entire lives without seeing a wild Peregrine Falcon. I feel incredibly priviliged to have seen two, just this year, in two different places. It only took me forty-four years.

We also saw bison. Lots and lots.

And rather than the paltry three pronghorn antelope we saw last time, this time we saw an entire herd. I'm talking twenty or thirty of them. Not only that, but we saw a lone male close enough to the road that I got some magnificent shots of him.

And we saw a coyote! And a couple of jackrabbits. And a different kind of lizard than the ones we saw last time, because we were on the other side of the island. And they were teeny! And adorable! And the Hubby managed to get one to run up his arm! It was so cool!

We also got soaking wet from a HUGE thunderstorm, but pshaw. That's neither here nor there, y'all.

Tell you what. I'm almost thinking we need a year-long pass to Utah State Parks. It'd pay for itself in three visits to this place, and I'm really getting to the point where I love it a whole lot more than I ever thought I would.

Photos coming, of course. Probably tomorrow.

OMG. We had the BEST day today.

We got up hellishly early to go birdwatching at the Nature Conservancy's Layton Marsh Wetland Preserve. Dudes! It was so cool.

We saw a Peregrine Falcon!!! I've never seen a wild Peregrine Falcon before! And we saw Virginia Rails. Chasing each other and making funny noises. And I saw my first ever Hermit Thrushes. There were Black-Necked Stilts and White-Faced Ibis! And I got really nice closeups of dragonflies!

*flails some more*

And then I got stung by a wasp for no apparent reason. I've never been stung by a wasp before, or a bee. DAMN, that HURTS. It paid for its temerity with its life. Because OW.

And then, since we were in the area, we toddled over to Antelope Island. Along the causeway, we saw Wilson's Phalaropes, Eared Grebes, Franklin's Gulls, Willets, Great Blue Herons, Avocets, and a whole crapload of some funky little shorebirds that we never did identify.

Once we hit the actual island, we found a parking area and got out and walked a bit. And then we saw lizards! BIG ones! With STRIPES. They were so cool! And then, and then, there were SPIDERS! Big ones! With stripes AND spots! And there was a Spider Wasp that had caught a spider!

And then I scraped the OTHER leg open on some rocks. By this time the wasp sting had faded to a bad memory; however, the scraped leg still hurts. And it's a mess. Ouchie.

Then we drove for a bit, and just as we were getting to the point where you have to turn around and go back we saw...

BISON. LOTS of them. With BABIES! *flails some more*

So I shot a bunch of pix of them. Bison are remarkably bad-tempered. They're herd animals, but they're all, like, "Dude, if it weren't for instinct I'd totally not hang out with you guys. Leave me alone. Don't stand so close, dammit!" It's kind of funny to watch. And then they've got birds on them.

And then on the way out I got some nice shots of Avocets, one group of which I'm fairly certain was a family.

IT WAS SO COOL.

Pictures? Of course I have pictures. They're here. Caution for the arachnophobic: LOTS o' spiders. BECAUSE THEY WERE COOL. I shall be posting some later for the link-o-phobic.

We went down to Nine Mile Canyon on Saturday.

We thought it would be cool.

And it kind of was.

But it was also kind of a bust, to be honest. Either whoever wrote the guide to the canyon was on crack, or we are just that unobservant, because we didn't see a whole bunch of stuff that they said was there. And you've heard the phrase "forty miles of bad road"? Yeah. It's not paved. And it's more than forty miles. And it was hot. With no signage.

I want my BLM tax dollars to work harder than that, dammit.

And we also saw a huge fire. :(

But I got pix. ( Under the cut, because whoa, they're big... )

I dragged us out of bed at silly o'clock this morning, and we wandered over to Cougar Park, which is supposedly one of the best places in Salt Lake County for seeing Burrowing Owls.

This is when we found out that Cougar Park is really only open (as in, you can go in and wander about) from October to February.

Yeah, would have been nice to know that, you know, before we went.

But it was small enough that we walked around the perimeter. I got some pretty butterfly pix, a fairly nice shot of a Horned Lark, and some flowers and bugs.

Then we headed south to the Mehraban Wetlands, which is a hidden treasure in the Draper/Riverton area. As in, don't blink, or you'll totally miss the entrance to the thing. Apparently they had a fire recently, as the people living around the park had melted vinyl fences, and the trees were blackened.

However...

California Quail (which I fail at shooting. Miserably). Dragonflies. Great Blue Herons. Scads and scads of ducks. A juvenile Double-Crested Cormorant. And SHADE. Lovely, cool SHADE.

( Pix, under the cut. Big ones. )

...at not having my camera yesterday, we wandered up the Jordan River Parkway, because that's apparently a good place for birding.

It's probably better very early in the morning, rather than in the afternoon in hundred-degree heat. However, we did see a good number of birds, from your everyday Mallard duck (with babies), to Red-winged Blackbirds, possibly a Goldfinch, several Barn Swallows (babies in nests and adults tending them FTW), and a Bullock's Oriole.

Not only that, but there's a little swamp excuse me, wetland just off the trail, and we saw a big old green frog, some smaller brown frogs, a bunch o' tadpoles...

And a garter snake!

It was a fairly good-sized one, too. It was in the water, and once it decided that yep, those are humans and I'd better book my scaly butt outa here, it moved. IT WAS SO COOL.

And I found a dollar in the parking lot next to my car when we got back.

Good times.

What? Did I take pictures??? Of course I took pictures. You want to actually see them?

Working on it.