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Mulberries in the Library.

This morning, as I was leaving the house to ride my bike to work, there was a wild turkey standing in the middle of the road in front of the building.  I took a lousy cellphone picture, then called Alexis to tell her.  She of course, went down and sat on the concrete wall outside next to the turkey, and took amazing pictures of it.

As I was coming home for lunch to walk the dogs I saw a deer in Boston. I was on the Jamaicaway, and the deer was in Olmsted Park by Leverett pond.  It was an adult with no antlers, and it was running in an apparent panic.

This is a first for me; I get to add white-tailed deer to my catalog of Boston wildlife.  I knew that they were often seen at the Boston Nature Center, but this is my first time seeing one in Boston.  This is a touch closer to The City, about three miles from Kenmore Square.  (In the past I've joked about the encroachment of deer into cities by saying that I don't expect to see deer in Kenmore Square, but in some outer city parks.  Kenmore Square, in case you don't know, is famous as the location of the Citgo sign you can see on televised Red Sox games.)  I'm sure this deer was outside of its normal range and I won't be shocked if I see its carcass in the middle of the J-way on the way back to work.  But I consider today a landmark of a kind--my first Boston deer.

(You may remember my first urban deer from my trip to the Pacific Northwest.)

Amazingly better mood today. The difference between today and Wednesday is like the difference between manic and depressive, like two sides of something bipolar; practically schizophrenic. So I think there's nothing wrong with me, on the average. My wife is beautiful, my dog is beautiful, the weather is beautiful, I'm happy.

Some thunder just started, making Charlie nervous, but I'm not going to let it spoil my mood.

So more than one person has pointed out the Vick rescue dog becomes therapy dog story to me. I have to confess a little bitterness, like, some famous jerkwad's dogs are in the news, so now maybe pitbulls are okay? But when I back up a little bit from it, trying not to be a jerkwad myself, I can see the value of this story. Whether I like it or not, the average person's association with the word 'pitbull' is negative; this high profile story may be their only exposure to a positive story. If at least one anti-pitbull jerkwad reacts by saying 'wow, maybe the problem isn't with the dogs but with the morons who keep them,' then that's a great thing.

this concludes the 'jerkwad' part of today's random.

It turns out that the oil spill in my beloved Muddy River yesterday isn't fuel oil, but some kind of electrical insulator. Small consolation for the wildlife affected. The environmental cleanup crews are still working on it outside my window, as I type this. I wondered to Alexis today, if the oiled geese and ducks were treated for parasites while they were being cleaned up by volunteers. If so, we could say 'the oily bird gets dewormed.' Then she hung up on me.

Well, she wanted to, but she loves me too much, puns and all. To prove it she sent me this story about a woman reaching into her mailbox to find a corn snake coiled up in there. A very similar story suggests that there's a rash of escaping corn snakes around the world. They make clips to keep the lids on the aquarium, kids! Just because it's the best snake for beginning herpers doesn't mean you're allowed to be stupid about it.

On a wild news tear, she also sent me this wonderful story about an urban wildlife worst case scenario. Like the possums in Homer's monorail, but much much worse.

Happy Summer everyone! Except for you Australians--just try not to get bit by anything.

As the owner of a German shepherd/yorkie/Boston terrier mix, I wouldn't know much about this subject, but it is nice to see a positive pit bull story in the news: Pit bull saves owner from attack by two dogs

In other dog news, a proposed bill would allow Pennsylvania towns to make their own dog laws, unshackling them from the tyranny of the state, I suppose. Pit bull advocates see this as the first step toward Breed Specific Legislation that would target their dogs. However, one online commenter sees it as an even greater first step:
This is a step in the right direction to eventually outlaw dogs completely. Dogs should be restricted to farms or released back into the wild. They are far too unpredictable and dangerous to be part of the community fabric in residential areas. It is sad that it has become so commonplace to own dogs. People have the mind set that this is normal practice and that certainly needs to be changed.
I can't see this catching on right away, what with there being 75 million pet dogs in America at the moment, but hey, a looney can dream.

If exotic animals are more your thing, why not go to the zoo? Perhaps you don't know where the nearest one is. Well, I was planning to make an interactive map showing them all (inspired by the discovery that there's a zoo in Utica for some reason) but naturally someone has already made one. In fact, two someones. Here's a global one http://www.zoos-worldwide.de/zoos.html and here's a little better one, unfortunately with an American bias http://www.americanzoos.info/Files/Webpages/USA/States/States.html

Hey I forgot to mention that I noticed something earlier this week! I saw two different common grackles rummaging through the clogged gutters on the zoo hospital. They were flinging out clumps of oak flowers, which are everywhere in obscene quantities, putting invisible pollen in my eyes and gathering on the ground into huge sausage shaped tumbleweeds. I thought maybe the grackles were collecting nesting material, but then I saw one pick a caterpillar out of the duff and eat it. I've seen birds drink from gutters, but this was the first time I've seen them eat from them.

Baby starlings and robins are also everywhere in obscene quantities. That's one reason I'm happy not to be working at the Audubon society right now. Every weekend until July dozens of people with the best of intentions will be bringing apparent orphans to Drumlin Farm and to various wildlife rehabs, only to be told they should have left it be. Nature is heartless, folks, let it run its evil course--it's part of God's plan to kill 3/4 of baby songbirds before they reach adulthood. If it wasn't they'd only lay two eggs.

That'll wrap up this depressing, but all-animal post. Hopefully I'll be finishing up last weekends pictures before I take too many this weekend.

There's been another jailbreak from nature, and this time the culprit is a coyote. Coyotes, once thought to be creatures of the prairie, are American wild dogs that can thrive in almost any kind of terrestrial habitat. One made it all the way to Boston's North End, probably to compare different plates of Meadow Vole Alfredo at various Prince Street Ristorantes. It was scooped up by authorities, who brought it to Tufts Wildlife clinic where it was deemed relatively healthy: not conspicuously rabid or mangy, but possibly hit by a car.

They are going to release it "to the wild" whatever that means. A Coyote found that far into Boston didn't wander there from the Worcester Hills. This guy was a local, and as far as he was concerned, he was in the wild. Nonetheless, the belief that the city is NOT wildlife habitat must be protected at costs, no matter that the wildlife continues to view it as such. He'll be let go someplace woodsy, wondering just what happened.

While it lasts, the article, with a great photograph of the vet students working, is at boston.com:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/01/coyote_captured.html

Thanks to Gribley, for pointing me toward this story!

Thanks to sin_agua for drawing my attention to this photo from Time Magazine online.

This is less than a mile from where I live (where I've seen wild turkeys 3 times in 6 years) in a very busy commercial area. Take a look at this map to see about where the Time picture was taken (click the hybrid view to get a better idea of the kind of habitat available). I assume the turkeys mostly live in The Riverway, but there are a few islands of wooded habitat that they can make use of; they just have to cross trolley tracks and highways to do it. The Time photographer was fortunate (and maybe up early?) to get the shot s/he did. For another perspective, get directions from the first map link to 4 Yawkey Way, Boston.

Of the dozen or so urban birds I've encountered in Honolulu, I'm most taken with this one, the zebra dove Geopelia striata. It's as tame as a rock pigeon, but smaller than a robin. They are very attractive, and show a lot of interesting social behavior. They were introduced to Hawaii from Asia in 1922, and are now common throughout the islands.( Read more... )

After todays cold rains, tropical air has come in ("tropical" meaning 57 degrees--10 degrees warmer than during the day) and it's very pleasant to be outside. We went out to walk the dogs and passed by a chirping snowy tree cricket. I found it with the flashlight and tried to photograph it, but didn't get much of it. After the dog walk, I came outside again, tried to get the snowy tree cricket again (I'm experiencing sudden anxiety about the 365 project--It seems impossible to get another 67 species, now that the leaves are mostly gone and cold and snow are coming) and failed. So I walked around the area a little bit, hoping to hear another one, or find something, anything, that I could photograph for the project. I didn't find anything new, but I had fun walking around and observing some animals that come out on warm dark nights, and trying a new photography technique.

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Just got home from walking the dogs and our flowering dogwood trees are heavy with ripe fruit and full of animals eating it. One tree had a gray squirrel, some European starlings, some house sparrows, an American robin, and a big unknown yellow bird that I've never seen before that I couldn't get a picture of, because I couldn't get my camera out and control my dogs who were going stupid about the squirrel at the same time. Upon reflection, I think the bird was a female scarlet tanager.

"This happens all the time in poor areas and people think it's funny, but when it happens in a rich neighborhoods they start calling them attacks," Carvalho said.

Hawks Attack More Than 100 People in Rio
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Cross-posted to animal_attacks

Photos by cottonmanifesto.

We nearly stepped on this creature as it trundled along the path last night. We brought it in for photographs and questioning, then sent it back up the river.

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It's pretty accepted that red-tails are urban wildlife. The best pictures I've seen illustrating this show them perched on man-made objects. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the one flying over Fenway park, but this one is over one of the hospitals, 6 or 7 blocks from there.

I've got lots of pictures that don't quite go with the "365 Urban Species" for one reason or another, that I still feel deserve to be shared:



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I want to do carp for the 365 project sometime soon, but while they're conspicuous in life, they are hard to photograph. I may have to be patient and wait until they are more active, in large numbers.

( two fish pictures )

As I post this, we are in the first major snowstorm of the 05-06 season in Boston, and across much of the northeast. Large clumps of flakes are falling in lazy helices out my window.

This is what it looked like, around 10 this morning as we walked the dogs. cottonmanifesto is a much better photographer than me, but saint that she is, she had to hurry on to help a elderly neighbor bring a feral cat to the shelter.



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I was proud of my friend Nicole, a beginning birder, when she told me this week that she saw this bird near my house, and correctly identified it. Its been hanging around for a month, now. I took these pictures the first day I saw it. I guessed what it was, at the time, but had to consult my field guides to be sure.

( two pictures )

As we get close to the Boston Zine Fair, another project to work on is the "Urban Wildlife Trading Cards." These are always a big hit--and a good icebreaker. My tablemates and neighbors probably get sick of hearing me say "what's your favorite urban animal or plant?" but it gets people to stop by the table and think about the question. Then they get a free trading card!
One of the common responses I get is one that I didn't have a card for. Here's my attempt at some trading card copy:

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