This is a place for any and all outdoor adventures. Yesterday Liz and I went to a trail system in New Kent. Fairly well maintained trails with a mix of bike friendly and pedestrian only paths. The light was too low for any photos of crawdad holes or frogs and the squirrels were few and far between. Not a bad spot. One of these days I'm going back to find the graveyard in the far reaches of the trails.
(https://scontent-iad3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/fr/cp0/e15/q65/219307978_4098211463608299_4082773480340885859_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=110474&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ohc=H-MoqLHnHiIAX-NLdPZ&tn=fzwadoUaivLAFpg6&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-2.xx&oh=8fe5029fde6645ebf0bfea4d173957cc&oe=60F882FF)
The outdoors, contains far too many humans for my liking.
That is a wondrous place JJ. I envy your outings at places like that.
Quote from: No one on July 17, 2021, 05:02:37 PM
The outdoors, contains far too many humans for my liking.
You'd need a mirror to see anybody out there unless you brought them.
Quote from: Icarus on July 18, 2021, 03:28:05 AM
That is a wondrous place JJ. I envy your outings at places like that.
I think my next trip will be to Ragged Island. I need to figure out how to get my canoe close enough to reach the creeks. Later this fall I may try to chase some ducks there if my brother is recovered enough.
Something has been wrong with my pond for the last month. The water went from a deep, clear black to a soupy green almost overnight. With that the fish stopped biting. No bass, no bluegill, nothing. I went several times and threw everything from crankbaits to topwater poppers and didn't even get a bite.
The other day I went down now lark during a storm and decided to try my hand at skipping bait. Much to my surprise as soon as I tossed a soft lizard out this fellow decided it looked like a tasty snack.
(https://i.postimg.cc/mgcYPbDF/PXL-20210726-234827489.jpg)
Apparently they've taken a bit of time to adjust to the changes but I caught three more in twenty minutes. By then I was almost out of light and my plastic lizard was so mangled it wouldn't stay on the hook.
thats odd
wby would the algae change their diet preferences
something is different
they might eat anything during a storm, as anything might get washed in. do tbey still take the lizard without the storm?
I don't think it changed their diet, just their ability to find food until they had adjusted to the reduced visibility. Bass and bluegill are visual ambush predators. I suspect that such a sudden shift would change things up for them. It was probably nice for the minnows while it lasted.
(https://i.imgur.com/5ZZxs5Fl.png)
outside the kitchen porch. cant remember the flower. my wife is the plant prson, but she caught a bumble bee worker on it.
ohio is a place where the culture is into acres of closely mown grass surrounding the houses. no one ever uses the space, its just a showcase for lawn. people consider mowing a recreational activity.
our place is overgrown with weeds and purposely planted insectories. from the road, it looks like a third world jungle slum, but up close we're a riot of hummingbirds, pollinators, and native insects. my son has a pet mantid in front of his door that he watches. currently a mud dauber wasp is busy building a mudnest on the kitchen wall by the door that she will stuff full of spiders or caterpillars before laying an egg.
i suppose we're the scorn of the neighbors, but we have butterfiles and they dont
You should give your kids a book called Following the Wild Bees by Thomas Seeley. If you have a pollinator plantation I imagine your family would be interested in how far the bees are coming to reach The Oasis.
bee hunting is mostly a lost art. nobody does it these days because you can buy bees and don't have to locate a bee tree. but its still really useful to be able to figure out where your bees are going. ill see about getting a copy of seley.
the farthest ive ever seen was severak miles. i had bees in a safflower field-- nasty things, safflower-- and one afternoon they all started bringing in bright yellow pollen, different from the burnt orange stuff the safflower generated. i could see a patch of yellow star thistle about two miles to the northwest (california is flat around there) and so i drove the truck over to look, and sure enough, my bees were hitting them and hauling it back. around here there aren't many wild hives in the woods, and the four or five i have behind the warehouse have been mostly left to their own devices since i split them in the spring.
i'll see what i can do to build them up for the winter here and then we'll see what survives the snow.
i have just ordered seeleys book, to arrive in two days, while i am gone hauling steel to the factories of america
I really need to set up my new trail cam. There's a travel corridor I need eyes on for the fall but I've been dealing with a series of migraines this week. I may go in the morning but Monday evening is more likely. My injured brother has a camera he said I can use so I may throw his up once I have a bit of data.
I also want to plant some wildflowers. I've always enjoyed clearings with a good spread but think this fall might be the year. There's a section by the mill swamp that would be perfect.
Quote from: jumbojak on August 01, 2021, 02:42:22 AM
I really need to set up my new trail cam. There's a travel corridor I need eyes on for the fall but I've been dealing with a series of migraines this week. I may go in the morning but Monday evening is more likely. My injured brother has a camera he said I can use so I may throw his up once I have a bit of data.
I also want to plant some wildflowers. I've always enjoyed clearings with a good spread but think this fall might be the year. There's a section by the mill swamp that would be perfect.
Which vaccine did you get? I don't remember which one my youngest brother got, atm (or exactly when), but he's been having migraines lately. Not having any teeth, and stenosis from chemo/radiation/surgery for laryngeal cancer certainly hasn't helped his situation.
As far as "outside" goes, he came by for a surprise visit last Thursday, and we sat out on the front porch. Had a nice chat. It's been a couple of years since we've seen each other, and when I looked through the peephole in the front door, I didn't even recognize him, at first. Cancer has ruined him, I will say. Tobacco is a scourge on humanity. :(
Beating around today I found the last of the trumpet vine flowers.
(https://scontent-iad3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/fr/cp0/e15/q65/233120253_4151528681609910_3172615539746587454_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=110474&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ohc=Z73J_K1tDq4AX-sLcwv&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-2.xx&oh=e6a26ead04a8b0e7d5dc8bfe81af6be9&oe=610F8651)
5 Best Drives in Texas, according to me:
1. FM 170 from Lajitas to Presidio, right along the Rio Grande, through mountains;
2. Panther Junction to the Chisos Mt. Basis, Big Bend National Park;
3. Willow City Loop between Fredericksburg and Llano;
4. Texas 118 through Davis Mountains State Park; and
5. The River Road up the Guadalupe River from New Braunfels.
Honorable Mention for Bikers: FM 337 from Medina to Vanderpool.
Quote from: jumbojak on July 31, 2021, 04:56:55 PM
You should give your kids a book called Following the Wild Bees by Thomas Seeley. If you have a pollinator plantation I imagine your family would be interested in how far the bees are coming to reach The Oasis.
^^^this book just arrived.
magnificent.
high quality paper and biniding, even if its soft cover. colour plates, also of high quality. a mix of history, lyricism, and old school scientific references.
an excellent book.
i'm familiar with the subject matter of lining bee trees, but that sort of esoteric art is rare to see compiled in one place, esp[ecially with beekeeping.
beekeepers are th e prime example of where the academic and litererature sources are wrong, because the beekleepers dont talk or write about what they do. as a former queen breeder, i know this first hand.
\
seeley's book makes me want to have pursued entomology instead of all the weird stuff i ended up doing in my life
I'm glad you like it Billy. When you're done with that one I highly recommend Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth by William Bryant Logan. More underneath than outside but a highly informative work.
I crept in on these turkeys today.
(https://i.postimg.cc/qRY9XT84/PXL-20210806-213144910.jpg)
Crested a small hill and saw four hens with thirteen poults. I crawled in about thirty yards for this photo and managed another twenty before they moved on.
I also found this today.
(https://scontent-iad3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/fr/cp0/e15/q65/234892210_4157480491014729_1825891087085948831_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-4&_nc_sid=85a577&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ohc=Qyz96oGMG3AAX8NPg39&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-2.xx&oh=655ad39886fa00612639820399a9edb6&oe=61131B6D)
I can't be sure it's not a track from a large housecat but I hope it's from a bobcat. There's a wet spot in the back of the farm that has seen a lot of traffic.
I've a pair of whip birds in my back yard, I haven't seen them.
I hear them all the time on walks, if I've ever seen one I didn't recognise it as a whip bird.
The bell birds in the clip are pretty cool too.
Just briefly there's a black cockatoo, sounding like how I imagine a teradactyl would sound, I love those guys, they just float.
There were three wallabies in the back yard, a little one just poking its head out for a moment.
We always had wallabies but the fires took them, I hope these ones stick around.
Are wallabies a burrowing animal?
Saturday is the first day of muzzleloader season this year. I had taken off work for a competition but busted a rib earlier this week. So it looks like I'll be going hunting instead.
My brother and I got our rifles sighted in yesterday, broken neck and all.
(https://i.postimg.cc/8PMzQ2WQ/PXL-20211027-175341062.jpg)
That's a PVC tube with three set screws for positioning on his scope that was glued to an old phone case. Hopefully it all works well for him from a stand.
If I'm unsuccessful hunting I think I'm going fishing. Striper season is in full swing and I might find some redfish if I play my cards right. Who knows, if I get a deer I might just go fishing too.
^^^ shooting with a broken neck? this reminds me of when i was sixteen years and fell down on my motorcycle and broke my hand.
they put my arm in a cast that immobilized my wrist and i couldn't use the throttle on it anymore. so i smashed the plaster at the wrist part of the cast so i could use the throttle and lived happily ever after, with the bent hand i have now
lol
Opening day is opening day. I had him set up with a crossbow for archery season but the 150 pound pull was too much.
you ar both insane.
Possibly, yes. Quite possibly, in face. Last weekend he went down to an ocean pier to see what the brace would let him do. He cought 89 bluefish and Spanish mackerel. Spent a fair amount of time helping a group of retired women figure things out too. They tried fishing plugs but we're going for a steady retrieve.
You have to catch the incoming wave of predators and work the plug right in front of them. Either that or chuck live bait and hope that they don't just take half of it and in the midst of a feeding frenzy live bait is hard to catch.
He did have a blue stolen by a king mackerel as he was reeling it in.
Quote from: jumbojak on October 28, 2021, 03:07:40 PM
Are wallabies a burrowing animal?
I don't think so, they don't seem built for digging. They have small forelimbs and large, probably awkward back legs.
Some are known to use wombat burrows at times.
https://theconversation.com/tales-of-wombat-heroes-have-gone-viral-unfortunately-theyre-not-true-129891 (https://theconversation.com/tales-of-wombat-heroes-have-gone-viral-unfortunately-theyre-not-true-129891)
I'm imagining a wombat being a groundhog on steroids. They look similar but the wombat is ten times the size.
Not a lot of action on the river today but I brought home one big red.
(https://i.postimg.cc/NM5VZkvN/PXL-20211105-194109342.jpg)
^^^
Nice!
That's a tasty looking fish.
Virginia is opening their first elk season since... Ever. They were extirpated in the middle of the 19th century and have been reintroduced in three western counties over the last decade or so. There's a lottery going for five bull tags and I'm in it to win it.
cool
i rememvber the first time i ever heard an elk bugling, invisible in the fog at point reyes in california./
i had no idea what it was
id seen plenty of elk all over arizona and colorado, but never heard one