aug 21
Second sitting.
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August 21st, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Oh yeah, you herp geeks out there, it’s time for the National Reptile Breeder’s Expo in lovely Daytona, FL! I was reading a nice post over at Carel Brest Van Kempen’s blog, Rigor Vitae.
August 21st, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Herps: my original natal passion. Yesterday I got to talk with legendary herpetologist WHIT GIBBONS. he is one of the editors of the new AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES OF GEORGIA, one of the most beautiful and useful natural history guides I have seen. I learned some great snake facts new to me:
1. We maliciously kill more snakes here in the northeast, than they do in the Deep South. The reason: they have more big snakes in Dixie and have learned to live with them.
2. The Invasive FIRE ANT is now responsible for state-wide declines in species like Southern Hognose Snake and even Alligator. They, the ants, are working their way north.
3. NOTHING, not soap or Handi-wipes, will eradicate the smell of the sticky funky goo that comes out of the cloaca of an angry just picked-up Garter Snake. BUT: both Whit and I LIKE that smell cuz it means “snakes are near!”.
4. The recently introduced (Georgia and Florida) tiny fossorial snake, Brahminy Blind Snake, is PARTHENOGENIC.
Mark
August 21st, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I’ve always loved the wrinkles! (On the monkey’s muzzle, in this photo.)
Mark, the counters at the Corpus Christi Hawkwatch reported that while looking for warblers after finishing the hawkwatch for the day, they encountered a 4-ft Western Diamondback with 12-15 rattles, crossing the path in front of them. Cathy, how high can you jump???
August 21st, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Parthenogenic, really? Weird.
Quiz question. Category: Zoology. Difficulty Level: Moderate to High.
“Name another animal with ‘Brahminy’ in its name that’s also the title of a song by Canadian electronic musician Caribou.”
(Possibly not so difficult for birders.)
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:38 am
Something to start your day:
You are likely familiar with APRIL MARCH’S “Chick Habit” used in Tarantino’s “Death Proof”. BUT many folks don’t realize it’s a cover…of a much earlier French pop song. Here it is: French! Great Hair! Pop!:
Zoot alors!
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:24 am
I love that song! I believe the original was written for her by Serge Gainsbourg… so to continue, here’s Charlotte Gainsbourg (daughter of Serge and Jane Birkin):
vive la france!
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:02 am
And, for a French balloon animation, which I found via c-monster:
Le ballon
Uploaded by ddbparis
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:46 am
I love Charlotte in THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP. Her mom was responsible for the coveted “Birkin Bag” being designed by Hermes. Jane and Serge of course recorded the infamous “Je T’Aime”,
and she was the simply amazing model of the hey day of Swinging London and is STILL recording and still le hottie. Serge unfortunately is ‘fin”, but had a great classic Gallic schnoze. There is an ongoing debate whether they actually achieved orgasm during “Je T’aime”, but countless listeners did.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:52 am
BTW: I have seen the B. bird many times. But PARTHENOGENIC: I know there is also a whiptail lizard that is parthenogenic. But what about genetic variation/ Is it all dependent on spontaneous mutation of the DNA? Is there genetic variation? Evolution?
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:10 pm
For those who have yet to bird OZ or SE Asia, the bird Jesse refers to:
http://www.birdphotos.com.au/brahminykiteweb/imagepages/image5.htm
It’s a pretty spectacular raptor.
Betty: That sighting would make my week, maybe my month. I am about to interview Kate Jackson (no, not the Charlie’s Angel) herpetologist who works in the Congo on really scary pit vipers like the Gaboon Viper, which looks almost as wide as it is long.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Betty: NOT THAT HIGH. Also, do you remember the Indigo Snake we saw in the LRGV? It was huge. Some guys were picking it up. Did we get any photos?
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Quiz Question. Category: Literary Herpetology. Difficulty Level: Easy to Moderate.
“Name a popular young adult novel featuring a snake known as Louise the Larger.”
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Jesse:
I can remember the author, Mad L’Engle, but can’t remember which of the trilogy it was in. Which one? Were you a big fan of those books?
Inspired by Betty’s post I have been trying to remember: was it Groucho Marx OR W.C. Fields that exclaimed in one film: “Leaping Anacondas!!!” I think it was the latter, but cannot prove it despite a Level 1 web search.
With that, I am off to nighthawk watch, a sure sign that fall is nigh. I will leave you with a quote from Fields:
“Don’t be a luddy-duddy! Don’t be a mooncalf! Don’t be a jabbernowl! You’re not those, are you?”
Per a former post:
“By the way, my ski shoes and hockey mask will be up on the next train along with the polo pony. I understand the countryside abounds here with wild game: flamingoes… wine wombats… Indian civets.”
Mark, certainly NOT a “luddy-duddy” and soon to be seeking wine wombats if the nighthawks don’t show
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I think Madeleine L’Engle too… was it A Wrinkle in Time?
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Cathy:
If you are referring to the Indigo Snake at Santa Ana NWR, I missed that one by being on another trail. On that same trip I saw one at Sabal Palm that was plenty big, thank you. That was the Gray-crowned Yellowthroat day, aka, “Stay with the chick, she’s in the zone!”
Mark:
Does Kate Jackson come with visual aids of the touchy-feely kind?
Jesse:
I’ve been trying to incorporate, “Great grackle tails!” but in the heat of the moment things akin to “Holy S***, look at the funnel cloud!!!” pop out, as it did last weekend when said (gigantic, silvery) cloud was bearing down on our field trip…and just an hour before one vehicle succumbed to the halfway-up-the-grille flood we encountered.
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:01 pm
On the french tip, in answer to all the Gainsbourgs in the world:
And then along those same lines is the ever enthusiastic Business Time by the same group. Check it:
Je T’aime to all you babes…
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Great stuff, all of it. Pixel density on the animated short is unbelievable. Drives me crazy that I can’t watch videos or link to them until I get home from work. “Le hottie” is right! Damn. Strange, though, to hear those lyrics (and…uh, vocalizations) against vaguely melancholoy organ notes very, very reminiscent of Whiter Shade Of Pale.
The video makes me laugh (slightly off-putting age differences between people who are supposedly classmates, and a funny disarmed moment when the singer looks down as she moves forward as if she’s afraid of tripping over something), but Laisse Tomber Les Filles is great. Still works. I can’t put my finger on why, but I could hear a present-day band (emo especially) covering it. Maybe I’m prejudiced. I could hear “Itchycoo Park” being covered, too. Did I say how great it was to drive across New Mexico with my parents and sister and brother-in-law listening to nothing but 60’s songs on satellite radio?
Louise the Larger is L’Engle, but A Wind In The Door, not A Wrinkle In Time. Gotta think about why the first two Time Trilogy books (Wrinkle and Wind) and even parts of the third (A Swiftly Tilting Planet) made such an impression. We read them in Second Grade, which seems weirdly young. Is it just that? Dunno without a reread, but I know the characters are great. Real kids, real adolescents. The alien planets. Strangely, L’Engle is a minimalist.
Gotta run. Agricola with Predrag and Maja. Cathy, you’ve got to play this one. I tried to pester Rob for an NYC date again.
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Did 2 hours at our local nighthawk watch spot: Rt. 56 Leicester, Worcester Airport overlook. Big numbers have yet to pass, but we totaled (55)tonight. The first triple digit count of the year will likely happen this weekend, and a 1000+ count sometime in the next week. I hope I manage to be there when it passes. The other highlight was(2) Upland Sandpipers that flew right across our field of view.
Betty: re: Kate
SEE: http://www.whitman.edu/content/news/snakesscience
We already have a weird realtionship, and I haven’t even done the interview yet. All I can say is that it is like the relationship I had with my much older bro who was a field ornithologist for the Smithsonian. When we got together, we just tried to one-up each other in field ID. It was relentless. The scene in Jaws aboard the ship in which Dreyfus and Shaw are trading scar stories just about sums it up. At one point Kate had me CALL her in BELGIUM (sprouts, waffles). I thought we would finally get a date settled. Up till then, she was e-mailing me from deep in the Congo on what she called “Chinese laptops”(?)which somehow prevented her from booking a date. ANYWAY, 40 minutes and almost $200 bucks later, I realized it was all so she could VERBALLY one up me to my face (er, ear). It was funny. Weird and Ha-ha. We just got the phone bill and I had a lot of explaining to do. Heavens knows what this interview is going to be like, but so far our conversations have ended with me having the upper hand cuz I knew Whit Gibbons. It was one huge geek-off. When I asked her if she was going to take in any of the cultural attractions of Walloon land, she scoffed. She is only interested in snakes and apparently Belgium has a huge zoo of African species. That is all the culture she needs. I can’t believe I am telling all you folks this.
August 23rd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Catherine: Is there a location near you where you or others go regularly to watch migrating nighthawks? I know this is a relatively new pursuit as opposed to hawkwatching, but round these parts we have ID’d several key locations in MA and try to have them staffed from mid-August to early September. If there are such locations near you, have you gone? What numbers do yo get? Best weather?
Mark
August 26th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Last night, turning another few pages in my complete Ted Hughes (required reading for Cathy Hamilton fans: maybe the best poet of the century and definitely one of the greatest nature poets of all time), I came across a poem about spiders mating that I wish I could find on the net. I’m not even an arachnophile, but I hope Cathy gets to spiders someday.
August 26th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Jesse: Hughes? Best poet of the 20th Century? Really? He lost me after “Home Alone”. Shame about his wife, Gwenyth Paltrow, and that bizarre cooking kefluffle, but she never could keep a match lit to save herself. Put me off my Poisson en Papillote for months.
August 26th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Re: nighthawks: funny, cause the most I ever saw at once was while driving from PVD to NYC one evening last fall - the 95 corridor was one endless stream of them migrating.
August 26th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
The key is to find someplace high, but not too high (like hawkwatch high is too high) and with a good slice of the sky facing east. See Sheila’s new blog (she is JUST starting and feeling her way) for some pics of where we go. It’s about 15 minutes away:
http://gremlinthecat.blogspot.com/