White Mountain Hike Reported in Photos

Obo took a group of his students out to hike in the White Mountains earlier today, and passed these photos in from his trip:

A u-shaped valley, looking south from Mt. Avalon at further peaks….

…Painted Trillium…

…and a Gray Jay that one of the hikers managed to coax into eating sunflower seeds out of the palm of their hand (don’t even ask how jealous I am of this).

The Popularity of Coyote Scat

I’m not entirely clear why, but searches for coyote scat are far more prevalent that I ever could have guessed.  In the last week, eight people have found my site through a search for ‘coyote scat’.  The last 30 days shows 25 hits from the same search, and 38 over the past 3 months. Does this say more about my site, or the intrigue factor of coyote scat??  Perhaps I don’t really want an answer to that question.

Since the search term ‘coyote scat’ is the second-most popular for my site recently (third for the past quarter), I feel obligated to share some scat (apologies to those with more, um, delicate sensibilities):

If you’re new to my blog (perhaps coming here after a Google search for ‘coyote scat’…) you’re probably wondering why I have coyote scat in a jar (never mind the fact that I’ve taken a photo of it).  It’s worth mentioning that I’m a naturalist, and keep a collection of scat. Yes, I did actually admit that to the world at large, but it’s helpful for some of the programs I run. You’d be surprised (or maybe not) at how fascinating people find scat.

You can also check out my post on differentiating coyote scat from a domestic dog’s. I suspect that people who are doing coyote scat searches are looking to figure out if they have coyotes living around them based on the droppings they’ve found.  If so, you might also find this article on living safely around wildlife helpful.  Still have questions about coyote scat?  Ask away in the comments (or contact me directly if you’re uncomfortable talking about scat publicly…).  Thanks for stopping by!

Wordless Wednesday: Grape Hyacinth

A Carpet of Ferns

I love ferns. No particular reason why; I just love their soft green color and delicate fronds. Wherever they’re growing – a forested area, roadside or garden – they have an old-growth look that isn’t like anything else in the natural world to my eye. Perhaps its the knowledge that they existed in the Mesozoic Era with the dinosaurs (albeit in a much larger form), or just my early memories of wandering old forests carpeted in ferns and moss as a young child.

Google Runs My Life

Resistant is futile – my electronic life is now completely run by Google.  For a little while, there was still Dropbox, and a few other areas of holdout, but it’s all over now. I’ve got my Android phone, Gmail, Goole Docs and don’t know where I’d be if I couldn’t access my Google calendar. And now there’s Google Drive – a piece of software that can be downloaded onto your PC and allows complete freedom for you to integrate the files on your hard drive with those in the Google cloud – now called Google Drive. I loved Google Docs, and this Drive thing just makes everything easier. I’m a little scared. I can organize all the files on my hard drive that I also want to keep in the cloud through Drive, and it goes with me wherever I can access my Google account.

I’ve resisted Microsoft for everything except my OS, and have had hardly anything to do with Apple. But Google? Yup – I’ve submitted. I’m really hoping that they doesn’t ever change their company motto from “Don’t be evil” or I’m f***ed.  Anyone else out there completely running on Google?