The deer have started to return. Mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus. A word about binomials first. I use them a fair bit, and there are two reasons: one, they’re much more reliable than common names — Pandion haliaetus is always an osprey, whereas “fish hawks” or “seahawks” can be any number of birds, or football teams, …
Month: November 2018
In the key of Whaa?
Here’s that picture of the hairy false goldenaster I mentioned in the last post. Now, if you didn’t know it was a hairy false goldenaster (I mean really, look at it) and even if you didn’t know your botany from your Bimini, you could probably guess it was at least a member of the Asteraceae …
Let Me Illustrate
Last night’s windstorm blew the cover off the hot tub. It ended up in the driveway at the bottom of the little hill the tub perches on, only a few feet from the Subaru. I suppose a stronger gust — stronger than the 40mph wind they said we got in the night — might have …
Rocky Mountain Juniper
Local ecosystems can vary over even small distances, so while both Red Cedar and nearby Reservoir Ridge share similar altitude, dry rocky soil, and common high plains shrubs like Rhus trilobata, Reservoir Ridge — just across Satanka Cove from us — has something in short supply on this hill: Rocky Mountain Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum). It’s …
What we don’t see
Take a look at this picture. It looks at first glance like a selfie. But a selfie by definition is a self-conscious thing. “Backstage! With Bon Jovi!” That’s a selfie. Or “Me and Diana on the Empire State Building!” Or “Guess who we met on top of the Empire State Building!! Bon Jovi!” And then …
Red Cedar Wright 