A Brief Digression: Lincoln Beard Poll

Which Lincoln looks best? 

No Beard Lincoln:



Whole Beard Lincoln:

Or Chin-Beard Lincoln:

???

Special Bonus Lincoln: Monkee Lincoln

Looking groovy, Mike!

Dispatches from a Desert Isle: Owls

"Knock-knock."
                        "Who's there?"
"Who."
                         "Who-Who?"

OWLS!!!!!

There are many Owls on this Desert Isle, but you asked me especially about two of them, so that's what I have found for you, my wee nature lovers.

First the Elf Owl:

Elfies sure are cute! and tiny!

Life-sized elf owl!!!!

They live in this region:



and like to nest in cacti-holes because no one can get them there.

"What me, eat bugs?"

Links on this website don't work, so cut and paste to find their "All's Well" call:
http://www.owlpages.com/sounds/Micrathene-whitneyi-1.mp3

and C&P this to hear them be alarmed: 
http://www.owlpages.com/sounds/Micrathene-whitneyi-2.mp3
(scroll down this page to hear more calls)




And here are two talking to each other, probably about food. 

And last but not least, what you really want to see... tiny elf owlets! 

Elflets?

Okay, Elf Owls are pretty great, so there can't be another local owl that interesting, can there? Oh yes there are...

Burrowing Owls 

Burrowers are called Burrowers because...



they live in burrows (duh). 

<-- Also in pipes, if they find a good one, like this one. 

Very sleek and modern, don't you think?
















They have a much larger range than Elfies.





And they sound different:

Here's their "What's up?" call

Here's their "Watch out!" call

 ....and they don't mess around eating only lame old bugs.

WHAAAAAAAT?????

That used to be a frog!

but bad-ass Burrower doesn't stop there, oh no... he'll totally try to catch a BADGER!

 and you would too, if you had two cutie puffs like this waiting at home for you.

 (perhaps you can make out some pleading words in their weak little voices)

"Mommy, can you catch us an elephant, pretty please?"
"Yeah, or a whale? We're reeeeeeeallly hungry!"

Here's a clip of a Burrower getting huffy about a turtle nosing into his business,

and here, a more detailed view of their burrows, plus... Burrowing Owls love BISON POOP!

Check out the video here

But wait, there's more!

BONUS OWL!!!

Don't forget the Pygmy Owl, who is pretty cute, too. Here he is living in a Saguaro cactus! 

There are fewer than 50 left, but the US refuses to put them on the Endangered List!

They mostly live in Mexico but also in Arizona, though only in Tucson and farther south. They are a teeeeeeeeny bit bigger and heavier than our elves.

You can hear a Pygmy Owl call and see its habitat here

And that's not all! (Holy Hedwig!)

DID YOU KNOW?????

The genus of Owls is "Athene" after the Greek Goddess of Wisdom, Athena. 





Here's a standard depiction of Athena 
(with a flying person in her hand)...

one with her running away(?) 
and an owl taking fight from her heel...

...and

one

MASSIVE

one 

with a winged person

AND...

a SNAKE!

Scary.

What's the connection between owls and snakes, you ask? 

Read the next wildlife post very carefully, and you'll find out.

Finally, here's a coin that feature's Athena's Owl. 

Haven't we seen that somewhere before?


BONUS INFO: Owls (many not from the region)

with lots of pictures!

Dispatches from a Desert Isle: Wild Cats

Surprise Animal!

I know I said I'd do owls, but I have a special surprise for you little animal lovers today. Here's a hint... turn right onto: 

Ocelot Way

Yes, the Desert is home to many a type of wild cat (great info here).

We saw some bobcats, but all they did for us was sleep.

However, there are some good videos on the internet of Benji the Bobcat, who is someone's pet. Look how big he is compared to that large dog. Yeesh.

and here's how he treats one of his humans...

Then there was the mountain lion, Cruz. There are a few there, I think, but this one is newish—moved from San Jose, just south of Berkeley, where he was seen hiding in a person's backyard. Here's his whole story. I wasn't able to get video of him, but I did send you a postcard of him, and you can watch him hunting people here: 

and looking longingly at them here:

"Play with me. No, let me eat you. Play, eat, play, eat..."

Cubs have been rescued in San Jose since then, too—see their story and pictures here.

While we were there, we learned a bit about how these big cats are like our house cats. They had skulls of a housecat, a bob cat, a mountain lion, and a jaguar. 

Wait, a JAGUAR? Why a jaguar?

Uh... because there was one spotted (no pun intended) in the Tucson area not that long ago! Jinkies!

But anyway, here's what I saw—try to see how complex the inside of their nose is...

Here's a closer-up picture from a post on a lion's skull:

Fancy-schmancy in there.

But wait, you say, why did you say I should turn on Ocelot Way if you're not going to show me an ocelot?

Well, I did see one:

C'est mignon, ce petit chat sauvage!!!!

Here's one not from me, but you get to see him in a more relaxed moment, so it's a nice one to end this post:

...mostly because it might remind you that I "lick" you very much, my wee kittens! I can not wait to get right up in your face with no screen between us!

In the meantime, here's one last video of big cat noises so you know how to tell them you love them when you go to the Desert Museum.

and this has nothing to do with the Desert Museum, but is pretty awesome anyway:

Dispatches from a Desert Isle: Bats (with Bonus Science Hairstyle Tutorial)

Bats! Bats! Bats!

The Sonoran Desert is known for its bats (see a full list of types here), and upon my venture into a certain cave on the isle I discovered much to interest me and, I hope, you.

Here is the cavern entrance:

Inside this mighty partition I found myself in another land altogether. First, the cave itself...

 


Most majestic indeed! And delightful in motion:

Inhabiting this place, or some others like it, are the bats of the region, pictured here:

These magical creatures have existed for 50 MILLION YEARS!!!! (Holy longevity, Batman!)

I may have spotted a few of the strange beings in that cave, but my poor human-vision does not let me know for sure. Here is what my photographic equipment captured...

Check out this great bat video (with bonus mention of a tarantula's butt)

I highly recommend you subscribe to this incredibly excellent and entertaining YouTube channel (use my email address: erinmerritt1@gmail.com, and I'll let you know when something new is posted), or you can just book mark this page and check it whenever you want. There are tons of great things there. 

In fact, here are two more bat videos from Brain Scoop!!!

Bats are the Best!!!
And Baby Bats are even more Best:
Here's one just learning to eat solid food (a banana)—check out his tongue!

and here are some Baby-Bat Burritos:

(Go ahead, try not to squeal.)

But wait, there's more! Now that you love Emily Graslie as much as I do, you can learn to do your hair like hers, in this very funny tutorial:

Dispatches from a Desert Isle: Desert Museum—Ancient Days

In Which I View Ancient Earth, Rocks of Beauty, Things both Precious and Petrified, and Learn a Lesson from a Mummy

I seem to be trusted enough now to have to been left out of the compound, and I have ventured out to study the environs, and I have discovered a remote outpost where lies the legend of the beginning of the Earth. Here it is at 4, 3 and 1 Billion years ago...

 
 
 


There I saw some ancient mud cracks...

 









and other fossils... ripples and raindrops in the sea


and a horseshoe crab...













<--- a coelacanth...




    ... and look at this HUUUUUUGE dragonfly!
        (about as wide across as a paper is long)



I saw the shapes of the bottom of the oceans:

lots of mountains under there!

I also perused many beautiful and strange rock formations:

I really liked this spectacular purple-blue and green one 

 

Look at these crazy ones—they look like panes of glass!

The one on the right looks like it has a bunch of trees growing on it, doesn't it?

Here's a link to a gallery of a whole range of local minerals

I saw some petrified wood

       a "Volcanic bomb"and some petroglyphs and arrowheads (and other things) from the Hohokam tribe

Before the humans, though, there were the animals of the Pleistocene Era...











Remember this guy from the La Brea Tar Pits? 

He was 9 feet long and weighed 3,500 - 4,000 pounds.






<--- Heh heh. Petrified poop. 




Dung, dung-dung-dung-DUNG!!!
(sorry, I couldn't resist.)

I even found a mummified toad!!!

Wow! 

The things people save, huh?

(I had one of these before SOMEONE made me trash it. Think how rich I'd be if I had sold it to a museum.)

And that is what I learned on my wanderings, ladies and gentlemen—
1. Never throw away anything you find on an exploring trip, no matter who says to, and
2. Smoking will turn you into a mummified toad.