And so we reveal the mystery of two days back, or at least it should be pretty obvious by now (and might have even been obvious then.) This is Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, definitely one of the more curious geological formations in the US, and a major part of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Now you can finally place that little musical bar that I provided as a hint.
There are radical
Jim didn’t tell me whether this black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) was telling him to keep the noise down, or specifying how tall one had to be to get on the ride, or drying its nails, or doing the Macarena. It might just be gay.
Om my god, I’m in so much trouble now for perpetuating stereotypes about prairie dogs, aren’t I?
I’ll let you figure it out.
Okay, I’ll give you a hint: da da da da daaaaaa…
This is an emerald tree boa (Corallus caninus) – or at least, it was when this was taken back in 2005. In 2009, herpetologists suggested that there was a separate species from a different geographic area, so this one might have changed taxon then when I wasn’t there to witness it.
I would certainly like to be getting such pics in “the wild,” but as yet I have not traveled
I know, that’s a pretty funny thing to ask on a blog that gets no comments whatsoever, but I have an active fantasy life…
Anyway, here are two versions of a view from the beach trip back in May:
So, not a huge difference between them, but a noticeable one. Both were taken at the same focal length (17mm,) but for the second one I crouched a bit to use the railing of the
We’ve left Montana now and have traveled to Wyoming, in a touristy area. You can tell that last bit from the reaction of the locals, in this case a black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) showing its typical response to photographers. Or at least, photographers that aren’t offering Cheetos.
The things that I get up to…
So, knowing roughly where Jim was when he took this shot, I pulled up Google Earth and started poking around to see if I could determine just how far those peaks were. And in the process, realized that I had found the precise location of nearly all of the preceding Montana pics. Yes, even the swing set – mostly because it’s not far removed from the other,
Whether it’s accurate or not, Jim managed to provide a distinct impression of the area that he visited in Montana with virtually all of the photos he sent along (the flowers notwithstanding.) Despite the sky conditions, you can almost hear the creak of the chains as the swings drifted
I just have to do this to mock the morose Mr Bugg, whose blog keeps writing checks his schedule and dedication can’t cash. If you don’t know what it means to cash a check, ask your grandfather. At the same time, if I go too long without posting Jim’s pics will take over the blog…
Anyway, I had these sitting in my stock folders since June, when out prowling in the yard one
“And you’re gonna put that saddle on who now?”
It’s subtle, perhaps, but the shorter focal length, or wider angle (same thing,) distorts the proportions enough to make the center horse seem to loom a bit – the head actually looks vertically bigger than the torso. And because of that, the others seem to have the same trait just by facing the same way, even though they’re
