Other Animals

One day Steve and I went out to do errands and I brought my camera with me. We went to the pet store to get crickets for our Fire-bellied Toads and I thought it would be fun to take some fishy pictures! I think this cutie pie is a cichlid! WAIT, I'm wrong! Steve Cooke has properly identified this as a Dwarf Guarami! Thanks, Steve! :)

It was so beautiful and warm today that I decided to see if I could find some creatures to photograph since I've seen signs that critters are starting to come to life again. I didn't have to go far. I carefully turned over a cement block near our house and underneath were many animals! A hunting spider, other tiny spiders, ants, and then I saw this little guy and I couldn't believe my eyes! So tiny I could hardly see him (only 1/4" or smaller in size!), I thought this might be some kind of baby scorpion! He crawled all over the place and finally into a crevice, but I managed to get this picture to share. I discovered that this is a Pseudoscorpion, and instead of having a venemous tail, its venom is in its pincers. Not that this nearly microscopic cutie pie could hurt us, its favorite prey are dust mites and other miniscule critters! If you would like to learn more about this cool looking critter, I found this wonderful blog page which wonderful pictures and great information! Seabrooke Leckie's Blog: Pseudoscorpion By the way, I found a picture of a pseudoscorpion next to a 10-cent coin and on a finger so you can get an idea how small it is: Cabin Blog: Pseudoscorpion

This is really more of a snapshot and nothing special to look at, but gosh, isn't this doll adorable?!!! :D I was up on the ridge with the dogs a few days ago when I heard a rustle and saw something under some branches. A couple of things went through my head at the same time: "A SKUNK!!! HOW CUTE!!" "OMG GET THE DOGS AWAY!!!" The dogs heard the noise at the same time but they weren't right there, so as they began to come closer, I told them to stay back, and they did. I kneeled down and observed that the little skunk was not particularly alarmed, so I cooed at it and hoped it would come out so I could get some proper pictures. At about the time it realized I posed no threat and started making moves to come out, It occurred to me that the dogs were a wild card that could turn this wonderful, chance encounter into a week-long disaster. What would happen if that cutie pie came out and one or more of the dogs began to approach? I'd have to yell at the dog(s) to stay back...and if I were that skunk and I heard a loud noise like that, it would be my greatest pleasure to turn around, stand on my front legs, and spray away! I immediately left the area and avoided the possible disaster. A really cool picture of a skunk is NOT worth getting sprayed or worse, all the dogs and me....so, here's my picture and I'm delighted that I got its adorable face clearly! :) YAY!!! :) By the way, if you would like to see what a spotted skunk looks like, and see it standing on its front legs to get its bum higher in the air, check this out! :D www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTQc-WEb5h8 And, if you would like to read more about this stinky but cute animals, Wiki has a very good page here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk

Note: my latest garden article is up! :D Part 9—Dreams of a Big Flower Garden: We Have A Pumpkin Patch!! A few years ago, Steve and I went to a nearby county fair and we had a lot of fun taking pictures of the farm animals. One of the sows had an enormous litter of piglets and we spent a long time cooing at their cuteness! I learned something today about the word "Ungulate". I always thought it meant "hooved mammal", but that's not entirely correct. Wikipedia gives this definition: "Ungulates are a diverse group of large mammals, most of which use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving. The term means, roughly, "being hoofed" or "hoofed animal". As a descriptive term, "ungulate" normally excludes cetaceans, as they do not possess most of the typical morphological characteristics of ungulates; recent discoveries indicate that they are descended from early artiodactyls, and thus are directly related to other even-toed ungulates such as cattle, with hippopotamuses being their closest living relatives. As a result of these discoveries, the new order Cetartiodactyla has been proposed to include the members of Artiodactyla and Cetacea, to reflect their common ancestry; however, strictly speaking, this is merely a matter of nomenclature, since it is possible simply to recognize Cetacea as a subgroup of Artiodactyla." I had no idea that whales were considered to be ungulates!! My apologies for not being around much lately. The garden is keeping me very busy, along with everything else going on right now! Explored on June 11, 2014, highest placement, #2.

Steve and I saw a pair of horses at a buddhist shrine we visited a few years ago and one of them was nice enough to come over for a visit. :)

(+12 insets!!) The White Rabbit from "Alice in Wonderland" is reading my mind with this quote: “I’m late, I’m late! For a very important date! No time to say ‘hello, goodbye,’ I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!” It's long past due to post my picture today, eek! Having a house guest definitely makes schedules more difficult to keep, and so I'm behind but I hope you won't mind! :) We didn't end up going out today as planned because Steve's sister was under the weather. I was feeling cooped-up though so at about 2pm I popped on my rubber boots and knee pads, grabbed my camera and made a beeline straight up our steep hillside to the ridge line trail. From there I walked the half-mile or so to the trail's end and kept my eyes open as I walked along. I hoped that I might find the white/creamy yellow Oregon Fawn Lily. This little beauty can only be found near the end of the trail, far from our property. I knew I would probably strike out because these flowers are long past their blooming time but I couldn't help myself from trying to find one. Though I did find a few bedraggled Henderson's Fawn Lillies, I didn't find the creamy-colored ones. Boo. Well, when I took the pictures of the purple ones the other day, I knew that I should really to go find the yellow ones too. But it was late and about to rain and after that it didn't stop raining for days. It's ok though because I got some awesome pictures of these in the past. (I'll show my Oregon Fawn Lily pictures as insets!) I ended up spending a couple of hours up there just enjoying myself. I got pictures of so many things--flowers, a mushroom, huge burls on an oak tree, pine cones, curls of manzanita bark, beetles and a bee on flowers, different species of leaves glowing in the afternoon light, I even got a picture of a frog! It was a lovely, wonderful, peaceful adventure and I felt very much connected to the land. Pure bliss! There are two logs at the end of the trail which I always look under because they are so lucky for me. I found our California Mountain King Snake under one many years ago. I've found beetles and other insects, and I've found scorpions on many occasions! And so, when I lifted up one of the logs today, I was delighted to find a little scorpion huddled on the dirt and very much unimpressed with the blasting light accosting him. This darling little guy is a Northwest Forest Scorpion and measures about an inch long--very small! I've seen them more than twice that size but in any case, they are barely poisonous to humans. I think they are totally cool and wonderful! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get really good pictures because of where he was positioned but they are good enough to post. After taking pictures I carefully replaced the log…I think I heard him swearing at me for turning on the lights when he was trying to sleep! I don't blame him! :D (I've also included several insets of other pictures I've taken of these fascinating creatures for you to enjoy!) Pam, do you have scorpions where you live? I was totally amazed when I found the first one many years ago after lifting a log up to see what was underneath. I also thought all scorpions were really dangerous but they aren't. These guys are a "1" on a scale of 4 for dangerous. Now…once I was in Costa Rica…at about 2am I got up to use the bathroom and saw a shadow on the ground…turned on the light and HOLY EXPLETIVES, BATMAN, it was a 3" black scorpion on the floor, right where I would have walked!!! Can you say totally freaked out? We ushered the unwelcome guest out of our bungalow and checked regularly every night afterwards in the different places we stayed. YIKES! The only thing I found on your photo stream that looked menacing was a wood wasp picture you took. I'm glad it wasn't aggressive towards you, it sure looked nice on that lantana! Let us hope all is well for you today and I promise not to put a scorpion on your floor! *BIG HUGS*