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These are all photos I took while camping in Yellowstone and Tetons National Parks in September. Wildlife abounds. |
Today, while waiting for a budget meeting to start (yah, biologists gotta do that too), I learned the word zugunruhe - a fall nervousness as the tension to migrate builds up. I'm trying to behave, I'm trying to get along with people, but sometimes these human affairs are just soooo pedestrian in comparison to predators and the dissolution of rocks and I want to fly away. Now I am wondering if the swallows collecting by the thousands on the telephone wires on the Dipper Ranch ridgelines are making snotty little comments to each other and if that rattlesnake that buzzed me in the backyard two nights ago is just suffering from too much late summer fat accumulation. Hah, I trapped that rattlesnake in a bucket with a locking lid! It is not a monster like The Roper has in East Bay but the largest I have seen on the Dipper Ranch, so it may take a few days before I work up the courage to move it far away from the house. Rattle, rattle, write, read, write, please do not disturb me with your politics.
That is a grand word, worthy of inclusion in a Favourite 26 words collection. My proto-list already has an entry for 'z', so now I have a bit of a quandary :o)
ReplyDeleteI shall look forward to the rainstorm of your thoughts slowly filtering through the rocks, to produce the cool, clear springwater of another splendid blogpost. Some stuff just can't be hurried.
Wait, why 26 words and not enough room for another Z word, indeed, a German Z word? I'm confused. Those darn words again. Is it easier to move rattlers or to understand words? I do very much like the rainstorm analogy, however.
ReplyDeleteYummy, perfect word. Thank you very much, it is now MINE! =) Moving rattlesnakes is easy if it's early (cold) and you have a long, suitably-fitted stick/pole. =)
ReplyDeleteWith you all the way, zugunruhe, all though I think my anxious behavior is a result of others in my own species not seasonal cycles.
ReplyDeleteI very much look forward to your thoughts and images of Yellowstone as well as predators.
There are some folks that have been doing some outstanding studies on the subject of top predators and the role they play in system function and health.
Just in case you have not seen some of this work. DT
http://www.cof.orst.edu/cascades/
http://nrs.wsu.edu/Research/Carnivore/
I looked into getting a CA liscense plate - ZUGUNRUH, but it was already taken.
ReplyDeleteSinbad and Sinbaddad: now I am really wondering who has that license plate and why. For some reason I am imagining it is someone in Humboldt County.
ReplyDelete