Early Tuesday Tails... Sunday Stills at NatGeo UPDATED with a warning.

Just in case you missed this sort of Viral photo......

I'm not happy with this LINK TO SOURCE PAGE AT NATGEO 
and when you get there, you'll understand why. Adware.. sheesh

Tuesday Tails: "It will Never Be Humane".... And story about mother Grizzly

Let's end this slaughter once and for all.

This is the WEBPAGE to sign the petition, and yes, they do ask you to contribute to the cause.  If you can that's great.  But please sign to end this inhumanity for all time.

Story here

While looking for a video of something sweet for animal rescue, I came a cross a few of bear attacks.  so I wondered if the people who perpetuate this slaughter were ever sickened by doing it.  Why don't they go after a grizzly bear's cubs for their fur?  That would be much more sporting, doncha think? Mama Grizzly is more than a match for men with hooked sticks.

Tuesday Tails on Friday......PDA but this gives you a chance to do something about it!

I'm posting this right away because this is an action alert because time is of the essence!  

This is PDA-Pretty Damn Awful

Here's a place  to raise hell about it.  The link goes to the Center for Biological Diversity action alert pages.

Something different for Friday... Lots of information about the Greater Sage Grouse, with a coloring book and other things for kids in the last link.

Corrected:  And, I apologize for mistakes made in spelling, syntax and grammar.  I was doing this very late.  Why the quote is still so full of bugs, I have no idea.

You can watch a video from Cornell Lab of Ornithology about the Lekking ground dances of the Great Sage Grouse.  Is that cool or what?

See it HERE

This will be a sort of Friday tails post.  The Greater Sage Grouse, along with other lesser Grouse, used to be innumerably strong, strung out in huge areas along the sage plains.  Now they are being considered for listing as "Endangered".  That's pretty freaking sad, you know?

From Yellowstonegate.com
The page is very slow to load

 This is an excerpt from THIS government document.  If the future of this amazing bird is of interest to you, I urge you to read the whole document:

"2.2. Historic Status and Distribution
Sage-grouse originally occurred in 16 states
and three provinces (Aldrich 1963, Johnsgard
1973), and their distribution closely approximated
that of sagebrush. Forests, deserts, rivers and
mountain ranges fragmented the birds’ original
distribution naturally (Braun 1998). However,
sage-grouse evolved to use large expanses of shrub
steppe habitat (Connelly et al. 2000c). Early
estimates of sage-grouse abundance were largely
anecdotal, but suggested this species was abundant
in many parts of its range (Braun 1998).

Western settlers reported seeing the skies darkened by large
flocks of sage-grouse. Pioneers described filling
wagons with sage-grouse to provide food for their
communities as well as for miners and other working
groups (Rogers 1964). Both Colonel John
Fremont (1845) and Elliot Coues (1874) reported
that sage-grouse were abundant throughout much of
Wyoming in the early to mid-1800s. Prior to 1870
in Montana and 1900 in Idaho, little or no protection
was afforded these birds (Autenrieth 1981,
Wallestad 1975).

In Colorado, Rogers (1964) indicated that
thousands of sage-grouse were killed
each year to feed participants in the annual “Sagehen
Days” in the town of Craig.

Concerns over population declines date from
the early 1900s (Girard 1937, Hornaday 1916) until
Rusch (1942) reported that, because of the bird’s
scarcity, there were not many localities where they
could be legally killed by the late 1930s and early
1940s. In his book on wildlife conservation, Wing
(1951) listed sage-grouse as a rare and threatened
species in North America, perhaps foreshadowing
current efforts to list sage-grouse as threatened or
endangered under the Endangered Species Act." 

And this next page is beautifully done, and was created by the Sage Grouse Initiative, a group that is dedicated to wildlife conservation through sustainable ranching practices.  There is a special section at thatis called: "Just for Kids"; it includes a printable coloring book as well as a sort of "Where's Waldo" Poster for identifying all the animals found on the Sage Brush Steppes where they all live.

Hope you enjoy it!

For some *#$% reason, Wolves are Under Attack -- Please Call Your Representative Now

The following is a link to the Center for Biological Diversity site.

Wolves Under Attack -- Call Your Representative Now

A couple of weeks ago, a Red Wolf female with pups was shot and killed.  We need to stop the apex predator, the human male, and of course Sarah Palin*,  because wolves are important in so many ways to a healthy ecosystem for all the other creatures that we presumably care about.  Once these wolves are gone, they are gone for good, they are gone, baby, gone.

As one poet put it, speaking of the Bengal Tiger - and I must paraphrase because the old brain cells don't remember who wrote it - that it will take a new heaven and a new earth before the likes of it's beauty will ever be seen again under the sun.


*  She also has a lot to say about how California can solve it's water problems, but that's not available for wide distribution for less than $99 a month.  Yes, she has a cable channel, so that you can never stop hearing her opinions.  Isn't technology great?

California: Vote No on Prop 1

This is a link to Center for Biological Diversity and is meant for California voters only.

At issue is how the proposed purchase of out of system water will be used, and for what purpose.  Proposition 1 on our ballot is not the sort of thing anyone wants to see on any State's ballot.  So anyone else in another state should watch anything to do with their own water issues.  Like other things, these sorts of ballot measures can have a, forgive the pun, a ripple effect.  We all know what that lead to in the last decade.  This is America.  I think we've done enough bending over.

Our state's water is used to a great degree by agriculture, and this is fine, but there are other issues here, the fact that once water goes to streams and rivers it is classified as "abandoned" and can be recaptured by agri-business, a nightmare conglomeration that has given rise to many problems in food production, and that is busily grabbing up small farms as well as water mandated for the survival of native habitat.  

California: Vote No on Prop 1

Hippo saves Gnu. At last! After all that horrid footage of Croc vs Gnus!

This has gone viral.  I'm saving it here to watch over and over again.

Tuesday Tails.. If you live in California, you can help the Bobcat, plus link to free endangered species ring tones.

This beautiful cat needs to be protected. Look HERE for information on how to take action to help save them. 

 

Photo of bobcat by Annica Kreuter.

You can also go to the Center For Biological Diversity, sign up there, and get some free, downloadable ring tones of endangered species. Cool, eh?

And a Rice Bear, Via Ann, in an egg blanket:

AND...the amazing and astounding Hamster, Smoke,  in his eating video!

Now if that doesn't cheer you up, I don't know what will do it.  Tomorrow, some flowers and then I slam you with some UGH! It's something political, sort of.  I'd say it's actually Historical.

Dolphins and People Interact on Beach in Brazil..

Something sent the dolphins into the shallows where they wouldn't have been able to escape.  Happily there were a lot of people there that day to help them back into the deep water.  Wonderful video! Just enjoy the "peppy" Latino advert at the beginning.  No skin, and no bad words that I could tell. 



Muchos Gracias por la video, Pina, mi amiga! 

My latest ceramic piece.  This thing is only a little shorter than the ukulele!  I haven't decided yet whether to glaze it or to dry brush it, either of which are very effective methods for pieces like this.  I just hope I can get it THROUGH a bisque fire without a major catastrophe.

I am still very carefully cleaning it.

And, Some flowers when I was out and about.  I am not sure what these are, but they are blossoms on a tree like bush.  I think they are related to Hibiscus, if I'm going to take a stab at ID.

Enjoy the week!  I'll be back later on when the mood hits me.  Take care of yourselves!  Remember to take time outs to depresserize your body and mind.  It's very important because modern life will just run you right into a wall if you let it.  Don't let it.  Think about how many people are working hard to make this a better world, even though you don't see that much evidence that half of them even know what they are doing.  Anyway, good people wake up every morning determined to make the world a better place, and my money is on them getting it done!

Hugs!

World's Tiniest Vertebrate!

This is when it's fair to say, OMG !! Major Cuteness Alert!



World's Smallest Frog Found—Fly-Size Beast Is Tiniest Vertebrate


I thought the baby toads we found in Northern California along the Klamath River were tiny:

Baby Toads were hopping around by the hundreds.   We were very careful once we saw them.

Thanks to DD for the heads up.

Rattle snake

This was a very small rattler.  The post it's coiled up against is just about two inches wide, if that.

We were warned to be aware of rattlesnakes, and this one really surprised us. We didn't know it at the time but it had not only killed a young ground squirrel that we found nearly, it had bitten one of the dogs. Yikes! After a run into a veterinary hospital an hour and and a half away, she was given anti venom and recovered fully.

Adventures of My Cartoon Alter Ego

Elly Elephant

Thanks to Stephan Pastis for this..

Albino Crocodile

This is for BabyLuann, and anyone else who will enjoy it.

You can see this big fellow in person ( I think it's a male) at the new Aquarium in San Francisco. He's patiently waiting for you to take his picture, and you better believe he's got those Pink Eyes on You!

What is it thinking?

 

I think it's thinking about the hazards of natural selection when it's little species stays out in the garden during the daylight hours. I set it free... I hope it didn't immediately crawl off and celebrate freedom by eating holes in the largest tomato.

The Visitor

I think we have managed to get the "visitor" to leave. It was a reluctant visitor, only wanting out if it could ever find a way back out.

It was a baby, and must have been terrified to be inside all by itself. I'm glad now that it's left. I only saw it once when it tried to hide under the stove a couple of nights ago. I'm happy to know it has escaped and is now with it's own family. DH opened the back door and pulled the stove out to the middle of the kitchen. We didn't see it leave, but in two nights, it's not touched the food - Rice Crispies which it liked - and water we left out nightly for it. Go in Peace little earthling...

Knitting. I've frogged back the same cable row (25 I think) twice but now finished it last night and it looks pretty good. An inability to concentrate is my only real excuse. This is a tough time to be trying to concentrate on double twisting cables! I hope that I don't end up hating this sweater yet again!

The Postcards are going to be cut out and fussy cut (finally) today. I'm packing off more greenware to Ceramics again. Yay! Less stuff here! I so need less stuff here. I'm tired of using half the great room for anything but living space.

This is what happens when your tiny markets get jumped on by a 60 ton gorilla; you have lots of "stuff" left with no where to sell. Now I know how South and Central American Countries feel, and Jamaica....Ooops, a little rant.

I had a filmfest yesterday. DH and I both watchedWrist Cutters last night. It's not something to watch if you are suicidal or a teenager - I don't think - and if you do watch it, skip through all the previews for some REAAALLY awful gory stuff that shouldn't even be considered the same genre. The movie itself is fascinating, the acting is good, and the story line keeps you guessing about the true identity of some folks called the P.I.C.. I'm going to watch it again because I'm intrigued by how it all fits together in it's intricate little ways.

I also watched a movie based on a book by Maive Binchy called, "How About You". This film sports a very interesting story about four people in a residential home, and how they get back their lives with the help of a no-nonsense younger sister of the owner. They help her out, too. There's some great acting in this British film.

That's what I've been up to, except I'm also gathering material for my book. No, not The Great American Novel, which I will never write, too gory my life, but the scrap book for Jazzie.

Ta!