When we have been to busy to go out more than a couple of times a week, like now, our hounds get pretty rowdy. Plummer barks and the tazis "sing" all the way to Lee's.
This AM we went to the ranch. It is finally getting cooler. They chased one cottontail which immediately went down a kangaroo rat hole-- as Libby says, bunnies cheat. Then Lib bumped a hare out of position and only Lashyn sighted it-- she ran it out of sight as the others ran up to me going "Huh?"
Finally we put up a good hare in range and they all had a good though ultimately unsuccessful run-- unsighted in cholla. Then to the tank where the old lurcher had a soak.
That peak in the background has a golden eagle nest on it, on a ledge on the left- hand extension. It is known to locals as "Mount Titty" though you won't find that name on the map..
On the way home, the girls were much quieter.
Here is a dashboard still life on the way out-- binos, whistle, .410 shells, comb for cactus spines, trigger spring for Mauser (must take that in...)
We also saw, in the distance, a HUGE and very black coyote slinking off.
Some think that wolf genes are leaking into the local population through the
introductions. This looked like the big northeastern canids I used to see
killing deer on Quabbin reservoir in Massachusetts in my youth-- which do
have wolf genetic material. More on that later...
This AM we went to the ranch. It is finally getting cooler. They chased one cottontail which immediately went down a kangaroo rat hole-- as Libby says, bunnies cheat. Then Lib bumped a hare out of position and only Lashyn sighted it-- she ran it out of sight as the others ran up to me going "Huh?"
Finally we put up a good hare in range and they all had a good though ultimately unsuccessful run-- unsighted in cholla. Then to the tank where the old lurcher had a soak.
That peak in the background has a golden eagle nest on it, on a ledge on the left- hand extension. It is known to locals as "Mount Titty" though you won't find that name on the map..
On the way home, the girls were much quieter.
Here is a dashboard still life on the way out-- binos, whistle, .410 shells, comb for cactus spines, trigger spring for Mauser (must take that in...)
We also saw, in the distance, a HUGE and very black coyote slinking off.
Some think that wolf genes are leaking into the local population through the
introductions. This looked like the big northeastern canids I used to see
killing deer on Quabbin reservoir in Massachusetts in my youth-- which do
have wolf genetic material. More on that later...
9 comments:
I have seen a very occasional melanistic coyote in Colorado. Does black color necessarily have to mean wolf genes? I don't know where they would have come from hereabouts, especially back in the 1980s.
This one wasn't black like that-- more marked like a dark German shepherd. Let me see if I can find a link to an eastern "coyote" like it. These, which I have seen, have recently been proved to have wolf genes. They are bigger, heavier coated, thicker jawed than most of our locals.
Wolves are in and out of our neighborhood-- in, trapped, released outside it, trapped again. There have been instances of the two species' breeding together in stressed populations. And these are biologically stressed -- coyotes also heavily trapped and poisoned by the gov't on the ranches, even when the owner would rather not--!
Mount Titty wouldn't cut it with the USGS cartographers, but there's at least one Nellie's Nipple on a topo map (in southern California). (Mt Titicaca on the other hand is acceptable.)
Yeah, I wish they'd leave the coyotes alone, but on the other hand, they're just making them smarter and smarter (through natural selection). In a few years they'll look just like wolves and enjoy endangered species status.
Regarding pudibund cartographic conventions, Idaho, as usual, outdoe everybody: Lemhi County still has a Squaw Tit on the map. Go Salmon Savages!
Sublette County, Wyoming still has Clara Bird's Nipple, although this is one of the names that is no longer being printed on new maps.
Poor Clara - she had at least 50 years of fame anyway!
13th highest in NY's Adirondacks is Nippletop at 4620'
Paul
USGS has had a campaign over the last 30 years to "clean up" map names. Squaw is just one of the latest deemed incorrect. I remember seeing a lot of "Negro" - named features (Negro Jim's Creek) appearing in the late 70s.
I haven't noticed anything incorrect in foreign language based names changing - have any of you? I mean we still have the Grand Tetons!
Actually, I've wondered - Chas probably knows this - why the Spanish Peaks, twin volcanoes on the Huerfano/Las Animas County line missed getting translated from their Plains Apache name. That is Wahtoyah or The Breasts of the World.
And here I come to say something very boring about how pretty all the pictures are!
I like most:
the character in the middle in the first shot- with the white socks and flaxen mane
the happy faced dogs
the crack in the windshield
but the giant boob shaped mountain is fun too I guess!
Steve:
Nice to see you getting the dogs out for a decent run, to let them stretch their legs and their genetic pre-disposition. Pretty country, indeed.
We've been trying to keep ours tired out on pheasant and grouse.
If not before, have a great Thanksgiving.
A+M+M+J
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