Animalia

[Fred the Cat]

While fishing on the south fork of the Boise river

we saw a bald eagle tending the nest

then admiring the work!

[orin stepanek]

Kitty kitty; don't hurt the pretty birdy!

[Chris Peterson]

Caught on a trail camera on our ranch last week.
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[neufer]

Caught on a trail camera on our ranch last week.

• That looks pretty brown to me

<<The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is a bear that is found across much of northern Eurasia and North America.

In North America, the populations of brown bears are often called grizzly bears.

There has been no confirmed sighting of a grizzly in Colorado since 1979.>>

[Chris Peterson]

Caught on a trail camera on our ranch last week.

• That looks pretty brown to me :!:

<<The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is a bear that is found across much of northern Eurasia and North America.

In North America, the populations of brown bears are often called grizzly bears.

There has been no confirmed sighting of a grizzly in Colorado since 1979.>>

We have only American black bears, but they come in two variants or subspecies, black and cinnamon. These would be the latter.

[geckzilla]

Seems like a cozy den would be preferable to snuffling around in the snow.

[Chris Peterson]

Seems like a cozy den would be preferable to snuffling around in the snow.

We had a crazy October, weather-wise. A winter snowstorm and deep, deep freeze (0°F) early in the month (froze the changing leaves right off the trees) and another big pair of heavy snowstorms in the last week. Normally we'd see nothing more than a dusting of snow in any October storm. Now we're back in sun and warm. The bears are usually active until sometime in November, when they hunker down and mostly aren't seen again until spring (they don't actually hibernate). But anyway, look at the fur on those guys! Do they look like they care about a little cold weather?

[orin stepanek]

I wouldn't mess with any bear!

[neufer]

I wouldn't mess with any bear!

• Their diet includes nuts

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<<The cinnamon bear (Ursus americanus cinnamomum) is both a highly variable color morph and a subspecies of the American black bear, native to the central and western areas of the United States and Canada. Established populations are found in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Manitoba, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Wyoming, California, Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia. They also have been seen in Pennsylvania and New York, and therefore as a subspecies most likely exist alongside the mostly black colored eastern American black bears present in both states and breed with them. The most striking difference between a cinnamon bear and any other black bear is its brown or red-brown fur, reminiscent of cinnamon. The subspecies was given this designation because the lighter color phase is more common there than in other areas.

Like other American black bear subspecies, cinnamon bears are omnivorous. Their diet includes fruit, vegetation, nuts, honey and occasionally insects and meat, varying from other subspecies because of regional habitat differences. Adults weigh between 92.1 and 270 kilograms. The life span for this bear is a maximum of 30 years.

Cinnamon bears are excellent climbers, good runners and powerful swimmers. They are mostly nocturnal, though they are sometimes active during daylight hours. The various color morphs are frequently intermixed in the same family; hence, it is a common occurrence to see, for example, either a black-colored female with brown or red-brown cubs, a brown-colored female with black or red-brown cubs, or a female of any one of the three colors with a black cub, a brown cub and a red-brown cub. The bears hibernate during the winter months, usually from late October or November to March or April, depending upon the weather conditions. Their scat resembles that of domestic dogs.>>

Yogi

[Ann]

I wouldn't mess with any bear!

• Their diet includes nuts

Nuts, and the occasional Homo Sapiens specimen, I'll wager. Meaty man and fresh nuts, oh yum, says Cinnamon the Bear!

Ann

[orin stepanek]

I wouldn't mess with any bear!

• Their diet includes nuts

Nuts, and the occasional Homo Sapiens specimen, I'll wager. Meaty man and fresh nuts, oh yum, says Cinnamon the Bear!

Ann

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/v ... 20955c2eb1

Picnic baskets too; in Jellystone park!

[BDanielMayfield]

Brown bears, aka grizzlies, are much more likely to feast on people. They recommend if one is attacked to curl up and play dead. (No doubt the curling up part is to protect one's nuts.)

[Chris Peterson]

:ohno: Brown bears, aka grizzlies, are much more likely to feast on people. They recommend if one is attacked to curl up and play dead. (No doubt the curling up part is to protect one's nuts.) :shock: :ohno:

That's why you carry bear bells and pepper spray when you're in the wilderness. If you run across bear poop, it's easy to tell what kind of bear it was. Black bear poop has lots of seeds and berries in it. Brown bear poop has bear bells in it and smells like pepper spray.

[BDanielMayfield]

Brown bears, aka grizzlies, are much more likely to feast on people. They recommend if one is attacked to curl up and play dead. (No doubt the curling up part is to protect one's nuts.)

That's why you carry bear bells and pepper spray when you're in the wilderness. If you run across bear poop, it's easy to tell what kind of bear it was. Black bear poop has lots of seeds and berries in it. Brown bear poop has bear bells in it and smells like pepper spray.

Yes. Living up here in grizzly country I now have a can of bear spray, so as to be more tastefully equipped.

[neufer]

Brown bears, aka grizzlies, are much more likely to feast on people. They recommend if one is attacked to curl up and play dead. (No doubt the curling up part is to protect one's nuts.)

That's why you carry bear bells and pepper spray when you're in the wilderness. If you run across bear poop, it's easy to tell what kind of bear it was. Black bear poop has lots of seeds and berries in it. Brown bear poop has bear bells in it and smells like pepper spray.

Yes. Living up here in grizzly country I now have a can of bear spray, so as to be more tastefully equipped.

• Remain wary of bald eagle attacks

<<Bear spray is a specific aerosol bear deterrent, whose active ingredients are capsaicin and related capsaicinoids, that is used to deter aggressive or charging bears. The development of capsaicin bear spray took place in the mid 1980s under principal investigator Carrie Hunt, a University of Montana graduate student working under the supervision of Dr. Charles Jonkel and Dr. Bart O’Gara. Hunt had identified commercial pepper sprays as an effective, but unreliable deterrent for bears in previous research; however, these products were only effective inconsistently and required short distances. Bear spray contains 1–2% capsaicin and related capsaicinoids, the key active ingredients. Bear spray is a very effective deterrent when used properly. In a 2008 review of bear attacks in Alaska from 1985–2006, Smith et al. found that bear spray stopped a bear's "undesirable behavior" in 92% of cases. Further, 98% of persons using bear spray in close-range encounters escaped uninjured.>>

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Capsaicin-3D-vdW

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<<Capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) is an active component of chili peppers, which are plants belonging to the genus Capsicum. It is an irritant for mammals, including humans, and produces a sensation of burning in any tissue with which it comes into contact. Capsaicin and several related compounds are called capsaicinoids and are produced as secondary metabolites by chili peppers, probably as deterrents against certain mammals and fungi.

The seeds of Capsicum plants are dispersed predominantly by birds: in birds, the TRPV1 channel does not respond to capsaicin or related chemicals (avian vs. mammalian TRPV1 show functional diversity and selective sensitivity). This is advantageous to the plant, as chili pepper seeds consumed by birds pass through the digestive tract and can germinate later, whereas mammals have molar teeth which destroy such seeds and prevent them from germinating. Thus, natural selection may have led to increasing capsaicin production because it makes the plant less likely to be eaten by animals that do not help it disperse. There is also evidence that capsaicin may have evolved as an anti-fungal agent: the fungal pathogen Fusarium, which is known to infect wild chilies and thereby reduce seed viability, is deterred by capsaicin, which thus limits this form of predispersal seed mortality.

In 2006, it was discovered that the venom of a certain tarantula species activates the same pathway of pain as is activated by capsaicin; this was the first demonstrated case of such a shared pathway in both plant and animal anti-mammal defense.>>

[BDanielMayfield]

• Remain wary of bald eagle attacks

Yes, but even more so of great horned owls. This is why I'd never wear a coonskin cap. (Even though my middle name is Daniel)

Keep looking up.

[neufer]

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Remain wary of bald eagle attacks

Yes, but even more so of great horned owls.
This is why I'd never wear a coonskin cap.
(Even though my middle name is Daniel)

• Especially: that great horned owl in the great brown bear.

The great horned owl in the great brown bear

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<<The Owl Nebula (also known as Messier 97, M97 or NGC 3587) is a planetary nebula located approximately 2,030 light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by French astronomer Pierre Méchain on February 16, 1781. When William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, observed the nebula in 1848, his hand-drawn illustration resembled an owl's head. It has been known as the Owl Nebula ever since.

The nebula is approximately 8,000 years old. It is approximately circular in cross-section with a little visible internal structure. It was formed from the outflow of material from the stellar wind of the central star as it evolved along the asymptotic giant branch. The nebula is arranged in three concentric shells, with the outermost shell being about 20–30% larger than the inner shell. The owl-like appearance of the nebula is the result of an inner shell that is not circularly symmetric, but instead forms a barrel-like structure aligned at an angle of 45° to the line of sight.

The nebula holds about 0.13 solar masses of matter, including hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur; all with a density of less than 100 particles per cubic centimeter. Its outer radius is around 0.91 ly and it is expanding with velocities in the range of 27–39 km/s into the surrounding interstellar medium.

The 14th magnitude central star has since reached the turning point of its evolution where it condenses to form a white dwarf. It has 55–60% of the Sun's mass, 41–148 times the brightness of the Sun, and an effective temperature of 123,000 K. The star has been successfully resolved by the Spitzer Space Telescope as a point source that does not show the infrared excess characteristic of a circumstellar disk.>>

<<The coonskin cap became a part of the iconic image associated with American frontiersmen such as Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett.

Daniel Boone did not actually wear coonskin caps, which he disliked, and instead wore felt hats.>>

[Fred the Cat]

Probably because I haven't fully engaged in photo processing, it's usually just dumb luck that I capture images that I like. From those, it's usually the close-ups that are my favorites.

Birds are hard to get what you want them to do.

They are always keeping an eye out.

[BDanielMayfield]

Probably because I haven't fully engaged in photo processing, it's usually just dumb luck that I capture images that I like. From those, it's usually the close-ups that are my favorites.
IMG_9552 (2).JPG
Birds are hard to get what you want them to do.
IMG_9533 (2).JPG
They are always keeping an eye out.

Your photos are great Fred. The birds at the feeder are House Finch and Lesser Goldfinch, I believe. The raptor is an Osprey.

We moved to eastern Idaho partly to be able to enjoy more wildlife. On Friday we took a day trip into Yellowstone N.P.
We saw literally hundreds of bison plus one bison carcass being eaten by a grizzly! No wolves this time but we did see two pronghorn antelope and more than a dozen elk. I also added Bobolink to my birding life list.

Bruce

[Ann]

Probably because I haven't fully engaged in photo processing, it's usually just dumb luck that I capture images that I like. From those, it's usually the close-ups that are my favorites.
IMG_9552 (2).JPG
Birds are hard to get what you want them to do.
IMG_9533 (2).JPG
They are always keeping an eye out.

Wow Fred, that photo of a hawk (I'll take Bruce's word for it that it is an osprey) is amazing!!!

Ann

[Orca]

I managed to capture, at great personal risk, a rare and unprocessed image of kittenus napus upsidedownus:

[Fred the Cat]

Cooper’s or Sharp-Shinned Hawk? They are hard to ID

Fred use to sit on the same rock.

Freds Best Pic (3).JPG (53.03 KiB) Viewed 11502 times

Perhaps there are other explanations?

[orin stepanek]

I had a visitor today: interested in what In was doing I guess! The other day a robin came and sat about 2 feet from where I was sitting; wish I had my camera with me!

[rogerbell1990]

What do you think about birds like Hawks, parrots?

[Chris Peterson]

Pelican babies on the lake up the road. Not attractive!
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