One Good Shot with a Holiday Theme: Stuffing!

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Another Caption Challenge (#5)

[For further information, see this post]

{A note: I do write all text and take all pictures. Please do not reproduce either without my permission.}

Zoo Encounters

I’ve always considered the Stanley cranes the most affable of the zoo’s outdoor birds, with their slightly chubby, cheerful-looking faces and large mild eyes.

[really, how much more benign
can you get?]

When they were moved to a different enclosure this summer and given a “Caution: Aggressive Cranes” sign, I thought it was just so they’d complement their neighbors, the much scarier wattled cranes:

It was only today that I began to revise my opinion, when all of a sudden the Stanley cranes stood erect, their wide eyes turning sharp and alert, and uttered a loud, ululating cry—possibly directed at the zoo visitors.

I really don’t know what the call was all about, but Annie and I weren’t the only ones to be surprised—and somewhat alarmed—by it: a woman with another group of visitors backed away from the fence, observing, “That’s some Jurassic Park shit!”

[not a crane, a cassowary;
but pretty Jurassic Park-y]

(My second favorite animal observation of the day came from Annie, who, when watching the prairie dogs, expressed a desire not just to pet one but to “wear one on my shoulder, like a combination parrot and hamster.” I had never thought about that before, but now it’s unlikely that I’ll ever pass the prairie dog exhibit without having a vision of that occurrence coming to pass.)

{A note: I do write all text and take all pictures. Please do not reproduce either without my permission.}

Oscar, Oscar, Oscar

The Academy Awards are on tonight, and to celebrate I thought I’d post photos in honor of some of the nominees:

Winter’s Bone:


The Fighter:


(The flamingo in the lower-right corner is Amy Adams.)

The Kids Are All Right:



127 Hours:


(If Aron Ralston had been a starfish like this one, he wouldn’t have worried so much about having to lose an arm—not just because he’d still have so many more, but because the arm would regenerate, as would a new body from the severed arm.)

The Social Network:


Who needs Facebook when you're in each other's faces?

True Grit (or at least true dirt):


...this lion cub has just seen Inception:


…And finally, a movie that wasn’t nominated but should have been, Get Low:


There’s a certain resemblance to Robert Duvall, wouldn’t you say?

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Making an Art of Ill Humor

One of the things I really like about prairie dogs, apart from their ultra-round, winter-fat bodies and their little wagging tails, is that they almost always look really disgruntled—and I can appreciate that.

Last week I spotted a couple of prairie dogs munching on some sort of zoo pellets in the snow; the first looked, as you see it, annoyed, but the second looked contemplative and quite artistic as it was limned against the late-afternoon light.


At least, it did at first. Then it looked as if it were on the verge of saying something:


—But what it might have said, I couldn’t tell you. If anyone feels moved to suggest a caption for this image, I would be happy to hear it.

{A note: I do write all text and take all pictures. Please do not reproduce either without my permission.}

Here Comes the Sun

I know that right now the world (at least here in the Northern hemisphere) feels pretty bleak: icy cold, barren, and dark—dark so early and for so long that the days feel like a brief glimpse of light flashed in a cave. And I know that we’re all going around right now looking a bit like this:


Or at least I am.

But today the tide finally turns. Today, the Winter Solstice, will be the shortest day of the year—but after today, every day will be just a little longer, and the sun will stay with us for just a little more time.

So, despite the current gloom and the months of cold, snow, and ice we have ahead, remember that, after today, and sooner than you think, the days will be dazzling, the evenings long and golden, the sky hazy with heat.


Soon enough, the flowers, those randy plant genitalia, will open again and lift themselves to the warm heavens, and the air will fill with buzzing and birdsong and rich ripe scents.

Just hold on a few more months now, and remember: tonight the tide turns.

{A note: I do write all text and take all pictures. Please do not reproduce either without my permission.}

This IS My Happy Morning Face

I always knew that prairie dogs were industrious—about burrowing and eating—and of course I knew that they were cute. But I never knew that they were reluctant early risers until I saw their expressions as they munched away at their pellets (or whatever they’re eating) early one morning. It’s remarkably—perhaps even disquietingly—similar to my own expression when I’m eating breakfast…