Good morning/day/evening/whatever. This week's selection will hopefully pique your interest in the outdoor world.

The first is a red fox image taken this week by a trail camera set up on my driveway. Note that he's got a dried toad in his mouth.


This one is a photo I took this week of a western terrestrial garter snake (Thamnophis elegans), which surprisingly, is indeed a poisonous snake. However, they have no fangs for delivery, and the toxins are very weak.


This third photo this week is a head-scratcher. I was going to include it with a question as to what is it? (No. Not a gelding device.) Instead, I'll spill the beans and tell you it is a photo of beaver external ear bones. I discovered them many years ago. All beavers have them. You'll not see any mention of them in the scientific or popular literature. I'm assuming they are to seal off the ear canals to exclude any water entering the ears when a beaver submerges and folds their ears rearward. Kind of a neat "gee-whiz" discovery. No other mammal has them, as far as I know. I'm calling them the superior and inferior auriculars.

Thank for enlightening us. Interesting that there’s no mention of the beaver ear bones in the literature.
I didn’t get any interesting pictures this week so here’s one from last fall. I don’t know much about bees but I thought this bunch found an interesting spot to live. I had never seen them build on the side of a rock like this.

Yeah Range. Very interesting. I've never seen combs put in a place like that either. Fascinating! Thanks for posting that.

Jack

Interesting in the snake, didn't realize they were poisonous.

Thanks for pics Gulo, ive seen honey bee combs like that on tree limbs. Dont know why the bees decided to make foundation in the open.

Last summer for his graduation present I took my kid in a Salmon and Halibut fishing trip on the Kenia Peninsula in Alaska. We had a great time and caught a bunch of fish, as it turned out the COVID pandemic was a blessing as far fewer people made the trip up there last summer so it was a little easier to find spots to fish.

Tray-Nicely done! I did the same with my son when he graduated in 2003. I took a month off work and we packed up my old truck with backpacks, fishing gear, and two kayaks on top and we took off. We traveled and camped in the back of the truck or in a tent all over the great State of Alaska. It was a wonderful trip that is the topic of conversation and memories ever since.

Moosetrot

Moosetrot…I can only imagine those memories! I do know that a week is definitely not long enough to spend in that country.

The office and what I get to do for a living

Dunno how to turn sideways pics

[quote=Gulo]Good morning/day/evening/whatever. This week's selection will hopefully pique your interest in the outdoor world.

The first is a red fox image taken this week by a trail camera set up on my driveway. Note that he's got a dried toad in his mouth.




Should a guy expect to find toadstools behind that fox ?

3 Fingers. You truly work in a beautiful world

Nice but 3 Fingers. Tray Here is one of those water chickens on its nest.

Here's one from my backyaad....it likes the strawberry patches. I have caught this same individual so often, it is entirely tame. Doesn't try anymore to hide or flee...I pick it up and it just calmly ties up my hand and gets warm . He wasn't that way when I first caught him at all, but every time since, he's almost a pet

I had no idea that some species are mildly poisonous. Or about the beaver superior and inferior auriculars. Learn something all the time . Thank you, Jack.

Morning and afternoon chores

MJM - Mark, the puffin burrow shot is a great one. Thanks!

Sharon - Nice garter snake. It's interesting to me that the species Thamnophis elegans (which it appears is what you've adopted) is dramatically different colored over in the headwaters of the Clearwater, the Joe, and upper Coeur d'Alene, just over the hill from you, and on the "wet" side of the divide. They are very dark and very brown in comparison. The one you've shown is much closer to the color we have down here. Interesting!



D.T. (is that for Delirium Tremors?) - Thanks for chiming in. Both those chores you depict are indeed honorable ones. I'm jealous. I have a buddy who makes his own arrows, and wraps them exquisitely with snake skins. Each one is beautifully unique. Ever done anything like that?

Ive backed bows with rattlesnake skins, but for arrows it seems difficult and also slightly inefficient. The ones i have seen do look amazing though. Im trying to get everything out of these sitka spruce dowels. 11/32”with the back 10” tapered to 5/16” to add a little f.o.c. Then some crest flare to remind me of place and season. Also have two bows going into this season so i have two different spines as well as stumping/grouse arrows(orange) and killing arrows(white). These are ones from last year with a knife may dad made me when i was 1


As far as the pike ive been hammering them and the bass every weekend for months. Nothing to big to speak of but always on the fly

Indeed , the colour variants are so interesting to me too-in any animal in various habitat .

This guy has been here for a few years. The pic was among the first times I caught him. After a few years, I have assumed he was the same one due to his very tame composure when I casually pick him up every summer. All the others are frantic at first when I catch them....so my amature biologist observation notes. I feel this is my own neat experiment....do they remember events ? This one seems to.

To my great dismay, my Gator lizards have been all but absent the past few years. I miss them. They are a thrill for me to find, the young with their skink-like dark tails ...to the big, chunky adults that are so easy to catch, compared to the lightning fast racer lizards I used to run and catch in Florida. I don't know what happened to them. But I keep watching for them always.

Our world....so amazing. Did you know, Jack, that my mother was an assistant professor of biology at Fairbanks U ? Years ago I took a trip into SE AK., and met some log home builders ...who mentioned where they studied. When I told them my mother's name, their expressions glowed and they said they took their biology classes with her help.

Must run in the DNA....my science teachers all told me I needed to go into marine biology after they saw my illustrations of deep sea fish. The ones with lights and big eyes and teeth....I was in a phase then in ink drawings of them.

I soon changed into fur and feathers interests

I will always be a biologist at heart....I just put it all into my art. I didn't have someone by my side to encourage me in the tec details.

Thank you, sir Jack, for your enjoyable shares. There are more of us that you may know who appreciate them very much.