3:00 snapshot #1985: Monday

Driving home from my dentist appointment, with my new crown

280 days of Urbpandemonium #40

A European paper wasp Polistes dominula* accompanies me as I hang out the laundry. She and I are both focused on the clothespins; me because I'm trying to hang the damn laundry, and her because its nice untreated dead wood, perfect to chew up into pulp to form a paper wasp nest. Even though these are non-natives, and they can sting, I pretty much leave them alone. They eat only other insects, hopefully winter moth caterpillars this time of year, and they are not especially aggressive. They do love to build their nests on human-made objects like eaves, sheds, and fences, which can be a nuisance. The biggest problem comes from people who don't notice living things around them, inadvertently disturbing the nest and getting themselves stung.

*"Little mistress who founded the city???"

3:00 snapshot #1986: Tuesday

The impromptu assemblage art of the lead keeper's desk.

A prickly debut

Former zookeeper, now volunteer, Stacey takes a portrait of the prehensile-tailed porcupine she just brought out on exhibit.


Understandable, since he is so handsome.

280 days of Urbpandemonium #41

At the end of the autumn, the fertile males and females are born. They leave the nest and mate. The males die. The fertilized females seek shelter--under the loose bark of a dead tree perhaps, or in the gap of the exterior of a worn and shoddy building. That's how this would-be yellow jacket queen (Vespula sp. or Dolichovespula sp.) ended up indoors. Disoriented from the long winter and working off of reserves of energy, she headed the wrong way from her hiding place, emerging into a room and heading toward a full-spectrum fluorescent light instead of the light of day.

Her resemblance to the European paper wasp ends at her black antennae (the EPW's are orange) and her stout body. Her workers, should she be successful in establishing a nest will be as small as houseflies, and more protective of their home than the average guard dog. I can knock down a EPW nest with a short stick and no more protection than sunglasses and a baseball cap. A yellow jacket nest might require a full tyvek suit and bee veil to safely tackle.

Zootopia

So the whole point of me going through everything I went through to get a suit was to wear it to Zootopia. This is the zoo's biggest fundraiser of the year, with big money auctions and awards and local politicians and so on. I found myself gravitating toward other zoo people and their animals for comfort.

3:00 snapshot #1987: Wednesday

Zookeeper Sarah at her post in the Aussie Aviary.