The Urban Pantheist

Finding blue rabbit urine in the snow is almost becoming routine. All you need are wild rabbits (in our case, eastern cottontails), snow (got plenty), and buckthorn--an invasive woody plant that rabbits resort to feeding on in the winter when food is scarce.

When eastern cottontails browse on the twigs of the alien invasive shrub buckthorn, certain chemicals enter their urine. The urine of rabbits is dilute brown to orange, even when tainted by buckthorn. But if that buckthorned urine is then acted on by sunlight, the color changes to blue. If that urine is suspended in the snow, then we get to enjoy this bizarre phenomenon.

Well I've gotten my computer back, but they had to do a "clean install" of the operating system, meaning that I essentially have a brand new computer, with none of my old data cluttering it up. I have come to embrace this fresh start, since there's fuckall I can do about it. Fortunately iTunes and Amazon saved all my music on their clouds for me, but no one (not even me) thought to back up my photos. If it's not on LJ or Facebook it exists only in our memories. It's like my own little ElectroMagnetic Pulse!

So I haven't stopped taking photos since this all went down, which means I'll be playing catchup. As it happens, this photo is from June 13th, only 8 days ago. Heck I've been further behind than a week and a day before!

On this day I was lurking in a behind-the-scenes area (where the dinosaur thing was last year) as a warm rain fell. You know what warm rain means!

( Read more... )

A weird crow call drew me out from my office. Just outside, a red tail was getting harassed by a single crow and few songbirds. This grackle was the most persistent of the mob.

( many more creatures, in randomish order )

The zoo was closed on Monday.

( The snow was too deep to do any tracking, but I did find some interesting sign anyway. DEAD ANIMAL WARNING. )

One of the first pieces of jargon I picked up at the zoo was "nonaccessioned animal." This means any animal in the zoo that isn't part of the database (also "noncollection animal"). Nonacessioned animals mostly consist of stray cats, wild animals, and various pests. This red-tailed hawk (I'm pretty sure) is the same one I've photographed several times since November. The zookeepers in the area that it hunts have named it Sarah Ferestien (after a zookeeper, and our hay supplier). Sarah is eating a plump Norway rat.


I was investigating a pest issue behind a greenhouse when this cottontail and I startled each other.

Cardinal in a tire track.


The oval tracks on the sides are rabbit. I'm pretty sure the four in the center belong to a fisher.

I can't believe it was only one week ago, but here's what Dane Park looked like when Charlie and I went there last Sunday.


The weather leading up to that day--heavy rain followed by a freeze--created these frozen drained puddles. The green here is garlic mustard.

( four more pics, including one dead animal )