Sunday, May 24, 2009

Random sightings

I have a few blog posts in mind but am a bit tired and have to work tomorrow. So instead, I'm offering a few sightings.

From today:

-A practically bare Wal-Mart at 6 PM on Sunday

-At Wal-Mart, overheard a grandmother say, "you're not f
at." The kid, a girl about age 8 or 9 said adamantly, "yes, I am." Then, she said something about her belly, but I didn't catch that.

-Found butterfly wings on the ground

-Saw four vultures sitting on a fence while two others promptly ate
a pungent, dead animal

-Found a toad in the house. Tovah promptly alerted me it was there.


On Mother's Day, I made snickerdoodles, this is how they turned out


Several weeks ago, I kept seeing this garter snake at work. I have a post about that later


Last week, I found this box turtle by the side of the road and moved it to a safer place


I also found another dead bird as well. At least this one was an adult


See, what everyone misses by not living in the country. :grin:

EDIT:

For the record, the vultures are still there today, eating away.

Another photo of the bird. This was how I actually found it.





10 comments:

Kim said...

A box turtle on the side of the road? How did that get there?!

I like these sightings :)

Anonymous said...

I LOVE TOADS!! There used to be several at my farm, but two I saw all the time. I named them Ted and Trina. hehe. Then one time I walked in the barn and caught them having sexy times.

I've never had the pleasure of coming across a snake. I like snakes.

Crabby McSlacker said...

Great sightings!

I don't know which is sadder though, the dead animals or the 8 year old who's already worried about looking too fat.r

Cammy said...

Oooh animal pics! Can I be a nerd and share latin names?
Toad: Fowler's toad Bufo woodhousii fowleriSnake: Eastern garter Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalisTurtle: Eastern box (Terrapene carolina carolinaBird: Looks like an Oriole (some Icterus species), how big was it?

Cookies: look great
Wal-Mart girl: Very disheartening, I really worry about this next generation of girls, whose messages have been even more scrambled than they were for us.

Cammy said...

I forgot, considering geography, if it's an Oriole it would have to be either a Baltimore or an Orchard Oriole.

All of the people who always acted puzzled ("What are you going to do with that?")when I told them I was a zoology major obviously never considered its utility for commenting on blogs. ;)

Tiptoe said...

Kim, Not sure how the box turtle got there. Usually, I see them on the roads after it has rained. I think they get lost, so I point them towards the right direction again.

700stories, toads can be cool. I think the funniest thing is after it rains, the frogs and toads all come out. They literally are jumping all over the roads.

I don't see snakes too often for the most part, except for the few who seem to be "resident" ones at the kennel or dead on the road.

Crabby, thanks so much for commenting. I agree, both are disheartening. Dead animals are frequent around here, unfortunately. Btw, your blog is great!

Cammy, yeah to scientific names of animals! I wish I kept up with it better in school. Oh well, that's what I have you for. :grin: See, it pays to remember all those terms.

It could probably be either one, but I lean more towards an Baltimore Oriole. However, I always thought Baltimore orioles had more black and orange. This one definitely had a yellow underbelly. I'll post another picture how I originally found it.

I thought it could have been a Bullock Oriole, but that doesn't fit for my geography.

Cammy said...

The female Baltis are yellow and black; males are orange and black (except the juvy males, which look like female, but they should have their big boy plumage by this time of year). And the comment that IDing animals is "what you have me for" totally made my day, FYI. :)

I Hate to Weight said...

kudos to the grandmother who told the eight-year old that she was not fat. when i was eight and said i felt fat, my mother took me to a crazy diet doctor. wish someone had ONCE told me i wasn't fat. hope the little girl in Walmart listens to her grandmother. what are the odds?

Tiptoe said...

Cammy, see biologists come in handy! My mother decided to send me a bird identifying book. I have a lot of other birds at my bird feeder who eat an enormous amount. Saw a huge bird that looked like it was in the pigeon family there the other day.

Lissy, it is hard to say. We can only hope that she listens to what her grandmother said.

Wrapped up in Life said...

I've never seen a baltimore in person. It's pretty (for a dead bird, anyways).

I enjoyed the weekend pictoral :)