Status report.
Jul. 1st, 2002 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynNot much going on here. out in the fire areas people are dealing with all kinds of things, but back here at HQ it's all at a phone's remove... there's still gigantic wildfires raging, but all we see of them is the cloudy crap on the horizon, rising out of the smoke. I don't really mind - I mean, it's dull, waiting for the chance to do tech support, but at least I'm here where it's needed. And at least I get to eat where I want, without having to tell anybody where I'm going or worry about when to be back. I wouldn't say no to front-line service, but I'm in IT; this is what computer people do.
In the meantime I have encountered magpies. Serious magpies. Not the bitty ones they have in pet stores, from Indonesia, but big mean birds the size of crows, with huge white patches on their bodies. I am going to have to revamp my mental image of several scenes in Carpe Jugulum - I didn't know they were that big. I've been seeing crows, too, or at least I think they're crows... they don't have ravens out here, do they? I've seen prairie dogs, too. There's quite a lot of them in the area, even up along the railroad tracks. The wildlife in the area's been cool so far. Maybe on 4 July, when we have off, I'll get to see more. One of my co-workers got to go up into the mountains on his day off and saw an elk. That'd be neat.
Otherwise, things proceed as normal. I'll let you know if anything changes.
In the meantime I have encountered magpies. Serious magpies. Not the bitty ones they have in pet stores, from Indonesia, but big mean birds the size of crows, with huge white patches on their bodies. I am going to have to revamp my mental image of several scenes in Carpe Jugulum - I didn't know they were that big. I've been seeing crows, too, or at least I think they're crows... they don't have ravens out here, do they? I've seen prairie dogs, too. There's quite a lot of them in the area, even up along the railroad tracks. The wildlife in the area's been cool so far. Maybe on 4 July, when we have off, I'll get to see more. One of my co-workers got to go up into the mountains on his day off and saw an elk. That'd be neat.
Otherwise, things proceed as normal. I'll let you know if anything changes.
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no subject
Date: 2002-07-01 02:39 pm (UTC)Oh, and I found a good page for "Do any of $corvid live here?"
http://i-bird.com/Family/Corvidae.htm
... and specifically:
http://i-bird.com/Species/CmnRaven.htm
... and for particularly where you are:
http://i-bird.com/Location/CORockyMtNP.htm
NB that ol' Corvus corax is listed as 'Fairly common. Present all year,' like the American crow, but the Black-Billed Magpie is 'Common. Present all year.' So -- in short, they could have been either ravens or crows! Your best bets on identification are by call (caw vs croak), the shape of the spread tail in flight (ravens: semicircular. crows: more squarish), or, really close up, beak shape (crows have lumpier beaks, ravens' are more smoothly conical).
In other news, I caught what could only be an oriole (orange chest, black back with some white highlights) at the bird feeder this morning, which didn't make much sense as they like nectar and bugs, not black thistle seeds! Yet, there it was amongst the Steller's Jays and squirrels, rummaging about in the feeder.
That reminds me, I should refill the hummingbird feeder...
-- L
no subject
Date: 2002-07-02 12:36 pm (UTC)