[Birdtalk] Another little something from Jackson

[John Morgan]

Forgot to add this....

I always enjoy seeing birds do the unusual, whether it's the young American Robins that grew up in my yard this year and me having to clean up my deck after they'd sit in practically the same spot sqawking all day for food and speckling my Trex with whitewash...yeah, I grew tired of that. Something about seeing parents feed kids that are nearly their same size bugs me. Is it just me? Or is it my empty-nester attitudes kicking in.... :)

...or whether it was the young Redtail on a fencepost on the road to Teton Village. We saw him/her bent over peering at something on the ground. We slowed, almost stopped, and when abreast with the bird, it dove...er, I mean jumped off the post almost face-first right to the ground. It was typical of those screaming Osprey dives where feet and beak/face/bill/(that dangerous hooked bitey thing) reach victim at the same time.

It was a miss. I always enjoy the follow-up to a miss. The birds usually just sit there (with a silly look on their face) as if saying "I can't believe I just missed that little pot-gut!" After gathering composure, he/she flew to greener fenceposts behind us.

Hey, (while I've got time on this rainy morning), while at West Thumb Geyser Basin boardwalk (which was snow-covered from fresh snow on 5/27/06) we came across a park ranger who seemed to be out mingling and answering questions. I've always been tempted after many years of park visiting, to quickly dip my fingers into a thermal pool to see how hot they really are.....but I've never done it. So I asked the ranger lady what the water temps were. With the pained look of having answered the question a ba-zillion times, she told me how it varies all over the park, but ranged between 148 to 200 degrees (boiling point at that altitude). Then she surprised us by recommending the book "Death in Yellowstone," and told us briefly about it.

It sounded good, so we bought it. Wow, I have a new humbled respect for the park and its dangers! Through the countless acts of stupidity (such as my contemplations of many years wanting to test water temps) of visitors since 1872, you gain new respect for dangers of thermal areas, of animals, of climbing falls, drownings, avalance/hypothermia and countless other perils and you see how park policy has evolved as a result of litigation. You learn what "wilderness" is. You learn about us as humans and our need to lash out and pass blame of our own actions on to other parties or things. You learn how to invite bears to eat you and bison to hook you with horns and toss you 20' in the air while your wife and kids watch in horror. You learn how to drive your car off cliffs into the Yellowstone river gorge, how to get pounded into the ground by falling trees, and most of all, how to cook yourself in 10 seconds or less....so much so that your skin falls off and you die the next day like the 24-year-old hero who dove into a thermal pool to save a friend's dog. What usually happens is some moron like myself walks off the boardwalk and right to the edge of the pool, then the edge sluffs off and the smart persons falls in. 12 to 24 hours later they're usually dead and a candidate for a Darwin Award :)

19 deaths caused by thermal pools, 5 from bears, 3 or 4 from bison and countless others from a host of other things, oddest of which is poisonous gasses from thermal pools! Yup...the stinky smell is poisonous, but too diluted to cause harm....but it has happened.

Moral here? Put any kids (or animals you want to keep) on a leash when walking boardwalks in thermal areas! You never know when your 9-year-old will get a crazed urge to jump into a "warm" swimming pool. It's a horrible painful death. I don't advise it.

Interesting observations (from the book) about Bison: we see it as a "mythical animal from the past", and somehow, in touching the Bison, we connect with our past. "These aren't real animals, but some sort of modern-day replicas." Right!

Mean-spirited, with sharp pokey things coming out of their heads, they run 30mph, we run 10mph. Who wins?
No documented deaths have been caused by deer, elk or moose. Surprising! Injuries a plenty, but no deaths....and countless bear bitings, but only 5 documented deaths.

A good book...recommended.
John
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://secureserver.securesites.net/pipermail/birdtalk/attachments/20060609/3c5368c9/attachment.htm