Last Free Man

Woolly Bear Made Good!

 

 About four weeks ago we found a woolly bear caterpillar being used as a velcro hockey puck by our local feral kitty, and made rescue.  After some great research and setup we placed him in a small enclosure with natural surroundings.  We fed him a steady diet of collards, romaine, and spinach.  I anxiously awaited the mothy Christmas to come!  Being that our woolly bear was obviously in his late spring larval calorie gathering mode, I knew the time was short before we must wish her farewell.  The caterpillar began feverishly building a cocoon three weeks ago, and was finished in 48 hours!  After two weeks of waiting this gorgeous fully colored Leopard Moth appeared!  I have resumed feeding her and nightly placing her outside to attract a mate, so we may keep the moth soap opera ongoing.  updates may follow assuming my precious moth is not predated or willfully journeyed on her own.

*The Giant Leopard Moth or Eyed Tiger Moth (Hypercompe scribonia) is a moth of the family Arctiidae. It is distributed throughout the Southern and Eastern United States from New England to Mexico. The obsolete name Ecpantheria scribonia is still occasionally encountered.

This species has a wingspan of 3 inches (nearly 8 cm). The wings of this moth are bright white with a pattern of neat black blotches, some solid and some hollow. The abdomen is dark blue with orange markings, the male has a narrow yellow line on the sides. Its legs have black and white bands. Adult moths are rather strictly nocturnal and do not generally fly before nightfall (Fullard & Napoleone 2001).

The caterpillar is of the "Woolly Bear" kind, with a thick coat of black bristles (setae) and red bands between its segments which become conspicuous when caterpillar rolls into a ball for defense. It should not be touched, as its setae may break off and cause a rash.

More famous moth encounters:

• Luna Moth
• Tiger Moth
• Moth Wars!
• Moth Eats Kitty!

Springtime Sexy Time!

 

Spring has sprung and all the sexy bugs are making sexy times on my lace-leaf maples.  Hardcore bug sex video in HD follows, warning this is neither family friendly nor for the weak of heart.  Enjoy this foray into the dark underground that is rare bug porn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ0XQ2oXvEo&fmt=22

 

Backyard cat wrestling

 This Halloween a rather chilling scene erupted as I was sitting back waiting on trick or treaters.  I heard a commotion out front which I assumed was tomfoolery, as I sat my Wii zapper down to take a look I was amazed at what I found.  When I opened the front door I witnessed a full bore cat wrestling match happening between some random cat and my adopted killer Winston.  Apparently what broke out was Winston observed said other kitty lurking about, made chase, and was run back to his safe spot.  On the way tumbles and slashing claws did ensue.  Yes this is a blog about a kitty fight, a real extreme kitty fight though...  The future may hold other blogging intelligence or more kitty videos, such is the randomness of this universe I have encapsulated in.  I was so entertained by the ferocity of this fight I have included a link to the full DMCA banned version here.

Green Tree Frog Flood

I have spent well over 30 years catching bucketful's of tree frogs around NW Georgia.  I grew up steeped in tree frogs around my parent's pool and reveled in their night song on a stormy night.  All this frog study while amateur, has filled me with anecdotal knowledge of their breeding habits, timeframes, feeding, etc.  Throughout all this childhood frog obsession I documented lots of gray tree frogs, bullfrogs, toads, but never once I have I seen the Green variety of tree frog.  Either I have been unlucky for 30 years or they are rare.  Another potential theory is the 500 year flood we just had threw the natural range off in some species.  I have seen more vultures than I can ever recall.  Maybe the additional flying insect surge that comes with high waters is the cause.  Whatever the reason/purpose of the appearance of these emerald green beauties I made a full study as one might expect.  Loads of Green Tree Frog NW Georgia sighting follows: 

More...

Mantas maintenance with girl talk...

Cool mantid sighting, this one featuring mantis maintenance.  The girls yapping in the background adds to the serenity, reminding us why we seek the deep, dark woods...  More mantid mayhem.

Exciting Eastern Box Turtle!

It's sitting, head bobbing amazing razzle dazzle as a great eastern box turtle made an appearance this weekend!  The eastern box turtle is a rare commodity these days as the urban sprawl has claimed much of their habitat.  I can remember seeing lots of these as a kid just mysteriously appearing in the yard after a rain or trucking along in the road at .001 mph.  To celebrate this rare sighting a great HD movie follows chronicling the slow, methodical life of a box turtle: 

More images.

Bonus movie: Frosty vs. Box Turtle

Mole!

While hiking around the woods on this fine summer day I was alerted to a rustling of leaves by my dog.  I was hoping for a nice big snake, but what we found was far more interesting.  A large easter mole, while a rare star nosed mole would have been a real treasure seeing this often reclusive creature was a rare treat.  We grabbed a few shots and let him be:

More pics...

HD Video...

Praying mantis flavored basil

A small clutch of praying mantis' have taken hold in my herb garden.  This is a good thing for my little organic herb garden as these little ninjas will transform any pest into instant dust!  Some great video follows of the little clutch making their way:

Praying Mantis HD 

Basil mantis photo set

Anolis carolinensis

   

Despite the gloom the green anoles are out warming themselves up in what precious sun remains.  The photos above show the warm up version of coloring (brown) and the cool down color (green.) 

Snake Wars 2009

Spring is in full bloom, so much so that all the little baby snakes and their large mothers are coming out to rest their bellies in the sun.  This is my favorite time of year; when the world is in full bloom and all the new, eager baby snakes are trying to make their way.  It is almost too easy right now to creep down to the waterside when it's warm and sunny and find yourself one flip-flop away from a large venomous snake.  While this is exciting photography fueled fun for me, some folks may not be such a fan of this recent snake bloom.  My brother being one of those, so to celebrate this most snakey time of the year I will now present a short film celebrating or perhaps mocking the fear that snakes seem to generate in people.  This is Snake Wars 2009!

Uncle George and the Bear

Uncle George and his rare black bear footage have made the news, I feel an expedition coming on.  I think this weekend a dumpster cam is in order!  The screenshots of the cctv footage follow:

   

The American black bear (Ursus americanus) is now considered the most common bear in North America and the only bear found in Georgia, at one point the species was nearly eradicated from the state due to poaching and habitat loss. Yet, because of sound wildlife management practices Georgia’s current black bear population is healthy and thriving and is estimated between 2,300 and 2,500 bears statewide.

Wiki: Black bears are found in a wide variety of habitats across their range. They prefer forested and shrubby areas but they are also known to live on ridgetops, in tidelands, burned areas, riparian areas, agricultural fields, and, sometimes, avalanche chutes. Black bears can be found from hardwood and conifer swamps to the rather dry sage and pinyon-juniper habitats in the western states. Black bears typically "[[hibernation|hibernate]]" during winter in hollowed-out dens in tree cavities, under logs or rocks, in banks, caves, or culverts, and in shallow depressions. Dens are normally not reused from one year to the next. While they do not eat, drink, defecate, or urinate during hibernation, it is not the true hibernation of smaller mammals since their body temperature does not drop significantly and they remain somewhat alert and active. Females give birth and nurse their young while hibernating.

After emerging from their winter dens in spring, they seek carrion from winter-killed animals and new shoots of many plant species, especially wetland plants.  In mountainous areas, they seek southerly slopes at lower elevations for forage and move to northerly and easterly slopes at higher elevations as summer progresses. Black bears use dense cover for hiding and thermal protection, as well as for bedding. They climb trees to escape danger and use forested areas and rivers as travel corridors.

Raccoons run stupid

If raccoons are somehow proof of evolution, the theory of animals gaining certain traits over time that benefit them...  Then I am officially a creationist, or perhaps an intelligent design believer.  After watching numerous raccoons run, only God could create such a ridiculous creature gait.  Ass up, waddling about, that is the raccoon way.  This method of locomotion does not benefit the raccoon in speed or dexterity, rather it provides comic relief for the denizen of it's doom.  Watch again as a silly raccoon run is exposed, and see if you too are converted.  HD version.

I need animal spray

  Living in the suburbs is supposed to be quite, clean living.  This is why I drive 2 hours a day in traffic in order to relax in the country, outside the perimeter suits me just fine.  Here as of late however the animal situation is getting a little played out.  It all started with a wild cat who now calls my porch furniture home.  Then of course the opossums, raccoons, and deer started showing up.  Finally the other night I caught a flying squirrel in the attic.  I'm not quite sure what vibe it is that I am putting out to the universe but it must be something like "animals this way!"  Either way some funny videos follow showing the constant animal attack I currently find myself suffering...

• Daytime Raccoon Blues

• Suburban Deer 

• Opossum Molester 

Maltese meat tomfoolery

I dropped some Wendy's on the ole' puppy and double stack fun ensued!  This is really all I got right now!  It will all be over soon...

You guys are late...

(Run!)

I realize the spawn times for various members of the class Amphibia do, "self adjust" to the current conditions, but I may have a rather extreme example here in our pool.  This has been another drought summer with blazing temperatures and little rain.  You see, rain is the key in frog spawning, they use it as a trigger and as a safety net for their recently fertilized eggs.  Simply put, no rain no frogs basically.  I have noticed over the last few months that there has been little calling from the Grey tree frogs that typically fill the balmy night air with their song.  It has been quiet as of late, too quiet...

Finally the rains came, a small storm or two in early August.  Just as I thought all those penned up males where out their serenading the waiting females.  The girls were nearly bursting with eggs and luckily our pool wasn't uncovered this year as a green measure to conserve water (that means we were too lazy to do it and stayed at the lake.)  So our friendly spawners were treated to non-chlorinated, huge areas of frog fodder for the evening.  This is August mind you, and its getting late in the summer. I would hope for a huge spring spawn of this nature, but it just wasn't in the cards.  So now the entire pool is coated in Grey/Green treefrogs, spring peepers, eastern toads, leopard frogs, and bullfrogs...

   

The race is on as now the eggs are hatching, driven by the warm water temperatures which actually speeds up the process.  I went out a few days ago to be greeted with a pool area/garden that was brimming with recently metamorphosed life!  All colors of grey, green, and browns were present.  Some were crawling out and feeding while others still had little tail nubs and just beginning their struggle to survive.  This late August group is really going to have to feed non stop and grow, if they are to survive the chance of an early winter.  I grabbed a few shots and videos of this late season event and links follow, Go Frogs!

Photos:

• The full set of "Macro Frogs"

Videos:

• The baby frog invasion!
• Metamorphosis Saturday!

Coming out of the little dog closet...

I have a dark secret that I have been keeping for several weeks now.  Anyone watching my mobile blog site has noticed my little white furry co-pilot as of late.  So I guess admitting you have a problem is the first step so here goes.  Hello, My name is Brandon and I am a little dog owner...  The words are hard to mutter but I do feel better now.  Yes I now have a little dog and the world somehow continues to persist, perhaps all is not lost, let us explore this.

It all started a few months after the pinnacle of all dogkind "Rhino" passed away.  It was then that the subtle threats and begging began, my girlfriend decided that she wanted a little pocket monster, a purse puppy a (gasp) little dog!  I have always been a big dog guy, preferring to allow my great dane to actually pee on the smaller ones, which he did plenty of times.  I pretty much believed that little dogs have a lot of issues, personality and ugh the yapping of course...  So I played the recently dead-dog-card as long as I could.  "oh I am still working through Rhino, exploring my feelings."  Heh we all know it was a clever ruse, I have no feelings or emotions, I'm pretty much capacitors and chips at this point.

Fast forward a year later to the present time and I have officially run out of excuses, and I really cant fake a seizure or rare allergen, It's happening the little dog reality is upon me.  So like most storm goers I prepare for the worst by reading article after article on how miserable these micro dogs are at housebreaking, socializing, pretty much everything that dogs have become is destroyed by the toy breeds.  My doom is lurking and it will be by the paw of a little rascal with a designer sweater on...

(Mud training.)

We finally settle on a breed Maltese, Poodle, or Bichon Frise yes the triad of froufrou french dogs.  These all offer high intelligence, quiet disposition, and relative ease of housebreaking.  I stall further by saying we really should look into some decent breeders and not get roped into some poor puppy mill atrocity.  This burns another couple months.  Suddenly, right about the time that ghetto nightmare happened with the Atlanta humane society attempting to dole out 220 dogs to the same public that complains about gas prices, I get a call.  My girlfriend explains that there is a little Maltese up for adoption from her work and she wants to try it out!  A lease dog, perfect he can shit up the whole joint, ruin the little dog name forever and I can get back playing Mass Effect 6 hours a day!

(Wallerin training.)   

Not so, he shows up and as luck would have it, manages to charm every single person he meets throughout the entire weekend.  Yes he was the perfect non-barking, house trained, well behaved, socialized little 7 pound fluff you ever saw.  My future was set I was now going to be a little dog owner.  For the next 10 plus years...  Now resigned to my fate I started a new project, to man up the Maltese!  Yes, I bought him a spikey collar, we run 2 miles a day, we eat dirt, pee on trees, and waller around in all sorts of awfulness.  This once pocket book sized tame Maltese is now a wild, dirty, 10lb monster.  I am also secretly renaming him Tony Danza (like the Elton John song "hold me close now Tony Danza") It's taking a lot of treats but the results will be worth it.Much like the end of every Warner Bros cartoon says: "If you can't beat them, join em'" That's my new motto around here in little dog land.  We will continue the man up sessions and see how this dog transforms, some training videos:

• Maltese of the sea
• The Maltese hunt
• Maltese VS. Hawk
• The little dog challenge
• Being liked or licked to death

The little dog challenge

(Quit smiling!)

My excuses are running out, my mourning of my old dog has passed and now I am faced with becoming a "lil dog" person.  Meh.  I am a big dangerous dog kind of guy, a dogs of war type of owner.  I like dogs that require just a few armor upgrades to become precise killing machines in the end times we are about to face.  Not poof ball, fluffy pocket rats!  How could you ever weaponize a bichon frise or a shiztu?  Those names sound way too French to stir up any fear in the hearts of your enemy!  The only potential danger might come from a catapult full of them or a direct shot to the head with a small dart-like poodle.

This long weekend we are test driving a maltese puppy for potential "pet" material.  I will of course document the experiment that is small dog ownership.  So far all i have to report is that he is fluffy, licky, and humpy.  These are not traits a killer requires.  This will indeed be a long weekend...

Some video of the horror:

Being licked or liked to death

The little dog challenge

The day the raptors took over!

(Raptor!)

A raptor, is a bird that hunts for food primarily on the wing, using its keen senses, especially vision; the talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh.  A fierce predator owning the high skies, and bringing instant, silent death upon its prey.  These are as close to weapons as an animal can be with unmatched speed and agility.  This encounter of mine was quite remarkable, and rare.

While looking around for poisonous snakes along the edge of the forest of the lake, I noticed a huge shadow sweeping across the grass.  All the local squirrels and cackling crows suddenly went silent as did all the other chirpy birds of the forest.  Then the shadow passed again.  I looked on towards our dock to see an amazingly huge bird perched upon the roof.  I could not believe the sheer stature of this beast.  I was in awe as I snapped a few quick frames just in time as his rest was over, and he loudly took of again, the loud metal snap as his talons disengaged from the roof truss.

   

The bird was a vulture, a large one eagerly hunting the small cove our cabin sits adjacent to.  little did I know this would not be the only raptor to be hunting this day.  I resumed my snake/beetle hunt, I have been looking around the rotten wood of the forest for a few weeks now trying to find some ultra rare Goliath beetle specimens.  No such luck so far, suddenly I heard a hawk cry out, so I left the woods and made my way back to waters edge for a look.

What I found stunned me.  The entire sky had exploded with birds of prey!  I counted 7 hawks and 2 more vultures.  All this mass hunting going on right in the sky above us.  I watched for close to an hour as various hawks, vultures, and possibly a falcon made numerous dives.  While the hunt was largely unsuccessful, the impact of seeing the sky so full of instant death, was truly a sight to behold.  I have a few great shots from the encounter in a gallery below:

The Raptor gallery!

Awful hair ruins hawk's day at Fenway

A hawk visibly disturbed by current hair trends of the ghetto youth, took a stand!  Or they say:

The girl was in the upper deck behind home plate, some 40 feet from the hawk’s nest, where a single egg lay in an overhang near the press booth. The hawk had been perched on a railing and swooped at the girl with its talons extended. She was taken by ambulance to a local hospital.

Too cold for shrimp and prime rib?

After a successful evening of setup and testing, the stealthcam was placed in a remote clearing far from our lake cabin.  This same clearing was noted as a gathering ground for deer and was also home to my grandfathers tomato garden years ago.  It was a slightly elevated, level and right at the edge of a huge wooded area.  The area adjacent to this location about 2 clicks away was where I had made a coyote observation the prior weekend.  So with the stealthcam in place and a plate full of smelly shrimp and prime rib 30 feet away, the scenario was perfect!

     

Later that evening I noticed there didn't seem to be any flashes going off in the woods, so I wondered if something was setup wrong, surely a cat or opossum would be poking around in my bait at this point.  When I crept down to the bait location, the PIR fired but no flash, I obviously had a problem.  So I opened the camera up and booted the config menu.  Sigh...  I had mistakenly disabled the flash!  Three hours have elapsed with no flash and 14 events were recorded, which I missed!  So I enabled the flash tested it, and walked back.

Later that evening I noticed the flash firing in the woods so I grabbed a massive one million candle power beam light and scanned the area.  It was then that we noticed a small herd of deer in the vicinity probably six or seven,  this was about 23:00.  Whitetail deer are vegetarian grazers and highly offended by meat, but their natural curiosity brought them in to investigate the new odor.  The night went on and got windier and colder, we hit a low of 27F.  The next morning I retrieved the camera only to find a few deer shots.  While interesting it wasn't the predators I was hoping for.  Although one picture does contain an innocent deer poking around with some pretty spooky eyes right behind it.  Perhaps my little deer family had some coyote trailing right behind them.  I will continue on trying to capture the elusive coyotes that live amongst us, next I try different baits and remote placements!

     

Coyote Quest II the revenge!

I am going back in!  Tonight despite the sub arctic weather expected.  It will be 23F tonight and I have decided to go full technology with a multi bait system.  This bait are will be shrimp, prime rib, summer sausage and vanilla wafers.  Yes vanilla wafers the name brand stuff no members mark or anything, after an exhaustive Internets search I was able to determine that this was in fact a favorite of the feral coyote.  Thus being the case this fine mixture of bait with a topping of vanilla wafers ought to be a fin mix indeed for baiting coyotes in close.

(Edge of the forest, looks like I'm being watched...)

I once again will setup near the lake cabin and this time make a small adjustment.  I will not go all the way up the hill close to the lair of the beast. Instead I will be setting camp on our dock which should be half afloat at this point.  I will then set the bait about 300 yards away across the cove at the edge of the forest where the howls and possibly the eyes in the above photo were spotted.  I may also have a bit of leftover calamari from the nights feast of Italian fodder tonight as my family dines.

I may also throw a catfish rig out into the murky cold depths of our now filling cove that is adjacent to my main camp.  There is nothing quite like a wad of stink bait or chicken livers on the end of a treble hook to really take the boredom out of a long night of coyote watching.  I guess I better pack some skoal and a sleeveless flannel shirt because I am apparently red necking up. 

I also have taken a page out of the cryptozoology play book.  I grabbed up a nice 4 mega pixel stealthcam, and plan on adding it to my stalking adventures.  This is a stand alone, weather resistant camera that captures still shots or video when the passive infrared detector trips.  It also has a bright 50 foot flash and quiet operation.  This device pretty much takes all the work out of determining what wildlife lurks, leaving the quiet study and video capture to me.  I think it will be quite interesting to see what comes late into the night and steals my vanilla wafers.

The weather will be a factor tonight as it was last weekend, but about 10 degrees colder.  The current models are placing tonight's temp somewhere around 20-24F.  I will be wearing the dreaded gloves and full multi layered polartec, hopefully this will get the job done.  Speaking of the weather the last two days have been quite dramatic with severe wind, tornado warnings and 2 inches of rain at 68F last night.  Of course today it has been snowing, windy and struggling to get out of the mid 30's, let's just hope for a clear night.

In the immortal words of Lara Croft from the original tomb raider 1997 PC games: "Right, lets go adventuring!"  Drivingandblogging.com your source for up to the minute feral coyote tracking, stalking and eventually attacking of my person, news!  Live!

Coyote Expedition! Fail...

After a full day of scouting the area and readying my various strategies, I settled in for a nice family dinner and some rest.  I crashed about 22:00, with the idea of waking about 3-4:00 and heading up to a large bluff surrounded by brush, that I would use as a blind.  I woke up a little late at 04:16 and began the task of dressing in the dark and quietly creeping around the cabin trying not to awaken my family.  I finally made my way to the door and with a highly skilled hand (from years of sneaking around) I pushed open the door and quietly made my way out into the 28F night.  Fatal error one occurred here, as I let the door lock behind me, now guaranteeing 5 hours of winter exposure.  I had dressed in mostly light wools and cottons various expedition quality North Facey stuff, I hoped it would be enough...

I set my Nikon D50 to manual mode with an infinity focus, and strobe to 100%.  This way if I did encounter something on my way to the blind I could hammer away some frames paparazzi style with no regard to focus or position being necessary.  I slowly felt my eyes adjusting to the darkness as my pupils grew, I finally could make some sense of my surroundings and began walking towards the water.  This is about the time that fatal error two occurred, as I walked right through my bait station and got rib bones and chickeny parts all over my shoes, now I was a mobile bait station...

As I trekked along I kept my ears open for sound and I must plug the newly revised Nike ACG line, the WildEdge was an exceptional stalker with quiet movement and no slippage.  I would recommend anyone, be they--full on stalkers in a neighbors bush, or creeping up on dangerous wildlife to give these kicks some serious consideration.  The night was cold and quiet, not a sound was heard apart from the occasional jump of a fish in the icy water to my right.  I carefully navigated the rocky shore and paused at our "out-of-the-water dock" for a quick review.  I held this position for about 20 more minutes and just listened.  The cold was starting to creep through my light clothes and without the benefit of moving I was getting cold! 

I could hear some chirpy opossum up a pine tree behind me but nothing exciting as of yet.  I carefully grabbed my Sony DV camera, and threw it in night mode, I was ready to again move out, and up the hill to the rocky bluff ahead, the setting moon was now cascading just enough light across the valley to allow me to see my next objective up ahead, so I rolled on.  When I made it to the edge of the forest I kept hearing the rustling of floor ahead, almost as if something was two steps ahead of me the whole time, it was probably my imagination or the cold but I couldn't help feeling a little bit of that child-like fear of the darkness ahead.

I found my position and took a knee for a minute.  I was getting full on cold now, as the wind swept across the cold water below, it started cutting right through my thin wool sweater.  It was 05:35 am there was still 90 minutes til dawn, and 3 hours until I could get back inside the toasty 80F cabin, that is without waking everyone up in a panic.  I will call this fatal error three, because I really was freezing my ass off and with no shelter option and a few less degrees this could have been a potentially fatal situation.  I spent the next few cold moments in the brush with my ears tuned in, listening for any signs of coyote.  I then heard a small yelp of some kind across the way!

I started rolling on my DV camera and again heard the very faint yelping.  I was pretty sure I had a coyote handshake yelp!  Coyote make lots of sounds for different communication needs, smoke signals of sorts.  I continued to film in the direction of the sounds for another few minutes when suddenly and much closer another yelp went out!  I started to realize that I was in a fairly remote place, alone and not in any position to "move out" very fast, just due to the technical nature of the rocks below and the brushy climb I had just made...  Critical error four is a combination of lack of weaponry, escape plan and smelling like ribs and chicken while right in the middle of prime hunting time.

I continued to roll...

Another 30 seconds or so and I heard a much louder, full on announcement howl!  As the noise rang out, I could feel the hairs on my neck stand up, and I actually got pretty scared.  This animal(s) was nearing and loudly, proclaiming his presence.  Something fired in me and I got up and started a fast walk.  I would have ran If I wasn't scared of breaking my neck and becoming carrion.  I couldn't believe I was "pussing out" as it were, giving up the mission!  As the camera rolled on, in classic Blair witch fashion I ran off like a little girl.  In the back of my mind I could hear the entire Monty Python cast yelling out: "run away, run away!"

The fail...

I managed to fire up the propane grill and warm my now numb hands enough to survive a bit longer, I never have been a glove guy especially in regards to photography.  It was then I looked below me and realized the root cellar underneath the cabin!  The door was unlocked, and as I opened it, I was greeted by a nice 78F warm burst of air.  Ahhh, I even found a nice seat to sit my cowardly ass in and sulk.  As I warmed up I remembered the grizzly Adams films of my youth and how he managed with only a bowie knife and some Indian bloke. 

I could barely muster the courage to beat a coyote to death with a Nikon camera.  What is this world coming to?  Man up cowboy!  The sun did come up finally and I went back out to find my bait station empty and a 5 course breakfast by my dad waiting for me back at the cabin. 

The following video while not much in the way of picture, pretty much fully details my panic attacked retreat in a somewhat humorous way.  If you listen carefully you will hear the second yelp.  Then shortly after you will hear the full announcement howl, thereafter all you hear is me briskly retreating:

Coyote Quest FAIL:

The driving and blogging entries:

http://www.lastfreeman.com/driving_and_blogging/2008/03/02/index.html

Coyote Expedition!

This weekend I travel to our lake hideaway, for adventure, beer, ribs and more potential coyote encounters!  I will be fully armed with a golf cart, Sony digital capture devices, Nikon D50, mpeg4 capture devices and just in case a .50 cal Desert Eagle sidearm.  I want to make close contact with the small pack that has taken up residence in the 100 or so acres surrounding the Lake Allatoona area of the Kellogg creek basin.  They tend to be early evening, late night, and dawn hunters so I will be in full track at these times.  The pack leader who has been spotted on numerous occasions is a large male with a great stature. 

The last time I encountered one of these guys he reacted like a wild animal should, a quick stare and then he left quickly.  I like to hunt digitally and to do so requires a lot of quiet and well placed blinds, I may even have to coat myself in some animal urine, this requires of course an animal willing to pee on me, so I will now go to the furries forum on Craig's list and report back.  For up to the minute updates check out the most massively mobile montage available here: drivingandblogging.com

(Area of Coyote sightings)

Squad based cat mission!

We get so busy in life sometimes, with work, family, various cults we are paying dues to, that we forget the simple things.  I have gotten to be so old and grumpy now at 33 that I even forgot how to play.  I obviously spend hours gaming, that is blowing away fantasy monsters or military style combat missions online, but its just not the same. 

  This weekend we hosted a small party for some friends to gather and eat some good food and drink the best beers sweetwater had to offer.  One of our guests brought a great little kid named Ethan over, who reminded me exactly how much fun one can have just playing.  We had hot wheels going through agility training, action figure battles, gun fights with plastic guns.  All the standard good clean boy fun, none of that new wave lets all be the same sex politically correct fun, no we were shooting at each other, hells yes!

In fact the stupid girls that were at the party were left to their myspaces and desserts, we carried on like the room was devoid of any estrogen at all, I really miss hating girls, and thinking they are yucky.  This kid for 4 was keenly intelligent and thought up lots of great action figure scenarios and I figured a kid this smart could really get into some fun role playing!  Kids with a lot of imagination require lots of, you guessed it imaginative play or they get bored fast.  I was one of those kids and I truly remember thinking that most playtime ideas were stupid and generic even at a very young age.

This being said, I knew that cats were nowhere to be seen, so I came up with the idea for a fun, cat mission of sorts.  Here is how it works: cats hate kids, it is just a fact and that being the case I setup several missions in true "squad based shooter style" that allowed for certain objectives and intensity.  I used to love the old "there's a monster down there, lets get em'" game as a kid so I thought it would be fun!  This kid constantly impressed me with his bravery and intelligence as we slowly/quietly made our way up to the cats lair.  Our mission wasn't successful unfortunately due to a wildly uncooperative target, but the abort mission escape was loads of fun as we came tearing down the stairs, all the while screaming "abandon mission!!"   I then found myself out of breath, red faced, and sweating with a party full of adults looking at me with a raised eyebrow! There I was again with total deja vu, for the first time in 23 years I was misbehaving when company was over...

Some video fun:

• Cat diplomacy attempt:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7uAKXVp-FQ
• Cat treat deployment:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcynN2V7qt0
• The mystery of the farting turtle:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YhmHYjbo4U

Lunar eclipse goes on despite much wildlife!

Last night I was alerted to the fact from an old friend of mine that there was a great lunar event going on.  After checking the very informative guide over at mynameisneo.com I realized I had better gear up and get ready for some night porch living.  Of course now that I have moved my Sony camcorder, Nikon d50, Sony digital camera, and numerous mpeg4 video capture devices were all dead...  I scrambled up the transformers at 21:00 and began charging everything as fast as I could, according to Jon's guide the start time was 22:00.  I was now ready for a night full of porching, tripod in hand, I headed out into the 38f night.

While I did capture many great shots and lots of awesome video the majority of what I caught was animals.  Loads of them.  Raccoons, opossums, and cats all came out to see the lunar eclipse as well, and each time I headed in for a quick warm up, as I exited I nearly tripped over a pissed off wild animal.  So while I wait for my pirate copy of iLife 08 to finish downloading all I have to offer in regards to lunar eclipse footage is my numerous animal encounter reel:

More soon...

Devil Toad!

I being a reptophile or more properly, herptophile for most of my life have taken notice of a fantastic bit of news in the paleontology world. Most dinosaurs are cool plastic toy concepts, but it seems like each new dinosaur discovery yields the same old lizard on two legs pissed at something model. While I'm Dino bashing what's up with T Rex's faggy little arms anyways? You couldn't even spin around in one of those Stephen Hawking chairs with those limp attempts at arms. Gee whiz I'm hating on dinosaurs...

(A prized ceratophrys hybrid!)

However the latest dinosaur released from some bushy faced monopoly guy clone is something special, I mean whiz bang nifty! A giant frog was found in NW Madagascar, and is confirmed now through recent remains to be somewhere in the 10lb range! Obviously a massive frog such as this would have no choice but to feed on small mammals and probably baby dinosaurs (with gay little arms.)

A beast of this magnitude with a 16 inch length and 10lb frame deserves an equally intimidating name. To my surprise the cool kids got a hold of the naming convention, not the lame ass political correct group, who would have named him "hope frog" or "misunderstood blood thirst challenged friend." No my friends they gave this beast the name:

Beelzebufo

That's right "devil toad." I'm quite impressed with the name, it certainly gets the job done, when someone yells "hey the devil frogs are heading down the path," you run. That works.

What is truly interesting to me is the similarity to the ceratophrys frogs this find represents. I personally studied this species for years, and through massive breeding, keeping and feeding I learned many things about this horror that is ceratophrys.

(Albino ceratophrys)

One lesson that this frog has taught me over and over again, was that if it can fit in their mouths it goes in their mouths. This applied to rodent prey items, my thumbs, sides of the cage... One of the most tender tales to emphasize this point was while I was breeding a hybrid of the Argentine horned frog and the cranwell's horned frog.

After successful copulation in my devised rain chamber, the eggs started hatching. The tadpoles grew quickly with the water temperature up to 78f. When they started to outgrow the 20 gallon aquarium they were in, I transfered about 200 or so to a huge kiddy pool, complete with filtering and bog plants. As the tadpoles grew, their appetites were insatiable. One day I went outside to check my evil brood, and noticed about half the tadpoles had tails coming out of their heads! What happened? Mutations? Inbreeding?

(Rain chamber/love shack...)

No. They were eagerly feeding on their brothers and sisters! Even in the pre metamorphosis stage of life these frogs were killers! I had to separate the stronger ones out and provide more shelter, I also upped my feeding and introduced lots of extra live prey. This did help the cannibalism some, but I was kind of lazy and let evolution takes it course on 100 or so of them.

This being stated I can imagine a scenario where beelzebufo, would wholly swallow up a hatchling dinosaur or two. I suppose this similarity to the ceratophrys also lends further credence to the theory of one conjoined land mass between Africa and the Americas. Lets just be glad that divide is there now, devil frogs or otherwise.

start; content=beast> +recent//

The only current daily content is over at the Beastmaster chronicles, as I prepare for the eventual take-over of my life and to celebrate my complete obsession with all things beast, I now feature some great recent "beast" videos:

This monster has been appearing nightly on my porch, and really shows no fear of humans from either disease or just plain reluctance to be a wild animal.  More encounters to come, hopefully none of which will feature me in my underwear at midnight being attacked, or at least if it does hopefully I'll be rolling video!  Because nothing is really funny unless it's on YouTube... 

Martin's Maggoty Meal

I have been a lover (enthusiast) of reptiles for many years, starting out as a keeper of tree frogs as a child all the way to the really advanced ones like eastern diamondbacks and water cobras as an adult.  So last week when my live-aboard girlfriend called me excitedly from work I had an epiphany of sorts.  She had saved a cute little lizard and was actually interested in keeping him as a little pet!  He was wandering the halls of her office and she called me squealing that she had captured him.  This was it, the moment where I could turn a seemingly normal girl into a reptile hobbyist like myself...

So I set the hook.  I grabbed her a nice little setup complete with a basking light, cage, and lots of fun foresty accoutrements for the terrarium lizard home.  I also informed her that perhaps a naming would be in order.  She had already done so and this tiny Brown Skink was named "Martin."  I let her also help me design and decorate the enclosure that Martin was to occupy thereby setting the hook further still, girls love doll housey stuff like this!  My plan was working to perfection, she would be fully converted soon, asking for pythons and rear fanged temple vipers any day now.

I inspected Martin closely and determined him yo be a common Brown Skink, native to the southeast and probably this years hatchlings.  He was tiny, his small mouth less than a 1/4 inch in width.  Feeding really tiny, finicky reptiles can be something of a chore, but I had better make a serious effort or risk losing the reptile to girlfriend momentum that was rolling.  I needed some seriously tiny insects to feed this baby lizard but I live in a condo in downtown Atlanta 7 stories up so my options are limited at best.

I went on an insect hunt after one of my runs through the local brookwood area but only managed a small cricket which was nearly as big as Martin...  I found some great beetle larvae online that came in at an 1/8th inch but it still would be a week before it shipped, and my Martin clock is ticking away.  There was no telling how long he had been running about the barren office, with no food or water.  I needed something quick, suddenly while finishing off a chicken I had roasted fro dinner I had an idea.

Maggots!  Thats the ticket!  Yes lovely, squirmy, ever so easy to produce maggots!  They are tiny, soft and loaded with protein and calories!  All I need to do was set the chicken carcass out on the patio in a box and when the flys laid their eggs all over the assumed dead body, I would have an instant maggot farm in 48 hours!  This would work even in the urban hell hole we live in Atlanta, no one is safe from maggots!  It is everyones destiny, maggots!  Get your little fork and knife ready Martin dinner is served, I am a genius!

This of course would have all worked to perfection if I had not gotten busy with new house stuff and forgotten about my steaming maggot farm outside...

So fast froward to this morning at approx 06:00.  I am in the shower and hear a scream from the living room.  Tanya is standing their with a horrified look on her face, in the middle of a huge procession of maggots!  Yes I had forgotten my maggot experiment out on the porch and it was now making its way inside to consume us all.  I leaped into action!  I grabbed some Tupperware and began grabbing them up, one by one until I had captured each and every one I could find.  Tanya still in shock was now in the other room finding a happy place, I found myself thinking "I hope this doesn't deter her from my reptile conversion..." 

Finally I went outside to attack the source, the boss monster as it were.  What I found was a completely clean carcass of chicken seething and squirming with thousands of maggots.  They were spilling down the side of my maggot farm and seeking out a new food source, having spent all the resources of the chicken they were looking inside our condo for further pillage!  Simple bug rule: remove the source, remove the bug.  So I ran like a crazed man with a maggot farm in tow through the complex, enroute to the dumpster to rid our balcony of this feverish mess!  Upon dispatching the maggoty herd I ran back.

When I arrived back at our place I found Tanya fairly resigned to the fact that i had been secretly maggot making out on our small patio.  I explained it was all for Martin and that I was sorry for the infestation, but at least now I had a 30 pack of maggoty goodness to give our little friend until the Internet ones came.  She was cool with everything, maybe a little rocked by the whole ordeal but pretty much back to normal.  I decided it was time to wake up Martin and give him nice breakfast, so I hit his light and let him warm up a bit.  He finally emerged from his under the log slumber and began to bask in the artificial sunlight.  So I dropped a nice chewy maggot in.

Martin ran over like a truly hungry lizard and grabbed up the maggot!  He thrashed it back and forth, then swallowed his marvelous prey!  Tanya squealed with glee and clapped her hands, Martin was eating and my girlfriend was becoming a reptile chick.  All was right with the world. 

The cat glory hole

More cat tomfoolery caught live and dumped on the Internet, this time a box blog.  We have been collecting lots of boxes lately for my late September move, and the cats are doing their part in providing lots of comic relief.  Watch the latest Internet hit that is "The cat glory hole!"

The parental life isn't for me...

I made myself a promise the last two times this happened that I wouldn't do this again.  But I did.  One of my treasured baby tortoises escaped his yard/ grazing enclosure again, again.  I obviously am not parental material because I have let this happen on 2 other occasions, both of which were the same circumstance.  Story on:

My first ever tortoise was an African spur thighed (gecholonia sulcata) named Stanley.  I adopted him from a hot girl named Millicent who was moving and could no longer care for him.  She raised him from a golf ball sized baby to a nice fat little yearling.  One day she tearfully brought him to me and resigned custody.  He looked up at me with his weird beaky little face and I took him home and began raising him.

Stanley grew quickly and I built him a nice little tortoise garden complete with a shelter, bermuda grass, and a high wall he couldn't scale.  This was all done at my first house and he enjoyed this space for another 5 years.  Things began to change in my relationship with my starter wife.  She contracted rabies and turned into a raving lunatic as her brain began to be digested by her own insanity.  She threw me and Stanley out finally so we had to start anew...

Being such a quick transition as it was for me suddenly being homeless, I didn't have much time to make a proper home for Stanley.  He was stuck in a smaller garden area with several 4X4 posts used as a barrier of escape.  At this point Stanley was easily 40 pounds and as big as a large pizza in circumference.  I went on with the bloody divorce battle that dragged on and on as my greedy former wife used every litigious trick in the book to trap me into a slow, expensive settlement.

Stanley was a second thought now as I was battling just to get less than 10% of my assets.  I was caring for him but not as aware of his new strength and attempts at climbing.  Then it finally happened.  One morning when I was making my way out to feed him a treat he was gone. 
Stanley had found a way to scale the wall and plopped out on the other side to dangerous freedom forever.  I searched for hours, days.  I put up signs and a few neighbors reported possibly seeing him.  Stanley was gone.

My stupid wife was getting everything she didn't deserve, and all I got was a big serving of heartbreak as my tortoise pal was out there in the cold cruel world with nothing but his armored body to protect him.  I was crushed.  I also swore I wouldn't leave my tortoises unattended ever in an unsteady enclosure or fence again.

I also have two unrelated sulcata tortoises that I have been raising since the dark years with the unholy one.  These guys are the baddest little tortoise duo on the block and have filled the hole Stanley left perfectly.  They come when you have treats, bark when you pick them up and eagerly try escaping as well.  I guess a healthy escape attempt is a sign of vitality.

These guys are great little mowers and prefer cutting right through some grasses for a meal as opposed to eating of the store shelf.  To facilitate this I built a mini fence just high enough to keep them in, something I can move easily so the grass is always greener!  This mobile fence worked great for the last few years and allowed them great access to grazing locales all over the yard.

Yesterday however the larger of my two torts, the male made his escape attempt.  He is now about the same age as Stanley was when he successfully busted out of my first version enclosure at my previous house.  This must be a rite of passage in tortoisedom, the mighty escape attempt ritual.  I put my guys out in their mobile fence for a nice graze and joined the family inside for some Labor Day rib chewing.

We feasted much like the Skexskis in the Dark Crystal, bones flying about and growling at one another as forks met.  All the while I'm not thinking of the tortoises outside eagerly making escape attempts.  Upon making the last belching move away from the feast table, I was suddenly alerted to the fact that I had again left my escape drunk torties unattended.  The male was gone, the ghost of Stanley was alive and well.

Like an Amber alert had gone off in our yard was the feel as everyone searched about.  I started feeling the stress as I was searching, tortoises are fast when they get an open.  I setup a radius, but wasn't getting any results.  My brother yelled out "I will check the cameras!"  I know it's paranoid but all of our houses have advanced digital camera systems.  When Eric came back out he relayed the path our fugitive took, it was due south and it took him 30 minutes to break through the camera view.

At that rate of travel I knew he could be approaching the edge of our property and making his way towards (gasp) the road!  I shot out into the woods as fast as I could; this was again truly extreme flip flopping.  I ran through the woods like a Ewok, over obstacles, under branches.  I was scanning the property line as hard as I could with the limited light the 19:30 sun was providing.  I looked out at the most grown up edge and I saw a flash of yellow, it was him!  I bolted in his direction; he was still making a hasteful exit and had nearly broken the property line.  I scooped him up and triumphantly returned him to his garden, where he would be safe and sound.  As I walked back to the house all spider webby and bug bitten, I quietly muttered "well I'll never do that again..."

The escape video: