Finding Some Really Fine Blogs Out There!

I just took a tour of the internet with the idea of adding a few more wildlife and hunting links in the margin of this blog, and I have to tell you there is some quality writing and thought-provoking stuff out there. Yahoo!

Look over to the right and slide down the margin a ways.

Is this a great country or what?

Coffee & Provocation

Herding Central Park:
From The New York Times: The New York City Central Park Conservancy has brought in a pair of border collies and a professional goose wrangler (Geese Police Inc.) to rid the park of 300 geese that made the park their home --there had been a tenfold increase in the goose population over the course of the last three or four years. After three days of dog patrols, the number of geese was down to half a dozen. The dogs will, of course, have to return periodically.

Mink Coats as Violins?:
From a guest column at Man in Nature: "By being made into a fur coat, that mink's pelt is raised into something higher, just as a tree made into a violin is raised, or a cow made into a sumptuous steak is raised. A raw material becomes part of the human world; fur isn't just on the back of an animal scratching around for food, but is instead worked on and admired as art. Indeed, it is only really by becoming a coat that a mink's life can be said to have had any purpose at all."

Size Matters:
From The New York Times: Scientists have located the gene fragment that controls the size of dogs. No other mammal expresses a 100-fold size differential within its genetic base(from 2-pound Chihuahuas to 200-pound Newfoundlands). Thanks to Reid Farmer for bird-dogging this one.

Fishing Madness:
Want to see a video of a fellow in New Zealand who hooked a striped marlin from a jet ski, and then jumped overboard to tag the fish? Click here. A hat tip to the Field Notes blog for this one.

Coyote Attacks New Jersey Boy:
People are more likely to be injured playing ping pong than they are to be attacked by a coyote. That said, New Jersey officials are reporting what may be their first coyote attack ever on a human. The toddler was saved by his 11-year old nephew. Thanks to Teddy Moritz for bird-dogging this one.

An Alarming Story in Computer Code

One of the things that invisible trackers on a web site can do is provide keyword analysis, i.e. it can tell you what folks that came to your web site from Google or Yahoo or MSN actually typed into those search engines that brought them to your web site or blog.

Tonight I looked into that section of the tracker and found the usual kind of stuff:

• jack russell terrier and queen anne front legs
• dogs in shelters
• bellman & flint
• how does a red fox defend its self
• how to call rat terrier after it has killed his prey
• doxycycline shelf lifetime
• dog has developed skin allergy to urban wolf made with beef should i change to lamb
• tulerimia history
  

And then, rather distubingly, I found three inquiries from India:

• kill a mad dog poisons
• is thallium sulfate available in shop
• alexander the great wife to poison him after he took a homosexual lover

I suppose this not a bad set up for a modern detective novel, but at 4 am in the morning it is simply disturbing.

Ratting in the U.K. with Chainsaw Exhaust

There are only two sports -- fox hunting and ratting, and ratting is a damn good second.
. . . . - The Duke of Beaufort

Putting A Point on It

I could not make this up.

After closing my last post with a parody of "dog food experts" selling "secret knowledge," I received this missive which the sender -- someone named "aqoona" -- hoped to attach to four posts on this blog.

Aqoona promises ... ... wait for it .. secret knowledge about dog food. Of course he does.

I think u got a good blog!! Thank u for that and I hope you can visit mine. It's all about DOG and DOG FOOD at http://dogfoodsecrets.blogspot.com/

You're about to discover the terrifying-truth about commercial dog food that is linked to the deaths of thousands of dogs across the US every single day. Also in this website, I show you a simple solution proven to increase the lifespan of your dog by up to 134% and save you up to $10,000. To discover these amazing secrets just continue reading and your reward is a super-healthy, incredibly-happy dog that stays by-your-side for up to 8.3-years longer than statistically predicted. http://dogfoodsecrets.blogspot.com/

Backyard Wildlife: Joy, Nuisance or Opportunity?

From left: moose roulade; rabbit pot pies; smoked black bear; seafood terrine, smoked goose and venison sausage topped by a yellow tomato; sparrows. Photo from NYT


Sometimes two things will serendipitously fly into my electronic in-basket on the same day and look interesting sitting next to each other. I don't quite know what it means, but odd bits pushed together is what a blog is all about, so here goes ...

The first bit was a notice that Human-Wildlife Conflict Collaboration's new website is up. I am told the web site is really just a place-holder until they get funding, but it will be interesting to see what develops here, as I have no idea what this organization is about.

What does "collaboration" mean in this context? Will bears, beaver and deer get to vote on local zoning and human population growth issues? I doubt it.

Meanwhile, on the very same day, The New York Times ran a piece entitled: Backyard Pests? Think of Them as Dinner, in which the colorful Steven Rinella is profiled eating squirrels and sparrows caught in his back yard in Brooklyn.

Some readers of this blog may know of a certain mutual friend of ours who has been known to "thin out" the squirrel population in his backyard, but I venture to say I am probably one of the few Americans out there who has ever eaten sparrow.

When my brother and I were very young and living in Morocco, we would live-trap sparrows using traps made from small springs and coat-hanger wire (picture below). I have made a few traps like this as an adult livng in the U.S. and set them in the back yard (purely for old-time's sake) to catch a few sparrows which I have subsequently let go unharmed. It was fun; no apologies here.

The coat-hanger wire trap that is pictured below works very much like a leghold trap, but the spring is quite weak (you test it with your own thumb in the jaws) and the snap of the jaws is further cushioned by the feathers around the sparrow's neck. The feathers prevent the sparrow from pulling its neck out of the trap, while the weight of the trap prevents the sparrow from flying away.

If you can keep the neighbor's cat at bay, you can live-trap a dozen sparrows in a morning. This was great fun for me as a little kid, and provided many hours of entertainment.





For those interested in the history of sparrows in America, see >> HERE

For those interested in the history of sparrows in the U.K., see >> HERE

Mitt Romney Fires, Aims, and Flops Over Wounded

Back in a post about "L'affaire Zumbo," I noted that U.S. politicians seem to routinely die on top of marmot mounds.

The latest politician to be crucified on a mole hill (a reference to Golgotha for you Biblical illiterates) is Mitt Romney.

Here's how the Associated Press put it:

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is taking a second shot at describing his hunting experience.

The former Massachusetts governor has called himself a lifelong hunter, yet his campaign acknowledged that he has been on just two hunting trips -- one when he was 15 and the other just last year.

Campaigning in Indianapolis on Thursday, Romney said he has hunted small game since his youth.

"I'm not a big-game hunter. I've made that very clear," he said. "I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will. I began when I was 15 or so and I have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times."

For the record, I do not think you have to have a gun to hunt, nor do I think you have to be an NRA member to be a hunter, nor do I think big game hunting is a test of anything.

That said, by the time a man is 30, he should know who he is and stick pretty close to that.

Here's how Doonesbury satirized Romney the political changling:
(click to enlarge)