Alphonse is a gopher snake, similar to the one in the photo at right. He (or she, for all I know) lives somewhere near our house. Gopher snakes are not venomous, despite their rather close resemblance to the rattlesnakes that are common here. Gopher snakes (which are also very common here) hunt small rodents, such as the gophers, ground squirrels, and various kinds of desert rats that live here -- and even rattlesnakes -- so we like gopher snakes!
But I've had just about enough scares from Alphonse, and I wish he'd be a little more ... polite. I'd appreciate some sort of warning before he shows up again...
The first scare he gave me was a couple weeks ago. I was washing my truck's windshield, and I was standing on a small stepladder so I could reach the center. As I finished and started to climb down my ladder, I looked down -- and saw what looked like a rattlesnake coiled right at the foot of my ladder, and starting to twine about the ladder's steps, as if to climb up. Yikes! Their resemblance to rattlesnakes is deliberate, to scare off potential predators -- and it sure scared this predator! It took me a few seconds to get my heartbeat under control and engage my brain to carefully look at the head (it's not as triangular as a rattlesnake's) and the tail (gopher snakes have no rattles). Ok, it wasn't a rattler...
Then, just a few days ago, I drove into our driveway, parked, and climbed out of my truck. I felt something on my leg, looked down -- and saw a snake climbing my leg! I froze, not wanting to threaten the rattlesnake -- and then, when my brain was working again, I checked it out carefully. Yup, it was Alphonse again. Sheesh! Once I was positive it wasn't a rattler, I just grabbed him behind the head (gopher snakes aren't real quick movers) and unwound him from my leg, and set him near a gopher hole -- which he immediately slithered down. Good -- I hope there were several unsuspecting gophers down there!
I never tire of watching the hummingbirds here; of all the abundant wildlife we have here, none delight me as these flying jewels do...
This morning the sun rose far in the north (as it's only been a week since the summer solstice) and brightly lit our hummingbird feeders, which are located on the north side of our house. I took advantage of this to take some photos. You can see the nine that came out well by clicking the photo at the very bottom; this will take you to an album.
The male hummingbird at right is a Costa's hummingbird (Calypte costae). While these are very common in San Diego County, until this year they haven't been particularly abundant at our feeders. This year we have at least a dozen males every day (based on how many we see at the same time). This morning while I was taking my photos, one of the Costa's males swooped in from behind my head and went into a hover about six inches from my eyeballs -- and stayed there for a good 15 seconds, just checking me out. What a view I had of him! A little while later, a different male Costa's landed on my camera, just an inch or so from my forehead (I had my eye to the viewfinder). I felt the air from his wings and the sound, so I knew he was there. I backed away from my camera ever-so-slowly, and he stayed right here, not looking concerned at all. After resting for 30 seconds or so, he flew over to swill some hummer juice...
Photographing a hummingbird perched is a challenge; getting one in flight approaches impossibility! This morning I managed to get three decent photos of flying hummers, the best I've ever done in one photo shoot. The bright morning light helped, as it allows the camera to focus more quickly. The photo at right was taken at 1/250th of a second, from a distance of about 18 inches, just as the hummer was about to land on a feeder. I managed to get the camera on her at about six feet away, and just held the shutter release down and tracked her on the way in. This one nicely shows how their entire body is involved in the complex aerodynamic and mechanical dance that is their landing -- and which they make look so easy...
Michael Yon has filed a new dispatch from Iraq on Operation Arrowhead Ripper, and it has both good news and horrifying news.
The good news is of the continued progress of the operation, and in particular of the outstanding fighting ability of one Iraqi unit (the commander of which is in Yon's photo at right). The details in that portion clearly articulate the qualitative difference between this Iraqi unit and the Iraqi army in general a year or more ago. Much progress has been made, contrary to the blatherings and posturings of Reid, Pelosi, Murtha, and the like. This is very encouraging, as the ability of the Iraqi Army to fight is critical to stability in Iraq as the American forces withdraw.
The horrible news is graphic evidence of yet another of Al Qaeda's atrocities. Of all the failings of our lamestream media in Iraq, none offends me quite so much as their refusal to report Al Qaeda's bloodthirsty and cowardly style of fighting, their endless outrages to innocents. Here Yon meticulously documents another of these. In this case, a small village on the outskirts of Baquba had the misfortune to be close to a point on the road that Al Qaeda thought was a desirable place to plant IEDs. So the Al Qaeda forces took over the village -- and killed every man, woman, and child in it. They beheaded the children -- and Michael, like any sane human, can't help but wonder if the children were killed in front of the parents, or vice versa. In either case, a routine horror perpetrated by Al Qaeda that makes the worst incidents by rogue American forces seem tame by comparison.
Not that you'd ever see that in our press...
From former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking about Britain's struggles with its Muslim minorities:
The reason we are finding it hard to win this battle is that we're not actually fighting it properly. We're not actually standing up to these people and saying, "It's not just your methods that are wrong, your ideas are absurd. Nobody is oppressing you. Your sense of grievance isn't justified."
"Your ideas are absurd."
Sometimes I think he's the last sane man in Europe. Though there's much about his political views that I disagree with, on this one existential issue -- the only one in today's political atmosphere that gets me really riled up -- he's been an absolute rock. It will be fascinating to see what (if anything) this man can do in his new post to promote peace in the Middle East...
