i know my tea

[rone]

I could look it up, but i'd bet a buck that Yosemite is a Native American word that means "squirrel".  The little bastards were everywhere, and they plot.  Oh, are they plotting.  The ones atop Vernal Fall tried to mug The Boy and steal his lunch, and they were aided in this endeavor by their wasp henchbugs.  They knew we'd come without the dogs... stinkin' rodent punks.

While we were at the top, we decided to dip our toes in the river to wash away the sweat and soreness of the hike.  I took my shoes and socks off, hopped over some rocks, and stepped on gum.  Some freshly chewed motherfucking gum that some jerkoff didn't even have the minimal courtesy to attach to the bottom of the rock.  Maybe the squirrels are to blame for that, too.

Did i mention the crows?  Huge fuckin' crows.  Their squawking was loud and at a lower register than you'd expect.  And they'd occasionally make weird noises halfway between a cluck and a gurgle in groups of 8 or 10.  And there was the bear that snuck behind a family to invade their SUV via its open tailgate (LOL BACK DOOR BEAR LOL).  After it was chased off, it charged through the neighboring campsite towards ours before veering off towards no-campers land.

All male park rangers have a standard issue beard.  I bought a fudgesicle.  Never, ever buy any of the Casa de Fruta wine, for it is plonk.  I'd rather drink Two-Buck Chuck.  I had fun but i'm glad i'm home.  The end.

Comments

[glitter-ninja.livejournal.com]

Squirrels are evil beings in cute fuzzy bodies. They've taken over the town my parents lived in; you can see 10-12 of them running around in a single tree.

I've never had Two Buck Chuck but our wine teacher mentioned it a few times. I'd like to find a really cheap drinkable red wine for two bucks, though.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Well, unfortunately for you, the closest Trader Joe's is in Chesterfield, MO, a St. Louis satellite. And it's probably 3 bucks out there.

2BC is barely drinkable, anyway. I was just trying to get across how wretched the CdF wine was. If you want a cheap drinkable red, you want Chilean stuff, especially any carmenere.

[chaosrose.livejournal.com]

Did i mention the crows?  Huge fuckin' crows.  Their squawking was loud and at a lower register than you'd expect.  And they'd occasionally make weird noises halfway between a cluck and a gurgle in groups of 8 or 10.

Sounds more like ravens. They do that "ratcheting" thing, too.

Did you mean they made 8-10 repetitions of the noise, or that they would make the noise when the birds were gathered in groups of 8-10?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I wondered about that. We argued whether ravens were larger or smaller than crows. Wikipedia suggests that they're larger, so they well could have been ravens.

They made 8-10 reps of the noise a few times. The largest group of ravens i saw was 4 or so.

[glitter-ninja.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation. I haven't had much Chilean wine, just a couple of chiantis.

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

[agentelrond.livejournal.com]

Yes, but squirrels are everywhere, uh, everywhere.

In a related story, I've come to believe that geese have become the pigeons of suburbia.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

No, no, sure you can find a squirrel or three anywhere, but there were sheer masses of them in Yosemite.

We only find geese around here in parks. We have these annoying gray doves that make squeaky noises when they take off. I hate `em.

[dnereverri.livejournal.com]

The ravens at the Tower of London are definitely bigger than any crow I've ever seen.

And I can still remember thinking "Damn, that's a BIG bird..." the first time I saw a crow.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Ravens are big, a good deal bigger than other crows (wing span typically 4-5 feet). Also prone to soaring like raptors, instead of the usual flapping stuff. Generic call typically descibed as "kronk", although they make a variety of other noises. Link here (http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/r/raven/index.asp) for the European raven.

Smart birds, too: one of the few that can count.

[pennyhill.livejournal.com]

Not to belabor the crow-raven point, but here's a "specimen" photo that shows you the scale of starling, crow, and raven:



This site says ravens are 2 feet long and have a 4 to 4.5 foot wingspan. They are BIG birds. Crows' wingspan is about a yard.

The thing I look at first is the bill - ravens have very thick bills and crows tend to have sharp-looking ones. To me, ravens look "shaggy" and crows look sleek.

I'm beginning to wonder if California crows are getting bigger. I've seen some pretty hefty ones this year -- hopping around on the roof and perching in great numbers in my neighbor's tree. Their population has grown in recent years; don't know what effect West Nile has on their numbers (it's decimating the cute magpies). I don't know if it's Fish & Game (Calif.) or FWS (feds), but one of them classified crows as migratory and now they're protected, so towns that have a serious crow population problem can't fight back. At night in downtown you see flocks of them flapping of to roost. Black shapes fill the sky -- the crows off to bed, the bats emerging for a night of gobbling mosquitos.