He’s Heavier Set
April 3rd, 2009, 4 Comments »
It’s never fun when somebody loses their pet, but I was struck by the careful wording on this sign that I spotted in Victoria. He’s not big or fat, he’s heavier set:
Archive: Posts about Flora and Fauna
That’s Some Tasty Roadkill
March 19th, 2009, No Comments »
Today we drove into Wimberley, Texas for lunch. On the way there, we spotted what appeared to be a freshly killed deer on the side of the road. A group of turkey vultures had begun to have a lunch of their own.
About two hours later we returned on the same road (Wimberley was lovely, incidentally), and I snapped this photo (click for super-sized bird action):
I was surprised that, in the ensuing two hours, they hadn’t made a bigger visible dent in the remains.
James and the Tiny Deersicle
February 12th, 2009, 5 Comments »
When it comes to the outdoors, James is ridiculously capable. A couple of years ago he took me fishing up in Squamish. Well, he went fishing. I floundered around in a freezing river, waving a long graphite stick at the fish who mocked me with their toothy grins. That followed the time we went snorkeling for crabs.
Here’s James’s latest demonstration of woodsy prowess (caution: graphic photos of the inside of a small deer ahead). Boris, Travis and James, among others, discovered a fawn that had frozen to death in Boris’s parents’ backyard on Bowen Island:
In truth, I felt pretty unsure. ‘Doing something’ meant butchering the fawn. I was all for wild game but I didn’t know that everyone at the open house would be as open. And I didn’t have any hunting knives. I had excuses: I had never butchered a deer that wasn’t a fresh kill, I had never butchered a deer, never mind a fawn, in BC, within sight of downtown Vancouver and the birthplace of Greenpeace and all those moral vegetarians.
But, in the end, he went to town and they had a deer feast. I might have even temporarily suspended my no-red-meat habits for a taste of Bowen Island deer.
A Snatch and Release Program for Chihuahuas
January 6th, 2009, 7 Comments »
When I lived in Yaletown, I would frequently see sweater-clad chihuahuas being walked by their Lululemon-clad owners. If it wasn’t the dog days (sorry) of August, these poor beasts would often be shuddering and shivering with the cold (and, no doubt, the threat posed by larger dogs and humans).
As such, it’s always seemed a little cruel to own a chihuahua in Canada. They are, after all, Mexican, and not built for the cold. If your dog frequently needs a sweater to go outside, maybe it’s not well-matched to the climate in which you live.
While in Panama, I happened to see a very content-looking chihuahua, and it sparked an idea.
Julie and I decided we should open a chihuahua reserve somewhere in Central America. We’d stalk the wintry streets of Canadian cities for shivering, be-sweatered chihuahuas. We’d mace the owner, snatch the dog and bring it south to the sunny, humid climes of Ecuador or Panama. There it could romp and breed, sans doggy clothing, with its liberated brethren as it was always meant to. We even devised a bad URL: www.sweaterfreechihuahuas.com.
Alas, the usual problem arose:
1. Liberate dogs
2. ?
3. Profit!
Getting venture capital for this operation shouldn’t be a problem, should it? Maybe Bootup Labs can help accelerate my dog-snatching start-up?
Photo by ‘SeraphimC
Back in Bocas Town
December 17th, 2008, 3 Comments »
We’re back in Bocas Town for some internet access and a few days’ change of scene after a week out at Punta Laurel. I just uploaded sixty photos from the trip (here’s a slide show). If I had to pick three favourites, they would be:
Punta Laurel is essentially a series of thatched huts connected by walkways, built around a big rock and above a coral reef. It’s designed for groups of up to about ten people, but we’re the only people here.
It’s a bit like camp. Things are kind of rustic–there’s a generator for lights in the evening and recharging our laptops, a composting toilet and an outdoor rainwater shower. There are simple activities–swimming, snorkeling, reading, sleeping like a teenager. And somebody cooks for us. Two local women come over in a little boat from the nearest island. The food is simple–fish, lobster, shrimp, lots of rice and fresh fruit–but very satisfactory.
The weather here is as changeable as I’ve ever seen anywhere. The sun shines, it rains, the wind whips up, the sun shines, all in the matter of an hour. It’s been mostly bright, with occasional intense showers.
Muchos Flora y Fauna
It’s a joy to be surrounded by so much wildlife. I spotted my first ever moray eel (I mean, aside from the local aquarium) while snorkeling the other day. I was floating about three feet above some coral, and he unfolded out of a crevice. He rose toward me, all freckled and the bright green of an under-ripe tomato.
I’m man enough to admit that I panicked a little. His snout was easily as big as a small terrier’s. There was no doubt about who was the resident and who was the interloper. He stopped after a foot or so, though, no doubt intimidated by my manic thrashing. I’ve returned to his nook on several occasions to observe the eel, but I’ve kept a little more distance.
I’ve seen dozens of other species of fish whose names I don’t know. Big schools of them. I also saw bioluminescent algae for the first time in my life. Little clouds of it floated by one evening, looking rather like (I searched for a more decorous metaphor) irradiated semen.
There are also flocks of seabirds who regularly circle our little island. Pelicans skim over the waves, frigatebirds wheeling overhead, big white egrets fish off the rocks and little terns spend their evenings perched on the dock. We also saw a harpy eagle, Panama’s national bird.
We’re headed to a different, waterborne resort for a couple of days, and then back to Punta Laurel for another five or six days. On Boxing Day it’s back to Bocas Town, then back to Panama City the next day. We’re going to explore Panama’s capital for a few days before it’s on to Manhattan for New Year’s, and back home in the first days of 2009.
Beware of Puns in Advertising
November 24th, 2008, 3 Comments »
On a bag of mushrooms:
There’s really no need for that, is there?
Make the Provincial Government Keep Their Promise on the Great Bear Rainforest
November 21st, 2008, 4 Comments »
This qualifies as a client plug, I suppose, but it’s a cause that’s really close to my heart.
We’re doing some work with Greenpeace Canada, Sierra Club of BC and ForestEthics on the continuing campaign to save BC’s Great Bear rainforest.
The Great Bear Rainforest is a huge swath of the land–the size of Austria–on BC’s central coast. It’s home to three kinds of bears, six million migratory birds, 3000 genetically distinct salmon stocks and many species of plants unique to the region. Most importantly, it’s the largest tract of intact coastal temperate rainforest left on Earth.
As you may recall, there was a landmark agreement in 2006 among various stakeholders–the provincial government, logging companies, First Nations and environmentalists. They agreed to a new approach to resource planning developed by an independent team of scientists, and committed to its implementation by March 31, 2009. But we’re not (ahem) out of the woods yet. From the petition:
A couple of years ago, Premier Campbell made a very specific commitment to preserve this precious rainforest. The final countdown is on for the BC government to make their promise a reality by the March 31, 2009 deadline. Premier Campbell needs to hear from you.
We are down to the wire. Unless all elements of the promise are kept, the ecological health of the rainforest will be in jeopardy once again. We’ve come so far towards the rare success of having a vast unspoiled forest safeguarded, let’s not undermine all this good work by not reaching the finish line.
Give Me an Early Christmas Present: Sign This Petition
If you can spare 37 seconds, I’d really appreciate it if you would sign the petition urging the government of BC to keep their promises regarding this precious region. You don’t have to be from BC, either–support from other parts of the globe really helps.
If you’re keen to help beyond signing the petition, consider any of the following:
- Digg the petition.
- Email the link to the petition to your friends. Here’s a shortened URL for that: http://bit.ly/QnOJ
- Join the Facebook group.
- Submit your photos to our Flickr-powered photo contest (sweet prizes therein)
- Blog, tweet, bookmark or otherwise spread the word on the campaign.
- Watch, favourite and share this two-minute YouTube video about the project:
Thanks to Emily, Raul, Monique, Rebecca and everybody else who has written about the campaign thus far. We’re making good progress, but we’ve got a ways to go.
Free Idea du Jour: A New Cat Toy
October 30th, 2008, 2 Comments »
Yesterday I watched this cracking little homage to the feline love for flushing the toilet:
I was reminded of a possibly apocryphal story in which a couple had an enormous water bill, and couldn’t figure out why. Eventually one of them stayed home sick, and discovered that their cat was an obsessive toilet flusher.
I was musing last night about what cats love about flushing the toilet. I figured that it was the total disconnection between cause and effect: “I do something up here, and something totally unexpected happens down there. And it’s noisy and swirling!”
I imagined a cat toy that comes in two parts:
- A button or lever that sits flat on the ground, that’s easy for the cat to push on and engage.
- A little battery-powered car, with big wheels outside its body so that it can run upside down or right-side up. It’s configured so that it tends to drive in circles, or certainly not only in a straight line. It makes noise when it moves. For extra points, it’s got a little brain in it that prevents it from driving too far away from the button.
When the cat pushes the button, the car jumps to life and drives around for, I don’t know, 45 seconds. The cat gets fascinated, and repeats ad nauseum.
What do you think? Does such a toy already exist?
What Makes Them Easy to Peel?
October 1st, 2008, 6 Comments »
We bought these frozen shrimp the other day. They’ve still got the shells on, and I noticed that the packaging advertised them as ‘easy-to-peel’:
In what way are these easier to peel than the average shrimp?
On a related note, I’m becoming a bit of a Roland with my iPhone. That is, snapping and automagically uploading photos of random, mildly interesting stuff. You know, stuff like old card catalogs or strange signs or discarded roses or vaguely-yonic yoga posters. If that stuff interests you, you might want to subscribe to my Flickr feed. Or just pay slightly more attention to the thumbnails on the right side of my home page.
Dramatic Marmot
July 30th, 2008, 1 Comment »
There’s a ten-foot mural painted on the side of a building that I often pass while walking home. Tonight I finally snapped a photo of it:
I always smile when I see it, because it reminds me so much of the famous Dramatic Chipmunk:
I’d look worried, too, if I faced imminent extinction. It was apparently painted by the James Bay Youth Action Team (who have no Google juice at all). Maybe a Victoria resident can tell me how long it’s been there? I doubt it’s a re-imagining of the chipmunk, but I’m curious.
The Vancouver Island Marmot is a bit of a poster boy of wilderness conservation in BC. According to Wikipedia, it’s one of the most endangered mammals on the planet, though there’s apparently cause for optimism.