Picture of the Day for July 17, 2013

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It appear this is the ‘dog days of summer’. The Old Farmer’s Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3rd and ending August 11th, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. These are the days of the year with the least rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere. And it is definitely hot here this week.

Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time “the Sea boiled, the Wine turned sour, Dogs grew mad, and all other creatures became languid; causing to man, among other diseases, burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies.” according to Brady’s Clavis Calendaria, 1813.

The Romans sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather. So it is a good thing this dog is black and white!

Dog Days of Summer

Dog Days of Summer

 

Picture of the Day for July 15, 2013

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Last night I took my cat for a walk down by the pond and he was busy trying to catch frogs, tadpoles and dragonflies. One frog was pretty smart and jut stayed perched on a floating cattail in the water instead of staying by the shore like the other frogs who would have to jump back into the water on the next loop my cat made around the pond.

When approached, green frogs will typically leap into the safety of the water while letting out a loud cry. Hence, the old nickname ‘the screaming frog’. Their normal call is explosive, prolonged, and low-pitched producing a twang similar to the sound of plucking the bass string of a banjo, usually given as a single note, but sometimes repeated several times. Usually I see the ripples in the water after their croak and spot them that way more than the sound.

Northern green frogs will eat any living things they can capture and swallow and are opportunistic feeders, who normally sit patiently in the water or close to shore and wait for prey. Apparently they couldn’t swallow my cat since he passed by several times without being eaten.

My pond is always full of tadpoles and now I know why since after the eggs hatch in 3 to 7 days, the green frog tadpoles take 2 to 22 months to metamorphosis into full grown frogs. And since there were so many in my pond that my cat had to try to catch, he was a rather muddy cat and I refused to carry him home so he wasn’t allowed to play that ‘I have a broken leg and can’t walk’ trick last night.

Perched Green Frog

Perched Green Frog

Picture of the Day for July 13, 2013

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Having the windows open when a cool breeze is blowing is always a treat in the summer but that also means you can hear the screaming kids outside. And this week, the crying kids are the baby Baltimore Orioles who sit near the sugar water feeder and screams until one of the parents tanks up on the juice and delivers it to the screaming kid. Grape jelly is another way to feed the screaming babies.

Baltimore Orioles prefer darkest colored berries, ignoring green and yellow berries even if ripe. And when they find dark berries, they will stab the berry with a closed bill and then open their mouth to cut a juicy swath to drink the juices.

The young males do not molt into the bright orange plumage until the fall of their second year but sometimes the drab first-year young males will attract a mate and raise a family. The females become deeper orange each time they molt and some older females can be almost as bright orange as a male.

Baltimore Oriole Eating Jelly

Baltimore Oriole Eating Jelly

Picture of the Day for July 12, 2013

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The need for barbed wire arose in the 19th century as the American frontier moved westward into the Great Plains and traditional fence materials—wooden rails and stone—became scarce and expensive. Of the many early types of barbed wire, the type invented in Illinois in 1873 by Joseph F. Glidden proved most popular.

Glidden fashioned barbs on an improvised coffee bean grinder, placed them at intervals along a smooth wire, and twisted another wire around the first to hold the barbs in a fixed position. His U.S. patent was issued November 24, 1874 and the patent survived court challenges from other inventors. Joseph Glidden prevailed in litigation and in sales. Today, it remains the most familiar style of barbed wire.

Joseph Glidden’s wire fences were cheaper to erect than their alternatives and when they became widely available in the late 19th century in the United States they made it affordable to fence much bigger areas than before. Joseph Farwell Glidden’s simple invention, barbed wire, changed forever the development of the American West.

Barbed Wire

Barbed Wire

Picture of the Day for July 10, 2013

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The family of geese are out for a nice summer time swim. The young often remain with their parents for their entire first year.

At least 11 subspecies of Canada Goose have been recognized, although only a couple are distinctive. In general, the geese get smaller as you move northward, and darker as you go westward. The four smallest forms are now considered a different species: the Cackling Goose.

The “giant” Canada Goose, Branta canadensis maxima, bred from central Manitoba to Kentucky but was nearly driven extinct in the early 1900s. Programs to reestablish the subspecies to its original range were in many places so successful that the geese have become a nuisance in many urban and suburban areas. And it is no fun stepping in goose poop!

Swimming Geese

Canada Geese Family Swimming

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