OT Last night

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Hammerojustice

Hammerojustice

Chief Caveman, Keeper of Thor's Hammer
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Last night I ate dinner at a restaurant where 'Munson's daughter works. Lovely girl. She didn't have my table, but she was very friendly. Didn't get to chill with Munson, and with the race here this weekend, I doubt we'll get to hang out, but still a nice time
 
...you talking about the Pocono race?

..."Munson" and his wife are great folks...and they raise their children right.
 
yankeesince59 said:
...you talking about the Pocono race?

..."Munson" and his wife are great folks...and they raise their children right.
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That I am... I'm up here checking in on my Dad's place while he's in Arkansas with his new bride & then off to my childhood home tomorrow morning to pick up stuff before it's sold.... Then back to my house... Sunday will be a long day...
 
...are you going to the race or are you talking about how crowded things might be there because of the race?


...and "mmmm, ......Arkansas...new bride" (Homer Simpson voice)
 
I have such fond memories of taking weekend drives into the Poconos as a kid. One memorable adventure had mom collecting ricks for a rock garden, so we would stop along mountain passes where debris would collect from falling rocks. Mom spotted her "centerpiece" a small boulder. So dad starts picking off some surrounding rock so he could get at the base, using a tire Iron as a lever. Then all hell brakes lose. You see my Pop, for all his size and bluster (bulletproof and badass cop) snakes were his kryptonite. He had disturbed a pine rattler and ended up on the other side of the road. We don't recall seeing his feet ever touching the ground. Mom, an old farm girl goes over and shoo's the snake away. Classic. It was a silent ride home with the hunk of rock in the back. Dad still hates that rock too.
 
...lol...it was always fun to laugh at Dad when he f'd up...my Dad was scared shitless of spiders...for me, it's roaches...I'll scream like a woman if one gets on me.

...spiders, snakes, and other critters don't bother me...but a roach just freaks me out for some reason.
 
I was OK around lab rats....but sewer rats, especially the monsters in NYC freaked the hell out of me. Run into diamondbacks regularly out here, no big deal. And we've got some big spiders like avocado spiders, wolf and the occasional tarantula. Now scorpions....don't like them at all.
 
...only ever encountered one scorpion...rattlers (d-backs and timber-backs) as well as moccasins (copperheads and cotton-mouths) are all over the place down here...you really gotta be careful where you step too, especially when it's as dry as it has been recently. (they're on the move looking for water)
 
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totus44 said:
I have such fond memories of taking weekend drives into the Poconos as a kid. One memorable adventure had mom collecting ricks for a rock garden, so we would stop along mountain passes where debris would collect from falling rocks. Mom spotted her "centerpiece" a small boulder. So dad starts picking off some surrounding rock so he could get at the base, using a tire Iron as a lever. Then all hell brakes lose. You see my Pop, for all his size and bluster (bulletproof and badass cop) snakes were his kryptonite. He had disturbed a pine rattler and ended up on the other side of the road. We don't recall seeing his feet ever touching the ground. Mom, an old farm girl goes over and shoo's the snake away. Classic. It was a silent ride home with the hunk of rock in the back. Dad still hates that rock too.
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I almost stepped on a big a timber rattler 10 years ago.... Fortunately I saw it ~2" from putting pressure on it... Must have just eaten a squirrel or two & was sunning itself.

I can't recall my dad having a kryptonite... He had snakes as a kid (& I do now)... In fact his mom came down the stairs at his house when my mom's parents went there to meet for the first time with a big ass boa around her neck...

My mom's parents had a house in the Poconos & then my parents had this house built ~15 years ago.

I've always loved the mountains & hated the shore (surprising as I'm a NJ boy)

Today was great... Woke up to a hawk screeching on the tree outside my window, then went fishing in the stream & caught 2 dozen bass & some chubs, heard a great blue heron squawking, & then an osprey screeching at me as I was coming back down the stream. I'll upload a clip of that hawk I woke to when I get back to some Wi-Fi. The hawk did that every 15-30 seconds for an hour...

Then this afternoon I picked close to 2 lbs of blueberries & then capped off the night with a cigar & brews in a jacuzzi.

Off to bed now as I'm getting up in ~6 -hrs to drive to NJ, load the car with stuff, some heavy, then back home... Oh joy
 
Hammerojustice said:
I've always loved the mountains & hated the shore (surprising as I'm a NJ boy)

Today was great... Woke up to a hawk screeching on the tree outside my window, then went fishing in the stream & caught 2 dozen bass & some chubs, heard a great blue heron squawking, & then an osprey screeching at me as I was coming back down the stream. I'll upload a clip of that hawk I woke to when I get back to some Wi-Fi. The hawk did that every 15-30 seconds for an hour...

Then this afternoon I picked close to 2 lbs of blueberries & then capped off the night with a cigar & brews in a jacuzzi.
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...believe it or not, I've never seen any mountains. (seeing them from above on a plane doesn't count)

...ospreys are incredible birds to watch by the water...they don't miss very often.

..."blueberries, cigar, brews, in a jacuzzi" ?....ahhh, good times.
 
out here in the mojave desert, the Mojave Green Rattlesnake is our pest.......as venomous as any North American poisonous viper......green on the norm, ......as they slither thru the sand of night, they take on a sand camouflage, making them almost impossible to see.

As venomous a risk of a bite as any N. American snake. It's poison, a Cardi0-Pulmonary and Primary Nerve System attacked, shut down without anti-venom, in a very short time thereafter.

I've never understood how killing an endangered snake, is a crime, when they pose a direct unguarded risk.

Thank God there are no Black Mambas or King Cobra's in the USA.....
Mamba's often outrun the avg Man-Joe......

http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/c.s.scutulatus.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotalus_scutulatus
 
yankeesince59 said:
...believe it or not, I've never seen any mountains. (seeing them from above on a plane doesn't count)

...ospreys are incredible birds to watch by the water...they don't miss very often.

..."blueberries, cigar, brews, in a jacuzzi" ?....ahhh, good times.
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What's the question?

Ospreys are really cool birds indeed
 
Here's the video of yesterday's wake up call

Edit... It isn't working... Damn
 
How's does one convert a mp4 file into one of the acceptable file formats?
 
...TAH DAH !...glad it worked. Great video...thanx, hammer.

...we have eagles and other hawks down here ... and their calls are very distinctive and when I hear one I alway stop and watch them.

...a couple of months ago my wife and were sitting on the back porch chillin' and were watching 2 mocking birds playing and dancing around when out of nowhere, a red tail hawk swooped down and absolutely nailed one of the mocking birds...feathers went every where as if the mocking bird had exploded...then the hawk calmly picked up its supper and flew to a nearby tree to eat it.

...also saw a 6 foot king snake eating a 3 foot rattler...I had seen this on TV but never in person before. I watched as the king snake slowly devoured the rattler and with about a foot or so of the rattler yet to be swallowed, the rattle snake's rattle was still moving and making that unmistakable sound...something to see.
 
Thank you for the suggestion!

You saw a red tail take a mocking bird? Weird... Buteos normally don't go after birds, the accipeters do... pretty nifty...

I'd love to have seen that king/rattler situation go down...
 
...hammer, it may not have been a red tail...we have so many varieties around here...the 2 mocking were playing around in the top of a young pine tree (maybe 10-12 feet tall) and the hawk just nailed one of the birds...much like a falcon would do...so I could be mistaken on exactly what kind of hawk it was but it was definitely some sort of raptor even though it was not all that big. Not sure if it was a smaller type hawk or maybe just a young one.
 
yankeesince59 said:
...hammer, it may not have been a red tail...we have so many varieties around here...the 2 mocking were playing around in the top of a young pine tree (maybe 10-12 feet tall) and the hawk just nailed one of the birds...much like a falcon would do...so I could be mistaken on exactly what kind of hawk it was but it was definitely some sort of raptor even though it was not all that big. Not sure if it was a smaller type hawk or maybe just a young one.
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How much bigger than the mocking bird? doesn't sound like a red tail if it wasn't that big. could have been a falcon, and could be something else... I'd need to look up. Can you think of any marks or traits about the bird you saw?
 
...markings?...no, don't really remember any because it all happened so fast. We were like "holy shit"...but it was a good sized bird and at least 3 times the size of the mocking bird. And I'm sure it was not an owl because this happen during broad daylight.
 
yankeesince59 said:
...markings?...no, don't really remember any because it all happened so fast. We were like "holy shit"...but it was a good sized bird and at least 3 times the size of the mocking bird. And I'm sure it was not an owl because this happen during broad daylight.
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I've seen a number of owls in broad daylight... the 'only come out at night' isn't exactly true... They hunt at night, but they do come out during the day
 
...this one didn't look anything like an owl...but who knows?
 
Could have been:

a Cooper's Hawk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper's_hawk

a Northern Harrier: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen_harrier

a Peregrine Falcon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_falcon

a Northern Goshawk (but unlikely because it would be way out of wintering range, let alone summer): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_goshawk

a Sharp-shinned Hawk (although, much smaller): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp-shinned_hawk

by comparison, a Red-tailed Hawk (one big ass bird - males up to 24", females up to 26" but they're fricken heavy which makes it harder for them to take a bird: males up to 2.9 lbs and females up to 4.4 lbs. Compare that the the Northern Goshawk which comparable in length but 1.72 lbs and 2.6 lbs male/female): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-tailed_hawk

Rough-legged Hawk is about the same in size/weight of the Goshawk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rough-legged_buzzard

Ferruginous Hawk possible, but not likely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferruginous_hawk

The Red-Shouldered Hawk is a good possibility, but main diet is mammals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-shouldered_hawk

Broad-winged hawk sounds too small (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad-winged_hawk)

Swainson's Hawk is also unlikely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swainson's_hawk

Considering all of the above, my guess would be the Cooper's Hawk, but I didn't see it... my 2nd guess would be the Red-shouldered Hawk... but considering they rarely take other birds...???
 
...lol...yeah, hard to figure out without an actual picture of the bird we saw.

...all I know is that I had never seen another bird "explode" like that before...it was quite a hit. Maybe a falcon?
 
yankeesince59 said:
...lol...yeah, hard to figure out without an actual picture of the bird we saw.

...all I know is that I had never seen another bird "explode" like that before...it was quite a hit. Maybe a falcon?
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Randy Johnson?


Or to a lesser extent, this kid?
 
rotflmfao...I had forgotten about that...poor bird.
 
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He'd do community service today for animal cruelty.
 
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