Surfin' Bird

People showing off their birds:

It was Bird Day at Bath Nursery

Here is some kind of owl

Duncan Madog didn't get too close!

There was also something called "The Thunderbirds" show. Please note that it was not the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds; just some kiddie parrot show!

ESL at the Fort

On the west side of where the original 'Fort Collins' parade grounds were located:

Reading and writing comprehension for ESL students are taught.

I couldn't help but notice this copy of an illustrated version of Franz Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis' in the ESL library. I looked but did not find a copy of Don Marquis' 'Archy & Mehitabel' ; I would think that that would be a better title for someone's English as a second language attempt. However

Can anyone say 'Kafkaesque Illustrations'?

Those of you who may have come across a Mad Magazine once or twice in your life might recognize the work of Peter Kuper, who is responsible for the cartoon illustrations in 'SPY vs. SPY'.

"Gregor! Get Up! You're going to be late for work!"

I've got to get a copy for our guest bathroom. It takes only minutes to read and as Kafka himself once said, "A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us". Attaboy Franz!

There is a video selection as well!

I noticed right away that they have a copy of the 1968 American comedy film 'The Producers' written and directed by Mel Brooks. Hell, just thinking of Zero and Gene and Dick makes me laugh! Did you know that Dustin Hoffman was originally cast to play Franz Liebkind in the film? ... and one of the manuscripts that Max Bialystock dismissed as being 'Too good' was none other than Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis'?

Five Assorted Arthropods

Ah, the last one of the twelve days:
So, in review we can say:

On the First Day of Christmas: An Abominable Snowman from the Greeley Museum,

On the Second Day: Two Reindeer from Bath,

On the Third Day: Three Forensic Limitations,

On the Fourth Day: Four Elves from Woodward's

On the Fifth Day: Five Assorted Arthropods,

On the Sixth Day: Six Carolers Jamming,

On the Seventh Day: Seven Morris Dancers,

On the Eighth Day: Eight Bubbas Drumming,

On the Ninth Day: Nine Pipers Piping,

On the Tenth Day: Ten Mounted Lepidoptera,

On the Eleventh Day: Eleven French Crepes, and

On the Twelfth Day: Twelve Nature Lectures!

Happy Holidays

from

ROADSIDE MYSTERIES

Ten Lepidoptera Mounted

or butterflies if you prefer:

Not from around here...

These are mounted specimens from Peru, France, China, Kenya, El Salvador and Cameroon.

A person who catches and collects, studies, or simply observes lepidoptera (members of an order encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies) are called Lepidopterists.
Famous lepidopterists include William Stephen Atkinson, Jean-Baptiste Boisduval, Bernard d'Abrera, Robert Denno, Henry Doubleday, Henry Edwards, Edmund Brisco Ford, Frederick William Frohawk, Walter Gieseking, Frederick DuCane Godman, William Jacob Holland, Johann Siegfried Hufnagel, Julian Jumalon, Napoleon M. Kheil, Bernard Kettlewell, Michael Majerus, Vladimir Nabokov, L. Hugh Newman, Princess Olga of Greece, Walter Rothschild, Camille Saint-Saëns, Otto Staudinger, James William Tutt, Geoffrey de Havilland, Edward Pelham-Clinton, 10th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne and Sergeevich Zolotarenko.

Three Forensic limitations!

At a lecture about Forensic Entomology:

So, what does it mean?

1) On hot days, the maggots thrive!

2) There are computer programs out there for calculating the postmortem interval (PMI) from arthropod successional data. Entomology-assisted determination of the PMI promises to be a reliable technique in cases of homicide, suicide, accidental death, and unattended death due to natural causes.

3)The corpse could be ANYWHERE!

Dr. Boris Kondratieff (on the right)

CSU Entomologist, Dr. Kondratieff was on hand to help us understand how blowfly maggots help determine the time of death. Here he is pointing out a "maggot mass", where the maggots cluster together when feeding in order to maximize the benefits of combined metabolic heat.

After the lecture, we went out for dinner!

For further reading:

Necrosearch revisited: further approaches to the detection of clandestine graves. In: "Forensic Taphonomy. The Postmortem Fate of Human Remains."

Twelve Nature Lectures

This year Kevin Cook presented Magnificent Connections. We reported on his Pine Beetle in the past:

Today was "Special Case of Special Cases"

Number 12 in this year's nature lectures, here is Kevin explaining the differences between commensalism and mutualism and a bunch of other 'isms' in the natural world.

We all liked the Crab-spider!

Crab-spiders are from the order Araneae, the air-breathing eight-legged chelicerate arthropods with the modified fangs for injecting venom. They're all over Colorado!

A Bullock's Oriole trap

Here the poor bird made a nest out of fishing line and got caught up in the line and could not escape.

Two Reindeers Grazing

or two caribou carousing

at Bath Garden & Nursery

Apparently this is the only place to see live reindeer in Fort Collins! And they are only there for a short time.

Caribu is the Mi'kmaq word for 'snow shoveler'

It is said that when you follow the reindeer spirit, you learn the power of adaptability in adversity and gain a tenacity to get things accomplished. The great reindeer can also aid in inspiritual transitions, communication and social abilities and skills.

Bug a Boo!

At the Butterfly Pavilion:

Caterpillar beanbag toss

Mounted insect collections

Live butterflies

Live walking sticks

Roaches for sale in the gift shop!

... and tarantulas too!

They make great stocking stuffers!

Located in Westminster, Colorado, the Butterfly Pavilion's vision is to be the premier invertebrate education center in the nation. It's not as fancy as the Butterfly House near St. Louis, but it is a good place to get acquainted with a spider named Rosie! Also, their tropical plant collection is one of the best I've seen anywhere outside of the tropics!

Mystery Dog Park

On the north side of town:

It's a corgi corral!

It says it's a DOG PARK!

The location is 40 36 25 N 105 05 09 W. There were no dogs there when I visited. Dog owners within half a mile of this park do not know where it is or if it really exsists! I had heard of it, and it took me about three months to find it. ...another mystery solved.

Rodeo Times!

Not our first rodeo, but one of the better ones!

Bronc' ridin' in the background and horse standin' in the foreground

This was at the world's largest outdoor rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyoming known as "The Daddy of 'em All"® and it's been going on since 1897. It's the Cheyenne thing to do!

Note: Priefert is a company that makes farm, ranch, and rodeo equipment.

Songs of BUGS!

The van says "BUG SONGS"

So, it must be true! It's a company that specializes in the songs of bugs, or songs about bugs!

"Warning! Bed bugs are back in Fort Collins!"

What! Another guy named Tom who has a guitar? This is none other than Tom Cornwell, the president of "Bug Songs" . Ask him to sing the Texas Termite song! Go ahead, I dare you!

Giant Bee Skep!

on the North side of Fort Collins:

It's a Skep! And it's a big one!

It's part of "The Hive"

There are changing rooms out back

But where are the Giant Bees?

It seems that there is going to be a few bug related events this weekend; Songs about bugs? OK!

Yet Another Compiler Compiler

In Elbert, Colorado:

Bos grunniens

They have yaks at the Grunniens Ranch in Elbert.  As the name grunniens is the species name for the Tibetan Yak, it seems appropriate. Why they are not walking along narrow passages up Mt. Everest with a group of Sherpas is a mystery!

Speaking of Sherpas, we have a family of Sherpas living two doors down from us!  Our neighbors Sharon and Dawa  sometimes lead expeditions to Mt. Everest, but they also locally own the Mt. Everest Cafe in Fort Collins.  We go there often for some of the best Nepalese food in Colorado! The lunch buffet is excellent: Everything is good! Try some today!

Shear a sheep! Do it today!

Shear a sheep in 30 seconds!

At the Estes Park Wool Market. Also included: Lama Performance Show; Alpaca Meet-n-Greet; Natural Colored Sheep Show; Cashmere Goat Show; and Sheep Dog Demonstrations!

Arthropod Diversity at the University!

At the C.P. Gillette Museum of Arthropod Biodiversity.
Few people know the location of this museum. It gets moved around a lot! Even the CSU Entomology department website says it's in the Plant Science Building. I found it in the 128 year-old Laurel Hall building, where the international student office is located.

There are millions of specimens here. I chose to look at the order Odonata, or dragonflies and damselflies.  I'm sure I'll be back and have a look at Diptera, lepidoptera, and hemiptera.

As a certified Bugman, I was welcome to view any part of the collection and borrow books, collection equipment and/or loose insect parts.  
FYI, We saw C.P.Gillette last year here.

The Bug Cafe

Or is it the Hexapod Diner?

It's where giant cockroaches select from a special menu

Some items on the menu

are not all Coleoptera!

but they make good specimens especially if you want to X-Ray their little bodies!

Caged Kittens

At the Larimer Humane Society:

Here's a cute gray cat

and this one's got long fur.

He wants to be your friend. Adopt me please!

The Humane Society is way on the South side of Fort Collins. I biked there today to get a license for Duncan MaDog so he would be a legal pet in Fort Collins!

NO CO Feeders

Last year whilst riding the Poudre Trail I came upon this:

It's a Feed Store and Mill!

At the time I was unfamiliar with Fort Collins; I was riding a rented bike and I was not sure how far I was (I started out far South of town). When I saw this place, I thought I was in another town (or another time).

In the other direction was this large container of pre-mixed Poudre!

Fort Collins Can Has Chickens!

More than just a feed store, the No. Colorado Feeders supply's got real character! I had some time to check it out this morning. Might even drop in on the 21st and learn about chicken myths and legends.

It is a feed mill after all and it does get hot, dry and dusty, don't 'ch know!

Ya got yer Rabit chow, and yer Pig feed...

And they can custom order super large quantities of Whatever You Have Chow!

Plus nice clean wood shavings!

Bags of dog, cat, and hamster food!

I forgot to ask why they have a dark room.

The hounds are out back... They know where the food is!

You can buy chicks here too!

And lastly here is Louie, the mouser! He seems well fed!

Raptors we have seen on high!

A nice day today. I looked up and saw a raptor!

On the silver screen, Jurassic Park flavor!

At the Chicago Air and Water show, the man-made F-22 flavor!

And at the raptor hospital in town!

There's an area near Vine Drive where the raptors look for food. They don't fly at all like an F-22 !

I tried to get some close-ups of the raptor and his friends:


The RMRP is a great organization. Check 'em out sometime!

Not our favorite Bug

There are so many in the order Coleoptera, some better than others...

on the Frontrange, the Mountain Pine Beetle we could do without!

Here is Kevin Cook again to tell us the good news and the bad news...
The bad news: Pretty soon there will not be any mature lodge-pole pine trees alive !

The good news: They will grow back!

There was an overflow crowd at today's lecture. Many are concerned at the conditions seen in RMNP especially west of the divide where millions of trees are dead or dying. It's only a matter of time when the little buggers come over to the east side!

Buffalo and banjo

110 27 39 W 44 56 52 N

It was snowing! I saw this solitary buffalo (see arrow) .
The North entrance to Yellowstone National Park is in Gardiner, Montana. In the winter, most of the park is closed. The buffalo and elk must miss all the tourists, because they start to roam off the park property. When we returned from the park in the afternoon, there were several buffalo walking down main street.