Ursula Vernon's Blog, page 11

Inspirational Quote #1

I am not good at inspirational quotes.

Naturalist Mystery

A mystery for all my naturalist buddies out there…

I spent the weekend in the swamps of Lousiana, specifically a mixed cypress & palmetto bayou. (Early May, in case this post sticks around for awhile.) We were birding in the middle of the day, and at one point, we stopped because some Gray Gnatcatchers were bopping around in a tree with what may have been a Nashville Warbler.

All of a sudden, a sound started up off to one side. It was not a bird call that anyone recognized (and I was with two people who bird very well by ear.) It was not a gator grunt, nor a green frog banjo-twang, nor any of the tree frogs that I know, nor the buzz of a cicada. It sounded like someone driving with a squeaky fan belt.

“Fan belt bird,” said one of my birding companions.

And then the noise came very much closer and all of a sudden there were several of them calling, all around us, from high off the ground. The noise of multiple…whatevers…calling in this rising-and-falling sound had an incredibly loud, incredibly eerie effect. “It’s aliens,” I said. “Soon the probes will come.”

I have no idea what it actually was. My only guess is some kind of insect, but it could be some kind of frog. Does anybody have any thoughts?

NOLA Journal

Craw-Bob Lives!

BEHOLD THE HORRID GLORY OF CRAW-BOB THE LAWN CRAYFISH HE LIVES HE HUNGERS HE IS ABOUT THREE AND A HALF INCHES LONG THEY SAID I WAS MAD WHEN I SPOKE OF LAWN CRAYFISH BUT WHO IS LAUGHING NOW!?

(ahem)

Hound went out in a rainstorm and poked something, which poked her back, and this sequence ended in me balancing a phone and a flashlight. I took a gazillion photos, of which two came out.

Look at him! Look at his glory! Look at the proof that he exists and I’m not hallucinating lobsters in the flowerbed! AAAAAAAHHH

 

 

Twitter Moment

Sunspot Journal

Sort of in recharge mode, I think, after all the travel recently.

The Sheep game is a weird little visual novel game I started to learn the Ren’Py engine so I could do Cryptic Stitching, and now I switch back and forth and as I learn something on one, I have to go apply it to the other one. Nameless Sheep will probably be done sooner, though, as it’s much, much shorter.

They both feature Sheep Shamans, though. Apparently I have a theme.

First Church of Mulch

It is a faith of small, consistent miracles, damp soil, and hard work.

Also worms. Worms are in there somehow. We haven’t worked all the details out yet.

Up and running!

Okay! In theory, the website is now working and should be pretty again!

…except for print sales. Sorry. Limited Editions are available through me, but we don’t yet have links for the third party sales. (In fairness, I dumped like 200 images on them. It will take them awhile to get them up!) So, uh….look around, tell me if you find any glaring errors, yell at me for too many quotes and testimonials oh god there’s too many people will think I’m egotistical I’m really sorry they gave me a quote button A BUTTON I am not made of stone, people!

Journal 4-23-16

Fledgling

So I was pulling weeds and flinging handfuls into the uncultivated chunk of garden under the trees, and I winged in a handful of chickweed and looked up just in time to see it land on top of this guy. (He is a Carolina Chickadee.)

I ran in and immediately excavated him. He was fine, but as he is a fledgling, still not a very good flier and couldn’t get out of the way. He sat and looked angrily at me while I took his photo. When I returned, he had scuttled off into the undergrowth.

(If you find a bird like this, eyes open and fully feathered, that is not injured, or not in immediate danger of being mauled by a cat or something, leave it alone. This is a normal stage of bird development and the parents are still feeding it while it wanders around and tests its wings. They know where it is.)