Marty Essen's Blog, page 286

White ibis

Marty’s photo of the day #2545: I took today’s photo in one of my favorite places in the United States: the Everglades. This is a white ibis.

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Greetings from beerless New Jersey

Greetings from New Jersey! Tomorrow, at 2:00 p.m., I have a show at Rowan College at Gloucester County. This will be my fourth time speaking at this college, which is an all-time record for me. I really enjoy these shows. The staff at Rowan are among the nicest people you could ever hope to meet and, of course, they have the terrific taste to book me again and again.


 


Speaking of taste, my one bitch about New Jersey (other than the traffic) is that I have never been able to find a local restaurant that serves pizza and beer. Sure, I could go to Uno’s or some other national chain, but yuck! After spending a day on airplanes and in airports, I actually wanted the beer more than the pizza.


 


Once I checked into my hotel room, I went out in search of what should be the most basic food combination known to man. After forty minutes of driving and finding plenty of beerless pizza joints, I finally found what appeared to be a promising restaurant.


 


I sat down to order and was promptly asked if I brought my own wine. Wine? Who drinks wine with pizza? And no, I generally go to restaurants to have them bring me food and drink, not just to rent their table.


 


Knowing it was hopeless, I ordered a pizza with extra mushrooms and a Diet Coke. Well, at least the waitress got the Coke correct. The pizza came with pepperoni instead of mushrooms. But hey, she offered to bring me some mushrooms on the side. Really! That’s like ordering a cake, but the chef forgot to add flour. “But don’t worry! We’ll bring you the flour on the side.”


 


I suppose I could have sent the pizza back, but then there’s the whole wasting of food and guilt thing that comes with that. I didn’t want guilt on the side any more than I wanted mushrooms on the side.


 


The pizza was horrible—but I did burn the roof of my mouth, so there’s that.


 


I’m now back in my hotel room drinking another Coke—this time with a helping of rum on the side.

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Snow dog

Marty’s photo of the day #2543: This photo is out of season, but when I came across it this morning it cracked me up. Lucy loves her snow!

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Zimbabwe for two bucks

Marty’s photo of the day #2542: Today, I take you to Zimbabwe for a couple of bucks. Waterbucks, that is.

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Along the Antarctica coast

Marty’s photo of the day #2541: I haven’t posted a scenic shot for a while. This one features a small but tall island on the right and Antarctica on the left.

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Along the Antarctica coat

Marty’s photo of the day #2541: I haven’t posted a scenic shot for a while. This one features a small but tall island on the right and Antarctica on the left.

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Scarlet Macaw

Marty’s photo of the day #2540: Here’s a scarlet macaw that I photographed in Costa Rica.

This picture also appears in my second book, “Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico.”

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Bush snakes, boomslangs, and cobras

Marty’s photo of the day #2539: This excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, explains today’s picture:


 


I was looking forward to a nap until Ashley, the camp manager, mentioned over lunch that she had recently seen both a Mozambique spitting cobra and a spotted bush snake on the camp’s grounds. No way could I sleep now. I quickly finished my meal and began my search. Poor Brian; he could have used a nap like everyone else. But with a cobra in the area, he felt obligated to accompany me.


 


Finding the spotted bush snake was easy. First, we checked the last place Ashley saw it. When it wasn’t there, we walked toward the open-air lounge just in time to see it glide across our path and crawl into a mass of shrubbery.


 


I feared the snake had disappeared for good and was surprised when he stuck his head out the top of a shrub to check me out. He looked as if he were saying, “Hi, I’m a spotted bush snake, what are you?”


 


After shooting the snake’s portrait, I debated whether to catch him. I turned to Brian and asked, “Is he venomous?”


 


“I don’t think so, but he may be rear fanged with mild venom.”


 


The thin three-foot-long snake was bright green with specks of black. He was one of the prettiest snakes I’d ever seen. He also closely resembled one of the glamour snakes on my list: the deadly boomslang.


 


I flashed back to my experience on the island of Borneo when I picked up the incorrectly identified, highly venomous banded coral snake. Consequently, I decided a cautious capture attempt would be my best approach. If the snake gave me a clear path to his head, I’d grab him. Otherwise, I’d let him be.


 


Halfhearted efforts are seldom successful. When I reached for the snake, I hesitated for the tiniest moment. That was all he needed to avoid my grasp and retreat into the shrubbery.


 


Since the snake was out of reach, I stepped over to the lounge library and grabbed the Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa. I confirmed the snake’s identity by comparing the photo in the book with the image on my digital camera screen. Next, I turned to the photo of the boomslang. The spotted bush snake was a close mimic indeed. Head shape (a boomslang’s head is rounder) and a subtle variation in markings were the only differences I could see between the snakes.


 


Spotted bush snakes don’t have venom glands, but according to A Field Guide to the Reptiles of East Africa, their saliva appears to be toxic to frogs. This got me to thinking: perhaps in its quest to mimic the boomslang, the spotted bush snake may continue its evolution and someday develop venom glands of its own.


 


Our search for the spitting cobra was unsuccessful. I did, however, encounter another mimic. I was crossing the grass between the lounge and the cabins when a water pipe, protruding from the ground, froze me in my tracks. The spigot atop the vertical pipe was at the perfect angle to create the illusion of a hooded-up cobra, ready to spit.

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Time Is Irreverent is now an audio book!

 

The audio book version of Time Is Irreverent is now available on Audible, iTunes, and Amazon! Perhaps someday Time Is Irreverent will become a movie. In the meantime, the audio book is the next best thing to seeing the adventures of Marty Mann, the Holy Smokin’ Hot Nellie, Chrissie, and Tina on the big screen. Narrating the novel is Michael Fell (pictured), a graduate of the London International School of Performing Arts and an actor at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. His performance brings the characters to life!

Audible: click here

Amazon: click here

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The last thing an insect sees before dying

Marty’s photo of the day #2538: Because I often see spruce grouse hunting for insects on our dirt road, I assumed insects were their primary diet. While the birds do eat insects in the summer, overall they mostly eat pine needles!

Since I took this photo in the summer, I can still think of it as “the last thing an insect sees before dying.”

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