Mightier than the sword: new photos

[G.C.R]

Getting to that time!

Tree sisters:



Driving from national park village through to Rangipo.


This is my favourite New Zealand road sign. Its just some random abstract shapes!


What it means is, "Watch out please, there is a likelihood that there are or have been falling rocks."

[clare]

While we're on roadsigns, here's my fave...



From QLD near Tully

[G.C.R]

Oh fuck that is great! Poor cassowaries.

[clare]

Yeah, it's a bugger for them. They like the verges cos the fruit they eat (which is usually blue) is much easier to find there on the edge of the rainforest. Also, silly people feed them there so they know it's a good place to hang out, and then they get skittled by fast-passing vehicles. They're already endangered, what with the destruction of the rainforest to plant cane and bananas, so it's not looking good for them, hence the signs.

[Good Intentions]

That sign is pretty goddamn awesome.

[elpollodiablo]

That sign is pretty goddamn awesome.

QFT

What I like most about it is that it's not even really a suggestion that you yourself slow down, more like they just want you to be aware of the fact

[SPACERACE]

personally i like how the bird just seems a little off-kilter while the car is totaled

then again i guess there was no reason to get too detailed with it, pretty simple idea being conveyed

[diesel_powered]

WATCH OUT FOR CEMENT BIRDS!

[slow west vultures]

i went down to southeast arizona with a friend this week, and did a little hiking/ birdwatching.  i took some pretty good photos.  maybe i should just send a photobucket link, but here's a few of my faves
(this is madera canyon south of tucson)



here's a lizard


here's a squirrel


here's a slow west vulture, all red and tired from dragging his fat ass up a trail that promised to be only .8 miles, but felt a lot longer than that

[slow west vultures]

here are a few more.  the day before we drove down to sierra vista, and checked out the san pedro river birding area.  its a huge riparian corridor.  the river runs from mexico north into arizona until it merges with one of the branches of the salt river, i believe.  anyway from the outside it looks like this:



on the inside it looks like this:


there were birdies, like this vermillion flycatcher


black phoebe:


and i'm  not sure what this one was, i'll have to ask my friend

[Good Intentions]

That's a whole lot of photobucket error messages.

[Wally]

No there isn't. Nice photos joe!

[slow west vultures]

That's a whole lot of photobucket error messages.

i switched them to an album, which i should have waited on, because then they're under a different url.  but for some reason i can still see them.  i will try to remedy this problem.

[Good Intentions]

All working now.

Yeah, I also sometimes get it that pics work for me but not for some people.

[G.C.R]

Those are some great bird pictures. Do you have a really good camera or something? Because I stood next to the french doors for about 20 minutes yesterday, trying to capture some shots of the multitudes of fantails and waxeyes in my kowhai tree, and just ended up with a whole lotta pictures of leaves.

[slow west vultures]

yeah, i got a kodak easyshare camera with a 12x zoom for christmas.  so the 12x zoom makes it a little bit easier to take bird pictures without scaring them away.  but a lot of these birds seemed to care less that people were walking by.  some birds are just more skittish though.  i want to take pictures of this family of finches that was feeding on our grass the past month, but the second i opened the door or a window they all flew away.

i think i saw a picture of some waxwings in a magazine today.  those are some impresive looking birds. 

[G.C.R]

Man, I wish a waxwing! I tried to post a cute picture of a NZ waxeye, because they are super cute, but I couldnt get it to work.
http://i.pbase.com/o4/19/247019/1/63874799.JaCRtb3A.DSC_9926a_800twowaxeye.jpg

[slow west vultures]

my bad.  i can't read words too carefully these days.  google search wasn't entirely helpful, but they do indeed appear to be very cute and colorful.  i gotta see if i can figure out how to use a scanner, because there's this incredible painting in an old national geographic i picked up of what new zealands prehistoric bird populations would have looked like, and its hilarious.  half of the birds are over six feet tall and look like they would eat you alive if you happened to encounter them in the wild. 

edited to add:  okay i found the issue, and yeah i definitely have to try to post this picture.  its from the Oct. 2002 issue of National Geographic if you can find a copy.  it features a moa, being attacked by keas, with a haast eagle just swooping in to finish the kill.  ouch.  hilarious and terrifying. 

[Babar]

Man, I wish a waxwing! I tried to post a cute picture of a NZ waxeye, because they are super cute, but I couldnt get it to work.
http://i.pbase.com/o4/19/247019/1/63874799.JaCRtb3A.DSC_9926a_800twowaxeye.jpg

all i'm seeing is Forbidden

[difficult]

thats what they look like.

to foreigners.

[G.C.R]

Its because its a DIRTY picture of waxeyes Andri!




Fuck though, I so have to save up for a better camera, because the tree is just infested with fantails. They're such flirts! they come right up a few away from the window, and as soon as I get the camer out they fly off. I got a couple shots, but I bet they turn out a bit blurry. So cool.

And Joe- I love Moa. That picture sounds ace.

[hannah]

While we were on the way to get Indian food for dinner last night a man rammed into the back of Jacob's car. We had been stuck behind a guy stuck behind a guy making a left turn at an intersection without a light, and the man who would eventually ram the back of Jacob's car was maybe drunk or at least lacking in depth perception. He was maybe speeding. I was loopy for an hour or so. I had a metallic taste in my mouth. I called Lucy and she and Brian came and gave us water and granola bars. She took photographs of Jacob's totaled vehicle and they both listened to me not speak coherently. They waited with us for the tow truck and then they took us out to dinner and then they took us home. They were incredibly nice and generous and patient. We can't thank them enough.

Here is a picture of Jacob's car. I took it with my cell phone before Lucy and Brian arrived, but after Jacob managed to get it out of the intersection and onto a side street, where we talked to a police officer and the guy who had rammed us was taken off in a cop car.



It was a good car. We had his brother's turquoise Volvo when we were in Los Angeles, but this silver model has done right by us before and after that vacation from it. It's been with us in places like Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. It will be missed.

[elpollodiablo]

Holy shit! Thank god for Swedish engineering. Glad you're okay hh

[G.C.R]

Gods that sounds scary. Glad you guys are ok, awful though!

[Antero]

Fuck!  I'm glad you're OK

He was maybe speeding.

I hope your cassowary is too.