Story of a Death Foretold

The Codger has a post up on a Tracking Whodunnit that is getting some good comments.

I have actually had this post in the draft box for a few days so it seemed like a great time to get it finished and posted. I was not intending it to be a quiz post, because I think this one is much easier than the Codge's.

This was a carcass we found in the Mono Basin earlier this Fall. Habitat was on the edge of a wetland. The likely predator should be about as easy as the prey.















I will say this. Birding is much easier when you get one of the little bastards in hand. Maybe that is why I like herping so much. You can get them in hand and take the time to key them out. My brain might not process fast enough for birds. No wonder the early guys orinthologists birded with shotguns.

Sights of Fall in the Great Basin

I went to the Mono Basin with Randomtruth and the Codger in early October with thoughts of grandeur dancing in my head. We might see trees that actually change color in the Fall, we might see life birds, we would pick up a couple of RTs cameras filled with the possibility of exotic (to us coastal dwellers) critters, we might even see a late season Great Basin Rattlesnake, but we were guaranteed to have good company, some good beer and great food.

We saw Fall colors. We saw wild canyons. We saw bizarre geology.

Life-birds will have to wait for another post.

Yes, basically the same image as above that my post-processing software really wanted to make more orange than yellow, probably due to the image being under-exposed. The true color may have been somewhere in between, but I honestly cannot remember. I was mesmerized by the quacking leaves. Don't judge, you would have been too.

WTF, with that last image you are thinking?!?

That doesn't look like Fall colors. Well you would be right. It doesn't look like Fall.

What it looks like is the snowstorm we hit going over Tioga Pass into Yosemite Valley on our way home.  A few hours later the pass was closed because of the snow. We made it through just in time.