Craig Koshyk writes a great dog blog. Also: psychic moment!

CCraig Koshyk is a terrific writer/photographer and author of a book that must be on every dog person's wish list — Pointing Dogs, Volume One: The Continentals. To quote from Craig's website [and I get nuthin for this, by the way]:

It is a definitive guide to the versatile gundog breeds of Continental Europe, an in-depth study of the history, development and current status of the pointing dog, and it is a remarkable travelog of an incredible journey.

Written by a hunter for hunters, this volume provides detailed descriptions of all the pointing breeds from Continental Europe. It is illustrated with stunning images of hunting dogs doing what they were bred to do: hunt.

Back in 2008 I wrote:

If anyone has ever taken better photos of sporting dogs, real sporting dogs, I have yet to see them. Professional photographer and teacher Craig Koshyk takes wonderful photos of gun dogs — working portraits that make a person covet a keen Braque du Bourbonnais, or a Deutsch Drahthaar, or a Perdiguero de Burgos. The photos show what the outdoors feels like: see, for example, the wind in the photo of Craig's Uma with a ruffed grouse. Yes, Craig hunts over dogs of his own, and he knows what to look for.
[...]
[He has reorganized his website of photos] in the last week or so, and I know this because I can't find his photos of a dog I had fallen in love with: a gray, good-sized, wire-haired Eastern European dog.

Happy discovery: that dog is a Slovakian Rough-Haired Pointer. Craig just blogged about it today. Does he discuss the breed's history and its current stage of development? Does he comment on its hunting style, health issues, its temperament at work and at rest? Does he share some of his wonderful photos of the dogs afield? He does. And he's spent time in Slovakia, where he interviewed the secretary of the national breed club and watched a number of SRHPs hunt, which tends to give one an extra bit of credibility in addition to making readers insanely jealous. Have I mentioned that I love Craig's blog?

Once again, a hat tip to Andrew Campbell of The Regal Vizsla [now including handsome Jake, a young Pointer] for introducing me to Craig Koshyk's blog and photos.

Upper left: my latest fave, the Slovakian Rough-Haired Pointer. To see Craig Koshyk's actual photo of this beautiful dog, click here.

After the mauling

During his years as an RCMP officer in the northern communities, Clare Kines recognized the important role of the sled dog in local history and culture. "But because of the ubiquitousness of dogs in the north there have been attacks," he writes. "Too often I've seen the results of children and adults severely hurt or even killed by a group of dogs."

An attack earlier this month involved a dog he knew.

I played with that dog a lot, it bounded with energy and I never saw a hint of aggression from it. It was engaging, and although untrained would easily be led by the collar. Hell, my children played with it. A couple of weeks ago it was off its lead, bounding amongst kids never touching them. It came quickly to my whistle and walked back with me to its spot on the ice. It was playful and gentle, and yet it participated in a savage attack on a little child. Of that there is no doubt.

And that is why this won't escape from my mind. If this is a dog that can do this terrible thing, then any dog can. That the wild in their ancestory must lie in them underneath. Since the attack I look at my children playing with our big gentle puppy, Bolt, and wonder, if the circumstances were just right, what might happen?

Read the whole post at Clare's blog. [Clare is a favorite blogger/photographer of mine — in addition to The House & other Arctic musings, he contributes to 10,000 Birds, covering, natch, the Arctic beat.]

In Clare Kines's photo, above, his children Travis and Hilary play with their dog Bolt. See more photos in the post Sledding. The beautiful, unnamed sled dog at the top of this post was also photographed by Clare. As always, click photos to embiggen.

So not Rick Perry

True story: while riding through a remote meadow in the Colorado Rockies, a mountain biker who is not Rick Perry startles a mother bear with cubs. The mother bear is hella upset. Did I mention that the mountain biker is not Rick Perry?

Shots were taken, which is to say photos in this case, and you can read the whole excellent thing here. Biker/blogger KB also loves trail cams and dogs! Romping and Rolling in the Rockies is one to bookmark, if you ask me.

H/T: the most excellent CougarMagic.

[Wonderful photo by Jim Liestman at Flickr/Creative Commons. Click to embiggen.]

Nature, you so scary

"Vladimir! Put the !@$*!! camera down and get this thing off me!"

This lucky shot of an unlucky videographer [I've messed with the quality - follow link to the original] was taken by Vladimir Zaikin of Kazakhstan, and is posted on his photography blog here, in a post with other shots of raptors and their handlers. Mr. Z has some impressive landscape photos as well [and some NSFW shots elsewhere in the blog, FYI]. The photo above did some viral rounds a year or so ago, but never, as far as I can tell, with any kind of attribution. Thank you, TinEye and Google Language Tools.

Related: "What is the first law of the foot?"

Walla, trois de la fourrière [translation: it's a Costco dog bed!]

Yes, it's hard for the dogs to stay put, what with the fun-house floors and all. They keep me awake all night with their rolling from one end of the cabin to the other [sigh].

Walla, I'll have y'all know, is not just an Indian suffix indicating a person involved in some kind of activity, or half the name of a county seat in the northwest. No, readers, "walla" is a loan word, and this most excellent spelling was invented by a west coast rancher and sheepdogger. He was headed to Canada to judge a trial in 2002:

For me it started getting on the plane from San Francisco, California, USA. I knew it was going to be a challenge because my passport hadn't come in and the officials said I needed 2 federal picture I.D.'s. After all the hoopla and dance the official asked if I had a Costco Card with my picture on it and walla, I had it and on we go. [From Sheepdog-L.]

Can't see that happening in today's police state land o' the free, now, can we?

But anyhow. I can't think of Costco these days without 1) saying Walla! to myself, or 2) thinking of cheap dog-beds. Huge, cheap dog-beds. Bounce was sleeping on one of them this morning, and then Smoke curled up next to her, and then the landshark came diving in for some Smoke-wuv, and there I was trying to aim over my shoulder with the little point 'n' shoot. Good times, good times ;~)

[heart]

My best girl ever takes a snooze at the cabin. Labor Day weekend, 2010.

The cuteness: my favorite nuthatch

More from the cabin deck. Pygmy Nuthatch photographed by Dianna of L.A. Audubon.

A good dad: Purple Finch and fledgling

Purple Finch dads totally rock :~) More photos by Dianna of L.A. Audubon, with a curiously colored Purple Finch added for good measure.

What but fear winged the birds...?

Been summering, off and on, at the family cabin in the San Bernardino National Forest near Big Bear Lake. A most excellent group from L.A. Audubon spent some time on the cabin deck a few weeks ago, and photographer Dianna took this great shot [click to embiggen] of a Cooper's Hawk:

Pine Siskins, beware!

[Jeffers: The Bloody Sire.]

Family portraits

Click on the images to embiggen.

These photos are quite wonderful. From China Hush:

This is a “Family Portrait” of China’s 56 ethnic groups. Chen Haiwen, a photographer, recently lead a team of 14 photographers to create a book entitled, “Harmonious China: A Sketch of China’s 56 Ethnicities.” The team spent one year traveling all over China to complete the project. They ended up taking over 5.7 million photographs.

Visit this site to see the large versions. H/T: Nag on the Lake.

May Day at Big Morongo

That's snow-capped San Gorgonio at 11,503 feet in the background. Big Morongo is a desert oasis: "The Morongo Fault, running through the canyon, causes water from melting snow on the surrounding San Bernardino Mountains to form Big Morongo Creek. The creek intermittently rises to the surface for just three miles, between the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, before it disappears underground again. The water percolates into the sandy soil as it crosses the Morongo Basin, but as it enters Big Morongo Canyon, it encounters "fault gouge" (pulverized rock), which forces it above ground, creating a unique desert wetland with a series of perennial springs. " [Source]

It's wonderful to visit a birding hot spot like Big Morongo — as they say, the worst day birding there is better than the best day working. I kid. Love my job, folks! Back when California schools had more money, I'd take students on field trips to Big Morongo and we'd hike all over. Mesquite Trail, Canyon Trail, Yucca Ridge Trail... You can imagine how quiet the bus was on the way home. Good times.

Saturday's field trip was short on students, but included some terrific birders and some monster camera lenses.

Then there was me. Red-tailed Hawk nest by your blogger:


And the same nest photographed a few days earlier, by a dude with much better gear and a good eye.

Summer Tanager, by yours truly:


Summer Tanager [misidentified] by the same fine photographer who snapped the Red-tail pre-fledglings. You get the idea.

The Vermilion Flycatcher is probably the best-known bird at Big Morongo, and I wouldn't dream of subjecting you to my Vermilion photos. Check these out instead. [Big Morongo birds in the third link.]


Here's what American White Pelicans look like when they're riding thermals and assuming different shapes. [They made a Pointer!] They were very, very high. Our field trip leader shot them with his monster lens and enlarged the photo on his computer at home and counted them: 963. Props to Doug, who tore his eyes from the steep trail and saw them first:


We also checked out a Long-eared Owl nest in a big cottonwood just outside the Preserve. There were four impossibly huge, downy chicks perched in the branches near the nest, and one dead vole hanging from a twig. Mom was glaring down at us, so we tiptoed off, but I got a photo:


Here's my list for the day, around and inside the Preserve:

Gambel's Quail
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Long-eared Owl
Anna's Hummingbird
Dusky Flycatcher
Black Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Western Bluebird
American Robin
Summer Tanager
Western Tanager
Hooded Oriole
Lesser Goldfinch
House Sparrow

American White Pelican
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Bell's Vireo
Western Scrub-Jay
Common Raven
Oak Titmouse
Bushtit
Bewick's Wren
Phainopepla
Orange-crowned Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
California Towhee
Black-headed Grosbeak
House Finch

*************

Also: complete solidarity with my brothers and sisters who marched for immigration reform on May 1. As long as our nation keeps waving giant neon Help Wanted signs at our southern border, there will be poor, desperate people willing to risk everything to come here. All the ass-hattery in Arizona won't change that. What will help is the reform of antiquated laws that are "unwieldy, cumbersome, and excessively complex," "obtuse, and, at times, unintelligible." [Related: "What Part of Legal Immigration Don't You Understand?" from Reason.]

Cosmic volcano photo

"Reportedly not photoshopped," tweets the most awesome and excellent Roger Ebert, and that's good enough for me. Photo by Marco Fulle, via Stromboli.org.

Volcano + lightning: awesome. Volcano + migrating birds: not good. Not good at all.

Also: Coachella loses "maybe a dozen bands." Good thing I decided to stay home this year!

A home run of cuteness

Awesome shot by Steven J. Kazlowski, who somehow survived the cute overdose and has the photos to prove it.

Did I say home run? This is an out-of the-park, extra-innings, World Series grand slam of cuteness. From the Mail Online:

Photographer Steven Kazlowski, 40, snapped the otters drifting across Saw Mill Bay, in Prince William Sound, off the south coast of Alaska. The sound has more than 3,000 miles of shoreline and is home to around 70,000 sea otters.

[Whoa, dudes. According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service [pdf link], "Three population stocks of sea otters exist in Alaska today. The statewide population is believed to number around 70,000 animals." Thousands of sea otters died in Prince William Sound as a result of the Exxon Valdez disaster, and research indicates that the population has not recovered fully. The current sea otter population of PWS, according to a 2003 aerial survey quoted here [pdf], is estimated to be nearly 12,000.]

Steven, from Seattle, United States, said he had to wait for almost eight hours before he got the snaps of the otters.

He said: 'I had watched this area for several days and I found a rock which I thought would make a great place to watch the otters from.

'I had been hiding there for about eight hours one day when I saw the otter with its baby drift by.

'It was fantastic that after all that time I was rewarded with these images.

'The baby was just sleeping in the sun as its mother she floated in the sound on her back. It was something I will never forget.'

Visit the Mail Online to see the cuteness in all its embiggened glory. [H/T: Petville.]

Tonight: new wildlife series from the BBC, Discovery Channel

"African straw-coloured fruit bats in flight, Kasanka National Park, Zambia." Photo by Kieran Dodds for Discovery Channel / BBC.

This Sunday, from 8-10pm ET/PT on the Discovery Channel, catch the premiere episode of Life.

From the NY Times review:

Fans of programs like “Nature” on PBS are already aware of just how exquisite the best wildlife filmmaking is these days, thanks to ultraportable gear and high-definition video, but the wealth and variety of material in “Life” may surprise even those viewers. (“Life” was made in partnership with the BBC, as was an earlier series, “Planet Earth.”)

The scale is among the most striking things. We’ve long been used to seeing big cats run down antelopes, and there are plenty of large animals here. But there are also insects, hummingbirds, fingernail-size amphibians. Who shot the rollicking images of an inchlong pebble toad rolling like a small stone down a mountainside in Venezuela? Someone with a heck of a lot of patience, that’s who.

Honestly, what kind of person is following inch-long pebble toads as they go rollicking down mountainsides in Venezuela? Funny you should ask. Here's a NY Times profile of The Calm Men Who Bring You Exotic Animals.

"What is the first law of the foot?"

Photographer Dave Bonta writes: "A first-year female captured on our property and fitted with a transmitter as part of a research project by the National Aviary and the Carnegie Museum's Powdermill Avian Research Center. See here for background, and the main blog post here." Photo from Dave Bonta's Flickr set, golden eagle, via that Illinois Birders' Forum thread from the previous post. Click for big.

Illinois: Golden Eagle attacks White-tailed Deer

Ye gods.

Via the most excellent Birdchick: check out this amazing photo series of a Golden Eagle attacking a Whitetail. Props to Eric Walters of the Illinois Birders' Forum for posting the story and photos, and for having his camera handy for one of his "most exciting Illinois birding experiences over the last three decades."

Light-up dog hoodie keeps pup warm & visible on cold winter nights

Tucker "hanging out watching TV and showing off her hoodie." All photos by val head on Flickr.

It's the best dog hoodie ever. Pittsburgh maker Val writes:

The LEDs on the hoodie’s pocket light up when it’s dark out and fade back when there is more ambient light. Perfect for evening walks in the winter when it gets dark far too early.

"The finished hoodie."

"Tucker modeling the finished hoodie."

No garment in creation is as excellent as the hoodie, if you ask me. This one is just perfect. Check out the whole process on Val's Flickr site.

H/T: MAKE Magazine.

Sled dogs

It's one of the best collections of sled dog photos ever, all posted at The Big Picture. Most are from Europe, including the gem below. Look! Bijou is herding!



Meanwhile, the Iditarod is just around the corner. Drug tests this year — for the mushers:

The Iditarod plans to test mushers for drugs and alcohol in March, a change many mushers have no problem with -- but one that three-time champion Lance Mackey scoffs at.

"I think it's a little bit ridiculous," Mackey said Wednesday night from his home near Fairbanks after a training run. "It is a dog race, not a human race. It (using a drug) doesn't affect the outcome of the race."

Mackey, a throat cancer survivor who has a medical marijuana card, admits to using marijuana on the trail and thinks his success has made some of his competitors jealous.

"It isn't the reason I've won three years in a row," said Mackey, though he concedes marijuana helps him stay awake and focused during the 1,100-mile race that takes winners nearly 10 days to complete. [ADN]

As a supporter of California's "legalize it, regulate it and tax it" initiative, I'm rooting for Lance. [Full disclosure: your blogger never smoked, but did inhale. Damn dorm-room hippies.]

I'll watch the Iditarod as always, though each year it feels more like a countdown to the inevitable dog deaths. Six dogs died last year. And yes, they "love to run"; but breeding dogs with off-the-charts drive and then pushing them not merely beyond their capacity but to their deaths — holy crap, Iditarod people, this is not what the serum run to Nome was all about. Wake up, smell the medical marijuana, and create an exciting race that doesn't kill dogs every frikkin' year.

Related:
Brutal
Iditarod links, and a moment of silence, dammit

Fave table, amazing shop, and wheels

Gah, I love this table. From Parliament; H/T: Abduzeedo.

I would so make a copy of that awesome Parliament Design table if only I had my own little workshop. Oh, Norm — you never write, you never call... [Photo by mtneer_man on Flickr: click for embiggened goodness.]

Also: Furniture on casters from Desire to Inspire. I've died and gone to heaven.

Family photos

Dog people: the little cutie-pie holding Bonnie's paw just adopted a Heinz 57 from a pound in Orange County, CA. Click for big.

Outtake ;~)