Wild Thing: Mountain Goats

So you might have noticed that I saw mountain goats when I was at Mt. Evans...  And you probably figured that I took more than enough pictures of them.  I did.  And you are lucky enough that you get to see them.  I don't know a lot about mountain goats, except that I think they are awesome little buggars and they blend into the mountain pretty darn well.  Oh and they don't like dogs.  A forest ranger told us that.  We had the dog with us and totally didn't see the goat, but he told that they don't like each other much and who knows what would happen if they got too close.

Wild Thing: Moose Part 2

So, I've totally blogged about moose before.  But it was kinda a boring post, cause I've seen so few moose in my days.  You can read it here...  But seriously it would be so much better after my weekend a few weeks ago.  Me and some friends drove over Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake Colorado.  An adorable little town!  (My car nearly died, but that is a story for another time.  The west side of Rocky Mountain is where one finds the moose!

Wild Thing: Jellies

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're gonna say, Jellyfish... again... Yeah, so what's your point exactly.  I love jellyfish, love them so much, it isn't even funny!  I have more than just the Monterrey Jellies anyways.  I've waxed poetic about them before, so I guess this is just one for simple enjoyments.  There was a Jellyfish exhibit in the aquarium at the Mall of America (MOA) and my sister and I naturally went. 

Wild Thing: Frogs

So I was going through my pictures, I've been doing that lately.  I was looking at my trip to the Mississippi River Aquarium in Dubuque Iowa, and while I love the albino alligator, the frogs where what called out to me.  So cute!  I am pretty sure I've got frogs from several different trips.  But hey I guess we'll find out together.  The only ones I could find were from Iowa and one lone frog from a butterfly garden in Malaysia... odd.

Wild Thing: Wild Horses

So yeah I know I've already written about the wild horse sanctuary, but honestly how could I not do another one.  They were just so amazing and Beautiful!  Come on people you had to know this was coming, I mean how often do I default to YNP or Monterrey?  But this series of posts is all about the animals and you cannot deny how gorgeous they are.

Wild Thing: Sea Lions!

 So, yeah, sorry about the long time between posts.... Anyways on to the post!  So Oregon, I love Oregon.  The coast is beautiful simply beautiful and I love it, the California coasts (Monterrey in case you forgot).  Sea lions are everywhere on the coast!  This is a good thing in my world, even if they are loud little buggers.  But they are adorable, loud little buggers.






















So once I posted a post that mentioned sea lions and posted a video clip cause on the Oregon trip my camera was acting up.  I have some pictures from that trip, but I got a bunch on the Monterrey trip!!! So Monterrey, I think I walked everywhere for days, it was amazing, and there was a municipal pier about halfway between Cannery Row <3 and Fisherman's Wharf!

 

It was amazing about a half mile and there were some seals playing, and some sea lions just lying about.  And then at the end of the pier, there was literally hundreds of them.  It was a bit smelly and loud, but they were kinda cute just sleeping around.  The day before I left, I went whale watching, and as we were leaving the marina there were some just hanging out, playing and sleeping in the most adorable fashion.

Wild Thing: Monkees

Batu Cave in KL Malaysia

OK, first of all I feel bad that I haven't blogged in a while, I can't even use busy as an excuse. I'm sorry :(  Now back to the fun stuff! Monkeys! I like monkeys they are pretty adorable and smart.  My sister adores them like nobodies business, so I wind up taking lots and lots of pictures them!  I might even have a monkey picture from Malaysia they were cute most of the time. 

There used to be monkeys in La Crosse Wisconsin at Myrick Park.  We used to go there as children in school and with our gramma and it was cool, but then they decided that monkeys were not local to La Crosse and got rid of them.  Sad face!  But there are still monkeys at Como, and they are a playful lot.  The ones at the Minnesota zoo are pretty awesome too.  I don't know if they are more playful but they are just so adorable grooming each other!

Wild Thing: Creepy Crawlies

Velvet Ants

 
Going through my pictures I have found a bunch of bugs.  I am not a huge bug person, they are kinda creepy.  Sometimes they are interesting and like to get pictures of them.  Well so long as they are behind glass... I like them that way.  Yeah, I am a girl... what of it!

Some sort of Malaysian Beetle

Scorpion

Grasshopper from the Grand Canyon

Grasshopper from Malaysia

Black Widow

So I have a bad habit of taking pictures of flowers that have bugs on them.  They are really cool and I never notice the bugs.  I am trying to figure out how this happens.  Cause I am sure if I tried I would never manage it.  It is kinda funny.  And this is the only one I can find that is any good.  Pretty sure I've lost several over the years.

Wild Thing: Eagles--You Know the Bald Ones!

Ok, so my days are off, and I totally thought yesterday was Monday, at least in relation to having a blog post up and running.  This one is about Eagles.  You know the bald ones, they are an endangered species and the national bird and somewhat rare to see.  Well, where I live in South Eastern Minnesota they are really common, so much so that as a youngster I had to remind myself that they are endangered.  A good day on the river and you'll see 20 in the 30 miles between Winona and La Crosse... and if you go further down the river you can add about 20 more to that.



 

 
Now don't get me wrong, it is still really exciting to see them... hell, when I was in 1st grade we went to see the bridge removal in Wabasha (so about 1991ish) and everybody but me got distacted by a soaring eagle.  And most of them missed the bridge falling, but not me!  I knew what I was there to see.  I remember the eagle too, but the bridge was way cooler.  So they are common in some areas and my little corner of the world is one.

I have gotten really good at spotting them over the years.  You'd think that bright white head would stick out like a sore thumb, it does, sometimes.  Sometimes it is the lack of a head that you notice, like when the sky is all gray and cloudy.  They have honkin' nests, and last count was something like 12-16 nests between Winona and La Crosse (on the MN side).... WOW!!!!  They like to hang out at the dams come winter time, it is the broken ice that brings them in.  Many eagles winter in the La Crosse area.

And if you cross the grade from La Crescent to La Crosse at the right time you can sometimes see over 100 eagles at once.  Many are adults but there are some juveniles.  Even with out the white head, the babies still have that eagle shape.  Which is where all the pictures came from.

Wild Thing: Pelicans

So back to Monterrey with you blog!  I can't stay away from the coast it would seem.  Maybe I need to travel more. My posts seem to be Monterrey...Yellowstone...Yellowstone...Niagara...Monterrey....you get the picture... So Pelicans...yeah they're pretty flippin' cool.  And there are tons of them.  (I've seen 'em in Yellowstone too)  I don't know a lot about them as birdies.  But I kinda like them!

So the Monterrey pelicans were like birds possessed.  They were always attacking the fishies.  Diving down to the water.  I'd be walking along, or sitting and enjoying the view and then splash.  I'd look up and see nothing, then go back to what I was doing and splash splash... look up nothing.  It took a while, but finally I caught on to what they were doing... tricksy little birds.

The ones in yellowstone probably do the same thing, but I never saw them do that.  They were usually flying or sitting on the water, doing lame bird things.  I saw some once that were bobbing for fishies.  But that is as close as it gets.

Wild Thing: Bison Bison

 Bison (Bison) or more commonly the buffalo... Buffalo, buffalo buffalo, I like them, I really do, but sometimes not so  much.  Part of that comes from the Yellowstone life.  Bison are so common that you almost stop seeing them.  Except of course when they are laying right in your path or surrounding your car during the rut.

I go back and forth on my bison opinions.  I love them, I hate them, they are adorable, annoying.  The babies are adorable, the big bulls can be ugly... I am truly conflicted.  The more removed I am from Yellowstone, I more I remember them fondly.  But there were times when I truly cursed their existence--well, at least cursed the fact that I had to sit in my car for almost an hour while tourists were just asking to be gored.

Now that I am out of the park, I get excited when I see them... and trust me this wasn't the case for many years.  They are big and kinda scary.  It may be silly but I would talk to them whenever I would encounter one.  Cause the last thing I wanted to do was startle the big guy and a goring was the last thing on my mine.  Bison are funny, because they look so docile and uninterested.  Not the case...they might be docile, but the notice everything and when they don't that is the when bad things happen...





But at the end of the day, I like the big lugs.  The are fun to look at when the huge herds are together, running down the roads and through the valleys.  I can only imagine how amazing it would have been to see the plains covered in bison as far as the eyes could see.  Wow!