Hike when you get the chance, for the days are long and the years are short.
Rounding a curve came three lively ladies, with spring in their step, mirth in their voices, and smiles galore beneath the hat-brims and sunglasses. Indefatigable Ellen, Miracle Marilyn, and Super Sally, how do you do! Exuding exuberance-- perhaps enervated by the 100 yard final stretch to the horseless carriage, but I suspect they are like this most all the time.
Happy.
Although we had met previously, those encounters were brief. This time we chatted quite a while, and I promised to post some pics and such. The encounter was a hiking highlight, and the ladies were charming, delightful, and inspiring. Have a spectacular time in the Alps, Ellen and Sally, while Marilyn holds downt the fort.
Ellen had of course identified me from a Pharrell "Happy" segment (5 am, 24min, which I cannot embed in UBBcode...)
http://youtu.be/rQD9EBCwlQc?t=24m5s
They are not the only ones Happy when Hiking. Is that not universal?
(I have considered arranging a cover of "Happy" on The Three Saints, including a few of the folks I know in the 24 Hrs of Happy, but schedule constraints are troublesome. So like my hikes, I dance it solo when the mood strikes ;)
Now for a few pics.
Here are glider pics (which I could not post/log-in at Ice Pirate Zone!) for Tim. Welcome back to trail motation, hooray for recovery.
Excuse the blur; my camera has difficulty focusing on objects in the sky, which annoys this birder.
Now to some pics of the Three-and-a-half Stooges, a subgroup of Bighorns I have been following for awhile. Their behavior cracks me up more than other BHs have, though perhaps that is more a consequence of my anthropomorphizing. Sometimes I watch them with a voice-over in my head of the old Disney narrator on such classics as "Charly the Lonesome Cougar."
My pics and vids may not capture that essence like professional doccers, nor like that IRL, but I enjoy tagging along with them and watching their antics. Hey, if I want slo-mo hi-def awesome vids of wildlife, I can watch that on TWC from my couch while scarfing down Cheetos. (Hi RichardP). Off-trail, I also get to converse with these critters. If that starts happening with interactive TV, time to install the dataport at the nape of my neck...
The group is Five; from prev posts you can ID male/female and age groups; I won't belabor many details, but the pics have many other clues and cues of eyes/ears/body language etc.
Common and typical of Teh Leader to stand off (many pics to exhibit this):
Getting ready to channel Chet Baker:
(trivia-connex: Chet studied music at El Camino College)
Two pics for ID purposes :
("Why, when I was a kid we were so poor we couldn't even afford rocks! We had to eat dirt!")
Recap of some approach techniques, which is more challenging with open terrain. Use intervening topography features e.g. swales, hollows, ridges, and move when they are inattentive to your location:
Use concealment of intervening features e.g. rocks, plants, trees; these can also obscure your presence when *behind* you by breaking up your outline (discussed details prev, esp light/shadow, form/pattern/contrast)
Then you must find a viewing window for your subject(s):
This feisty knucklehead knows me well enough to not be very spookable:
"Oh it's that bipedal knucklehead. Ignore." Note the horn proportions:
Comfy?
The bighorns ignoring me is a mixed blessing
so sometimes I say "Cheese" in bighorn for a more photogenic image. A violation of the prime directive, and be careful not to spook them.
They may respond with audiovisualolfactory editorializing:
Moving on to another area, they later headed out and were about to drop over this slope, where I did not want them to proceed:
Time for some trickery. "Look, over here! Anyone want some of Richard's Cheetos?"
That worked, for the nonce, as one decides to settle in:
And another tries to scratch that itch which can't be reached:
Let the reader infer bighorn-speak, when you see the result:
Moving on to another area, just some pics I like (which hold other clues, too):
Finally, as they depart the pattern, they presage behaviors to be seen in a later post, which will also include the rare and strange three-way head-butting encounter.
Thanks for looking. It was a pleasure to meet and speak with Ellen, Sally and Marilyn. I'll try to get more sheep pics posted as promised, as well as a bunch of deer photos to recap and refresh the issues/areas we discussed on the trail.
kind regards,
arocknoid
PS note that I have also eschewed rigorous scientific zoologic gravitas with the sheepage-- fun times
