[noelcmn]

We'll make that Gorgeous Eagle Arn.

Hoverfly

[que es tu]

FYI: Many people in the US are bitten by poisonous snakes each year, on the order or 4~5000, but only about five die because anti-venom is very effective and is kept in many medical facility where the snakes are found. In contrast about 40~50 humans are killed each year by domestic dogs, at least ten times as many. Cougars (pumas etc) cause about one death every three of four years, and alligators about one per year. These are long term averages - it's my impression that last year and the first months of this year have had more than the usual number of deaths caused by a wild animal, and also domestic dogs, and also the over 200 annual deaths caused by deer rarely make the news except locally. When a cougar kills someone in California, the whole country knows about it. When someone in Missouri swerves off the road and smashes into a huge tree, the death is hardly known throughout that state.

And human deaths caused by wolves are essentially unknown in North America.

One more wildlife comment: Here in the Smokies, I have seen 8 rattlesnakes in 27yrs and probably 3000 miles of hiking! Only two have rattled at me, and that was because I got too close before seeing them and they were exposed in the middle of the trail. All the others just laid quietly trying not to be seen. Incidentally, the most dangerous “wild animal” in the Smokies is the YELLOW JACKET WASP, accounting for the most human injuries and fatalities due to allergic reactions!!

[WPRESTO]

One more wildlife comment: Here in the Smokies, I have seen 8 rattlesnakes in 27yrs and probably 3000 miles of hiking! Only two have rattled at me, and that was because I got too close before seeing them and they were exposed in the middle of the trail. All the others just laid quietly trying not to be seen. Incidentally, the most dangerous “wild animal” in the Smokies is the YELLOW JACKET WASP, accounting for the most human injuries and fatalities due to allergic reactions!!

According to the source I was using, bees, wasps and related Hymenoptera cause between 50 and 60 deaths per year in the US, slightly more than attacks by domestic dogs but only about one-quarter the number of deaths caused by deer (again, primarily because of automobile crashes caused by deer on the road, plus a much smaller number caused by goring or trampling).

[que es tu]

According to the source I was using, bees, wasps and related Hymenoptera cause between 50 and 60 deaths per year in the US, slightly more than attacks by domestic dogs but only about one-quarter the number of deaths caused by deer (again, primarily because of automobile crashes caused by deer on the road, plus a much smaller number caused by goring or trampling).

It’s a jungle out there!!

[WPRESTO]

It’s a jungle out there!!

Makes me glad to be inside. Anecdote that I posted somewhere on PF some long time ago. We were fossil hunting in far northwestern Nebraska one year, along with our eight year old son. M got a case of poison ivy and had to go into the local clinic - - several volunteer ladies with nursing experience plus a once/week visit by a doctor from the nearest hospital an hour's drive from the east. The ladies were concerned about our son and admonished us to beware of the rattlers. I asked how many bites they had treated. They ladies looked one to other and finally decided that none of them had ever treated a poisonous snake bite, although one of them had worked at the clinic for over 20 years.

[que es tu]

I for ICE

[pepperberry farm]

jonquils

[WPRESTO]

KIDS playing with a rough approximation of a Chinese dragon. SCAN

[que es tu]

Lady Liberty

[que es tu]

Mouse Creek Falls

[GvilleRick]

St. Nicolas Church in Prague

[noelcmn]

Orange

[pepperberry farm]

paper lamp

[pepperberry farm]

quilts

[GvilleRick]

RST - Robin Sitting on a Tree Stump