the rix mix

Labels: jersey shore, nature, postcard

Came across this rather unpromising Fifties LP on a music sharity blog. Hundreds of cheap Latin dance records from the era. But this one is on the Mercury label, the blogger doesn't post much crap. In fact, it's a hot record of Latin originals, & the odd liner notes strongly suggest Dizzy Gillespie was involved in the project. The leader & songwriter are pseudonyms. But I've found no information  about it.

Labels: nature, video

Labels: Cape May, jersey shore, nature, postcard

If I could turn my knees around,
stand patiently in shallow water,
looping my long snake-thin neck
as I stare at the dim shapes of small fish
I stir up with my feet, I would be
a white egret meditating on a meal
in the solitude of salt marshes.

You might see my head raised above
a field of reeds like a strong flower,
then disappear as I strike lightning fast
at the substance of a shadow.

If you look upon me too long, I feel
the hollowness in my stomach,
unfold my ungainly wings, lift myself
a few yards above & distant, to a place
I imagine I am once again invisible.

You would do well to imitate me,
learn the art of fishing
& mind your own business.

Labels: nature, poem

Labels: jersey shore, nature, New Jersey, postcard

Labels: jersey shore, nature, postcard

Labels: Fine Cuisine, jersey shore, nature, New Jersey, postcard

Labels: cuisine, holidays, jersey shore, nature, postcard

Labels: boardwalks, jersey shore, nature, postcard, Wildwoods NJ

For me, it somehow captures the essence of urban fauna, the creepy animals half-glimpsed at night crawling out of garbage cans & fleeing into the weeds by  polluted creeks. WTF was that?

"Anatomy is destiny," comments X Ray Burns, either quoting Freud or referring to a short song by the death metal band Exhumed.

Labels: nature, photograph

Labels: nature, New Jersey, postcard

Labels: cuisine, nature, New Jersey, postcard

Guy with sleazy exotic animal farm in Zanesville Ohio lets all animals loose & kills himself. Dozens of loose animals including Bengal tigers are shot. Animal rights people went nuts. But put yourself in the shoes of the local sheriff. It was late in the day. He  couldn't ascertain exactly how many or what kinds of animals were free. Grizzly bears. Mountain lions.  Monkeys. You know how to escape from a mountain lion that chooses you as prey?  You don't, because it's behind you & leaps on your back. It's rare, but every so often a jogger in California finds this out.

Labels: cats, in the news, nature

Only days after Hurricane Irene floods subsided, two days after President Obama visited flood-ravaged areas of Paterson & Wayne, New Jersey is receiving a day-long drenching, an approaching cold front drawing moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, which is headed northeast up the Appalachians. Though far offshore, Hurricane Katia is expected to kick up heavy surf.

Labels: nature, New Jersey, weather

Baboon eludes capture
Six Flags Great Adventure staff ends second-day search
JACKSON — A second day of searching for an elusive baboon ended Friday evening, but not before numerous residents and motorists got glimpses of the young creature in yards and on township roads.

The two-foot tall primate, believed to have escaped from Six Flags Great Adventure, was last seen running late Friday afternoon from the Metedeconk National Golf Course into neighboring Freehold Township, where it was spotted on Ely Harmony Road, according to Capt. David Newman of the Jackson police.

So there's a "monkey" running wild in the suburban towns at the fringes of the Jersey Pine Barrens. The SPCA of King Williams Town in South Africa recommends:

• Do not get between it and its escape route. 
• Allow it right of way. Do not challenge it.
• Don’t maintain eye contact.
• Don’t panic or run, slowly back off.

I would not want to encounter a loose baboon. They are not reliably nice animals. They're smart, their personalities & behavior are too complex for all but primate experts to understand. If you saw one by your garbage cans & shouted "Shoo," it might go nuts & attack you. It would have no problem climbing up the side of your house & ripping through  a window screen.

A baboon isn't the only exotic animal you'd see in the Pine Barrens. There are  6' emu birds running around in those woods.

Labels: in the news, nature, New Jersey

Black bear in Metuchen tree causes stir in quiet town

Union Township Police shoot and kill black bear near high school

I'm four blocks from the Union line & a couple of miles from the high school. directly up Morris Ave,  two blocks away.

Union & Metuchen are both densely populated suburban towns.

This local invasion of black bears didn't happen overnight. It took about four decades. I went to a Boy Scout camp in north Jersey that had some wild forest around it. You could get seriously lost & some hapless campers did. There were a few bears around, but we didn't expect to encounter them & I never saw one. We were very careful with food, more because of skunks than bears.

A few years later I went to college in North Jersey about 15 miles east of that camp, & resided in Pompton Plains, a suburban town south of the school. By then  black bears were occasionally spotted nosing around garbage cans in residential areas up that way, but it wasn't a common occurance. Within a decade it became common. The bear population was growing. Bears are territorial, & every subsequent spring saw young bear spreading out, mostly following the wooded river pathways. Then the bear paths became local creeks, parks, golf courses, & the buffer zones next to highways. Finding food poses no problem for the bears; Jersey is a cornucopia of discarded food. They want space, & if humans are already occupying it, tough,  When a young bear in suburbia is tranq'd & relocated back to the woods of northwest Jersey, it's in some bigger, older  bear's territory, & the young bear starts  the journey all over again.

Labels: in the news, nature

My friend, Gina, took this photo of the red fox she often sees in her backyard three blocks from here. It's a large animal. The birds, squirrels, raccoons & feral cats don't like it. The red fox is listed among the world's 100 most invasive species. Which means, because it's here & is a social animal, we may be seeing more of them.

Labels: Elizabeth NJ, nature, photograph

Labels: jersey shore, nature, postcard

Wayward manatee Ilya is rescued near Linden oil refinery, flown back to Florida

A wayward manatee is headed back to Florida aboard a transport jet after being rescued from murky waters near a Linden oil refinery.

Ilya was loaded aboard a plane that took off from Atlantic City International Airport for an undisclosed military base this morning.

The sea cow was pulled from a creek at a Linden oil refinery Monday and recuperated at the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine.

Federal wildlife authorities kept the rescue a secret, fearing a crush of media and well-wishers could stress the manatee.

Surprising because of the journey the animal had to make to reach here, although they have been known to wander this far north. It's late October, not late August. There's a lot of wild beauty & wildlife in Jersey's "brownfield" marshes & estuaries, but I don't recall a manatee ever becoming lost in them. Some of the creeks are quite safe & sheltering, there's no boat traffic & human access is difficult. Arthur Kill, the waterway between Jersey & Staten Island, is busy with tugs & barges.

Labels: in the news, nature, New Jersey

Just because a guy is nuts enough to get in the water with Great Whites, & figures out how to scuba with them & touch them without being ripped apart, I would not qualify that interaction as "positive," but rather as luckily "neutral," & it does not make the Great White seem any the less fiercesome & dangerous to surfers & swimmers. They are still big, stupid, eating machines. I do not advocate killing them. I like crocodiles also, but I would not saddle one up & ride it & have a "relationship."
***
First really hot summer day here in Jersey. Felt mid-90's earlier, about 90 now, doubt we'll get a thunderstorm, or much of one if we do late. Walked up to Gina's houe around 7 to drop something off, her old SUV was in driveway but not her car, her mail in the box, I figured she was still at work & let myself in the front door, in such a way so a cat won't escape. As I stepped in I heard a shocked , "OH," & there was Gina on the couch, beer on coffee table, news on TV. Her car was in shop, she'd come in the rear door as usual, popped a bottle of Leffe beer, flipped on the a/c, plopped on the couch & zoned out, half-asleep. I apologized for shocking her, but added it was probably good thing I stopped by, it was the kind of warm evening one might be lulled into sleep by the cooling air & suddenly open one's eyes & discover it's almost 11 pm. Then one decides to skip supper & have a "snack," like ice cream or a whole box of pizza rolls, & one can't get to sleep at one's regular hour.

Labels: nature, weather