Guess what this is

Things aren’t exactly what you would call exciting around here right now, so there hasn’t been much to blog about.  I had one lady show up for my bird tour on Sunday.  Her husband was also supposed to come, but the 33* temps kept him in bed instead.  We had a good time anyway, and as we got out of the vehicle to observe the beaver slide, I found this near the edge of pond #5.

The bony remains of something.  It looked like a jaw bone to us with back facing ‘teeth’.  Can you guess what it is?

It wasn’t very big as you can see by this ordinary paper clip next to it.  Being a weekend, no staff or biologists were around for us to ask for their opinion.  Fellow volunteer Linda started investigating on the internet, and was guessing it was the jaw of a reptile.  Another visitor to the VC in the afternoon thought it was the beak of a merganser.  I had no idea, but thought it was too small for a merganser, and I’m not sure that bird’s beaks are actually bones.

Nate, the refuge manager, came in today, took one look at the bones and said it was part of the skeleton of an Asian carp… part of its spine.  A fish bone?  (He’s managed a fish hatchery in his career.)  That was sure a surprise to me, and being a carp, rather disappointing.  I was hoping for something more exotic than a carp.

Several people have asked for the recipe for raisin gravy.  It’s quite easy actually.  I score my ham before baking and coat the outside with cloves, ground mustard, and brown sugar.  I put some water in the bottom of the roasting pan, and just bake the ham.  About an hour before the ham is done, I put a couple of handfuls of raisins into the water and drippings in the bottom of the pan.  When the ham is taken out to rest before carving, I boil the drippings (with raisins), mix up some cornstarch with cold water, and whisk everything in the pan on top of the stove until it thickens a bit.  That’s it!  It’s not a thick gravy, but very tasty.

This afternoon as I was working the VC, a gentleman came in.  After other visitors had left, he asked me if I was Emma.  Ha!  I knew by that right away who he was.  He had to be a blog reader, and I just had a feeling that he was Bob of McQ Travels.  I said, “No, my name is Judy, but I have a dog named Emma, and I bet you have two little white dogs.”  He wanted to know how I knew that, and I told him I read his blog. Small world.

I talked him into going on next Sunday’s bird tour so he could try to get some more of his fabulous bird pictures.  I sure hope the weather and the birds cooperate for him next week.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy