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Borrego Springs, CA

Friday, September 7, 2012

Driving the perimeter

After an uneventful day working the Gateway VC yesterday, I was looking forward to filling all the pamphlet boxes at the scattered entrances to Alligator River NWR this morning.  There are about 13 boxes to check on, and I usually do them in a set order.  Today I decided to live on the wild side and reverse my driving course.  I did chase up one bear in my travels today, but since I got kind of a late start and had to fill the vehicle with gas before I left, I was surprised I saw even one.

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Each of the entrance roads had plenty of swallow-tail butterflies flitting about, but today I was able to get a shot of one of the yellow ones.

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Almost all of the gazillion swallow-tails that are around right now are of the black variety, so I spent a little time tracking this guy down.

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As I made my way to the furthest point in my route today, I noticed a large bush (or short tree) just about bending over with these ripe berries.  They kind of reminded me of Elderberries, but appeared a little larger than the ones I’m familiar with in upstate New York.

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I’m thinking it won’t be long before either the local bears or migrating thrushes and robins take advantage of this bounty.  If I had known for sure what they were, I’d have been tasting a handful myself.  In love

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We had quite the torrential downpour, once again, last night that resulted in about another two inches of rain for the area.  That meant all the streams and water ditches were brimming with rushing water this morning.  One of the roads follows along one of these ditches, and the water was pouring through the water control structure.

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Because of all the tannin in the water, it looks like bubbling root bear to me.  That dark water was very helpful during prohibition for the residents of Buffalo City.  If they heard the government guys were coming, the bootleggers would just sink the barrels of whiskey in the streams and canals, and evade being caught.

As I approach each of the entrance boxes, I usually drive down each of the roads to just check things out and see if anything needs repair or is out of order.

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What I found down Point Peter Road today just disgusted me.  A mile into the refuge was a huge debris pile.  Apparently some one had dumped a whole load of tar paper, boards, and insulation along the side of the road and down into the creek.  The county landfill is located just a couple of miles down the road.  I don’t understand what possesses some people to take their construction garbage and dump it on public lands.  What an eye sore this is, and that asbestos can’t be good either.  I sure wish the folks that did this could be caught and made to walk the refuge for a year picking up other peoples thoughtless garbage. Angry smile

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

19 comments:

  1. I can't stand litter and that was so wrong for someone to just dump that trash in the road.

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  2. "Fly dumping" is the term given to dumping waste products illegally. But whatever it's called it is a real blight on the landscape. The people who do this are ignorant and selfish and lazy and @&^)*!%$#.

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  3. Litterers are one of my biggest pet peeves...and that pile is more than just littler. I agree with you on what should be done to them. What can be going thru their empty pea brains???

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  4. What a wild and crazy person you are, reversing the order of filling the boxes. Where will you go next with this craziness?

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  5. I agree about the litter but have to say I really loved the butterfly pictures. They were spectacular! I almost felt like I could touch them.

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  6. If that is asbestos, that is a real crime! That will cost big bucks to clean up, unless they use the refuge volunteers...

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  7. The fact that someone dumped that debris there is disgusting. I think they deserve even worse than what you have in mind. Unfortunately, the odds of catching them are slim.

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  8. I hate to think of what people dump on the land, in the waterways, and in the oceans. They have absolutely no ethics whatsoever.

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  9. It's really a shame that some people are so thoughtless.

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  10. The construction debris is awful. Some folks seem to think that's an acceptable action to avoid paying a landfill charge. I'm not sure why some people continue to think there is no real cost associated with getting rid of our trash...

    Some day our jobs will involve pictures of birds, bears and butterflies. Till then we'll have to go with all the interesting stuff Amazon.com carries :-)

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  11. To bad they will never get caught. Such disrespect for our country. They would be the first to get upset if someone littered their property.

    Love the berry's and they way the leaves have been tinted purple from the juice.

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  12. I got sidetracked looking at the water control structure.... not sure how it works ;-) Agree with everyone else about the litter.... disgusting!

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  14. We have those same berries here too, but I don't know what they are. The mocking birds like them though. Bad, bad people for dumping like that! And that's got to be a contractor of some sort, so even worse! Like the new header pic.

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  15. We also wonder what people are thinking when they dump thier trash on government property (or even other peoples property out in the country). When we volunteered at Ocala National Forest in Florida a few years ago, we had a clean up day and you would not believe the stuff that we collected - appliances, tires, contruction debris, meth labs, junk cars - you name it and it was probably there. We collected about 30 garbage truck loads.:( Good thing we had about 200 people helping us during that clean up day :)

    On a happier note, I also love the butterfly pictures! It amazes me that you can catch them still longer enough. I've tried and just cannot get a good picture of any butterfly - their wings are always closed!!

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  16. I really don't get people who think dumping their garbage is OK just because ... whatever their reason.

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  17. That is really too bad about the dumping. What a mess! Those berries do look good. What a treat for the bears and birds.

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  18. I agree what a shame people feel its their right to dump their trash for someone else to pick up. Loved the butterfly photos.

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  19. Don't they have some concern to the nature? Just a common sense of not throwing garbage everywhere. Anyway, I love how you capture that cute butterfly and the bountiful berries.

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