C H I C
love
dad
Sunday, June 21, 2026
Saturday, June 20, 2026
Shore
B L A C K O Y S T E R C A T C H E R
These shorebirds spend their entire life within
the narrow corridor between low and high tide.
They spend all their days in the same spot with
the same mate, year round. Their eggs can
survive brief periods being submerged because
exceptionally high tides sometimes sweep over
their nest.
The real parenting begins once the young nestlings
become juveniles, capable of flying about on their own.
Months of training are required before an oystercatcher
has the precision to unlock the mussel's shell with a
single blow... despite churning surf that shakes
their target and blurs their vision. Another skill
the young oystercatcher needs to master
is to strike just as the mussel cracks open its
shell to quickly sweep the water for plankton
with its food filter.
Of course, you could use your bill as a hammer and
eventually bash in the shell like a woodpecker.
But that is last resort, real migraine material.
P U R P L E - S T R I P E D S E A N E T T L E
These are colorful jellyfish that rely on the lively
ocean currents that sweep the California coast
from southern San Diego to Bodega Bay,
a bit north of San Francisco. They feed on
larva, fish eggs and small animals that are
stunned by the stinging jellyfish tentacles
that stream from its brightly colored bell.
Four large arms hang like an umbilical cord
from the bell's center. They are used to
gather up the paralyzed prey and deliver
them to an orifice for digestion.
Juvenile cancer crabs make their home in this
very bell, where they are protected from ocean
predators. In turn, the crabs eat an assortment
of parasites that infest the jellyfish tissue.
Their alliance is mutually beneficial.
Sea turtles feast on jellyfish.
It's a beloved staple in their diet.
There is no jellyfish sting that penetrates
the turtle's shell and leathery skin.
That leaves the sea turtle free to savor their
favored jellyfish cut of dangling arms brisket.
P U R P L E S E A U R C H I N
It looks like a broach displayed in a Tiffany's window.
The purple spikes are all tube feet, providing not just
locomotion but also responsible for the animal's
ability to breath. The nerves at the end of each spike
provide basic evidence as to the nature of the
animal's immediate surroundings. They aren't picky.
A hard surface to cling to and plenty of kelp to eat
is all they require.
Urchins are a hearty breed of invertebrate.
They can live to over one hundred years.
If starved for food they enter a zombie-like state,
enabling them to survive years without eating.
You find them in tidal pools all along the western
coast of North America, from near the Arctic Circle
in Alaska, then continuing south, all the way to
the subtropics of Baja California.
G I A N T S E A S T A R
These starfish grow to two feet in diameter
in deep waters. In a normal tidepool their size
would make them a quick meal when seen by
the first passing gull.
The Purple Sea Urchin described above is the
principle food for the Sea Star. Without starfish,
sea urchins would quickly explode in population
and devastate the rich kelp beds they feed upon.
The unusually warm marine waters of recent years
has stimulated the spread of a bacteria lethal
to starfish. The resulting drastic drop in starfish
numbers at various locations has led to the
predicted devastation of kelp beds.
H E R M I T C R A B
It's a crab without a shell. That makes it a lobster,
Still, finding a shell is a life or death necessity.
The hermit crab is actually very social.
Even cooperative. They do something
scientists call a synchronous vacancy chain.
It starts when an empty snail-like shell rolls
in on the surf, then left lying on the beach.
It is soon discovered by the hermit crab
community and a number of curious crabs
gather round.
The crabs assess the shell's size and then
they do something remarkable. They organize
themselves by size, largest to smallest.
The largest crab that can fit into the empty
shell has found a new home, passing its
discarded shell to the crab a step smaller
in size. The process continues to the end
of the line, with each member left guaranteed
a new home.
In this instance cooperation among individuals proves
to be the behavior that best serves the community.
C A L I F O R N I A S E A L I O N
Seals and sea lions all agree that a public beach
includes them, as well as their pups. Some folks,
like those in La Jolla, California, make it happen.
Now you can see a thousand pound sea lion
up close and personal.
There are limits to the benefits of cohabiting
a beach with marine mammals.
You don't play volleyball among sunbathing seals.
Then there is the issue of privacy.
When is it appropriate to take a selfie with
celebrity wildlife?
They can be terribly rude
if you try.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, June 14, 2026
Saturday, June 13, 2026
Himalaya
P A R O T A K T S A N G M O N A S T E R Y
The Tigress's Lair in English.
This monastery is perched on the face of a
sheer cliff, overlooking the Paro Valley nearly a
thousand feet below. Buddhist monks started
this audacious architectural project in 1692.
As you might expect, making a spiritual pilgrimage
to this sacred site is a bit of a walk. The total distance
is a short but rugged four miles. Your botanical tour
includes climbing 700 steep stone steps cut into
the walls of a sheer canyon gorge. You use a
forever wet bridge to cross the face of a 100 meter
waterfall along the way. You arrive at a pleasant cafe
at the halfway mark. Here's your chance to turn around
and go back.
Instead of proceeding to the monastery
you settle for buying a T-shirt that says:
I Bailed on My Spiritual Journey.
G L A C I A L P A T H N E A R E V E R E S T
Our planet is molten. The landscape we inhabit is one of a
number of continental sized tectonic plates that make up
the Earth's crust. Over the hundreds of millions of years
these land masses move about and sometimes collide.
Roughly fifty million years ago the plate of India crashed
into the Asian plate at speeds of up to 15 centimeters
yearly. That's around a 6 inch movement by the continent
over the space of a year. You wouldn't notice were you
to be standing there.
The collision continues to this day at about 2 inches a year.
The result is slow-motion violence over geological time.
Any galactic body shop mechanic would take one look
at the Himalayan Mountains and say you've got a badly
crumpled fender. India had its flat plains elevated tens
of thousands of feet over the past 50 million years.
The rise of these mountains interfered with the globe's
jet-stream, shifting it south in order to go around this
obstruction. This enabled the expansion of cool, polar
air and changes in weather patterns. Some meteorologists
claim this shift was a major contribution to the formation
of the Ice Age.
B H A R A L
Agility is more important than speed for survival.
These mountain goats feed in Alpine meadows
where steep, rocky terrain is nearby as defense
against sudden ambushes from the snow leopard,
its most lethal enemy.
The Bharal has rubbery, split-hooves that act like
suction cups on near vertical surfaces, giving it
near flawless traction. The male's horns are
impressive but not showy. Larger horns
increases the animal's instability while
navigating a precarious situation.
H I M A L A Y A N T A H R
They segregate on the basis of sex into herds of
either all-male or all-female year round,
except when its mating season. In the autumn
the mature bucks pay a visit to the female camp.
They have a good time, then leave.
Little do they know that all this rutting frolic
has been their contribution to a worthy cause.
There will be no male presence to guard
the Spring batch of newborns from hungry
predators. At half the size of the adult male
these Tahr mothers could use some help.
But the biggest male, even with all its
220 pounds of resolve, remains little more
than a hero sandwich for the prowling
predator nearby.
Only when the Tahr herd reaches the sanctuary
of nearby sheer stone cliffs, are they safely
out of reach of the ever patrolling Snow Leopard.
H I M A L A Y A N M O N A L
His Gaudy Highness.
This is the standard from which a female monal
decides who is most desirable. Today's
female pheasant wraps her man in something
off-the-rack Broadway. Something psychedelic.
He becomes everyone's dashing Rocket Man...
Elton John, in topknot and orange tails.
The female sits on her nest, camouflaged in
muted colors. Not far away is her husband,
a shimmering knight in the sunlight,
standing guard.
S N O W L E O P A R D
They've been known to cover twenty-five miles in
a single night to track the scent of their mate.
It's sex. Nothing more. The big cats are loners
and afterwards, go their separate ways.
Providing for genetic diversity is the primary biological
role of the male species, while the female creates new
individuals to renew the species. On and on it goes
a couple hundred million generations and more.
Cats.
Everywhere across the globe some version of this
animal's basic engineering sits atop the region's
food chain as the apex predator. Each species
of cat, modified through eons of trial and error,
remains the most successful carnivore approach
to its environment, wherever it appears.
Genetic diversity gives this organism the mechanism
to adapt, as a species, to the changes that occur
to its environment over time.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
coldValentine
Sunday, June 7, 2026
Saturday, June 6, 2026
Amazon
J A G U A R
Pound for pound the strongest cat bite anywhere;
strong enough to crush a skull, crack open a turtle's
shell and ripe through an alligator's hide. The jaguar
is the true apex predator of the Amazon and all of
South America.
The jaguar is solitary and fiercely possessive of its home
range. Unlike most cats the jaguar is an exceptional
swimmer. Much of its diet comes from the water -
fish, turtle and the Black Caiman - a Florida-like alligator,
only larger and more powerful.
Jaguar vs. Black Caiman.
A cage match to see who's for dinner.
S L O T H
Slow motion living is more than a lifestyle.
It's a science. If you have a lower metabolic rate
than this animal, you're hibernating. The sloth
lives on an exceptionally nutrient poor diet of leaves
that are tough, difficult to breakdown. Their food
requires a complex, multichambered stomach.
Even then, it takes up to a month to fully digest
a single meal. The animal's energy is budgeted
only for necessities, like breathing. Ruthless
economizing is the only way the sloth makes
a living where no other mammal can.
The silver lining in having such sluggish digestion
is that your bathroom break is only once a week.
This requires you to climb down from the safety
of the tree to the forest floor, where predators lurk.
The ground is the worst place for a sloth to be.
There is no scamper in its design. Even a snake
would beat it in a race back to the tree.
If attacked, the sloth becomes as feisty as a
butterball, baked and ready to serve.
A N A C O N D A
The python is slightly longer but the anaconda
weighs twice as much. Imagine trying to fight off
a 550 pound snake. The good news is you are
crushed quickly, sparring you the ordeal of slow
suffocation. The anaconda's coiled grip prevents
any blood from reaching the heart or brain.
It's lights out in mere seconds.
Size is no obstacle. The anaconda's mouth
somehow manages to encompass even the
carcass of a dead deer. The trick is in how
long it takes for you to swallow it. You are
indisposed, vulnerable, during this early digestive
process. Woe be the anaconda discovered by a
jaguar in this manner. How delectable.
Fresh deer in a snake meat wrap.
The risk is worth taking. A meal the size of deer
could last the snake seven months, which happens
to be the anaconda's length of pregnancy.
The female's last meal in this instance, may well
have been the male, once insemination was complete.
He would have been a convenient meal packed with
good things. His proteins would produce healthy,
vibrant young ones of his genetics, all born live
and squiggly. Anacondas don't do eggs in a nest.
That birthing strategy requires reliably dry land
and guaranteed protection from thieving predators.
B L U E P O I S O N D A R T F R O G
This amphibian is not much bigger than a canapé
lifted from a cocktail tray. It's finger food served
up in one gulp. And here this animal is, shouting
its presence in technicolor blue, red or yellow.
Most animals this size are cloaked in camouflage.
The Blue Dart stands in your face, daring
to be eaten.
This is no bluff. These brilliant colors promise
quick paralysis and death to anyone eating
these amphibians. It's caused by neurotoxins
contained in the frog's skin glands. The Blue Dart
doesn't make its own poison. Instead, it accumulates
toxic levels of alkaloid compounds that are contained
in its diet of fire ants, termites and the like.
This dietary anecdote is like a vaccine giving
the frog immunity to predation. Now it
freely hops about doing its socializing
in broad daylight with complete peace of mind.
Any predator ignoring the color warning is dead.
Somehow they didn't get the message
or they were color blind.
C A P Y B A R A
World's largest rodent. A giant guinea pig.
Very pleasant disposition. Birds and assorted
other animals have been known to roost on their
backs and head, undisturbed.
They live in groups of up to twenty individuals
most of the year. They practice communal parenting.
Lactating moms will nurse pups not their own.
Their eyes, ears and nostrils all sit on top of their head.
They spend a good deal of time submerged,
out of the view of predators.
Kicking back.
H A R P Y E A G L E
World's most powerful bird of prey.
It maneuvers through the rainforest canopy
at speeds of up to fifty miles an hour, targeting
sloths, monkeys and parrots for prey.
A Harpy can easily carry off an animal equal
to its own weight. That can be seventeen pounds
or more. Its powerful claws come armed with
talons the size of a grizzly bear's - four to five
inches long. Its viselike grip is powerful enough
to splinter any bone.
The Harpy mates for life.
They breed every two or three years.
The Eagle couple has two eggs.
Two are born. One survives.
Parents largely determine which
of the two is more worthy.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Monday, June 1, 2026
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