Animals
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Eye 2

Signs and Portents: Woman discovers 2-headed snake inside home in Alexander County, North Carolina


wsoctv.com
Mon, 28 Sep 2020 10:21 UTC
An Alexander County woman was surprised this weekend after finding a baby, two-headed snake inside of her home.
© Dave FahertyAn Alexander County woman was surprised this weekend after finding a baby, two-headed snake inside of her home.
An Alexander County woman was surprised this weekend after finding a baby, two-headed snake inside of her home.

Jeannie Wilson nicknamed the snake "Double Trouble" after she discovered it in her sunroom.

She believes the one-foot long snake is a rat snake.

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Sheeple

6,000 sheep trapped by early snow in French Alps - snowdrifts 2 meters deep


Yahoo! News
Mon, 28 Sep 2020 12:29 UTC
6.000 sheep and ewes, about a hundred cows, divided into five flocks are trapped in the snow
6.000 sheep and ewes, about a hundred cows, divided into five flocks are trapped in the snow
Thousands of sheep have been trapped in the Col du Gandon in the Savoie in the south-east France at 2,000m altitude after heavy snowfalls on Friday night took shepherds by surprise. Locals managed to get emergency food supplies to the flocks on Sunday.

The 6,000 sheep and some 100 cattle got stuck in the Col du Gandon mountain pass along with their shepherds on the night of Friday 25 September after an early flurry of snow coupled with icy winds created snowdrifts of up to two metres high.

On Sunday the local town hall in Saint-Colomban-des Villards set up a crisis centre and launched an operation to feed the animals.
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Attention

Beached pilot whales are a sign of the magnetic pole shift and waning magnetosphere

Cap Allon
Electroverse
Sat, 26 Sep 2020 18:57 UTC
Cape cod pilot whales

Since 1850 Earth's magnetic field has been weakening. At the turn of the millennium it then began reducing exponentially, at more than 10% per decade — this drop off is extreme and concerning, and here's why.

Earth's magnetic field protects us from space radiation. Our shields going down is very bad news for all life on our planet, and could possibly even lead to the next mass extinction.

"As the magnetic field weakens, the poles shift," says David Mauriello of the ORP and MRN. For the past 100-or-so years, both north and south poles have been rapidly headed towards the equator (shown below), and their pace is increasing, warns Mauriello. The south pole is now off the Antarctic continent and making a beeline for Indonesia, and the north pole is shifting across the Arctic circle towards Siberia, it too headed for Indonesia-where the pair are likely to meet within the next few decades, perhaps around 2050.

This "meeting" will lead to one of two eventualities: 1) a full flip will take place (aka a "reversal" where the magnetic poles switch places), or 2) a "snap-back" will occur where the poles quickly return to their original starting points (aka an "excursion").

Comment: See also:

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Binoculars

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher from North America turns up on Tiree, Scotland - first time recorded in Western Palearctic

John Bowler
BirdGuides
Sat, 26 Sep 2020 17:45 UTC
Rich olive-green above, with a complete bold eye-ring, an orange lower mandible,
© John BowlerRich olive-green above, with a complete bold eye-ring, an orange lower mandible, a distinct yellow suffusion on the throat and down the breast, plus the bird's overall 'cute' look, diagnosed the 'Empid' as Britain and the Western Palearctic's first Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
A fast-moving depression whipped across the North Atlantic and struck the Isle of Tiree early on Sunday 13 September 2020. Conditions looked ideal for bringing a North American bird or two across 'the pond' and I even fantasized about finding an Empidonax flycatcher. However, checks of my local patch at Balephuil later that day produced nothing new other than a Lesser Whitethroat and a small influx of Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

A fresh juvenile Common Rosefinch popped up briefly in our garden the following day and with the winds slackening in a ridge of high pressure, my bird-finding thoughts switched back towards drift migrants from the east. First thing on Tuesday morning, I casually opened the curtains of our lounge windows with a cup of tea in hand and was dumbfounded by what I saw! In exactly the same willow where the rosefinch had been the previous day, a boldly marked flycatcher eyed me from just a few metres away. Rich olive-green above, with a complete bold eye-ring, an orange lower mandible, a distinct yellow suffusion on the throat and down the breast, and very striking whitish wing-bars and edgings to the tertials and secondaries - it was an Empidonax flycatcher! I grabbed my camera and took a few record shots to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

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Bacon

Ice Age Farmer Report: Violent, diseased super-pigs - Vector for next pandemic?


Ice Age Farmer
Wed, 23 Sep 2020 19:40 UTC
super pigs
The USDA has warned that "SuperPigs" have arrived, and with them, myriad virus (including the G4 swine flu that threatens zoonotic transmission). Media has gone to town on this story -- ensuring it reaches the collective conscious -- but why? Could these superpigs be the vector by which a new disease might be delivered, ensuring that we re-engineer our food supply and end animal agriculture? Problem, reaction, famine: Christian breaks it down.


Sources
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Wolf

Multiple coyote attacks on people reported at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base in North Carolina

Mark Price
The News and Observer
Wed, 23 Sep 2020 18:04 UTC
Coyote
© Getty ImagesCoyote
Cape Lejeune Marine Corps Base on the North Carolina coast has issued a safety alert after multiple people reported being attacked at the military facility by coyotes.

At least four attacks have occurred recently on the eastern side of the base, near the Wallace Creek area, officials said in a Facebook post.

Investigators did not give details of the injuries, but noted all victims "were running after dark in the vicinity."

The latest attack occurred at 4 a.m. Sept. 23. All the victims reported being near offices of the II Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group Command when attacked, officials said.
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Black Cat

60-year-old woman mauled to death by tiger in Maharashtra, India - 27 such fatalities this year for the state

Badri Chatterjee
Hindustan Times
Sat, 19 Sep 2020 11:59 UTC
File photo.
© AFPFile photo.
A 60-year-old woman was killed in a tiger attack on Saturday afternoon at a field near Andharwadi village in Pandharkawada, Yavatmal district in Maharashtra.

Forest officials said a tiger had been moving across villages Andharwadi, Koparmandvi, Vasari, and Kobai in the Pandharkawada Forest Reserve for the last 10 days and was also spotted at the site of the attack after Saturday's incident.

This is the second tiger attack and first death reported from the area and a committee empowered to decide on the tiger's capture (as per National Tiger Conservation Authority guidelines) will be sending its recommendations to senior forest officials by Sunday.

According to the forest department, around 1.30 pm Saturday, Laxmibai Bhimrao Dadanje, resident of Andharwadi was attacked and killed by a tiger at a field located between Patanbori and Andharwadi villages.
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Attention

Grizzly bear kills hunter in Alaska

Phil Helsel
NBC News
Wed, 23 Sep 2020 11:15 UTC
A grizzly bear in Alaska.
© ISTOCKA grizzly bear in Alaska.
A grizzly bear killed a hunter in a national park in Alaska, the National Park Service said Tuesday.

The hunter, who was on a 10-day moose hunting trip with a friend, was killed Sunday in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, a 13.2-million-acre park in the eastern part of the state next to the Yukon in Canada.

The hunter's identity has not been released pending an investigation, the park said.

No other injuries were reported.

More details about the deadly attack and information about whether officials were looking for the bear were not immediately clear.

Comment: Two other hunters were also involved in an attack (non-fatal) by a grizzly recently in eastern Idaho on September 18, according to the Idaho Statesman - the 3rd this year for the state:
An Idaho hunter survived an attack by what he described to officials as a grizzly bear, according to a news release from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

The man, who has not been publicly identified, was archery hunting with another hunter south of Mount Two Top near Island Park in Eastern Idaho on Friday morning. The hunters stumbled upon the bear in thick brush, and it charged at one hunter, knocking him to the ground. The man was able to deploy bear spray, a mace-like deterrent, before the attack. His hunting companion then deployed his own bear spray, and the animal fled.

Fish and Game said the victim was taken by ambulance to a Rexburg hospital after both hunters hiked out of the backcountry. Officials credited the bear spray for saving the hunters' lives.

In a similar event the previous week, a grizzly bear attacked two archery hunters near Sandpoint when they crossed paths with her and her cubs. Those hunters also used bear spray and escaped the attack with minimal injuries.

This is the third reported grizzly attack in Idaho this year. In May, a Montana man hiking in the Henrys Lake area — near Mount Two Top — was attacked and bitten by a female grizzly bear. He survived the attack.
See in addition: Bear attacks increasing worldwide

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Attention

380 whales dead in worst mass stranding in Australia's history


The Guardian
Wed, 23 Sep 2020 18:10 UTC
Members of a rescue crew stand with a whale on a sand bar near Strahan.
© Brodie Weeding/APMembers of a rescue crew stand with a whale on a sand bar near Strahan.
More than 450 long-finned pilot whales became stranded in harbour in Tasmania with rescuers managing to save about 50

About 380 pilot whales were confirmed dead in Tasmania's west on Wednesday afternoon with rescuers fighting to save the remaining 30 that are still alive.

More than 450 long-finned pilot whales were caught on sandbanks and beaches inside Macquarie Harbour, with a rescue effort starting on Tuesday morning.

Some 50 whales have been rescued and coaxed back to the open ocean.

Rescuers were focused on 270 whales stranded near the town of Strahan, but on Wednesday morning a further 200 whales about 10km away in the same harbour were discovered from a helicopter. Officials later confirmed all had died.

The stranding is likely one of the largest on record globally and is the worst in Australia's history.

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Info

Hundreds of dead birds found in Eagle County, Colorado and also in New Mexico well before snowstorm struck on September 9

John LaConte
The Aspen Times
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 14:16 UTC
A snake visits the carcass of a yellow-rumped warbler in West Vail. Dead warblers have been found all over Eagle County in recent days.
© Dave PleshawA snake visits the carcass of a yellow-rumped warbler in West Vail. Dead warblers have been found all over Eagle County in recent days.
When nature writer David Gessner published his most recent book Aug. 11, he mourned our disappearing bird populations.

"As I type this, it is being reported that we have almost a third fewer birds in the world than we did in 1970," Gessner writes. "Take a moment and consider this fact: our birds are disappearing."

Within weeks of the book's release, a massive die-off would begin to sweep the western United States, with an uncountable number of birds plummeting from the sky in mid-flight. Ornithologists say hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of birds have been lost over the past month.

Many are realizing now just how widespread the event has been, as social media has helped bird watchers and avian ecologists connect the dots.

Comment: It seems likely the early cold weather across Colorado simply compounded an already existing problem for most of these insectivorous birds - lack of food prey items due the record wildfires and the resulting extreme smoke cover during much of August.

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