CORed
01-25-2005, 01:39 AM
Johnny Carson is Dead. I still think he was the best talk show host ever. One of the things I liked about him was that he would get some off beat guests. For example, there is (or was) some national contest where high school kids would do bird calls. I know, this sounds pretty boring, but it actually solved a minor mystery for me. Carson would have the top two or three kids on from this contest every year. They would tell a little story about encountering a particular species of bird, and then do there bird call.
One of my most memorable backpacking trips was one I took in the late '80's to Coyote Gulch, a tributary of the Escalante River in southern Utah. If you have ever been to Zion, Capitol Reef or Canyonlands national parks, you have an idea of the type of terrain here. I made this trip with a friend in mid April. This is an absolutely spectacular area, with several arches and a natural bridge, and lots of big sandstone, Coyote Gulch also carrys a small perrenial stream, so there are lots of cottonwood trees, lush vegetation and wildflowers. At the confluence of Coyote Gulch and the Escalante River is Stevens Arch, one of the top ten biggest arches in the world. Within site of Stevens Arch I got several great pictures of a big (Over a foot body length) Collared Lizard, a very colorful lizard.
The entire trip I was hearing a beautiful bird song (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/naturesongs/cynwrn3.wav/view.html), but I was never able to see the birds actually singing, so I couldn't figure out what species of bird was singing. A few months later, Johnny Carson had the kids on doing their bird call thing, and one of the kids did the song for the Canyon Wren. That was it! Thanks to Johnny Carson, I was able to idenitify the bird that made that beautiful song. The bird itself, like all wrens is a tiny (sparrow sized) non-descript brown bird, but its song is one of my favorites.
One of my most memorable backpacking trips was one I took in the late '80's to Coyote Gulch, a tributary of the Escalante River in southern Utah. If you have ever been to Zion, Capitol Reef or Canyonlands national parks, you have an idea of the type of terrain here. I made this trip with a friend in mid April. This is an absolutely spectacular area, with several arches and a natural bridge, and lots of big sandstone, Coyote Gulch also carrys a small perrenial stream, so there are lots of cottonwood trees, lush vegetation and wildflowers. At the confluence of Coyote Gulch and the Escalante River is Stevens Arch, one of the top ten biggest arches in the world. Within site of Stevens Arch I got several great pictures of a big (Over a foot body length) Collared Lizard, a very colorful lizard.
The entire trip I was hearing a beautiful bird song (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/naturesongs/cynwrn3.wav/view.html), but I was never able to see the birds actually singing, so I couldn't figure out what species of bird was singing. A few months later, Johnny Carson had the kids on doing their bird call thing, and one of the kids did the song for the Canyon Wren. That was it! Thanks to Johnny Carson, I was able to idenitify the bird that made that beautiful song. The bird itself, like all wrens is a tiny (sparrow sized) non-descript brown bird, but its song is one of my favorites.