Political Problem

When I first saw this sticker on the back window of a truck at Wells Mills Park, I chuckled. Then I felt uneasy because I couldn't tell whether it was ironic or sincere.

(For the uninitiated, a Piney is a resident of the Pine Barrens, sort of New Jersey's version of a hillbilly.)

A Contradiction in Terms

Somehow, with all the trips I've made to Colliers Mills, I missed this sign until today.  First of all, it impressed me that we have sometimes had over $10,000 worth of turkeys feeding in our backyard. But the $500 replacement fee made me ponder. If the Department of Fish & Wildlife charges to replace a Wild Turkey...how wild is the turkey? 

The sign also seems to me to misplaced--in the over 300 times I've been to Colliers Mills, I have seen turkeys there exactly once. You'd have better luck poaching in my backyard. 

A Couple of Delaware Notes

This sign is at Broadkill Beach. Apparently, if the beach cleanup hadn't been cancelled, then they'd be down with littering.

Dover is home to Dover Air Force Base. This weekend, the Blue Angels (which are actually part of the Navy) were doing an air show there. While we were at Cape Henlopen on Friday, we saw one of the jets doing a practice run over the bay. It flew low enough so that as it headed away, we could see two orange circles, flames burning in the rear of the jet engines. All I could think of was how much gas cost. Saturday was the day of the show. Even from Bombay Hook we could see them flying in tight formation. It was especially impressive when the Blue Angels formed a pattern that read: 

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK. 

Good Advice at Any Time

 

Wawa Branching Out to More Exotic Fare?

 

Lake of the Lillies (sic)

I love a really big, hard to correct, misspelling. A typo in a book is easily overlooked (that's why they're typos) unless, like me, you spent 30 years worrying about them. But misspellings in other media are so much harder to understand. I've seen them in neon (PAY ALL UTILITES), in metal ("waterflow" for "waterfowl" on a sign at Magee Marsh), on silkscreened banners ("FRAMERS" for "FARMERS"), and today, carved in wood. There is a psychological law of perception in which you see what you expect to see, not what you are actually seeing. I have stood in front of botched signs with someone (not mentioning any names) and said, "Read the sign.... again...again." It usually takes 3 readings for the error to pop out. 

Today, while I was walking around 3 sides of the Lake of the Lilies in Point Pleasant Beach, I came to the southeast corner where there is a small grove of trees that sometimes holds a few passerines with which to pad your list. In front of this grove there is the sign above. I took one look at it, took a photo with my phone, and sent it to a birder friend who lives in "Point Beach." 

"Ever notice that this sign is misspelled?" I texted her. 

Immediately an answer came back that yes, she had, and had thought about asking the municipal authorities to correct it. However, whoever carved the sign may have been unwittingly copying a mistake, since the misspelling goes back many years and appears on old maps of Point Pleasant Beach, as evidenced by some pics she sent me. It is a cartographer's trick to put in a few mistakes in a map to have evidence should the map ever be plagiarized. I'm wondering if that's what happened here. It is also listed as a "variant" in the 1983 USGS Gazetteer for New Jersey (a page of which she also sent me) along with the variants Eskins Pond and Old Sams Pond*. It has also gone under the name of Mineral Lake. All very interesting, but "Lillies" is wrong. 

Now, I admit, that whenever I type the word "lily" I have to think about it. It seems like it should have two ells. But that's the point: I think about. I pause. I check. If I was carving a sign, I wouldn't just start hacking away with a chisel without confirming every letter I was about to chisel. It is congruent with the carpenter's law of "Measure twice, cut once." 

As to the bird life in the grove itself: one Song Sparrow, one Northern Mockingbird, and a horde of House Sparrows. 

But the sign made the walk worth it. 

*Without the expected apostrophe.

Crash

Shari bought new curtains for the bedroom. Very nice curtains with birds in the pattern. This is the top sheet that came with them. However, I don't plan on having any of my guests walking through my window.  As Mike pointed out, anyone walking through my window is not a guest. 

"Wow" indeed. 

And in the Category "Most Incomprehensible Sign" the Award Goes to...

Barnegat Light SP, entrance to parking lot.

Restroom Admonitions

When you're birding, the question of "Where's the closest restroom" starts percolating in the back of your mind about an hour after the first Wawa coffee and starts to become urgent about 5 minutes later. Restrooms climb a hierarchical ladder starting at "Does one exist," stepping up to "Rudimentary" as in Port-O-Sans which I usually have to investigate first before Shari will even consider one, then "Rudimentary Plus" which is an open pit but at least a permanent structure. From there, the next step up is the question of climate (warm in winter, no flies in summer) and then, at the top rung we have "Does it flush?"

"Is it entertaining in there?" is not a consideration for most birders, but inveterate reader that I am, I enjoy a little distraction while I'm "resting." Over the years, I've noticed that there's an awful lot of scoldings, warnings, and general admonitions going on in these johns and I've made a collection of them. Each sign tells a little story of the tug of war between the clientele and the restroom's proprietor.

For instance:

This sign must be available from a supply catalog for sanitary engineers, because I have seen it in every open pit toilet I have been in no matter if it was built by a county, state, or federal agency. It is justifiably grumpy because "extremely difficult to remove" is a euphemism for "extraordinarily disgusting."

There are instructional signs, which I appreciate it,  because, you know, sometimes I feel like I need a refresher course:

Although this one, from Australia, seemed a bit extreme:

There are warnings not to do something that up until that moment I'd never actually considered


There is poetry:

There is existentialism:

Meaning you better come out with the same personality as you went in with.

And then there is this wide-ranging sign.
 
The "absolutely" is perfect, as if "no" isn't nearly strong enough for these clowns to understand and the "No Smoking" sign stuck on the top as an afterthought, "Oh yeah, that too," is delightful. The sign, by the way, is just high enough on the wall so that if you wanted to vandalize it you'd have to sit on someone's shoulders or bring a step stool so maybe the next time I "go" there I'll see this sign:

ABSOLUTELY NO

SITTING ON SHOULDERS

OR STEP STOOLS ALLOWED 

IN THIS FACILITY

Winner of "The Most Disingenuous Sign of the Year" Award

Click sign to enlarge

Scott told me a while ago about this sign which is scattered throughout Sandy Hook, but until yesterday I hadn't managed to run into it. It is as funny and as infuriating as Scott described it, a fine example of bureaucratic non-disclosure or "lying by omission."

Let's skip over the typographical errors--"one eight" and the ticks that are apparently brief cases (attache)--that battle is pretty much lost because copy editing and proofreading are non-existent these days since spell check is all you need, write? The much bigger issue is the text itself so let's unpack what it's trying not to say.

First there is the WARNING. That sounds bad. But that is immediately followed by the somewhat soothing reassurance that ticks are an "integral part of the environment," and we all know the environment is good so ticks can't be that bad. However, if all the ticks on Sandy Hook were suddenly to disappear, nothing bad would happen, unless the Gateway NRA management considers them their passive deer control system, in which case it isn't working anyway. Nothing on the Hook feeds on ticks and ticks, while feeding on mammals and birds, aren't keeping any nuisance populations under control. So that phrase is there to show you management's "green" credentials. The next phrase, "for the most part harmless," is where we start getting the real prevaricating. A lion is, for the most part, harmless--until it attacks you. A gun, is for the most part, harmless--until someone shoots it. A tick does no harm, most of the time, until it does and if they are for the most part harmless, then why is there this sign at all?*

And why do I want to prevent these mostly harmless "creatures" which is a word out of a storybook? Reread the sign. Does it  anywhere say anything about Lyme disease or any other tick borne diseases? No, because that would be a bummer and we only want to present a positive face to the public, don't we? Does it tell you that deer ticks are almost impossible to see? No, because virtually invisible, disease-carrying "creatures" is too malevolent a concept to put in a recreation area. Does it distinguish among the other species of ticks that you might find on Sandy Hook? No, because then you might get the idea that whole place is infested with all kinds of creatures carrying all kinds of diseases. Anyone want to talk about chiggers?

So instead, they warn you about ticks but don't really tell you why you should be warned. If you're going to omit the most salient fact about ticks--that they can give you a crippling disease--why put up the signs at all other than to stave off liability concerns?

I've been to lots of parks and refuges with warning signs about ticks. Nowhere else do they claim that they're essentially harmless and every place else they prominently mention Lyme disease. The irony of all this is that I've never picked up a tick at Sandy Hook. They're probably all attached to the deer that are running rampant throughout the peninsula and that have destroyed acres of nesting habitat for birds.

*The phrase "natural areas", on a spit of land that has been an army fort and proving ground, missile base, and now a recreation area paved with roads and bike trails, where the channel is constantly dredged and the beaches replenished, is using the word "natural" in its lightest sense.

Interlude: Warning Signs

Australia can be a dangerous place for both man & beast:

I found the use of the word "frosty" charming. Cradle Mountain in Tasmania

So even if you have four wheel drive...
Mt. Lewis Road

Don't go there
Duck Creek Road, Lamington National Forest

And if you don't want to get hit by a tree
Don't go there

Black Currawong, a possible source of contamination

Cassowary crossing, Cape Tribulation

And if the first sign didn't get the point across...

Mt Hypipamee National Park

Platypus crossing, Wilmot, Tasmania

And if all these signs have scared the crap out of you, here's the proper way to relieve yourself.

Warning Signs

It was in St. Lucia that we first encountered warning signs, reminding us that nature pretty much has the upper hand in that part of the world.

In St. Lucia, of course, hippos roam the streets, looking to eat your lawn, and if you hit one with your car, you're probably the road kill:

Nice touch: Even in South Africa they have the "grocer's apostrophe." 

Also, wild animals in general are "unpredictable."

At iSimagaliso, you should just "Beware!" or "Qaphela!." 

And yet, she doesn't looked scared

This sign means there are elephants on the road

Baboons: always a problem:

Monkeys and hyaenas too:

I have always wondered what the "necessary" incidents and accidents would be.

If you planned your afterlife journey to begin in Kruger NP, forget it:

And if you have an accident, or get eaten by a lion (it has happened), tough luck:

Even if you get hit by a sausage fruit, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

QAPHELA!

Is it any wonder that one of the natural features of the Kruger is thus named?

ENJOY YOUR STAY

30 Days Hath September

April, May, and November...so how do you explain this sign at Cape May Point SP?

I guess on March 31, it's a free for all, dogs running loose on the beach, no leashes.

Another sign I saw today at the park:
I for one can say that I came out with the same personality as I did when I went in and if I were going to metamorphose into someone else, I think I'd pick a more amenable spot than a restroom in Cape May.

Sad Sign

I birded Colliers Mills with Greg this morning. After our loop around Turnmill Pond we were  poking around the grassy area at the entrance, when he pointed out this plaque to me, attached to a half-dead chestnut tree, up high, where it was hard to see.  Why someone would place a memorial in a half-dead chestnut tree is a mystery. Perhaps the chestnut tree had some significance to Jasiu. Because it was so high up, I couldn't really read the sign clearly, but Greg's sharper eyes found the typo. Quite a guy, that Jasiu, more than a "woodsman," he contained multitudes.

Least Credible Sign of the Year

This sign

On this building

In this setting

On these bogs

"These bogs" are technically part of Double Trouble State Park, but they are hidden away so well off Dover Road that no one except a few hard core birders ever goes there--birders and judging from the tire tracks, illegal off-roaders. I'm certain that somewhere in a command central a park ranger has his/her eyes glued to a monitor. Watching. Surveilling, diligently.

I started going to the bogs last month after seeing them listed on eBird. I wasn't never sure how to access them until I realized, after looking at Google maps, that driveway that led to a private road forked and that the right hand of the fork led into the bogs. There's no parking lot--you just pull off to the side of what Google laughingly calls "Holmes Road," which probably, at one time was a decent road into the work area, but now is a blocked off dirt trail.

The first time I went I found a nice flock of Tundra Swans along with a Sharp-shinned Hawk. This is one of those places that you always say to yourself has habitat with "potential." Just not this season. Maybe in the winter there will be ducks. Or spring migration might be good. Maybe in summer it attracts shorebirds or waders. Since it is "under birded," maybe I'll find a rarity. But right now it is just a long hike around abandoned bogs and their derelict buildings. Although, toward the end of my walk, I did find, among a small flock of chickadees, my FOS Red-breasted Nuthatch. My spirits perked up after that.

Signs Along the Way

Salt Lake City

Silver Lake: Every sign along the trail was corrected by hand

Elko, NV

Welcome to West Wendover, NV

West Wendover, NV (quote enlarged below)

With (God) On Our Side