What a fabulous turn out of over 4,500 visitors over the two day, first time event! If you'd like to see photos, click here and here If you made it to the event, what did you learn? What did you enjoy most?

Well, after a rather harrowing night, the last half of today turned out to be amazingly beautiful. Perfect weather to be outdoors, and for all the clean up. That said, I'm sure most people were not exactly having 'fun' today though. It seems like the absolute worst of this storm and its damage occurred from about Cape May, NJ, south along the coast to Va Beach, and inland to the big cities west of those points. The Damage seems to be less severe the farther north you go from NC/VA. For us here in the DC area, well, I have to say I was 'surprised' at this storm. The damage left behind was just about as bad as Isabel in 2003, maybe slightly less. From about 30 miles west of DC, to the coast the damage is what is being called 'major'. The most common are trees being blown on homes and going through them and crushing cars. The sheer number of trees down around just the DC Metro is staggering. Probably in the thousands. Lots of roads / streets were blocked and many still are. No real structural damage to most buildings from winds alone, other than a couple buildings having roofs partially peeled back / loss of shingles / some siding / gutters ripped off. Some minor to moderate flooding from storm surge along tidal waters which capped out at about 3-4 feet. The far worst of the flooding came from the massive rains. Ranging from 3-4 inches 30 miles west of DC, to 5-8" right in the city, to 10-12" 30 miles east and much more the farther south/ east you go from here. Lots of river and creek flooding causing road overwashes. My rain gauge maxes out at 5", and was full by 1:30 am. I'm guessing we got 1-2" more than that here. Reports of 4-8" in the immediate metro area were commonplace. Over all, it was probably 'worse than expected' in our area. The absolute worst of it came in the period from midnight to about 5am, when we were having sustained winds of 40-50+ and gusts 55-75mph. The worst part was pretty much like a 6 hour long severe thunderstorm. It would come in waves. Backing off to 40MPH or so for a few minutes, then big huge gusts around 55+, then every 7-10 minutes or so we would get a period of several minutes where the sustained winds were like a gust that just would not stop, and then an even higher gust on top of that, topping out around 70+. The wind reports all around our region were pretty consistent, with the highest gusts just west topping out around 55in places 30 miles west, to 65-70 inside the beltway, and 75-80 30 miles east and south along the Chesapeake Bay. about 40 miles west of D.C., almost no damage to speak of. Just some heavy rains at times, and gusty winds of 35+, but nothing very bad. It was a very sharp cutoff line between damage and almost nothing. The thing that made this storm worse, was its size, and slow movement. Had this been a quick event, we probably would not have seen nearly the damage. But, because this event was very protracted and lasted for 20 hours, most certainly lead to more damage. Isabel in 2003 was in and out fairly quickly. She was here less than 6 hours at her worst. The other difference, with respect to storm surge anyway was that it was less here because the storm passed to our east this time, in stead of to our west. This was a east, northeast, north, and northwest wind event here, which helped to push water more OUT , than in on top of the storm surge itself. Partners mother in Smithfield VA had a pretty bad night, as I suspect most did in SE Virginia and Eastern NC where the damage reports are much worse. No power since 6AM Saturday morning. They lost two large trees in their yard, but fortunately both missed the house. Their neighorhood is literally littered with trees down, and quite a few homes damaged by them. The pictures coming out of Va Beach, and the NC beaches are by far and away the most incredible. Even along the MD/ Delaware beaches there is quite a bit of damage. Tornadoes caused damage in both Lewes and Rehoboth Beach, DE. As for my yard, well, just 1 large tree limb from someone elses tree is in it, and most things that were not either VERY HEAVY and/ or tied down , did blow over. It looked like a war zone, but fortunately nothing was really damaged except for a clay pot with my rosemary bush in it. The palms, well, 2 got knocked over, but the big 8 foot pigmy date came through it like a champ. I tied it down with rope and rebar and it went no where. Ill post some photos in a bit. I hope everyone made it through OK with no significant losses / damage!

When I first saw those tracks last winter I did send the photos to every big cat website I could think of, with no results. Apparently, there aren't any track forums, and jaguars are now officially "extinct" in North America. This forum is full of nature experts, so I posted the track photos here next, but in the meantime I did my own research and got a game cam, but its been too wary to get in front of them. For old timers, remember how the webmaster, Spike, would censor any post that was "off subject?" Didn't mean to upset those who haven't been following my jaguar saga. For the purists, there were wild turkey photos on the cam also. Since I also post photos to my blog and on Twitter, where the subjects aren't strictly segmented, I sometimes assume all people who are interested in birds are also interested in other creatures in the same environment. But if the animal finally gets on camera, that would be the only wild jaguar in North America (at least, officially). I did question the neighbor and he described the black kitten as having a "large, square" head, and short legs, and the tracks for jaguars are larger and shaped differently from both cougar and leopard tracks. The sounds we heard were nothing like a cougar, which I have heard. They were like the sounds on the National Geographic clip I already posted, and the tracks, seen clearly in the mud, next to a ruler, are in the link I already posted as well. The jaguar is the largest North American cat, with 4 1/4" wide front tracks and a metapad that fills most of the track. The game cam photo with the whiskers doesn't show what animal it is, just that something with long whiskers was messing with the camera the same night we heard the strange calls right outside our tent. I found tracks everywhere afterward, but none of them were clear, or in mud.

Dang, I thought this posting was going to be about real sheep. But since it's about animal art, I'm guessing that your friends and family are already are aware of your love of animals so if you want to put them where they will make your smile, why not do it then. But I agree with Judy G about the wall color to pull them all together. I'll baaaa on my way now....