Updates post-Oregon, post-TetZooCon

Hi everyone. It should be obvious that I'm WEEKS behind on everything, due in part to conference attendance (the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting in Toronto and the American Society for Aesthetics meeting in Portland, Oregon) and to TetZooCon, which happened last weekend (3rd and 4th December 2022). I have tons to write about and talk about. I'm not sure where to start, but I'm still catching up on emails and overdue work. A write-up of TetZooCon is here ... https://tetzoo.com/blog/2022/12/7/the-ninth-and-largest-of-the-tetrapod-zoology-conventions

Birds of Oregon. In time, I want to write about bird-watching in Oregon. I saw so many birds that were entirely new to me; as ever, my camera(s) totally failed me, in part because the lens of my new camera stopped communicating with the rest of the camera (??!! How is this even a thing?!?!?!), but I have at least a few good images (here's a montage). Spotted towhees, House finches, Dark-eyed juncos, White-crowned sparrows and Song sparrows all proved easy to see, but I was thrilled to encounter Cedar waxwings, California scrub jay, Steller's jay and much else.

I even had a distant sighting of a Bald eagle. Other raptors I saw included what were probably American kestrel (seen only from the road) and Red-tailed hawk (also saw mostly while driving). Waterbirds/seabirds included Pied-billed grebe, Great blue heron, California gull and 'Olympic gull' (a Glaucous-winged x Western gull hybrid). 

More complete thoughts to be written up for Tet Zoo!

American Society for Aesthetics: Dinosaur Aesthetics! Believe it or not, I was in Oregon for the 2022 ASA meeting wherein a group of four of us presented on dinosaur aesthetics. My talk - 'Dinosaurs: Animals From the Future' - was on what modern palaeoartists are aiming to depict and how it doesn't have much relation to such stereotypes as primordalism. Here's my cover slide...

The other speakers in the sessions were Michel-Antoine Xhingnesse ('what if dinosaurs were imaginary'; very All Yesterdays- focused), Zoe Lescaze (a general review of palaeoart history) and Derek Turner ('why are dinosaurs named after places?'). I mean to write up my thoughts, though I'm worried that things have already mostly been lost to the mists of time.

Bigfooting in Oregon. Yes, I spent time after the ASA meeting at Cliff Barackman's North American Bigfoot Center and hung out with Cliff (even getting special access to his massive personal collection of bigfoot track casts) and Nico Spadafore, who works for Cliff. Whatever's at the bottom of the bigfoot phenomenon, I find the whole thing fascinating. I got to go 'squatching' twice out in the woods: nothing at all definitive happened but I (and others with me) honestly did hear three sets of unusual sounds on the second of these trips. 

Here's me and Cliff, with the NABC bigfoot model Murphy looming behind us...

Again, I need to write these things up so I have a more complete record of what happened.

Ok, that'll have to do for now. Hot UK spinosaurid news incoming soon but I don't have time to write about it today. Am also acutely aware that some of you are still owed books -- I haven't forgotten, I am just so, so struggling with time and jobs, please accept apologies!!