No Booby Prize

Reading things about the Galapagos (and similar places) sometimes makes me regret going into writing instead of science. It would be fascinating to be a modern-day Darwin, examining new species and trying to figure out just why they are slightly different from similar creatures in other parts of the world.

But then I think back to my biology class in high school. And I think to myself "I don't need a degree to admire the pretty boobies."

Michael,
 
I'm sure you mean the blue footed type.

Umm . . . Yes. Absolutely. Blue footed boobies. That is, of course, what I was talking about. No question about it.

 
For some reason, the twenty-eight foot west rail on our deck is a favorite place for two birds of the same species to... occupy one set of footprints if you know what I mean.

Cardinals, Robins, sparrows, finches and doves, a lot of doves and then, the other day, this odd bit of business: a hen finch doing the "give it to me big boy" posturing and getting done by a cock sparrow... more than once.

Now, what? House Farrows? Spinches?  

Just when I thought my list of things to do/things to see couldn't get any longer, along bops the Blue Footed Booby with its in-your-face, could-I-be-any-cuter-or-prettier appearance.

And I thought a dozen Goldfinches on my thistle sack was amazing. Three Cardinal couples at the feeders. Five kinds of woodpeckers dining on the suet. The occasional owl flying low at dusk.

Actually, I'm okay w/o having seen a Blue Footed Booby in person. A lot to be said for stopping to smell the roses in your own neighborhood.

After a bout of combat drinking back in my Navy days. I seem to remember waking up the next day and while looking in the mirror, what I saw looked much like the picture above. Of course I didn't feel as cute as the picture.

Humans ARE like that,and that is why there are imposed limits:White shoes and belts are not allowed before Memorial Day,nor after Labor Day

RY: Are you sure there is a time that is right for white shoes and belts?

    
White shoes and belts; for the man who wants to look like he is from out of town.

...and then there is......seersucker

off topic alert!!!on the TV news were a story about the very 'see-cure' electronic chip embedded in our American Passports....seems it was made by.....FUR-IN-URZ!!!in tie-land,to be sure!!!Now which one of our loyal American Patriotic PooBahs  got re-election monie$ for handing that contract to a recently closed American manufacturer's off shore competitor?

an aside?  looking at that picture of the Booby...I hear Elvis.....blue suede shoes.....YOU?

What an amazing little Bird .......

Ah Yes ... PETER LAKE ....... But have you been to the thriving Metrolopis of Pekin ???

Blue wellies. I got some for my son when he was a toddler - he was so delighted with them that he insisted on wearing them when he was put into his cot for the night. He looked cuter than a Booby bird, fast asleep in his new footwear. I think he might be evolving webbed feet, any excuse to be around water.

I don't know if you get the same things on the left of your screen, I get ads by Google, usually related to yesteday's topic. Somebody is offering a brochure for electric chairs. Grannies Beware!!!!

I am dying to go to the Galapagos Islands before I pass from this world. Well, I'll get there one day.

Hazel, I love the story about your son.

Anyone who can't smile when they see a blue-footed booby has been cursed with a heart of stone.

I'm off into the bring deep for more diving and photography. I'll catch up with everyone later. Have a good day everyone.

I think Stoney must have one of those sea cucumber plants out by his deck and the birds think they're delicious.            Hazel: I do have chair ads up on the left (funny how I never noticed the tie-in before) but not the ad you mentioned. I do however have one for a "classic Acapulco chair" which could relate not just to yesterday's topic but almost to today's also.             I always envisioned the blue-footed booby and the platypus as more or less being the Groucho Marxes of the animal world.

Google are fast- am I being paraniod, or is somebody wathching us? The ad I mentioned vanished 5 minutes later, & we now have today's topic related ads on the left of our screen.
I think God has a doodle-pad & a set of kids multi-coloured felt-tip pens by his 'phone. Obviously, he gets a lot of calls, what with all people of different religious persuasions praying, one wonders who he was listening to when he came up with the Booby Bird.

I checked off my back yard.  Even though we have our house up for sale and it's finally gotten to be a bit much for us, I still love it and will cry when someone does buy it.  We fell in love with it when we first saw it and it's a love affair that never stopped. 
When I sit in that favorite chair from yesterday, on the porch that our son built, I can see that our back yard is home to falcons, red birds and blue birds and little yellow ones.   Interestingly, at least to me who knows nothing about them, was that I found they always travel in "couples".  As soon as I see one, I'll look around and there it will, it's mate.  Deer, fox, and once, I swear, we saw a bear all in our yard -- and yes, I was probably doing the wine thing at the time -- but still, it really was a bear.

Yes, I too have ads on either side of the post -- some really rather interesting, though I didn't see the one for an electric chair!  Goes along with the bed of nails Rapidgirl and I were talking about -- for those who really want to get rid of unwanted company :)
 
Michael and RY -- I think when you retire to Florida white shoes and belts are mandatory.
 

 Oh!!! The booby is so adorable!! I've actually shared today's link on my Facebook profile.  Peter, I thought exactly the same thing...its moments like these that I realize God has a sense of humour!! It's a dream of mine to visit the Galapagos too but I shud be grateful to be living in Australia where the flora and fauna is also pretty unique. Marsupials, like the kangaroos, wallabies, Koala bears, Possums, Tasmanian devil, Tasmanian tiger (now extinct)}, the platypus (thank you Rapidgirl), the Echidna....Its a big country here and scattered across it one occasionally finds the Roadkill Restaurant where what's on the menu depends on what was killed the previous night.

 Sea cucumbers - yes, I can categorically say that it is part of my (Chinese) culture, being harvested for centuries. It's called Hai Shen or Sea Ginseng. I think it's the phallic shape that has given it its reputation as an aphrodisiac but in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) it is supposed to be very good for mediating high blood pressure. Most of the sea cucumber that the Chinese use is dried first and to be honest if you pass a shop selling the dried fare in Asia the average westerner might be forgiven for thinking its something that the dog passed out except its a lot bigger. When I first came to Australia, we tried to harvest the cold water sea cucumber which cannot be dried as it is too small and too gelatine like (have to be eaten raw or as shashimi) but it shares the same ability to shoot its guts out as its tropical cousin, a defence mechanism. It's quite something to behold.

Hazel ..I've got google ads on chairs too but they are Australian websites

 
 
 
 
 
....tastes like chicken.

Spring Fragrance~ I don't know anything about sea cucumbers, but a forgotten ordinary cucumber in the drawer at the bottom of the 'fridge produces a slime that unimaginable forms of life could evolve in

BTW- Writer Girl~ The collective noun for a flock of goldfinches is a "charm" & I find that charming. I'm so pleased to see them visiting my garden.

My  daughter  and  I  had  quite  a  time  in  the  Galapagos  Islands  several  years  ago.   Darwin's  theories  make  much  more  sense  with  real  life  examples.  These  birds  are  comical....

Back in 1977 I used to hang out at a neighborhood bar in the basement of a Chinese restaurant in Enfield, CT... (I do NOT make these things up!).  The very attractive 20-something lady bartender and I got to talking a lot (yep, even back then....) and she told me a bit about her life.  Her husband, son of a German who moved from Alemange right after WWII (I did NOT ask...), was involved in building a very large ocean-going boat in their back yard.  (By very large I mean something that could carry over 20 people... And for those who don't know, Enfield is sixty miles from the coast!) She had at one time been involved in helping with construction -- until he caught her sanding across the grain instead of along it.  Now she was banned from the project... She and her husband's plan was to take the boat through the Panama Canal and back 'home' to the Galapagos to do tours of the islands for tourists!  I suggested she contact the local newspaper (since I'd been in that business and knew a good feature story when I stumbled across one).  As things go, I didn't make it back to the bar for a couple of months.  And one day I opened the local paper to see -- on page one -- a feature story and a photo of this ENORMOUS craft on a flatbed, being hauled off to the sea. Whenever I think of the Galapagos Islands, I wonder whatever happened to her.  I try not to think of boobies.

Miss Blue,  Booby Cordon bleu is one of my favorites.

Does anyone know what today is?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeC6aPHiN8A&feature=related


Jax, wherever you are, I know you have a comment or two to share.

I shud be in bed by now but am uploading my 15 year old son's school exchange to Beijing for him. I can see his mates and him have tried the deep fried scorpions and baby sea horses.....U know, if God's chosen people had been chinese we wouldnt have the problem of sin today because the serpent would have been eaten.....

Doc Nolan ~ I lived in Enfield CT for about a year, 1992 I think it was. Had an apartment in what use to be the Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Mill - Bigelow Commons. I was a Dollar Tree opener; helped stock and open, temp-manage and train in staff.

I am not the traveler I use to be, am happy with the wildlife in my own back yard. But if I won the travel sweepstakes I would plan a trip. In my past life; before married with children when I had money and no fear, friends and I would throw a dart into a map and wherever it landed that is where we would go.

paolos~

It is: NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY DAY but your youtube reference is baffling.
Please explain.

Unrelated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELHIFuxa4pw

UNless you are wearing some kind of uniform, I think it is always wrong to wear a white belt-  for a man, at least. But this memorial day business is also wrong. Here, where it has been 90 degrees for well over  amonth, we go Easter to Labor Day. And sometimes, if it has been 80 every day for weeks, a little after labor day, too.  I am talking about white shoes. I had mine on the other day and a doctor I know complimented me. I asked if he had worn them for work when he was younger ( people DID, really) and he said they had been required to wear them in medical school- the rule was yours weren't any good until you had blood on them.

Stoney, So many things to commemorate there are hardly enough days in the year.  National Lobster Day according to some, sorry to baffle, it is one of many defects that I will never be able to correct.  It would have been my mother's 96th...Happy Birthday Mrs Calabash, wherever you are.

To commemorate Nature Photography Day and stay on topic, here is a little something to take us all back to say...prom night? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYmzdvMoUUA  ;

Paolos~great 'footage' of the boobies...as for prom?   There is a great line,maybe George Burns(or at least that is the comic timing I associate with it)  about a guys memory being so good,he remembers going to the high scool prom with his father,    and coming home with his mother...

Andy: I love it... thank you!                                                                                   Now we've tangentialized into boat-building and fashion faux pas. The shoe thing makes me think of a movie from about 15 years ago called 'Serial Mom' in which white shoes figured heavily. I've decided not to risk it, even though I've been known to wear white clothes in December if I darn well feel like it.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
MISS BLUE:  Wasn't expecting that at all !!!

There is oh so much to see-n-do-learn.....I do so appreciate the vicarious lessons our host and all of the participants so freely provide. 

I thought I had an exotic (that's exotic, not erotic) experience of the animal kind when I took a walk around our neighborhood park last night and encountered a family of owls talking amongst themselves and looking down upon me...... Since I usually carry a camera around I was able to capture their images despite the low light (and posted them here) and was quite impressed with the encounter until I happened upon our blue footed friend from above.

I've named our blue billed friend with the matching galoshes Floyd.

I think I'll be taking more frequent and longer walks. Thesepia has certainly filled in some missing gaps in my travels. This is especially true of the fine company I keep in the club car and on the back porch of the caboose. I think there must be some international trips in the future.

Peter:  Well spoken on missing gaps, I know that you and Stoney have been there but for those that haven't, Spring Fragrance has some fine work on her photos page.

PETERLAKE:   Your Perspective is always an attractive awakening ... between yours and Stoney's profundity, the conversation(s) in the Club Car is a worthy event, indeed .......
 
Y'all keep up the Good Work .......

Road Yacht:  George Burns was a comedian?      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3c-WBn5cCg  ;

Ivan:  Peoria I have been to, but I left my heart in  Pekin.  And I don't mean Peking.  I mean Pekin.  It's such a breathtaking place I wanted to stay and stay and stay... ...but I had to catch my tour bus, it was on its way to beautiful downtown Peotone.    There's nothing like a whirlwind bus tour of the Illinois midsection to get your blood boiling. I highly recommend it.
  ;)

Miss Blue:  that gave me the hiccups, it was unexpected and witty and...very you.  Nice to see you, dear.  It's been a while....
   

The closest I've come to nature (lately) was getting to watch a bunch of robins from the day the eggs came out until the chicks left. It was fun watching over them.

Sadly, I don't have a decent camera or I'd have some fun pictures.

The Blue Footed Booby looks like it just walked off the set of Sesame Street. I bet Elmo's looking for him.   When you have a moment, won't you please help find Elmo's booby? Award for finding the Booby:  a trip to Machu Picchu with Bert and Ernie.
    

MISS P4:  If I hadn't seen the little Smiley Face at the bottom of your Post, I'd surely have thought you had lost your mind .......  Peotone, indeed .......  Pekin died when Caterpillar folded up, back in the early 80's ... only reason anybody still lives there is that no one has any reason to move there, so there is no one to sell those Cracker-Box houses to ...

 
Thanks Ivan!

Cynthia~

There is never a bad day for what must be the most expensive recording ever made.
Imagine the travel!?

Stoney ~ I was thinking the same thing. They have dozens of songs on the website and have used a lot of the same people throughout them all, still the air travel, shipping equipment, hotels, etc... $cha-ching$

Ivan:  You're right, Pekin is a pale memory of it's former hay day (hey day? daze?), and Peotone, well, it's never been the same since they closed down the Feed and Grain.  A once friend of ours was the third generation owner of Pekin Insurance, which is pretty impressive, don't you think? (wink)  except we lost touch even before Caterpillar crawled out of town on its belly...  ...When we were in college, my husband worked for the Urbana Courier Review, the "it" newspaper of the area.  He stuffed the funnies and other "extras" into the paper, then slid the tied up bundles down to the alleyway where the delivery folks were waiting in their cars to pick them up and take them out to all these little towns, including Peotone. ...which is why I have a pretty good memory and even a certain fondness for little farm towns in central Illinois....If you want a real fun time, be sure you visit Sidley, Buckley, Loda, and Onarga,  these towns being on my husband's newspaper route, each one getting one-7 papers each.  I know some of you have major wanderlust and hanker for exotic locales far from home, and I think that's a very good thing.  I'll tell you though, I've spent a night in Loda Illinois when our car broke down -- and once you've been to Loda, nothing can compare.  Well, a night in Onarga, maybe... ;)
   
   

Used to go to a ginormus swap meet in Peotone...J&P cycle put it on every summer,and it was always a gas....there was a great big old bar,and BBQ food,and lots of leather and chrome...but the Bean Blossum Boogie was even better...ahh  being young, wind in your hair, bugs on your teeth....

PETERLAKE. I can tell you what the owls were talking about- the mother was griping: WHO WHO WHO WHO COOKS FOR YOU? It's always the same.

A childs description of the Blue Footed Booby, complete with art.
 
http://www2.lhric.org/POCANTICO/mackay/06/jlbird.htm
 
 

Willie T - I do believe you are right about that one.  I'm sure there was a fresh, unsuspecting mouse strolling about the park somewhere...

Oh! No! Mouses are people too, PL.   

Heathcliff, I am reminded of an off-color joke. The child describes the booby as "happy, sometimes sad" I  never realized I was a booby.  Here is the joke:                                       http://lesbianlife.about.com/od/just4fun/a/Cowboy.htm  

OH  LORD ... STUCK  IN  LODA  AGAIN .......

Can someone explain:
1) the Club car? International trips? I can be your host to Australia and through much of Asia ;-)
2) how do I send private messages? How do you find a person's email address?
3) are there any rules as to uploading photos or videos?
 
Gotta rush now for work, its 7.40 am. Unfortunately can't access The Eye at work. Your weather sounds alot better than mine. Yesterday it was zero Centigrade and we're abt 4 above at the moment. But thankfully its rare we get snow at ground level. Conde Nast had named Tasmania the best temperate island in the world before. Enjoy your evening everyone
Pat

Hey, Roadie, don't knock seersucker! I looked awfully cute in it when I was five.

Hazel, I love knowing about a "charm of goldfinches!" Charming, actually, to know that. Thanks!

I swear, if you pay attention, you learn all kinds of things.

Today's conversation has run off the rails, crossed them numerous times, left them in the distance and yet somehow it all relates. What a wonderful conflagration...

Miss Blue~I laughed until I was BLUE in the face.

Hazel~a row of Crow sitting on a power line is called a Murder.

I know that from a movie ... what was it?

Just got back from dY two of diving (2 boat trips, 4 dives and about 2300 pictures). I'd say that I have celebrated National Nature Photography Day!

Sadly, I got some bad news during this wonderful trip. A close friend's Mum has cancer and it's stage IV and inoperable. She is 81 and has decided against chemo. She is now under Hospice care and says that she's going to HD on until we get back so she can see our pictures.

The other sad news is that a friend we did dive trips with has been diagnosed with brain cancer. She's more upset about never being able to dive again than anything else. Prayers and good thoughts would be welcome.

I'm considering putting together a book of my photographs and giving half the proceeds to the American Cancer Society.

I hope everyone has a good evening and that if a Blue-Footed Booby knocks on your door that he's as friendly and happy as he looks.

Writer Girl ~ A Murder of Crows with Cuba Gooding Jr and Tom Berenger. Its a GREAT movie.

A Murder of Crows
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vakMz0FkzKI

If your travels have brought you to San Cristobal
In search of a booby with blue feet, y'all,
To test Darwin's theories and a few of your own
Then the booby you find must be plump and full grown.
An under weight booby is strictly forbidden
And blue footed dads keep the youngest well hidden.
Stay away from the nest, steer clear of the brother,
If you ever spot one, you will soon spot another,
For the blue footed booby (to this truth I swears)
Is like all other boobies, they travel in pairs.

Dancingkatz ~ prayers and good thoughts are streaming from here on behalf of your friends.

Dancingkatz ~ your loved ones are lifted up in prayer from these quarters as well.

When you get the book published let us know.

Nature Pictures on the home page today.

www.kentuckycurmudgeon.wordpress.com

One crow stand for sorrow, two crows they promise joy
One crow stand for sorrow, two crows they promise joy
Love may come tomorrow, until then I’m just a lonely boy


Three crows means a baby girl, four crows means a baby boy
Three crows means a baby girl, four crows means a baby boy
Nothing like it in this world, Mama’s little bundle of joy

Five crows stand for silver, six crows they promise gold
Five crows stand for silver, six crows they promise gold
Take me to the river, wash me so I don’t get old

Seven crows a secret, won’t be told til judgment day
Seven crows a secret, won’t be told til judgment day
If you see more crows than that, friend it’s time to walk away
© W. T.

 
DK~

I will do a pray-back for you and your friends starting...

Willie ~ I threw together a bit of doggerel to frame a punch line that rightfully belongs to Jax (I know she is out there somewhere) and that she alone might appreciate; you have a southern gem for all.                                                                                                    DancingKatz ~ prayers are rising.

Cancer is a horrible disease. It needs a cure. So that friends can have their friends back.   Know what I mean?

As  boy birds bob

And dance to compete

The lady birds know

It's the size of their "feat".

WT i'll be counting crows instead of sheep.

Hey G!  Hope to see you tomorrow...it's a sunny day to be and we need a daytime adventure on thesepia train, complete with picnic basket and checkered cloth, and sunscreen or better, Miss Blue's hat, on the back "terrace" of PL's caboose. I'll bring the basket.  You tell me what you feel like eating.  Just make sure it includes watermelon, and iced tea. Check in, will you...and let me know when you'll be wanting to ride those rails...my best to the best of the best friends ever...and everyone else, of course, who are free in the daytime, please do come along.   We need some happy music.  Fiddles?  Something undeniably american folk, please! Or not, but I've been listening to Appalacian music today, and it's wonderful! See you on the train...

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/06/twelve-sea-turtles-released-cape-charles

Unfortunately, we find dead sea turtles on our walks along the bayside beaches on a regular basis, victims of poor fishing practices.

I hope these little guys make it.

 
 
 
Park4
I'll play the spoons.....

Thank you everyone for you prayers and kind thoughts for my friends. I will let folk know if the book makes print. The hardest part is deciding what pictures are going to be in it.
 
Miss Blue, I hope the turtles make it as well.
 
Hugsto everone. I love you all.

Miss Blue, If we are measuring feet, WillieT wins, hands down.

 
 
 
park4 and all...
nuthin more American than the blues.

I just finished laughing my way (with a few heartfelt, serious pauses for prayers) through the days discussion.

Paolos we will have to dub you the You Tube Treasure King because you find the most amazing things there! And I loved your punny verse, doggerel is not a nice enough term for your literary turn. I'd been thinking about those contest pictures since I saw the todays subject.
Sorry I was so late, I'm abed with a mild bit of pnemonia and have been snoozing all day. I see I missed so much fun.

Spring Fragrance~ Your brilliant comment about the Chinese eating the serpent had me laughing/coughing for several minutes. I wanted to post it to my Face Book status but felt it would be polite to ask permission first.

Miss Blue, you must mean blues music, 'cause the blues are universal

PeterL: your photos remeind me of a childhood favorite book: "Owls in the Family"by Farley Mowat

Willie T: I'm hearing Eric Clapton on his favorite acoustic with slightly worn steel strings singing your "Seven Crows"............

Fever's talking......better cut and run. G'night y'all! Be safe and well.

Get Well Jax.                                                          
 Spring Fragrance.  I think your first step is to go to your eyedentity and click on Enable Private Messages.  Then click on 0 unread messages in the upper right hand corner of this page under your display name.  From there it will be pretty easy for you to send a message.  Just use the recipient's display name as the address.                               As for the photos and videos, I don't think there are any restrictions as long as the material is your own or public domain and in relatively good taste.  Many more of your photos are welcome here.  More, please.           Your questions about the club car can best be answered by Park 4's post of June 10, 2010 at 5:48 pm.  International and extraterrestrial travel is accomodated in the same club car as far as I know...except Kentucky Curmudgeon and Road Yacht have their own vehicles (I believe rental may be possible with proper ID) for these travels.

Spring Fragrance:  Sorry, that's the upper left hand corner of this page.

Bert:  I have been waiting all day for a Galapagos story or two.  Where are you?

PARK4:   Had no idea you were a Bluegrass Fan !!!  One of my Favorite Forms of Music ... Of course, I really like Bayou Blues too, and a little Zydeco, but one must have Webbed Feet, to keep time just right .......

blues boobies

Spring Fragrance ..... thesepia train, though born from a typographical error, has the remarkable ability to transport one to when and wherever any of us wish. I think it would be grand to be transported to the lands you so graciously offered to guide us. 

It is nothing more nor anything less than a tireless iron beast that serves us so well as our ship of dreams.

Jax, Get well!!! I loved Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat. I read it while flying in a prop plane from Iceland to Denmark.
DK, I send positive thoughts in your friends' directions. 
 
Miss Blue, one small step...hope they make it.
 
Ivan and Park4, I got to see and hear Bill Monroe in 1973.... so much talent... along with Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Mother Maybelle Carter and others. I still have (my only Bluegrass) the triple album...Will the Circle Be Unbroken..  ...which I think is a wonderful collection.

HOT  DAMN !!!   PETER LAKE ... Wish I had said that !!!!!!!   More proof that Prosaic is not a pill .......

PL is wonderful, he's just a wonderful guy...he slides in here silently so silently and says just the right thing. I could sit around for days and not ever come up with what he just did in 12:15 AM.   I did try, I guess, back on June 10 -- thank you paolos for remembering my effort.  I guess I like to hear PL talk about thesepia train because he knows it intimately, and that's how I hear his voice. Now, about Appalacian music.  I'm not sure if it's Bluegrass exactly, what I found, but it's like that.  Fiddles.  There's Irish in it.  There's mountains in it.  There's hard times and good times in it...I'm thinking that's probably what's called Bluegrass, LOL. I'm going to search for some youtube stuff, of what I downloaded yesterday.  Whatever it's called, it's gooooooooood.