Puzzled By Birds: Day One

From back in December, Kenn and Kim write: If our trip is running on schedule, today we will have left the Falklands to head east-southeast through the wild waters of the South Atlantic, heading for remote South Georgia Island. Communicating from there may be a distinct challenge -- so we thought we’d give YOU a distinct challenge, in the form of a brand new kind of bird quiz.
Here’s a new kind of bird identification quiz. The picture here is a kind of digital jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces removed. Can you tell, from the pieces visible here, what kind of bird this is? (If you can, you’re some kind of super-birder!)

For the next 8 days, assuming that we got the settings right, we’ll be posting this picture again each day (about noon Eastern time) with a few more of the pieces added. You’ll gradually be able to see more of the bird and its habitat. When you think you know what it is, send us a comment. Your comments won’t actually appear on the blog until we’re back in the U.S. to moderate them, but we’ll know who answered correctly first, and we’ll send you some kind of fabulous prize.

A Link to the Falklands

From cyberspace, Kenn writes: If we're on schedule, today we'll be on the Falklands, those cold but beautiful rocky islands east of the southern tip of South America. We probably won't be able to post from out there. But for a taste of what we might be seeing, you can check out Alan Henry's blog, Birding in the Falkland Islands. Alan has lived in the Falklands since 1987 and is an expert on the birdlife there. Naturally, it's exciting for him to find birds that are rare on the islands -- including visitors that would be common for us in North America, like Barn Swallow and Lesser Yellowlegs. But he also includes photos of his everyday local birds, like Falkland Steamer Ducks and Rockhopper Penguins!

McMahathir

Ex-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysians "will not die if they do not use the US goods" and urged those working for US companies such as fast-food giant McDonalds to quit their jobs.

"I hope Starbucks and McDonald's employees will stop working there," he told a crowd of 500 people who held a noisy protest outside the National Mosque after Friday prayers.

"If you have the US dollar, please change to other currencies, or to our ringgit. When you stop using the US dollar its value will drop," Mahathir added.

"They will become a bankrupt country and will not be able to produce weapons for Israel."

MacMahathir or Mad-Mahathir?

Susu Anak, Loan Rumah & Kereta... Mahathir bayar?

Babi! Babi! Babi!

In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs.. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth.

The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve.

After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only orphans' that could be found quickly were a litter of weanling pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops?

Take a look...you won't believe your eyes!!

Now, please tell me one more time... Why can't the rest of the world get along?


'Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass; it's about learning to dance in the rain.'

Random Bird: Blackbird

Kenn wrote this back in December: (Today, January 7, we're supposed to be boarding ship in Tierra del Fuego to head toward the Antarctic, and we set this post to be published in our absence.)

So who would call a bird simply "Blackbird?" The British. Look at bird books from England, especially older ones, and you’ll see bird names like Blackbird, Heron, Wren, Jay, Swallow, etc., as if there were only one bird in each of these groups. Those British sometimes act as if they had invented the English language!

Anyway, The Blackbird (which Americans often refer to as "Eurasian Blackbird") is not at all related to the blackbird family (Icteridae), a strictly New World group which includes our familiar Red-winged Blackbird as well as grackles, cowbirds, American orioles, meadowlarks, and others. In fact, the (Eurasian) Blackbird is a very close relative of the American Robin (which is not closely related to the European Robin ... Got that? There will be a quiz in the morning). The Blackbird is native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced into Australia and New Zealand. There are a few records from eastern Canada, but there are some doubts about how those birds may have arrived there. The Blackbird shown above is one that we watched in Copenhagen, Denmark, in September 2005. Aside from the color of its feathers, it looked for all the world like an American Robin, and acted like one, too, perfectly at home in a tiny park in the big city.

Not only is this blackbird very widespread in the Old World, it’s also culturally important. "Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" would have been this species. The Beatles' song "Blackbird," with the lines about "Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly," was referring to this species. But when it comes to the Wallace Stevens poem, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," the answer is unclear; Stevens was an American but some of his blackbirds seem to have a European tilt.

Girls night out

Two women friends had gone for a "girls’ night out".

They both were very faithful, loving wives... however; they had gotten a bit over enthusiastic on Bacardi Breezers. Incredibly drunk and walking home, they needed to pee, so they stopped in a cemetery.

One had nothing to wipe with so she decided to take off her panties and use them.

Her friend, however, was wearing expensive panties and didn't want to ruin them...luckily she had squatted next to a grave that had a fresh wreath with a ribbon on it...so she proceeded to wipe with that.

After the girls completed their "business" they continued toward home.

The following day, one of the women's husbands was concerned that his normally sweet and innocent wife was still in bed and hung over.

He phoned the other husband, and said “These girls’ nights out have got to stop! I'm starting to suspect the worst! My wife came home with no panties!"...

"That's nothing!" said the other husband, “mine came back with a card stuck to her butt that read:

"FROM ALL OF US AT THE FIRE STATION... WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU"!!!

End of Story

Out with Africa's big five

“Hold on tight and don’t let go!” shouted Samson over the sound of the motor as the van rumbled down the rough, weather-beaten path towards the cavernous mouth of the Ngorongoro crater.

My mouth went dry and my hands turned clammy in anticipation of what lay only a few kilometres ahead.

Our tiny safari party was soon swallowed up by the yawning jaws of the crater.

Flourishing within the belly and the walls of this natural amphitheatre were approximately 25,000 wild animals roaming free.

To me, that felt like unearthing the proverbial pot of gold at the rainbow’s end.

One of the highest peaks

Between steering the van down the rugged dirt route and listening to his blaring radio, Samson, my Tanzanian guide, enlightened me about this Unesco World Heritage Site.

About three million years ago, Ngorongoro was one of the highest peaks in Africa.

Triggered by the turbulent formation of the Rift Valley, the volcano erupted and then collapsed on itself forming the dramatic Ngorongoro crater, measuring 265 square kilometres, now known as the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

I looked out at the clear blue Tanzanian sky from the van window and imagined the volcano spewing lava in fury and transforming the scene forever.

This indentation on the African plains, rich in fertile volcanic soil, became home to Africa’s “big five” — the rhinoceros, lion, leopard, elephant and buffalo.

A combination of lakes, swampy grasslands and lush green forests attracted an assortment of air- and land-bound fauna to feed, soak, forage and wander freely.

Spread out on a yellow, sun-baked carpet of savannah grass lay wildebeest and zebras in their thousands.

Shoulder to shoulder they stood, grazing peacefully while I feasted my eyes on them.

Towering Euphorbia trees dotted the 600-metre-deep crater. Heat waves emanated from the ground as these grassy plains sweltered under the blazing African sun.

Gazelles, buffalo, eland, wildebeest and zebra roam the very same savannah as their large carnivore neighbours.

Breaking my reverie, Samson’s two-way radio crackled to life with news of lion sightings.

My heart pounded as our coffee-coloured vehicle tore through the grass, kicking up dirt in its wake.

Three young males, possibly brothers, were spotted on a hillside.

In their prime, these cubs with developing golden manes were clearly biding their time to adulthood.

Eventually they would fight an older male and take over his pride.

This would ensure the right to mate with the pride’s lionesses and sire the next generation.

For the moment, these gorgeous, golden kings with young manes to match looked perfectly content.

Lions are stealthy killing machines with powerfully built torsos and crushing jaws to bring down prey double their size and to rip it to shreds. It is plain to see why it is considered the king of beasts.

Samson decided it was time for a break and scouted around for a comfortable picnic.

Sitting under the cool shade of an ancient baobab tree, the spot selected could not have been better.

With sprawling grasslands for view and twittering birds for company, we gobbled up sandwiches, washing them down with cans of chilled juice.

As the van set off one more time, I took my place under the open roof once again, drowsy from the warmth and the picnic but too excited to miss out anything.

And then I saw them — two graceful ostriches — one male, one female.

Black-and-white plumes puffed up, the male ostrich attempted a mating dance, enthusiastically bobbing his head about.

Hearing the crackle of twigs, Samson killed the noisy ignition. Rustling through the grass was a lone bull elephant.

He cut through the grassy path a few metres ahead of our grimy van. Solitary in his thoughts, the elephant explored his environs and chewed on leaves.

It is never a good idea to get too close to a bull elephant, so Samson quickly started the engine and gently backed away.

As we moved from the bush into the open grasslands, we came across Maasai tribesmen dressed in red, casting long shadows in the late afternoon sun.

Tall, dark and handsome, they carried long sticks and grazed their cattle on a hillside.

Arriving in the region somewhere in the 1800s, they were moved in 1959 to the newly declared Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

The Maasai tribespeople are permitted to graze their cattle in this crater, thereby maintaining their way of life within a natural environment.

I looked out the back of the van to see shimmering images of our crimson-clad friends disappear in the afternoon haze.

Blackened earth under our wheels seemed to taint the terrain. Samson explained that to manage vegetation in the crater, grass and bush were often set on fire.

Dusk settled and the buzz of insects infused the air as a turmeric sun set over the majestic Tanzanian terrain.

Like members of a privileged audience, I had been witness to an exceptional display of Africa’s natural performers.

Twilight would bring its own share of sinewy shadows, stalking the savannah and its swampy watering holes.

Standing up through the open roof, I turned towards the auburn expanse to see the sky and earth become one — the fierce eternal bond that brings together the grassland with grazers, dry bush with strapping tribesmen, and forests with foragers. A never-ending circle of life.