Thursday morning

*Any ideas on how we can start a food fight between AIPAC and the NRA?

*How long before the Tea Party starts their IMPEACH ROBERTS drum roll?

Oh that old excuse...

"A court in Zimbabwe had a true Mr. Bumble moment when a man accused of sex with a donkey mounted a unique defense: Sunday Moyo insisted that he had hired a prostitute and she transformed into a donkey during the sexual encounter."

More drama over Glendale's elephant Rose Parade float

Here

Are they planning something?

India’s tiger population on the rise for the first time in years

By Agence France-Presse
Monday, March 28th, 2011 -- 9:31 am

Cobra escapes Bronx Zoo exhibit

The trouble with a kitten is THAT Eventually it becomes a CAT. - Ogden Nash

The kitten is no longer afraid of me and in fact cannot keep off of me.  On my lap, biting my feet, crawling over my shoulders and wanting to eat dinner with me – not eating her Fancy Feast in tandem with me eating my rice and pork chop but actually eating  off my plate.  She got the nerve to venture outside Monday, then didn’t come back which freaked me out but now she doesn’t seem interested in going out again.  She is not afraid of the Cooper dog; she wants to play with him which is not on his to do list. Beatrice, who does want to play with her, she is terrified of.  The kitten has no name so I am open to suggestions.

Monkey Smuggler Caught at Airport

Points for creativity? A Mexican man has been arrested after authorities
 at Mexico City's international airport discovered 18 titi monkeys stuffed
 into socks and tied around his waist. Roberto Sol Cabrera was returning 
from Lima, Peru, and had been trying to smuggle in the tiny primates by
 wearing them slung on a belt under his clothing—“to protect them from
 X-rays." Two of the monkeys were dead when they were confiscated. 
Many species of titi monkeys are on the Convention on International 
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora's endangered
 list, and can be sold for around $1,550 in Mexico.

I originally decided to post this because I thought 
it was funny.  But then I thought -- this isn't really funny 
at all.  Have this horrible feeling I'm getting soft...

I like seeing these guys...

Bullocks Oriole

Small Town Blues

American cage fighter 'rips out still-beating heart of training partner after fearing he was possessed by the devil'

When I saw this header, I wondered where in the world do they still do this stuff?  
Answer:  Klamath, CA

Lazuli Buntings at my feeder.  Squabbling with the Black Headed Grosbeaks. 

Attack of the Bantam Rooster

Checking on the sick chicken, attacked by the bantam rooster, blood drawn. War declared.

Black Headed Grosbeaks

all over my usually-ignored bird feeders this morning. Yellow rumped (Audubon) warblers still abundant.

                 (photo filched from the Internets)
For my brother Kimball's Duarte Bird Walk, go here:
http://www.dctvduarte.com/program.php?id=23132

The Ring Tail Cat drops by

Ran into the woodpile.  Ran out of the woodpile.  Also hanging around the dump.  Hope I get to see one!

A pair of Canadian Honkers in the pasture this morning.

(These three were swimming online.  My old fashioned phone does not have a camera.)

Crusty Nautilus at a cool new-to-me Website

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

A balmy forty degrees so I walked down to the pond and was pleased to see a Hooded Merganser (yes, I did have to look it up).

I have no idea what prompted this post, but found it funny.  This site also has a simple recipe for Split Pea soup in case you can't find any Siberian Tigers.

http://soupbelly.com/2009/11/04/endangered-soup-come-n-get-it-before-its-too-late/

Outside my living room window this morning (which is practically right in my lap) a four pointer with his wife and teenage kid; in the chestnut tree a yellow bellied sapsucker. Woodpeckers seem to like the chestnut tree -- in the last week, the sapsucker, a flicker and the impressive Pileated Woodpecker, which gets capitalized. It is nice to see the horses running across the pasture; true, the cattle sometimes run but they are not what you would call graceful. I would say they run like pelicans dive, sort of galumphully.

I was not happy this morning to find a large pile of  strange poo on the path. I'm no expert on scat but know most of the more benign types and was concerned it might be cougar crap.  Chris of course immediately recognized it as bear.  George further refined this to "apple eating bear."  And while I was glad this was not ferocious beast poop, I was sorry I did not see the apple-eating bear.

Woolly Bear Caterpillar

Like most of my rare finds, this caterpillar is common in North America.

 It becomes the Isia Isabella Moth, which is nowhere near as dramatic.