Posted on 09/19/2004 9:25:02 PM PDT by Mo1
Sigh ...
The flu shot is necessary to ward off the diseases associated with the bitterly cold winters here in the frozen south. Today's high 81.
Morning Pup... glad to see the temps are coming down for my visit! ;)
Keep em low, so we can go...
Driving down this year..gak! I'm hoping Al's new glasses will keep us alive. I'd better check his reflex's too. Any idea how I can do that?
Twice ?? ... That is way cool
Morning Y'all
Morning Mo.. did you get any sleep?
I just heard from my daughter, that the link I sent you earlier was posted on breaking news early this morning. I don't know why it disappeared.
Morning Gran .. yes I slept .. but I didn't get enough
It might be because it's not really breaking news and was put in the general discussion area
Well gotta take Carly to school .. BBL
Morning, PhillyGal.
Morning Loddy .. hope all is well down your way
The weather here finally warmed up a bit .. not as windy has it was yesterday
Shorts & tees down here - all is good. ;-)
It's back in breaking news ... apparently there's been a response to the complaint and it's not good news for Kerry
Breaking - SEN. JOHN KERRY “EXCOMMUNICATED,” ACCORDING TO VATICAN RESPONSE
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1248843/posts
I'm in, for now.
Unless I stumbled over something, in which case I'm laying on the threshold shaking the cat's paw...
Wild Parakeets Splash Color on Seattle's Gray Skies
Mon Oct 18, 9:13 AM ET
By Elaine Porterfield
SEATTLE (Reuters) - They fly through the park shrieking and squawking, their chartreuse feathers flashing. Nobody in Florida, Mexico or another tropical place would give them a second look.
But under the Pacific Northwest's lead-gray skies, a feral flock of colorful parakeets flies around Seward Park, a 300-acre island of green in southeast Seattle where they have taken up residence.
Needless to say, they're not natives.
"They're such an anomaly here. You can have the quietest, most peaceful morning, and suddenly they're squawking and talking," said Christina Gallegos, a Seattle Parks and Recreation Department naturalist at Seward Park, who estimated the flock to be 20 to 24 strong.
The birds first showed up in Seward Park some time in the early 1990s. They're generally agreed to be crimson-fronted parakeets, native to Central America. Marked with red patches on their faces, the green parakeets are bigger than the typical pet budgie most people are familiar with.
"For us, it's just fun," said avian devotee Fred Bird, a past president of the Washington Ornithological Society who studies the little band of parakeets.
The flock usually call Seward Park home but have been known to migrate 5 miles north to another park in Seattle for part of the year.
The flock of parakeets undoubtedly began as pets who escaped from their owners, Bird said. Such escapees are relatively common wherever pet birds are kept.
"But usually, they don't live that long," Bird said.
AGAINST THE ODDS
These parakeets seem to have beaten the odds for several reasons: They live in noisy flocks, which helps them stand guard against enemies who would eat them, such as hawks, and they can tolerate a wide range of food.
"They're very opportunistic," Bird said. "They're omnivores, and can eat anything, cedar tree seeds, fruit, things like that, apples."
Changing weather patterns and warmer temperatures in the region have likely helped the tropical birds survive, Bird said..
"The climate is comfortable for them," Bird said. "Whether they could have survived here 100 years ago when the climate was substantially cooler, I don't know."
Certainly, they're not the only exotic bird escapees living wild in the Northwest. Vancouver, Canada is home to some well-known Crested Mynahs.
Gayle Peters, the owner of Just Parrots, a shop near Seward Park, said the feral parakeets are reasonably intelligent birds, which likely helps them survive an alien environment.
"We don't have extreme temperatures here, extreme hot or cold," Peters said. "In winters, they're probably in trees, nesting together. They do adapt very well."
Birders in the area say that the parakeets will visit home bird feeders from time to time.
"I would think in this area, they would eat anything and everything they could find," Peters said.
But do you have parakeets in CenTex???
.......Westy......
There was a flock of lime-green ones out at Bergstrom AFB before they converted it to our current airport...I don't know how the birds fared during the conversion, but they were a trip to watch.
Sounds just like your flock in Seattle.
CORDELE, Ga. -- A Georgia man facing arson charges for burning his own home is blaming nine or 10 beers, and a disaster movie.
Charles Adams told Crisp County authorities he had been drinking while watching the movie "Day After Tomorrow."
Adams allegedly told deputies that after watching the special-effects extravaganza depicting deadly natural disasters caused by global warming, he decided to set fire to pillows on his bed.
The flames destroyed his doublewide mobile home.
gran, you sly foxie lady, I'm sure you can figure out something ... ;>)
Thanks Loddy. Just got out of court a little while ago. Case got held over for hearing on the 12'th because of the number of witnesses. There was no time to hear all the testimony today. Meanwhile, we have the boys back in foster care and the family is seriously PO'd. Of course, it never once occurred to them that maybe THEIR behavior is the problem.
Happens to me every day. So many pillows, so many double-wides ...
You poor dear. I do hope your delicate constitution can take another brutal Florida winter.
Come this way and you can stay at the empty condo
Get nekkid and dance on the table?
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