It's Just Another Sunny Day Here In The Land Of Babylon

One of the Bar-tailed Godwits that visited Buldir Island. This species is known for its super-godwit ability of shrinking their guts to save weight on their long migrations.

Fresh. That's the word to use here. You want to forage on the freshness of my blog. I get that, I totally get it. Well, I'll keep it garden fresh for you today. These are all species that have never been featured on BB&B. So feast your eyes, minds and hearts.

Of course, you can only go so far with that word. It's not exactly...fresh...anymore. If any adjective is repeated many times on the Beastie Boys' Licensed To Ill, you really shouldn't be throwing it around unless you know exactly what youre doing. For reals.

Oh yeah, if you pick up the new National Geographic ("Mysteries of Great Migrations"/November 2010), look at the page of bird and bat kills on pages 44-45. When I was working for Bat Conservation International in Pennsylvania, NattyGeo sent out a photographer to check out what we were doing with our wind turbine study....I guess this shot is the one print picture we'll get out of it. Oh well, still pretty cool (except all the death, of course).

At any rate, here's some birds from far-flung areas of the States, and a tarantula for some reason. Enjoy!

So, look. I'm not a true larophile. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. This second-year (cycle? whatever) "Herring" Gull spent the summer with us on Buldir Island. To my knowledge, there are no records of the American smithsonianus Herring Gull in the western Aleutians, (vegae occurs on the regular) so I suspect this may be a "Vega" Gull. Do ya'll have any thoughts on this? I've got a lot more pictures of this bird.

A female Purple Martin with a meal. It's a bug's life. Photographed at Lake Hefner,Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Whimbrel. If it was a female, it would be called a Whimbrella. Not really though. Digiscoped at Heron Head Park, San Francisco, CA.

Kitty.