Evening all. Wonderful rainbow over Santa Barbara this afternoon; more like April with heavy showers then sunshine. Don't forget to check last week's chat for Tiger's link to the Roy Dennis site about a French osprey that's already completed its migration, and Patriciat's recommendations for places to eat in Grantown (for when we all go to visit OG's son!). :-)
Just stumbled across this site for the British Antarctic Survey. If you've nothing else to do, check out the Living & Working heading for the Diaries bit for a "a day in the life of...." http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/index.php I'm about to take a leaf out of OG's book and going through my Favorites file and webcam lists to clean them up. Diane: Was just looking at Afke's page and it seems she's left Botswana and returned to Johannesburg. According to very recent posts on Pete's Pond Facebook page, the cam has been down (don't know how long) and there's now a volunteer called Mike working it.
Thanks, Annette. I will check out the Antarctic Survey. I dearly love Antarctica, and if I ever hit the lottery or inherit money, I'm going to visit. I think I've mentioned on here before that I'd love to see the diamond dust.
After seeing your post, I read back a bit on the Facebook site. They are guaranteeing only that Pete's Pond will be up through March. They're having problems securing funding for the long-term. The folks in charge have suggested making it pay-per-view, among other options, but that is meeting with some steep resistance from some of the cam watchers. Some candidly said that the cam is not reliable enough to support increased subscriptions or pay-per-view. I wonder if they let Afke go because of the funding shortfall? I didn't read back any further. Thanks for starting another week for us, Annette.
Diane: Darn it. Pete's Pond is wonderful. I wonder what the connection is, money-wise, with them and the National Geo (which should be able to fund someone to run the camera). Hmm. Not good news.
Annette: You can probably get more information if you look back further than I did on FB. I'm defying the sleep police once again and cleaning my kitchen tonight. So I'm going back and forth between computer and kitchen gunk. LOL Hi, Caerann! I see you lurking back there. Hope you survived the snow storm.
Diane: Just spent some time reading the Pete's Pond FB page - several of the topic pages in fact, including "Working with the NG." As you say, seems like it's a budget problem combined with the technical difficulties of having the camera in such a remote place (although that hasn't stopped them in the past). Still, with magazines, newspapers, and local businesses falling by the wayside, it's probably not surprising if NG is looking around for places to cut costs. I assume the regular, long-term "pondies" have inundated the NG with e-mails, etc. Makes me grateful that together we managed to make a difference in raising funds for the mains power at Loch Garten. But really, Pete's Pond is so wonderful....and gives people who never have the chance to travel the opportunity to see animals in the wild and maybe value them more. Maybe I'll e-mail the NG myself... Cleaning the kitchen? We got our fireplace cleaned out and operating and had the first fire in it tonight! Very exciting. Off to bed now - if you get done with your kitchen, I'll leave the key under the mat and you can do mine too!! Take care and do something nice for yourself tomorrow (though I gather the storm that we just had is heading back there).
Good Night/Morning!
I've been off the site most of this week as I'm really buckling down with the job search. I'll try to check in on the evenings and weekends as much as possible cause otherwise I just miss you all too much! =O)
I had tried one day last week to post that the Legend of Palemale is available on Netflix if any of you U.S. folks have subscriptions, but I don't know if those in the U.K. Aus. and E.U. can get ahold of it too.
Margobird: I'm thinking of you and hoping for the best for you. =O)
In case any of you have wondered about what's happening with Snowflake at Valmont, it seems she may have gotten in to a battle with another female owl but both Snowflake and her mate, Dan, seem to be okay. Their clutch is spoiled as from what I've read neither of them have been setting on the eggs and even at 11:30 p.m. local time, the nest box is empty. It's such a shame but hopefully they will have a second clutch.
On a happier note, Belinda, the resident female Peregrine at the Xcel King Plant and featured bird of the Raptor Force documentary has been seen in her nestbox. Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!
Hey Diane! Last 2 snow storms we were predicted to get big totals but only 3 inches fell with the first and then just a dusting with the second. Phew!
Good luck with the job search, Caerann!!! You are smart and talented; you will land a great job! You tell those people that if they don't hire you, all the raptors are going to descend on them with talons out!
Good morning Sunny Sunday – lots of discussion overnight!
Heron – hi there. Pleased your snow washed away – hope you get to see the golden orb today.
Tiger – good to know that Orleans Forest Ospreys are returning – but thick ice on the lochs won’t be any good for them here – we really need a big thaw (but that also has flooding implications!!).
Patriciat – thanks for lunching suggestions – food is quite important to me!!! I hope you will get to Speyside in May as well as October.
Annette – thanks once again for new thread and summary of last few entries on the old one. Haven’t heard of any huge waves on your coast – and I think we are even past the time for the effect to hit the further side of the Pacific Rim in Japan – but utter devastation in parts of Chile. Terrible how it’s always the poorest people most affected by these natural disasters. Haven’t looked at Antarctica site yet – but I shall later, thanks.
Annette and Diane – sounds like we need to make the most of Pete’s Pond during March – but really sad if it can’t continue after that.
Diane – I started to write, “enjoy your clean kitchen”, but then realised that if you enjoy it too much, it will need cleaning all over again! That’s the trouble with cleaning, it always comes around again. Hope you eventually went to bed!
Caerann – really hoping for you in the job search – our son had begun to think it was never going to happen for him, and then it suddenly did, so be encouraged and stick at it!
Must think what I should be doing – Jazz lunch at Casa Mia today, then may go down to the shore and look for waders.
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
Good Sunday everyone! Saturday afternoon, I saw the most magnificent pair of red-bellied woodpeckers outside my kitchen window. We have a pair here every year, and I often get to see the chicks. They are very noisy birds, not at all fearful, and great fun to watch. Here's a page with info and videos; take a look if you're interested. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-bellied_Woodpecker/videos
Thanks very much to all for your kind words to me last week while the world sorely tried my patience. I'm over my big snit. LOL Appreciated everyone's bird alerts, pictures, and birdie tales. Pale Male is such a handsome fella, Tiger. Nice to see Cirrus and TerryM. Auntie: I just loved the snow pictures you posted. Alan: I also loved the azaleas. Good luck to Phoebe with the new eggs! Annette: Meant to say thanks for the explanation about the Gaviota Coast. I knew there had to be a controversy behind that much deserted prime beach-front real estate.
This is the last day of February. YAY! And tonight is the full moon. By the way, Australia had no full moon in February -- a very rare event. They will have a full moon on March 1 -- tonight, there -- and a full blue moon on March 30.
Happy week, all.