March of the Turtles

Hilarious!!! On June 29th at Kennedy Airport 150 turtles crossed a runway to get to the other side. And to lay eggs.

At first, it was just a trickle of turtles meandering across runway 4-left, which extends out into Jamaica Bay. They were headed from the west side to the east, which features a sandy beach that's an ideal place to lay eggs, said Ron Marsico, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.

Listen to the air traffic controllers trying to keep the pilots aware of the situation.

More Congressional Waste

Unused dollar coins have been quietly piling up in Federal Reserve vaults in breathtaking numbers, thanks to a government program that has required their production since 2007.

And even though the neglected mountain of money recently grew past the $1 billion mark, the U.S. Mint will keep making more and more of the coins under a congressional mandate.

The pile of idle coins, which so far cost $300 million to manufacture, could double by the time the program ends in 2016, the Federal Reserve told Congress last year.

In 2005, Congress decided that a new series of dollar coins should be minted to engage the public. These coins would bear the likeness of every former president, starting with George Washington. There would be a new one every quarter. So, far, the Mint has produced coins through the 18th president, Ulysses S. Grant.

Members of Congress reasoned that a coin series that changed frequently and had educational appeal would make dollar coins more popular. The idea came from the successful program that put each of the 50 states on the backs of quarters.

 

for the whole story, check out this link:  http://www.npr.org/2011/06/28/137394348/-1-billion-that-nobody-wants

A Celebration of Wildlife

For as long as I can remember I have been in love with wildlife. My fascination with anything - from crazy mockingbirds to turtles sunning themselves on a quiet summer day - attract my attention a thousand times more than who's the next American Idol. Or anything on tv.

Lately I've been blessed with several opportunities to get away from the fast-paced life of NOLA festivals (which I LOOOOVE) to enjoy the simpler things in life, like a sunset, or the exploration of a local nature park. In fact last week we had the opportunity to visit the Gulf Shores State Park on the coast of Alabama. Being the cheapo that I am, I refused to pay $5 to walk on the beach, so we opted to check out the Nature Exhibit of the park and I'm so glad we did! The taxidermy done at this place is second to none.

Click on pictures for larger versions


Beavers!


Bear, who was quite huge


Not sure if this is a cougar or a bobcat. Help me here, please.


This is a Gannett. I remember hearing a lot about this bird last year during the BP oil spill. I didn't realize they were this big.


Cute little owl


One of my favorite birds of all time, the Louisiana Pelican.

After checking out that fantastic Nature Center, Billy and I took a walk at the some of the nature trails found at the park. This proved to be a bad choice, as the sand felt like it was molten and the sun was vicious. This is the only sign that made us laugh





After we left the Nature Center and were checking out another boardwalk I spotted a group of pelicans heading to the Gulf and shot this.


I love watching pelicans fly and dive. It's a thing of beauty.

I googled things to do in Foley before our trip and learned about the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo . It was touted as a small zoo, so we decided to check it out. What a great experience it was. We spent 2 very happy hours there and would have spent more if it weren't so hot.



One of the first sights we saw was in the lagoon right outside the visitor center


This sweet pelican with a broken wing found a home here. He was a tough little guy and didn't let anything get in his way as far as moving around the lagoon.




Sharing the lagoon were several ducks.


A Blue Heron


Crazy monkeys (cannot remember their names)

Along the sidelines we caught the following


Camels


Lions....


These two guys reminded us of our cats at home.


A good variety of goats


Can someone please tell me what this animal is? It was driving the white tiger on the other side of the fence insane!



This zoo has a huge population of parrots too. My only regret is that all of the birds were in cages, which makes photographing them difficult. Here's what I got:









There was a neat little reptile house at the zoo. I went in and made a bee line for the door when I saw the huge snakes living in there. No pix.


These precious little monkeys stole my heart








We couldn't get this guy to turn around for anything.


This is Chuckie. He weighs over 1,000 pounds. The sign below tells his story.



It was a fantastic visit even in the 95 plus degree weather along with the sun. I recommend this zoo to anyone who visits Orange Beach/Foley/Gulf Shores. Support these people!

One last group of pictures and a shout out to local animal rescue people here in St. Tammany Parish. We attended the Lacombe Crab Festival (I mark it a 4 on a 10 scale for the food and lack of ambiance) and came upon a family of wildlife rescuers from our area that I never knew existed. They call themselves MF Wildlife Control/Animal Trainers. and they rock! they help wildlife such as Skunk/Armadillo/Bats/Bobcats/Possums/Otter/Snakes/Beaver/Fox/Squirrel/Raccoons and Nutria.

Here is one of their babies, a fox




I applaud this young man and would never get this close to a snake. But you know what? In time I may learn to love them.

Thank you profusely MF Wildlife Control. Glad to have you around.

One of the scuzzbuckets from Katrina returned to NOLA over the weekend to hawk a book about his opinions on the catastrophe that was the government's handling of the aftermath of the deadly storm.

NOLA blogger Jeffrey of the Library Chronicles has an excellent post here (read the post dated June 25, 2011) on his take of "Brownie's" visit. Sounds like the fool (Brown, not Jeffrey) is still placing the blame on everyone but himself, but that's not surprising.

I'll be looking for his book entitled "Deadly Indifference" in the bargain bin at my local Dollar Tree later this year.

Scuzzbucket of the Week

I see red every time I hear about animal abuse. But this one takes the cake.

Mom and kids beat kittens with baseball bat

At 8 weeks old, a small black and white kitten named Dexter is lucky to be alive after his owner and her two young sons took him to a neighborhood park and beat him and another kitten with an aluminum bat. Dexter is clinging to life, but his brother died as a result of his injuries.

Four children at a park in Brooksville, Florida watched in horror last Friday evening when they saw 24-year-old Wilana Joenel Frazier and her two sons -- one 8 years old and the other 5 -- torture the two small kittens.



Demand justice for the tortured kittens. Here's a site where you can sign a petition aimed at the Hernando County State Attorney .


Frazier hit the kittens with a baseball bat and encouraged her children to kick the animals and throw them against a tree. Then they placed the kittens on a swing. When one of the animals died, the boys put him in a trash can and covered him with water.

By the time Linda Christian, a Hernando County Animal Services officer, arrived on the scene little Dexter had been rescued and wrapped in a white T-shirt by one of the boys who witnessed the event. Blood was running from the kitten's nose and mouth. Soon he began to have seizures from the trauma to his brain.

When Christian touched the kitten, he began to convulse. Christian told the St. Petersburg Times, "I thought I was going to lose him at that point. It was very upsetting."

Christian rushed Dexter to the Pet Luv Nonprofit Spay and Neuter Clinic and miraculously the small ball of fur has survived the first few critical days. Employees at the clinic care for him during the day and a veterinary technician has been taking him home each night.

Dexter is able to keep his medication down, is eating from a feeding tube and has started to walk a little on his own. But veterinarians are still very concerned about potential damage to Dexter's brain and are not sure if he will ultimately succumb to his injuries.

Rick Silvani, president of Pet Luv said, "All animals have a right to life, but a helpless, defenseless kitten... You don't know what to say. It's just incomprehensible." The group has agreed to cover the costs of Dexter's medical care.

The Hernando County Sheriff's Office questioned Frazier, but she denied being involved and said her children were not part of the beating either. However authorities charged Frazier on two counts of cruelty to animals and two charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She is out of jail on $3,500 bail.

French Quarter Artists

There is a New Orleans blog written by a Facebook "friend" of mine. His name is Lance Vargas and he is an awesome person, very personable and excellent when it comes to describing what it's like to be an artist around Jackson Square.

Here is a sample of his work.

Please take the time to read it, enjoy laughing and - if you are not from here and are visiting New Orleans - be sure to look for Varg. He rocks.

The Struggles of the Louisiana Oyster

 

from: Louisiana Seafood Board Newsroom

 

After Season of Flooding, Louisiana Oysters Struggle for Long-Term Survival Posted: 20 Jun 2011 06:01 AM PDT Fresh Louisiana oysters in Hopedale By Veronica Del Bianco and Alice Bumgarner This spring the Mississippi River made headlines as the river reached historic crest levels. By way of natural and manmade channels, freshwater gushed into Louisiana estuaries, threatening the lives of productive Louisiana oyster beds. But does the freshwater threaten oysters' long-term survival as a species? Despite a bad prognosis for some oysters, seafood industry leaders explain that harvesting grounds are vast and oysters continue to be sustainably harvested, which bodes well for the long term. "We could see 100 percent mortality in some of these areas," biologist Patrick Banks told the Times-Picayune, referring to the estuaries and coastal waters of Louisiana. Banks is in charge of the oyster program for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF). He tells the Times-Picayune that every time freshwater has been pushed into the estuaries, the impact is different, depending on the quantity of freshwater and at what stage of the oysters' life cycle it arrives. In this case, the quantity is significant. At the height of the Mississippi River flooding, the Morganza Spillway discharged 114,000 cubic feet per second for five days. That's in addition to the Bonnet Carre Spillway, which since May 18 has had 330 of its 350 bays open. Freshwater: Friend or Foe? To understand why the extra freshwater threatens to have such a negative impact on the humble oyster, one must take a brief lesson in the biology of the mollusk. Oysterman Anthony Slavich unloads a catch of oysters in Hopedale. Oyster blood needs to stay in "osmotic equilibrium," explains Dr. Bryan P. Piazza of The Nature Conservancy. When the water trying to enter an oyster has a lower salinity than what's inside, the mollusk literally tries to "clam up" in order to maintain its delicate balance, constricting its valve or even shutting its shell tight. If this occurs, the oyster can't filter water or feed effectively, and gas exchange is compromised. Basically, the oyster starves. Making survival more difficult is the fact that, in this case, the arrival of freshwater coincided with the higher temperatures of summer. When temperatures are high, oysters need to feed more than usual. If they've clammed up to maintain equilibrium, they can starve at an even faster rate. Piazza underscores that oysters do need some freshwater. "Freshwater is not the enemy," he says. Floods from the freshwater rivers are what helped Louisiana's rich oyster beds develop in the first place, says Banks. Floods are a natural part of the cycle. Unlike other species with mobility, however, oysters can't move when their environment becomes too extreme for survival. 2 Million Acres of Reefs to Work With Banks's and Piazza's prognosis may sound doomsday-ish, until you remember that Louisiana has around two million acres of oyster-harvesting grounds to work with. "Our harvest will be reduced some because of the floods, but two million acres of oyster-harvesting grounds in Louisiana will be able to provide oysters for buyers, without any risk of overfishing," says Greg Voisin, director of marketing and sales for oyster-processing company Motivatit Seafoods. Tasked with ensuring that oysters aren't overfished, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the state's Department of Natural Resources regularly sample and monitor the 1.5 acres of oyster reefs owned by the state. "They've closed areas when they've felt like they needed to be closed for spawning," says Voisin. The other half-million acres of oyster reefs are privately owned and are neither monitored nor certified by the state. Even so, says Voisin, the economics of oyster harvesting practically ensure that the reefs are sustainably harvested. Harvesting With Sustainability in Mind Oysters are typically left in the water until they're at least three inches long, he explains, because there's no market for them. That means the younger oysters are left intact. That gives them time to reach the age of spawning, which occurs twice a year, when the water drops to 70 degrees. "If you brought two-inch oysters into a shucking house, they'd tell you to turn your truck around," says Voisin. Oysters that small are "almost humanly impossible" to open. Besides, he says, shuckers get paid by the sack. Why shuck 600 small oysters when you could shuck 280 big ones for the same pay? People may have the impression that, after the natural and manmade disasters of the past few years, oyster beds are being perilously overfished. But that isn't the case, he says. Each oyster of spawning age can lay up to one million eggs a year. "We obviously don't get 100 percent of that yield," he says. "If they spawn even three percent of that, we have more oysters than we know what to do with." As the seventh generation of Voisins to work in Louisiana's seafood industry, Greg puts a premium on managing the coast's natural resources wisely. After Hurricane Katrina, he and other seafood industry workers spent countless hours pulling away trash from the reefs that the turbulent ocean had washed up. "If we don't have healthy reefs, we go out of business," he says. "We're the biggest environmentalists out there."

 

 

Happy Summer Solstice

Despite the fact that our Southeast Louisiana weather has been feeling summery for some time now, today is the actual “first day of summer”.  From

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/166580/20110621/june-21-summer-solstice-summer-solstice-2011-equinox-solstice-first-day-of-summer-2011-summer-longes.htm this info:

The summer solstice, which is also called as 'midsummer,' would result in the longest day and the shortest night of the year.

On the day of summer solstice, the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky and this happens when the Earth's North Pole is tilted the most toward the Sun.

The word 'Solstice' comes from the Latin word solstitium, meaning "sol" (the sun) and "stit" (standing). The Sun's position at noon actually changes very little in the days surrounding the solstice, hence the concept of the sun "standing still," National Weather Service says.

From http://www.chiff.com/a/summer-solstice.htm, here is some Summer Solstice info:

Summer Solstice Fun Facts

• Pagans called the Midsummer moon the "Honey Moon" for the mead made from fermented honey that was part of wedding ceremonies performed at the Summer Solstice.
• Ancient Pagans celebrated Midsummer with bonfires, when couples would leap through the flames, believing their crops would grow as high as the couples were able to jump.
• Midsummer was thought to be a time of magic, when evil spirits were said to appear. To thwart them, Pagans often wore protective garlands of herbs and flowers. One of the most powerful of them was a plant called 'chase-devil', which is known today as St. John's Wort and still used by modern herbalists as a mood stabilizer.

More about summer solstice around the Web:

On the Web, discover more about the topic, where & how Summer Solstice is celebrated around the world along with related history, folklore and rituals that mark the much-awaited long, bright days of summer ....

Summer Solstice - Good overview of its history, customs & holidays, illustrations, date & time charts and related links, from Wikipedia.

Summer Solstice Celebrations - Ancient & Modern - Skip past the intrusive ads for a detailed discussion about how the day has been celebrated over the centuries, and in many cultures, with suggested reading and related links.

BBC Religion - Summer Solstice - A brief overview of Pagan rituals and ceremonies with related links to more facts & information.

Weird Wilstshire - Summer Solstice - Archived pictures with a report on one particularly successful UK sunrise celebration, including related links & online forum.

The Pagan Festival of Litha - The origins of Druidic Summer Solstice celebrations and their meaning in the natural cycle of seasons.

 

Up, up and away!

This blog post will be short on words and long on pictures to show what a wonderful experience attending a hot air balloon festival is.

I treated my hubby to a get-away weekend in Foley Alabama at the 7th Annual Hot Air Balloon Fest. Both the "glow" event and the flight of the balloons were equally exciting.

We arrived on Friday night to experience the "Glow Event". This begins with watching teams inflate their huge balloons and then light them up with the propane feed that eventually helps them fly. It was our first experience and I must say that I was as excited as a kid at Christmas watching all of the balloons come to life.








The "glow" happens as the balloonists open up their their propane valves to inflate the balloons. It's best seen right at sunset and it's an impressive sight.


This is what the igniter looks like



This balloon is glowing!









Some of the balloons took off that night and it was an awesome sight.



Saturday morning was to start right at sunrise and we made sure we'd be there to watch the balloons arrive at the festival grounds.



We arrived by 6AM and the moon was still up. There were rain clouds present, which made the arrival of the balloons run a little late. Balloons will not fly if there is a chance of high winds or lightening for obvious reasons.


So we bided our time taking pictures of the early morning light

The late running balloons made up for it with their beauty. Behold

































I think I may have found a new passion. It's a fantastic sport and one I can appreciate from the ground!!!

For anyone anywhere interested in attending a festival, here is a website for all hot air balloon fests. Enjoy!