News flash: there's been a sighting of a rare and wonderful pseudoscotbird in its urban environment. I spotted a six-foot-something man yesterday swaggering down Howe Avenue in its summer plummage: a kilt. Okay, that's not too bad. I'm sure we've all seen pipers or certain soldiers wearing a kilt and a sporran. But no uniform jacket, and no sporran! Scandalous. A slight breeze could have exposed his gaucheries. And call the fashion police. On his very shapely legs he sported black stockings! With seams! Now, I know what most of you are thinking - YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO WEAR ANYTHING UNDER A KILT! Well, at least he was wearing shoes that were a cross between Mary Janes and those funny round-toed shoes they wore in the Renaissance. And he did have on a hat that approximated a scottish tam. Such a colourful bird!
Here's a really stinky story. The BC government is trying to encourage more people to hunt. Hunters are now an endangered species!!!! It seems over the last couple of decades, the number of registered hunters has dropped from six percent of the population to 2 percent. Well, I'll be hornswoggled, what a crisis!
And in order to "meet a provincial goal of generating 20 000 new hunters by 2014" the government is going to allow people to keep any roadkill they decimate!!!!! Jumpin' prairie dogs, I didn't know it, but formerly roadkill was legally the property of the Crown. I'll bet you didn't know that either. I'm sure most of you are just as excited as I am at the prospect of sinking one's teeth into that skunk splattered all over the highway! How in the name of holy hopscotch is that going to encourage hunting? Why would we want to encourage hunting?????
For another "stinky story" see The Prairie Dog Blog Tues. Aug. 16 and Wed. Aug.17 2005
I think they should just issue licenses for the hunting of the rapperplaying cruising adolescent and the foulmouthed pubcrawler. This city is full of them. That's a population that needs keeping down. I'm just saying.
And in other news, bald eagles are now off the endangered list. What is this world coming to when bald eagles are off the endangered list, but the government is worried about declines in the population of hunters? Well, folks, who voted these cretins into office? Don't blame me; I wasn't even a resident of BC at the last election. I feel as if I just channelled the old prairie dog.
Speaking of bald eagles, I guess the population must be up, because I saw two pairs of them this morning as I walked along Kitsilano Beach. One pair was at each end of the beach. Each pair had a humongous nest of very large sticks in a very tall tree. I hope they had a clutch of eggs. The birds were magnificent. I also saw a flicker on my walk. These species, of course, are routinely to be found in Manitoba. I remember fondly seeing bald eagles at Grand Beach, great blue herons on Hecla Island and ruby-throated hummingbirds at White Lake. We did a fair bit of bird spotting in the day. So far the only exotic birds(not seen in Manitoba) I have seen here are of the mammalian variety. Colourful birds indeed.
Summer has finally arrived in our fair city. Today it was about 28 degrees, hot and sunny. I guess that's why so many birds were out and about. My daughter and I went for pedicures in an air-conditioned spa this afternoon and we followed that up with a couple of episodes of "Sex and the City" and a glass of rose wine.
Congrats to Chelsea for her Humanitarian Award. Happy Fourth of July to our American friends. Love to all family and friends.
(Here's a bird quote to remind you of Papa - remember how he used to recite this)
A wonderful bird is the pelican
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week,
But I'm damned if I see how the helican.
~Dixon Lanier Merritt
