I find it best for my constitution to admire birds' grace from afar and not think too much about how they actually live and function, and spread the occasional disease. Regurgitating meals for your young just doesn't sell well to my brain, so it flips the channel.
But this cool tropical bird, a normal resident of the equatorial Atlantic and Pacific around South and Central America, ended up emaciated and lost in San Francisco, way out of its range. No doubt he forgot to take the left at Albuquerque.
"The magnificent frigatebird, so named by sailors because of the way it sails majestically through the sky, is also known as a pirate bird because of its penchant for stealing food from other seabirds. South Seas sailors of a bygone era called it man-o'-war bird because of the expert way it would outmaneuver its rivals, silently sweeping down to the ocean and plucking up prey without getting wet and chasing and looting other birds with equal aplomb.
Its tactic is to chase other seabirds, forcing them to regurgitate their meals, which the frigatebird catches, more often than not, in midair."
As gross as it sounds, there's just something cool about chasing your rival into throwing up his food for you. And catching it in midair -- now, that's just showing off.
As you may have noticed, the site has changed. Sampa, the free-site host, did a version 2 of some sort.
Despite an FAQ that made it sound like allowing one's site to go through v.2 surgery would be okay, there were several flexibilities that surprisingly disappeared with the click of a button. (e.g. I cannot believe sidebars like this one are even narrower than before.)
And I'm told -- miraculously! -- that the conversion cannot be undone. Truth be told, I'm actually quite pissed. But free is free. Sampa has otherwise been good to me.
So I need to sort through site "features" to see how I can make do. Except that I don't have the time at the moment, in the middle of graduate classes and Lighthousehockey.com. (btw, I've removed that Lighthouse RSS feed so that you're not clogged with random Islanders hockey gibberish).
But I promise to touch up the accessories when I get a chance, and return to irregularly scheduled blogging.
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, way out of its range. No doubt he forgot to take the left at Albuquerque.
Comments (1) for "That's one way to do it"
February, 2008