Ever since Thursday. there is an orange spoonbill on Texel. The animal was seen at the Schorren, a nature reserve on the outside of the Wadden sea dike, managed by Natuurmonumenten.
This is not any misplaced joke by football fans; this is a freak of nature. Spoonbills eat shrimps, which contain an orange pinkish substance. Usually, this pigment is neutralized in spoonbills; obviously, not with this bird, however. This makes the pigment become apparent in the feathers. Other shrimp eating birds, like ibis, flamingos, and also American [roseate] spoonbills, as a rule have a pink or orange colour.
If you are lucky, you can see this bird ‘live’ on the website www.beleefdelente.nl between the white spoonbills. This was made possible by a webcam put by Natuurmonumenten a few weeks ago at De Schorren.
Maybe now that the Dutch soccer team are out of the championship after they lost the match to Russia, that spoonbill will revert to the normal white colour.
Tonight’s soccer match at the European championship, between Italy and the Netherlands, surprised many pundits.
Many people expected Italy, the world champions, to be one of the favourites. While many people, including in the Netherlands, did not expect so for the Dutch football team.
The Natuurmonumenten video has a football melody by the late Dutch singer André Hazes, as “sung” by various wild animals living in the Netherlands, with (more or less) the colour orange in their skin or feathers.
With some, the connection is a bit vague, like with the black woodpecker, black with a red, not orange, crown on its head.
Many months after Saddam Hussein’s government was toppled and its torture chambers unlocked, Iraqis are again being routinely beaten, hung by their wrists and shocked with electrical wires. This is why Iraqis hate US.
“The FIFA [international football association] Executive Committee decided to suspend the Iraqi Football Association (IFA) as of today … following the governmental decree passed on May 20 which dissolved the Iraqi National Olympic Committee and all national sport federations, including the IFA,” FIFA said in a statement.
When Saddam Hussein was still in power, he and his sons were notorious for interfering in Iraqi sports organizations.
Now, apparently, George W. Bush’s ‘new’ Iraq has decided to out-dictator Saddam Hussein; not only in death tolls (see also here), numbers of prisoners, torture, worse situation for workers, worse situation for women, worse situation for gay people, etc. etc: but also in sports.
Why Bush’s Iraq is Worse Than Saddam’s, By WILLIAM BLUM: here.
Whether it’s Heather Mills or Kerry Katona, the celebrities that ordinary people vilify seem disproportionately to be female. Why?
hate, v. 1. trans. To hold in very strong dislike; to detest; to bear malice to
Hate’s a strong word, but how many people in Britain who ever read a newspaper can honestly say they’ve never applied the word to a celebrity - celebrities in most cases that they’ve never met.
From Queen of the Jungle to Tabloid Folk Devil: Kerry Katona as ‘White Trash Mother’
Academic paper on celebrity
And if you’ve honestly racked your brains and come up with a list of the celebrities you “bear malice to”, how many of them are female?
Just before Ankeveen village, close to a cycle track in a meadow, a grey heron, and Egyptian geese behind it.
Barn swallows flying; the sound of edible frogs,
It was very unexpected to, on the same day that I have blogged about young grass snakes, actually to see one. Not 2,500 juvenile snakes, like in that blog, just one. But even that is more than many people see in their whole lives.
The snake was lying on a water lily leaf. Then, it started swimming. The leaf was still reddish, as this is early in the season for water lilies and the leaves get green only later. Yellow pond lily leaves are still under water here now. However, once above water, they are green immediately.
As our boat starts, a buzzard high in the sky.
First, we pass the 400 meter track of the local speed skating club, which is over a century old. The track is water now, as speed skating is only possible in below zero winters here.
Then, the boat continues to the lakes. Our guide tells us that gray leg geese start breeding here at the end of February. They nest on small islets, where foxes cannot come. Last year, 12 black tern couples bred here; and there were 42 black-headed gull nests.
A carpet python has been operated on by Gold Coast vets to remove four golf balls from its intestine.
“People have been putting golf balls under their brooding hens pretending that they are eggs to make the chickens happy,” senior veterinarian at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Dr Michael Pyne said.
“The snake has got in thinking that he has got a free meal and swallowed up these four golf balls.”
The snake was found by residents at a house at Nobby’s Creek near Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales.
“They knew pretty quickly what was going on so they called us and we sent some wildlife officers around to pick him up,” Dr Pyne said.
“We did the surgery a couple of weeks ago and he’s doing quite well.
“During the surgery we could see the name of the golf balls through the intestine because they were so stretched from these large golf balls being in there.”
The snake - nicknamed Augustus - is currently being rehabilitated by a wildlife carer and is expected to make a full recovery.
It should be released back into the wild in a couple of weeks.
This video is called Golden plover or Heilo on Stemshest Farstad Norway. Golden plovers are among the birds threatened by Donald Trump’s golf course plans.
· Casting vote throws out sand dune development
· Man who stuck out hopes Trump has got message
* Karen McVeigh and Severin Carrell
* Friday November 30 2007
In one corner, a world-famous property developer with serious dollars to spend and some of the most prestigious real estate in places such as New York, Chicago and Dubai. In the other, a rag tag of staunch Aberdonian conservationists and a salmon fisherman who has become a local celebrity by refusing to sell his unkempt nine hectares (23 acres) to make way for “the world’s greatest golf course”.
Concerns over the proposed resort, which included two championship golf courses, a five-star hotel, a golf academy, nearly 1,000 holiday homes and 500 private houses, centred around the fact that part of it would be built on a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) containing sensitive sand dunes.
The odd couple: Trump’s controversial golf resort drives Salmond into the bunker
Scotland’s First Minister is in trouble after intervening in a row to back the tycoon’s multimillion-pound plans: here.
You’re fired! Councillor loses his job after voting against Donald Trump’s golf course: here.
