Flying foxes drove me batty!

 From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Australia. ericshackleATbigpond.com

Living in Sydney’s leafy North Shore suburb of Gordon 40 years ago, I used to enjoy sprawling in a deckchair on summer evenings, watching thousands of giant flying foxes flying low overhead.  They were probably returning to their home in the city’s Royal Botanic Gardens.

 

Those flying foxes are the world’s largest bats, with wingspans about 1.5 metres (six feet) across. Known as grey-headed flying foxes, they are found only in Australia, mostly in rain forests from Ingham in Queensland to Adelaide in South Australia.

 

Many of those fascinating creatures that I watched had youngsters almost as large as their mothers clinging to them.

 

Writing of the Botanic Gardens reminds me that a few years ago the Gardens management had to scare them away from the area, as the bats had formed such a large colony that they were killing the trees they were clinging to.

A colony of flying foxes residing on the Macintyre River, behind the sporting complex at Inverell was the cause of this outage as well as a number of others in the area over recent weeks. The good news is the flying foxes eventually move on

 

For details, see the Botanic Gardens report: http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/welcome/royal_botanic_garden/gardens_and_domain/wildlife/flying-foxes/flying-fox_relocation

Flying Foxes Need Friends:
http://www.hinterlandtimes.com.au/2013/03/08/the-flying-fox-needs-friends/

 

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FK9tWT5pA4

 

 

Donkeys guard sheep from predators

From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Australia.
<ericshackleATbigpond.com>

More and more farmers in Australia and North America are using  donkeys to protect their livestock against predators.  In Australia, the villains are dingoes, wild dogs and foxes, which attack sheep, calves and poultry. In America, coyotes, aka the American jackal,  brush wolf, or prairie wolf, are the farmers’ enemy.

 

Ironically, coyotes are protected in 12 US states,  and hunting is regulated in most of North America.

 

“Darling Downs grazier Bruce McLeish and his wife Angela turned to ‘guard donkeys’ after losing 300 sheep worth $110,000, to wild dogs in 2007” says a story on an  ABC website.

 

“As well as shooting, trapping and baiting the dogs, the McLeishes – who run 4500 sheep on Warahgai, near Karara, in the traprock country west of Warwick – got the donkey idea after hearing about a Toowoomba woman who ran free-range poultry with a donkey and found a fox which had been kicked to death.”

 

“The latest weapon in the war against wild dogs is not bullets or bait, but  floppy ears and a deafening call,” Karen Hunt wrote  in an ABC website four years ago.

 

“Guard donkeys are being used successfully in southern Queensland to guard sheep against attack from rapidly increasing numbers of wild dogs. In some cases losses from dog attacks have been so severe station owners have been forced to sell all their remaining sheep and switch to cattle.

 

“Warwick station owner Bruce McLeish says he discovered guard donkeys were commonly used in the US for protecting livestock, but it was the hardiness of the animals which finally persuaded him to try them out. ‘The donkeys eat the same as sheep, are easy on fences, and if you’re in harder country like we are, you don’t have to do anything with their hooves, and they naturally live in the desert.

 

‘’’The donkey is a very inquisitive animal; and they naturally live in the desert so they are very hardy, even in our droughts.’

 

“Although donkeys were initially hard to source, once released with the sheep, Mr McLeish says their natural instincts took over.

 

“’The couple we’ve got are bonded with sheep. If anything goes into the paddock, they go out to the edge of the mob.  If it’s something like a dog they will actually  chase after them, trying to bite and kick them.’”

 

Graziers in Australia, the US, and western Canada  have successfully used donkeys as guard animals. The Ontario Predator Study  reported that about 70% of the donkeys used were either excellent or good at protecting sheep from wolves, coyotes and dogs.

 

video: http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/07/09/2949845.htm?site=eyre

They're Eating World's Oldest Living Thing!

From ERIIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Australia.

What do you do if  scientists discover that you are living on top of one of the world’s oldest living thing?  You start eating it.  That’s what the people in the small US town of Crystal Falls, Michigan, are doing.

 Several years ago a ‘humungus fungus” (a gigantic mushroom) was discovered in the Crystal Falls area.  It weighed about 11 tons and covered 37 acres. Scientists estimated that it was more  than 1500 years old. (California’s giant sequoia (redwood) trees are more than 3000 years old, but no one eats them).

 

“It’s hard to believe that this monster mushroom is growing in Michigan and  not Texas,” travel and food writer Maxine Sommers (a Texan) commented in 2003.

“For three days each August tourists and locals alike celebrate the giant fungus phenomenon ... There’s an extensive assortment of activities such as a Buckboard and Horseshoe Tournament; a Tube Float  - here’s your chance to float down a river on an old tire tube; or register or the Volley Ball or Golf Tournament.

 

“if your tastes run to a more sedentary pastime, you can begin the day at the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Hall for a Pancake Breakfast, then view the  Fungus Fest Parade, watch the softball game, or gobble up ice cream at the Ice Cream Social, then toddle off over to the Pie Social for home made  pies.

 

“If you are still able to walk, the Salad Luncheon at St. Mark’s Church offers tasty culinary selections. At the end of the day, pull up a chair and view a fabulous fireworks display event."

Strange but true: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus

 Humungous Mushroom history:
http://www.humungusfungusfest.com/History-Humungous-Fungus.html

Fungus Festival: http://www.2camels.com/humungus-fungus-festival.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frog Struck Down by Lightning!

From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Auustralia.
>ericshackleATbigpond.com<

Darwin’s Northern Territory News often displays screaming headlines about crocodiles, which are  an ever-present danger in its vast circulation area.

One day recently (November 30, 2012) it published a front-page story captioned FROG STRUCK DOWN BY LIGHTNING ... and a few humans were hit too. It also published a poster showing a picture of a dead frog.

 Many readers thought this hilarious.  Dan Thorne, in the UK online news magazine TNT, wrote Stop the press! Frog hit by lightning makes the front page in Aussie newspaper NT News.

 Incidentally, the NT News is a small dinghy in Rupert Murdoch’s global fleet of newspapers.

---

Let's take a moment to thank the hapless frog for his service to the media industry and giving us a darned good laugh. NT News, we salute you.

• ✔FROG CROAKS IT AFTER BEING HIT BY LIGHTNING pic.twitter.com/ktrJdzfg

30 Nov 12

Frog Struck Down by Lightning!

Darwin’s Northern Territory News often displays screaming headlines about crocodiles, which are  an ever-present danger in its vast circulation area.

 

One day recently (November 30, 2012) it published a front-page story captioned FROG STRUCK BY LIGHTNING ... and a few humans were hit too. It also published a poster showing a picture of a dead frog.

 Many readers thought this hilarious.  Dan Thorne, in the UK online news magazine TNT, wrote “Stop the press! Frog hit by lightning makes the front page in Aussie newspaper NT News.

 Incidentally, the NT News is a small dinghy in Rupert Murdoch’s global fleet of newspapers.

---

Let's take a moment to thank the hapless frog for his service to the media industry and giving us a darned good laugh. NT News, we salute you.

• ✔FROG CROAKS IT AFTER B\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\EING HIT BY LIGHTNING pic.twitter.com/ktrJdzfg

30 Nov 12

Wikipedia Calls for Cash

From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Australia.
 email <ericshackleATbigpond.com>

When we want to check out a story, a reference. a phrase, or anything else, it’s guineas to gooseberries that we’ll consult Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia that seems to know everything.

“Wikipedia is the #5 site on the web, and serves 450 million people every month – with billions of page views,” says its co-founder, Jimmy Wales.

“Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But doesn’t belong here. Not in Wikipedia.

“Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind.

“It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others.....

“If everyone reading this donated $5, our fundraiser would be done within an hour. But not everyone can or will donate. And that’s fine.

“Each year just enough people decide to give.

“This year, please consider making a donation of $5, $20, $50 or whatever you can to protect and sustain Wikipedia.”

Wikipedia has been described as ”a free, collaboratively edited and multilingual internet encyclopedia supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.”

Its 23 million articles have been written or edited by about 100,000 contributors around the world. In 2011 Wikipedia received an estimated 2.7 billion page views just from the US.

You can read more about Wikipedia by visiting co-founder Jimmy Wales's website: www.jimmywales.com

Race Caller's Night Mare: howdoyoulikemenow?

From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney. Australia.

Spare a thought for New Zealand’s harness race caller, when he was confronted by the name of one of the horses: howdoyoulikemenow? It must be one of the longest and strangest names ever bestowed on a horse.

Bred in New Zealand by R E Bright, the nag last started in 2003, after winning three first, three second and one third prizes.

Thousands of miles from New Zealand, in Webster, Florida, another horse sported the same strange name. He was bred by Circle C Farms Ltd. From 28 starts, he won seven first prizes, three seconds and three thirds, with earnings totalling $43,214.

How did those horses get such a funny monicker? A girl calling herself Sinsational wrote: “What is the longest name for a horse? My cousin had a 1/4 Arabian, 1/4 TB, 1/4 TB, 1/4 QH, 1/4 App. She named the poor thing ‘Sheton Mississippi of Brandy Cloud’. She called him Sheton for short.”

The mystry was quicklysolved. “Howdoyoulikemenow?” is the name of a pop song that appeals to horselovers around the globe. You can listen to it on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVzvRsl4rEM

"How Do You Like Me Now"I was always the crazy one
I broke into the stadium
And I wrote your number on the 50 yard line
You were always the perfect one
And the valadictorian so
Under your number I wrote "call for a good time"

I only wanted to catch your attention
But you overlooked me somehow
Besides you had too many boyfriends to mention
And I played my guitar too loud.

How do you like me now?
How do you like me now,
Now that I'm on my way?
Do you still think I'm crazy
Standin here today?
I couldnt make you love me
But I always dreamed about living in your radio
How do you like me now?

When I took off to Tennessee
I heard that you made fun of me
Never imagined I'd make it this far
Then you married into money girl
Aint it a cruel and funny world?
He took your dreams and tore them apart.

He never comes home
And youre always alone
And your kids hear you cryin down the hall
Alarm clock starts ringin
Who could that be singin
Its me baby, with your wake up call!

How do you like me now?
How do you like me now,
Now that I'm on my way?
Do you still think I'm crazy
Standin here today?
I couldnt make you love me
But I always dreamed about living in your radio
How do you like me now?

Tell me baby...
I will preach on...