Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Second rate reporter says what?

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

People are complicated. Love is not.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

We still have time to mess this up!

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Faunasphere / Saturday Morning Open Thread: In Sympathy With Loons

Saturday Morning Open Thread: In Sympathy With Loons

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Gary Bennett gently removed the 2-week-old loon from a box and cupped the chick in his gloved hands as the boat drifted Monday in the sparkling waters of Messalonskee Lake.

Then came the high-pitched cry from the baby, whom he had named Jordan. Just three days ago, Bennett, who runs Snow Pond Cruises on the 9.5-mile-long lake, had captured the chick after noticing a grape-sized tumor on its leg. An animal rehabilitation center in Freedom surgically removed the tumor and Jordan was returned with a clean bill of health.

Monday afternoon, the chick’s parents paddled near the boat and responded with a series of distinctive wails that loons are known for when searching for a mate or a baby. The eerily serene wails heralded an emotional reunion for both human and bird, as Jordan came back to the waters of the lake and back to its parents.

Bennett, 68, is a registered Maine guide and licensed commercial boat operator who has lived on the lake for 33 years and has been running Snow Pond Cruises since 2014…

The loon is known as one of Maine’s most beloved birds, with a population in steady rebound in recent years. Maine Audubon has estimated that there are some 3,200 adult loons and 400 loon chicks in the southern half of Maine, which is the part of the state covered by the annual count…

Full story and pictures at the link. Loons only hatch one or two chicks at a time, so it’s not surprising they’d be more open to reuniting with a ‘stolen’ chick than a passerine with half a dozen other offspring to protect.

Reader Interactions

93Comments

  1. 1.

    Mike in NC

    Berthed today in Bergen, Norway (or is that Normay, where there are supposed to be lots of desperate white people wishing to flee a Scandanavian hellhole to emigrate to the USA, despite the odds of being gunned down by a maniac?). 100% chance of moderate to heavy rain. We were told by the cruise director that Bergen averages well over 300 days of rain per year. Must be the Seattle of northern Europe.

  2. 2.

    satby

    @Mike in NC: Glad you’re enjoying your trip. Hopefully that heavy rain goes through quickly and you get to see the city without getting soaked.

    @AL: beautiful story about the loons! Great way to start the weekend. Even if I have to leave for work soon.

  3. 3.

    Raven

    @Mike in NC: Happy Birthday! My people were from Stevanger! I’m waiting for the 5:30 Starbucks in Pigeon Forge so I can get the fuck out of here. The battle is whether to take the Parkway through the mountains in the dark or take 40 minutes longer and go via Asheville!

  4. 4.

    satby

    @Raven: Won’t it be getting light in 1/2 an hour or so? Savor that coffee and take the Parkway at dawn. I loved driving the Blue Ridge Parkway, so beautiful.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Loons only hatch one or two chicks at a time,

    That might be most common but not always so. Once, when I was up in Canada while guiding some guests, we came across a family of loons. 4 chicks, cute as a button little balls of brown fluff. Mama and Daddy were screaming with great urgency, literally dancing on top of the water , slapping it with their feet as the little ones desperately tried to dive and stay down, but none could manage the trick for more than 5 seconds and, “bloop,” back they’d pop up onto the surface. After a minute or 2 we backed off and the parents stopped their dance and the little ones popped up to calmly follow along behind them again.

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    @Mike in NC

    So in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, when George relates the story of the teenager being mocked for ordering a “bergen and water” it turns out he wasn’t as far off the mark as we assumed.

    ;)

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    Sunday is Bogart day on TCM. Highlights include:

    The Big Sleep at 2 p.m.
    The Treasure of the Sierra Madre at 4 p.m.
    The African Queen at 8 p.m.
    The Caine Mutiny at 10 p.m.

    Monday is Ann Sothern day. Being as long time sucker for Sothern, shall be in my happy place all day.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    Little pleasures. It is so nice to be back home and not have to retreat into self-exile on the balcony in order to smoke a stogie.

    @NotMax

    Being a, not being as.

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    @germy

    John Huston’s campy take on The Maltese Falcon. Bogart, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lorre and Robert Morley. What’s not to like?

    Reportedly the screenplay was written on the fly by Truman Capote, sometimes pages being finished just minutes before the cameras rolled.

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    @NotMax: My husband smokes cigars — outdoors only! If I die first, he will be stinking up the house with his stogies before you can say Jack Robinson. :) I don’t mind the cigar smoke at all outside; keeps the skeeters away.

  24. 24.

    R-Jud

    I’m on the boardwalk in Asbury Park, New Jersey. There’s a fun run about to start and they’ve set the finish line up across from the Springsteen-song famous psychic Madame Marie’s stall.

    Dying to ask if she knows who will win.

  25. 25.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Mike in NC: Spent three days in Bergen and Stavanger and driving between them last May, and had wall to wall sunshine. Everyone told us it would be raining all the time and we didn’t see a drop.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Walmart To Remove Violent Video Game Displays, Not Guns, From Its Stores

    “We’ve taken this action out of respect for the incidents of the past week, and this action does not reflect a long-term change in our video game assortment,” Tara House, a Walmart spokeswoman, said in a statement obtained by USA Today.

    Ooooo… So brave, wouldn’t want to offend anybody in the wake of a series of mass shootings. Next week they’ll bring them back. The guns on the other hand, who could be offended by those?

    Speaking of the gun in the Springfield Walmart, from the Guardian today:

    Carrying a weapon is not illegal in Missouri, but carrying it in a threatening manner is.

    Define, “carrying it in a threatening manner”. I guarantee, if it’s common practice in deer camp, it will be found to be not threatening. In other words, anything outside of purposely pointing the weapon at another human being will be deemed nonthreatening.

    These people aren’t right.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    @Betty Cracker

    Actually the ones I gravitate to for everyday use and pleasure are the little filtered cigars, which look like filter cigarettes but with a brown wrapper. The plain ones; no fruity flavored smokes for this geezer, thank you very much. Highly affordable to boot. Two bucks, including shipping cost, for a pack of 20 when ordered online. Do keep some classic stogies around for special occasions.

    And yes, they are top notch skeeter chasers (also gnats).

  28. 28.

    Steeplejack

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning! ?

    Premier League back on my TV. Pleasant video wallpaper. Manchester City up 1-0 on West Ham United in the first half.

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    @R-Jud: *hands over $20*
    “The purpose of the run is to have fun!”

    The purpose of the pizza? Oh predictive text!

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    @R-Jud

    Seeing a mention of a boardwalk in New Joisey reminded me that there’s an episode of Ultimate Restorations on Prime about the humongous pipe organ in Atlantic City which I found fascinating.

    Also there’s a separate documentary about the project, The Senator’s Masterpiece, which off the top of my head don’t believe is on any of the streaming services at this time.

  38. 38.

    Steeplejack

    @debbie:

    Yes, thanks. Soreness abating, itchiness increasing. I’ve been sticking close to home, so I have been leaving the wounds uncovered. The arm is still fugly, but less so—now possibly frightening only to sensitive souls. But I cover it when I do go out. And I’m using the sling only when I go out.

    The big thing, which has surprised me, is the fatigue. I have no stamina. I feel okay, I do something normal and then feel exhausted. Someone told me the other day that could be a side effect of general anesthesia, up to two weeks after. I’m at Day 9 now.

  42. 42.

    Ohio Mom

    @Steeplejack: Make sure you are eating lots of protein. You need it to knit yourself back together.

    And Ozark is right, your body needs rest and is making sure you get it. Be easy on yourself.

  44. 44.

    Kay

    Wal Mart can dance around with as many ridiculous fawning gestures towards Right wingers as they want. Mass slaughters in your retail outlet along with kowtowing to the .00000001 of their customers who want to parade around with assault weapons and intimidate people is bad for business.

    The last existing principle on the Right- making money- and even that has to give way to fealty to the ideology. They can’t make good business decisions anymore in service sectors, because they must only serve the far Right.

  45. 45.

    Steeplejack

    @debbie:

    Yes, I got a plastic sleeve from Amazon that tokyokie recommended. Invaluable! Had my third (3) shower of the month yesterday. Yee-haw.

  46. 46.

    Steeplejack

    @Ohio Mom:

    Good point. I usually do better anyway when I have a little protein early in the day, so I think I’m okay on that point. And I’ve been napping/​dozing liberally.

  48. 48.

    Kay

    Right wingers will be limited to government contracting or back-end businesses with no public-facing side. If they’re a public-facing service business they have this …awkward issue where they loathe 80% of their customers.

  49. 49.

    rikyrah

    Just saw Peanut and her grandmother off to the Bud Billiken Parade.
    It’s a nice day for it????
    The Bud Billiken Parade is the largest parade for African Americans in the country. Created by the Chicago Defender newspaper, it has been a celebration of Black culture, and the sendoff to school for children for over 70 years.

  50. 50.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    Also, as Goku pointed out somewhere (thread last night?), a huge percentage of video games are sold on line, so Walmart’s move is even more toothless cynical.

  54. 54.

    Steeplejack

    @JPL:

    That reminds me: we need Tony Jay to weigh in on the latest developments, e.g., no election until after the Brexit deadline?

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @Steeplejack:

    Additional security costs money. We’re all already paying the tab for gun nuttery in public schools. Turning public schools into fortresses is expensive, and that’s just the up-front cost- the continuing cost will be re-allocating funding that went to instruction to school slaughter prevention. As if we don’t dump enough on public schools we’ve now dumped the gun problem in their lap.

    All to kowtow to the 3% of people who refuse to accept ANY responsibility for their obsessive hobby.

    Oh, and it also hasn’t escaped my attention that all these security companies are run by Right wingers. The more dangerous it gets, the better they do.

  57. 57.

    Kay

    @Steeplejack:

    One of the researchers said “video games have as a close a connection to violent acts as bananas do”. As trench coats do. Why only video games, anyway? If you’re going to make this up don’t you have to include violent movies and tv shows?

  60. 60.

    R-Jud

    @JPL: Visiting family for the week. My Dad’s people are from around these parts (Mom’s were from slightly further north near Sandy Hook). Then back to PA, then to Boston, then eventually home.

    My 40th birthday is the day after the current Brexit deadline. Could be quite the party.

  61. 61.

    sixthdoctor

    ABC news is reporting Jeffrey Epstein killed himself last night.

    Breaking: Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide overnight at MCC Manhattan, the federal lockup where he had been held pending trial on federal sex trafficking charges, three law enforcement officials told @ABC News. Via @AaronKatersky— Julia Macfarlane (@juliamacfarlane) August 10, 2019

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @NotMax:

    We’d really have to ban the publishing or reading of far Right opinion on the internet because that’s what they’re reading.

    Eventually this comes down to a battle between the First Amendment and the Second Amendment, and I know which one the far Right will choose.

  63. 63.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: I’m betting not. The more I see the more I think Boris is preparing for the Kamikaze dive into Brexit. He knows he’ll lose the election. That’s why he wants to schedule it for after Oct 31 because getting Brexit is all he cares about.

  64. 64.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    This situation is driving me nuts. My RWNJ brother, the one in Las Vegas, is a bona fide gun nut (of course), and this situation has caused an uptick in his pathetic Facebook forwards of gun-nuttery chaff, e.g., “We don’t blame cars for the people they kill every year,” etc.

    Fine. Let’s have mandatory training and a test to get a license for a gun, and then let’s have mandatory insurance for any damage your guns might cause be incidentally involved in. Also, I don’t see people driving Formula 1 race cars around town.

  73. 73.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    Unless I’m greatly mistaken, this removes any restrictions on release of evidence. Legally, the dead cannot be defamed.

    Legal jackals, please pipe up.

  74. 74.

    Belafon

    @Steeplejack: we don’t blame the cars because cars have been designed to carry people from point a to point b. Had we designed cars for the purpose of making sure other people can’t get to where they want to go, they would be regulated and there would probably be calls to ban them.

  77. 77.

    Gvg

    Hmm, does this mean since no trial, less info will get public? Epstein is no loss to humanity, but his friends and enablers might have had a lot to lose in a public lurid trial. I think a trial would have been better.

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly: I heard a rumor that Cyrillic worked again on the current BJ, and I was testing it out. Once I had the answer, the Cyrillic had served its purpose so I replaced it with (totally unrelated) words in English.

  84. 84.

    Gvg

    @Belafon: actually we do blame cars that turn out to be death traps….see pintos and gremlins and others. Prius price dropped because they stopped selling during what turned out to be over hyped brakes that wouldn’t stop stories a few years ago. When a car model kills people, they stop buying it instead of rushing out to get it before it’s banned. These nuts are a cult. Including my uncle….

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WaterGirl: I have copied and pasted it before for purposes of snark, which is about the only thing I can think of it might be good for. ;-).

  92. 92.

    tokyokie

    @NotMax: I’ve heard also that Capote was writing the screenplay on the fly. Unfortunately, Bogart had money invested in the picture, and was very displeased at Huston’s cavalier methods, and they never worked together again. (Bogart probably also had some lingering resentment over Huston’s cajoling him and Lauren Bacall into joining the spectacularly ineffective anti-McCarthy group, the Committee for the First Amendment.) Anyway, because whoever owned the film’s copyright failed to renew it, the film has fallen into public domain and finding a copy that’s in good condition can be difficult. And I always thought that Robert Morley pretty much stole the picture, as he was wont to do.

  93. 93.

    chopper

    @JR:

    Just that the stuff is concentrated in winter/spring.

    or this morning, apparently. good thing i brought stuff in from the porch.

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