Pied Oystercatcher chick

Today, I once again headed up to Orford to sit on a beach and watch birds. This time, though, my friend, Rob, decided to come with me and help me sit on a beach and watch birds. We spent all day watching the birds, but the last pair of Hooded Plovers we observed were particularly boring and spent the entire 30 minutes sitting amongst the twigs and debris covering the upper beach. When we packed up our stuff and headed out we closely examined the area the pair were inhabiting incase it was a nest, but were greatly surprised when we found this (well, I should say, when Rob found this) -

No, this isnt a plover chick. It is about 4 times too big for a plover chick. It is a baby Pied Oystercatcher. We had noticed that there was a Pied Oystercatcher sitting very close to the Hooded plovers, but we hadnt paid very much attention to it. Now we know why it was sitting there. We quickly grabbed a couple of photos and then carefully retreated and hid until the adult came back from wherever it had disappeared to when we approached.

Isnt it cute :)

less than optimal

My mobile phone is dying a slow, painful death.

It all started a few weeks ago, when, for no apparent reason, the screen started 'blinking' when I was texting. I should tell those of you that don't already know that my phone looks like this:
except pink. Its a nokia 6085.

After a while the 'blinking' got so annoying that I googled something like "nokia flip phone screen blinking" fully expecting not to get any results, but just to make sure that someone hadn't written something somewhere to tell you how to fix it. They hadn't.

What I did find, however, was pages and pages of people whose phones had done exactly the same thing and then, shortly afterward, the screens had given up completely. The phone still functioned fine assuming you were blind and, therefore, didn't need a screen. For someone like me, though, whose phone is really just a device for texting (and occasionally calling my parents) a screenless phone would be, shall we say, less than optimal.

Field work...

Today, I started my field work for my honours project. Basically, I spent the afternoon sitting on a beach in Orford, soaking up the sunshine and watching birds. Not a bad way to spend a day. Especially considering that a good proportion of my friends are madly studying for exams at the moment.

Lets play a game of spot the bird...

Here's a nice easy one to get you started.

A tad harder, but still quite easy (this is a Red-capped plover, by the way).

This is what I spent my whole day doing - "I know its around here somewhere. Where'd the birdy go?"- Yes, there is a bird in this photo (its a Hooded plover). Every time I put down the binoculars to fill in my data sheet I'd look back up and then have to find the birdy all over again.

As you can see, I would benefit greatly from a photographer and a camera with a nice big zoom, because these little guys are a little camera shy (must be related to Jeff - he is still happily swimming around, by the way).

Anyway, just wanted to show off that I got to spend all day on a beach and you didnt.

"Not to be infantile, but I believe the correct phrase is 'Na, na'" I have no idea where that quote is from, but its locked away in my memory storage and seemed appropriate.

Seriously.

OK, so here is something that you are not going to believe. You are going to read it here and then go "No way!" and then google it and check it out on some sites that you actually trust to tell you the truth. Thats exactly what I did, too.

Pauley Perrette who plays the role of Abby on NCIS just turned 40!! Seriously. She was born in 1969!

The accused...

As you all know, whenever the opportunity presents itself I like to pretend that I am cultured and sophisticated and attend the theatre. Usually, Tiani and I go to see PLoT productions at uni, but occasionally we are even more cultured and sophisticated and attend grown-up theatre. On Tuesday evening, we did just that.


The Hobart Repertory Theatre Society were doing a production of the Jeffrey Archer play The Accused. The play is set in the Old Bailey courthouse in London and is presented as a murder trial with the audience acting as the jury. The only characters are the judge, a couple of court officials, the defendant, a policeman, and a few witnesses. The audience is greeted as the jury and briefed on how the case will run by one of the court officials and then as the judge enters the court room everybody stands (God save the Queen) and then sits when signaled. The case runs for three days (3 acts) so this process is repeated at the beginning of each act. It was so much fun to be interactively involved right from the beginning of the play. At the end of the case the jury, of course, gets to decide if the defendant was guilty of murdering his wife and the audience holds up guilty/not guilty cards to determine the verdict. There are two endings to the play depending on the verdict given by the audience. We, of course, only got to see one of the endings and I would love to know what the alternative ending was like.


Here is my review:
Acting - good (not perfect, but good).
Sets - very good
Costumes - very good
Casting - very good (except that I dont like the actor that played the defendant, but it didnt matter because he killed his wife so you're not really meant to like him).
Overall - loved it! Well worth going to see.

**** four stars

Jeff

So, you all know my goldfish, Jeff. Jeff is the huge and rather elderly goldfish that dominates my fish tank (and has a habit of going to sleep - hence his name). The above photograph was taken 3 years ago. I'm not sure exactly how long I have had Jeff, but it has been at least 5 years.

This morning I was saying hello to Jeff when I noticed something odd - a bump. These photos were taken today. See the bump on his side. Its located approximately halfway between his eye and dorsal fin. You can see it much better in the second photo.

Do you know how hard it is to get a good photo of my fish? Jeff is camera shy to say the least.

I don't like the look of his bump at all, I think its a tumour. I watched him for quite a while today and he is still moving easily, eating, and interested in life in general so I'm not going to do anything at the moment. Considering some of the things that Jeff has survived in the past, I wouldn't give up on him just yet.

This is exactly how I felt when I saw a car parked like this at uni today. I take comfort in the thought that there are only a few weeks left until the undergrads disappear for the summer and parking will become less tortuous (and in the fact that after circling around I ended up with a much better parking space closer to the zoology building).

Thanks xkcd.com for this comic. And for the awesome caption "Police report three dozen cheerful bystanders yet no one claims to have seen who did it." No thanks to my so-called friends that like to get me hooked on webcomics and waste all my time reading them when I should be working.

Your vote can make a difference...

Well, you might wonder what I've been doing lately as I havent been posting as much. The reason for this is that I have been sick so there hasnt been much to say. The only reason I'm saying anything now is that I'm bored. Being sick is prodigiously boring.

I have been well looked after by some of my friends while I've been unwell. The ladies who live in the flats adjoining mine (now affectionately referred to as the "Smoking Committee" due to their habit of spending most of their day sitting on the retaining wall and gossiping while they smoke) have all been very nice to me. I have been given food and lent DVDs to fill in time while I didnt have the energy to do anything more productive, and diligently checked up on everyday. I have also been daily checked up on by another of my friends and have been brought food by them, too. Its nice to know that there are people around me who are willing to look after me when my Mummy cant be around to do it. I think I'm starting to recover but my brain still feels like porridge and I'm completely exhausted after a big day at uni yesterday (the first time I went to my office in a week) so I still need a little looking after.

Anywho, enough of that boring stuff - onwards and upwards to the far more exciting topic of my birthday. It is now a month until my birthday (yes, I know a month is quite a long time, but you have to remember that I have been at home sick for a week so I have had plenty of time to sit around and think about my birthday) and I want to start planing a party. So, I need you all to comment and vote on what I should do - an awesome costume party OR a BBQ (where everyone is invited) followed by a murder mystery party (only 8 players). I know that a few of my friends will be doing exams over my birthday so my party will be postponed slightly to accommodate them (you should feel honoured because there are only a couple of you left at uni now and I'm still willing to arrange everything around you. You're welcome.).

I have added a poll so you can vote just under the picture of Jeff on the right of the screen. So vote. Now.

Go on, vote!

Prison Break

Check out this news story from Yahoo!7 News. Full story can be found here.

"Forget the knotted bed sheets or tunnel. A New York prisoner has come up with a much easier way to bust out of jail: ask guards for the exit.

The inmate, who was wearing a suit and tie for a court appearance on charges of multiple store robberies, simply wandered out an open door and into a courtroom Wednesday, the New York Post reported.

There, a court officer mistook jailbird Ronald Tackman for a lawyer, asking: "Counsellor, what are you doing here?" the Daily News reported.

Tackman didn't miss a beat, the Post said, asking: "Which way is out?"

The hapless guard then showed the escapee the way to the lobby.

Next the daring jailbird went to his 81-year-old mother's Manhattan home to change clothes, and left, she told the Post.

"I thought he was discharged. He was all dressed up," she said.

Court officers' embarrassment only increased when it was revealed that Tackman, 55, was a known master of disguise, the tabloids said."