According to Jingolyte David "Excellent" Speller, who is today's Big Wiener on the JingoMyst Challenge, the birds being trapped, counted and tagged by US Govvie volunteers at the taxpayer-impoverishingly, Husseinianly opulent palace atop Short Hill are being captured in something called "mist nets," a term (I swear) hitherto unknown to me. The porcelain jigs and apertures in the observation hut allow quick raising and lowering of these mist nets to catch passing migratory birds. The nets are suspended from the tall wooden pole.
David wins on two counts: First, because he correctly identified the not-so-nefarious goings-on at this site; and second, because unlike any of the rest of you, he was able to actually follow instructions and submit his answer in e-mail. For his combination of proper servility and intelligence above and beyond the call of necessity, I hereby bestow the Ambassadorship to the Court of St. James upon Mr. Speller. David, you may hereby assume your new duties at the U.S. Embassy in London. Tell 'em the Jingmeister sent you.
GlueBirl, Andy and John are both avid birding friends of mine who have participated in netting and banding of birds in their own neighborhoods, and it wouldn't have done to let them spoil others' Mystification. Neither one of 'em's particularly smart. Just lucky.
Sluggo got off to a great start, but his choice of an incorrect definition of the word "crop" sent him down a blind alley and earned him a "[Close but] No Cigar."
GlueBirl does win the Joe Biden Prize for Most Effective Sidetracking, having begun a kaffeeklatsch among herself, Sluggo and Momula in which photos of offspring were produced and clucked over. Very nice.
Somewhere in the midst of the proceedings Gavin M. managed to tear himself away from artfully twitting an artless twit to put his oar in, but Sadly, No!
Ronzoni Rigatoni! You magnificent bastard! I read your book! Hop on Pop! Why the hell'd you give up? You were one inch from solving it!
Bobby Lightfoot. Period. Just you wait till I get my hands on your blog this weekend.
XTCfan: This isn't the facility we saw on our trek last spring. Believe it or not, there's another one, maybe three hundred yards south of the one we saw. Just before I got shot at by those "sportsmen."
Anonymous: I just this week saw a new Myst I hadn't seen before at the Apple Store in Tyson's. After all this excitement I may well make the investment.
Andy B.: Dude: It's way better to be disqualified because you already know the answer than because you don't. Dig? Just ask Strip-Search Sammy Alito, who'll probably already be confirmed by the time I hit "Publish." At which point Wonder Woman will storm out of the room, hot tears bursting from her eyes. But this is a time for healing, not for partisan division.
10 comments:
I got somethin' to say. And then I ain't gonna say no more. He took advantage of me. An' if you fine, fancy gentlemen ain't gonna do nothin' about it, then you're just a bunch of lousy, yella, stinkin' cowards, the - the whole bunch of ya, and your fancy airs don't come to nothin'. Your Ma'am'in' and your Miss Mayellarin' - it don't come to nothin'
To Kill a Hummingbird.
I Wasted my whole day's lunch on that one. I was going for the visibility/haze thing/possibly dewpoint or pollution thing/collid ing of the continental plate thing.
Damn you jingo.i
That's what you get for limiting yourself to one blast of the Jingosphere a day. You get to miss out on really easy competitions, to which you knew the answer because you had actually been there (well, not there, somewhere else), done that.
rgpuh The sound of a mist-netter snagged in a twig.
One inch short! One inch short! All my life I hafta lissen to this. Three wives, a few girlfriends.... I'm leavin' an' I ain't comin' back.
so, what is the appropriate definition of crop, if its not the berry and seed food sources available to the migratory mudlarks and such being so cruelly waylaid and banded.
And I thought a mist net was used to wring water from the atmosphere in the Atacama, where it hardly ever rains on the plains.
nadlig - gildan spelled backwards
Jeddie, I'm an expert sidetracker because most times I dont' know what the hell anyone's talking about.
Maybe that's Biden's problem too.
Crop: 2 : A pouched enlargement of the gullet of many birds that serves as a receptacle for food and its preliminary maceration.
Apparently you can tell, oh, any number of extremely vital things about a bird by closely studying its crop. Its sexual orientation, where it went to school, how much money it makes, just how much work went into making its mobvlvap.
Prolly should have disqualified Mr. Dwire as well, as he's got some credentials in this area. At least he had the good taste not to spoil the fun, for which much thanks.
And shouldn't it be, like, "Spelleur" or something? "Spellour"?
pnhlpvsf is how you spell "Winnour" in Canada.
Do you see now? That's why I stay out of this sort of thing.
PS: What was this sort of thing?
gptlzuws - Ah, felt great spittin' up that one.
Friend Neddie said:
"Andy B.: Dude: It's way better to be disqualified because you already know the answer than because you don't. Dig?"
Oh, I dig, Sir. RALLY I do.
My thinking is that they are trapping raptors based on the color descriptions and the placement of the nets.
Checking the crop for food supply and bird health.
Great raptor site. Maybe you could find when they are operating and check it out.
As for the crop:
"AVIAN CROP. The crop of birds is a modification of the esophagus used primarily for storage and softening of food. It has the same structural organization as the rest of the esophagus. The lining epithelium is stratified squamous. Unlike the rest of the esophagus, the lamina propria does not have mucous glands. There are three layers of smooth muscle in the wall. The muscularis mucosa is longitudinal. The internal layer of the muscularis externa is circular, and the outer layer of the muscularis externa is longitudinal. "
Yeah. You are excited. I can tell.
The things you can learn whan you can manage to stay awake through the day.
I'd rather know it and not need it, than need it and not know it.
I guess.
rpbuuji-rpwuuji bugle boy
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