Hoot! It's a coot!

My nature photogaphy has improved.  A lot. At first it was nothing but a shaky blur. (Mind you, I constantly see YouTube videos with a million and a half views which are dark, shaky, and totally incoherent.) It's easier with closeups, of course, though I am not particularly close to these birds. The ones I really want to capture are on Lafarge Lake. We once saw THREE types of mergansers in one day (common, red-breasted and hooded), but I got no more than two or three seconds of focused footage surrounded by shaky, blurry, tilty, finger-covered crap. Since I haven't figured out how to edit these (and it was not long ago I had never even held a camera, so one step at a time), I can't post those. The mergansers hang out in the middle of the lake, so focusing on them is murder. You have to smoothly pan the camera ahead of the bird so that it continually swims into the frame. Otherwise you'll lose it. Mergansers swim like crazy, but they are so breathtaking that I will keep on trying.

Doll fight!

 

 

This is so beautiful I want to SCREAM

This type of organ is sometimes called an orchestrion, because it mimics the sound of orchestral (or band) instruments. This had a tag on it of Hal Roach, so I think it's likely a medley of tunes used in the Little Rascals/Our Gang comedies. Thus the tunes have a familiar ring that you can't quite place. There are hundreds of YouTube videos of antique instruments like this one, some of which play WAY out of tune. None of them are this beautiful. 

I can see this being pulled by horses in a sort of gypsy caravan. Antique carnival music. This was the closest thing people had to "recorded" music back then. Though you can hear the great head of steam building at the beginning (because the organ, after all, is a wind instrument, contrasting with the fact that the piano is percussion), the instrument in truth is like a player piano, its tunes "programmed" on rolls of paper with holes in them. (And by the way - are you old? I mean REALLY old, like me? If you are, you might remember computer "punch cards" with holes in them. Must have been the same principle. Our light bills and water bills came in this form, and on the outside of the envelope it would say, "Don't bend, fold, mutilate or spindle". I never did figure out what "spindle" meant. Impaling it, maybe, on a fork or knife. At any rate, this gorgeous thing just thrills me.)

Some more. There are lots.

Bentley on cat sofa

Cat in a hat

I roo the day

http://county10.com/first-90-kangaroos-released-in-wyoming/ 

(Dubois, Wyo) – The Wyoming Wild Game Department (WWGD) partnering with the Wyoming Migration Initiative (WMI) have released the first of 5 planned batches of 90 Antilopine Kangaroos into the Wyoming outdoors.

Dubbed “Project Sage Hopper” by the WWGD team responsible for evaluating the viability of Wyoming’s habitat for Australian marsupials, it has been in the planning stages for 3 years. The goal is two-fold: Create new and interesting wildlife viewing opportunities for tourists, and in several years, potentially provide additional hunting opportunities. 

(Some choice comments, posted anonymously):

I didn't think kangaroos could stand the Winter. I don't think it snows in Oz.

Huh... That sounds like my private program of releasing Australian funnel-web spiders, cause *** you. Me and my spider minions will rule the earth.

It snows in OZ, they have mountains, and Tasmania can get cold (was actually in a snow storm there)

Yeah, so tourists can watch free Thai boxing in the wild. 

Yeaaah...no. Not happening.

I used to live in WY. Their Fish & Game folks have NO sense of humor about imported species.

(Besides, common sense sez it gets WAY too cold there for kangaroos.)

Let them breed a ton as I hear they taste delicious.
You hear from whom? According to my Aussie sources, there's a reason basically nobody actually eats them, and it's not just because they can kick your nuts up and out through your nose faster than you can say "I'd like mine medium-rare, please..." 

Let them breed a ton as I hear they taste delicious.

It's not bad. Chewy. High-protein. I've only had it once & it wasn't a very big cut. Bison burgers

I've had ostrich jerky once. Tasted like shoe. 

My neighbour's kid said there was a peacock running around in their backyard. I thought she was confused (by a pheasant), or was just pulling my leg. It turns out she was neither. It really was running around there. By the time I got there it was gone, but I checked out the ravine behind our houses, and actually spotted it. Well, it was not a peacock, but a peahen, which is the female version.
Apparently, occasionally they escape from farms and zoos and then just take up residence in the local ravines and forests. And they survive our Canadian winters just fine.

They're very popular for pet food. 

Great, more immigrants.  Least they have a place to carry their papers.

I live in Australia. All the kangaroo meat is shot from the wild because they're everywhere. The meat is red, has no fat or marbling, and tastes light and sweet. You have to have them rare or medium rare or else they're too tough. Ground kangaroo and kangaroo sausages (kanga-bangas) are also widely available.

Wallaby is every sweeter than kangaroo and is available only in Tasmania AFAIK.

Let them breed a ton as I hear they taste delicious.

Maybe to the dingoes. Otherwise, no, not at all, whoever told you that is dead wrong. Kangaroo is delicious the same way durian is sweet and refreshing. Sure there's plenty of them bouncing around, but with all that beef and lamb there too...

I blame bizarre foods.

My head has wings

Brünnhilde

(springs shouting from rock to rock up
the height on the right)

Hojotoho! hojotoho! heiaha! heiaha!
hojotoho! hojotoho! heiaha! heiaha!
hojotoho! hojotoho! hojotoho! hojotoho!
heiaha ha! hojoho!

(On a high peak she stops, looks into the gorge at
the back, and calls to Wotan.)

Take warning, Father, look to thyself;
storm and strife must thou withstand.
Fricka comes to thee here,
drawn hither in her car by her rams.
Hei! how she swings the golden scourge!

The wretched beasts are groaning with fear;

wheels furiously rattle;
fierce she fares to the fray.
In strife like this I take no delight,
sweet though to me are the fights of men;
then take now thy stand for the storm:
I leave thee with mirth to thy fate.

Hojotoho! hojotoho! heiaha! heiaha!
hojotoho! hojotoho! heiaha! heiaha!
hojotoho! hojotoho! hojotoho! hojotoho!
heiaha ha!

(Brünnhilde disappears behind the mountain
height at the side.)

Midnight lace

You can jerk my yoyo

"Put a smile in your smoking!": 1950s TV advertising