Beach Kangaroos, Manta Rays, and Seawater-Drinking Birds

So we went down to Batemans Bay and region, south of Sydney on the NSW coast, a few weeks ago, and saw beach kangaroos. The first one was in Pebbly Beach, just lounging on a sandy dune.

It's an Eastern Grey Kangaroo. They're not generally associated with beaches, but it appears that some have adapted. And we actually saw tracks on the beach that clearly showed that kangaroos had gone into the surf! I would have loved to see that.

Old Sayings...Reconsidered: "Give a man a fish..."

Give a man a fish, and he eats for one day. Teach a man to fish, and, if he's lucky enough to learn this often tricky skill before he starves to death, which we've got to admit falls under the realm of possibility here - why the hell else would we even be talking about this? -  then he'll be okay. If not, he starves to death.

So why not give him a fish, you selfish bastard, and teach him how to fish?

RIP Michael Meldrum

An old friend in Buffalo, New York, has left us.

A collection of tributes can be found here.

[Buffalo News File Photo]

Crab

Crab in a pool of shells, Pebbly Beach, South Coast, NSW:

Swallow

From the balcony of the Zorro Hotel, Batemans Bay, NSW:

Also got this shot, which is out of focus, yes, but I think it's still pretty cool. Although I think the shadow shot is better.

Batemans Bay

Christine and I went south for a few days, saw sooty oyster catchers, manta rays right under our noses, and beach kangaroos, just to mention a few things. Got some really nice shots. One, of Christine, at Pebbly Beach in Murramurang National Park (click to make bigger, click again for bigger still):

Much more to come soon.

Seve Ballesteros, 1957-2011

A sad post about the passing of a true sportsman over at my other place.

Two New Bukowski Poems

Wow.

The following poems are from the private collection of The Los Angeles Poetry Examiner’s, copied from Pearl-Number 14 Fall/Winter 1991 and have yet to be found elsewhere.

The poems:

Night at the Pool

Every beach in Sydney has a large concrete pool, fed by the ocean, bashed by the ocean, right on the edge of the ocean, where you can go for a swim without being thrown about in the surf. You go down there any time of the morning day or evening and there are old folks, young folks, kids—there'a very shallow kiddie pool. Three shots.

Christine Does Easter

Osama bin Laden: Already in Local Newspaper

I've been watching the developments leading up to the news that Osama bin Laden has been killed. My first thoughts were with the victims of the many attacks he led on civilians, and with their families, and with the firefighters and police in New York who put their lives on the line for others and perished in the hundreds. This is a good day.

I just went to the liquor store. It's been just a few hours since President Obama's announcement. Here's what the guy at the liquor store gave me. If you click, and click again, you can see the date is May 2, 2011—today, Australia time:

Elvis Costello Plays for Canucks Fans

Too good. Elvis Freaking Costello played "Pump it Up" with a local Vancouver band at the rink where the Canucks are playing tonight. (Elvis' wife, Diana Krall, is from Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, where, incidently, I played a folk festival in the early 1990s.) Check it out:



Since my Sabres are gone - Go Canucks!

Cockatoo in the House

Just working at my computer, in the corner of the living room next to the veranda window. Just heard a noise behind me: a cockatoo had walked in the open door, grabbed the bottle full of seeds we keep behind the couch, and was trying to drag it out the door. Christine just gave him a little to get him to knock it off.