h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is such a lovely bird. Didn't SA's founders ever consider using it as a national symbol. Or is SA really such a Christian country as it would not consider predators as symbols, unlike us bl**dy minded Yanks. Ben Franklin wanted to use a turkey as it was a smarter bird.

Hi Elektra, thanks! I don't know about religious concerns over predacious tendencies when picking symbols ... but we do have a Secretary Bird on our national coat of arms.

I knew that about Ben Franklin and the turkey! I find turkeys - wild ones especially - quite beautiful and bizarre.

I find all turkeys bizarre, myself.

Elektra's over here unloading her groceries, but she says, 'Secretary birds are mean.'

Is this true? I find them beautiful.

Another beaut, Willem.

What's it thinking?
"Do that again and you and me will confer - In Private"

Hiccup and I watch a programme called My Life as a Turkey, it was about a man who raised and lived with turkeys until they(the survivors) dispersed. It was one of those programmmes that we just happened upon and pulled us in

That sounds really interesting, Peanut.

Hi folks, thanks for the comments! Dmitri, as far as I know secretary birds are not mean to humans, but definitely to snakes! Peanut, that sounds like a very interesting programme. I'd love to know more about how turkeys live in the wild.

I found this interview with the man who lived with turkeys

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/my-life-as-a-turkey/joe-hutto-answers-your-questions/7389/

Okay, this is just amazing, Peanut. Thank you, thank you...Elektra has a new hero. (She's on Joe Camp's horse mailing list.)

Thanks for finding this and sharing it Peanut. I just hope that Willem can access the videos in South Africa. I think he can at least appreciate the detailed sketches shown on the site and the various fact sheets. I did think it was rather mean to show this in the middle of November just before Thanksgiving however. I wonder how many children refused to eat turkey that year.

Some sad raptor news:

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/34069/young+bald+eagle+from+famous+iowa+nest+is+found+electrocuted/

One of the stars of a webcam run by Raptor Research Project has just been electrocuted by a power pylon. The utillity firm is making all the other pylons raptor friendly near the nest site so its siblings will not suffer the same end.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Raptor-Resource-Project/103786266324668

Some sad raptor news:

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/34069/young+bald+eagle+from+famous+iowa+nest+is+found+electrocuted/

One of the stars of a webcam run by Raptor Research Project has just been electrocuted by a power pylon. The utillity firm is making all the other pylons raptor friendly near the nest site so its siblings will not suffer the same end.

http://www.farmyou.com/falcon_cams/

I glad you enjoyed the link

sad news the eagle, I hope that not only do the utility company those particular pylons raptor friendly that they also look at what they could do elsewhere too

Hi there Peanut, I enjoyed reading it as well! I am very much of the same general sort of opinion about Nature. It inspires me and in it I see this infinite complexity he speaks of: the more one studies, the more new questions arise! One can never know enough.

I'm also sorry about that eagle, but hope the measures they're taking helps. Over here the power companies have been investigating ways of making the pylons raptor-safe since the mid nineteen nineties.