Wildlife - Beauty and the Beast

[Hudson Force]

I'm a great fan of nature and I can admire most wildlife. Like many, I am thrilled to see the whales, manatees or a leaping manta rays, but I'm also interested in the minor players like the tiny crustaceans that cover my wet suit when I'm cleaning the boat bottom.

Sure, I'm less pleased with the barnacles that grow on my hull or the seas gulls that bomb my deck. Nobody seems to admire the rats or roaches!

Yesterday I came across a new disturbing member among the wildlife. While walking down the dock across from a pier with the usual gulls, pelicans and cormorants, I heard a new bird call coming from what looked like a small white tern. Something was disturbing about the rhythm and pitch of the bird's call. Then it struck me.

The sound was a perfect match to my GPS anchor drag alarm!

[rognvald]

Hud,
A nesting colony near an anchorage could provide a nervous night on the hook. Funny. The presence and sounds of Nature are one of our greatest joys while aboard. Good luck and safe sailing.

[JPA Cate]

Hudson,

There's a bay we frequent in New South Wales, and a lyrebird (infamous mimics they are) lives there, too. It does chainsaws and car theft alarms, among others. People just can't help teaching it *songs*.

Ann