Good morning, Newdists!
Yay! It’s Caturday again!
Diary Bird — Blue-throated Barbet — Psilopogon asiaticus
Blue-throated Barbets
have a wide range and are common from Northeast Pakistan and Nepal, Southwest China, Thailand, central Laos, north Annam and Vietnam. They are widespread residents in the hills of Himalayas.
They frequent montane [sic] evergreen forest and deciduous forests, gardens, orchards, teak forests and cities with fruiting trees.
DESCRIPTION
They are between 9 - 11 inches (23 - 28 cm) long, including tail; and weigh between 2.7 - 3.6 oz (78 - 103 g).
Males and females look alike. Young birds have an overall duller plumage
DIET/FEEDING
They are typically seen foraging in the forest canopy, but will visit lower shrubs to feed.
Their staple diet consists of fruits (particularly figs), some flowers, figs and insects, such as grubs, crickets, mantises, ants, cicadas, dragonflies, locusts, beetles and moths.
A big Caturday welcome to all Newdists!
Grab a cup of coffee or tea, something to eat, and please join us.
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All are welcome to join the fun, the silliness, the conversations. If you don’t know...just ask! Some things really do require a bit of explanation.
There will be a few surprises along the way, all good ones, we hope.
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We post Mon-Sun at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. On Sunday we go to the C!U!A! posting to show support for all the work being done to promote Democratic candidates/causes. Please to join us there, as well.
Pie fights will be met with outrageous ridicule and insults. Trolls will be incinerated and served at the next group BBQ. As briquettes.
If you don’t live on, or near an ocean front, did you— nevertheless — manage to visit a beach this year?
And if you did get to the beach, did you steal bottles of sand? No?
Shocking! What’s wrong with you?
Apparently that’s what some tourists have done because being ugly tourists is an acceptably nostalgic, albeit outré fashion since time immemorial. Although these days, you could get arrested in some countries if you did something so inexplicable and daring. To be fair, some people bottle sand and shells as souvenirs of their visit, not knowing that it is now punishable with jail sentence. This is true of the beaches in Crimea, and has become recently true of Italy and the island of Sardinia.
According to local media, two French tourists were charged last week with stealing nearly 90 pounds of sand from Chia beach, on the southern coast of Sardinia. The visitors reportedly filled 14 bottles with sand and tried to drive onto a France-bound ferry in Porto Torres when they were discovered by Italy’s Guardia di Finanza.
The Corriere Della Sera newspaper said the tourists claimed they were just trying to take back a vacation souvenir and didn’t realize they were breaking a law on the Mediterranean island. They face between one and six years in prison, according to media reports. Officials with the police force could not be reached Tuesday. LINK
In 2017, after much concern and complaints from locals in Sardinia, a system of fines was established. Thereby tourists who did not respect Sardinia’s views that the white and pinks sands on its beaches had been declared a “public good,” were fined — up to $3,330 — for taking stones, or shells because they defined it as stolen assets. There are signs in multiple languages warning people to not steal sand on these beaches.
Border police found the white sand, taken from Chia beach in the south of the Italian island, stashed into 14 large plastic bottles in the boot of the couple’s car. The pair were about to board a ferry for Toulon, in southern France, from Porto Torres.
They told police they took the sand as a souvenir and did not realise they had committed an offence.
But they now face between one and six years in prison as Sardinian authorities get tough on an issue that has blighted the island for years. LINK
The police discovered 14 bottles of sand in the trunk of their SUV. I wondered why it was 14 bottles of sand.
Of course, the other interesting thing about Sardinia is that it also has pink sand beaches.
A Few Pink beaches:
The island of Budelli in northern Sardinia— The Spiaggia Rosa:
[...] one of the few pink beaches in the world. Over the years, Budelli's ownership has changed hands numerous times. A safe haven for Roman ships that crossed the Strait of Bonifacio during the 1st and 2nd centuries BC, the island became a strategic stronghold during World War II before being under the control of the Viggianis , an Italian noble family that finally He sold it to the Milanese businessman, Pierino Tizona. LINK
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West of Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara, Pink Beach is part of Komodo National Park, Indonesia.
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Playa de Ses Illetes, Formentera, Spain
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New Day Cafe Open Thread.
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