January 5, 2017. One-legged Cold and Sea Turtles.

January 5, 2017.  One-legged Cold and Sea Turtles.  I know that it is cold back home.  There are several inches of snow on the ground and the temperature is somewhere in the teens. It will be in the single digits tonight.  But here, it is one-legged cold.  

You are wondering what one-legged cold is, aren't you?  Sure you are.  You've never heard the phrase before have you?  I am sure you haven't because I just made it up.  

In the photos above, you will see sea gulls standing on one leg.  I have seen them do that before, but I haven't thought much about it.  I figured that a one-legged gull had lost a leg in some seaside mishap.  But today, we happened on several dozen gulls who were lounging on the beach.  About half of them were standing on one leg.  That is an unusual number of seaside mishaps.  So tonight, I asked Google why seagulls stand on one leg.  The answer is, "During cold weather they tuck one leg deep within the feathers, keeping it snug and warm . . .they change feet regularly to distribute heat."

Now, it doesn't take much cold to be one-legged cold.  It was 64 degrees this afternoon when the gulls were standing on one leg.  If they were back home, they'd have both legs and their beak tucked under their feathers.  Maybe that's why we don't see many seagulls in the midwest.  

We don't see many sea turtles either.  One washed up on the beach overnight.  Someone, one of the rangers I suppose, flagged it for removal.  Do you see the two small white circles on the left side of the turtle's shell?  Do you know what those are?  I thought they might be barnacles until I looked up "sea turtle transponders."  And, that's what they are.  They are devices which are attached to turtles and transmit a unique number which allows trackers to follow the turtles from one location to another.  The full name of the device is "Passive Integrated Transponder," or PIT, for short.  It is not uncommon for sea turtles to have several PITs attached to their shell. 

Also shown above are a helicopter, fishermen and fisherwomen, flowers, a handsome couple and a lawn mower.  The mower is the most unusual.  It is January 5th and there is a mower mowing grass here.  I suppose the grass grows all year long.  If the mowers are running in January, what month would they not be running?  I can't think of one, can you?

That's today's blog.  I hope you learned something.  I did.  

Goodnight.