Wildlife Wednesday - dead thing (with pics)

I know I was going to do things I knew from now on... but that was before this washed up on our beach. It's too incredible not to share with you. Well, I hope you don't mind blubbery mess photos.

So, on Tuesday, Mr E comes home from his morning (think dark of morning, not when the sun shines - a time I know nothing about except for when I'm reading a good book and get carried away and haven't yet slept!) walk and says, "When the tide goes out, you have to see this whale on the beach." We had a whale washed up on our beach a few years back, so I was imagining that sort of thing (a whole whale that was identifiable).

We go down to the beach later in the day at a reasonable hour when the tide is no longer covering the whale. And this is what I see!

"Is it a whale?" I ask, while covering my nose and then pinching it tight because the stench is horrendous.

I can't talk or breathe any more, so I shoot some pics, thinking that I'll identify the mess when I get home and my eyes aren't watering from the awful awful smell. And yes, there was a man fishing, in the zone of the smell - he must have had dead olfactory senses!

I look at these photos and I've no idea what it is. I guess it has to be some type of whale because it's big (maybe 3 m long or so), and that bone sticking up is huge (maybe close to 60 cm across). But I'm guessing with measurements here because I had to run from the smell! But look at how many footprints it takes for us to walk past it - it would have to be 3 or 4 m long.

So... a couple of days later (I forget what happened but I didn't get there the next day - must have gone out or something), I went down to take another look and get some more photos...and there wasn't much left!

We've had a lot of beach erosion lately due to changes in our beach last June (when the old river mouth opened due to flooding). So our dunes are ripped right back to half what they were. And the old river mouth is filling back up, so there is some sand deposition...but I didn't think there was enough sand being tossed back on short to cover this up!

There weren't any tracks from machinery, although they may have been washed away, but if machinery did it, why did they leave the bone?

My Dad said crabs would have picked it clean this quickly! Wow! Just wow! I've seen hardly any crabs at our beach, but I guess they could have all come for a feast - it certainly would have been worth their while! And there are birds. Fish may have helped too at high tide.

It's pretty impressive that the ocean can get rid of big secrets so quickly, isn't it?

If we hadn't gone down that first day, I would have thought Mr E was hallucinating in the early morning shadows!

If you're a carcase expert and you know what my mystery creature is, please feel free to share :)


Oh... more to add to this. Today (14th Feb), maybe 10 days after the mystery, a non-mystery washed up on the beach. So I went and took some photos and looked at the size. Today's dead fur seal, which you can read about here, was about one third of the size of the mystery carcase. So although I was a bit hesitant about the size of the mystery, today I'm very confident that it was BIG and whale size.

I stuck a footprint near the seal (not too near, this one stank too!) so you can get an idea of the size. And then I dug out some photos from the last whale that washed up, and I remember the size of that one didn't seem too huge, until you were right near it. It was startling for me to realise how big our beach was, and that there could be 100s of whales out there and you'd never know.

Sunday Story - music and mood

Photo from: http://inxs.com/band/

I used to listen to a lot of music - different things for different moods. Music was a constant presence in my world. And then I got Ross River Fever and now I have sensitivities to things like noise. ARGH! Which means music! So now music is for when I feel good and am doing something that requires no concentration, like housework. Music isn't a huge part of my life anymore (I don't often do housework!!) and often I don't notice it.

But last Sunday night we had shown INXS Never Tear Us Apart, a telemovie about the band (okay, so I watched it today, Saturday, because I had to watch Torah Bright at the Olympics, and if not her, it would have been Rake, but it was up there!).

INXS were one of my bands in my teenage years. Lord! Michael Hutchence could move like sin and sing like sex, as he grooved his way into almost every female teenage heart in Australia. He was a rock god. I remember Mum not being terribly happy about INXS on Count Down, or my attempts at gyrating around the lounge room. So I wasn't allowed to own an INXS album. My friend taped hers for me (The Swing and Shabooh Shoobah). They were hidden from my Mum for my night time indulgences, quietly played on my tape recorder while I feel asleep.

Watching INXS on TV brought back all those memories. My teenage frustrated lust for an unobtainable sexy rock god. My confusion at my mother's reactions. My total worship of the band. My heartfelt thanks to my friend for the tapes. Oh, the music. The sex. The way that man moved. It all filled me with every bit of teenage angst and want and need.

There's something about music that can flick my mood or take me back to a single point in time. It's magical.

I sometimes wish I could write to music. Imagine writing a raunchy sex scene with Michael Hutchence whispering just to me, through my earbuds. Oh, the joy of that :)

Did you watch INXS? Do you have a favourite band?

Phallic Friday - gay footy player?

So...Naughty Ninjas launch today!! WooooHooooo!!

If you'd like to win an $80 Amazon Gift Card, sign up to the newsletter today. Just visit the Naughty Ninja website here. Down the bottom of the main page is a subscribe to the newsletter button. Click it...it will be worthwhile!! :)



Now, to my Phallic Friday thoughts...

I just read this news article (you can read it here) about a college football player in the US who is openly gay (he's 24) and wants to play in the NFL. There's uproar! Apparently having an openly gay man playing football will upset the locker room, the team, the fans, etc etc etc.

Oh My!

I thought America had a much more tolerant attitude to homosexuals than Australia - largely because of the acceptance of gay marriage and the acceptance of high profile gay people. But wow. This is making me re-think my views on America.

It's always confused me that erotica is fine in some parts of the US and under the carpet in other parts. That sometimes our Aussie covers are deemed too risque for the US market. That sometimes our book titles are too confronting. And yet... America is supposed to be the home of democracy and choice.

Yet, with this story comes a whole heap of other sides.

It's not that much different to here - so long as it's not in my backyard, it's okay! I hate that attitude.

It's got to be okay with individuals on a one-on-one level first before it's okay in the big wide world.

Until people can be comfortable with other people, acceptance on a societal level will never happen. And that's sad.

When I was just out of school, I had a job where I worked (and spent a lot of time out of work at sport and social events) with a lot of gay women. Being young and naive, I didn't know they were gay for a very long time. And when I first found out, I freaked (not in front of them - but at home by myself). I knew a lot of gay men and I was totally okay with the homosexual thing. But when it's women, and you could be the target of their 'crazy lust', it puts a whole different spin on things. And I did take a while to work out for myself that if they hadn't in their 'crazy lust', had their wicked way with my naive, innocent self...then they were unlikely to push themselves on me when I knew they were gay. My knowledge, or lack of it, made no difference in the scheme of things. So after a few days of soul-searching, I realised I was being an idiot. They were my friends, gay or straight. It made no difference.

Since then I've lived in country towns with gay couples in the town. I know there's a superficial level of acceptance but sometimes there's fear of the unknown too. People make snide jokes, people worry about being 'corrupted', people talk behind their backs. It's not quite as acceptable as we like to pretend.

I think we have to make personal changes before anything will change. Each person need to look at their thoughts, examine facts, rationalise their way of thinking and see if they're right or if they need to change their attitude.

Will there ever be equality? What are your thoughts?

Wildlife Wednesday - bug

I saw this guy on the bathroom floor the other night. I only noticed it because of the massively long antennae. Huge, aren't they?

So... I thought it would be easy to identify (why do I always think that?).

I did a Google search and there are photos like this on US websites were someone says they're cricket nymphs. But... I can't find an Aussie picture of a reputable website to make me feel happy with that definition.

In the back of my mind is something telling me that the massively long antennae are a key feature... but blowed if I can remember what of!

And I'm not sure those legs look like jumping legs. Wish I took better photos - but it was 1 am or something!

But it's not a termite (phew!), or a cockroach, so it must be something like a cricket or grasshopper or something like that, surely.

I'm getting some more pictures of things I know :) It's demoralising not to know what it is!