Job Discussion Forums

khmerhit · Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2003 6:21 pm Post subject: Alert Alert -- APB

All units stand by: an English language teaching avatar meeting the description of a well-dressed and fashionable caucasian female with blonde hair and glittering tresses answering to the handle "CaperGirl" is reported missing in cyberspace. All units report...

SHE ----CHANGED---- HER----- A----VA-----TAR------!!!!!!!! Sad

dduck · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 422 Location: In the middle

Any sign of a ransom note yet ? Shocked

Please, please. I'm begging you send her back home safe Crying or Very sad

Iain

Shonai Ben · Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 617

How do you know that she is missing?She may be out enjoying a walk in the fine Nova Scotia weather.

Capergirl · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 9:50 am Post subject:

Look at you...gettin' your kilt all in a bunch over an avatar. Wink

I just thought a puffin is probably a better representation of a Cape Breton gal. What, you no likey? Cool

Shonai Ben · Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 617

Interesting avatar,but I liked your original one better.
It was cool!

lajzar · Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Posts: 647 Location: Saitama-ken, Japan

I concur. The old one was far sexier.

Steiner · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 573 Location: Hunan China

But this one isn't bad for a puffin.

dduck · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 422 Location: In the middle

Canuck2112 · Joined: 13 Jun 2003 Posts: 239

That's a cool looking bird Capergirl...I've never seen it or heard of it before. Where I live, we have the majestic seagull; a bird which has adapted to subsist on McDonalds french fries and orange peels. Truly a noble bird.

Capergirl · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 9:39 pm Post subject:

Well, I'd be shocked by your collective superficiality but you are men, so...*sigh* Twisted Evil

J/K guys...I may bring back blondie at some point, but I kinda like my little puffin. I think he sorta looks like me, actually. Laughing

@Canuck...We have those pudgy seagulls around here, too. My Angolan students call them "chickens from the sea". Wink

johnslat · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 9:44 pm Post subject: Giving us the bird

Dear Capergirl,
Well, I must admit I miss Miss Twinkle. But heck - a woman is only a woman, but a puffin, well, that's some bird.
Regards,
John

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

Dear Capergirl,
I do miss the old avatar, but I went on the site where your old one was and oh my.............. Embarassed

you chose one of the the more conservative pictures.

khmerhit · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 10:46 pm Post subject:

There can be little doubt that the decline in numbers is largely the result of predation by ESL instructors, Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls. Puffins formerly bred on several islands off Yarmouth (Bryant 1857). Harold F. Tufts (1907) found "a few" nesting on Seal Island in mid-June 1907, and Harrison Lewis found only one pair there on 14 July 1912 but did not find their nest. On 19 June 1922 no puffins were breeding there, nor were any seen (R.W. Tufts); the many predatory house cats that roamed there unchecked in 1922 were probably responsible. Seven puffins off Brier Island on 24 May 1969 were possibly late transients, but summer birds occasionally reported near Sable Island and two birds seen by Thomas F.T. Morland on 8 July 1962 some 8 km off Sable River, Shelburne County, were probably non-breeding wanderers. During fall the species occurs as a transient along the coast but is less common there in winter and spring. The birds arrive at the end of September and remain at least until December.

Description Length: 29-34 cm. Adults in breeding plumage: Throat and upperparts glossy black; white below; face pale gray; its large and absurdly shaped bill, nearly as high as it is long and brightly coloured with red, blue and yellow, is most conspicuous; legs and feet reddish. Adults in winter: Most of the horny plates on the outside of the bill have been shed; sides of head are darker gray. Juveniles: Resemble adults in winter but their bills are even smaller.

Breeding Nest: At the end of a burrow in the ground or in a crevice among boulders, sometimes, if not usually, lined with soft nesting material. Eggs: 1; dull white, sometimes showing delicate traces of fine markings about the larger end. Laying begins in late May or early June.

Range Breeds along coasts from Greenland to Maine, and from Iceland and Spitsbergen to Brittany and northeastern Russia. The world centre for the Atlantic Puffin population is Iceland, where many millions breed. In our area it nests from the Maine-New Brunswick border north to southeastern Labrador, rarely in the Hudson Strait. The North American population is about 330,000 pairs, most of which occur in southeastern Newfoundland. In winter, some migrate along the coast as far south as Massachusetts.

Remarks The puffin or "sea parrot," as it is commonly called by fishermen, is readily identified by its parrot-like beak, its bright orange legs and its exceptionally rapid wing-beats. From a boat, I have watched them bringing in food for their young and, as they whirred by overhead, their orange legs conspicuously straddled far apart, have noted that the fare invariably consisted of small, slender eel-like fishes which trailed or dangled from their beaks. It seemed that these fishes were captured a considerable distance seaward from the colony, which suggests they were not available nearby.