Today, I want to tell you about a really cool way to fish - get someone else to do it for you! Or, something.
The photo above is a Double Crested Cormorant. (Click on the link if you'd like to learn a more scientific background on this beautiful bird.) He's been hanging around our lake this Spring, and he is rather hard to catch on film! The thing is - he can dive. For a long time. Often, all I would see was the ripples and rings from his dive, but never the bird himself!
What does he have to do with China? Well, apparently Chinese fishermen used to have pet cormorants that they would use in their fishing. Cormorants are expert fishers, and the fishermen knew this. They would tie a string around the cormorant's neck (to stop it from completely swallowing any fish it caught), send the bird into the water, and then remove whatever fish it caught from the bird's gullet! At the end of the work day, the birds were then rewarded by having the string removed from their throats and they were fed a few of the lovely fish.
Now that is my kind of fishing!
In other news, check out my Sensitive Plant!
It's ALIVE! Lo Gung thinks I torture it - I love to touch the leaves and watch them go crazy. Those small leaves that you see close up like a clam, and the stalk curls down towards the soil. The whole reaction takes 3-5 seconds. I haven't had the patience to see how long it takes for the plant to return to "normal"...but it always does. Oh, and the plant also closes up at night. It's really only "awake" when the sun is on it.
We got back into watching Survivor when they were in China... and they showed this on one of the episodes. Then, this year, The Amazing Race had a road block in China where the contestants had to do this. Hysterical to watch the inexperienced try!
ReplyDeleteYou just couldn't resist throwing a little jello in today, could you? I love plants that react when touched. My son raises carnivorous plants and the venus flytrap is so fun!
ReplyDeleteI just started sensitive plant seeds last week! We'll have to compare progress, as long as I dont' kill mine.... ;) sally
ReplyDeletesensitive plants? fishing by yanking on the necks of birds? i've never heard of either of these things. what an enlightening post!
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