Yesterday one of the visitors showed up with a noddy tern that was waterlogged. He'd be okay once he dried out a bit, but the larger problem of rescuing every creature that is in peril actually short-circuits the great Circle of Life. Some people just don't want to acknowledge this. Ranger Kim has a similar observation on this...
The Mailboat
Listen, bleeding hearts:
Some noddys fly, some noddys die.
Fact of life. Sorry.
Can't deal with it? Too bad. Take your dolly and go play somewhere else.
I have bathrooms to clean.
Anyway-They wanted us to nurse it back to health so all would be right with the world...
Right.
So...
Dutiful little Junior Rangers that we are, we take said Feathered Friend and put him in a critter cage and wait until the boats have departed for the day...
He got all dried out during the wait and was looking fairly well...
We dug out a kayak and I sent Hunter and the Naughty Noddy over to Bush Key.
I sent the pair off across the channel and kept a weather-eye on them as she delivered him safely to the beach.
Well... Since we have the kayak out anyway...Why don't we do a little moat patrol?
The moat is a never-ending source of trouble.
First, it is well populated with big, dumb mangrove snappers.
(The problem with big dumb snappers is that they are beggars... and the visitors like to share their lunches with yon fish. Hence, the snappers have developed tumors and galls and other growths from eating too much potato salad and the pre-processed semiboneless supermeat that the Yankee and Sunny Days pass off as Deli Ham.)
But, since they are big and dumb, people want to fish in the moat... But I'll tell ya, as much as I like fried snapper, I wouldn't touch these with a ten-foot chopstick.
Second, there are lots and lots and lots of Cassiopia jellyfish living in the moat. The water in the moat is a trip to hell lined with nematocysts if you piss off the jellyfish.
Third - (and the object of the lesson, here) Visitors don't pay attention, or simply don't care about what they are doing here, and thus, a cornucopia of wind-blown trash winds up in the moat every day. Plastic cups, paper plates, wrappers from the knife-fork-spoon-napkin package, soft drink cans, hats, t-shirts and frisbees all wind up floating in the moat.
Well... The moat is off limits to the public, since we don't want to have to do hours of jellyfish-sting-abatement procedures all the live-long day...Unfortunately it falls to us, yer humble volunteers, to fish little suzie's ball, grandpa's straw hat, and Skippy's frisbee out of the moat.I have become deft at snagging items with the extendable boathook... But upon occasion, it calls for a little more hands-on to keep the moat clean...
Soooo....
Steer clear of the snappers.
Careful... that paper cup is down pretty deep... Don't disturb the jellyfish down there.
Hey- you missed a spot up under the sally port...
One sack full of moat trash later, we called it a day...
TBG out-
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