I was at Navy Pier in downtown Chicago yesterday for the Flower and Garden Show. It was a beautiful day and the pier was crowded with people enjoying the sunshine. We sat down for a few minutes to look out over the lakefront when a gull started making noise. This is such a common bird I often overlook them, but this one was calling attention to himself.
This is a Ring-billed Gull, a medium sized gull named for the black ring that circles the beak. They can be found across the United States and southern Canada. They are a year-round resident in the Chicago area although some of them do migrate south in the winter. Usually found in large groups near beaches and other waterways, they can often be seen circling parking lots or at sporting events scavenging for garbage. They are sometimes called the “fast food gull”.
They are social birds and don’t mind people. They were hovering over anyone walking on the pier who was trying to enjoy a snack and hoping for a handout. These are the same birds that make a nuisance of themselves by landing in Wrigley Field during baseball games and buzzing the fans.
In the late 19th century, this bird was hunted for its plumage. Its population has since rebounded from protection under the Migratory Bird Act and environmental regulations. It is now one of the most common gulls in North America.
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
Thank you!
Thanks to all the visitors, old and new, who stopped by and entered the giveaway for a copy of May the Road Rise Up to Meet You by Peter Troy, from Doubleday Books, and for my audiobook copy of Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan on the Lunar Love Hop.
And now for the winners:
AEKZ2 (Annette)
and
Dianne
Each won a copy of May the Road Rise Up to Meet You.
Kendra
won an audiobook copy of Glow.
More Opportunities To Win:
I’ll be participating in the Spring Cleaning Giveaway Hop which takes place March 20th to 25th. Time to free up some space on my shelves.
Also, in the next few days I will be posting a giveaway of two copies of The Good Father by Noah Hawley. I have almost finished reading this book and I can already say it is excellent.
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. The March host is Anna of Diary of an Eccentric.
From Penguin for review:
The Widow’s Daughter
by Nicholas Edlin
A spellbinding story of love, war, and betrayal.
Peter Sokol, an artist living in San Diego, is haunted by his past. In 1943, Captain Sokol is a surgeon in the U.S. Marines stationed in Auckland, New Zealand, where he and his longtime nemesis have fallen in love with the same beautiful and enigmatic woman, Emily Walters. Dismissive of Emily’s suspiciously British mother and violent brother, the two vie for her hand. When Emily’s brother is discovered murdered, Sokol is the prime suspect. As he fights to prove his innocence, he finds that the woman he loves is not who she seems.
From FSB for review:
Gossip
by Beth Gutcheon
An astute chronicler of everything that makes us human, Beth Gutcheon delivers her most powerful and emotionally devastating novel to date. Gossip is a tale of intimacy and betrayal, trust and fidelity, friendship, competition, and motherhood that explores the myriad ways we use and abuse “information” about others—be it true, false, or imagined—to sustain, and occasionally destroy, one another.
From Penguin Audio for review:
Tough Sh*t: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good by Kevin Smith
Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son by Anne Lamott
The Thief (Isaac Bell #5) by Clive Cussler
Chasing Midnight by Randy Wayne White
How was your week?
Immortality, Inc.
by Robert Sheckley
Narrated by Bronson Pinchot
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Publish Date: January 1, 2012
Format: Unabridged MP3 CD, 5 hours | 48 minutes
Rating: 4 of 5
Welcome to a world which has conquered death. A world where one can live again and again in a new body and ultimately gain entrance into the hereafter. If you have the money to pay for it.
Thomas Blaine was driving down the New Jersey Turnpike when his car suddenly swerves and crashes into oncoming traffic. When he wakes up he hears someone say, “He’s alive now”, followed by a discussion of his ‘death trauma’. Thomas soon discovers that he has been snatched from the moment of death, transported to the year 2110 and deposited into a host body to be a part of an advertising campaign by the Rex Corporation, a manufacturer of power systems. But body stealing is illegal, the ad campaign is cancelled and Thomas is free to leave. And he can keep the body, or so he is lead to believe.
Thomas is a yacht designer from the year 1958; everything in this future world is foreign to him. The first mistake he makes is to stand in a long of line people only to find out it is for a suicide booth. The next person he meets, a much too friendly stranger, treats him to a night on the town and then tries to steal his body. Staying out of trouble is going to be a challenge.
Written in 1959, this classic science fiction novel was the winner of the Hugo award and the basis for the movie Freejack. A little dated by today’s standards, yes, but put yourself in the 50s, and it was an innovative book. Attitudes towards women were typical of the time and if you can overlook that, the writing is quick, witty and often humorous. It’s a good example of how much science fiction writing has changed in the past 50 years.
I listened to the audiobook which was wonderfully performed by Bronson Pinchot. His fast and fun delivery made me laugh out loud more than a few times. He gave life to characters that could have been stale or cliché if I were reading instead of listening.
Recommended for a few escapist, fun hours of good old fashioned science fiction.
Source: Review copy from Blackstone Audio, reviewed for Audiobook Jukebox.
During the winter American Robins form large flocks and many migrate to warmer climates. Some flocks will stay in colder areas if they can find food, usually hanging out in parks or forest preserves.
A sure sign of spring is the sight of a robin poking around in a suburban backyard. Several times this week I saw a robin in my yard checking out the real estate, hopping from tree to tree, gazing across the landscape, and using the bird bath. The males scout out the nesting areas prior to the arrival of the females.
Robins are one of my favorite subjects to photograph. They don’t mind people, are very approachable and will often hold a pose. This one never left his meal while a group of over a dozen people walked past.
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
The Lunar Love Giveaway Hop begins on March 8th, the day of the full moon, and continues through March 13th. This hop features paranormal, supernatural, science fiction or space travel books or those that have something to do with the moon or have a moon on their cover. Our hosts are I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and Bookworm Lisa.
New visitors, feel free to take a look around. I’m an eclectic reader who enjoys a wide range of subjects. Science and speculative fiction are two of my favorite genres. If you’ve been here before you probably know I take a lot of photos and some of my favorite subjects are birds, wildlife, flowers and nature scenes.
My Giveaway
I am offering an audiobook of Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan, the first book in the Sky Chasers series. Click HERE to read my review.
Glow (Sky Chasers #1)
by Amy Kathleen Ryan
Read by: Ilyana Kadushin and Matthew Brown
Genre: YA, Science Fiction
Format: Audio CD | 10 Hours
How to Enter
- Contest is open to those with an address in US or Canada, age 13 or older.
- To enter, leave a comment. You don’t have to be a follower or subscriber to enter, but new followers are always appreciated.
- For an extra entry, tweet the giveaway and leave the URL to the tweet in a second comment. (Click on the time stamp link of the tweet and copy the URL that appears in the address bar.)
- The deadline for entry is midnight, March 13th. I will draw one random winner who will be contacted by email and will have 48 hours to respond with a mailing address.
Before you leave, check the sidebar for some more great giveaways. Then hop over to one of the many other participating blogs in the Lunar Hop. Click HERE for a list.
Contest is now closed.
Almost Wordless: The plants are waiting for warmer weather before leaving the greenhouse at Cantigny Gardens.
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More Wordless Wednesday.
Under My Apple Tree 