IF YOU HEAR THE WORD "AQUARIUM"... and immediately think "fishies," well, you're swimming in the right current, for many fin-rocking, gill-sporting denizens call an aquarium home. In fact, if you were asked to guess how many sardines live at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, you might be inclined to answer somewhere in the neighborhood of a sardmillion, which is kind of like an actual million, only specifically for sardines. And while a lot of glub-glub gill owners do call an aquarium their main address, so do furry superstars, too — helloooooo, otters — and birds. For shores and birds are a strong duo, so much so that a full-on name may be applied to our avian pals who live by the water: shorebird. But if you think you know your shorebirds, and where they congregate, and how they find food, and how they approach the surf and dash away again (a scene so endearingly comic to our human eyes that Pixar celebrated it in the short film "Piper"), well, you probably do, for many people do dearly love water-close birds. If that is you, shorebird buff, then check out the...
NEWEST WALLPAPER... from the Cannery Row favorite. It's a black-necked stilt, looking "statuesque" thanks, in large part, to those long, long legs. In fact, this shorebird, which may be seen around "fresh or salty shallow sloughs and grassy marshlands," has the "...second-longest legs in proportion to its body for any bird." The first in that category? It's the flamingo, you betcha. If you want to see a black-necked stilt in person, and you're not near a shallow slough, but you can make it to the aquarium's Sandy Shore & Aviary exhibit, then go for it. Or, to admire it every day, several times a day, download the free wallpaper now and sweeten up your nearest screen.
