I `tweet` under the name of `mudskipper` should you wish to read my comments which cover pretty much everything except sex, lies and videotape. Nothing whatsoever on celebrities. Or body fluids.
Someone did enquire why I called myself `mudskipper`. Well in truth because I thought to be anonymous. Then realising this was pointless, I found my name was taken. Lawyer, dentist, designer – hundreds of Christine Osborne`s are dotted around. Especially in America.
A post on Twitter referred to having a `lower intelligence than a mudskipper` but I chose the name because since childhood in Australia, I have loved these bonny little critters of the tidal mudflats.
As much at home on land as in water, they are always hopping between one and the other. The way I saw myself, until now somewhat restricted following my accident in Egypt.
So`mudskipper` it is. A member of the Gobiidae family using its pectoral fins to walk, hop and skip about on moist land. Vigorously territorial, they can also flip themselves up to 60cm in the air, if defending their burrow. Good on the mudskipper!
c.Christine Osborne Image: Lubos Mraz www.naturphoto.cz. Image: Tidal mudflats habitat www.copix.co.uk www.twitter.com/mudskipper
What a nice post. I had never even known mudskippers existed. They sound typical unusual Australian fauna -that's a country I must revisit one day. Last time I went I nearly sat on a trapdoor spider.
Every time I go back to Oz, there is a spider, usually a tarantaula, waiting for me. Aaagh! My sister regularly finds funnel webs in her garden in central Sydney.
Oz gets the prize for the most and most varied creepy-crawlies, but also for some of the most beautiful and fascinating fauna.