Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Floyd's Secret Mission

Philbert here...

My humans have FINALLY  decided to try to locate the missing member of our flock. The following is the story of Percy and Floyd. I thought you all would like to be in on the secret. This information is also found on geocaching.com if you would like to know more. Keep in mind this is all TOP SECRET!

Hello, you have intercepted our secret impostor flamingo “Floyd”.  Floyd is a member of the FBI (Fenominal Bird Investigators – birds that can't spell, just investigate).  He is on a secret mission to discover what happened to Percy de Mingo, a dearly loved member of DNRSeekers flock of feathered and not so feathered flamingos.  Percy was trying to get home after a tragic “separation” accident in Colorado back in 2012.  As a result of his accident he was headed back to meet up with his flock at cache GC543V7 (Mary's Mingo Manor Travel Bug Hotel).  All was going well on his trip for quite a while. Hew was checking in regularly.  He had nearly made it home when as suddenly as he had become separated from his flock he went MISSING!   Repeated attempts were made to contact Percy but all met with no success.  Cachers who had met Percy along his journey were interviewed.  All to no avail though.  Percy remains MIA.

The big birds at the FBI decided a new approach was needed to find Percy de Mingo and get him home.  A plan was hatched that involved sending an impostor dressed as Percy to retrace his steps/flaps on the journey to Mingo Manor from Colorado.  The personnel files were preened, I mean combed, for just the right bird to fill the bill.  In the end Floyd Flamingo was chosen.  Floyd is a bird of few words.  He rarely speaks at all actually.  None the less he is a real sleuth (not sloth) in the field of bird recovery.  He will be wearing a disguise that looks nearly identical to Percy de Mingo himself.  Our impostor Floyd will even be wearing the same ID tag as that of Percy.  With this plan in motion we hope clues can be discovered as to Percy's whereabouts!

Our impostor must look and act exactly as Percy did so with this in mind we are unable to equip our impostor with a cell phone to keep us informed as to clues he may discover along his journey or even his whereabouts as he travels.  We are hoping you can help Floyd check in and relay clues and whereabouts during his mission.  Please move Floyd along towards Indiana unless he has gotten wind of clues concerning the whereabouts of Percy.  In that case please help him to get to wherever he needs to go to gather more information that could lead to the recovery of Percy. 

Floyd's mission will end when he is able to return to us and personally revel his findings of his espionage and adventure.  Our flock is anxiously awaiting this news so the sooner the better.  We are all gathered at GC543V7 (Mary's Mingo Manor Travel Bug Hotel). Please send Floyd on that way as soon as he is ready.   Do not revel Floyd’s secret mission to those not familiar with the intricacies of trackable movements and logging.   And  keep in mind he is not the real bird Percy de Mingo who looks and answers to the same tag.  He is just a secret agent bird trying to retrace Percy’s flight home and find the missing bird.

 I sure hope it works!!

This is the original Percy De'Mingo. This is the last known picture of him before his tragic accident.

Getting together with friends on the plane. Percy (left), Arnold Piggywinkle - (a seasoned travel bug with whom Percy became good friends. He is in the center with the big nose), and Philbert (right) get together on the seat back tray table and await the arrival of the infamous "bag of peanuts" on the flight out west with Diane (not pictured).

Floyd Flamingo Private Eye-Investigator Extraordinaire!

Floyd and some friends searching for Percy.

Floyd after another relentless day of searching.
Yes, exhaustion has over come him (or perhaps it was the pint of ale that his friend the moose shared with him? - "Flamingos can't handle their ale too whale" were his last words....)

Stay tuned--I'll keep you updated on Percy, Floyd and their humans.


Sunday, October 11, 2015

The Missing Bird...

Sorry I've been M.I.A.  My humans bought a new nest and worked and worked and worked to get it phlock ready. It's really a pretty nice habitat. There's even a geocache on the premises…and another within flying distance. For you non-flying humans, you can canoe or kayak out to the second geocache.


Pretty nice, eh? Of course, the place looks much better now. It even has a name…are you ready for it? It is...

Isn't that the greatest? My humans love me so much they named their nest after me. And had a sign made up special and had it shipped from England. 

So when they aren't slaving away on the nest, the humans have done some traveling. I've gotten to see a lot of the United States…places like Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, MIssissippi, New Mexico, and Arizona, Utah, Colorado (I even got to sit on the Four Corners!) and Michigan. For a big trip, I even flew across the pond to Scotland!  I tried to get into Eilean Donan Castle, but the gate keeper wasn't too keen on my being there...

 So I've been having adventures, just not telling you all about them. I'll try to do better.

Yesterday the humans went on a geocaching expedition. They were in search of trackables. It seems they are difficult to find in Indiana as the humans don't know how to keep track of them. Tracking trackables? I guess it's on of those easier said than done things. But they sent one on it's way…

And do you notice the swag they sent along? Yup. A bendable me. 

Flying off to figure out how to hide more caches, set up more waymarks, and keep on traveling.

Philbert