Spooky Dining

Halloween home decor! I really love these crow/skull salt and pepper shakers. Makes your goulash ghoulish!

Exceptional Neck Moves

 

All mammals have 7 vertebrae in their neck- Including giraffes.

BUT! The swan has 23 neck vertebrae. This gives it a power of neck flexibility (nexability?) that is truly, truly outrageous.

So Widdle!

The world's smallest bird is the hummingbird.

In holding this title, hummingbirds are also in possession of the tiniest bird feet.

Apparently, it is a popular aviary myth that hummingbirds do not have feet at all. But as you can see, they do! Their proportionally long talons make them excellent perchers. BUT- their legs are so stubby that walking is not typical or indeed feasible.

Good thing they are wondrous fliers, and spend almost all their time in mind-boggling flight.

Meet Manukura

The first all-white kiwi bird to be born in captivity in New Zealand since 1915! His name, given by the local Maori tribe in Wellington means "chiefly one". VIA

The Three Caballeros - 1944

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, enjoy the signature number from Disney's strange celebration of Latino culture. 



Donald Duck receives a magical birthday present that transports him to an abstract plane of existence. Here, he learns all about the cultures of Mexico and Brazil in a singing, dancing tourism fiesta. That's some gift!

This film is way less racist than many of the cartoons about "the other" from this period, mostly because it's celebrating the multiculturalism and the positive aspects of these countries, not just stereotyping them through one character. It's also one of the first movies to combine cartoons and live action together.

I also like this because it focuses on bird-heroes, and the birds have awesome names. Panchito Pistoles! You can't top that.

Is it time for a Corona yet?

Bird Ally

One of the thing I like to do when we go up to Wells ME is visit the Rachel Carson Bird Sanctuary. It's got really nice walking trails that wind through the woods and lead you out to stunning vistas of the ocean.



Rachel Carson is a pretty important lady, a friend to the birds. She was the first to question the environmental costs of pesticides, and helped bring the environmental movement into consciousness in the 1960's.

Today, as gigantic agra-business sell us food made with secret proprietary chemicals, and factory farms overburden the land, it seems like a strong voice like hers could really be helpful. Nowadays though, I think poor Rachel Carson would have to be a big-breasted movie star or an eccentric billionaire to get anybody to listen to her.

Birds in Spring - 1933

Hey! A 'toon on one of my favorite topics! The beginning chronicles how warmer weather encourages feathered friends to get all sorts of sexy. The bulk of the story is devoted to a little punk fledgling who thinks he can make it on his own. Hey kid - you're no Lil' Brudder!



The very end of the clip is interesting though - Disney totes condones corporal punishment for foolhardy youths! And who knew you could pull down a bird's feathers like they were pants!

But who WAS that masked fellow?

I have a new favorite bird I think: The Cedar Waxwing!

via:sausalcreek.org

 

There is a great flock of about 40 of them who hang out by my office window, gluttonously eating the remaining berries they can find on the winter bushes and flying about in unison.

I like them very much, mostly because they look like superheroes with their masks on!

via: http://comstockmtn.com

 

But also because they are soooooo romantic:

"During courtship the male and female will sit together and pass small objects back and forth, such as flower petals or an insect. Mating pairs will sometimes rub their beaks together affectionately."

 image via http://www.symbolicmessengers.com/Mimids.html

D'awww!

But I don't LOVE love you....

I posted recently about the Kakapo, New Zealand's nearly extinct flightless parrot. While I still think that these dapper little birds are pretty awesome, I might stop short of wearing that "I heart Kakapos" t-shirt now...



I really wouldn't want the little guys to get the wrong idea!

Kakapos like it rough.

Terror Birds: Aptly Named.

I was thinking earlier about the flightless birds of the world. It seems like they generally fall into two categories. First being "cute, harmless and prone to extinction." See the Kiwi,  Dodo bird (although they're not that cute),and the adorably anthropomorphous Kakapo of New Zealand.

.

(image via)

Honestly, these guys are so cute and awesome. I want one of the 120 surviving birds to be my pet.

The second category of flightless birds is "huge, awful and terrifying." See the Ostrich and the Cassowary. They're the kind of birds that can look you in the eye before injuring you in some unspeakable way. As scary as these living monsters are though, their prehistoric ancestors were even worse!

Behold the Phorusrhacidae, giant predator birds from 20 million years in the past, more accurately and colloquially known as "terror birds".

A selection of terror birds, with an outline of a doomed man for scale. A - Brontornis burmeisteri; B - Paraphysornis brasiliensis; C - Phorusrhacos longissimus; D - Andalgalornis steuletti; E - Psilopterus bachmanni; F - Psilopterus lemoinei; G - Procariama simplex; H - Mesembriornis milneedwardsi and the silhouette of a man (1.75 m high) for scale (Herculano M.F. Alvarenga)

The largest species pictured here, Brontornis burmeisteri was 9 feet tall and weighed 800 pounds. Their size wasn't the scariest part of these monsters though. Their massive hooked beak (like a bald eagle's) gave them some pretty amazing eating abilities:

"An ostrich, the largest living bird, can swallow an apple. But a phorusrhacid could swallow a medium-sized dog in one gulp"- Herculano Alvarenga, a terror-bird expert

Scientists also estimate that these guys could run as fast as 30 miles per hour. That's enough to outrun a human (we go about 28)! 

I'm very glad that these feathered fiends are relegated to the distant past. It's sad though that awesome and adorable flightless parrots seemed destined to meet the same fate. But at least they have a legitimate excuse, what with being slow, chubby, and tiny vegetarians and all.

 Outline man waves to show his approval for a much more favorable modeling partner 

Also, PS, I think I wanna buy this shirt now.

Owls in Disguise

Animals that can dramatically change their appearance are amazing and kind of scary. This guy, the Southern White-Faced Owl, hails from South Africa. His name is Popo-chan and he's only a handful of transfigurations away from being the mimic octopus of the sky.



This video is also a reminder that Japanese TV is stranger, but perhaps weirdly better than ours.

Fish are Friends, not Food.

On our first day in Baltimore, we went to the national aquarium. It really is a world-class museum. The exhibits went beyond being just informative, they were visually stunning and some were just plain innovative. They had a few that were like walking into a giant terrarium, incorporating native plants, animals and birds into the habitat. They even adjusted the climate of these exhibits, to make you feel totally immersed in the environment.

It was a fun way to spend the day. My favorites were the lion fish, the dolphin tank, and the seahorses. I had least favorites too....

3 Scariest Creatures at the National Aquarium

1. Southern Stingrays, 6 feet long. Totally thought the people swimming in the tank were going to get Irwined.



2. Blind Tetras. Little fish that are born with eyes but lose them weeks into life.


3. Mud-skippers, evolution's most indecisive freak.

If you are ever in Baltimore, I would say that this is the best thing to see. We spent the whole day there and enjoyed it greatly.

That night, we drove out to the Broadway Diner for dinner - featured on "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives"



We got an unbelievable amount of delicious food for cheap. The portions are huge, and it made me sad we didn't have a fridge in our hotel room. It's a neat place, an intersection of fine dining and greasy diner in a surprisingly complimentary way.

Birds of a Feather

I've been getting really into bird watching again. Right now, with the migrations and whatnot, we're getting a great number and variety of birds at our feeder. Yesterday, there was a huge flock of dark-eyed juncos (which really sounds like a slur) in the yard. At least 30 of them, scratching for food on the ground. When I went out to refill the feeder, they all took flight, and it was really quite amazing.



My new favorite at the feeder is the red-breasted nuthatch. I was always fond of its bigger, white breasted cousin and his habit for going down trees face first. This little guy has a cool racing stripe across his eyes that looks just like our state bird, the black-capped chickadee.



It's kind of cool actually, these two birds seems to have a verry friendly relationship in nature. It might have something to do with their similar markings, or maybe it's because their calls are alike, but there's lots of evidence that nuthatches are able to understand the distress calls that chickadees make. There has also been instances of the two species sharing nests and child rearing duties. And as a matter of fact, the nuthatches at our feeder seem to roam around with a gang of chickadee buddies. BFFs forever!

Spirit Animal

We went up to Wells last weekend, the last beach trip of the summer. It was kind of sad. I'm kind of in disbelief that it's the 20th of September already. The month is slipping by like crazy!

This last trip up I made a trip to my favorite bookstore in the world: Harding's Books. This place is amazing, you can find all sorts of really cool stuff there. I found a book of national geographic photographs from the 1900's called "Scenes from Everyplace," and a LIFE magazine from the 50's with the dancers from "Oklahoma" on the cover. The real reason I love going here though is for the print room.

I like to get myself one nice print every time I come here. It's also where I purchased my bridesmaid gifts.

They had these really beautiful star charts that I wanted to get this time, but they were over $100 each.

Instead I got this print of "Resplendent Trogon" from John George Woods "Animate Creation" (1898).

The Resplendent Trogon is better known as the Quetzal, a bird that was sacred to the Aztecs and the Mayans. It is a symbol of goodness, light and hope, and was associated heavily with the tribal fight for independence over colonial forces. There is even evidence that the Mayans designed their temples to echo the sound of the bird's distinctive chirping call.

The bird is typically 14 inches long, but a male has an additional 25 inches of tail plumage. Wow!

Last 5 Books I Read

"Hope is the Thing with Feathers" by Christopher Cokinos.

Being as curious about birds and avian life as I am, this book was a really interesting and fun read. The title also references Emily Dickinson, so throw on a few extra cool points for that. The author, a former Audubon council president, takes us through the stories behind the extinction of several vanished North American species. It reveals a lot, not just about the behaviors and history of these long-gone birds, but also about the historical attitudes of humans toward our wildlife. I sent this book on to Tim in Vegas, hoping he'd appreciate the odd humor and great factoids this book carries about birds.

"Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

I decided that I wanted to read this book before Robert Pattinson finishes making a movie of it, and it becomes a total fan-girl wasteland. It was actually quite good. You could really tell that the author put a lot of time and energy into researching the traveling train circuses of yore. She also did a good job alternating between the hero in the past and present, keeping his voice consistent. I did find it a little predictable though. A good, quick read with lots of fun scenes, plus the awesomeness of a sassy elephant.

"A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

I really really enjoyed this book. The characters are rich and the backdrop of New Orleans is really vibrant. Ignacius Reilly is a really horrible person, but you can't help but be fascinated by his incredibly narrow and self-righteous world view. I laughed out loud more than once reading it, particularly in the scenes with octogenarian secretary Miss Trixie. My favorite read in this batch o' 5.

"A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens

This classic had some really really amazing parts, but also some really really boring parts that I found myself slogging through. Overall though, I'd say it as one of the best Victorian novels that I've read. The scenes depicting the French revolution were especially graphic and engrossing, and Madame Defarge is a memorable, crazy bitch. Also, Lucie was a prime example of this. So hot.

"Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton

Not to be confused with a novelization of the movie! My book even has a "Soon to be a major motion picture" emblem on the cover. If you like the movie (and who doesn't?), I say reading the book is totally worthwhile, because there's more of everything! Way more scenes with dinos attacking, way more John Hammond being a self-centered jerk, and more exposition around why and how the dinos start to mate. Also, it's revealed that the dinos have already escaped from the park and are wreaking havoc on the mainland within the first 10 pages of the book. Other important differences include; Dr. Grant loves kids, Ellie is way younger and hotter and engaged to somebody else, The little girl doesn't know shit about being a hacker and is actually younger than the boy, and the mathematician is not actually Jeff Goldblum. I read this in like 3 days, it's a good beach read thriller.

On wing

Birds I saw today:

-Robin
-Red Winged Blackbird
- American Goldfinch, female
-Common Grackle
- Tufted Titmouse
-Black-capped chickadee
-White-Breasted Nuthatch, my favorite
- Mourning Dove

Also, a baby bunny.

Bird Report

Today I saw a bird in the yard that I'd never seen before. About a foot long, spotted all over, with a red crest on the back of it's head, and a black one on its chest.

I'm almost positive it was a Northern Flicker, the misfit woodpecker. Instead of rapping trees like its cousins, it spends 95% of the time foraging for insects on the ground. It's a veritable anteater, devouring more ants than any other type of bird, and complete with a long flicking tongue.

I watched it hop around the side of my house for a solid 10 minutes with my binoculars, waiting for it to fly off so I could see the bright yellow undersides of their wings. I hope my neighbors don't think I'm a creepy perv, trying to peek in their windows.

"Birds of Pray"

Threadless never disappoints.

Our New Neighbors

How exciting! My blog is exactly 1 year old today. Happy Birthday Blogz!

Also soon to celebrate a birthday are the baby birds in our car port. I'm pretty sure they are House Finches - Carpodacus Mexicanus. I saw the beautiful red-splashed male hanging around recently.

House Finches were originally indigenous to the west coast. In the 40's, New York city pet shops started selling them as "Hollywood Finches". But, as they are native N. American birds, it makes it illegal to capture and sell them. When word got out, it wasn't long before wild flocks of them started appearing near Long Island.

Now, 70 years later they have established themselves as common species from Michigan to South Carolina. Adaptable, abundant friends!

Merlin

I wanted to write a post about this amazing falcon I read about in my bird book, The Merlin : Falco columbarius. Once upon a time, these 9 to 13 inch-tall birds were the most popular trained hunting bird in Europe. Why?

"Birds of prey are specialists. Some hunt from perches; others search for victims while soaring overhead. Falcons, in turn, have been specially crafted for expertise at intercepting prey in open flight. And, ounce for ounce, few can rival the spunky little Merlin, so swift and agile that it can outmanuver even such masters of flight as dragonflies and tree swallows"- (RDBNAB, pg. 33)

Their diet is full of other, smaller birds, swooped and nommed right out of the air. I was dying to see a video of this winged sorcerer, but there is a definite shortage of videos of Merlin in flight on the internet. The closest I could find to a demonstration of skill was in a video series titled "The Merlinologist", brought to you by the Merlin Falcon Foundation. In it, falcon expert David Drummond discusses his organization, and demonstrates his absolute devotion to nature and birds of prey.



Watching parts 2-5 is recommended for maximum bird viewage and naturalist awesomeness. It seems like an amazing organization!

The other merlin related video of note I found is here:



I was not expecting a proselytizing raptor bird!