The ugly gosling

 

This must be the most hilarious misidentification of a bird like ever (and worlds without end, amen). The YouTuber who posted this (not necessarily the guy with the camera) actually think these are...wait for it...geese?!

HA HA HA, bruh, those are obviously *swans* for crying out loud. Mute swans, to be exact. No ugly gosling to be seen, move along! 

The crown duck

 

Not exactly Vegavis, but close enough
to make the point 

Did so-called modern birds evolve already before the great extinction event 66 million years ago? Specifically "Vegavis iaai", a bird classified as an anseriform (think ducks, geese and so on). 

According to the article linked below, anseriforms and galliforms are the two oldest groups among modern birds. If it quacks like a crown bird...

I admit I had no idea, I mean, shouldn´t it be ratites or something?!

Fossil of ancient duck-like creature discovered in Antarctica 

The land of desolation

 

So I just watched the nature documentary "Wild Ireland: Kingdom of Stone", about the apparently world famous karst landscape between County Clare and County Galway known as the Burren. I admit I never heard about it before! Or maybe I did, since parts of this docu reminds me of - surprise - other documentaries about western Ireland.

Animals shown include the pine marten, Daubenton´s bat, whooper swans and the butterfly known as the marsh fritillary. In the Atlantic Ocean we also find the finback whale (the world´s second largest animal) and the basking shark (the world´s second largest fish). The basking sharks occasionally gather in one place and swim in a large circle, nobody really knows why. But yes, it does look majestic.

The Burren also has an interesting human history. Here we find Neolithic grave monuments, abandoned churches and monasteries, and a mysterious tower once inhabited by none other than W B Yeats (who apparently saw whooper swans as near-divine). Indeed, the landscape is man-made in the sense that Neolithic farmers cut down all the trees, presumably to give room for agriculture and cattle. 

"The Kingdom of Stone" has a romantic (or Romantic) undertone, and frequently shows ravens (?) flying across the bizarre landscape of karst and ruins. Ahem, Ireland is a modern, globalized territory these days...

Still, could be interesting on a boring Wednesday evening. 

Damn vegetarians

 

I haven´t double-checked anything. Think twice before sharing. LOL! 

The ugly duckling

 

Deep. From the X account The Fourth Way.  

Some random YouTube shorts

 

Some completely random YouTube shorts. 

Mood picture?

 

 

Subliminal

 

I just realized that there is something terribly wrong with my romantic "mood pictures" of mute and black swans.

No, it´s not that the mute swan is mute (IRL it really isn´t). 

It´s - of course - the black swan. Silly me. "Black swan" is high brow slang for "entirely unexpected event". It could be a good one, I suppose, but in 2024, everyone expects the black swan to be a virtual horror show!

On the other hand, if everyone expects something, it´s no longer a black swan event, is it? And since white swans are some kind of sacred Hindu symbol for Paramatman or something to that effect, maybe we are all subliminally saved...     

Mood picture

 

 

Looking for the lotus

 

Credit: Looking Glass

What the heck happened to Advaita Vedanta, I mean, even the swans have a strange color these days?! What´s next, the lotus replaced by a datura plant or what?

The 100,000 year problem

 

So during the Middle Pleistocene, swans on Malta were lager than elephants living on the same island?!

Gotta love the Demiurge!

Human image for comparison above. Not sure if any human actually saw these wonderful creatures, though...

Operation Black Swan

A few years ago, the North Korean news agency reported that a "unicorn cave" had been found outside Pyongyang, to the general amusement of the rest of the world, only to retreat from the claim some time later, claiming it was a mistranslation (what happened to the poor translator was, alas, never explained). 

Now, Chairman Kim is supposedly telling his people to eat highly nutritious...black swans?!

Another mistranslation, I assume.

Or no?

North Koreans pushed to eat black swans amid food crisis

Sådan är socialismen

OK, rubriken på detta blogginlägg är kanske lite simplistisk, men jag kunde inte hjälpa det... 

Kim Jong-uns recept mot svält: Ät svarta svanar 

Birds in the monastery

“Ireland's Wild Coast” is a documentary directed by Cepa Giblin and John Murray. The latter is most known for his award-winning “Broken Tail” about Indian tigers. After the inevitable stint in the tropics, Murray returned to his native Ireland and help direct two documentaries about its stunning nature and wildlife, the first being “Ireland's Wild River” about the Shannon.

In “Ireland's Wild Coast”, we are introduced to the Irish Atlantic coast, from Skellig Michael in the southwest to County Donegal in the northwest. Animals featured include seals, whales, basking sharks, blue sharks, outcast dolphins (sic), seemingly feral sheep and a wide variety of birds. At Skellig Michael, Manx shearwaters nest in an abandoned medieval monastery. Donegal turns out to be the winter quarters of whooper swans from Iceland - perhaps the only migratory bird spending the winter in Ireland!

I admit that I found “Ireland's Wild Coast” fascinating. The underlying theme of this production is wildlife taking over after humans leaving. In real life, of course, it's the other way around. Murray himself pointed out when interviewed by Swedish television that Ireland, previously regarded as the end of the world, has become one of its most exploited spots…

Five stars. For the documentary, that is.

Birds of a frozen lake

A review of "MacMillan Field Guide to Bird Identification" 

This is a kind of “step two field guide” intended for more advanced bird-watchers. It deals with so-called confusion species and explains at some length how to tell them apart from each other. Unsurprisingly, a large portion of the book deals with shorebirds and gulls, often juveniles or in winter plumage. Trust me, different species of gulls are almost impossible to tell apart in winter, I mean they are *all* white as snow! You hardly see them at all. Warblers form another huge section of the book (think “small songbirds, all brown and all invisible among the reeds”). Another classic is the Whooper Swan, which is strikingly similar to the Bewick's Swan. I have no idea whether this advanced guide really helps, but if you are obsessed with finding out exactly what gull just attacked you at that frozen lake midwinter, I suppose you might want to invest in your own copy…

Terror at Swan Lake

This is a romantic picture of two swans (so-called mute swans, to be exact) and a whole bunch of water lilies of uncertain species. Probably perfect...that is, if you never encountered a swan, or visited a lake overgrown by water lilies!

About two years ago, I was strolling peacefully around one of the lakes in Stockholm. At one point, I stood close to the lakeside, peacefully eating candy (the jelly nukis reviewed by me elsewhere). Suddenly I saw, at quite a distance, an ENORMOUS flock of ducks, geese and swans coming my way. I didn't reflect on it at first until this multi-species flock (of obvious interest to the local bird-watching club) came closer...and...closer...and...closer??!!

Finally, the goddamned birds CAME RIGHT OUT OF THE WATER, MORE OR LESS CHASING ME, COMMANDEERED BY TWO REALLY AGGRESSIVE SWANS!!!!

Apparently, the "romantic" swans down at the Black Lagoon are used to be fed by humans on a semi-regular basis and just won't take no for an answer. Clearly, these swans have been brainwashed by the Swedish socialists into believing that pork-barrel programs are forever, and that idleness really does pay. Or is it the right-wing libertarian, cornucopian idea of unlimited economic growth which has reached our distant lake shores, creating a "crisis of expectations" among the denizens of the local avifauna?

Clearly, some kind of eco-fascist preaching is in order here. Please dispatch Dave Foreman to my bird lake stat!

As for water lilies, the noxious stench and weed-like explosions of these plants make my stomach turn, and it seems the swans feel the same way - they just leave! Besides, most of the time the actual lilies aren't visible, you just see the leaves, lots of 'em. Well, at least I don't have to worry about big birds trying to steal my candy as long as the lilies are in season...

Now, do you see how awfully *illogical* this art print really is???

That being said, I don't deny that this exquisite little poster looks gorgeously beautiful.

Next week: the Black Swan and its implications for Afro-centrist discourse.

Watergate, anyone?

Reminds me of a joke in "Beverly Hills Cop", starring Eddie Murphy. "Ladies and gentlemen, here's Gerald Ford! We're so pleased to have you here, Mr. Ford." Seriously, who would buy a stamp showing a bunch of mallards signed by Gerald Ford??!! Now, a stamp showing a buck signed by Harry S. Truman might be something. Or a stamp showing a Bigfoot signed by Teddy Roosevelt. Or even a stamp showing a teddy bear signed by the same guy. But Ford?! Geezus, he was *Nixon's* VP, for Christ's sake! Even worse (if you're GOP-ish), he lost the elections to...Jimmy Carter.

Honk if you're Swedish

Canadian Geese or honkers are breeding so fast in Stockholm, that the authorities have discussed culling them. Personally, I think they are a splendid addition to the local avifauna of Magpies, Jackdaws, Hooded Crows, House Sparrows and other birds people just love to hate, or find immensely boring. But sure, these geese are WILD. Once, I was peacefully strolling over a bridge after sunset, when a flock of honkers almost literally collided with me! I had to duck, pun unintended. Thank god they "honk" as they fly in menacing formation. So no, Mr Swedish Everything Has To Be Perfect Local Authority, I don't want you to cull the local golden goose population. I'd say they make our lives in the suburbs a little less boring, ha ha.

Ospreys, grizzlies and cruel eels

“Nature's Wonders of Oceans and Mountains” is a British children's book by John Gilbert. Apart from the wildlife of oceans and mountain ranges, it also covers rivers, lakes and marshes. The Andes, the Alps and the Himalayas are some of the areas covered, alongside the Rockies, the Everglades and the rivers of temperate North America. Additional sections deal with deep sea fish and island endemics. There is even a chapter on perfectly regular European lakes, featuring mallards, swans and dragonflies.

Despite the colourful pictures and relatively easy accompanying text, I didn't like the book as a kid. A number of errors had crept into the Swedish translation (at least I hope it's just in the translation!). The author, editor or translator confuses the Osprey and the Lammergeier, and seems to think that all North American brown bears are grizzlies. One picture shows black bears, but the caption claims they are brown bears! The innocent children are also taught that the shark is the “terror of the seas” and that the moray eel is a “cruel, carnivorous fish”. Cruel? Compared to what exactly? British fox-hunting? LOL.

Gilbert's book is probably part of a series also covering other biotas, but if so, I haven't seen any other volumes…

Chicken for the coffee table

A review of "Storey´s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds" by Carol Ekarius 

Another encyclopaedia of poultry breeds…found this on my bookshelf last week, didn't even know I had it! Mostly chicken in this one, with ducks and geese in second place, and turkeys a distant third. Shorter sections on more unusual “poultry” such as ostriches, quails, swans and peafowl. I admit that some of the waterfowl are pretty comic. I mean, the Call, the Runner Duck, the Dutch Hookbill, and a few breeds so fat and slow that they need special protection from foxes and I suppose your neighbours. Perhaps not for professionals, but a good overview á la coffee table.