H snapped a very good picture of a avian pal who’s been visiting and running about on the deck lately, Bachstelze or more descriptively a pied wagtail (Motacilla alba—a mistranslation of the Latin term “little-mover” from the medieval notion that cilla meant tail). I had seen these passerine birds on the path that runs by the pond (= Bach) with their distinctive gait, swift but halting after a few paces to bounce their tail feathers, but they hadn’t before ventured to our backdoor—apparently they prefer the bare range of pavement for foraging where it can best see and pursue and the deck met these conditions too. This comical, constant tail wagging is observed in all related species but the behaviour is poorly understood—possibly a tactic to flush out prey or signal vigilance to potential predators.
Saturday, 21 May 2022
motacillidae
Friday, 6 May 2022
all-seeing or the eyes have it
Though apparently gregarious with most of the village as well, a young peacock—we thought it was a peahen but learned it was young one and the signature plumage and dimorphism does not develop until they reach three years of age—has adopted H and I and roams our yard and roosts in various spots on the balcony and the front stoop, friendly in guest territory but possibly territorial in his own backyard. He belongs to a neighbour and is called Charlie and often appears before the French doors and jarringly at times at the kitchen window sill. Apparently this behaviour in peafowl, congregating before glazed faรงades, is to examine themselves in the glass, like a mirror.
I held up my cell phone display in front of Charlie to reflect back his image and he regarded it with interest, rather than destructive pecking at the screen and my hand. I remember the controversy a few years back over an airline passenger trying to board with their therapy peacock and at the time siding with those who condemned the act as performative and over-the-top but getting a sense of their calm demeanour and engagement, I have come around to the other side in thinking these are legitimate therapy animals, tail-feathers and all. We are looking into getting our own. The collective term for a group of peafowl is an ostentation.
Saturday, 23 April 2022
8x8
song birds: a printed circuit bluejay and other avian friends
industrials: a leitmotif of edifying vocabulary—see previously—from Futility Closet
occultation: Perseverance rover captures Mars’ lumpy moon Phobos partially eclipsing the Sun
infinite tapestry: a generated side-scrolling landscape—via Web Curios
days of rage: a gallery of activism posters curated by the USC Library system—see previously—via ibฤซdem
art bits: an archives of HyperCard stacks (see also)—via Waxy
ghost in the shell: skeletons in video games
cheeps and peeps: the rich, melodic syntax of birdsong
Friday, 18 February 2022
7x7
pigeon fancy: Emil Schachtzabel illustrates unnatural selection in prize breeds
act local, think global: a twenty-question quiz about one’s bioregion, immediate surroundings and a challenge for low-scorers
onomastic terminology: petrichor, overmorrow, interrobangs and other proper orthonyms
wysiwyg: Jane Austen used straight pins to edit the rough drafts of her manuscripts before word processors and correction-liquid
device orchestra: various peripherals, gadgets and appliances perform “Seven Nation Army”
pandemic cartograms: our unvaccinated world
hodowla goลฤbi: profiling Poland’s pigeon keepers, moving up in the pecking-order
Saturday, 12 February 2022
7x7
forum gallorum: step into this unassuming salon to inspect a piece of Roman London, reminiscent of discovering this shopping mall in Mainz—via Nag on the Lake
shred, white and blue: the totally normal and perfectly legal ways the White House handled official records
neft daลlarฤฑ: a decaying offshore oil platform in the middle of the Caspian Sea
the thoughtful spot: the Phrontistery (ฯฯฮฟฮฝฯฮนฯฯฮฎฯฮนฮฟฮฝ, Greek for the thinking place) catalogues a treasury of rare and obscure words—via Kottke
gumshoe: the bygone era of the hotel detective—via Strange Company’s Weekend Link Dump
be mine: the Lupercalia and the origins of Saint Valentine
Friday, 15 October 2021
lieutenant pigeon
Topping the UK charts this week in 1972, the novelty band’s song “Moldy Old Dough” (a play on the flexible jazz-era phrase vo-dee-o-doe) featured Rob Woodward and his mother Hilda respectively on keyboard and piano, not only making this short, endearing tune the only number one hit to feature mother and son but also the eldest woman to earn that distinction, aged fifty-eight at the time. The band from Coventry was the second incarnation of a project called Stavely Makepeace and subsequent recordings included “Desperate Dan,” “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen,” “Grandfather Clock,” and “Disco Bells.”
Thursday, 7 October 2021
pair bonding
Endearingly, Kottke brings us the story of the requited courtship and romance of zookeeper Chris Crowe and his non-corvid bird wife, Walnut—a spry twenty-three year-old white-named crane, the former earning the latter’s affections despite being a rather lacking (by avian standards) mate and life partner.
catagories: ๐ฆ, ๐ชถ, environment, networking and blogging
Thursday, 9 September 2021
rewilding
Via Super Punch, we learn that not only has the Swiss ambassador to the US made the expansive embassy grounds in Washington, DC, a former farm in the Woodley Park neighbourhood, a biodiverse oasis, replacing the manicured lawn with native shrubs and trees to attract and sustain birds and other wildlife, the ambassor’s actions have set a positive example, leading other diplomatic missions to adopt ecologically sounder landscaping practices including vegetable gardens and beehives. More from the Audubon Society at the links above.
Monday, 24 May 2021
7x7
television memories: John Hoare reflects on his birthday by tracking down what was on BBC at the moment he was born
hijack: a Belarusian fighter jet diverts a commercial airliner in order to apprehend a dissident blogger
greatest of all time: legendary gymnast Simone Biles has a rhinestone goat on her leotard
please sir, three of your finest cocaines: a pharmaceutical advertisement from 1912
europigeon songbird contest: the grand prix goes to Turdus (see previously) Philomelos
stardust: a collection of micrometeorites and a guide how to hunt for them
omnibus programming: a revue of fifty obscure British comedy series from the 1980s
Thursday, 20 May 2021
bombylildรฆ
While in Europe we don’t have humming birds (Kolibris), we are lucky enough to have these uncanny important pollinators called the fly bee or the humblefly (Wollschweber). Our garden is absolutely full of them but I’ve never managed to capture a picture of one until now when I spied one resting on a flower (see also), which by the end of the season can grow quite substantially and present like their avian cousins but less so than the equally camera-shy Hummingbird Hawk-Moth (Taubenschwรคnzchen) that hovers and has a proboscis for nectaring. We’re visited by them too and maybe if I’m patient, I’ll be able to get a photo.
catagories: ๐, ๐ชถ, environment, Rhรถn
Friday, 26 February 2021
bitmap bull finch
Via Present /&/ Correct, we really enjoyed these graphics of pixelated renderings of common birds of Japan (ๆฅๆฌใฎ้้ณฅไธ่ฆง) and especially, vis-ร -vis a pair of our recent posts, could firstly relate to the slander and naming conventions of obvious avian defamers and secondly to more personalised labels for new electronic file folders and its source catalogue. Much more to explore at the links above.
catagories: ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐พ, ๐, ๐ชถ, networking and blogging
Friday, 12 February 2021
intermediate egret
Vis-ร -vis our last post, here’s a bit of a coda on avian nomenclature in this extensive thread of birds named by ornithologists who were clearly frightened by birds as young children and have since worked through that trauma hurling insults at select members of the group. There were too many funny names to mention them all but some of our tragic favourites were the Monotonous Lark, the Red-Rumped Bush Tyrant, the pictured Perplexing Scrubwren (our poster birb), the Rough-Faced Shag and the Smew. What’s your favourite and which would be a suitable stage name for you?
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐ชถ, environment, language
Thursday, 11 February 2021
bird box

catagories: ๐, ๐ชถ, language, networking and blogging
Monday, 7 December 2020
twitterpation
Predawn birdsong for some reason seems to peal with far more volume in the city than at home in the forest, and was noticing this fact on this dark December morn, also recalling how I’d read somewhere that more animals were becoming nocturnal to avoid human, so perhaps in the woods, our feathered friends aren’t compelled to be such early-risers, nor have they taken to our bird-feeders. So this latter sentiment from Victorian poet Oliver Herford (*1860 – †1935, born on the day that the referring article was published) coupled with the fact that ornithologists do not really know why birds sing during the winter with mating season so far off—both courtesy of Better Living through Beowulf—resonated with us as a reminder that the cold, dim days don’t last forever:
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.
“We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,”
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
Wednesday, 7 October 2020
little birdhouse in your soul

catagories: ๐จ๐ณ, ๐ท, ๐ชถ, architecture
Thursday, 20 August 2020
ravenmaster
Via compatriot internet caretaker Nag on the Lake, we learn that troublingly the Tower of London’s resident corvids (see previously) are straying from their home, uncaptivated and driven to distraction by the lack of tourist traffic.
While lore holds that Charles II in 1675 just after the restoration of the monarchy (I wouldn’t take any chances either) first ordered the ravens to be cared for after receiving the prophesy that the crown and tower would both crumble if the birds departed, others source the mythology as a Victorian bit of whimsy, whom were rather probably more morbidly attracted to the spot in the first place due to all the executions and encouraged to remain because their scavenging habits that kept the place tidy. Whatever the case, I hope they’re not compelled to stray too far and that the crowds can return soon.
Saturday, 11 August 2018
tuppence a bag
I had the thought walking through the city the other day noticing the persistent scratching and pecking of pigeons amid all the rubbish on the streets and wondered if the two factors (pigeons aren’t pests, just opportunistic and very tolerable of human vermin) could be combined to achieve a solution. I don’t want to frame pigeons as underachievers but I don’t know if they can be trained—although doves seem very patient and compliant with prestidigitators and seen to have enjoyed their work as emissaries—to pick up and sort trash.
I’ll have to ask a friend who is a pigeon fancier what he thinks of my scheme. Maybe it’s simpler to train people to be decent and not litter rather than have someone else clean-up after us. In any case—that same thought has been turned into a real exercise at a historic park in France, where rangers and handlers are training rooks to spruce up the place and pick up any stray litter, human visitors being generally respectful about leaving nothing else behind, in exchange for a small morsel of bird food. What do you think? As with any intervention, there could be unforeseen consequences. Perhaps corvids are better at teaching other birds to execute clean-up missions. I think, especially with the insect population dangerously low with knock-on effects up the food chain, maybe this relieves some pressure on the competition for scarce resources by feeding the birds as a reward.
catagories: ๐ซ๐ท, ๐ชถ, environment
Monday, 2 July 2018
post-dated post script: shore birds



Sunday, 26 March 2017
frame-rate or walk-cycle
Via Everlasting Blรถrt we are treated to more crisply animated loops (read more about the history and development of the graphics interchange format here) by South African digital art and typography studio MUTI, which has quite impressive portfolio. Check out the last of the links to see more of their work and perhaps inquire about a commission.
Saturday, 24 September 2016
coop and coup
Amazingly, pigeons can be taught to read or at least spell-check, an extensive study conducted in Ruhr-University Bochum has concluded.
Building off of the autoshaping, conditioned behaviour developed by psychologist BF Skinner (which incidentally was used to pilot the first smart-bombs), researchers found the best and brightest and had them begin learning to differentiate words and pick out phoney words inserted into otherwise orthographically correct blocks of text. While they may not understand written language, they seem just as adapt as other animals whose ability and intellect is held in higher esteem and seem to pick up new vocabulary (and even conjugation and plural forms) with ease. Maybe we’d ought to look out for eavesdropping pigeons reading over our shoulders as well. They’d probably be just as quick and accurate at texting too.