brother sun, sister moon

Fabulistically perhaps best-known for his ability to commune with Nature as a reflection of divinity and preaching to the birds—thus appointed patron saint of ecology in 1979 by Pope John Paul II, confessor, scholar and organiser Francis of Assisi (*1181 – †1226) is venerated on this day, the morning after having peacefully expired after receiving the stigmata from a vision of a crucified seraphim. Constituting religious orders for both men and women with significant political clout and endurance, Francis’ attempted a rapprochement with Al-Kamil, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, and put an end to the bloodshed of the Crusades and bring about peace. Though received graciously by the court of the sultan, the negotiations ultimately failed, although only the Franciscans were allowed to remain in the Holy Land after the fall of Crusader kingdoms as custodians on behalf of the Church.

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.

ranch style

We are enjoying these inspiring Mid-Century Modern backyard and balcony roosts for our avian friends crafted by Douglas Barnhard (see also here and here). Besides the standard accoutrements of feed, seed, pitch, perch and shelter there are water elements and landscaped succulent gardens for some models. See more at the link up top and at Barnhard’s shop.

the kah and the coo

We very much enjoyed the referral to this series of gentle and earnest research papers from Canadian-American behavioural psychologist Wallace Craig (*1876 – †1954) examining the “voice and manners” of our pigeon and dove friends (1909 – 1911, see also), who himself displayed talent and dedication in observing and listening to these avian neighbours—including the Passenger Pigeon, which was already extinct at the time of writing but the birds’ fate was not yet known for sure. Even transcribing their calls and vocalisations in musical notation, Craig goes on further to study the pigeon’s sexual dimorphisms and differences in gait and pace and pecks. Much more to explore at the links above.

a financially unstable mess but at the liquor store they call me ma’am

Matt “the Mincing Mockingbird” Adrian paints an expressive range of avian friends with a certain deftness juxtaposed with humorous titles and captions that contrasts the beauty of Nature with the humdrum complaints of human existence. Visit the artist’s website and have look through his expansive portfolio and see if you can tag yourself.

birb's the word

Via Everlasting Blört, as happy hosts to our own flock of fluffy, round friends (though ours are notoriously camera shy and flit around far too quickly to capture their cheer and adorableness in an appreciable way) that particularly like to huddle around a leggy, bare tree directly in view from the window by the dining table, we very much enjoyed the Audubon Society’s guide for birbing. In the main, the ones we’re fortunate to have visit (that fulfill all of the criteria set forth in the article are black-capped chickadees (tits, Blaumeise) that become exceptionally globular during the winter yet still agile and aerodynamic.

pavlovian response

Though sadly his predictions about being up to our necks in bugs did not come to pass and by losing the insects we are losing the song birds as well and we’d prefer this method of conditioning feline instincts, I think that it was a pretty noble notion on the part of inventor and erstwhile actor Desmond Slattery to save our avian friends from our domestic ambush by associating a poaching with a violent and memorable explosion through a treacherous decoy that did exactly that. Debuting his prototype in 1968, Slattery hoped that cats and birds would going forward coexist in harmony.

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.

post-dated post script: shore birds

We’ve returned to a very fine campsite on the southern end of Lake Garda (previously) but this time were graced with a pitch directly on the water, just behind a copse of reeds that despite the foot-traffic of campers and dogs, a variety of sea birds use as a living and breeding habitat.
There were the familiar friends in mallards and those more mysterious and wary black plumed birds with the white beaks that I called Nō theatre ducks until learning that they’re properly called bandicoots (Fulica—Latin for coot, a mud hen, apparently oder eine Blässhuhn) but judging by the multi-voiced chorus each morning, a crescendo of calls that formed this wall of sound, there were more sorts of birds hiding in the tall grass.
Later some sea gulls, crows, pigeons (the latter being strange candidates for cohabitating I thought) revealed themselves but we still weren’t able to identify all the cries, which was quite the persistent wake-up call with no snooze option. For warmth, growing ducklings sleep all tangled up, like a rat king.
I recall reading how in huge colonies, bats and other swarming creatures distinguish their vocal signatures by choosing unique places in terms of frequency or pitch but in situations where range is shared, I wondered how confusion was avoided—except that these diverse species seem to respect one another and wait their turns, going in a sort of coordinated, pre-arranged sequence. Here are a couple of audio samples, which became a pretty endearing accompaniment over the next few days. I wish I had taken a recording during the first few days before the weather turned stormy as the sounds seemed more distinct and there was less lapping of waves but happily all the residents and the reeds weathered the winds and driven rains just fine, if not a bit off key.

 

 

little birdhouse in your soul

Nag on the Lake acquaints us with Frankfurter clock-maker Guido Zimmermann who showcases his talents in a series of custom traditional cuckoo chimes housed in Brutalist, Plattenbau architecture—as a commentary on social housing gentrified and priced out of the range of its intended resident. His cuckcoo blocks also reference the original conceit of the clocks, not stowed away as a souvenir, were symbolic in themselves as a middle-class (spießbürgerlich) signal of success. View a video of the whole range of his designs at the links above.

paleoartistry

I ran across this rather delightfully engrossing and illustrative (subjects not pictured) interview from Atlas Obscura’s archives recently that discussed what necessary liberties and license can confront and confound the anatomists and other researchers that—without context and living examples to look towards for inspiration—and cause inaccuracies that become ingrained in the way we envision dinosaurs and other long extinct beasts.
Until very recently, no one would have thought to embellish a stegosaurus with fancy feathers and plumage that might make the actual creature far fluffier than the lean and severe hunters that we picture. A classically problematic interpretation was thinking the skulls of elephants were actually the skulls of mythological cyclopes—or dinosaurs fossils evidence of dragons. Conversely, the padding, pouches, crests and wattles of extant species of today that aren’t necessarily preserved along with the skeletal frame that the artists have to work with—or otherwise over compensated for to achieve a sense of balance—could in for future paleontologist create some quite fantastic creatures—raptor like geese or deer that used their antlers (imagining them stretched taut with a sail of skin) like a paraglider. It would take quite an inspired leap (and probably a heretical one too) for a biologist of the far future, without the benefit of having experienced the life-cycles of the specimens studied, to realise that a toad and tadpole or butterfly and caterpillar are the same creatures.  What do you think? I suppose no matter how far off the mark we our with our rough sketches, it’s important to keep on using our imaginations.

agalmatophilia

Though normally a highly sociable bird species, we learn that one handsome specimen of gannet called Nigel passed away happily at a ripe old age, surrounded by friends but sadly possibly on the cusps of something big that would have remedied what some are describing as terminal loneliness and would have certainly stripped him of his nickname of “No Mates Nigel.”  Conservationists in New Zealand wanted to reintroduce seabirds to Mana Island and in order to signal to passing flocks that it was safe to nest here (invasive species that might prey on hatchlings were removed from the island), they installed an ensemble of concrete, decoy gannets. Only Nigel alighted, however, in 2013 and became besotted with one particular stone figure which he courted (either to his great frustration or contentment—it’s hard to say) for the next five years. In February, Nigel’s body was found next to his beloved, just as more live gannets had begun to investigate the island.

fuglehuse

Specialising in installations that incorporate up-cycled materials, Danish artist Thomas Dambo and crew has since 2006 constructed more than thirty-five hundred bird houses in urban centres. Though the majority are concentrated in the artist’s home turf of the ARKEN museum campus outside of Copenhagen, the Happy City Birds project has built shelters in towns across Denmark and expanded abroad to include places such as Beirut and Berlin.

serçe saray

Colossal directs our attention to a photo-essay by Caner Cangül whose work skilfully brings to the fore architectural elements and embellishments that might be lost in the monumental scale of some the buildings and bridges where his subjects are found.
The detail of this particular greebling are the surviving examples of Ottoman-era avian palaces, meant to give shelter to pigeons and sparrows in urban centres that might be lacking in safe accommodations for birds. Not only were households eager to host such guests, the additions also ensured that the façade of the surrounding structure was spared from birds roosting all over the place. These mansions are certainly grand ones and many designers lavish attention on the architecture of birdhouses but we suspect that the next talent showcase—prestige project will be in insect hospitality. Check out the link up top to learn more and see more of Cangül’s photography.

tyto alba

Via Nag on the Lake, we learn of a very clever way to up-cycle wine packaging from the Portuguese vintners of Companhia das Lezírias . Having committed to protecting local barn owls, they are raising awareness with a collection named Tyto Alba (the Latin nomenclature for the bird) whose wooden boxes can be hung from a tree branch after enjoying. Though the accommodations might be too cramped for an owl, these bird houses, nest-boxes are a pretty nifty idea. Most populations of barn owls are not under grave threat in Europe, but the creatures have suffered at superstitious hands for ages, believed to be bad omens due to their rather liminal natures. While owls—or birds in general for that matter, are not famed for their ears, but uniquely among birds barn owls ears (if they were visible) would appear lop-sided and it’s this offsetting that allows them to use their preternatural hearing to triangulate prey in complete darkness.

pigeon-toed

To our collective delight and incremental curiosity, a committed designer and flâneur in Tokyo, informed by an alliterative pun as we are told many Japanese avant-garde ideas are, has fashioned pigeon-resembling high-heels using felt and paint, hoping to befriend the generally decried urban fowl. There are so far no reports on the efficacy of so disguising one’s feet and the artist is not planning on releasing such sensible shoes for public consumption, but that’s no reason not to make one’s own pair of Hato-Heels (ピジョンヒール) to make new acquaintances in the one’s own neighbourhood park.

bird of prey

Although I know it’s the way of wild things, it’s a bit dissonant to think of parrots, crows and ravens as carnivorous hunters—especially of the domesticated variety. I few years ago, we watched with rapt fascination when the young falcon had caught his first mouse and sort of hammed up the act for the camera, but had to confront not such a majestic sight the other day while queuing at the gas pump. A big crow was rather cruelly batting around a shrieking tiny bird, stunning it before ripping it apart. I had to look away and I was torn whether I ought to have intervened, even if I could have gotten there in time. If we’d been in the forest and not near the bins of fast-food restaurants where the murder hangs out, I might have felt differently but these birds are fearless around humans and seem to have shed all other instincts.

frame-rate or walk-cycle

Via Everlasting Blört 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.

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.

pomade ou les moustaches de l’oiseau

First spotted by erstwhile bird-watcher Mademoiselle Titam (l’article est disponible uniquement en français), I was delighted to discover these dapper little moustachioed seabirds called Inca terns (Larosterna inca), native to Chile and Peru, cleaving to the Humboldt current that drives the South Pacific like the dynamo Gulf Stream that warms Europe. What I found really striking—given our human biases, was that for what we’d consider a very masculine trait, there’s very little dimorphism between the males and the females in terms of plumage, and all the terns sport the same look, unlike for those with antlers, manes or the birds-of-paradise. I suppose other sea-going fowl, gulls and penguins, do look quite uniform across the genders.