trilingual puns are possibly where I tap out - too many pidgins accruing
― imago, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 01:18 (ten years ago) link
i saw an absolutely enormous rat the size of a squirrel on borough high street yesterday. it was dragging half a hotdog along. popped into a cranny, then briefly re-emerged as if to parade its scavengings before my friend and i
― imago, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 00:27 (40 minutes ago)
so gross, although squirrel sized rats are not uncommon it's just their bushy tails suggest they are larger, rats the size of cats still one of the grottiest images in nursery rhyme law
there is probably some maoist insurrectionary out there catalyzing rat fecundity in rich districts, if superprime london housing is going to increase at 10% p/a for the rest of time like those panglossian fund managers are saying, then rat infestations would for sure do the reverse
in which case those fund managers should invest in industrial owl farms, how to get these asocial birds to pullulate and counter-infest
― nakhchivan, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 01:20 (ten years ago) link
Just turns into a ratrace tho
― treeship's assailing (darraghmac), Tuesday, 18 March 2014 01:26 (ten years ago) link
trouble with owls is that they tend to leave pullulates of rat keratin & bone everywhere; this will reduce the problem but won't eradicate it entirely
― imago, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 01:29 (ten years ago) link
of course, if the owls manage to control the rat population, they effectively control their own population, leading to a boom/bust cycle that may at length synchronise with that of the housing market
― imago, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 01:31 (ten years ago) link
spotted today: group of about 8 or 9 bright young marketing types with tons of extremely expensive camera equipment in Maryon Park, one of whom was prancing around on the grass throwing bits of bread high into the air
upon questioning it transpired that they were attempting to serenade 'the birds' to come and parade on film
i dispensed the cursory advice that a feeding-table near plant cover and a modicum of patience might be more lucrative, and left them to their mad march rite, the invocation of the Perfect Footage
― imago, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 14:35 (ten years ago) link
they seemed impatient, alas. how, then, could they have obtained their quarry? the crass among you may suggest cgi, the artful a complex system of capture nets, digitally removed in postproduction, leaving only the frenzied oscillations of the afternoon chorus
― imago, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 14:49 (ten years ago) link
did you ask any of them out?
― sarahell, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 15:58 (ten years ago) link
I do adore our avian comrades but I don't think it'd work. We'd be too similar
― imago, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 16:24 (ten years ago) link
wrong sized bottoms?
― sarahell, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 16:25 (ten years ago) link
only end up fighting over the blood sausage
― imago, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 17:44 (ten years ago) link
it's that impressive, eh?
― sarahell, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 17:46 (ten years ago) link
this line of enquiry has me discomfited and i would prefer we address the accounted predicament
― imago, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 17:49 (ten years ago) link
well that's a first
― sarahell, Tuesday, 18 March 2014 17:51 (ten years ago) link
do u have any opinions on herons
― nakhchivan, Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:00 (ten years ago) link
we can be heronsif just for one day
― sarahell, Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:01 (ten years ago) link
you kids stay off the heron now, that shit'll mess you up
― twistent consistent (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:02 (ten years ago) link
the german version of that could have been 'herren' with a little license
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPHi9VIC9a8
― nakhchivan, Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:05 (ten years ago) link
yes
they are especially wonderful in flight - great, loping wings, instantly identifiable - and their terrestrial repose is exemplary
they are also surprisingly sly - I once raised a camera to capture a very peaceable-seeming specimen outside charing cross hospital in hammersmith, but upon inspection, the image was heron-free. it had flown, silently, in the moment of its chronicling
there is an intelligence in their eye that does not belong to many other non-passerines
― halber mensch halber keks (imago), Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:05 (ten years ago) link
i hear there are exemplary specimens in delaware
― sarahell, Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:13 (ten years ago) link
m8
― halber mensch halber keks (imago), Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:14 (ten years ago) link
they seem to have small bottoms
― sarahell, Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:26 (ten years ago) link
wading birds tend to be dolicocephalic, ectomorphic and micropygous
― nakhchivan, Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:33 (ten years ago) link
without looking up
big-headed, long-limbed, small-footed
― halber mensch halber keks (imago), Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:40 (ten years ago) link
ectomorphic is prob wrong
you don't know what she looks like?
― sarahell, Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:42 (ten years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/8jIul8X.gif
― nakhchivan, Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:42 (ten years ago) link
i'd pleur that furrow! har de har har
― sarahell, Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:47 (ten years ago) link
oh as in callipygic
ffs micropodal wd be small footed
― halber mensch halber keks (imago), Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:50 (ten years ago) link
truly this is the thread of my classical education's undoing
― halber mensch halber keks (imago), Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:52 (ten years ago) link
also where i can make sub-snobes jokes
― sarahell, Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:55 (ten years ago) link
flocks of all feathers may roost herein
― halber mensch halber keks (imago), Saturday, 5 April 2014 17:57 (ten years ago) link
― sarahell, Sunday, April 6, 2014 3:13 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
you must not be hard of heron.
― estela, Sunday, 6 April 2014 10:23 (ten years ago) link
just saw an avian, a strigiform no less, with acephaly issues
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 16 April 2014 18:20 (ten years ago) link
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2606325/Emma-Stone-dazzles-second-time-one-night-changes-outfits-night-town-following-Berlin-premiere-The-Amazing-Spider-Man-2.html
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Thursday, 17 April 2014 00:46 (ten years ago) link
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Wednesday, April 16, 2014 6:20 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this, at last, is the saddest thing
― imago, Friday, 18 April 2014 22:39 (ten years ago) link
did its ladbroke grove looks turn you on?
― sarahell, Sunday, 20 April 2014 22:39 (ten years ago) link
cormorants?
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 22 April 2014 00:38 (ten years ago) link
that depends. when swimming they're essentially mundane grebes. when airdrying their wings they're magnificent. when flying purposefully down the thames they never fail to excite. catch them in either of the latter two aspects imo
― imago, Tuesday, 22 April 2014 00:40 (ten years ago) link
Phalacrocoracidae!
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 22 April 2014 00:42 (ten years ago) link
^^^this literally means 'of the shaggy-fingered family' or somesuch, doesn't it
― imago, Tuesday, 22 April 2014 00:46 (ten years ago) link
today i was about 10' away from a heronjust a small heron, maybe a bairnso much dignity
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:11 (ten years ago) link
http://dontdanceherdownboys.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/lush-promo_2b.jpg
birds of britpop - time for reevaluation
― sarahell, Sunday, 27 April 2014 01:16 (ten years ago) link
http://www.irishkop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18313
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Sunday, 27 April 2014 01:43 (ten years ago) link
Admittedly after she left them she got a bit too butch for my liking, but she was gorgeous in that "dont speak" video.
― sarahell, Sunday, 27 April 2014 01:46 (ten years ago) link
Originally Posted by Maldjd23 View PostI once grabbed Andrea Corrs ass in a crowded pub off Grafton street...it was pert...Anyway...Would have said Abba, no doubt and Fleetwood Mac...(ignoring the fact she has aged 30 years)wow. Ya jammy basstid. Both cheeks or just the one?
― sarahell, Sunday, 27 April 2014 01:47 (ten years ago) link
the hotpress.com messageboard [ back to topic list ]
Birds in Bands
Myself and the boyfriend were discussing this lately. Basically, I said that women become more attractive to the opposite sex when in a band when in fact they are only 'normally' good looking. He made the point that no good looking women in bands are actually talented and asked me to think of a few who were, only one I could think of was Charlotte Hatherley, and maybe yer one from the Zutons. I dunno?
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Sunday, 27 April 2014 02:14 (ten years ago) link
The Naked And Famous“I like that. Have they got a bird in the band? Hmmm. You can’t have fookin’ birds in bands with all the lads.”
www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/shaun-ryders-ten-commandments-for-new-bands
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Sunday, 27 April 2014 02:15 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7ooW5_TNNk
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Sunday, 27 April 2014 02:39 (ten years ago) link
They are not afraid of the dead. They are small, alert, merry birds, some gray, others green; still others red and some yellow. Some are only red or blue on their chests, some only on their necks, some on their tails. Some are white with a blue throat; and I have seen some that are very tiny and proud, all white, spotlessly white. At dawn they begin to sing sweetly in the cornfield, and the Germans raise their heads from a gloomy slumber to listen to their happy song. They fly in thousands over the battlefields on the Dniester, the Dnieper, the Don. They twitter away free and merry, and they are not afraid of the war. They are not afraid of Hitler, of the SS, or of the Gestapo. They do not linger on branches to look down on the slaughter, but they float in the blue singing. They follow from above the armies marching across the limitless plain. The birds of the Ukraine are truly beautiful.
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Monday, 28 April 2014 23:10 (ten years ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/20/catalogue-doiseaux-review-pierre-laurent-aimard-aldeburgh-festival#img-2
― nakhchivan, Tuesday, 21 June 2016 15:57 (eight years ago) link
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3649724/Hats-ladies-just-make-look-silly-Anna-Friel-hits-Royal-Ascot-pigeon-head-QUENTIN-LETTS-explains-isn-t-fan.html
― nakhchivan, Tuesday, 21 June 2016 15:58 (eight years ago) link
took like 30 binocular-zoomed photos of what i assumed was an exotic falcon species in cyprus recently, turns out it was a common kestrel
― imago, Tuesday, 21 June 2016 16:00 (eight years ago) link
kestrels are dope tho
― nakhchivan, Tuesday, 21 June 2016 16:00 (eight years ago) link
Yup. One thing I'll miss about living in methil is that one of the old guys here keeps pigeons,which I enjoyed hanging out with.
― inside, skeletons are always inside, that's obvious. (dowd), Tuesday, 21 June 2016 16:04 (eight years ago) link
damn why wasn't i at that messiaen thing
yh obv it was still a beautiful bird posing magnificently before a lighthouse
― imago, Tuesday, 21 June 2016 16:04 (eight years ago) link
i might post a photo
― imago, Tuesday, 21 June 2016 16:05 (eight years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/Ho4moUB.jpg
― imago, Tuesday, 21 June 2016 16:17 (eight years ago) link
dignified bird
― nakhchivan, Tuesday, 21 June 2016 16:22 (eight years ago) link
immensely so
― imago, Tuesday, 21 June 2016 16:24 (eight years ago) link
i saw a barred owl, during the day, on saturday. i had never seen an owl irl before in the wild.
im fostering a pomeranian right now and the owl looked at him in a way that caused me some panic.
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Monday, 26 June 2017 16:40 (seven years ago) link
on reflection it was possibly a barn owl
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Monday, 26 June 2017 16:43 (seven years ago) link
post pics of the pom, por favor!
― sarahell, Monday, 26 June 2017 16:59 (seven years ago) link
http://i674.photobucket.com/albums/vv105/NAPOLEONROFL/dog/Screen%20Shot%202017-06-26%20at%2010.07.22%20AM.png
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Monday, 26 June 2017 17:11 (seven years ago) link
trying to work out which avians would be able to turn the aforepictured into lunch
― imago, Monday, 26 June 2017 17:21 (seven years ago) link
perhaps the very largest strigiforms
yeah he likely wouldn't have had much of a chance of eating him but he did stare at him quite intently. the dog didn't realize what was going on so i picked him up, the owl followed us for a short time - well we walked further along the trail and he flew from behind us to in front of us twice before deciding to stay perched on the branch and no bother with us anymore.
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Monday, 26 June 2017 17:24 (seven years ago) link
adorable!
― sarahell, Monday, 26 June 2017 17:33 (seven years ago) link
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50180781
Russian scientists tracking migrating eagles ran out of money after some of the birds flew to Iran and Pakistan and their SMS transmitters drew huge data roaming charges.After learning of the team's dilemma, Russian mobile phone operator Megafon offered to cancel the debt and put the project on a special, cheaper tariff.The team had started crowdfunding on social media to pay off the bills.The birds left from southern Russia and Kazakhstan.The journey of one steppe eagle, called Min, was particularly expensive, as it flew to Iran from Kazakhstan.Min accumulated SMS messages to send during the summer in Kazakhstan, but it was out of range of the mobile network. Unexpectedly the eagle flew straight to Iran, where it sent the huge backlog of messages.The price per SMS in Kazakhstan was about 15 roubles (18p; 30 US cents), but each SMS from Iran cost 49 roubles. Min used up the entire tracking budget meant for all the eagles.
After learning of the team's dilemma, Russian mobile phone operator Megafon offered to cancel the debt and put the project on a special, cheaper tariff.
The team had started crowdfunding on social media to pay off the bills.
The birds left from southern Russia and Kazakhstan.
The journey of one steppe eagle, called Min, was particularly expensive, as it flew to Iran from Kazakhstan.
Min accumulated SMS messages to send during the summer in Kazakhstan, but it was out of range of the mobile network. Unexpectedly the eagle flew straight to Iran, where it sent the huge backlog of messages.
The price per SMS in Kazakhstan was about 15 roubles (18p; 30 US cents), but each SMS from Iran cost 49 roubles. Min used up the entire tracking budget meant for all the eagles.
― Xia Nu del Vague (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 26 October 2019 21:11 (four years ago) link
looool
― imago, Saturday, 26 October 2019 21:59 (four years ago) link
they are getting louder during this time of quarantine
― sarahell, Monday, 23 March 2020 16:14 (four years ago) link
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52779727Plucky water bird stabs eagle in heart with beakCanada v US: Loon stabs eagle through heart
― What fash heil is this? (wins), Wednesday, 27 May 2020 09:09 (four years ago) link
i wonder what the most outrageous birdfight upset of all time is. inevitably unseen by human eye. 45,000 years ago a sparrow offed a swan, kind of thing
― imago, Wednesday, 27 May 2020 09:53 (four years ago) link
lots of baby seagulls around where I live now. a bit too far away for me to get good pictures but they look like this:
http://wildlifeambulance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/gull-chicks.jpg
― Temporary Erogenous Zone (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 8 July 2020 20:06 (four years ago) link
'ello
― imago, Wednesday, 8 July 2020 20:27 (four years ago) link
what fine little fellows
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jul/02/sandringham-royal-estate-linked-to-many-deaths-and-disappearances-of-protected-birdsThe Guardian has documented 18 cases of alleged shootings, poisonings and disappearances of rare birds and related incidents linked to the Sandringham estate or surrounding land owned by the king2003Red kite found dead, poisoned by two highly toxic insecticides on farmland owned by Sandringham. No suspect identifiedDecember 2005Tawny owl was put down after being badly injured in an illegal trap. The owl had significant levels of toxic rat killer in its body. A Sandringham gamekeeper fined £500 and £470 costsMay 2007A marsh harrier found dead on the boundary of Sandringham estate, suspected poisoning by toxic pesticides. No suspect identifiedOctober 2007Two female hen harriers were shot over Sandringham estate. The police searched part of the estate. Prince Harry, a friend and the head gamekeeper were interviewed by police. The birds were not recovered and no one was prosecutedOctober 2009A sparrowhawk found on Sandringham estate poisoned by an insecticide, next to a dead pigeon laced with it. The police and Health and Safety Executive searched Sandringham buildings. They did not find the same substance but uncovered “significant safety issues” with pesticides rule breaches. Warning letter sent to SandringhamAugust 2014A female montagu’s harrier, Britain’s rarest bird of prey, disappeared on land owned by Sandringham. It was fitted with a satellite tag, which also disappeared. No offence could be detectedAugust 2016A goshawk died near Sandringham House. Its body was incinerated by estate staff before it could be examined. Its satellite tag was posted back to the British Trust for Ornithology. No offence could be detectedSeptember 2016Up to 40 dead wood pigeons were found piled up near Sandringham estate visitors centre. One was alive and had blood coming from its beak. The next morning the birds had been removed before they could be examined by Natural England. No offence could be detectedMarch 2017A dead stock dove was found close to where the dead wood pigeons were found in September 2016. Because of that previous case, it was investigated but believed to have died of natural causesAugust 2017Another female montagu’s harrier disappeared near the site of the first missing montagu’s harrier. Its satellite tag also disappeared. No offence could be detectedMay 2020A little owl was found dead in a Fenn trap, designed to catch stoats, on the Sandringham land. Those traps were no longer authorised for that purpose. Police said no offences were committed but the RSPCA gave advice to the head keeper to prevent this happening againDecember 2020Further Fenn traps and poisons were found by anti-snaring campaigners, who complained to Norfolk police. No offence recordedJanuary 2021A fox was reported “spinning around” in distress in a snare on Sandringham, which led anti-snaring campaigners to be concerned about the estateJanuary 2021A pet dog was trapped around its neck by a snare on Sandringham land. The dog owner complainedMarch 2021A dead red kite was found on Snettisham beach, very close to Sandringham. Rat poisons and a shotgun pellet were detected by tests. Investigators could not identify a suspectJuly 2021More Fenn traps, river traps and snares, some with poisons, on Sandringham estate were reported to Natural England, and then followed up by the HSE. No action takenAugust 2021Rat poisons allegedly left in the open on Sandringham land. The HSE did not visit the rat poison locations, so no samples were analysed, but the case was added to its databaseAugust 2022More allegedly unauthorised traps found on Sandringham. Norfolk police investigated and stated they “don’t seem to comply with best practice at the very least”
― Grandall Flange (wins), Sunday, 2 July 2023 16:07 (one year ago) link
avian best practices
― sarahell, Sunday, 2 July 2023 16:40 (one year ago) link
a friend told me that he used to have a male duck that died because it couldn't put its dick away? Is this a common thing?
― sarahell, Tuesday, 10 October 2023 19:09 (eleven months ago) link
louis qk
― Boris Yitsbin (wins), Tuesday, 10 October 2023 19:45 (eleven months ago) link