.. this seemed naturally to follow on from the previous post .....in which there was a hint of a comparison between us humans ( aren't we doing well !) and birds .... in one of his many "satires" Juvenal seems to be comparing human behaviour with that of the birds.... he has just been writing of the way his wife and his servants behave, and how son is being raised .. ... For the morals and habits in which you bring him up will make the greatest difference. Storks feed their babies on the snakes and lizards found in remote wild fields ; and when they succeed on their wings , the young hunt those same animals. Vultures speed from dead cattle and dogs and corpses on gibbets to bring a piece of carrion to their young, so this is the food of these now grown-up vultures, feeding themselves as they build their nests in trees of their own. And the noble birds that await the behest of Jove hunt hares or kids in the forest and bring this prey to their eyries ; so when the mature offspring can fly away, their hunger moves them to swoop on that same prey as well that they had tasted first after pecking out of their shells. It's The Great Chain of Being ! You can draw your own conclusions as to which he prefers .... the humans around him, or the birds. The satires were written around the early 100's AD. And now, a beautiful Philipp Poisel song ....
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Here's an "interesting" thing from the Guardian ..... That's certainly a fascinating " take" on "bird-feeder-etiquette" ... and that last paragraph ... I wonder if he is making a comparison with our human world and its troubles ? Er... troubles ? What troubles ? Here's a top bit of "singing" for you......... I came across this song while I was looking for something else ... a bit of serendipity ... ...and sure enough, it's raining now, it has been raining almost without a pause for weeks, and we're all fed up with it.
Especially as it is mucking up my birding activities .... Grumbling Stumps, our local reserve, is more or less totally flooded, most of my routes to my favourite spots have turned either to lakes and/or mudbaths, the estuary path is a right mess, the local park, a rather sloping affair, is mostly a long, slippery mudslide ... oh, and have I mentioned the wind ? Yes..... we've had ferocious winds as well. Oh ..and it is very cold as well..... 2° this morning. There's a sort of pact between me and the winter weather... If it rains, it ought to be mild.... fair do's. Chwarae teg, as the Welsh have it. And if it is dry, I'll put up with the cold. But wet AND cold ... that's not on. Wizard ! So that song is a bit of consolation ...but not much. This remarkable picture has nowt to do with what follows ... but it's too good to miss ...... Here's a bit of the index for a book I have featured on here .... so you've no excuse for not knowing all about it .... Gripping, is it not !? But my question for you is .... ...... which book was it in ? That is a sort of "opposite" of those " Frontispiece" questions I did a while ago ... I showed you the picture on the flyleaf of various bird books, and your job was to work out which book it was ..... here's the link to them, if I can find them ... 705-frontispieces-1.html 707-frontispieces-2.html 719-frontispieces-3.html Hmmm ... it seems I only did three of them .. I'll do some more ..... .... but .. I've just thought of another whizzo idea .... but you'll have to wait for it... I can't do everything at once. ...... and anyway, it is Music Time as the Welentless Wain Wattles the Windows ...... She used to front a right dodgy lot of masked weirdos with her original band .... but she's totally changed her style and become a sweetikins celebrity nowadays ... here's a for instance ... I think you can work out what Mitternacht means ... Hey ... it's telling me it is unavailable ... but I watched it only a minute ago. Bah.
You can get it with this bit of code .. a bit of "copy and paste" .... https://youtu.be/QHKwAokzn2U Yes .... another probe into other people's house lists........ .................. and this time, it's Eeyore's house ..built by Pooh-and-Piglet . Without planning permission, I might add. Well... Eeyore is, by nature, a gloomy sod. So house-listing in the middle of a wood isn't probably his best choice. I'd reckon he might have struggled to get ,say, 26 on his list. Mind you, we don't know exactly how long he has lived there. Some readers like to think that they all will be there for eternity. As are we all... because we knew nothing from before we were born. And we'll know nothing after we're dead. Lucky us ! There are few references to birds in the two volumes.... ... and I've written about one particular bird-related incident before.. I think I might be the first person to have analysed the whole sighting ,er, analytically........ here's the link. 128-bird-identification-in-fiction-1.html It would help, of course, if each of the two books had a blasted index. As should all books, whatever they are about. But looking at that rather ramshackle and pokey little dump, you can't help thinking that a few changes could be made. There's certainly no room for a telescope and tripod. Hang on ... I don't think there are any shops . And certainly no optics outlets of any sort. And no libraries either. So no bird books. It's only got one tiny triangular viewing opportunity, there's the leaky roof, no space for shelving on which he could put his birding library, and on top of all that, there's no "on top of all that" in the form of a nice flat roof to act as a viewing platform. What he needs first and foremost is a Conservatory. It would involve a bit of hard Labour of course. And you would have to invest Liberally. There would be a lot of disturbance with all the Cummings and goings. But who is going to pass all this useful advice on to Eeyore ? They're a pretty useless bunch .... that Owl pretends he's clever but he isn't, and he can't spel for toffy. And Tigger is a bouncy berk, and Piglet, though well-meaning, would be too shy to make any suggestions. Kanga is the only sensible creature in the entire forest, but she is too busy with baby Roo, who is a blasted nuisance. Any further suggestions would be welcomed at [email protected] ..or, of course, as a comment. Meanwhile, here's a spot of music ... really relevant, remarkably .... There's two very notable and special things about these six birds .... .. one is pretty obvious .... the other, not quite so obvious. Ivory-billed woodpecker Labrador Duck Bachman's Warbler Carolina Parakeet .. that's some of them up there. Passenger Pigeon Great Auk So .... get thinking ! And while you are thinking, here's an irrelevant but good bit of music ... ....... I often wonder how many people have looked through my binoculars. I wish I had carried a sort of " visitor's book" for them and got all those grateful lookers-through to make a comment and maybe write their name in it. Because I'm a dedicated binocular-lender .... and my "total" must be in the hundreds. A significant percentage of them would have featured Waxwings .... not only passers-by who have stopped to find out what we're looking at ...but the householders too .... but I've also got complete non-birders looking at all sorts ... Rose-coloured Starlings, Bee-eaters, Hoopoes, Wrynecks, Eider ducks, Cetti's Warblers, Bitterns, Bearded Tits .... even pretty common stuff like Bullfinches, Sparrowhawks, Buzzards .... and then there's lots of Lithuanians who have looked through them .... very few people know about my Lithuanian experience ....... I hardly ever mention it........ 288-when-i-was-in-lithuania-part-1.html 293-when-i-was-in-lithuania-part-2.html 389-when-i-was-in-lithuania-part-3.html And I've never had any "trouble" .... nobody has ever run off with them or owt like that. But the real mystery is .. what about the people who owned those binoculars before I did. .... I didn't buy them new .... and especially all the people who they let have a look. Lots of people have looked through my jellyscope as well, but not recently ... I just can't cart it around as much these days .... I might have mentioned once or twice that I'm getting old and knackered. But there's something you can have a think about ... an unknowable number really. Unless , of course, it is zero. Which is perfectly understandable, and probably the sensible thing to do. My optics, they are just for me They cost a fortune, yes they did So why should I lend them to thee when they cost me 800 quid ? Maybe I should charge them 50p per minute it's a brilliant stratagem and it's sensible, innit ? I get a bit of dough They get a bit nearer To a Waxwing or a Chough so they see it much clearer. A point well made. But why 21/2/1965 ? |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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