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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  1492 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: February 26, 2020

One of the things that I find most interesting about the Yellow Billed Cuckoo is that it's colloquial name is "The Storm Crow." It got the name because it's bird song is often heard on summer days before it rains. I remember the first time I came across the term, it was the name of one of the mechs in the MechWarrior game series. For years I imagined a literal crow flying around in tempests and tornados and thunderstorms and if you do an image search for "Storm Crow" you're gonna see a lot of fantasy drawings depicting just that. So imagine my surprise, some twenty plus years later, learning that this little guy is the actual bearer of the name. I never would have thought. Tangently related, a while back I was blathering about taxonomy and one of the things I talked about is how it's often a central issue in conservation. Turns out, in the western states, the population for the yellow billed cuckoo has declined precipitously and there's an attempt to designate a potential sub species for the western populations to give them protective status. Speaking of declining populations, I worry about the Rusty Black Bird because they're just darling to look at, so bright and colorful despite being what a lot of people would consider drab.

I'm about to get up off the couch to sew together some text blocks for bookbinding. I have two new types of paper that I both love and am frustrated by in equal measure. I also have probably a dozen or so text blocks that still need casing in, but, you know, it's always good to have extras. Right? I have some ideas for books, think I might share them next time kingmudsy makes a craft thread, just to get feedback.

Here's hoping you're all doing great. Spring is right around the corner.





Devac  ·  1492 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Spring is right around the corner.

It's so weird to hear it after a winter with maybe two days of snow and temperature scarcely breaking -3 °C. And even I can recall winters when you'd be shoveling snow and by the time you'd finish there'd already be a fresh layer where you started. Makes you think what climate change deniers smoke.

user-inactivated  ·  1492 days ago  ·  link  ·  

According to SMHI spring arrived here two weeks ago and we never had a winter.

swedishbadgergirl  ·  1488 days ago  ·  link  ·  

A few days after spring was officially declared by SMHI it snowed and was below 0 for enough days that I think winter would have come back if that's the way it worked. We had a winter though, which amazes me because I didn't think we'd had enough cold days in a row.

kingmudsy  ·  1492 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    ...think I might share them next time kingmudsy makes a craft thread...

Coming soon, to a global near you!