"I am an animal" - Nature Notes

[goinghome]

Last year, in the eaves of the house across the road from mine, swifts like these nested behind the cross-beams out front

- ​

This year, a couple of starlings are occupying the same spot. Starlings get it on several weeks before other birds, and they are known to seek out vacant nests and use them, rather than build their own. The swifts have just returned from the Congo regions where they over-winter, and I've seen them flutter around in agitation, looking for the home they built. The starlings loudly held their ground, and since they're still in and out with worms and grubs, they have presumably prevailed. A bunch of sparrows also arrived, inspecting the same facade, and a couple of them seem to have taken over the eave space on the other side of the door. I snapped one of the starlings entering the nest, and an inspecting sparrow to the left.

On the same day I witnessed that drama, I watched two scald crows driving a neighbourhood cat away from their 'tree' in an area of partial scrub behind the house. Scald-crows look like this.

One scald-crow dive-bombed on the cat over and over, narrowly missing him by inches, while the other chased him on foot, going very close, squawking like a demon. The cat tried to walk away nonchalantly but the way he suddenly turned his head
and often looked prepared to run, betrayed his jitters.​

I was reminded of the tour-guide who showed us around the Holy Land, the time I visited Israel, admitting that war is usually about resources, so that no-one is forced to be 'the end of the family line'.

Also on the same day as that drama transpired, I chanced on this instance of exquisite existence, an Orange Tip.

For a giggle, check out anti-animal vegan Collin Moulton at the Dry Bar Comedy club, with the key sketch about 34 mins in

 

[goinghome]

The bull-fighter dies?

Bullfighting, which is considered part of Spain’s cultural heritage, is once again at the center of the debate in the Iberian country after the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, announced the cancellation of this year’s National Bullfighting Prize and that he would speed up the procedures for its definitive cancellation.

Urtasun has repeatedly expressed his opposition to the spectacle, which he considers to be based on animal cruelty, and in fact, this measure is in line with the electoral program of Sumar, the party to which the minister belongs, which proposed the abolition of the cultural and patrimonial protection of bullfighting and the abolition of its public funding...

- https://www.pressenza.com/2024/05/a...heritage-spains-bullfighting-debate-heats-up/

 

[No 27]

The bull-fighter dies?



- https://www.pressenza.com/2024/05/a...heritage-spains-bullfighting-debate-heats-up/

You're a spinster, aren't you?

 

[goinghome]

aren't you?

There I was, thrilled to notice an addition to my pet animal thread, only to find a lone predator who seems to have become consumed enough by my online persona to start sniping with conjectured identity tags on a thread about something specific and completely different. This approach is unlikely to charm anyone to disclose who, how, why they are.

I know a young man going through a fishing phase, who recently caught a large pike (before returning it alive to the water). Pike are cannibalistic bottom-feeding species, with teeth like these

Recalling the incontinence No. 27 has displayed in the past when giving offense, they must also have a mouth full of spiky gnashers. Still, in the year or two I've been back, I've seen compulsively aggressive people change and become civil, similar to the story of Angulimala. Or at least share an animal anecdote, with photos. Otherwise, beware!

 

[No 27]

There I was, thrilled to notice an addition to my pet animal thread, only to find a lone predator who seems to have become consumed enough by my online persona to start sniping with conjectured identity tags on a thread about something specific and completely different. This approach is unlikely to charm anyone to disclose who, how, why they are. [. . .]

I'll take that as a "Yes."

 

[Requiescant]

Release The Bats

So, my "pet" Bats have returned from their Winter sojourn and taken up residence in the cavity beneath my bedroom window-sill.....all 32(yes THIRTY TWO) of them. As the sun set after the torrential rain of Sunday, the weird sky colouring made them a tad more visible than usual.

At first I thought it was a joke, as I had always assumed there was maybe between 6 and 10 of them, but they just kept emerging like some rodent airforce("I counted them all out....and I counted them all back again" Gulf War drivel). Before I knew that the cause of the noise from within the bedroom wall was bats, I had always assumed it was faulty plumbing, or a wasps nest. Somehow knowing it's a family of bats makes it vastly less annoying, and actually quite pleasant.

I'm pretty sure the bats are the common pipistrelle variety, judging by their size and speed. Indeed it's nigh on impossible to view them with the naked eye, never mind a Samsung Galaxy phone camera as I've tried to do.
I don't know how long they'll stay, last Spring they were only there for around 5 or 6 weeks.
So now I have a family of bats in the back window, and a flock of starlings(complete with their young) in a crevice at the front window.
They must sense where the Vegan lives......or the spiritual descendant of Saint Francis

 

[Vesper Nocturne]

 

[Vesper Nocturne]

 

[JM🇬🇧]

 

[caramel sea salt]

 

[JM🇬🇧]

View attachment 104668

Ahh - Man
The most dangerous of all the animals.

 

[caramel sea salt]

Ahh - Man
The most dangerous of all the animals.

View attachment 104669

Well, actually it wasn't meant to be deep or anything. Just a picture of a kitty chillaxing among all the people and noise. Everyone was so stressed but the cat was just lying there completely oblivious to it all, licking itself clean.

 

[caramel sea salt]

But of course, you are right. Man destroys by travelling and by basically just existing. Then again, I'm a bit torn when it comes to places like the Greek islands. They are just piles of rocks and granite, with hardly anything growing there and virtually no fauna. It's man who has made them special.

 

[JM🇬🇧]

But of course, you are right.

You have no idea the amount of pure pleasure that washes over me when I hear that.

 

[JM🇬🇧]

I'm a bit torn when it comes to places like the Greek islands. They are just piles of rocks and granite, with hardly anything growing there and virtually no fauna. It's man who has made them special.

Where is that? The view of the ocean from up there is breathtaking.
I was talking to the barber yesterday who is from Cyprus, he was telling me all about it and now I want to go.

 

[caramel sea salt]

Where is that? The view of the ocean from up there is breathtaking.
I was talking to the barber yesterday who is from Cyprus, he was telling me all about it and now I want to go.

Amorgos Island. Don't tell anyone!

 

[goinghome]

View attachment 104657

Hey Vesper, is that a handsome tree with unusual foliage and snow-white flowers, but without beasties?

No photo so I'll try a word picture. I was dropping someone to Shannon airport yesterday. We noticed fire engines with lights flashing besides Bunratty Castle on the way, and a crowd of people gathered on the bridge, so we decided to take a look. People had already started dispersing as we approached. There was mention of a body. We stood on the bridge, now otherwise deserted, and while the fire engines were still ticking over nearby, whatever action had been watched in the river was now over. However, I noticed a man pulling clumps of grass in a garden meters away from the sloping muddy bank. He wore a hard hat. He was a fireman. I stepped back for a better view, and saw a second fireman doing the same. One step further back rewarded me with the vision of a sodden horse munching on the grass gathered for him, none the worse for wear after his tumble

 

[Vesper Nocturne]

Hey Vesper, is that a handsome tree with unusual foliage and snow-white flowers, but without beasties?

No photo so I'll try a word picture. I was dropping someone to Shannon airport yesterday. We noticed fire engines with lights flashing besides Bunratty Castle on the way, and a crowd of people gathered on the bridge, so we decided to take a look. People had already started dispersing as we approached. There was mention of a body. We stood on the bridge, now otherwise deserted, and while the fire engines were still ticking over nearby, whatever action had been watched in the river was now over. However, I noticed a man pulling clumps of grass in a garden meters away from the sloping muddy bank. He wore a hard hat. He was a fireman. I stepped back for a better view, and saw a second fireman doing the same. One step further back rewarded me with the vision of a sodden horse munching on the grass gathered for him, none the worse for wear after his tumble

Does without beasties mean you’re asking me if it’s a photo of a tree with no hidden animals in the shot? If so, correct. It’s just a photo of a sky-high giant southern magnolia that’s over 4 stories tall at this point. That was its first flower bloom of the season, and it was within 24hrs of the first newborn baby bambi of the season as well.

Horses (even potentially) getting hurt is always nothing short of terrifying. I’m so glad that story had a happy ending.

 

[goinghome]

Does without beasties mean you’re asking me if it’s a photo of a tree with no hidden animals in the shot? If so, correct. It’s just a photo of a sky-high giant southern magnolia that’s over 4 stories tall at this point. That was its first flower bloom of the season, and it was within 24hrs of the first newborn baby bambi of the season as well.

Horses (even potentially) getting hurt is always nothing short of terrifying. I’m so glad that story had a happy ending.

That's what I was asking Trees are glorious; often the oldest living things on earth, as far as is known. And the happy ending for the horse was uplifting. The week before, I attended a Blessing of the Bees. You can watch one from a few years ago in Dublin here -

The congregation I was with didn't get up so close, and did without the young costumed dancers, but ordained priests came to officiate. It's not only an Irish thing, although the tradition here used to be to bless all round us: cows, boats, emigrants, everything! While bee blessings are taking place far and wide these days, a specific law about bees from back in the day is more exclusively Irish, from the ancient Brehon laws which regulated beekeepers - https://thebrehonlawyer.com/2021/03/31/bees-and-neighbourhood/ - and - https://brehonacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Introduction-to-the-Brehon-Laws-Transcript.pdf

St. Gobnait of Cork is the patron saint of bees

The working bee is the symbol of Manchester and can be seen frequently depicted around the city

Why is the bee a symbol of Manchester?

The image of the bee has brought many people together following the attacks on Manchester Arena last year. Here we find out why this little bee is so important to the City of Manchester.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[goinghome]

During a recent stroll by the river Feale, I was delighted to notice a kingfisher sitting on a rock, then diving, and then flying back to the trees. A couple of people stopped and as I told them what I was looking at, the kingfisher did an encore, making everyone's day.
I failed to capture the incident on camera, so this shows how stunning kingfishers are.

On that same walk I saw a Little Egret, stood almost immobile in the water. I would have had to wade closer to take a picture, so here's what they look like

They're not so rare, but it can feel like a surprise to encounter them, and many people don't know what they are!

Yesterday, on the path of a roadside desolate, I found a pygmy shrew panting like crazy on his back. I nudged him on his front, but no go. I reckon he'd been dropped by a hawk or cat and was in shock. So I picked him up by the scruff of the neck and put him into a thicket at the other side of the wall to recover in shade and privacy. This is a pygmy shrew

When, minutes after, I spotted a blackbird on the path on the other side of the road, stone cold dead, it occurred to me momentarily that something invisible like radiation was affecting them, until I shook such a notion off.

And to conclude, a look at how mistakes of perception made by both humans and non-humans are actually strong proofs of shared cognitive abilities:

"Ockham came up with a clear-cut explanation of the erring. With it came another problem: nonhuman minds are rational too. Wodeham and Gregory each tried a different strategy to evade the problem of nonhuman erring. While they disagree about their strategies, Wodeham and Gregory both hang on to the divide between human and nonhuman animals.

In hindsight, it is easy to discard the whole endeavour as a misguided form of speciesism. The problem that all three shared was that they took for granted that humans occupied a unique and superior place because of the authority of the Church and Aristotle, in spite of the lack of evidence for this claim."

Why medieval philosophers cared if animals made mistakes | Aeon Essays

Three medieval thinkers struggled to explain how animals could make mistakes – and uncovered the nature of nonhuman minds

aeon.co