"... as the 3-foot tall winged monster lunged towards him."
RELATED: "Maybe the last picture is the first picture and they lost the kid in the shark tank.'/"Only way for the third picture to make sense would be if the wife ate him."
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52 comments:
That's a big bird. I wonder if it tastes like chicken.
With a name like Axel Moss, it's the sand crane that should be scared.
I love the name Axel Moss.
He should play baseball with a name like that.
He was not "cowering in fear".
Knees bent, he looks docile and ready to react.
Even Sun Tzu might recommend a hasty retreat.
Axel should have stood his ground.
While frightening, incidents of stranger-bird abductions of small children remain extraordinarily rare.
I don't agree with the description that he was cowering in fear. He's in an athletic stance ready to use his bike as a shield. Great reaction time.
I'm also not seeing how he "clambered" off his bike. No eye-witness account backs this up. The kid looks reactive, focused, and ready.
He's not "cowering in fear." How insulting! He's in a defensive posture.
That's actually a picture of garage mahal reacting to this mornings "incoming!" story of Mary Burkes firing by her own family from the family business.
"The animal is thought to have gone on the offensive after Moss cycled too close to a nest."
I don't think Sandhill Cranes are still on their nests in late October, even in Florida.
I wonder what the boy (or camera-holder) did to provoke the bird.
That's three feet?
Who writes this stuff? Oh, some guy named Lee Moran for the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS.
Is Lee Moran self-aware?
Vultures just wait patiently on the telephone poles hoping a child dies.
Larry J said...
"I wonder if it tastes like chicken."
You can find out in Minnesota, but they're only huntable in northwestern corner of the state.
Vultures are essentially journalists.
Fucking cranes! They should all be run over with steamrollers!
Bob Ellison said...
"That's three feet?"
At least, I think the photo distorts how far back the bird was from the boy.
The smallest Sandhill Cranes (which are not the ones resident in Florida), at 2'9" from tip of the toe to tip of the beak. That might be stretched out rather than in a typical (living) pose though.
"Technically I may be a sandhill crane, but today I'm an ass-whooping crane!"
Enlarge the photo and you can see a chick behind the crane. Rather than charging the crane may have been shielding the chick....
...or its Halloween and that's
Ichabod Crane in costume.
They must taste good. Some sub populations were hunted to near extinction. A lot of birds are very aggressive, especially during breeding season. However they are mostly bluffing, which works well on little kids. I remember being attacked by Black swans when I was about four. Not a fun experience. They bite!
lemondog said...
"Enlarge the photo and you can see a chick behind the crane. Rather than charging the crane may have been shielding the chick...."
That's an adult further back. All cranes will be adult-sized by now. Almost all species of birds grow to full sized (or nearly so) by the time they've got their flight feathers.
amr, I won't bother asking you the old saw about how you get a sandhill crane to stretch out from beak to toe.
That's way to vaudeville Audubon for this blog.
*too
[sigh]
Larry J said...
That's a big bird. I wonder if it tastes like chicken.
Hunters call it the flying ribeye.
"I wonder what the boy (or camera-holder) did to provoke the bird."
Came too close?
Just a suggestion.
The kid actually went into a great defensive position. Poised to move, with the bike between him and the threat.
"The kid actually went into a great defensive position. Poised to move, with the bike between him and the threat.:
When shit gets real it's amazing how smart people get, unless they've had it trained out of them.
Steve Kupillas said...
I remember being attacked by Black swans when I was about four. Not a fun experience. They bite!
Geese are assholes most of the time but especially during certain times of the year.
David said...
Hunters call it the flying ribeye.
Sounds like good eating!
"He's not "cowering in fear." How insulting! He's in a defensive posture."
If Axel had been Alexa, they probably would have written it your way.
That crane does look like an F4U coming around for the kill.
But I agrre that he seems to be taking a defensive stance. If he had a Daisy BB Gun, like we had at that age, he could have been hunting the crane instead of defending himself.
As a aside, in WWII F4U Corsairs were regarded by the Japanese Navy fliers to be the best American fighter plane. They established an 11 to 1 kill ratio over Japanese aircraft. The Japs name for Corsairs was "the Gull Winged Death."
It's unclear exactly who took the breathtaking picture, but some viewers have speculated it was snapped on a camcorder from an adult cycling behind.
Other viewers speculate it was a creatively posed and painstakingly planned photo by Axel's dad (who stands about 6'2" because of the angle of the shot, and because big guys like him tend to give their sons names like Axel).
Speculating.
The overthrow of humanity by the birds has begun!
Enlarge the photo and you can see a chick behind the crane. Rather than charging the crane may have been shielding the chick....
Enlarge the photo and it looks completely photoshopped.
traditionalguy: "As a aside, in WWII F4U Corsairs were regarded by the Japanese Navy fliers to be the best American fighter plane. They established an 11 to 1 kill ratio over Japanese aircraft. The Japs name for Corsairs was "the Gull Winged Death."
It should be noted that by the time the F4U was more fully deployed many of the best Japanese pilots were no longer with us and the Japanese were not able to replace them adequately.
Not that Americans flying F4U's wouldn't have maintained a highly positive kill ration against the best Japanese pilots, but you can't discount how losing so many good pilots during '42 and early '43 affected the overall stats.
kimsch makes a great point. Where's the bird's shadow?
traditionalguy said...
As a aside, in WWII F4U Corsairs were regarded by the Japanese Navy fliers to be the best American fighter plane. They established an 11 to 1 kill ratio over Japanese aircraft. The Japs name for Corsairs was "the Gull Winged Death."
The Bent Wing Ensign Eliminator was a great plane, especially when the Essex class carriers entered service. Before that, they serviced mostly with the Marines operating from land bases. Corsairs were the last piston engined fighters made in America and served well through the Korean war. I read that the Japanese called it "Whistling Death" as compared to the P-38, which they called "Whispering Death." If you've ever heard a P-38 make a high-speed, low-level pass, you'll know why it got that name. The best description I have for that sound is "sexy."
The F6F Hellcat had a reported kill ratio of about 16:1. Both it and the Corsair were great planes.
Kill ratio?
American combat deaths in the Pacific Theatre were about 106,000. Japanese military deaths were about 2,100,000. Add 900,000 Japanese civilians and that's 3,000,000 dead.
Kill ratio approaching 30-1.
Going to war with the United States is generally not a good idea.
David said...
Kill ratio?
American combat deaths in the Pacific Theatre were about 106,000. Japanese military deaths were about 2,100,000. Add 900,000 Japanese civilians and that's 3,000,000 dead.
Kill ratio approaching 30-1.
Going to war with the United States is generally not a good idea.
anyone got a copy of the ROE from back then?
Where's the bird's shadow?
Its bestial anger vaporized the shadow.
Florida Sandhill cranes are utterly docile, and that's an adult bird behind the one with its wings spread. Hatchlings would be full grown by October and have left their parents. These birds always travel in mated pairs. Most likely, if the photo is real (which I question) the kid on his bike just startled the poor birds, who were probably resting, and the foreground bird reared up.
Larry J said...
That's a big bird. I wonder if it tastes like chicken.
Find out. There's a hunting season for them in Texas.
About 8.6 million Germans died.
567,000 French (more French than Americans).
About 24,000,000 Russians and 20,000,000 Chinese.
Somewhere between 3-4 million Indonesians. (The Japanese occupation and the beginnings of Civil War.)
500,000-1,000,000 Filipinos and 1,000,000 Yugoslavs.
40,000 Aussies, 50,000 Estonians, 227,000 Latvians, 301,000 Dutch, 353.000 Lithuanians, 833,000 Rumanians, 450,000 Brits.
And many more . . .
If you are ever wondering why the United States adopted a policy of overwhelming military strength after WW II, this is why.
Source: National WW II Museum Web Site (New Orleans)
"Sweep the leg."
We have so many photographs now; everyone carries a camera, at least in his/her phone. But it really makes you ask yourself whenever you see a photo: How and why did this get taken?
I live in Florida not far from where this photo was taken and have many sandhill cranes living in the lake behind my house. They gambol around the neighborhood picking lawns clean of whatever bugs might be there, and they're docile to the point that they won't get out of the road when cars want to get by. I have NEVER seen one make a threatening move like this, so I wonder what was going on just before this photo was snapped.
iThe Rules of Engagement in the Pacific war were set by Halsey's first order to his Navy in the Solomons, He took over
command in October 1942 and sent out the simple order, "Kill Japs, kill Japs, Kill more Japs."
The F4U was called The Ensign Eliminator (Rookie pilots would be young ensigns) because it was a very hard plane to learn to fly because that huge engine created so much torque, if you didn't control it right on takeoff, the entire plane would torque around the main propeller shaft and prang into the ground.
Regarding the apparently missing shadow: note how low the sun angle is (see how long the grass edge shadow is?) I suspect the bird's shadow is on the grass immediately to the right of the top of the kid's backpack.
Regarding the F4U, my father (who was a Corsair driver in Korea) claimed that it was no harder to learn to fly than any other airplane (and if anyone might know, it would be him.) The only "plane" that he said was hard to fly was the Avro Aerocar. He described flying that as like attempting to stand balanced on top of a beachball. In contrast, he said the most pleasant to fly was Concorde.
Fred, look at the kid's shadow, then see that there's no bird shadow at all, at all. And that bird is not standing on the grass. At all, at all.
Total photoshop.
kimsch:
I think the bird is in the air, about two feet up, and about 8 feet back from the kid. Hence my guess at the shadow. From the leg positions, I would say the bird is definitely not on the ground, (plus what kind of photoshop idiot does not put ANY shadows in?)
I tried to find a higher-res copy of the image, so I could look for manipulation (cf. my resume where it says Adobe, 1989-1996) but I have not found one.
This is fitting: The very first thing I ever did in photoshop was to make a three-legged flamingo. I may be the first person on the planet to have faked a bird with PS - many people in the office asked me point-blank where the hell I photographed that odd bird?
Fred LOL. I still say Photoshop. Both birds look pasted on the grass. Neither bird has a shadow, and the rear one is arguably on the ground. And the story says it's unclear who took the picture, but there's a photo credit of (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
AP has the photo, but the comp is smaller than the fee based photo.
A vote for photoshopping here. No bird shadows whatsoever.
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