They don't seem to like standing on the ice — and there is open water close by — but there they stay, slipping about and shifting from one foot to the other.
This video is by me. You'll see Meade, at 0:40, making his own swan/sunrise video. Ah! Here it is:And here's a still shot (by me) at 7:28, showing ice looking like broken plate glass piled up on the shore:
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Is it any warmer outside in WI?
It's been unseasonable hot here. Now we have high winds on the way and planned power outages.
grr.
Mister Mallard appears to be solo…
It's much warmer today. It was 17 when we went out, and it's 23 now, going up to 36. Looks like highs above freezing every day from now until Christmas (except for this Friday). Unfortunately, it supposed to rain on Thursday. I don't like that!
CO will gladly take your rain! Glad it's warming up a bit.
What? No shot of Meade on the ice standing on one leg, slipping and sliding? Shucks!
Duane on a Crane!
https://x.com/oriettamusic/status/2000222239203991757?s=20
Aw... He's copying you again.
Man wants your life, Annie.
Does it bother you, or make you like him more... like a son who will never leave you?
I don't like standing on ice myself, let alone in bare feet and wearing only feathers.
The worst thing about Christmas markets in snow country is standing for ages on the cold cold ground as you shop and sip cider. The cold creeps up through many winter boots.
49 just not in Houston. Rain tomorrow. High in the 80s by Sunday. Christmas Day looking at a high of 77 under mostly Sunny skies. Should be great for kids going outside and playing with their new toys, touching grass.
It looks like they are wearing knee-high black galoshes.
Swans seem to getting a little territorial - hey relax guys its just a duck.
I wonder if the ice "confuses" them. It's funny to imagine their thoughts; "what is this?".
It's been one of the coldest, snowiest Decembers in many years (only half over!) and yet it looks like we will not get a white Christmas. Maybe even rain! We're getting totally shafted.
Swans and their kin have hot feet, even when it's very cold. A few bird species have feathers on their feet, ptarmigan for example. Why they have feathered feet isn't clear, but it's not likely to be for warmth. A more plausible explanation may be for mobility. Ptarmigan are year-round residents wherever they live. Consequently, they experience two seasonal moults, spring and autumn. Both are seasonal camouflage suitable for bird that mostly stays on the ground. Having feathered feet helps the ptarmigan walk on the snow rather than through it, i.e. they're snowshoes. There are pigeon breeds with crazy feathered feet, but these are mutations rather than adaptations.
As a rule, birds have naked feet and legs. They have high metabolic rates and no sweat glands, so having naked legs and feet provides a heatsink. Even penguins have naked feet and legs. Besides panting, it's their primary means of cooling off. If they need to warm up, they'll stand on one and tuck the other into their belly feathers for an hour or so, then shift.
Thanks for that excellent tutorial, Quaestor! I will now look up the relationship between adaptation and mutation.
And here’s my short video from today’s sunrise:
https://youtube.com/shorts/PlUNWd2MS4k?si=CYiV3Lx225uFSay4
I really like that last foto at the bottom.
"You know that joke?" Shrake asked. "Mickey Mouse goes to his lawyer, says he wants a divorce from Minnie Mouse, and he explains why. The lawyer said, 'I'm not sure you should go for a divorce just because she's having a few psychological problems.' Mickey says, 'Psychological problems? I didn't say she was having psychological problems. I said she was fucking Goofy.'"
- That's a rare joke. It uses a confusion of an epithet (fucking) with a verb (fucking).
See Quang Phuc Dong "English Sentences without Overt Grammatical Subject" where it's established that there are two "fuck"s, one a verb and the other an epithet.
"I will now look up the relationship between adaptation and mutation."
Most mutations are non-adaptive. For example, albino mice are very rare in nature because they get eaten before they breed far more often than their black and brown siblings. They used to be common in laboratory work. Not anymore. Albinism is itself an uncontrolled variable. For some stupid reason, cancer researchers believed white mice were somehow "better" than Mama Nature's garden variety, which is one reason why many perfectly useful and safe products are banned in California. Pigeon fanciers are also fond of non-adaptive mutations. Consequently, the highly adaptable rock dove (Columba livia) contains strains that can't fly except in a downward spiral, can't walk without rolling over, and can't see their feet.
Geneticists used to believe mutations were very important to adaptive evolution, but the thinking now focuses on large sets of genes that provide small advantages to isolated populations rather than random changes to the genome.
Regarding my naked legs and feet comment, I should clarify that by legs, I meant the tarsometatarsus, the lower leg -- the shins. The tibiotarsus (drumstick) is fully feathered, as a rule, but naked in the ostrich, a bird adapted to extreme heat. Some birds, particularly eagles, are feathered down to the toes, which seems to be a protective adaptation against bites and scratches.
"See Quang Phuc Dong 'English Sentences without Overt Grammatical Subject'"
I have that book. It's shelved right next to Aviation for Commercial Pilots, 9th edition by Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk, Bang Ding Ow, et al.
Future archaeologists are going to unearth this blog and come to the conclusion that the Capitol was built as a marker of the winter solstice. The site will be called Stone Dome.
It was interesting to learn a little more about birds, Quaestor. I also have some interest in learning more about what drives and motivates the common shitbird.
Wei Tu Lo
SAVE THE SWANS!
Stone Dome. I like it!
Quang Phuc Dong is in Studies out in Left Field: Defamatory Essays Presented to James D. McCawley on the Occasion of his 33rd or 34th Birthday
An underground linguistics classic
Quang Phuc Dong, see May 18th
-- DATES IN THE MONTH OF MAY THAT ARE OF INTERESTS TO LINGUISTS:
May 2, 1919. Baudouin de Courtnay concedes defeat in his bid for the presidency of Poland.
May 3, 1955. Mouton & Co. discover how American libraries order books and scheme to cash in by starting several series of books on limericks. The person given charge of this project mishears and starts several series of books on linguistics. No one ever notices the mistake. May 5, 1403. The Great English Vowel Shift begins. Giles of Tottenham calls for ale at his favourite pub and is perplexed when the barmaid tells him that the fishmonger is next door.
May 6, 1939. The University of Chicago trades Leonard Bloomfield to Yale University for two janitors and an undisclosed number of concrete gargoyles.
May 7, 1966. r-less pronunciation is observed in eight kindergarten pupils in Secaucus, NJ. The governor of New Jersey stations national guardsmen along the banks of the Hudson.
May 9, 1917. N. Ja. Marr discovers ROSH, the missing link for Japhetic unity.
May 11, 1032. Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II orders isoglosses erected across northern Germany as a defense against Viking intruders.
May 12, 1965. Sydney Lamb announces discovery of the hypersemantic stratum, setting off a wave of selling on the NYSE.
May 13. Vowel Day. (Public holiday in Kabardian Autonomous Region.) The ceremonial vowel is pronounced by all Kabardians as a symbol of brotherhood with all speakers of human languages.
May 14, 519 BC. Birth of Panini. May 15, 1964. J. Katz and J. Fodor are separated in 5-hour surgery from which neither recovers.
May 17, 1966. J.R. 'Haj' Ross tells a clean joke.
May 18, 1941. Quang Phuc Dong is captured by the Japanese and interned for the duration of hostilities.
May 19. Dipthong Day. (Public holiday in Australia)
May 20, 473 BC. Publisher returns to Panini a manuscript entitled _Saptadhyayi_ with a note requesting the addition of a chapter on phonology. Panini begins struggling to meet the publisher's deadline.
May 21, 1962. First mention of _Sound Pattern of English_ as 'in press.'
May 23, 38,471 BC. God creates language.
May 26, 1945. Zellig Harris applies his newly formulated discovery procedures and discovers [t].
May 27, 1969. George Lakoff discovers the global rule. Supermarkets in Cambridge, Mass. are struck by frenzied buying of canned goods.
May 29, 1962. Angular brackets are discovered. Classes at MIT are dismissed and much Latvian plum brandy is consumed.
May 30, 1939. Charles F. Hockett finishes composing the music for the Linguistic Society of America's anthem, 'Can You Hear the Difference?'
May 31, 1951. Chomsky discovers affix-hopping and is reprimanded by his father for discovering rules on Shabas..
"I also have some interest in learning more about what drives and motivates the common shitbird."
The working hypothesis at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is ebullient praise from David Brooks.
One study discovered an obscure tufted ticketfixer (Pettyfoggerus jacklegus) that thrived for eight years on one David Brooks reference to a pants crease.
rhhardin@443PM--Very fine.
You two know that the birds were getting to their feet and slipping around because they were alarmed by, and reacting to YOUR presence, right? You disturb them. Why not try being quiet and less intrusive? Move slowly and quietly; don't stand on the bank and be so obvious. Pretend like you are hunting? If you want true wildlife shots, try to record them without disturbing them. It's cold and early. Leave them alone. It's sad to see them up and slipping like that to avoid you/potential harm because you need blog fodder daily. And now there's two of you, spreading out to disturb them!
Why not try to capture what is there at nature's first light without dominating the scene? Be part of nature. It's not like they are in YOUR backyard. Give them space, and peace. Respect other creatures. Don't be disruptive daily. Find a new angle and let the living things be? They should feel safe out there, far enough away from danger from you two, but you're alarming them... The flapping wings and movement to flee is a tell. If you are quiet and move much more slowly, and don't spread out, maybe you'll capture them in their natural state.... This ain't it. It's cold. Let them be?
Folks with an interest in birds would likely be interested in an article the inimitable Stone Age Herbalist posted on his site a few months back, on The Bizarre Biology of Birds. The upshot is that birds in many ways got the bulk of the “Designer's” attention, and we primate-mammals got evolutionarily shafted by comparison—in turns out we're not the epitome of creation.
Not only do birds possess much better eyes than we do (in many different ways), but their lungs plus their general oxygen metabolism are far more efficient (translating directly to food requirements and thus many lives not lost to starvation), plus their brains and nervous systems, too, are far more efficiently and compactly organized than we human—whose epitome is our brain(s).
SF writer Poul Anderson, in his “Technic Civilization” series, conceived of an airborne sophont called the Ythri, who he conceived had a “supercharger” metabolism allowing a large flying creature bearing a human-grade brain.
But now we find that not only did earthly birds themselves, in reality, evolve much such a “supercharging” metabolism, but they also improved the efficiency of their brains so that a large flying creature isn't required for them to contain intelligence(s) not far removed from our own. (Caledonian crows, for example, not only use tools, they make tools—something even few primates do.)
Though we humans (and other mammals) are notably inferior evolutionarily compared with birds in many ways, we certainly now know were to go if we should want to (e.g.) vastly improve our eyes, or acquire a more compactly organized brain—allowing, perhaps, greater intelligence within the same-sized skull.
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