#saw a kingfisher today!!!!!

[awooooooooooo]

.

[ceruleanvulpine]

stoned ama

[notquiteaghost]

living in a city is actually an audhd accommodation cuz ive lived here five years now & i can still get off the bus home early on impulse n end up walking somewhere ive never been before

[unrestrained-balderdash-art-blog]

Day 17 of Pied Month! Not doing a pun today, I'm doing a Pied Kingfisher with the aroace flag because I saw a kingfisher yesterday!!!!!

Reference photo by Emilie Chen

I'm on Cara, it's a social media for art that's anti-AI, follow me @ tbalderdash

[meldelen]

So earlier today I saw this post on Instagram musing about Sauron in The Rings of Power, labelling him as a tragic antihero, with a chance to be redeemed/saved but definitely doomed, and that making him quite attractive as character to the viewer public.

I was thinking about it and I don't really think this fits nor Sauron as character in Tolkien's original lore, but neither in The Rings of Power. Sauron is not an antihero. The way I see it - and I accept I might be wrong - an antihero is a character that has some redeeming qualities, someone who acknowledges that has done evil - which Sauron does - and might repent or not, but unlike Sauron they're not driven by malice, they do not actively seek to cause harm even if they will do at some point, and maybe they will act to repay/compensate the evil done in the past - whether is recent or not - or try to do so, even if it implies the cost of their own life. Morally grey characters, if you want, but with cracks of light in their grey armor.

If you're familiar with Game of Thrones, which is rich in these kind of morally grey characters, I see, for example, Theon Greyjoy or Jaime Lannister as examples of antiheroes. I also want to see an antihero in Raistlin Majere - if you're familiar with Dragonlance - even if he has done so much more evil than the other examples. But the more I try to apply it to Sauron, the less it convinces me.

Maybe Halbrand could've been that antihero they're seeking, if Halbrand had been real. If he had wanted to take the redeeming path he claimed to have when Galadriel was still open to him.

But there's no Halbrand. There's only Sauron. And you can see all his choices as Halbrand, even if claimed to try to find his peace, are poor choices, because he's driven by selfishness: letting Diarmid die and getting the Kingfisher heraldry instead of helping him, abandoning the castaways in the raft to save his own skin, stealing the guild crest instead of earning it, and over all, faking a Southlander king's identity even if reluctant at the beginning. Now, if Halbrand was real, for how much pain he might have caused in the past, this doesn't look like a redeeming path. This doesn't look like antihero, or someone who can be redeemed/saved. Neither is he doomed. Because these are his personal choices, and he could do differently, only he just doesn't want to.

As Annatar, he shows more clearly what he is: a villain, a pure chaotic evil being. The Rings of Power works wonderfully showing he's incredibly complex, and cunning, and clever; not one-dimensional, not the typical mwahahaha villain he was hinted in Peter Jackson's movies because the narrative didn't allow him to be expanded further, but a villain, nevertheless. He does evil, he causes pain, and he does it for his agenda, because he wants it this way, even if he believes otherwise.

The discourse about wanting to heal Middle Earth, creating perfect peace and rejecting Morgoth's sadism and cruelty is just the discourse of a narcissist that believes his own lies and thinks he can do better. Celebrimbor tells him: "You're truly the Great Deceiver. You can even deceive yourself." He really believes in his own bullshit. He thinks he can do better, if only everyone else bend to his will and do what he says when he says so.

Shipping is fun and nice but if you watch season 2 with attention it's horrifying to see what Sauron really is throughout his actions, even if wrapped in the fairest of forms. His cruelty, brutality and outright Machiavellian way with which he manipulates and punishes are painful to watch, specially in the case of Celebrimbor, whom he also admired as a craftsman. The repugnant and sadist way in which he tortures and brutalizes Galadriel with Morgoth's crown because she has rejected him again was the foulest allegory of rape I've ever seen, in an universe where you'll never get sexual scenes, while loyal to Tolkien's lore. He claims not wanting to hurt her, but moments later, he enjoys her agony. And the way he excuses and absolves himself of all his sins because he wants to heal Middle Earth - save, and rule, he sees no difference - and because he was brutalized by Morgoth is also painful to watch.

Tolkien wrote - more or less - that he had served/suffered so much under Morgoth's grip that he fell easily back into evil, for he didn't want to see anymore other way of doing things. He could've done differently, but the exit to his labyrinth was to throw himself at the feet of Manwë and the other Valar and be judged, accepting whatever punishment went to him. But he didn't, for he's unmeasurably proud and would not suffer such humiliation. Beautiful how the show puts in Halbrand's mouth the words "and I knew if ever I was to be forgiven that I had to heal everything that I helped ruin", nice excuse to not go to bow to the Valar. I like to think he's also terrified of the idea he might be cast into the void where Morgoth is now, and be reunited with his former torturer. He made no secret about how much Morgoth still haunts him. But all this sadness and suffering absolve him of his present sins? Of course not. But he thinks they do.

In the end what we have is a cruel, prideful, sadistic, vain and narcissistic villain who has convinced himself that the world will be better when he rules it, and in his mind the order he wants is the suppression of Middle-Earth's people's free will. That doesn't mean he could not have good feelings; as I said, he felt respect and admiration for Celebrimbor, he rejoices at the beauty and peace in Númenor and Eregion - which he'll later destroy - and whatever he feels for Galadriel is genuine as well - it is moving to see how easily he admits and displays his feelings -, but that works as long as they respond to his wishes. When this turns differently, he starts breaking his toys, even if with Galadriel he takes a great amount of patience.

But these genuine feelings are not redeeming qualities. Neither is he doomed, as I said before, he could walk away from this path, he just doesn't want to. He thinks he's the good guy, compared with the monstrosity Morgoth was, he only will use whatever means he needs to meet his ends. And there is not love - the way we understand it, a selfless act of self-delivering - in anything he does, neither towards Galadriel who gets a special treatment in comparison to other characters - Mirdania for example - because unlike the latter, Galadriel means something to him, he sees someone with a similar pride, a similar ambition. What he fails to see is that Galadriel is not driven by evil and malice, because he's unable to recognize that evil and malice in himself.

So, in the end, not antihero, but villain. The worst kind, refusing to see that the real illness of Middle-Earth is himself. As Galadriel very well puts in, "You want to heal Middle-Earth? Heal yourself."

We know he won't listen, and that does not make him tragic either, for tragedy is something uncontrolled, left for the fates, and he is conscious of every step he takes, even if when something fails he lets himself get taken in a wave of rage and despair, as the pathetic being he really is.

The real tragic antihero here has always been Adar. At least him, for much pain and destruction he might have caused serving in Morgoth's/Sauron's armies, wanted something better for his Uruk, and was able to put his pride aside for a different outcome, even if it was too late for him. Now that's a redeeming quality.

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #12 – What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher

I initially meant to read this back last year when it was up for a Hugo nomination, but well – honestly I forgot my copy in an airport waiting room and it’s presumably now living a good life somewhere in a New Jersey compose heap. But a friend had a copy and said they enjoyed it, so! Stole it for a few days, and very glad I did. It’s a quick, fun shot fungal gothic, great for stormy nights.

The basic plot is, well, it’s very explicitly Fall of the House of Usher with a slight admixture of Ruritanian Romance. The Ushers are a genteely impoverished family of minor aristocracy in Ruravia, a less than impressive principality in Eastern Europe. Alex Easton, Roderick Usher’s former commanding officer in some recent war (the Gallacian Army they served in having a habit of getting into these quite habitually) receives a letter from Roderick’s sister Madeline begging company and help, as she is deathly ill. Of course by the time Easton arrives the pair of them look like they’re one stiff wind away from dying, and the estate and the lands around it are both decaying and full of unnerving strangeness. The only person who seems happy to be there is Eugenia Potter, an Englishwoman and amateur mycologist studying the great variety of mushrooms and fungus to be found in the area.

So yes this is very much aiming to be Gothic Classic, at least in aesthetics and trappings. An overgrown and decaying estate several times too large for the last remnants of the family who now occupy it. Genteel madness and disease, hidden behind polite euphemisms and high walls. A deep, atavistic horror at parasitism and the desecration of the human (especially the well-bred, young and female) body by an alien presence. There’s even a cowboy for some reason. It definitely all works for me, but then my exposure to the genre is all a bit second hand.

Speaking of parasitism – mushrooms! The book expresses decay and desecration basically entirely through the idiom of fungal infections, both in terms of metaphor and imagery in descriptions and just in the actual source of the horror here. The lights in the tarn are fungal blooms, Madeline’s disease and her reanimation are both the result of almost drowning and inhaling that fungus into her lungs, and so on. There are two really effective horror beats in the book for me – the image of an infected hare which had just had its head shot off slowly jerking back to its feet as a dozen others placidly stood there and watched it be shot, and the moment of realization that Madeline’s oddly long and wispy body hair is in fact mycelia growing out of her skin – and both play off of this pretty directly.

I very awkwardly didn’t use any pronouns for Easton when giving the plot synopsis because the book actually plays around a bit with gender and pronouns in a way I’ve always loved and wish I saw more of. Easton is Gallacian (unrelated to the actually existing Galicia, I think), and the Gallacian language has a variety of pronoun sets beyond just he and she – one for children, one for God, and one (ka/kan) particularly for soldiers. Which, due to the exigencies of early modern warefare’s manpower requirements, eventually led to both men and women being perfectly eligible to become ‘sworn soldiers’. So y’know, Enlist today! Service guarantees citizen-transition!

(But actually I enjoy the thought and at least superficial sociological plausibility/consideration of what gender means in Gallacian society a lot more than how a lot of modern spec fic just kind of assues that every culture in the world has the perspective on gender of a well-educated 21st century progressive, material conditions be damned).

Anyway yeah, overall very entertaining read. Though Goodreads tells me it’s now the first in the series, which given how cleanly this one ended is not something that fills me with an abundance of faith.

[flowercrowncrip]

ID: a photo of a river surrounded by green countryside. Ducks swim in the water which reflects the bright blue of the sky /end ID

I do the walk along the river in my town most days during summer, and every day I see something different. But today really stood out because I saw a kingfisher fly right past where I was sat

It’s only the third kingfisher that I’ve seen in my life and the first one I’ve seen here so it was really special. They’re such beautiful birds

[moon-snailsss]

GUYS GUYS GUYS I JUST SAW A BELTED KINGFISHER FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY!!! I’M SO HAPPY!!! I didn’t get a photograph because I saw it on the bus😪 BUT I’M PROBABLY GOING TO GO BACK OUT AND SEARCH FOR IT!!

JUST LOOK AT HIM!!

[triffany-lottablog]

I don’t have a caption but today we went out on a boat and it was beautiful and we saw a kingfisher :7

[bluecatwriter]

Notable birbs I saw on my walk today:

- Eastern belted kingfisher

- Great blue heron

- Tufted titmouse

- Brown thrasher

Love my neighbors ❤️

[probablyasocialecologist]

Saw a kingfisher today! It was perched on a shopping trolley dumped in the local stream, proper British #UrbanEcology 🐦

[animelionessmika]

The kind of birds i see living in the city is insane, i saw hundreds of cranes landing for a rest the other day, yesterday i saw a cormorant (i live an hours drive away from the European alps, what are you doing here) and today a kingfisher. I lived in the suburbs close to the woods for 15 years and haven't seen that many different kind of birds

[rayleeschobel]

Some of my favorite interactions I’ve had my first three days of vending at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival

Pretty much what the title says! I’ve had so many amazing interactions and I wanted to put them somewhere so that I don’t forget that amazing people are still out there.

• I was talking to a friend from Parks and Wildlife about *probably* designing the shirt for the 2026 Texas Birding Classic, when a super sweet guy starts flipping through my print racks. His eyes light up and he smiles really big at nearly every new one he sees. Once I start talking to him, he asks if it’s okay if he takes a couple photos to have his partner choose which print to get (of course it is). He comes back later to get one of my last copies of an older print of a crow on a paintbrush. Before he leaves, he tells me that he’s been working at this festival for 10 years and that I have the coolest booth he’s ever seen there. I didn’t cry, but I was incredibly close.

• One girl working with a binocular company vending there went to her hotel room to measure her suitcase to see if one of my framed copies of “Bottled Loon” would fit in it for her flight home. The suit case was too small, but she bought it anyway and is going to mega bubble wrap it and check it as a second bag. She came back today and also bought one of my artist proofs of my thesis kingfisher print.

• Did I say that I’m probably going to design the 2026 Texas Birding Classic shirt?

• Super duper nice couple from DC talked to me about printmaking for like 30 minutes. She showed me a proof of a loon in a bathtub print she’s working on. They bought a print but I can’t even remember which one since I was having such a good time talking to them.

• An older lady and I chatted a little bit about birds and I mention that I’m trying to see a Green Kingfisher before I drive home (the only Texas kingfisher species I haven’t seen). She said she’s seen them often at a certain pond at the Edinburg Butterfly Center, who also has a booth at the festival. She came back about 20 minutes later with a map she grabbed from them and showed me where she gets the kingfisher.

• Encountered someone working at a different binocular company, and we definitely recognized each other but couldn’t place from where. We realized that we had met back in December when I was in Corpus Christi searching for a vagrant Cattle Tyrant. He had been leading a tour group from Indiana (I think) and we joined forces to find the bird. Then I tagged along with their group to a different area of Corpus to search for a vagrant Bar-tailed Godwit, which we didn’t find. He told me today that one of the guys in his tour group that day had been crushing on me really hard

• The girl who bought the framed loon print brought one of her friends back to the booth later, and they saw my risograph mtg bird tokens. Apparently they also play mtg and D&D, and listen to the Adventure Zone (my D&D podcast of choice is Tales from the Stinky Dragon, but I’m working through the Adventure Zone comics). I didn’t realize I’d still find mega nerds in the birding world!

• I did an art trade with Nora Steele, a super cool artist from Ohio! I gave her one of my owl beanies and a sticker, and she gave me a green jay print and SO MANY stickers.

• Someone that works with the gift shop for one of the national wildlife refuges said that places are always looking for greeting cards to sell, and that if I got into that she’d 100% buy some cards from me. Also said that if I do that I should email all the refuges about partnering with them too. So a good chance that I’ll be making some greeting card prints of some of my bird paintings?

TLDR my ego has been boosted way more than any person should get. Planning to be back at this festival next year if only for the good vibes. Also birding people are SOOOOOO nice and I’m so glad to be in this community.

Also the Mexican food down here is FIRE and even the gas station tacos are better than most tacos I could get from the Houston or Austin area.

[charlesandmartine]

Sunday 27th October 2024

The alarm clock was set early today in preparation for our Yellow Water sunrise cruise. Daring the alarm clock to sound early, at 5.30 I sat outside on our decking; sky still black, air silent. Then, just about 5.40, the slightest glimmer of light appeared softly in the east, and almost at that very moment the birds, one by one started to sing, as we jointly recognised the moment of dawn.

The little bus collected us from the Cooinda Lodge and took us the 5 minute ride to the pier on Yellow Water for the two hour cruise before breakfast.

Straightaway on leaving the jetty a crocodile appeared on the starboard bow, a scene to be repeated many times. As the trip progressed, it became evident that the profusion of wildlife presented the hunter and hunted, eating or eaten brigades. Crocodiles defending their territory; opportunistic predators. Sea eagles in their lofty heights always on the lookout. We watched a darter bird catch a long skinny fish and was manoeuvring it to slide seamlessly down its throat, when out of the blue from almost nowhere swept in a whistling duck, grabbed the fish out of the darter's open beak and carried it off as a main course for breakfast. A kingfisher sat on a railing. A female black necked crane (Jabiru) held its head high, looking for breakfast whilst a pelican trawled by the waters edge. A myriad of exotic species in every direction, and all the while the underwater menace, relic of a bygone dinosaur epoc, the crocodile encircling the boat or lies motionless, muddy on the river bank while small colourful wading birds fearlessly taunt the rasor toothed jaws. Two men were fishing from a small craft, and pulling their catch every few minutes. Each time a fish came out of the water, so a spectator croc would appear. Most fish would need to be thrown back. Baramundi between 55 and 90cm can be kept at this time of year. The remainder live another day. What a cruise! We saw the sun climb from horizon to high in the sky, before we were returned to the lodge for a late but very welcome breakfast. Contemplating what we had just witnessed, in this vast region once visited by Charles Darwin, we wonder just where in the evolutionary chain we humans actually do belong, and then take another bite into a defenceless sausage!

After a little downtime we set off walking to the Aboriginal Cultural Centre just 18 minutes walk away from our lodge. What an informative place this is. The problem we find is that to understand a culture so different from our own is far from easy. For example, when a person in a clan dies, they will not mention the name of that person for 2-3 years. Although they had an excellent exhibition, we were not permitted to take photographs. Rocks are linked to spirits and stories are sacred. It is a minefield full of pitfalls that we might fall into and offend somebody. What was useful was that some of what we learned earlier on the cruise tied into some of the stuff we read here. They referred a lot this morning to 'the language ' or indigenous words. It is often said that there are only two seasons here in the tropics; wet and dry. But breaking this down a bit further it is accepted that there could be four. The aboriginies might say there are six. These were referred to in the exhibition. It is fascinating but highly complicated. And this is one region, just a few clans, and many more spread across the continent, all with their own individual languages. So we do our bit, smile and say a very polite hello, and never take their photo unless they are not looking!

We were enjoying a little R&R on our patio when a small golf buggy type vehicle pulled up by our lodge. A young chap got out and headed towards us. Martine? he enquired. Because you are staying a whole week, we have a small gift for you. And he handed over a plate of sweet cake type things and a Cooinda Lodge keyring. For you he said. Thanks very much we said. That sort of correlates with the odd look we received when we arrived, perhaps. As mum used to say, all small gifts gratefully received, big ones grabbed at!

Evening meal tonight is also somewhat curtesy of the management. We bought noodles in Coles before we left Darwin. We sneaked cooked sausages out of breakfast and made a meal up out of it. Great.

ps. I might have put too much chilli in it

[dansnaturepictures]

26/10/2024-Hemp agrimony seed heads, Greylag Geese flying, a dashing female Migrant Hawker I don't think I've ever seen a female before it was great to see it buzzing around an eyecatching dragonfly, a moody autumnal view, hogweed and Robin on a fantastic visit to Fishlake Meadows.

I saw so many birds today with sensational views of Water Rails and being immersed in them like never before for me with several heard too, a wonderful experience the standout. Also of note were Marsh Harrier, Kestrel, Buzzard heard, Jay, Magpie and Jackdaw including one of each tussling with each other, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Redwing, Siskin, Goldfinch, Long-tailed Tits, Cetti's Warbler heard and seen well at this top reserve for this species, Chiffchaff, Stonechat, Common Gull, Great White Egret, Cormorants, Gadwall, Pochard, Coot, Moorhen and Kingfisher. My first Willow Emerald Damselfly of the year which was exciting to see, Common Darter, a white butterfly and some moths were nice insects observed with turkey tail fungi, comfrey, hogweed, forget-me-not, water mint, bindweed, white deadnettle, a little bit of purple loosestrife still in flower, meadowsweet, cleavers, red osier dogwood berries, rose hips, nightshade berries and lots of nice leaves including cow parsley and dock also good to see. I enjoyed Goldfinch and Feral Pigeon at home today as well as autumnal colour out the front and fuchsia, buddleia and other flowers in the garden.

[try-and-try-and-try-again]

17.07.24 - Young Darwin Scholarship Day 3

Today there was a heavy focus on marine life. The majority of the day was spent at Plymouth with the Ocean Conservation Trust.

1-2. Possibly my highlight of the visit to the National Marine Aquarium was meeting Rodger the Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris). I’ve written about the Common Octopus so much at school and university but this was my first time seeing one in the flesh and it was a special moment for me.

3-4. The other two most in-focus photos I took at the aquarium. A beautiful little jellyfish and a clown fish. I don’t know the specific species of either. I wish I’d thought to take photos of the signs - I did for other creatures so I don’t know why I didn’t for these two. Maybe it was because I was a bit overwhelmed in the aquarium and may not have been thinking clearly. It’s a brilliant independent aquarium that prioritises the welfare of the animals, conservation and research, it was exciting to see so many amazing creatures and I thoroughly recommend visiting it, but lots of spaces were crowded and noisy and had strange lighting which I personally found hard to deal with.

5. After a tour of the aquarium and a talk on conservation work, plankton and dichotomous keys we went on a boat trip round Plymouth Sound. We did some plankton trawling and looked at the findings under a microscope. There were a few zooplankton but also sadly, microplastics. Plankton levels are increasing around the UK, particularly phytoplankton, due to climate change which is drawing more whales to our coast lines to feed than before, hence why whale sightings are going up. Plankton is a significant indicator of environmental conditions and has an important role in food chains so recording their presence is important. The definition of plankton is anything that cannot swim freely against the current and can cover organisms of various sizes. Zooplankton are divided into Holoplankton which remain as plankton for their entire lives, and Meroplankton which live as plankton only at certain stages of their life cycle.

6-8. On the boat trip we also pulled up three Edible Crabs (Cancer pagurus) using smoky bacon as bait (apparently it specifically has to be smoky bacon). There was one male (picture 7) and two females (one of which is in picture 8). Their sexes are determined by the shape of the undersides of their exoskeletons. The prominence of the female’s features suggest she may be carrying eggs. We were hoping to see Cetaceans and Seals from the boat but alas no. Nature is unpredictable.

9. Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dolcamara) spotted on the way to the beach and bridge to look for otters again.

10. No otters were spotted but there was a parade of 22 Canada Geese! I also saw my first ever (live) Kingfisher!!!

Today was hard going again, I can’t lie. I came close to sitting things out but I really wanted to try and keep up. I am sick of the constant battle between pain, fatigue and sensory overload and the desire to see, learn and experience things. Thankfully the people I am with have been so accommodating and helpful and it was a good day over all. Another highlight was hearing lots of nice folk music on the way back from Plymouth that I am glad to have been made aware of (one of the scholars is Scottish and a cèilidh musician and had a playlist).