#storm petrels

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel

Photo: Eric Ellingson

"A small, silvery seabird of cold waters off the Pacific Coast, most common off southern Alaska. Flutters low over the waves offshore, sometimes in flocks. Its center of distribution is much farther north than those of other storm-petrels in Pacific; it is able to fly well even in serious winter storms, zigzagging through wave troughs."

- Audubon Field Guide

[antiqueanimals]

Illustrated Sketches of Natural History: Consisting of Descriptions and Engravings of Animals. Second Series. 1864.

Internet Archive

[merverelli]

"you just feel yourself let go."

still thinking about this episode. man. 💪💥

[harru72]

Love this post, I noticed wattrel's inspiration immediately and this is a cool look into how storm petrels influenced killowattrel.

i’ve been avoiding any scvi spoilers as much as i can, so i was lucky enough to not have had wattrel and kilowattrel spoiled for me. i still haven’t seen every new pokemon yet so i’m not venturing into the badlands (tumblr tags) but i still want to talk about these guys!

first off, very interesting choices of species to base them off of! most bird pokemon reference common and familiar birds, like a crow or a duck (/pos btw, this is not a bad thing) but i love that newer gen bird pokemon are including lesser-known species, like hawaiian honeycreepers and cormorants.

(baile style oricorio & ʻiʻiwi)

(cramorant & double-crested cormorant)

so wattrel is based on a storm petrel. there are quite a few different species, but i’d say the most direct reference is the leach’s storm petrel because of the forked tail and the general range of their habitat (although i don’t think that really matters much)

we’ve needed more flying/electric types for sure and this is a very silly fun little guy, exactly what i love in a first-stage, early-route bird pokemon. cute design with neat colors!!

👇

☝

they also incorporated petrel flight behavior into its animation which i’m a huge fan of! i can’t find any good videos or gifs showing their battle animations (and i also want to avoid searching for them) but they soar for a bit and then flap frantically like how petrels do to navigate through choppy water.

and kilowattrel is absolutely striking, pun intended. i’m extremely happy with this evolution

i never expected they’d make a frigatebird pokemon! frigatebirds are massive seabirds that have the largest wing:body ratio of any bird. they can have a wingspan of almost 8 feet! they can also ride air currents for days, weeks, even literal months without landing once. it’s insane to me

kilowattrel’s coloration is based on the female magnificent frigatebird. they have a beautifully angular shape and i think kilowattrel’s design captures that very well with the perfect amount of roundness

frigatebirds don’t typically show up near spain or portugal (where paldea is based off of) (so my attempt at guessing the storm petrel species didn’t really matter anyway lmao)

the few things that are weird to me about their designs are the eyes and yellow markings on the throat that go up their head. unfortunately, the eyes of every character in scvi (and pokemon legends as well) have issues with adapting to lighting and shadows. i think if this was addressed it’d look a lot better because they’re just way too bright sometimes. also the way the yellow comes up above the eyes should either be exaggerated or erased. i think it’s so subtle that it’s just unnecessary. but this is literally me searching for things to complain about if i absolutely had to say something bothered me about their designs. otherwise i think they’re fantastic, and as pretty mediocre as gen 9 is, i’m very happy we got these guys out of it

[scottpartridge]

Any chance you've drawn a Black storm-petrel and Least storm-petrel?

Hi, here they are:

Available for sale in the online store.

Also you can find all living bird species in the AVE (Avian Vector Encycolpedia):

[tanuki-kimono]

Moody sea scenery for this antique summer kimono, depicting umitsubame (storm petrels) over raging waves. By the sandy shore on hem, bloom nadeshiko (pinks) and kikyo (Chinese bellflower).

[mothim]

This Bird Looks Like Dryer Lint 😂

[sitting-on-me-bum]

“White-faced Storm Petrel”

Bird: White-faced Storm Petrel

“A flying white-faced storm petrel skiing on the water. Storm petrels regularly exhibit this behavior whilst searching for food on the water's surface, but I have never seen such a perfectly timed photo of the moment of impact.”

by John Harrison. Birds in Flight Winner.

BirdLife Australia Photography Awards

[endlingmusings]

A mounted Guadalupe storm petrel posed in flight, on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. [ x ]

[productiondesignismypassion]

I love these little birds and their magic origami counterparts so much 😭. There is so much care this crew and cast of creators puts into their storytelling!!

(I made this little Storm Petrel Appreciation Post via Instagram after the first episode of MisMag2, but then realized the lore would be better to share with the Tumblr homies lol 🤟🐐💞)

"Storm (or stormy) petrels were named because the best time to see them is during storms at sea. In fact, in some native legends in the Arctic, the story's storm was actually caused by the petrel."

"For instance, it was once believed that storm petrels were the souls of drowned sailors, and it was bad luck to kill one. And the image of the small, intrepid bird on the stormy ocean has also become a chosen symbol for revolutionary calls to action around the world."

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Wilson's Storm-Petrel

Photo: Joseph D Kurtz

"Despite its small size and seemingly weak flight, this bird is at home on the roughest of seas, flying in the troughs of the waves during gales. It also travels huge distances -- from the Antarctic to the edge of the Arctic. Although it nests only in far southern oceans, Wilson's Storm-Petrel is often the most common seabird off the Atlantic Coast of the United States."

- Audubon Field Guide

[antiqueanimals]

The Child's Picture Scrap Book. Containing Upwards of Four Hundred Illustrations by John Gilbert, J. D. Watson, Wolf, Coleman, etc. 1865.

Internet Archive

[aoioozora]

Drew girls RAAH 🗣️🗣️🗣️‼️‼️‼️🔥🔥🔥

@milkteaarttime @blacktacmopsi I wanted to draw our ocs together 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

Also little doodle of Adelheid being shy.

[thatonesillyducko]

So I've been going through severe art and writing block. I thought I'd just draw Adelheid sketch(pretty asf) (although I really wanted to draw her and Jemíma together). But hey, enjoy the art! @aoioozora ͙͘͡★

I hope I did not make her too German lmao.

[seriousbrat]

Do you think Lily’s patronus makes sense as a Doe? Because when I think of Does I think docile, timid, fragile, sensitive and fearful and Lily doesn’t quite match that description. I know patronuses aren’t always 1:1 with the wizard’s personality but usually there is some overlap (Sirius is loyal and protective, James encapsulates the positive and negative qualities of a stag with his leadership and strength but also the toxic masculinity, Remus is needing of a pack and is also clever etc.). So do you think there is some part of a doe or what they symbolizes that fits with Lily’s character OR do you think her patronus changed to match James who’s already was a stag?

If you’ll allow me to ramble about my own theories here for a minute than I would like to say that I actually believe that her’s changed. I think this mostly due to JKR saying this in a interview awhile ago when someone asked if it was a coincidence that jily had matching patronuses: “No, the Patronus often mutates to take the image of the love of one's life (because they so often become the 'happy thought' that generates a Patronus).” Her statement implies (or more outright states) that there was a change of patronus for atleast one of jily, And since James was already a stag animagus at 15 we can assume that his patronus was always one (further evidence is that McGonagall’s patronus and animagus is both a cat).

I personally believe that patronuses are a manifestation of hope, the desire to go on, and the idea of what to continue living/fighting for (“The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon — hope, happiness, the desire to survive” from Lupin, and then Luna says this while helping Harry conjure one in DH “"We're all still here," she whispered, "we're still fighting. Come on, now...”). So I think given this it makes a lot of sense for Lily’s patronus to change to reflect an image of James. She is a targeted individual in her new small society that is at war and there isn’t much hope to be found anywhere, but she finds hope in James because he represents the life she wants to have that’s not connected to the war, a normal happy family. Her “happy thought” in the midst of death and destruction is family and love (also meaning this is what she wants to preserve and fight for, and it is ultimately what she dies for.)

It’s also interesting that her patrounus takes a female form, we know it’s possible for characters to have a patrounus that differ from their gender but that isn’t the case here. And while I know the doylist answer has to do with JKR’s views on femininity and gender in general, from the watsonisan perspective this could mean a couple things:

She is a doe because her hope lies within her being James’ wife and partner (like the family thing I said above. It’s not about the title or status of being a “wife” but about the normalcy, safety, intimacy and love that it represents)

She is a doe because her identity is separate enough from James where she wouldn’t mirror him but instead be her own version (possible, but less symbolically satisfying to me lol).

Or is it just something else entirely?

anyways sorry I didn’t mean for that to be that long lolll, but If you vibe with my “Lily patronus changed theory” what do you think it was before?

Also I consider you a lily expert so if you think this theory is trash or missing something lmk lmao

omg wait this is very interesting and absolutely NOT trash!! to be honest with you, I've thought about this a little myself before and never come up with a wholly conclusive answer. But personally I think it's very possible that Lily's patronus might have changed. I skirted around this issue in my fic by not having Lily produce a corporeal patronus until she was already with James lol.

Re: the doe, obviously in real life many prey animals are skittish, shy, and fearful because that's how they survive. This includes male deer too, because they will also startle easily. But I think that Lily could definitely be said to have qualities that are doe-like in a more symbolic way: grace, beauty, a gentle and caring nature, devotion to her young. I think it is an animal that fits Lily in many ways, and I think the symbolic/mythological meaning associated the animal is maybe more relevant than how the real animal behaves in the wild.

But even though I think Lily has doe-like qualities I don't think this precludes her patronus having become a doe because of James. It's more about the person she grew into, alongside James, than her identity totally changing because of her relationship. I think it still represents her, she IS the doe but she just grew into that person over time.

If Lily's patronus did change to mirror James, I REALLY like your idea that it reflects what she most cares about, that James (and what he represents to her) becomes her happiest thought and what she's fighting to survive for. Not just James, but later also Harry- whose Patronus is also eventually a stag.

As for what it might have been before (or had she never met James) it's a difficult question! I recently assigned patronuses to all the order members for ease of writing and lowkey I feel like I've run out of animals lol. I could see her as some kind of bird perhaps (I always feel like I default to giving people birds though lol) maybe a dove... or a seabird of some sort. I've always really liked the storm petrel, which is thought of as intrepid and brave and is known to fly through terrible weather, it cares for its single young, and has apparently been used as a revolutionary symbol. There's something really beautiful and dignified about them to me, they're lonely but resistant which could fit Lily's position as a Muggleborn amidst the war, if she hadn't fallen for James and joined the Order with him. So that's my first thought-- I'd be open to ideas though!

[alonglistofbirds]

[2063/11056] Cape Verde storm petrel - Hydrobates jabejabe

Order: Procellariiformes (tubenoses) Family: Hydrobatidae (northern storm petrels)

Photo credit: Miguel Lecoq via Macaulay Library