In case you’ve ever wondered how a swordfish uses that long pointy thing on the front of their head, it’s exactly how you think they do.
Don’t turn the sound on. The narrator is awful.
Here’s a kiwi, shrieking.
Apparently kiwi’s scream like a demon pic.twitter.com/0BZKoh9Weq
— INTERNET EMPRESS OF SHARKS AND BONES (she/her) 🦈 (@Evoincarnate) November 10, 2023
You’re all awake now, right?
This thing is hanging in a tree near where I walk on the way to the lab. It’s bigger than my head!
That’s actually what I think when I walk by: “What if that fell off and landed on my head and I had to run around waving my arms?” A childhood watching Saturday morning cartoons has given me that expectation.
Down in the sea, it’s calm and restful as the octopus drifts by.
Of course, they also mention in passing that they’d previously seen one of these getting shredded by a predator, but we’ll just pretend that didn’t happen.
I know, I get complaints when I post spider photos here, but this one is just so pretty and the spider is so proud. It’s a Steatoda borealis female, she just made an egg sac this morning, and look at all those shiny smooth glistening eggs, and the elaborate tangle of silk surrounding it! How can you not love it?
I learned what cheetahs sound like.
Apparently, cheetahs are a hairy species of bird.
More evidence:
(They make other sounds as well, this is just the most surprising.)
Because we have so many blowflies.
You know this podish-sortacast that Freethoughtblogs runs? At the end of the last one, we were talking about new topics, and I casually threw out “SPIDERS” expecting everyone would actually pick something of broader general interest. The jokes on me, because guess what we’re talking about on Saturday?
I can probably think of something to say. Whether it is of interest is a different question.
Last night, a bat got into my office and was flying around in circles. It got tired eventually and landed, very conveniently, in a wastebasket. I put a piece of paper over it and carried it outside. Fly free, little bat!
Then we discovered this morning that it was still in the wastebasket. We dumped it out on the porch but otherwise left it alone — we put a box over it, very loosely, with plenty of gaps for escape, and left it a little bit of water, but otherwise, it’s on it’s own.
All we got for our care was some weird little clicky growls.
We might have a bat ‘problem’. They nest above our garage, and their exit is right above our mailbox, which I’ve noticed is getting covered with a lot of bat poop. I’m not complaining — I’ve always wanted to live in a house full of bats and spiders.
My wife was working in the garden this morning, while I was vegetating in front of the computer. One of the things Mary does is listen and fire up Merlin Bird ID as she works — paying attention to bird song is supposed to be good for you, you know. This is what she identified in our back yard this morning: Chipping Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, House Finch, Black-capped Chickadee, Common Grackle, Rock Pigeon, Grey Catbird, American Crow, American Robin, Northern Cardinal, White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-eyed Vireo, Willow Flycatcher, Alder Flycatcher, Blue Jay, Common Raven, Eastern Towhee, Black-and-White Warbler, Philadelphia Vireo, House Sparrow, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Great Crested Flycatcher, Great Horned Owl, European Starling, Eastern Phoebe, House Wren, American Goldfinch, Downy Woodpecker, Chimney Swift, Dickcissel, American Redstart, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Mourning Dove, Yellow-rumped warbler, Cedar Waxwing, and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.
I thought she made up “Dickcissel,” but apparently it’s a real bird living in the Midwest. I know we’ve got owls in the neighborhood, and also hawks, since this is clearly a great feeding ground.
This does explain why I’m getting up early every morning — the cacophony is tremendous around here.
