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faerye

@faerye@pie.gd

Nebula-nominated speculative fiction writer.
Eclectic reader, piemaker, enthusiast of dinosaurs both extinct (šŸ¦–) and extant (:sapsucker:).
Plays and runs TTRPGs with and without dice.
Co-protagonist of @yaypie.
Befriend your local ecosystem!

Pronoun: she
Languages: en-5, fr-3+, cym-2, lat-2, it-1
Location: Atfalati Land, #pdx, #Oregon, USA

Header: me at age 5 with a half-life-sized papier-mĆ¢chĆ© stegosaur I helped make, looking resolute.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

faerye , to random
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Iā€™ve been visiting my family in Central OR so much, I hadnā€™t been to my favorite marsh near home in MONTHS! So I stopped by briefly today to see whatā€™s going on.

Mallard duckling broods of at least 3 different ages! Killdeer taking a bath. A female red-winged blackbird so mad at a great egret near her (presumed) nest that she rode it around in between divebombings! Great blue herons flying from bank to bank in inscrutable chords. Swallows stuffing their tiny faces!

A killdeer sitting in water it has agitated in spreading rings, feathers all fluffed up. Its usually sleek head is riffled so its very large orange-eyelinered eye looks more proportional. A drop of water is just visible on its downturned black bill. All the latte-colored feathers of its head and back are bristling with texture, and its wings are held slightly askew, showing hints of the light pumpkin shade hidden in its tailfeathers. It looks sort of dyspeptic, but they always do to anthropomorphizers, because of the exaggerated cartoon sad-brows their facial stripes somehow create.
A barn swallow perched among dead licheny branches, seen past several of them that cross in foreground. Its little beak is seen in profile, wide open to make noises much larger than the bird itself. The contrast between the deep blue feathers on the back of its head and body and the sweet-potato shades of its face and paler belly just makes the bird seem louder!

A mallard female swimming through weedy lake water with a surprisingly young brood of ducklings behind her. The seven younguns (one hidden) look soft as thistledown, with golden-feathered faces marked with brown stripes and whorls. They look only a few days old, still bright and soft and little balls of energy. She soars in front of them, dark brown and tan like a 70s corduroy coat, looking very regal and smug, and extremely large in comparison. Something about the way they are bunched in her wake indicates the little ones have been hurrying and falling over each other to keep up.
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    faerye , to random
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    Me: Remember, Mom, we do not search for Western Meadowlarks. We are genuinely here for whatever birds we see. Hearing the fae birdā€™s songs will NOT sway us into following, searching, yearning, etc.

    Mom, obviously yearning: Of course!

    Western Meadowlarks, invisible, sing beautifully.

    Mom, searching obviously: I think you-know-who is right over there!

    Me, sanctimoniously: I am grateful just to hear them.

    Mom continues searching but not saying the name. An hour or so passes.

    1/2

    faerye OP ,
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    Mom, tired: Ugh, letā€™s give up and go home for lunch.

    We trudge.

    Me, pointing: MOM MOM MOM

    Western Meadowlark, flying and perching far off: Greetings!
    Western Meadowlark, slightly closer: You were patient!
    Western Meadowlark: I am sufficiently amused! Behold!

    We danced.

    2/2

    A Western meadowlark, at the top of a wind-gnarled tree but nicely near for a zoom! It faces away but turns its head so we may admire its profile. Its long beak holds a dead caterpillar and another insect. Bright cadmium yellow flirts from its stripey shaded belly and splashes on its throat and forehead. It does not look at all invisible! A large eye and strongly drawn eye stripe make it very striking. Its striped and scaled brown wings are folded but held slightly tense, and its long legs are ready to launch it the moment it decides our audience is over.
    ALT
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    faerye , to random
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    Trying to remember to post my photos when not out and about!

    This is my great treasure from yesterday: I realized that sometimes the Hairy put its head out to meet the parent. Only once per feeding, and usually right when the parent landed, so my attempts took a lot of patience ā€” from my mom as well as me!

    I just love woodpeckers so much!

    A mother Hairy Woodpecker perching at her nest hole in a large aspen trunk. Her baby (single as far as we can tell, sadly) has thrust its scraggly head out to meet her and get fed, and kindly left it out long enough for me to snap a picture! Judging by beak size ā€” because the spiky feathers standing up are a little deceptive ā€” the babyā€™s head is perhaps three quarters the size of its motherā€™s already! She is sleek in black and white feathers, with a big dark eye in a graceful slender head with a strong bill. The babyā€™s eye is wreathed in wrinkles of black skin, and its feathers, stripes of white and black and a startling tomato-colored mohawk, are sticking out, looking fluffy or crusty by turns. Mom, morsel given up, looks pensive with her head tilted. Baby looks eager and its bill is open for its near-continuous peeping!
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    • faerye OP ,
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    My mom has been back to visit the Hairy and his frazzled parents three times since I left. 6/12 and 6/14, the scamp was still demanding food. 6/15, our little beggar had flown!

    In honor of this, Iā€™m posting a photo of the little one from last week. Photo is from 6/10, 2 days after the one Iā€™m replying to, but you can see some differences in plumage already.

    Congratulations on fledging, little woodpecker! We love you.

    A baby Hairy Woodpecker sticking his head out of a big nest hole in a knot on an aspen trunk. He looks a little scrubby and wide-eyed, but no longer quite as obviously dinosaurian and unfinished. His size is similar to that in the previous photo (perhaps three quarters his momā€™s size) but his feathers are smoother, and some colors have come in more fully in the plumage. His red Mohawk no longer has a clumpy, spiny look like fresh hair plugs, but lies down nicely. Juveniles of both sexes can have this red crown, but the extensiveness of his stripe makes him almost certainly male! The black in front of his eyes is tipped with white. And below the eye, where wrinkles of black, seemingly featherless skin were gathered before, the white stripe has enlarged and filled in to make a fine white mustache. Under his chin, also, the feathers have filled in nicely. He also never used to stick his head out except when his mom or dad was there! Getting bolder, little guy!
    ALT
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    loren , to random
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    life is all about give and crake

    faerye ,
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    @loren Umm Iā€™m behind so I hope I didnā€™t miss the crakeposting window but:

    šŸŽ¼You canā€™t hurry corn, noooo
    Youā€™ve just got to wait!
    You know corn donā€™t come easy,
    Itā€™s a game of give and crake!šŸŽ¶

    faerye , to random
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    Apparently Oregon farms are growing fewer strawberries because California is elbowing them out of the processed market now (our lovely, very sweet berries donā€™t ship as well) so I, for one, am doing my part by eating many farm-stand strawberries! šŸ«”šŸ“

    https://www.opb.org/article/2024/05/28/oregon-farmers-strawberry-season-production-growth/

    faerye OP ,
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    @NanoBookReview INDEED. They are not fooling around!

    faerye , to random
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    Itā€™s difficult to say which is harder:

    1. The multiple-open-references identification of the photos of yesterdayā€™s Weird (but still substantially like every flycatcher) Flycatcher; šŸ˜°

    Or 2. the writing and submission of oneā€™s eBird report justifying oneā€™s daring choice to identify the flycatcher at all, let alone assert (with no audio evidence!) that it is a locally RARE Willow Flycatcher. šŸ˜¬

    The flycatcher has (kindly) turned that big triangular beak toward the camera, giving us a head-on look at it. The birdā€™s big eyes look very odd seen to either side of its head this way, and the brash triangular bill is clearly quite broad at the base, above the white throat of the sturdy little tyrant! (Iā€™m not judging it for terrorizing insects on the wing: thatā€™s the family name, Tyrannidae!)

    A stocky flycatcher perched on a vertical snag branch against a bright blue desert sky. It has a pale underbelly, gray slightly fluffy head, and darker wings with white wing bars, like basically every flycatcher. This one, though, has a chunkier head in proportion to its body, and a tail that seems to have folded into a moderate rectangle, not the more acrobatic accessory some have. Its dark eye is set further back from its bill and has no eye ring to speak of; and most of all, that insect-killing bill, sharp with a tiny killing hook, is orange on the bottom and broad! Just pointy and prominent and not very much like every other flycatcher.
    ALT
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    • + loren
    faerye , to random
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    I dunno, I really love this park, but do you think they could get some woodpeckers in? šŸ¤£

    (These are just the picidae that I got photos of in the parking lot.)

    A male hairy woodpecker hanging onto the side of a pale aspen. We canā€™t see the nest hole at this angle, but he has a line of drool on his bill that Iā€™m sure has to do with providing foods to the unseen (but heard) youngsters! He has a slightly dingy white breast and white-spotted black coat, with jaunty eye stripes and a tomato red blaze on the back of his head you can barely see here.
    The female hairy woodpecker at the same nest hole, seen in profile with a green caterpillar in her beak. Hairy woodpeckers have long bill thatā€™s often compared to a nail or chisel, but this bird looks so slender, all her feathers lying down sleek to her gracile skeleton, that on her the long bill just accentuates the narrowness of her lines. Her black and white color scheme contribute, as if sheā€™s been drawn with an ink pen. We see her tough knobby talons clinging to the rough wood of the edge of her nest hole. We donā€™t see the young, but we can imagine their insistence from a certain air of harried patience on the mother.
    A northern flicker on (you guessed it) an aspen trunk. It has a very thick pointed beak for loud hammering, a smooth set of feathers in gray and latte tones covered with wild black belly spots, and a bright red mustache, for it is a red-shafted northern flicker. The aspen trunk has large scars in its white surface, healed over but obviously raspy rough.

    faerye OP ,
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    Here are a couple of the dozen-ish Lewisā€™s Woodpeckers I saw once we got past the parking lot. šŸ¤£

    A woodpecker climbing around on a big dead Ponderosa pine, mostly stripped of its bark. Thereā€™s a nest hole ā€” this individualā€™s nest, apparently ā€” a couple of feet away at the top of the photo. The light shows off the iridescent shadings in the Lewisā€™s dark green wings and back. Its forked tail, pressed against the pale dead wood for support, is the same shade. Its long, wide-toed foot is sticking far out to the side, so it has a broad stance. The head is sort of in profile, so we see a bit of the big eye and red face, but also the dark head with odd two-tone riffle of white at the nape and collar, as if it has a distinguished peppering of white hair.

    A Lewisā€™s woodpecker or ā€˜Christmas woodpeckerā€™ as I wish the ornithologists would rename them, sitting on a big dead branch and posing in the golden-hour sun. It has a long sharp beak turned up, from which its weird woodpeckery tongue is slightly protruding! It has a velvety scarlet face and a big lambent eye that looks a little shocked. It has a dark green back and wings, and fancy pink breast feathers, a bit ruffled up. Behind it, cloudless blue desert sky.
    ALT
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    • + loren
    faerye , to random
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    Me: ā€œNow, Felicity, you havenā€™t got all your bird photos processed and added to eBird reports from your LAST trip to Central Oregon. You need to take photos judiciously, mindfully, parsimoniously.ā€

    Woodpeckers: exist

    Me: frenzy of shutter noises

    #birding

    faerye OP ,
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    @rodbotic That sounds like a FABULOUS day! Definitely worth it :) Mine was only 355 as I recall, but it was just an evening birding trip after driving here.

    faerye , to random
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    In Bend for just over an hour before having this moment of utter bewildered depletion where Iā€™m tearing myself away from a sapsucker to watch a woodpecker, which flies higher in the tree and spooks a sapsucker. Total overload! And that was BEFORE the Hairy mama feeding her babies, or the many Lewisā€™s!!!! :sapsucker: šŸ¤©ā¤ļøšŸ–¤šŸ¤ :sapsucker:

    faerye , to random
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    Today I checked out a heron rookery nearby! My conservative count (already possibly incremented by my photos) was 15 herons, probably all fledglings ā€” NO verified responsible adults.

    I mean, would you not trust these faces to take care of themselves?

    Three juvenile great blue herons in a conifer tree. Two are sitting on a twig nest and the other, on a branch on the other side of the trunk, is holding its wings very wide as if saying ā€˜not them, look at ME!ā€™ All have ridiculous dark blue soft feather crests, like the hairstyle on Beaker from the Muppets. The two whose eyes we clearly see have bright yellow, very dinosaurian eyes. Their beaks, top mandible blue instead of yellow, look sort of dusty and doughy, as if formed but not yet finished. Their necks are streaky mauve, white and blue, which makes them look even messier. The attention-seeking one has his neck at full extension, which looks ridiculous.
    ALT
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    • + loren
    faerye OP ,
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    @loren They can eat anything they find in the kitchen, and Iā€™m not locking the liquor cabinet.

    faerye OP ,
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    @loren They can have friends over!

    A photo showing the bottom of the previous nest, the two homebody fledglings still sitting in it but half-seen. The attention-getter heron now has his head and neck feathers fluffed but his neck fully contracted into a deep S-curve, doing a classic heron pose. Maybe this is how they look cool? Anyway, the neighbor kid from the next nest down is visible on the lower right, doing the same poofed-feather S-curve pose right back.
    ALT
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    • + loren
    faerye OP ,
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    @loren Very! Theyā€™re also very quiet. (Until anyone flies. Because anyone who flew could POSSIBLY have a fish, even if they arenā€™t your parent. Or are your sibling.)

    faerye , to random
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    So last Friday when I went #birding on #SauvieIsland, I spotted a bushtit nest! I didnā€™t know that bushtits made hanging pouches, but I was sure if I was patient, I would get a look at whatever wee bird engineers were messing with it! Sure enough, I did: the female bushtit is still seen through branches, like the nest, but the male did some poses for me šŸ˜Š

    #BackOnMyBushtit #BirdPhotography #Oregon

    The male bushtit in profile, looking more pensive. In profile you can see the narrow, slightly curved shape of the small insect-grabbing bill, and more of the shape of the bird. Thereā€™s still no neck ā€” itā€™s a very orbicular little bird ā€” but it does have a proportionally quite long tail which adds to its character and charm!
    Seen through the branches and leaves of the bush, a long hanging-pouch style nest. It looks to be made primarily out of moss, and if I did not swear to you I saw birds interacting with it, you might think it was made for a faerie terrarium by a rather twee Etsy seller! Itā€™s pendulous and larger at the bottom, like a knit Christmas stocking with a chocolate orange in it.
    The female bushtit, glimpsed in heroic profile and somewhat obscured by twigs. Her pale eye is trained on the future, out thereā€¦bushtit chicksā€¦bushtit domination! Her tiny sharp bill is upraised in firm determination. If anything, she is even more spherical than her mate, having puffed up her soft mouse-colored feathers quite prodigiously.

    A male American bushtit with his face turned directly toward the camera. Itā€™s a tiny bird of a soft dust-mote taupe color and no discernible neck. Itā€™s clinging onto a thorny bush with its capable big black claws, and its tiny face looks alert. Its soft chest and belly are turned toward us and look touchably fluffy!
    ALT
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    • + loren
    faerye , to random
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    Looking at last Fridayā€™s bird photos, and Iā€™d love an external opinion. I managed to take a few photos of these elusive little ~sparrow-sized jobbers we kept seeing in the underbrush of a scrubwood margin on Sauvie Island. The only good match Iā€™ve found for them is female or immature Lazuli Buntings, which would be a lifer for me. Anyone with more #bunting experience have an opinion?

    #WhatsThisBird #birding

    (Sauvie Island, Columbia River, NW #Oregon, May 24)

    The right bird has stuck its head curiously out beyond its intrepidly grasped plant stem, while the left bird is more fully hidden. The head is a dusty taupe, with a slight white stripe through the upper part of the dark eye, and a medium-shade line continuing from the eye toward the back of the head. The beak is grey. Under the beak, two fairly distinct white jowl-stripes. Of such doctorā€™s-office drab markings are potential lifer identifications made!

    Two small birds clinging to the green stalks of weeds or grasses. Their body plan is similar to a sparrowā€™s, but their beaks have more of a finchā€™s broadness at the base. Their legs seem to be gray, and all their plumage has a soft, pastel, 90s designer-color feel. The belly is white, which gives way to pale beige nearer the wing. The upper breast is an anemic orange. The left one is showing the underside of its tail: dingy shite coverts and a medium gray tail. The folded wings are also medium gray, with two white wingbars, fairly distinct.
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    • + loren
    faerye OP ,
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    @loren Thank you! Yes, the jowl stripes do look like Indigo (theyā€™re on the same page in my Sibley, hehe) but it looks like ours have ā€˜em too, just less distinct.

    I inveigh against the prevalence of adult male birds in photos and reference, but I admit theyā€™re usuallyā€¦easier to definitively ID than this! ;)

    faerye OP ,
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    @loren Ooh, congrats!

    faerye , to random
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    Yesterday I was helping a friend in his garden, and saw quite a few ladybugs. Weā€™re told the Asian Lady is outcompeting local varieties, but I saw almost as many Western Polished Lady Beetles as ALBs. (The ALBs however were obviously engaged in furthering their success in : Content Note for beetle sex!)

    Asian lady beetles stacked on each other in a presumed mating. They are on the leaf of what I believe is a stinging nettle. Both have many small black spots on their ripe-tomato red wing-cases, and we get a good look at the little antennaed head each has tucked neatly below the broad shield of the pronotum.

    faerye , to random
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    Me: I am an adult. I am a serious birder. I won a spelling competition once. The word is ā€˜pelicanā€™!

    American White Pelican: exists

    Me: PELINGCAN!!!!

    #birding #SauvieIsland #Oregon (Yesterday)

    An American White Pelican in flight, seen in profile. Itā€™s in full breeding plumage, so its long bill is bright yellow with a weird half-circle ā€˜plateā€™ sticking up from the top bill three quarters of the way to the tip. Very odd-looking! Their body is pure eye-catching white with dark black wingtips. This one is caught near the top of the flap, so the black wingtips are prominently displayed against the bright shimmer of the inlet beyond, every feather held slightly apart like that of a vulture. It is skimming along close to the water, with a meadow in foreground. Behind it, an incised yard-deep bank shows different sediment layers and a green mess of brambles and grass rises up the mainland beyond.
    ALT
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    • + loren
    faerye , to random
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    Still processing photos, but got some decent shots of my first non-fleeting Bullockā€™s Orioles! She was particularly keen on getting her portrait taken and sat for quite some time. šŸ§”šŸ–¤

    #birding
    #oregon #BirdPhotography #SauvieIsland

    A male oriole in the crook of another lichen-covered oak branch. His gold is more the deep juicy orange of a ripe mango, and he sports a black cap connected to his eyestripe, and a splash of white accenting his black wing. Despite the bold color scheme, he is shyer of my camera and is only visible from midwing up. His bill is also in very sharp profile.

    faerye , to random
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    Birds looking sideways at the world: šŸ’™šŸ¤šŸ’™

    (Tree swallow, Deschutes National Forest, , May 10)

    A tree swallow perches on a broken stub of branch emerging from a much-decayed snag treeā€™s trunk. In the blazing midday sun of the high desert, its back feathers are a decadent iridescent marine blue that ancient craftsmen would have labored weeks to produce in pigment; its front, from cheekbone to undertail coverts, is spotless white. It tips its tiny, almost stylized face to the side to train its dark globe of an eye upon the world. It has a tiny insect-grabbing triangle of beak and a slash of dark bandit-mask across its eyes. Rampantly anthropomorphizing, it looks quizzical!
    ALT
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    • + loren
    loren , to random
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    why must shows have uncomfortable situations. can't just nothing happen so i don't have to keep pausing??

    faerye ,
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    @loren Wait. This isnā€™t just me? For me itā€™s specifically embarrassment. There are shows I can only watch with my co-protagonist bc I need someone else to hold the remote so I donā€™t just pause it instinctively five times a minute and look at my phone until I forget I was watching TV.

    faerye ,
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    @loren INDEED. How did people watch The Office without a remote-spotter? No idea.

    faerye ,
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    @loren Yup, I only really saw the seasons I watched with my co-protagonist and had to give up after that!

    loren , to random
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    Indigo goddamn bunting!!

    faerye ,
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    @loren Whoa! Grats!!!!

    faerye , to random
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    I hear it is #Wrensday, so here are some house wrens from last Friday! They were singing up a storm all along the margins of the controlled burn area and lazy braided creek we were visiting in #CentralOR.

    #birding #BirdPhotography #Oregon

    A house wren grasping a slender branch on a dead tree and looking over its shoulder, perhaps checking who has been listening to its songs. Itā€™s quiet right now, shadow on its face making its eye look very dark and thoughtful. We can see the subtle micro-striping very well on its downturned folded tail.
    This is the obligatory ā€˜singing its heart outā€™ wren picture! Even though a branch is in the way, I wanted to get one of the little dears in full cry: their slender long curved beak open wider, and the throat full of trills. This one has its tail slightly fanned as if in effort as it sings into the cloudless high-desert sky!

    A house wren singing on the end of a dead conifer branch, with the bright shades of pine forest blurrily seen behind. House wrens are unflashily patterned even for a wren: no eye stripe, no body stripes, just practical brown-on-brown ticking on each feather as if theyā€™re wearing country tweeds. They have a brown eye and a classically long, curved wren beak. This one is singing its beautiful song with its beak just slightly open, tipping the notes out into the sun.
    ALT
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    • + loren
    loren , to random
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    yeah okay i admit it, sometimes i type sparrow when i mean swallow

    SUE ME

    faerye ,
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    @loren My dad told me and my mom that he had seen a sparrow checking out their nest box and we were likeā€¦a sparrow?! Huh! Anyā€¦distinguishing marks? And he was like, ā€œyou know, sort of blue, thin wings as long as its tail.ā€ Itā€™s a problem!

    loren , to random
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    I worked at a haunted house today. Like I donā€™t believe in ghosts but sometimes the vibes are just rancid ya know?

    faerye ,
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    @loren Iā€™m not sure I believe in ghosts but one time my (Presbyterian, fairly phlegmatic) grandma ā€œfelt the presence of evilā€ in a house theyā€™d rented for vacation; she immediately picked up her baby and her suitcase, marched out, and drove away. I have always felt like that was a solid call. Who the hell knows what youā€™re perceiving? Sometimes vibes are a call your gut makes!

    faerye , to random
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    Ugh, I love Lewisā€™s Woodpeckers so much. Their glossy night-green wing feathers! Their red and white checked waistcoats! Their velvety scarlet little faces! Arrgh!

    #picidae #woodpecker #BirdPhotography #CentralOR #Oregon

    The same woodpecker is erupting, head and shoulders, from a nest hole lower down in the same snag. His bill is wide open and the sawdust heā€™s just thrown is caught blooming around him in midair.
    The very same woodpecker is perched on one of several long, winding barkless branches near the top of the sawn-off snag. His hopeful eye is fastened on another Lewisā€™s we only see in partial silhouette on the nearer branch. He is displaying, his head held high so the contrast of his chalk-white neck feathers with the rest of his plumage is strong; his wings are held in an artificial half-raised pose as if heā€™s Bela Lugosi about to sweep a cape over his face. The other woodpecker is barely looking.
    A different, luckier woodpecker is pictured in mid flight, directly above the photographer. Their forked tail is crisp and dark against the blazing high desert sky, and the sun flares on the bright red of their head. The profile of their beak is not so distinct and well-drawn, however, because it is crammed full of one or more bulky arthropods. A good catch for this aerial insect-hunter!

    A woodpecker perched at the top edge of a sawn-off snag tree, his long-taloned claws gripping the flat surface in a broad stance. Late afternoon sun is lighting up his robust bill, his scarlet face, and the edge we see of his soft pinky belly feathers beyond his glossy folded wing. His forked tail presses the barkless tree, which has stood dead in the high desert sun and wind so long itā€™s bleached like driftwood. Our woodpecker looks up and almost over his shoulder with a big, alert eye, as if daydreaming.
    ALT
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    • + rodbotic, loren
    loren , to random
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    okay so from my reading of this, it seems like there is a distinct possibility the changing of bird names will not go forward. i believed this was a done deal but apparently a petition was submitted in opposition and they are taking it seriously. i highly recommend showing your support for this change as many birds are named after dead assholes who have no business in the names of our birds or are otherwise well worth changing.

    here is the american ornithological society article on the topic: https://americanornithology.org/english-bird-names/aos-pilot-project-to-change-harmful-english-common-bird-names/

    and here is the link straight to the comment form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScUz1CwIKGTogp1gahcLmjMsL1qFU6D_0-p4d_NbU4KA0Z3Vw/viewform

    faerye ,
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    @loren They seem so insistent on the number of signatories on petitions: if they want democracy, then maybe decide who gets to vote and call a vote? Being pushed around by whichever current you last felt is Pooh Sticks, not decision-making.

    faerye ,
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    @loren Yeah, I feel weird. I have been waiting for The New Names with bated breath, so itā€™s a longer impatient transitional period. I do feel like itā€™s a good point that South & Central America hosts the birds a bunch, and birders/scientists there use the English names plenty because the Internet is so Anglophone: so I think those stakeholders should have a part in the process. But was that already in the plan? If not, why not? Why just screeching brakes? Ugh.

    faerye ,
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    @loren I havenā€™t had to figure out a coherent comment to send them yet, because I havenā€™t figured out anything to put for the mandatory ā€œInstitutional Affiliation/Organizationā€ form yet. Maybe I should go join my local Bird Alliance!

    faerye ,
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    @loren I imagine there are some great Indigenous names, or names that would be evocative and descriptive if translated from Quechua, Aymara, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. Sounds like one of those good problems!

    faerye ,
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    @loren Yup. Of course speaking of Bird Alliances, the one local to me was of course an ā€œAudubon Societyā€ until recently!

    I also found out while visiting my mom that their local Audubon Societyā€™s switch to Bird Alliance was unexpectedly smooth because someone anonymously offered $5k to cover the cost of logo/website/letterhead changes if they changed. That built consensus! The vote was 81% to 19%. Change is possible and can go fast!

    Jgbird , to random
    @Jgbird@mas.to avatar

    Beach day

    faerye ,
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    @Jgbird Excellent book choice!

    faerye , to random
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    Mom insisted I take a bunch of photos of this Little Brown Jobber by the Deschutes River this evening, while I was uncharacteristically blasĆ© and said, ā€œare we sure itā€™s too small to be a female red-winged blackbird?ā€

    The prancing little chap proved to be a Savannah Sparrow, which I should have recognized but which is a lifer for Mom! And unusual for the location! She earned this one! šŸ¤—

    The little bird perching among dead grass looking thoughtfully away from us, too serious to pose for pictures. Even more complexities of brown stripes are visible on its head and back, like the brown-on-brown styling of a 70s van that thought it was very groovy.
    The bird shows us its back: the long shirting-stripes of its little cape-collar of covert feathers, the tidy dark tips of its folded wings. It looks back coyly over its shoulder as if aware it looks strikingly like one of its identification pictures in eBirdā€™s ID app!

    A small bird perched on an interesting blue-gray lava rock. It is quite spherical, with a little useful sparrow-beak glowing in the sunlight. Its main marking is a huge number of brown streaks, which seen nearly head-on make a sort of wild starburst. Its head is turned just enough to expose a flash of pollen-yellow eyeshadow above its beady eye.
    ALT
  • Reply
    • + loren
    faerye , to random
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    Red-napedā€¦er, maybe hybrid? Red-regioned sapsucker! At the National Forest campground. #BirdCallOut

    faerye , to random
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    The monkeyā€™s-paw of the really good view of a silent #flycatcher. So now I can try to figure out which species it is! But nowā€¦I have to try to figure out which species it is. šŸ¤¦šŸ»ā€ā™€ļø

    #birding #CentralOR #oregon

    A small flycatcher perched in a barely budding deciduous tree. Like other flycatchers, it is a soft grey creature with a sharp little insect-grabbing beak, a large eye with a distinct eye ring, a pale underbelly, and dark wings showing white wing bars when folded. It has no visible ā€˜peakā€™ in the feathers of its head, like a Dusky. However, its wingtips seem a little long, like a Hammondā€™s. And is that a pale band across the forehead, like a Gray Flycatcher?! I think itā€™s a Dusky! But how can I ever be sure?!
    ALT
  • Reply
    • + loren
    faerye , to random
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    American Kestrel! At the almost deserted state park šŸ˜ #BirdCallOut

    faerye OP ,
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    This is actually the third kestrel in two days, and I got a good long look at all of them! I feel extremely lucky. (Unlike the probable voles and newt in some of my other photos. šŸ˜¬)

    #BirdPhotography #birding #raptors #CentralOR #Oregon

    faerye , to random
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    Me: OMG a tiny sandpiper! Which kind is it? Iā€™ve forgotten what little I knew about sandpipers last season. What sandpiper? It is SO SMALL, itā€™s just the smallest possibleā€”

    Me, feeling smart: looks up Least Sandpiper šŸ§

    #birding #shorbSeason

    faerye OP ,
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    Here is the lilā€™ beggar. I feel photos do not do justice to how tiny this chap is, however. Perfectly proportioned model of a shorebird, foraging about very close to me! (I am ashamed to say I didnā€™t notice the plastic debris in the background while I was there: looks like it comes from nearby construction, and Iā€™ll bring a trash bag next time I go.)

    (Least sandpiper, Beaverton, Oregon)
    #birding #shorbSeason #BirdPhotography

    The sandpiper standing tall, displaying its very ruptive plumage, perfect for breaking up its profile as it walks about on land. It has a very long beak with nostrils far from the slightly spade-shaped tip, and an almost thoughtful face with a large eye in densely striped feathers. The patterns of the feathers get larger as they progress down the back, so on the folded wings one can see a pattern of bars and spots on each feather, a bit like a butterflyā€™s wing. Its belly is white with silken feathers, and its long yellow feet end in spreading claws to negotiate mud.
    The sandpiper high-stepping through bright green weeds on land. One foot is fully lifted so we can see the length of its bundled toes. Its beak is wet from explorations in the shallows, and its almond-shaped eye is very dark and deep.

    futurebird , (edited ) to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    :: The story of a child housekeeper who works for ā€˜Mnimalā€™ a cleaning tech company that claims their robots systems can bring your home to a state of ā€œelevated minimalist cleanlinessā€ via ā€œsmart targeted cleantech interventionsā€ neither robots nor software can deliver any of this effectively, so an army of young workers must either laboriously attempt to clean via remote control or simply sneak in to the house on guise of ā€˜a routine service callā€™ and do it by hand. 1/

    faerye ,
    @faerye@pie.gd avatar

    @futurebird Drat, I donā€™t have my first Asimovā€™s story ā€œBurgerdroidā€ online yet to link you to: but itā€™s about a fast food restaurant pulling this kind of scheme! (Food made and served by humanoid ā€˜robotsā€™, not remotely, in my case.)

    Thereā€™s also a lower-tech version very like your Mnimal story (child labor included) that Iā€™ve read in a fantasy novel but thatā€™s kind of spoilers, so I hesitate to name it.

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