A Rare Bird.

26 January 2011 //

Shane McInnes (the photographer, not the bird).

There are seven wonderful bird photographs in The Independent today, including this one of a Kakapo, a flightless parrot from New Zealand .

Categories Not About Goats

38 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

Julia says:

26 January 2011 at 1:29 pm

But, you know? It looks like a “Shane” to me…
I’d like to have one of my own, it’s adorable.
And the other pictures are great. The one with that crane in an impossible position is my second favourite.
A. J. P. Crown says:

26 January 2011 at 1:47 pm

¡Jajaja! You’re right. Shane the flightless photographer.
dearieme says:

26 January 2011 at 3:26 pm

We stayed on a Pacific Island once. The muttonbirds would fly in and skid along the ground until the wall of a building arrested their progress. How they landed before people put up buildings I’m not sure. Maybe they settled for colliding with trees.

P.S. Muttonbirds taste quite good.
A. J. P. Crown says:

26 January 2011 at 3:41 pm

Here’s some explanation, I don’t know if it’s true:

Once the chicks are hatched both parents stuff it with food at least until the middle of March. During this time the chicks literally become little balls of fat covered with a soft silken down.

I am told that the chicks are fed from partially digested and regurgitated—food from the adults. It seems that the parents go foraging and then on return to the nest fly into the ground with a heavy bump, rather like a plane crash landing. This bump causes them to bring the food up whereupon it is eaten by the every-hungry chicks.

It’s from here.
dearieme says:

26 January 2011 at 4:16 pm

Too good to check.
Julia says:

26 January 2011 at 4:57 pm

I thought you were bluffing, just making it up yourself. But there’s actually someone who wrote it!
I think we should all go there to confirm it … or not.
Science and Truth need us!
Principal says:

27 January 2011 at 10:39 am

Lesser-spotted animals often seem to wear a mournful expression, as if they know they’re headed for extinction.

Kakapos are enormous. I want one too.
A. J. P. Crown says:

27 January 2011 at 12:06 pm

Good heavens, they are.

You could have one. Be warned, parrots don’t care two hoots about whether your house is clean and tidy.

Julia thinks I make this stuff up.
Principal says:

27 January 2011 at 2:58 pm

Haha, and ‘im just a chick.
Julia says:

27 January 2011 at 3:17 pm

¡jajaja!
Oh, no!
I’ll believe everything AJP says from now on.

They’re really lovely, even as a pathetic chick.
How come they don’t fly? Have they not got predators?

I don’t care for the mess, if “Shane” doesn’t care. My husband won’t agree, though.
dearieme says:

27 January 2011 at 4:03 pm

The only land mammals in NZ before the arrival of man were a couple of bats, about the size of your thumb. There were flying bird predators, though, including a huge eagle. (I speak with all the authority of a man who saw a telly prog about this in NZ). Man settled in ca 1400 AD and had a hard time because his tropical agriculture largely failed in temperate NZ. The Europeans who turned up after 1800, mainly Scots and English, were much better equipped for the climate. A fair bit of the native fauna had been exterminated by the Polynesians, including the giant Moa. Such a pity; it would have been fascinating to see whether the Brits coud have domesticated it.
Julia says:

27 January 2011 at 4:19 pm

“it would have been fascinating to see whether the Brits coud have domesticated it.”

Loved this!
A. J. P. Crown says:

27 January 2011 at 4:34 pm

The Brits will have to make do with their motor moas. *

*(cortadoras de césped).
Julia says:

27 January 2011 at 4:48 pm

Translation for me? Oh, thanks I’m moved!!

I have to work now… I haven’t wrote a word since the day before yesterday!
I need to stop wasting time (no offense) with charming Brits… ;-) http://melioralatent.blogspot.com/2011/01/bloqueo.html
bruessel says:

27 January 2011 at 9:18 pm

Julia, thank you for the link, for some obscure reason I failed to watch the BAFTAS last year. I’m a great fan of Colin Firth, I once saw him on the London stage in The Caretaker.
A. J. P. Crown says:

27 January 2011 at 10:09 pm

Colin Firth gets all his ideas from dearie and me.
Julia says:

27 January 2011 at 10:54 pm

¡jajaja!
¿And also his looks?

bruessel, you know what? I hate you ! (envy is such an awful feeling…)
I can’t wait to see The King’s Speech, have you seen it?
Ø says:

27 January 2011 at 11:20 pm

have you seen it?
Yes. My wife and I rarely see current movies, but we decided to see one last night and settled for this one as we had no better idea. We both loved it.
bruessel says:

28 January 2011 at 1:07 am

No, I haven’t seen The King’s Speech yet, it’s not coming out here until the end of February.
Principal says:

28 January 2011 at 5:30 am

Apropos of nothing much, this is a very interesting article about wild animals.
A. J. P. Crown says:

28 January 2011 at 9:45 am

Oh, a great article! Thanks very much, I loved it. It’s too bad we only sympathise with other animals when we can measure how closely their behavior conforms to our own, but there’s not much I can do about that.
Trond Engen says:

28 January 2011 at 10:04 am

You could conform your behaviour to other animals.
A. J. P. Crown says:

28 January 2011 at 10:22 am

I’m not going to pretend I’m a snail, Trond.
Principal says:

28 January 2011 at 1:40 pm

…says Sleeps-with-Goats
dearieme says:

28 January 2011 at 2:08 pm

Oh, AJP, have you never been compared to Brian the snail?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Roundabout
A. J. P. Crown says:

28 January 2011 at 2:28 pm

Brian Eno, Brian Clough, Brian Boru, but never Brian the Snail. I’m more of a Basil Brush.
Julia says:

28 January 2011 at 3:06 pm

Fantastic reading materials! The article is wonderful, Principal. And now I have to look for videos of The Magic Roundabout (with Emma Thompson’s father! I really love her). Well, I won’t do it now ¡I mustn’t!

The King’s Speech is not coming out here either until next week. Empty and Mrs. Empty are lucky…

AJP, you know that snails stand as a symbol of the stoic wise man? The one who attains “ataraxia”, can be happy within himself and needn’t nothing from the outside because he is in complete equilibrium. There many symbolic images and emblems with snails.
Julia says:

28 January 2011 at 3:14 pm

I did what I mustn’t…

Amazing!
Julia says:

28 January 2011 at 3:18 pm

But this is better!

You, Brits, are crazy!
dearieme says:

28 January 2011 at 6:28 pm

For you, Julia
Julia says:

28 January 2011 at 6:51 pm

¡¡jajajaja!!
Thank you, dearie, I loved it!! (And my girls are going to love it too, when I’ll show it to them)
catanea says:

29 January 2011 at 5:55 pm

But you all already know this, right?

Or have I missed something?
A. J. P. Crown says:

29 January 2011 at 6:13 pm

Oh, no. Thanks.
catanea says:

29 January 2011 at 7:13 pm

via, one way or another, Douglas Adams and “Last Chance to See” – we’re an obsessed family, although unrelated.
I do apologize if it is too silly.
A. J. P. Crown says:

29 January 2011 at 7:17 pm

Nothing’s too silly for this blog.
catanea says:

29 January 2011 at 8:14 pm

Oh, good.
Julia says:

29 January 2011 at 8:40 pm

LOL
fabulous video!
Julia says:

31 January 2011 at 12:21 pm

> bruessel, have you seen this “interview” that Tom Clark presented me: Colin Firth being interviewed by Bridget Jones