Let's Talk About Animals

[JHDK]

I don’t think I have ever mention on this thread that I have barn cats. Living in a rural area they are very important in my opinion. We just feed them once maybe twice a day. They go around the perimeter of the house and pole barn and catch critters like mice etc.

That's cool and reminds me of this:

Disneyland is home to a squad of feral cats who have free rein in the park — and you can adopt one if you work there

Disneyland has a large population of feral cats who help to control pests in the park.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

When we go to Sandals they all have cats. Cats are fed some by they guests but they are there mainly to keep the rat population under control (do a good job -- have yet to see a rat). Sandals does provide vet care to them and some food as well. Cheaper than exterminators.

 

[scotchandcigar]

Medina Spirit's 2021 Kentucky Derby win has been nullified and horse trainer Bob Baffert is suspended | CNN

Medina Spirit died in December. The thoroughbred was finishing a workout when he collapsed near the finish line at the Santa Anita Park racetrack.

www.cnn.com

 

[HecticArt]

Does Baffert also train Russian gymnasts?

And what does he care about $7,500?
That's like 4 cents to any of us.

 

[JHDK]

Grow your own (non cancerous) beak ya stupid bird.

Great hornbill is given 3D-printed beak after having skin cancer

Crescent, a 25-year-old great Hornbill was given a new 3D-printed prosthetic beak after she was diagnosed with skin cancer earlier this year, as the surgery is the first of its kind on birds in the U.S.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[scotchandcigar]

Grow your own (non cancerous) beak ya stupid bird.

Great hornbill is given 3D-printed beak after having skin cancer

Crescent, a 25-year-old great Hornbill was given a new 3D-printed prosthetic beak after she was diagnosed with skin cancer earlier this year, as the surgery is the first of its kind on birds in the U.S.

www.dailymail.co.uk

View attachment 7829

Does the bird have alopecia? Maybe Chris Rock could shit on it.

 

[HecticArt]

You keep that birds name outta your beak!!!!!!

 

[sadchild]

"I reacted emotionally, Beak lives matter"

 

[scotchandcigar]

I hope @goreds2 has a good alibi.

Fiona the hippo set to become a big sister after Cincinnati Zoo announces 'surprise pregnancy' | CNN

Fiona the hippo, the Cincinnati Zoo's social media darling, will soon be a big sister -- much to the zoo's surprise.

www.cnn.com

 

[JHDK]

I hope @goreds2 has a good alibi.

Fiona the hippo set to become a big sister after Cincinnati Zoo announces 'surprise pregnancy' | CNN

Fiona the hippo, the Cincinnati Zoo's social media darling, will soon be a big sister -- much to the zoo's surprise.

www.cnn.com

Hippos are the poor man's manatees.

 

[HecticArt]

Call us when manatees are considered important enough to get their own game.

 

[JHDK]

Well first off bird watchers are weird. And even more so if you're birdwatching in the middle of a major city. It can be fun to go on nature walks now and then but as like a weekly hobby...weird. Hah.

New York Man Accosted By 'Central Park Karen' Gets His Own TV Series

Christian Cooper will host National Geographic's "Extraordinary Birder," where he'll explore the "wild, wonderful and unpredictable world of birds."

www.huffpost.com

That being said, just cause it's weird this dude should have never had to deal with some racist asshole bitching at him when all he was doing was spending some time enjoying his hobby.

It's nice to hear he'll have a NatGeo mini series. That will be something cool he can show his kids and grandkids and pass down for generations. And who knows, maybe he'll be great at hosting a birdwatching show and it will become a permanent gig.

I repeated a story about my Oma earlier today in a thread so here's a new story about my Opa (Grandpop) to make up for that. In Indonesia he was a schoolteacher that worked his way up to principal of a highschool before the war. But he would moonlight as a botanist. And he was a professional, at least in terms of he managed to get paid for his work at least twice. He published a couple (I think only 2, I have copies of them) field guides to the plant life of the Indonesian island where he lived, Java. Now as you can imagine there wasn't a huge market for plant life field guides, written in Dutch, for 1 Indonesian island (even if it was the biggest) but still, that's kinda cool right? Now that I'm moving when I put them away I should break out the Google translate and try to read them. I assume 1920/30's Dutch can't be that different from today. He even had illustrations in the guides that he did himself.

 

[scotchandcigar]

This was the highlight of my Memorial Day weekend.



A couple of people told me about this phone app, which ingeniously identifies birds by listening to their calls and whatever sounds they make. It shows you the sound patterns it's picking up, indicates when it detects a bird, and then adds the identified bird to the list. Every time it detects more sounds from the same bird, it highlights that line in yellow.



It has detailed info about any bird you've identified.



And it has a bunch of pre-recorded clips of all the calls and songs the bird makes, so you can compare it to what you're hearing.



When I first heard about it, I said it sounds like Shazam for birds. And that's exactly what it is. I found myself taking the phone to the marsh/pond on our street, so I could identify the ducks and geese that hang around there. There's something addicting about it.

After downloading the app (and giving Cornell Lab your email address), you have to download a bird packet. I got the Northeast US packet, which has 685 birds in it. I guess this is what seems exciting to an older guy.

 

[sadchild]

I downloaded it too, but I stayed in my living room and watched TV on my ass all weekend.

Still worked pretty damn good though I must say!



Seriously though, that is cool. I'll have to mention it to my wife.

 

[JHDK]

I love this woman.

Brave Alaskan woman calmly removes opossum from a Brooklyn bar Brave Alaskan woman calmly removes opossum from a Brooklyn bar via https://dailym.ai/android

 

[Aaron]

Do you guys have outside those loud bugs, I guess cicadas and crickets that are noisy AF all summer long? It's like the soundtrack of summer but it's constant here so I'm almost immune to the sound. I never actually see the bugs though, thank goodness.

 

[scotchandcigar]

Do you guys have outside those loud bugs, I guess cicadas and crickets that are noisy AF all summer long? It's like the soundtrack of summer but it's constant here so I'm almost immune to the sound. I never actually see the bugs though, thank goodness.

Haha, we have them here but when we were in New Jersey last summer, they were wicked loud. I think they like hot, humid weather.

When we watch those HGTV shows about couples who move to Costa Rica or Honduras, they are so loud you can barely hear the people talking outside.

 

[scotchandcigar]

Also, we have peepers, which are frogs in marshy areas. They're loud too.

 

[HecticArt]

We get cicadas closer to the end of summer. Creepy looking critters.
We just had one of those carpenter bees boring into one of our window frames. Freaky bugs for sure. I killed him, but need to fix my window frame now.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Do you guys have outside those loud bugs, I guess cicadas and crickets that are noisy AF all summer long? It's like the soundtrack of summer but it's constant here so I'm almost immune to the sound. I never actually see the bugs though, thank goodness.

When we came through Louisiana for our honeymoon in August 2000, we found these bugs which were some sort of flying beetle. We called then sex bugs since they seemed to spend their whole life intertwined in the air with a mate. They stuck to the bumper of our car and no matter how many times we washed the dam thing, some reminents of them remained.