― Rumpie, Wednesday, 19 October 2005 09:24 (eighteen years ago) link
If someone runs off a cliff, gravity has no effect until he or she notices their error. Everything falls faster than an anvil (the fundamental principle of anvilology). No matter what happens to cats, they always return to their default shapes. A large amount of explosives, even if detonated close to a character's face, will only cause scorching of the skin.
― Paranoid Spice (kate), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 09:27 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.stockhillhouse.co.uk/jackdaw.jpg
I also saw a raven attack and start to eat a crow in Richmond Park while all the crow's mates were divebombing the raven. It was cool.
― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 09:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― Paranoid Spice (kate), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 09:33 (eighteen years ago) link
ie: when a man and a woman are lying in bed the sheet will cover him from the waist down but will cover the woman up to the armpits
― Rumpie, Wednesday, 19 October 2005 09:35 (eighteen years ago) link
x-post
― Matt (Matt), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 09:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― saleXander / sophie (salexander), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 09:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ste (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 09:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rumpie, Wednesday, 19 October 2005 09:43 (eighteen years ago) link
ravenscourt park often has a posse of crows just wandering about menacingly. wormwood scrubs was full of the bastards last year when i went, about 100 of them i reckon. i like them too. (um, maybe the crows in ravenscourt park are ravens? they are very large)
saw a confused woodpecker perched on a lightning conductor on friday.
only time i've seen a blue jay was in Big Sur. was very tame, hopping around picking stuff off abandoned plates. was very blue.
― koogs (koogs), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 09:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rumpie, Wednesday, 19 October 2005 09:53 (eighteen years ago) link
http://scrubs.ground-level.org/lnr/
― koogs (koogs), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 10:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rumpie, Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:29 (eighteen years ago) link
here are a bunch of alternatives: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/boardarchives/2000/oct2000/countingcrows.html
the magpie was back again today. i think i might have to start encouraging it with mealworms.
― koogs (koogs), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:48 (eighteen years ago) link
I may have seen a crow or blackbird at some point but I'm pretty sure I've never seen a raven. Do we even have ravens in the US? Should look it up.
― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 20 October 2005 15:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 20 October 2005 16:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― jones (actual), Thursday, 20 October 2005 16:43 (eighteen years ago) link
HOLY SHIT, CROWS TALK!
I was walking around with friends after having a drink or two yesterday in my neighborhood. We pass under a crow, and I yell out "HELLO, CROW! :-D". A few seconds pass, then really loudly, the crow sounded back in this distorted robotic voice "Heeeee-LO". Then we all turned around and went WTF at each other.
I said "HELLO" again. The crow said "HeEeEeE-LO" again.
I had no fucking idea.
― Mackro Mackro, Monday, 18 August 2008 19:13 (fifteen years ago) link
Corvids are the smartest damn things in the world.
I was thinking the other day, the thing I miss the most about Idaho is magpies.
― Abbott, Monday, 18 August 2008 19:19 (fifteen years ago) link
Yes, I knew this from reading George RR Martin books in which some crows talk. I learned everything I ever knew from genre lit.
― Laurel, Monday, 18 August 2008 19:20 (fifteen years ago) link
You should read Mind of the Raven, Mackro. And everyone else. They roll down snowy hills together, playing and scooping snow at one another. They talk, too.
― Abbott, Monday, 18 August 2008 19:24 (fifteen years ago) link
Ca-CAWWW ca-CAWW
― elmo argonaut, Monday, 18 August 2008 19:25 (fifteen years ago) link
I guess I can see missing them - I kind of miss seagulls now that they aren't around all the time - but magpies are so annoying. Especially when you have a flock of them squawking right outside your bedroom window early in the morning.
It is kind of awesome to watch a crew of magpies battle a red-tailed hawk though.
― joygoat, Monday, 18 August 2008 19:32 (fifteen years ago) link
I liked waking up to all the magpies.
― Abbott, Monday, 18 August 2008 19:53 (fifteen years ago) link
here is a neat talk about crows: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html
― rrrobyn, Monday, 18 August 2008 20:04 (fifteen years ago) link
Who on earth was TGL?
Where was this thread when Mark H, Johnny B and I were arguing about whether the massive black birds on Hampstead Heath were crows or rooks?
Where there's crows, that's a rock. Where there's a rook, that's a crow.
I'm so confused. WHITE SPOT. WHITE SPOT ON BEAK = ROOK. Is that the rule of thumb? (or beak as the case may be?)
― Masonic Boom, Monday, 18 August 2008 20:20 (fifteen years ago) link
ROOK is a card game, that IIRC, involves putting cards on a table or possibly forcing people to trade them.
― Abbott, Monday, 18 August 2008 20:26 (fifteen years ago) link
so many beautiful magpies, who knew?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/Thimindu_2010_02_20_Sinharaja_Sri_Lanka_Blue_Magpie_1.jpg/220px-Thimindu_2010_02_20_Sinharaja_Sri_Lanka_Blue_Magpie_1.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Cissa_hypoleucor_concolor_qtl1.jpg/220px-Cissa_hypoleucor_concolor_qtl1.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/Urocissa_erythrorhyncha.jpg/800px-Urocissa_erythrorhyncha.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/Cissa_chinensis_-Chiang_Mai_Zoo%2C_Thailand-8a.jpg/398px-Cissa_chinensis_-Chiang_Mai_Zoo%2C_Thailand-8a.jpg
― ledge, Thursday, 22 March 2012 11:57 (twelve years ago) link
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Urocissa_caerulea.jpg/800px-Urocissa_caerulea.jpg
Second one down looks like a species of kingfisher rather than some sort of corvid. Magpie kingfisher perhaps? All of those are beautiful though!
― Valéry Giscard d'Staind (NickB), Thursday, 22 March 2012 12:02 (twelve years ago) link
Does look kingfisheresque, but it's an Indochinese Green Magpie apparently.
― ledge, Thursday, 22 March 2012 12:04 (twelve years ago) link
But then again, his tail is long and magpie-like and his beak is shorter than a kingfishers, so I'm clearly talking out of my underpants.
xp- oh right, thanks!
― Valéry Giscard d'Staind (NickB), Thursday, 22 March 2012 12:05 (twelve years ago) link
I would have gone straight to the wrong section of the field guide obviously.
― Valéry Giscard d'Staind (NickB), Thursday, 22 March 2012 12:06 (twelve years ago) link
My handy tip for telling crows from rooks: crows look like they mean business. They could be bouncers - only for exclusive high-end clubs though. Rooks look like mad old professors.
― ledge, Thursday, 22 March 2012 12:10 (twelve years ago) link
It's true, those rooks with their big brainy shiny dome heads and scruffy trousers.
― Valéry Giscard d'Staind (NickB), Thursday, 22 March 2012 12:13 (twelve years ago) link
i just saw a crow divebombing a smaller bird that was flying through the same airspace. must be dinnertime!
― judy rae jetson (get bent), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 01:42 (eleven years ago) link
saw 1 of these guys out jogging earlier, nvr noticed these dudes b4, looked hella boss, the red/orange was just like piping u could barely see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-winged_Blackbird
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 27 June 2012 01:50 (eleven years ago) link
I see you trying to sneak yer icterids into our thread of corvids.
― Jesu swept (ledge), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 08:20 (eleven years ago) link
*blushes*
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 27 June 2012 11:24 (eleven years ago) link
When I go home to Minnesota and I hear the redwing blackbirds calling it always puts me in the best mood.
Corvids = the best of all families. My power animals. Another good book about corvid smarts: Bird Brains.
We have a pet starling that we raised from a rescued chick, and he's not a corvid (closest relative - Mynah Bird) but he talks like CRAZAY. He acquires words and then goes all jazzbo stringing them together in different sequences, mixed up with nonsense muttering.
There are some great Youtubes of talky ravens. My favorite is the one whose phrase is 'Hello TERRY' spoken with the greatest disdain.
― Lewis Apparition (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 18:28 (eleven years ago) link
i watched hitchcock's the birds today, for the first time, somewhat randomly (i have an admittedly rather aspie way of picking what movie to watch of what i have on hand & it doesnt involve what weird threads are bumped) & right after i went out on my front porch to go jogging & was looking down fiddling w/ my ipod & i swear 2 god a bird FLEW @ MY FACE
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 28 June 2012 00:53 (eleven years ago) link
i think i have an irrational fear of crows
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Friday, 28 July 2017 22:14 (six years ago) link
Are there any around? If so it isn't irrational, they can really slice you up. I once got attacked by one that was nesting (presumably) nearby, while walking a few km's to the next town. It felt like it'd just hit me, until blood started spurting on to my shirt. I cleaned that up, got to the shop and was happily served while buying some wine, got home and discovered the entire side of my head was matted with blood. South Auckland liquor stores see some shit, I suppose.
― albvivertine, Saturday, 29 July 2017 01:12 (six years ago) link
Oh it was a magpie tho, which're p similar. These birds (corvids) are the best. So many cool videos of them solving puzzles that'd stump some ppl I've known.
― albvivertine, Saturday, 29 July 2017 01:14 (six years ago) link
crazy story albvivertine :-/
there's tons of crows around, some in the trees in front of my place. Yeah they're smart and their face recognition is pretty nuts.
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Saturday, 29 July 2017 01:49 (six years ago) link
one of my friends has a pet magpie, and she's amazing (she lives in taranaki, albvivertine) - super friendly, loves to be petted, will happily snuggle. she was found in a forest, fell out of her nest quite young, i think? and some forest ranger dude gave her to my friend to look after, and she's just stuck around. they also have a tripod cat and big old german shepherd (cop school reject), and she chases them both around.
― just1n3, Saturday, 29 July 2017 04:26 (six years ago) link
Oh I'd love that.
― albvivertine, Saturday, 29 July 2017 04:48 (six years ago) link
Not sure if I can link to instagram but here's a photo of me hanging out with Yoda and trying really hard not to laugh
https://instagram.com/p/BMiZO9rFtkFLsIqYFoOydKd-7qsoCUj3fCeKPw0/
― just1n3, Saturday, 29 July 2017 17:41 (six years ago) link
Living in the land of ravens rn. Truly aliens among us.
― cheese canopy (map), Tuesday, 26 March 2019 23:45 (five years ago) link
how have i not seen this thread before
i regularly (once a week) pass through clapham common almost at the exact spot from where ledge's photo was taken. the crows of clapham common are a most fascinating and abundant community
love any revelation of corvids' vast intelligence
― PPL+AI=NS (imago), Tuesday, 26 March 2019 23:57 (five years ago) link
Broken image link from 13 years ago...
> These dudes are all over Richmond Park
Jackdaws. Was amazed at how many jackdaws I saw in Richmond park and how they don't care about you being 5ft away. Didn't think I'd seen a jackdaw before then until my dad pointed out that all the pairs of birds sat on the chimney pots around home were jackdaws. (At that distance it's hard to guess how big they are and in silhouette you don't get to see the giveaway grey heads)
― koogs, Wednesday, 27 March 2019 03:49 (five years ago) link
there's nothing more enigmatic and honestly disturbing than being out in the desert wilderness with hardly any signs of animal life for minutes at a time and hearing or spotting a single raven usually perched in a place that has a quality of absurd obviousness to it as if it wants to communicate some kind of cosmic joke to you, and then feeling yourself being watched by it as you pass. it seems to have both an understanding of what space and placement mean in the context of the human world and an otherness to its intelligence that falls outside of it.
― cheese canopy (map), Wednesday, 27 March 2019 03:57 (five years ago) link
i saw hi to my crows daily. no gifts but we cool
― alomar lines, Wednesday, 27 March 2019 06:45 (five years ago) link
Same! A pair of crows has been living on top of our office building for a couple of years, directly above me it turns out. They hop around the parking lot most of the day (we're next to a supermarket, plenty of food to be found on the ground). They'll get out of the way when a car approaches or take the high road esp when esp kids walk by, but they're completely cool with me. We'll exchange glances in a 'howdy neighbour' kind of way. It's one of those small daily pleasures tbh
― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 27 March 2019 12:38 (five years ago) link
I caw back at my local crows when I hear them cawing. I hope they know that means I think they're cool. I want to start throwing them peanuts or something, but am concerned about what might happen if I decided to stop.
― ☮ (peace, man), Wednesday, 27 March 2019 13:10 (five years ago) link
jackdaw is an alltime great bird name
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 27 March 2019 15:54 (five years ago) link
crows are good, I love them
― moose; squirrel (silby), Wednesday, 27 March 2019 16:59 (five years ago) link
want to submit that grackles are good, some Austinites have expressed a sort of exhausted loathing for grackles, but on my one visit I was charmed by them
― moose; squirrel (silby), Wednesday, 27 March 2019 17:00 (five years ago) link
Grackles are awesome, they may not have corvid brains but I love them Booming map post re raven placement
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Friday, 12 April 2019 22:30 (five years ago) link
Recently moved to a high-up place where crows perch in the treetops outside. Wish I could open up the windows and invite them in, but our neighbors are total narcs and would rat us out to management.
― cat, Friday, 26 April 2019 04:00 (five years ago) link
A magpie came and sat on my (open) window just now - I think it trying to work out how to get into my room.
― John Harris is a Guardian columnist (Tom D.), Friday, 14 June 2019 19:02 (four years ago) link
you and your twinkly trinkets
― mark s, Friday, 14 June 2019 19:07 (four years ago) link
Yeah I've had a couple of them doing that recently too
Something's going down
― Number None, Friday, 14 June 2019 19:19 (four years ago) link
When we were in Istanbul the place was full of hooded crows and you’d see them attacking - and seeing off - seagulls that were easily three times their size. Fearless lads.
― stress tweeting (gyac), Friday, 14 June 2019 19:20 (four years ago) link
since moving to a city where crows dive bomb pedestrians during mating season and caw aggressively at every passerby, i don’t love crows so much
― flopson, Friday, 14 June 2019 19:37 (four years ago) link
Definitely the lesser evil where seagulls are concerned.
― stress tweeting (gyac), Friday, 14 June 2019 19:39 (four years ago) link
Crows harrass hawks and eagles here (PNW) , follow them around and caw and just bug them. Funny from a distance!
― alomar lines, Friday, 14 June 2019 19:53 (four years ago) link
Raven Joins Road Trip, Drafts Off Car for 45 Minutes
A couple driving along a lonely stretch of snowy Canadian highway had some unexpected company — a raven that used their car’s draft to hitch a ride for 45 minutes.Alex Lavoie, Jodi Young, and their cat were driving from a job in the Yukon back home to British Columbia when an enterprising avian swooped in front of their car, spread its wings, and soared along in front of them for the better part of an hour. Lavoie couldn’t quite believe his eyes.After about 25 minutes, Lavoie and Young stopped to feed their feline, and to their surprise, the raven joined them in their pit stop. The couple tossed the bird some cat treats, then all four travelers got back on the road. The clever Corvid drafted along for another 20 minutes or so before flying off with another member of its species.
Alex Lavoie, Jodi Young, and their cat were driving from a job in the Yukon back home to British Columbia when an enterprising avian swooped in front of their car, spread its wings, and soared along in front of them for the better part of an hour. Lavoie couldn’t quite believe his eyes.
After about 25 minutes, Lavoie and Young stopped to feed their feline, and to their surprise, the raven joined them in their pit stop. The couple tossed the bird some cat treats, then all four travelers got back on the road. The clever Corvid drafted along for another 20 minutes or so before flying off with another member of its species.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Eu_3j8-uwM
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 22 December 2022 03:12 (one year ago) link
two gangs of four pies on the way out to the shops and back again: perhaps the same gang twice (?) silently but gleamingly letting me know that IT'S A BOY
tho not where i might meet him or how i might (*creepy pinocchio voice*) become him
― mark s, Thursday, 7 September 2023 12:00 (eight months ago) link
got to say when these gentlemen have promised me JOY they've rarely delivered
― School of RAAC (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 7 September 2023 12:01 (eight months ago) link
magLIE moar liek
― mark s, Thursday, 7 September 2023 12:05 (eight months ago) link
I recently saw a magpie absolutely torment a big dumb seagull who was sitting in a pool of water that the magpie wanted. After a while the seagull grumped off, it was a joy to behold.
― Tim, Thursday, 7 September 2023 12:10 (eight months ago) link
the internet is trying to convince me that the magpie's call is "wock wock wock-a-wock, wock pjur, weer weer"
― mark s, Thursday, 7 September 2023 12:13 (eight months ago) link
https://gifdb.com/images/high/fozzie-bear-waiting-for-laughter-pl9qhp2nb2job4ck.gif
there was an almighty cachinnation of jays in a client's garden earlier. yesterday two jackdaws let me walk right past them. they're waiting for their moment I swear
― imago, Thursday, 7 September 2023 12:26 (eight months ago) link
In Canberra visiting my brother, a small grey butcher bird came and sat on the chair beside me for a few minutes at eye level. I wasn’t sure if it was interested by me or deciding whether to take my eye out. Magic experience. It flew a short way away into a tree and I cut a scrap of steak for it, which it caught off the bounce.
― assert (matttkkkk), Thursday, 7 September 2023 13:25 (eight months ago) link