Currawong Song

Things I like or things that interest me. Don't be shy about liking what you like.

[herpsandbirds]

520-Million-Year-Old Fossil from China Fills Gap in Evolutionary History of Cephalopods

Paleontologists have identified the earliest-known cephalopod equipped with a siphuncle — a tubular extension of the mantle found in shelled cephalopods — pushing back the fossil record of this key evolutionary feature to the Early Cambrian, roughly 520 million years ago.

In a new study, the researchers examined 32 specimens of a previously unknown cephalopod species from the Shuijingtuo Formation in China. Named Eoceras shaanxiense, the animal lived in the Early Cambrian oceans approximately 520 million years ago. Millimeters in size, it had a straight, cone-shaped shell, a tilted opening, multiple internal walls, and a segmented tube running along the underside of the shell that connected to the chambers through tiny canals...

Read more: https://www.sci.news/paleontology/eoceras-shaanxiense-14958.html

[currawongsong]

Jabberwocky

Lewis Carroll

Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll is one of my favourite poems. Nice sounds and mouthfeel as you speak it. Silly words that carry meaning or understanding are always fun. One day I will rest by the Tumtum Tree, but for now I will have to settle for my own tumtum.

"

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

      And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

      The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

      The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand;

      Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree

      And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

      The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

      And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

      The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

      He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

      Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”

      He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

      And the mome raths outgrabe."

[currawongsong]

Pied Currawongs

Photo - source: Me

Pied Currawongs look like a raven sporting the eye of Sauron and a Roman nose. I’m always happy to see these guys hanging around my work or home, but I am far more likely to hear them nearby.

An apparent gang war (the musical kind, with dancing and timed, intimidating clicks) seems to have occurred over the Australian Summer break, and the Little Raven gang has supplanted the Pied Currawong Thugs in the bush outside my office. I remain hopeful, however, of a Currawong-inspired revenge sequel in the near future.

Pied Currawongs have adapted well to the spread of urban environments, especially around Melbourne. This ease of adaptation has led to increased numbers (alongside Noisy Miners and Australian Magpies), which has negatively impacted some other, smaller, local birdlife.

Currawongs, like Butcherbirds, are known for creating ‘larders’, dead animals wedged into a fork in branches or impaled into a branch, as a future food source. Sadly, the secondary benefit of intimidation does not appear to have worked on the Little Ravens, who have been hardened by years of insults hurled by pre-teen street toughs.

Source: https://birdlife.org.au/bird-profiles/pied-currawong

[rockstar-vamp]

Me: I’m not old

Also me: Mmmm maybe I should get into bird watching ?