A Magical, Movable Feathursday Migration
On this fine #Feathursday we wanted to feature a holiday card we received from the vendor AVP, a company we have worked with to help us with larger-scale digitization projects. The card includes a barrier grid animation of birds in flight. The effect is created by moving a striped transparent overlay across an interlaced image (above). The result is the moving image we see in the bottom frame.
This animated migratory image is a reference to AVP’s work in data migration. As they state:
Just as migration is critical to the survival of wildlife, data migration -- to new formats, storage media, and software environments -- is necessary for persistence. And while the act of migrating data may not be as majestic as birds and butterflies making their way south, the outcomes can be equally extraordinary.
Okay. We’ll take that. Of course, as bird nerds, we have to wonder what kind of birds these animated fellows represent. At first glance, one might think of migrating geese. But geese don’t normally fly with their legs outstretched like this. The only kinds of North American birds we can think of that fly with their necks and legs extended are cranes and herons. The silhouette of these birds are more like that of cranes than herons, so we’re going to go with Cranes. What species of crane they might be must forever remain a mystery; that data just didn’t migrate with the image on this holiday card.
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