Because it’s August and I’m at a lake:

The great blue is such an ungainly bird
that “heron” should be an explainly word.

It flaps so slow as it takes to the air
I could beat it by climbing stairs.

It’s great, it’s blue, it’s a little absurd.
A pile of sticks became a bird.

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Hummingbirds come to our capacious feeder, sip for a few seconds, and then leave. But why would they ever leave? Do they have something better to do?

If I set a trigger so that every time a hummingbird lands on our feeder, it plays a sound, can I then use that sound to assemble a hummingbird army? I’ll let you know.

Geese are monogamous, but can they be seduced? What would it take? I’m thinking snails would just be an insult. It’d probably take a flamingo.

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You Barcelona birds don’t know how good you have it.
You give your city two stars
because once a tourist left you a crust that had some mustard on it —
Don’t eat the yellow bread, is that so hard to remember? —
and last February a pigeon bullied you aside.
You ought to come to my city some February.
Is there even a word in Spanish for slush?
Yeah, Boston would grow you a pair,
and then would shrivel them up until they make a high-pitched ting.
How you like them tiny frozen apples?
So why don’t you go back to TripAdvisor and fix your ratings
even if you have to make up a new login.
Try “A_Little_Perspective23”
or “WuzWrongDaFirstTime.”
Stoopid Barcelona birds.

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I love the dancing cockatoos.

And I love the research that’s found a connection between animals with language skills and animals that can dance.

But I wonder what it means that cockatoos probably can’t dance to most of the music our culture has created throughout its history.

Canconier by Canconier

Did it take until the 20th century for us to de-evolve music to the point that cockatoos could dance to it?

(Note: I also love Magnatune, and the occasional Monty Python reference.)

[Tags: birds cockatoos language dancing monty_python ]

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