Sunday, May 25, 2008

Crappy video killed the radio star

Well it's a dark dark day chez Martin. Hull City are in the Premiership while the Mighty Leeds remain rooted in bloody division 3. If there was ever a sign that the natural order of things is going all topsy turvy, that is it. personally I blame global warming.

Pleasant if slighty chilly Newtonhill this morning. I puttered around maiing some recordings of Sedge Warblers along the Elsick Burn. Not a lot interesting, although I spooked a Roe Deer in comedy fashion (I've never seen a deer sh*t itself before), and saw two Grey Wagtails on the burn flying up to mob... a Barn Swallow. Needs must. Sea was quiet, but with a few Atlantic Puffins out there. Similarly Cran Hill was a bit crap, with the only irregular thingy being a male Reed Bunting in the same spot where they bred last year. Also a woman and her dog singing (gentle reader) to the cows.... I wonder what she was singing. Mooving on Up? Bull-et with Butterfly Wings? Some udder third song? Anyway, while she was doing it her dog was eating a rabbit skin. He'll be sick as a dog in the morning.

Radom interlude... I've got a big shed. Just need wireless in there and I can withdraw from the human race...FOREVER...!

Time for a random Mystery photo competition. You can see where this is going. I've been on YouTube again. A bird and its reflection flying low over the glassy still waters of an American swamp. We really don't see enough of that. This is not meant to imply anything... but I think it goes to illustrate how crappy videos of birds distort patterns of light and dark and make them look like birds that they clearly are not. Have a look at this first and try and decide what it is.

Clues: it's not a Pileated Woodpecker, but it could have been taken in the southern swamps.


For the answer, look here.
So how the hell does that look like that... ?


Update 26/5/08.
Here's a couple of Belters with apparent white trailing edges :-O taken from this video. Btw it's worth watching the whole thing.

2 comments:

Bill Pulliam said...

Wow, that's impressive! I'd been voting for "duck, sp" for the other obliquely referenced video (hell, I've wound up voting for "duck" for just about everything I've been shown recently), but I like this new possibility better.

Tim Allwood said...

Hi Martin

thanks for taking the time to counter wanton stupidity. see http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=1206484&postcount=13397 etc.

probably pissing in the wind again though.