Unpunctual bird of 2nd week, MT09

T.W.W. is lucky enough to own the the mug pictured to the right, which it bought from Age Concern on St. Clements for 75p. ‘What a bargain!’ said the man working in the shop, and T.W.W. very much agrees, partly because the mug is:

1. of a birdy nature
2. quite aesthetically pleasing
3. an adequate drinking vessel (although curiously heavy)
4. decorated with a reasonably accurate picture of a CHAFFINCH, our belated bird of 2nd week

but ALSO because it is informative and educational, for on the back of the mug is a little paragraph about the aforementioned chaffinch, along with a picture of some chaffinch eggs. This is what it says:

CHAFFINCH (Fringilla Coalebs)

A small seed eating bird with a short cone shaped bill with cutting edges, sometimes toothed, to assist in crushing their food.
They build open nests in trees or bushes and lay four to six spotted eggs. The brightness of the plumage of most males is enhanced towards the breeding season by the wearing down of the soberly coloured tips and edges of the feathers.

When was the last time you met a mug this knowledgeable? Bargain indeed.

Bird of 1st Week, MT09

Always remembering to keep one eye on the grouse, let us swivel the other eye, owl-style, to focus on the chosen bird of 1st week. As promised in our recent email, we are continuing with the Kiwi theme (though not the kiwi theme. maybe another time) and celebrating THE LAUGHING OWL, who has been even less successful than the kakapo at weathering the storms of colonisation.

The fate of the laughing owl is, I am afraid, no laughing matter, for he is now almost certainly extinct. A small grain of hope remains as a result of reports by a group of American tourists who, while camping in the wilds of New Zealand, heard what they took to be 'the sound of a madman laughing' which is indeed the sort of sound that a laughing owl makes. However, this was in 1985 so whatever laughing owl was or was not heard back then, it's probably dead now.

Other descriptions of the laughing owl's call include 'a peculiar barking noise ... just like the barking of a young dog', 'precisely the same as two men "cooeying" to each other from a distance' and 'a melancholy hooting note'. A correspondent from 1905 suggested that laughing owls might be attracted by the music of an accordian, which bears some resemblance to the owl's call. Whether this actually worked during the days of live laughing owls is in doubt; we can only assume that now, even the most skilfully-played accordian will not be skilful enough to summon the laughing owl out of extinction. You are welcome to try though.

THE GROUSE IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE GROUSE

Things with Wings is currently running The Alternative Grouse Season, handily timed to coincide with the actual grouse season (12th August-10th December). This is because we prefer our grouse alive and well rather than dead and shot.

What The Alternative Grouse Season (A.G.S.) means is that all term the grouse will be King Bird. What 'King Bird' means is as yet unclear. If we find out, we will let you know. If you find out first, you let us know. It's a deal.

What we DO know is that T.W.W. will be making an extra special effort to champion the grouse in all his (living) forms. Soon we will have a grouse poster campaign and we might also do some grouse modelling, painting and drawing (details to follow - we hope you will join in). At least one T.W.W. member is very keen to knit a grouse - if anyone knows where a grouse knitting pattern can be obtained, please get in touch. All this will of course be accompanied by Famous Grouse whiskey, the official drink of the A.G.S.

If you are particularly keen on or knowledgeable about the grouse, you can apply to be our special T.W.W.A.G.S. representative/events co-ordinator, or "grouse-master". Otherwise, you can get involved with The Alternative Grouse Season by telling us all your grouse facts and news, looking out for grouse around the house (town), spreading the grouse word and, most importantly, offering sanctuary to any grouse who comes pecking at your door. In the meantime, let's all put our shotguns away and raise a glass of Famous Grouse to the famous grouse.

well hello there

WE ARE THINGS WITH WINGS

We like birds, we like people who like birds.

This might mean that we will like you. This might mean that you will like us.

Things with Wings is an Oxford-based society designed to celebrate all things winged. Primarily, this means birds, but we also include creatures such as bats (we like bats a lot), moths and ladybirds. We're not so keen on butterflies so if that's your thing, you might want to look elsewhere.

If you're not in Oxford you are still welcome to be a part of T.W.W., for we are very much an international society with wings all over the place.

In addition to this blog, which will keep you up to date on all things bird, we also send emails and organise bird-themed events and bird-themed mixtape swaps and so on and so forth. So get in touch.

You can do this by emailing madaboutthebird@gmail.com and then we will put you on our mailing list. You can also join our facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506948963&v=info&ref=profile#/group.php?gid=23805883585. We would love to hear from you in multiple media (multimedia?) so please do both and, if you like, you can request our postal address and then send us a letter by pigeon post or, if you are not in Oxford, by human post. Then we'll send you one back.

Bird of 0th, MT09

A whole new year, a whole new bird.

Actually not a new bird at all but a very old and very endangered bird, the kakapo of New Zealand. The kakapo became the kakapo 70 million years ago when there were no mammalian predators in New Zealand and so it soon forgot how to fly. This turned out to be a big mistake, as the colonisation of N.Z. resulted in the introduction of cats, rats and stoats, none of whom are averse to snacking on a kakapo. Now the kakapo is a critically endangered species and in April 2009, students of the kakapo could only count 125 living individuals. Happily, humans are doing a lot to save this fine bird and so we hope that things will improve.

The kakapo is round and kind of fat and has a distinctive smell that has been described as a 'pleasant musty odour'. He has an owlish face and so, with impeccable logic, early European settlers called him the 'owl parrot'. (Things with Wings likes this double-barrelled approach to naming birds.) If you click on the link below you will see Stephen Fry meeting the kakapo and reflecting that he looks like a Victorian gentleman (the kakapo, not Stephen Fry. although now we come to think of it...). If this is true - and we think that it is - perhaps we must come to the sad conclusion that, like all Victorian gentleman, it is simply that the kakapo's day is drawing to a close and his time is nearly up.

Another reason, and indeed a much better reason, to watch the clip posted below, is that you will get to see a kakapo attempting to mate with a human's head.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8281382.stm

Thank you, Laura Coleman, for alerting us to this noble bird and this curious spectacle.
On that note, we would like to remind all our readers that Things with Wings relies very much on its members' help in drawing our attention to matters bird. Of course we are always on the lookout but there is so much going on in the world of bird that we really cannot keep up to date without your help.

some birds and some words

Browsing in a bookshop today, Things with Wings just happened to stumble across a book called

THE POETRY OF BIRDS

edited by Simon Armitage (who loves birds, apparently) and Tim Dee (who probably likes birds too)

The title is a little bit misleading because one might think that this is a collection of poetry BY birds. Unfortunately, it is not. It is, however, the next best thing i.e. a whole lot of poems ABOUT birds.

The poems contained therein are arranged not by author or by title but alphabetically by bird, so that if you have a burning desire to read a poem about, say, a wagtail -and frankly, who doesn't? - you can just go to 'w' and there, right between 'wren' and some other alphabetically similar bird that T.W.W. can't quite remember, you will find 'Wagtail and Baby' by Thomas Hardy. Which is really great.

(When you consider 'The Poetry of Birds' and then think about how Simon Armitage recently made a documentary where he followed in the footsteps of Sir Gawain and generally spent an hour talking about how amazing 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' is, you will see it is as if S. Armitage is on a campaign to win T.W.W.'s heart. We will tell you now, Mr Armitage, that it is very much working.)

a wing and a song

or: why listen to The Beatles when you can listen to the beetles?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n0wyw

(for that matter, why have Buddy Holly when you can have the crickets?)

WARNING: not all the insects featured have wings. only you know whether this is something you can handle.

WARNING 2: as always with the BBC, you have a limited time to listen. in this case, it is 8 days, so you had better hurry and catch it before it flies away.