Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Second rate reporter says what?

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

The words do not have to be perfect.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Not all heroes wear capes.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Republicans in disarray!

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Birdwatching / Monday Afternoon Open Thread

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70Comments

  3. 3.

    Jerzy Russian

    Hmm, I wonder why they are called “kingfishers”.

    What you probably really need in your neighborhood are birds that catch bugs. Bats might work, in a pinch.

  4. 4.

    Elizabelle

    I am thinking “beer.” And “Indian food.”

    Beautiful little bird. Happy Monday, all. Two days from the Kids’ National Night Out.

  7. 7.

    A Ghost To Most

    Kingfishers are magnificent birds. I feel privileged whenever I see one, which is usually a fleeting glimpse.

  10. 10.

    trollhattan

    Many birders are absolutely fixated on photographing kingfishers and here you are with your own built-in model. Fascinating little guys and worthy of taking time to study. A sampling.

  12. 12.

    Paul T

    Kingfishers are fun to watch. They are fairly shy, so 50 yards away might be as close as you might get. They have “favorite spots”, so you might get to see it return again and again.

  14. 14.

    cope

    And my jealousy of your new digs and photo ops increases.

    That plastic cap on the channel marker doesn’t seem to be doing its job of preventing birds perching: kingfisher 1, human technology 0.

    Please keep the pastoral, calming images coming as a soothing balm to the relentless pain of our modern/medieval times.

  17. 17.

    J R in WV

    I grew up on a dry high ridge, away from the creeks and ponds of the hollows, so I never saw a Kingfisher until we had lived here on the farm with our own little creeks. They soar low right over the creek, seeking out their tiny fishy targets. So beautiful in flight!

    ETA: This was probably my own inability to see what I was looking at, or vice versa, really … as an inattentive pre-teen, and teen.

    We also have wood ducks and the occasional Great Blue Heron, along with the Barred Owls and various hawks and crows and such. Canopy birds, also too.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    @trollhattan: The beak on that brown-winged model in the linked photos! I heard the kingfisher pictured above before I saw it. My aunt (who lives on the Suwannee River) loves them and acquainted me with their call many years back, so when I heard this guy, I watched for where he’d land and was lucky enough to get a couple of shots.

  23. 23.

    JPL

    I need a fainting couch..

    A segment on Fox News this morning where hosts laughed and joked their way through a discussion on political impact of terror was bizarre. Not even 48 hours since blood flowed at synagogue? Check your soul in the makeup chair!

    @matt drudge

  24. 24.

    JPL

    @Kay: What does your gut say? Stacey has stayed within reach of Kemp, but I understand this is GA. GA is not a purple state yet.

  25. 25.

    Duke of Clay

    I attended the local photography club meeting last Wednesday here in Louisville to see a presentation by a very well known Kentucky bird photographer. She talked at length about her “nemesis bird” that she never seemed to be able to photograph. Finally based on local reports, she set up her blind by a drainage ditch near hear. After hours and hours of waiting she finally got her photo of a belted kingfisher. And then you get these gorgeous shots right off your porch.

  26. 26.

    Duke of Clay

    @Betty Cracker: This must be Great Blue Heron Season. I saw one in a nearby pond last week. I actually got a 2 second video of him in flight. (Unfortunately, I’m not sophisticated enough to share.)

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:

    Not at all surprised that FOX people would behave this way, but gobsmacked that it was Matt Drudge — Matt Drudge!! — who called them out for it.

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    @JPL: And the world seems to have already forgotten about Jamal Khashoggi. At least the Washington Post is still covering it because he was one of their own.

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    And the world seems to have already forgotten about Jamal Khashoggi.

    Was thinking exactly that. I understand that new news breaks all the time and media must cover it, but I hate the way ongoing/unresolved stories just disappear down the memory hole within a few days. Makes me tremble to think what atrocity may be lurking to knock MAGAbomber and Tree of Life massacre off the front pages.

  38. 38.

    geg6

    @WaterGirl:

    If we Dems were any good at the whole conspiracy thing and had no souls, we could start a whisper campaign that Bowers was radicalized by the Saudis to kill Jews. But we suck at this stuff because we suffer from hyper-empathy.

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    @Duke of Clay: I’m a super lucky birdwatcher — not particularly skilled or knowledgeable, just fortunate. My husband and I went to Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island a few years back, and within minutes of our arrival, we saw a mangrove cuckoo. There are birdwatchers who’ve stalked those little critters for decades and never see one, and one practically landed on our car in the parking lot! :)

  45. 45.

    ruemara

    @Spanky: I wouldn’t hold on to that viewpoint. My guess is that’s a residual burst of his conscience, which will be suppressed immediately by his supporters reminding him where his bread is buttered.

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Lawyers, a question for you, please. Trump tweeted this a couple of hours ago:

    In Florida there is a choice between a Harvard/Yale educated man named @RonDeSantisFL who has been a great Congressman and will be a great Governor – and a Dem who is a thief and who is Mayor of poorly run Tallahassee, said to be one of the most corrupt cities in the Country!

    I realise Andrew Gillum is a public figure and the rules are a bit different for public figures — but for the President of the United States to flat-out call him “a thief,” does that qualify as libellous? I’m steaming at this.

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @trollhattan:

    Fruit flies now have greater lifespans than news events. Time in Trumpworld is compressed to an impressive degree.

    Time flies like an arrow.
    Fruit flies like a banana.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    @JPL:

    My gut says I will be watching election night and waiting for Cleveland to come in :)

    It’s fine. I knew it would be close. My son and his GF canvassed Sat for Cordray. They had done Sherrod Brown but I told them Brown was ahead and they needed to do Cordray so they did. My son is sort of glowering and mildly threatening looking but his GF is charming so I wanted her to go – he can escort her :)

    It’s been fun. A refreshingly ordinary Ohio governors race. Nothing bizarre or terrifying. We mostly talk about health care.

    Cordray will be great and if he wins he will run for Prez, so look for that.

  52. 52.

    trollhattan

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Horse walks into a bar and the bartender asks, “Why the long face?”

    That one popped into my head on this morning’s commute. And yet I haven’t been able to help my kid with her math or science homework for two or three years. I should get that fixed.

  53. 53.

    Kay

    I have an easy fix for everything:

    A women-only electorate would give Democrats a huge House majority: The adjusted vote share estimates suggest that women would elect 275 Democrats to just 160 Republicans, which is 44 more Democratic seats than the 231 projected Wednesday in the Lite version of our forecast.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    Even better:

    If only nonwhite Americans could cast ballots, they would elect a gigantic Democratic majority (the largest projected majority out of any group we looked at).

  55. 55.

    Spanky

    @Kay:

    If only nonwhite Americans could cast ballots, they would elect a gigantic Democratic majority (the largest projected majority out of any group we looked at).

    Well that’s so obvious that Republicans aren’t even bothering to hide their voter suppression activities.

  58. 58.

    Jay

    @Betty Cracker:

    When you get out on the water, in spring, make careful note of where the Kingfisher is nesting,

    Then stay away, very far away.

    Little buggers are very territorial and agressive.

  59. 59.

    Miss Bianca

    @Betty Cracker: Wonder if birds respond to bird people the way cats respond to cat people – “you want to get close and pet me? You want to take my picture? Nah, I’m gonna be way over here, making pretty for the guy who couldn’t care less.”//

  60. 60.

    catclub

    I would suggest that it was 60 years ago that the jewish Temple was bombed in Atlanta, but that is just the mathematician talking.

    They tell me that CE Pierce occasionally reads here.

  61. 61.

    Kelly

    @Betty Cracker: We have a bat that lives on our front porch, behind our Welcome sign. The sign hangs from a nail leaving a small gap near the top, maybe an inch. The sign is about 6 inches high and touches the wall at the bottom. The bat is a bit untidy leaves mouse like poops right in front of the door. We suspect the bat takes advantage of the porch light drawing in prey.

  62. 62.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @catclub:

    Yes, geg6 and I, quite separately, made comments on his page pointing that out.

    He had a story about something else a few weeks ago wherein he made the identical mistake. I called his attention to that as well, but I don’t think he made the correction.

    Somewhere along the way, though, he’s repeatedly dropping an entire decade!

  63. 63.

    Yutsano

    @Elizabelle: I had a bunch of Indian food and cider last night. Close enough?

    Also: an entire 4 days with virtually no politics except discussing with a friend in South Dakota how in Hades could the gov race be tied?

  65. 65.

    Yutsano

    @catclub: Another thought for the esteemed Mr. Pierce:

    I am not kidding when I say we are headed for recount hell in November and December. And that is going to be even uglier than the campaign has been.

    Yep it’s going to be ugly, but recounts historically favour Democrats. So while the Repubs will fight in court to steal as much as they can, in the end a lot more Democrats are going to win this. And fortunately there are enough seats not in question to get the majority.

  66. 66.

    WaterGirl

    @geg6:

    If we Dems were any good at the whole conspiracy thing and had no souls, we could start a whisper campaign that Bowers was radicalized by the Saudis to kill Jews. But we suck at this stuff because we suffer from hyper-empathy they are monsters and we are not.

  67. 67.

    catclub

    @WaterGirl: Democrats cant even get conspiracy theories going on things that are TRUE. e.g The GOP wants to take away your Medicare and Social security – and here are the bills they have voted on in congress proving it.

  70. 70.

    Ken

    Betty: I am a Gainesville native, living in Montana, and will be returning to Hogtown in the next 5 years. I really enjoy your postings! it is a daily taste of FL that I crave and appreciate! You can get a bat house on-line (I am sure you know). A friend has property in Evinston and put up a bathouse and it is full. We love watching them exit in the evenings.

    Enjoy your new place!

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