Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bark louder, little dog.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Peak wingnut was a lie.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Second rate reporter says what?

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

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

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

I really should read my own blog.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Birdwatching / Hen o’ the Moors (Open Thread)

Hen o’ the Moors (Open Thread)

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We saw this gorgeous Common Gallinule yesterday, otherwise known as a “Moor Hen,” although approximately half are not hens, and we are many miles from a proper moor:

Hen o' the Moors (Open Thread)

Moor Hens do not excel at flying; I’ve only seen them catch air for short distances. But they can run fast on the surface of the water (despite lacking webbed toes!) to escape predators and/or sexual harassment.

They are super-vocal birds. Their chicks have an odd tonsure-like bare head when very young. I have no idea why; maybe that’s where the face-shield eventually grows? Anyhoo, Moor Hens, everyone!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

72Comments

  4. 4.

    SpaceUnit

    Open thread? Okay, this is really really off-topic but I recently decided that I don’t much care for lava. I was just watching some news clip about the volcano in La Palma when it occurred to me that I have no use for lava whatsoever. Sure, lava gave us Hawaii, and then later on Hawaii gave us surf boards and Obama and some pretty good television theme songs back in the 1970’s, but that’s taking a pretty long view of things. I’m taking the shorter view and I say lava can go f*ck itself.

    If you get up in the morning and turn on the local news to see if it’s going to rain or something but instead they’re talking about “an unstoppable river of lava” you can pretty much bet that your day is going all to shit. If it snows you can go out and play in it. You can build and snowman or a fort, throw snowballs or make a snow angel. But lava? Go out to play in the lava and you won’t last thirty seconds.

    Anyhow, I just wanted to get that off my chest. Go ahead and talk amongst yourselves.

  5. 5.

    Gin & Tonic

    Can’t tell you how many Hen of the Woods we’ve harvested in the last week or two. I know, animal/vegetable.

  8. 8.

    Kelly

    Yesterday the Oregon Legislature approved a reapportionment map that will most likely result in changing the Oregon Congressional delegation from the current 4D/1R to a 5D/1R. 4 seats will be solid D, 1 solid R. The swing district will be Kurt Schrader’s 5th which will trade Salem and Newport for recently blue Bend and a bigger slice of the blue Portland metro area. Blue Dog/Problem Solver Schrader is annoying but will probably hold the seat.

  13. 13.

    germy

    Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) tells me he could envision tuition-free community college being means tested

    — Joseph Zeballos-Roig (@josephzeballos) September 27, 2021

    lol this is awesome, this is the furthest they can think.

    No one even willing to try a "I think it's time we sent our smartest children to our universities instead of our richest" style populism, it's just "We will give you 50% off being a dental tech if your parents made <20k" https://t.co/zJTWsGlnu1

    — boo-grimm (@ExileGrimm) September 28, 2021

  14. 14.

    SpaceUnit

    @trollhattan: Watching that stuff always freaks me out.  Tsunamis too.  I’ve watched dozens of videos on YouTube from the 2011 tsunami in Japan, and they’re some of most terrifying spectacles you’ll ever want to see.  Nature can be scary.

  15. 15.

    trollhattan

    Dismantle DHS. Do it yesterday.

    September 28, 2021 at 3:50 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

    While a mob stormed the Capitol on January, pushing through barricades set up outside the building, the Department of Homeland Security sent an email to the Pentagon, reporting “no major incidents of illegal activity at this time,” Politico reports.

    Created by Bush-Cheney, turned into a personal Gestapo by Trump. What more are we waiting for?

  16. 16.

    trollhattan

    @Baud:

    One of those times you wish really, really hard the rocket does not blow itself up on launch. Can I assume Musk isn’t involved?

  17. 17.

    Another Scott

    @lowtechcyclist: They’re cranking out platinum coins right now – making one isn’t the issue, I don’t think. USMint.gov:

    The United States Mint pays homage to the freedoms set forth in the First Amendment with the United States Constitution Platinum Proof Coin Program. This program features a total of five coins, each struck in magnificent 99.95 percent platinum and bearing the “W” mark of the U.S. Mint at West Point. The five-year series begins in 2021 with freedom of religion, symbolized by a seedling. It will continue through 2025, with each year’s coin designs highlighting a different First Amendment freedom. While each coin features a unique obverse design to symbolize each freedom, the designs are connected, weaving a meaningful story through shared imagery. The series uses the lifecycle of the oak tree from seedling to a mighty oak as a metaphor for our country’s growth as a Nation that values freedom.

    They just have to change the “$100” to “$100E12” and the debt limit goes away for a few decades.

    (sigh)

    But it probably wouldn’t work because it clearly wasn’t Congress’s intent in letting the Mint make platinum coins in “any” face value to get around the debt limit.

    If it actually happens, and I don’t expect it to, then they’ll find other ways to suspend it or get around it than the coin.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  19. 19.

    frosty

    Re: debt limit. I liked the suggestion this morning that Congress/Biden should cite the 14th amendment, say the Constitution ties their hands and just keep paying the bills. So they get taken to court? Is someone going to argue that the Constitution is unconstitutional?

    (Narrator: why yes, yes they will)

  20. 20.

    raven

    No love for Commander Cody today. Maybe if all you pencil neck geeks knew he was more than a hard rocking daddy you’d like him! Here he is doin Willin

     

    Frayne was also an artist. He received a bachelor’s in design from the University of Michigan in 1966 and a master’s in Sculpture and Painting from the Rackham School of Graduate Studies of the University of Michigan in 1968. He taught at University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and has had his art exhibited at numerous shows.[15] He was a student of cinematography, and has a video (Two Triple Cheese Side Order of Fries) in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent video archive. He has assembled many old movies to go with the band’s music as shown on his YouTube channel. Some of his paintings are oversized, most are medium-sized acrylics and present pop art images from media sources and historic photos.[16] His book, Art Music and Lifewas released by Qualibre Publications in 2009 and is a mix of his best work and anecdotal comments and related stories. He still did portraits of famous automobiles for the Saratoga Auto Museum in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he resided

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    @Adam L Silverman:   Our 1928 movie palace in Richmond VA is showing American Werewolf in October.  Plus The Exorcist, They Live,  and a lot of great scarefare. https://byrdtheatre.org/showtimes/

    Gonna go see Werewolf.

    For anyone in central Virginia:  Sunday, October 24:  fundraiser — all proceeds benefit the 1928 organ.  Which will accompany silent movies Phantom of the Opera (1927; Lon Chaney) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920).  Great cause; great old movies.

  25. 25.

    MattF

    It’s one of those days when the NYT restaurant critic (Pete Wells) does a number on an unfortunate chef. A sample:

    The pot is wheeled out to your table, where a server smashes the clay with a ball-peen hammer. The beet is cleaned of pottery shards and transferred to a plate with a red-wine and beet-juice reduction that is oddly pungent in a way that may remind you of Worcestershire sauce.

    They used to do a similar beet act at Agern, a New Nordic restaurant in Grand Central Terminal, roasting it inside a crust of salt and vegetable ash. That beet tasted like a beet, but more so. The one at Eleven Madison Park tastes like Lemon Pledge and smells like a burning joint.

  27. 27.

    Comrade Colette

    @SpaceUnit: I think it’s Pele’s response to climate change.

    When my son was a toddler, we visited Volcanoes National Park in Hawai’i – walking on the steaming lava field (only the adults did this) was both amazing and terrifying. Afterward, my son tried, for reasons known only to 3-year-olds, to throw one of his sandals into the volcanic crater from an overlook. I was REALLY glad this happened after our walk and not before. Throwing shoes at Pele seems like an extremely unwise move. We made her an offering when we got home.

    Don’t mess with Pele. She gets mad, and when she gets mad, she gets even. Humans are really pissing her off right now.

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    @raven:  Oh.  Will be watching for that scene.  Know nothing about the movie.

    And RIP, Commander Cody.  You probably saw this obit from Variety.  His first band was The Fantastic Surfing Beavers.  Well, all right.

    I did not follow them, but I like swing music.  Will have to listen up.  Only know “Hot Rod Lincoln” (and that is a great song).

  36. 36.

    Royston Vasey

    Here in New Zealand, these birds are known as Pukeko (aka the swamphen).
    Like most rails, pukeko are generally found in or near wetland habitats. Their long legs and feet are well adapted for wading through shallow waters with muddy bottoms. They feed mainly on roots, seeds, and shoots of grasses, which they typically hold with one foot, parrot-fashion, while stripping off the outer layers with their beak to get at the tender tissues within.

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    Now that creepy “Dog the Bounty Hunter” dude is running around Florida beaches looking for the boyfriend who killed the van life blogger. Good lord, the nuttiness never ends.

  40. 40.

    Comrade Colette

    @raven: Damn. He was awesome. He and the Lost Planet Airmen played at my tiny college back in the 70s and I saw him a handful of times over the years – always a fun show.

  47. 47.

    Betty Cracker

    @Royston Vasey: They sound very much like our Moor Hens here! A lot of folks who’ve only seen them in passing while the birds are swimming on a pond or lake assume they have duck-like legs and feet, but as you noted, they have much longer legs and toes. Perfectly adapted for walking thru muck and on floating vegetation.

    We’ve had minor flooding on our river for the past several weeks. It hasn’t affected us, but lots of floating masses of vegetation have passed by, and I’ve seen birds, including Moor Hens, hop on and off them like they’re catching a bus!  :)

  49. 49.

    Miss Bianca

    @raven: There was a great book on the rock and roll biz – I think it may have been Star-Making Machinery – that used Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen as the poster boys for all that was fucked-up about the music industry at that time (as opposed to the modern-day fucked-up-ed-ness of the music industry). Always had a soft spot for “Hot Rod Lincoln” as a wee tad (not surprisingly, it was a big hit on the Detroit airwaves at the time).

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MattF: Sometimes, the best newspaper writing is to be found in the sports section. Sometimes it’s in restaurant reviews. Thank you for this deliciously venomous little piece.

  56. 56.

    Betty Cracker

    @mrmoshpotato: There’s a dam about a mile upriver from us, and the water is over the top of it now. Most of the houses back here are either stilt houses like ours or on built-up foundations to avoid seasonal flooding, so no one is flooded out so far.

    The year there were four hurricanes in a row (2004), the house we live in now had water downstairs, but it’s not part of the house proper; it’s enclosed as a game room. The main house was undamaged then and should be okay if that happens again. But it would be a pain in the ass because we’d have to move stuff, and the road would be impassable (it’s a long dirt road that is shitty under the best circumstances).

    For us, the only real effect for minor flooding like this is that we have to be mindful of the clearance going under some of the bridges in a boat, and we have gators sunning on our dock. For real! When the water is high enough, they float right onto it and hang out. But some folks in lower lying areas downriver will get inundated if it gets much higher, and the roads will be even worse. So, we’re hoping there won’t be any hurricanes.

  64. 64.

    debbie

    Just took my nightly walk around the neighborhood and noticed the cicadas have died or disappeared or whatever they do at the end of summer. Good riddance, beasties!

  68. 68.

    TriassicSands

    Betty, thank you for all the photos of swamp things, especially the birds. I live diagonally across the country from you and don’t ever see most of the critters you photograph. I’ve never been to Florida and plan to avoid it for the rest of my time on the planet, so I really appreciate the Moorhens and other swamp critters.

    Note: I don’t need any photos of mosquitos unless they are the size of condors.

  69. 69.

    TriassicSands

    @Baud:

    I’ll be amazed if those involved in the project survive the launch and deployment. This could be the most nerve-wracking mission in the history of our space program. The telescope is so expensive, so far behind schedule, and going so far from earth that everything has to work perfectly.

  70. 70.

    cope

    @debbie: Since HST observes mainly in visible and UV frequencies and the JWST will observe in the infrared part of the spectrum, the JWST (please change the name) is not really a Hubble replacement, they are meant to be complementary to each other. The current plan is to keep using the Hubble as long as it’s doing useful science.

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