If any Wonkers make it out to Wisconsin, south of Madison is the International Crane Foundation. It's well worth a visit, and a rare chance to see all of the cranes. (Literally: there are 15 species in the world, and you can see them all.) https://savingcranes.org/visit/
We have sandhill cranes here in Western Mass. For a few years now we've watched a mated pair raise their chicks in an open field down the mountain from us. A couple of years ago we were lucky enough to see them fly off with their grown babies for the winter. They are truly magnificent creatures both on the ground and in the air.
Visited the Bosque de Apache NWR this winter. Sandhill Cranes were the main draw (my partner loves them because they sound like dinosaurs in her words) and while they didn't disappoint the thoisands of snow geese, all the massive variety of waterfowl and especially the high visibility of harriers, kestrals and eagles (plus a bold as brass coyote walking within 100 feet of a viewing platform between caching a killed goose, taking a squat and then stealing a harrier's kill of some sort of small animal) made for a sensory overload of the most joyous kind. Guessing a huge number of the employees who maintain these maginificent spaces were or are being fired, sadly.
The sandhill cranes migration route passes over my house. For about a week in the fall and again in the spring you can see their high-flying V- formations and hear their distant high pitched calls.
We’ve had them fly overhead our location in the northern Sierras in the past. You can barely see them but you have no problem or questions about what you’re hearing. It was pretty cool.
They are everywhere now. We have them in the little pondy dip in the field behind our house. I love the rough sound of their voices as they talk over breakfast back there...
One very misty spring morning I was driving back to the cabin when a few cars that had stopped and pulled over started to furiously flash their headlights at me. I pulled over and low and behold there was a sandhill trying to decide where to cross the road. And don't ya know he decided to cross right in front of me. I got the whole thing on a short video on my phone and a couple of pictures - one of those pictures is hanging on the wall next to me. One of the best surprise pictures I've ever taken.
We sometimes get ibises, egrets, cranes, and herons at our neighborhood ponds in the summer months when they venture up river in search of food. They are fun to watch as they fish around. I don't recall seeing them this far north as a child, but thanks to climate change they have shown up. I watched a great blue heron at work yesterday.
My favorite was the cattle egret, stalking along behind ... not a cow (which Green-Wood does not count among its resident mammals), but a lawnmower, picking up the bugs that had been stirred up. Adaptable critters.
I watched a blue heron politely co-exist with a cormorant and several large turtles in a pond on Easter Sunday. Beautiful bird. Later some ducks and geese came over to see what was going on.
I sometimes see various large birds as I cross the same river twice on the way to/from work. The application of biosolids to fields brings more gulls down from Lake Michigan, which IMO we could do without.
Today is the first truly warm day I've had off to spring kayak. My kayak fits in my newish Toyota chr!!!! I need to make a sleeve from a sheet to keep the car cleanish but a wipe down usually does the trick. Woo hoo! I will absolutely have turtle on the pond pics for the OT!
It strikes me that one reason to teach DEI in schools is that when those kids enter the real world as adults they are going to meet all sorts of black, brown, gay or trans people and ought to get used to the idea in advance.
There are numerous reports that the next Pope may well veer right, off the track Not Nazi Pope was on. The Guardian called up Steve Bannon for comment. "'Do I have time to talk to the Guardian about the fake pope?' Steve Bannon asked when I reached out for an interview. 'Of course I do. Always.'" So, yeah, Francis was a "fake pope." Wingers want a pope in line with Republican Jesus, the one who punches down on the poor.
There are 135 Cardinals in the College of Cardinals who will be choosing the next Pope. That Pope will need to get a 2/3 majority, or a minimum of 90 votes, to win.
Nothing like a "fake pope" to care about the poor, migrants, and the environment. Reich Wingers want a real manly man pope who will make white Roman Catholics great again.
A real manly man dead pope would have risen right out of his golden casket with tears in his eyes and greeted the Orange Shitgibbon as "sir" because the Great One had deigned to come all the way to Rome for him. And fuck Steve Bannon.
I still have to do that even though the conservative will probably win 90% of the votes up here. I'm voting against the PAB. He's not on the ballot, yet he is.
Yeah, we did advance voting last weekend. Most likely will suffer the same fate here, the Con(job) candidate is up about 15 points in my riding ... but that's progress from 4 or 5 elections ago.
Mike Pillow can't afford serious representation - he's in a Colorado court represented by nobodies from Virginia, Wisconsin, and the booming metropolis of Chaska Minnesota. All of whom are evidently reluctant to put time into a case when said time is not likely to be remunerated.
Still ... when you're working for the publicity, not the client, you really shouldn't fuck it up - because the fuck-up is what you'll become famous for.
They represent Mike Lindell. They're phoning it in. Unless they get disbarred they're just suckling at his money teat and doing minimum work. Which, frankly, is what I'd do as well.
Yeah, but you wouldn't have have used some pettifogging AI to do your dirty work. You'd have cited Smelt it v. Dealt it, dropped your briefs, and walked out like a boss.
Your hed gif source info: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/cantankerous-crane
And meme chat: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/08ea1a26-509e-4a67-b160-69a0a8ffbff4?utm_source=share
Watching them in flight always makes me think of dragons.
If any Wonkers make it out to Wisconsin, south of Madison is the International Crane Foundation. It's well worth a visit, and a rare chance to see all of the cranes. (Literally: there are 15 species in the world, and you can see them all.) https://savingcranes.org/visit/
Very cool!
Something about those feathers gives me the fantods...I would freak out if I ran into this guy!
A sandhill crane often gets the nod for triggering the Mothman stuff. Bright red eyes and a big wingspan.
"hed gif source" - ha.
Hitchcockian.
Edit: That's fun to say because it sounds so dirty.
The crane is clearly not pleased with the Orange Oaf and his lickspiddles.
We have sandhill cranes here in Western Mass. For a few years now we've watched a mated pair raise their chicks in an open field down the mountain from us. A couple of years ago we were lucky enough to see them fly off with their grown babies for the winter. They are truly magnificent creatures both on the ground and in the air.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. I watched Bald eagles fuck over the Continental Divide. All these moments will be lost...
Visited the Bosque de Apache NWR this winter. Sandhill Cranes were the main draw (my partner loves them because they sound like dinosaurs in her words) and while they didn't disappoint the thoisands of snow geese, all the massive variety of waterfowl and especially the high visibility of harriers, kestrals and eagles (plus a bold as brass coyote walking within 100 feet of a viewing platform between caching a killed goose, taking a squat and then stealing a harrier's kill of some sort of small animal) made for a sensory overload of the most joyous kind. Guessing a huge number of the employees who maintain these maginificent spaces were or are being fired, sadly.
The sandhill cranes migration route passes over my house. For about a week in the fall and again in the spring you can see their high-flying V- formations and hear their distant high pitched calls.
We’ve had them fly overhead our location in the northern Sierras in the past. You can barely see them but you have no problem or questions about what you’re hearing. It was pretty cool.
Unmistakeable.
They are just beautiful!
How's things down your way?
Howdy! I just had hernia surgery last week. Fortunately that was not the high point of my week.
So good to hear from you. How are you doing, dear friend?
Sorry to hear about the surgery. Since we last spoke I had abdominal surgery (getting old has some serious drawbacks.)
I'm fine now and I hope you're recovery goes smoothly and fast!
I needed a long break from all the shit hitting the fan at breakneck speed.
I get it. I hate that as time goes by the road not only gets shorter, but also narrows. Best to you and yours. You really helped when I needed it.
They are everywhere now. We have them in the little pondy dip in the field behind our house. I love the rough sound of their voices as they talk over breakfast back there...
One very misty spring morning I was driving back to the cabin when a few cars that had stopped and pulled over started to furiously flash their headlights at me. I pulled over and low and behold there was a sandhill trying to decide where to cross the road. And don't ya know he decided to cross right in front of me. I got the whole thing on a short video on my phone and a couple of pictures - one of those pictures is hanging on the wall next to me. One of the best surprise pictures I've ever taken.
The crane knows what you did.
On the hed gif, that is a face only a mother could love.....wait, what?
We sometimes get ibises, egrets, cranes, and herons at our neighborhood ponds in the summer months when they venture up river in search of food. They are fun to watch as they fish around. I don't recall seeing them this far north as a child, but thanks to climate change they have shown up. I watched a great blue heron at work yesterday.
My favorite was the cattle egret, stalking along behind ... not a cow (which Green-Wood does not count among its resident mammals), but a lawnmower, picking up the bugs that had been stirred up. Adaptable critters.
Egrets, I've seen a few, but then again, too few to mention...
From heron you get to write the lyrics
I watched a blue heron politely co-exist with a cormorant and several large turtles in a pond on Easter Sunday. Beautiful bird. Later some ducks and geese came over to see what was going on.
I sometimes see various large birds as I cross the same river twice on the way to/from work. The application of biosolids to fields brings more gulls down from Lake Michigan, which IMO we could do without.
I looked out my back windows one day to see a half-dozen ibis feasting on bugs among the grass, weeds, and fallen oak leaves. Fun to watch.
OMG!!! What a face on that darling crane. Lovely pic, and I feel a bit better now about the look I'm wearing on my face this morning. LOL and Thanks.
𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 crane says "Don't disturb the reindeer"? Methinks that I won't disturb the reindeer.
Angry bird.
Is she any relation to Bob Crane?
Ichabod!...
(laughs)
No, but my Drinking Bird is. Sadly, it only drinks while watching porn.
ICWYDT.
So, that's what Maris Crane looks like.
Finally!
Oh man, I have had one of those approach me for getting too close to their babby. They are some scary, big mofos!
Once more Trump is the ugliest of ugly Americans.Why'd he even bother to show up? Biden made a much better representation Of the US.
The studio version is better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2kOj-GFN8k
(Bonus: Haley Reinhart.)
"Defense department staffers have been reportedly calling Pete Hegseth’s wife 'Yoko Ono.'"
I can't believe I'm saying this, but "Yoko libelz!"
"We were three.
Kevin's mom made four.
We don't come around anymore"
- Soundgarden, "Full On Kevin's Mom"
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Postmodern Jukebox so much!!!
Seems a lot of magas and so-called progressives were really really mad about Booker and Jeffries sittin' on the steps this weekend, so JOB WELL DONE.
Today is the first truly warm day I've had off to spring kayak. My kayak fits in my newish Toyota chr!!!! I need to make a sleeve from a sheet to keep the car cleanish but a wipe down usually does the trick. Woo hoo! I will absolutely have turtle on the pond pics for the OT!
It strikes me that one reason to teach DEI in schools is that when those kids enter the real world as adults they are going to meet all sorts of black, brown, gay or trans people and ought to get used to the idea in advance.
They're not going to be allowed to meet black, brown, gay, or trans people in the Great Again America.
They would should they be railroaded to prison.
not if The Heritage Foundation completes it's manifesto
There are numerous reports that the next Pope may well veer right, off the track Not Nazi Pope was on. The Guardian called up Steve Bannon for comment. "'Do I have time to talk to the Guardian about the fake pope?' Steve Bannon asked when I reached out for an interview. 'Of course I do. Always.'" So, yeah, Francis was a "fake pope." Wingers want a pope in line with Republican Jesus, the one who punches down on the poor.
There are 135 Cardinals in the College of Cardinals who will be choosing the next Pope. That Pope will need to get a 2/3 majority, or a minimum of 90 votes, to win.
Francis elevated 109 of those 135 Cardinals.
I think we're going to get Francis 2.0.
But I saw him shitting in the woods. Effulgent light irradiated me.
Bannon seems like a fake human.
Nothing like a "fake pope" to care about the poor, migrants, and the environment. Reich Wingers want a real manly man pope who will make white Roman Catholics great again.
A real manly man dead pope would have risen right out of his golden casket with tears in his eyes and greeted the Orange Shitgibbon as "sir" because the Great One had deigned to come all the way to Rome for him. And fuck Steve Bannon.
They had their chance with Ratzenberger.
Ratzo was pretty much a flop ... the church has become majority brown and working class, i.e., exactly what the tiki-torch Nazis are afraid of.
Don't disagree. That's what I'm saying about the chances of them electing a white supremist adjacent pope nowadays.
Monday's with Tab's and Coffee ☕💯👍
I just voted for the first time EVER in a Canadian Election!
I still have to do that even though the conservative will probably win 90% of the votes up here. I'm voting against the PAB. He's not on the ballot, yet he is.
The Grits will win here, as they always do. Still, if she wins by one vote, I'm taking credit.
Yeah, we did advance voting last weekend. Most likely will suffer the same fate here, the Con(job) candidate is up about 15 points in my riding ... but that's progress from 4 or 5 elections ago.
GINGER❤️!!!
WOOHOO! Go you!
𝘋𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘦𝘵𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘨𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘩’𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘧𝘦 “𝘠𝘰𝘬𝘰 𝘖𝘯𝘰.”
I guess she is going around the Pentagon singing "All we are saying...is give peace a chance."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_cwuRmjhsY
"...give Pete a chance" was right there!
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/04/mypillow-ceos-lawyers-used-ai-in-brief-citing-fictional-cases-judge-says/ facepalm, of course they did
Mike Pillow can't afford serious representation - he's in a Colorado court represented by nobodies from Virginia, Wisconsin, and the booming metropolis of Chaska Minnesota. All of whom are evidently reluctant to put time into a case when said time is not likely to be remunerated.
Still ... when you're working for the publicity, not the client, you really shouldn't fuck it up - because the fuck-up is what you'll become famous for.
They represent Mike Lindell. They're phoning it in. Unless they get disbarred they're just suckling at his money teat and doing minimum work. Which, frankly, is what I'd do as well.
Yeah, but you wouldn't have have used some pettifogging AI to do your dirty work. You'd have cited Smelt it v. Dealt it, dropped your briefs, and walked out like a boss.
Not to be such a guy, but hearing that Stacy’s Mom song reminded me of the fact that Rachel Hunter may be the most attractive woman ever.
Please tell me she’s not MAGA. Or just lie to me if she is.
I am so fucking tired of our fucking president. Only 1300 days to go!
1361, but who's counting?
1300 days of this. It's unbearable.
Like we’ll live that long. HANS device excluded.
I'll probably be in El Salvador by the end of the year.
You had quite a brush with death. You good?