Readers’ wildlife photos

March 12, 2018 • 7:45 am

Let’s finish up the batch of photos sent by reader Karen Bartelt, photos taken in Cuba. Today we have OWLS, the cats of the bird world. I’ll repeat her introduction from yesterday’s post:

From Cuba!  I just got back from an 11 day birding trip to Cuba.  I had envisioned soldiers, checkpoints, looking at passports, but nothing could be further from reality.  I saw a few traffic police and never a long gun, even in the airport.  No one asked for any papers at all.  I don’t know what life is like for ordinary Cubans—there seems to be a dearth of consumer goods, especially in rural areas.  However, I always felt safe, and the guides were wonderful and knowledgable.  Yes, you do have to be a part of a People to People tour, but that’s part of the fun, as you get to meet some great Cubans.  Since we were a birding tour, we met with Cuban naturalists, park rangers, and took school supplies to a very rural school.  If you are afraid to go to Mexico, consider Cuba.  And I flew on Delta, something I’m now very happy about.

Of the 28 endemic birds, we saw 24, though I don’t have good pictures of them all.  I’m going to send a few batches of photos before I go in for a shoulder replacement in mid March (last year’s birding injury).

Cuban pygmy owl (Glaucidium siju); endemic.  These are two different birds from different places.  The first is from the La Guira Nature preserve, the second from somewhere on the Zapata peninsula.

Bare legged owl (Margarobyas lawrencii), endemic.  Bermejas, east of the Bay of Pigs.

Male (top) and female (bottom) Stygian owls (Asio stygius), Cienfuegos Botanical Gardens.  We saw another pair of Stygian owls near La Guira Preserve. [JAC: What are those tufts about?]

 

Monday: Hili dialogue

March 12, 2018 • 6:30 am

Well, it’s Monday again: March 12, 2018. I’ll be out of town much of the week, traveling to Madison, Wisconsin Tuesday through Friday to do some events for the Freedom from Religion Foundation. Posting will be light, but if Grania is nice she’ll handle Hili. It’s National Milky Way Day, celebrating a candy bar that I love but rarely buy. In the U.S. it’s Girl Scout Birthday, celebrating the foundation of the Girl Scouts—originally “Girl Guides”, as they remain in the UK—in America.

Today’s Google Doodle honors William Henry Perkin, born on this day in 1838 (died 1907). A chemist, Perkin is famous for his accidental discovery of the first aniline dye: the purple colorant mauveine. (He was researching the effect of quinine compounds on malaria). I have to say this is a very odd candidate for a Google Doodle, but so be it. It shows the color brightening from drab to purple as the people approach The Great Man.

On this day in 1894, the first bottling and selling of Coca Cola occurred in Vicksburg, Mississippi; the purveyor was soda fountain operator Joseph A. Biedenharn. On March 12, 1912, the Girl Guides were founded in the U.S. Now they’re the Girl Scouts, selling increasingly degraded cookies.  Exactly six years later, Moscow regained the title of Russian Capital City after St. Petersburg had been the capital for 215 years. On this day in 1930, Gandhi began his 200-mile “Salt March” to the sea, protesting the British monopoly on salt in India. Here’s a short clip on the Salt March:

On March 12, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt gave his first radio address as President of the U.S.; these became the famous “fireside chats.”  Five years later, Hitler sent his troops into Austria for the “Anschluss” (annexation), and of course the West did nothing.  On this day in 1961, a team of four people made the first winter ascent of the Eiger in Switzerland. It took a week, and I suspect they could now do it in one day.  Re current events: it was on this day in 1993 that North Korea withdrew from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, refusing to allow inspectors in the country. Most countries have signed, but Israel has not. Finally, on this day nine years ago, financial magnate Bernie Madoff pleaded guilty of bilking investors of $18 billion. He now languishes in a prison in North Carolina, where he will die.

Notables born on this day include George Berkeley (1685), W. H. R. Rivers (1864), Jack Kerouac (1922), Wally Schirra (1923), Edward Albee (1928), Liza Minnelli (1946), Mitt Romney (1947), and Jake Tapper (1969). Those who passed away on this day include George Westinghouse (1914), Sun Yat-sen (1925), and Charlie Parker (1955; he was 35 years old).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is hunting above her pay grade (but I think she’s lying):

A: Something interesting?
Hili: A fresh track of a wild boar but I’m not going to follow it.
 In Polish:
Ja: Coś ciekawego?
Hili: Świeży trop dzika, ale nie będę go goniła.

Heather Hastie sent a tweet of a True Ceiling Cat:

https://twitter.com/EmrgencyKittens/status/973001129343750144

From Grania, with the incomparable Sarah Silverman weighing in:

https://twitter.com/kumailn/status/972928783715053568

Exploded locomotives:

Matthew sent this lovely photo, adding “The tweet says ‘unknown photographer’ but it is in fact by Monique Langezaal and won a prize in 2016.”

This is a funny tweet. Can you pedants spot the error?

Be sure to look at the pun (click on the picture):

Sheep surviving eleven days covered by snow!

Mother squirrel rescues baby with help of kindly man

March 11, 2018 • 2:30 pm

This appears to take place in India, and, from its five stripes, this appears to be a Northern palm squirrel (Funambulus pennantii), common in northern India. But what a nice guy to take care of it, and what a lovely rescue by the mother!

I’m giving my ducks extra food today: the mallard hen may be producing a batch of eggs.

The YouTube story’s a bit long but still worth reading:

It was around 9 in the morning. I was enjoying a cup of tea on my terrace. Just out of sheer curiosity I peeked over my terrace onto the street only to find a tiny baby squirrel lying on the main door of my house. I quickly rushed down to pick it up as it could have easily become the surprise breakfast to a stray dog or a cat. I softly cupped it in my hands and brought it to the cosy ambiance of my home. I cleaned it dry with a soft cloth as it had fallen into the drain from its nest, which perched on the electric pole that stands in front of my house. I could only wonder how much this tiny creature must have struggled to come out of that filthy drain. Despite its feeble size, the baby appeared to be a true fighter. It looked extremely stressed and could not muster up enough energy to jump out of my hands.

And after a few minutes, it quietly surrendered itself as somewhere deep inside it knew it was in safe hands. I always wanted to have a squirrel as a pet, however, it is not easy to have one as they are extremely shy creatures. Being a photographer by profession, I am never away from my camera. And as luck would have it, I now had a wonderful opportunity of capturing some heart-warming pictures of this beautiful baby squirrel, whom I was happily visualising as my prospective squirrel friend. I went to the medical store and bought a dropper so that I could feed the baby some milk. At such times, YouTube comes handy, as I quickly watched some videos on how to feed a baby squirrel and learnt some easy-peasy tricks. I fed it some milk through the dropper which it thoroughly relished. Meanwhile, I shared some of its pictures with my friends, introducing it as my newfound love of my life. They suggested some really quirky names for the baby from Gillu and Hogard to Munna Mushtaq and Brij Pal Gotiya. While some wanted to adopt it, a few wished if it could accompany them on a trip. In no matter of time, it had certainly become quite popular amongst my friends. J To make it feel more at home, I created a tiny home out of a shoe box, in which I had laid out some cotton and had tenderly placed the baby on it. I made sure to check its condition every now and then while feeding it milk at regular intervals. I was glad that it was responding well and that it now felt comfortable and safe in my company. After a few hours, I noticed it had started playing inside the box while constantly chattering and gathering all its energy back. I took it out of the shoe box and it fearlessly started jumping on my arms and shoulders as if inspecting me and extending a hand of friendship towards me. We clicked some amazing selfies together and I must say it posed like a seasoned model. 😀

It had barely come down from my shoulders when I noticed a squirrel approaching towards me. I quickly understood that it was the mother of this cute little baby. I could clearly feel that she was afraid of me but that didn’t stop her from coming close to me. She looked at me intently and then softly touched my hand as if graciously thanking me for saving her baby’s life. I felt a lump in my throat and an indescribable feeling of love and respect for that tiny creature. She checked her baby and kissed her zillion times. It was truly an incredible sight! After showering oodles of love on her baby, the squirrel turned towards me and touched me again and then quietly picked her baby in her mouth and disappeared. Tears trickled down my cheeks experiencing such an amazing moment of unconditional love between a mother and a child. I am so pleased with myself that I could manage to capture this incredible moment in my camera, which would forever hold a special place in my heart. I feel blessed to have been able to save the life of that tiny creature who with its mother reminded me of some really important virtues of lives that we all know of but often forget to practice, sometimes unknowingly and sometimes, perhaps deliberately.

h/t: Michael

Middlebury College student paper apologizes for running photo of Charles Murray

March 11, 2018 • 12:30 pm

In March of last year, conservative political scientist Charles Murray spoke—or rather, tried to speak—at Middlebury College in Vermont. As you know, Murray was one of the authors of The Bell Curve, a book I still haven’t read but that has the reputation for pushing a hereditarian interpretation of the IQ difference between whites and blacks. I can’t speak to that assertion, but Murray wasn’t even going to come near that topic at Middlebury. Regardless, his co-authorship of the book, and its reputation, has been enough to demonize Murray for life among the Left. (I suspect that most of the students protesting hadn’t read Murray and Herrnstein’s book, but were just following the crowd). And, as always, once someone is invited through proper channels to talk at a college, I consider attempts to deplatform or disrupt them as violations of their free speech. College are, after all, places to debate ideas of all sorts.

Well, that disruption happened—in spades.

Having failed to get his invitation rescinded (see my post here and here), the students deplatformed Murray during his talk, disrupting him to the extent that he had to move to an empty room and broadcast through closed-circuit television. And then, when he left the venue, they attacked him and his host, Professor Allison Stanger, pulling her hair and giving her a neck injury and a concussion. In the end 74 students were disciplined, though the extent of that discipline remains confidential.

Now, on the first anniversary of the melee, the student newspaper, The Middlebury Campus, marked the occasion by revisiting the talk so they could gloat that the issue hadn’t reduced applications to the College.  And on the front page they ran the photograph below, showing Murray onstage with Stanger before the disrupted speech.

Kyle Wright/The Middlebury Campus

I guess the paper’s editors didn’t realize that even showing a picture of Murray could be triggering, and so the paper’s chief editor had to apologize, or “explain himself” for running it!  Here’s a screenshot of editorial; click on it if you want to see the original.

The editorial doesn’t seem to make any point beyond “asking how the protest still lives with us today, one year later.” Of course the photograph doesn’t ask that question at all, much less answer it. What is more telling is that the editor had to explain a damn photograph because he assumed it rubbed salt in an “open wound.”  Yes, I criticize Ethan Brady, but not for running the picture. I criticize him for being so much of a coward that he had to explain it—or was forced to do so because the other editors wanted to be exculpated from the triggering.

This is what we’ve come to: apologies for a photograph. You can imagine what a picture of Hitler illustrating a piece on World War II might do! Or even Woodrow Wilson, the old racist. This is how fragile the students claim to be.

At any rate, Murray seems to have taken it with humor, though he doesn’t think that his host’s injuries are so funny:

Leaders of Women’s March get pushback for osculating anti-Semite and homophobe Louis Farrakhan

March 11, 2018 • 9:30 am

As I’ve mentioned before, three of the leaders of the Women’s March—Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour, and Carmen Perez—have sucked up to the vicious anti-Semite and homophobe Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, otherwise known as the Black Muslims. On February 28, Mallory attended a speech Farrakhan gave, and the link above shows some of his of ravings about the Jews at that meeting. These were courtesy of CNN anchor Jake Tapper, one of the few mainstream journalists to call attention to this.

Still, Minister Farrakhan continues with his anti-Semitism, as he has for decades. Here’s a recent tweet:

And yet, after years of spewing such garbage, Farrakhan has the temerity to ask this question! (He’s serious; this isn’t ironic.)

Given that most of the Left-wing media simply won’t report on the connection between the Women’s March and Farrakhan—a connection that shouldn’t exist if Sarsour, Perez, and Mallory are true intersectionalists—you’ll have to read about some of this at the National Review. (Bari Weiss also discussed it at the New York Times, which of course further demonized her in the eyes of the Left).

The NR reports Mallory’s usual gushing over Farrakhan, e.g.:

But also, to defend herself against anti-Semitism after her presence at Farrkhan’s ranting (and her refusal to criticize it), she quoted Mysonne, a New York rapper:

Unfortunately, Mysonne adheres to the anti-Semitic views of Farrakhan, whose name he can’t seem to spell:

Finally, Mysonne uses the old canard, “Some of my best friends are Jews.” I wonder what he’d think of someone who was racist but said, “Some of my best friends are black”?

Mallory damaged herself further by asserting that Farrakhan had credibility as a leader because the Jews hate him!:

Realizing that she screwed up, Mallory tried to walk that statement back the next day. But who were “the enemies of Jesus” but the Jews? Or was Mallory calling out Romans?

Jack Tapper wasn’t fooled:

Let us remember again that both Mallory and Perez posed with Farrkhan, showering him with encomiums (“GOAT” means “greatest of all time”); note that Sarsour chimes in in the third Instagram post with good wishes and blessings for Farrakhan: 

Perez and Mallory:

Sarsour, Perez, and Mallory all give encomiums:

Finally, after enough criticism had accumulated, the Women’s March issued a disclaimer, saying that “Minister Farrakhan’s statements about Jewish, queer, and trans people are not aligned with the Women’s March Unity Principles”, but also asserting that “we love and value our sister and co-President Tamika Mallory” and that both the March and Mallory do not “shy away from the fact that intersectional movement building is difficult and often painful.”  Well, Mallory doesn’t look like she’s in pain when she’s cozying up to Farrakhan!

Too little and too late. Now Planned Parenthood has disassociated itself from Mallory.

Even the Left-leaning Toronto Star is calling out the Women’s March co-Presidents for anti-Semitism (click on screenshot to see article:

An excerpt:

In a sense, this is the left-wing equivalent of Donald Trump condemning anti-Semitism while winking at anti-Semites.

It’s infuriating because Mallory and Sarsour are activists who would argue in any other circumstance that intersectionality demands the condemnation of all forms of bigotry — and that big-tent feminism does not tolerate intolerance.

But it’s clear that when the wronged party in question is Jewish and the wrongdoer is a gentile leader of colour, the opposite is true. Suddenly intersectional feminism demands (as many members of the alt right do) that all perspectives deserve a fair shake, even odious ones. We must tolerate intolerance in the name of togetherness!

This is hypocritical BS at its stinkiest. But it confirms what I’ve suspected for a long time now.

Jews are unwelcome on the feminist left.

But others, including the prestigious Mt. Holyoke College (one of the few all-women schools left in America), will be having all three—Perez, Sarsour, and Mallory—speaking at its 2018 Women of Color Trailblazers Leadership Conference in April. That would be a good time for them to publicly rebuke Louis Farrkhan for his anti-Semitism. For make no mistake about it: Farrakhan is the black equivalent to any white racist like Richard Spencer.  I can’t imagine Mt. Holyoke inviting three speakers who had cozied up to and extolled Richard Spencer, but of course it’s okay to invite speakers who make nice with Jew-haters. This is the hypocrisy of intersectionalism.

As the Washington Examiner reports:

Erika Croxton, vice president of development for Planned Parenthood Northwest and Hawaii, sent an email informing supporters of the abortion provider that Mallory would no longer be the keynote speaker for the annual Seattle luncheon on April 5.

In the email, Croxton said Planned Parenthood rejects all bigotry of those whose intentions are to “undo the progress of the last half century.”

After declaring the nonprofit’s support for the Women’s March, Coxton said the group has decided to “part ways with Tamika Mallory.”

Well, I’m not a big fan of deplatforming, but, in line with what Authoritatarian Leftists do, I’ll issue a set of DEMANDS:

I DEMAND that Perez, Sarsour, and Mallory personally condemn anti-Semitism and disassociate themselves from the anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan.

I DEMAND that if these women don’t do that, they be replaced as leaders of the Women’s March

I DEMAND that Women refuse to participate in future Women’s Marches unless their leaders explicitly repudiate Farrakhan’s anti-gay and anti-Semitic views, and cut their ties to him. Women who march are otherwise endorsing anti-Semitism.

I DEMAND that Sarsour, Perez, and Sarsour be given mandatory sensitivity training, with special emphasis on the oppression of gays and Jews

In fact, it’s a sign of the times that the Women’s March chose as leaders three women who have either overtly or covertly expressed anti-Semitic views. Although Jews should be pretty high on the oppression scale based on their historical treatment and their status as the main American target of hate crimes, I’ve realized that historical treatment does not overcome the fact that Jews have largely been successful in their vocations, and so can be seen as oppressors rather than the oppressed. But, of course, Asians have also been successful, yet they still get to claim oppression in America.

It’s all a big mess, and one of the problems with identity politics. Exactly who has been oppressed, what is their ranking, and are there individuals among the oppressed (e.g., Ben Carson) who are rejected by Intersectionalists despite their status as people of color? As for the Jews, well, they’ll have to rely on themselves and people like Jake Tapper and Bari Weiss to push back against anti-Semitic bigotry.

h/t: Diana MacPherson

I fed my ducks

March 11, 2018 • 9:00 am

Ceiling Cat help me, I’m back feeding the ducks again. Though I doubt that this new mallard hen is Honey because of the disparity of beak markings between this year and last, the female still comes to me when I whistle, and she did the very first time we encountered each other two days ago. Could a female duck, or her offspring, remember a whistle over a year, or do all mallards come when you whistle?

At any rate, the ducks (yet unnamed) got a copious breakfast of mealworms, and will get mealworms, corn, and peas later today. (I haven’t neglected my squirrels, either.)

Here’s this morning’s feeding:

 

Readers’ wildlife photos

March 11, 2018 • 8:00 am

Reader Mark Heath sent three photos from Mexico:

This is a Orange-breasted Bunting, Passerina leclancherii, taken at Playa Chipehua in Oaxaca, Mexico.

 

A female Oaxacan Spiny-tailed Iguana, Ctenosaura oaxacana, Mexico’s most endangered Iguana. It is endemic to 100 square kilometers of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, and it is estimated that only about 2500 breeding couples remain. A very lucky shot, as she lives with her partner in a hollow in a pile of old bricks in my partner’s grandmother’s garden in Magdalena Tequisistlan, Oaxaca.

The last photo is a Mexican Rock Squirrel, Otospermophilus varigatus, taken at Magdalena Apasco, Oaxaca. I hope you like them. I have a bit of a collection of wildlife shots taken in Oaxaca, mostly of birds and my passion . . . lizards.

And some woodpeckers from Cuba, sent by Karen Bartelt:

From Cuba!  I just got back from an 11 day birding trip to Cuba.  I had envisioned soldiers, checkpoints, looking at passports, but nothing could be further from reality.  I saw a few traffic police and never a long gun, even in the airport.  No one asked for any papers at all.  I don’t know what life is like for ordinary Cubans—there seems to be a dearth of consumer goods, especially in rural areas.  However, I always felt safe, and the guides were wonderful and knowledgable.  Yes, you do have to be a part of a People to People tour, but that’s part of the fun, as you get to meet some great Cubans.  Since we were a birding tour, we met with Cuban naturalists, park rangers, and took school supplies to a very rural school.  If you are afraid to go to Mexico, consider Cuba.  And I flew on Delta, something I’m now very happy about.
Of the 28 endemic birds, we saw 24, though I don’t have good pictures of them all.  I’m going to send a few batches of photos before I go in for a shoulder replacement in mid March (last year’s birding injury).
Cuban green woodpecker (Xiphidiopicus percusses), Havana Botanical Gardens, endemic:
West Indian woodpecker (Melanerpes superciliaris), Rancho San Vicente, near Vinales, regional (Greater Antillean) endemic.  Common bird.
Pair of Fernandina’s flickers (Colaptes fernandinae), near highway east of Playa Larga (near Bay of Pigs), endemic.  All of the power poles in Cuba are made of cement, but this courting pair apparently liked them well enough.