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Can Wild Parrots Solve Puzzles? Parrots are famous for their intelligence. Sulphur-crested Cockatoos are particularly notorious for their curiosity and their ability to cause exploratory destruction to human-made structures in the cities where they live.
Sydney, Australia-based maker Angus Deveson create a 3D-printed and laser cut puzzle to test the ingenuity of a wild Sulphur-crested Cockatoo where he lives. Watch the Maker’s Muse video below.
This film is from the bird video selection of The kids should see this. If no film or link appears below, go to the blog to view it by clicking on the blog title above. If the film stops & starts in an annoying manner, press pause (lower left double bars ||) to let it buffer and get ahead of you. [Chuck Almdale]
https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/can-this-sulphur-crested-cockatoo-solve-a-3d-printed-puzzle
The entangled life of fungi
Your Book Shelf
Quick. What do you know about fungi?
Here’s what I think I know. Without fungi there would be no puffy bread or alcoholic beverages. No shiitake, morels or truffles. No ringworm on your arm or green stuff growing under your toenails. Way too many dead animals lying undecomposed on the ground. No white-nosed disease in bats. No American Chestnut Blight or Dutch Elm Disease. No penicillin. No LSD-25. No Salem witch trials. No dry rot in your house. All the orchids and all the trees in all the forests in the world would have a very difficult time getting enough nutrients from the soil. No zombie ants forced to climb trees where their heads then explode. No yogurt, kefir, buttermilk and most cheese. No Vegemite or Marmite. Nothing for pigs or dogs to do in the forests of France, Spain and Italy. Fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants.
If your knowledge of fungi is as limited as mine, here’s a book for you.
[Chuck Almdale]
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
When we think of fungi, we probably think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that support and sustain nearly all living systems. The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them.
Sheldrake’s mind-bending journey into this hidden world ranges from yeast to psychedelics, to the fungi that sprawl for miles underground and are the largest organisms on the planet, to those that link plants together in complex networks known as the ‘Wood Wide Web’, to those that infiltrate and manipulate insect bodies with devastating precision.
Fungi throw our concepts of individuality and even intelligence into question. They can change our minds, heal our bodies, and even help us remediate environmental disaster. By examining fungi on their own terms, Sheldrake reveals how these extraordinary organisms – and our relationships with them – are changing our understanding of how life works.
The Mysterious Life of Birds Who Never Come Down
Swifts spend all their time in the sky. What can their journeys tell us about the future?
The New York Times Magazine | Helen Macdonald | July 29, 2020
Its eyes seemed unable to focus on me, as if it were an entity from an alternate universe whose senses couldn’t quite map onto our phenomenal world.
I have always thought ‘vesper flights’ the most beautiful phrase, an ever-falling blue.
Reddish Egret at Malibu Lagoon
A Reddish Egret was reported at Malibu Lagoon yesterday morning (Thursday) and this morning. They’re not terrifically common in California, less so in Los Angeles County, and even less so at Malibu Lagoon. In 40+ years of birding at the lagoon, I’ve never seen one there. So if you’re in the area, stop by and watch this bird dance as it hunts for prey. It was in the main lagoon this morning and no one has said whether it’s a white phase or reddish phase.
This was announced on LACOBirds. https://groups.io/g/LACoBirds
[Chuck Almdale]
Later added: Two photos each from Monica Minden and Chris Tosdevin, taken 8/8/20.
We start with a quiz photo. Which bird is the Reddish Egret? What are the others?
A family portrait (Monica Minden 8/8/20)
Eyeball to eyeball with the Reddish Egret at Malibu Lagoon
(Chris Tosdevin 8-8-20)
Reddish Egret at Malibu Lagoon (Chris Tosdevin 8-8-20)
Reddish Egret (Monica Minden 8/8/20)
SANTA MONICA BAY AUDUBON SOCIETY BLOG 