four things: great blue herons, bookbinding guillotine, mommy baby tyrant serf, learning things

[sophia_sol]

one

oh my gosh?! I just learned this week that great blue herons, though they mostly eat fish, will also eat "amphibians, invertebrates, reptiles, mammals, and birds"

here's links to a sequence of three photos of a blue heron eating a least bittern. it's WILD. (content note for these photos for animal death!)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48752517@N08/4461543032/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48752517@N08/4460766121/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48752517@N08/4460766487/

You can also find photos of great blue herons eating crocodiles if you search online for it!

anyway this is why I need to do more reading about very common birds, because there's just so MUCH to know that I won't necessarily pick up from watching the ones I see around me!!


two

finally took the time to figure out how to use my manual guillotine for trimming text blocks for bookbinding; I got it secondhand and it came without a manual.

and it turns out to be remarkably straightforward!

LOVE it.

more bookbinding projects to come!


three

a very important way of conceptualising relationship frameworks for your blorbos: mommy baby tyrant serf

anyway Mei Changsu is determined to be a mommy tyrant but you put him with Lin Chen who can outdo the mommy tyrant in anyone, and Lin Chen wins. mcs does not get to mommy tyrant back at him. and this is why lin chen/mcs is such a fun and funny ship!


four

it's so cool to be able to learn things over time! you start knowing nothing and if you just keep putting effort and energy into the thing then you grow in skills and knowledge! and there's always more to learn, but it doesn't have to be in an intimidating way, it's just like.... the world is out there offering. and you get to explore! you'll never not have the opportunity to experience the joy of seeing yourself grow!

(yes this thought is about birds. but it's also about anything you want it to be about!)

Comments

[geraineon]

That's a wonder framework and I will now add that to the list of things (not in order, not always first in memory) to think about of my blorbos hahaha

[sophia_sol]

right, it's so much fun to think about!

it's not always easy to categorize though, like with bingqiu in svsss, because lbh wants to be ALL of mommy baby tyrant serf to sqq, lol

[geraineon]

True, true. Lbh is an overachiever!

[hamsterwoman]

We have a great blue heron in the neighborhood, and while it often hangs out on the little lake that presumably drew it there, we also not infrequently see it walking around on the grassy lawns across from the houses that surround this park with the lake, stalking and eating gophers.

[sophia_sol]

wow, that's amazing! I've only ever seen great blue herons in the water or flying on their way somewhere!

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah, until this particular heron (?) or at least the heron(s) in this particular park, I'd never seen one outside of the water, unless it was flying or up in a nest. And I certainly did not expect them to come out on land to eat small mammals! But I guess there are more gophers in the park than there are fish in the lake, and it's adapted...

[sophia_sol]

yepppp, from what I understand, herons generally have fish as their main food source but they'll eat basically anything, and they'll go for their easiest target! and if there are that many gophers, then hey, free meals!

[pauraque]

I've seen GBHEs choke down improbably large fish, but those photos are something else. I feel like there is no way the Least Bittern saw that coming.

[sophia_sol]

right!!!! WHAT an experience for that least bittern! and it seems a lot more uncomfortable to swallow whole for the GBHE too!

[kiki_eng]

Those pictures are indeed wild. Birds.

[sophia_sol]

birds!!!!!!

[chestnut_pod]

Oh YEAH, I once saw a great blue heron eat an entire ground squirrel. It seems like it just shouldn't be possible!

[sophia_sol]

dang, yeah!! now I'm like, I need to pay SO much more attention to the great blue herons I see around me! what might I catch them eating!