Mock-the-King Birds (now Known Simply As Mockingbirds) Were The Genesis Of Charles Darwins Theory Of

Mock-the-King Birds (now known simply as Mockingbirds) were the genesis of Charles Darwin’s theory of Evolution. Named for their parodic singing and generally irreverent attitude towards royalty, Darwin wrote “these Birds know not their betters, and Mocke his Royal Highness William even as he has done such Good in this world,” eventually concluding there was “not a Spark of the Lord inside them.” After months of wrestling with his faith, he decided these birds were solid evidence there is no God, and that all life was simply the end result of chance mutations accumulated through millions of years.

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Wait Ireland’s an island, isn’t it? Well that explains things! The population pressures are different, leading to marked morphological differences. For reference, these are what shopping carts look like in my area of the US:

(Plaustrom vulgaris, or Common Shopping Cart)

(P. targeti, or Bullseye Cart. This species has significant morphological differences depending on the age and health of their host store)

(P. wegmani, or Wegman’s Cart. Often found intermingling with C. vulgarus at upscale supermarkets)

After @maverick-ornithography remarked on the unusual appearance of the shopping cart I saw the other day, I decided to check at various stores to understand whether this was an isolated phenomenon. Here are the results.

Tesco : has both regular shopping carts (large, low basket, with a child seat) and “leggy” ones (small basket, long and strangely balanced legs, no child seat). Pictures of both varieties below.

In the background of both pictures, you can see a vehicle carrying exclusively “leggy” carts (I didn’t take a closer picture because I wasn’t sure I was allowed to).

Lidl : same situation, with both regular and “leggy” carts, except that here, the relation between cart types is clearer (the regular type still looks strangely balanced to me, and the leg structure is similar). Pictures :

Dealz : only leggy carts ! The variety is yet a different one, and the only cart type with a drawer system for coins I saw today (the others have a slit system). Here is a picture :

This allows me to confirm that the overturned cart in the ditch thing is indeed a Lidl “leggy” cart, like the one I saw on the road close to it (notice the shape of the legs) :

To conclude this long post, I saw the heron and the egret again !

(A grey heron and a little egret standing in some kind of evergreen, 1 m or less from each other, the heron facing the camera and the egret facing right.)

This is the tree where I saw the heron the other day ; I was already surprised to see the egret in it, and I didn’t expect the heron to be that close, so I completely missed it until it moved its head.

(Same image, but with the heron facing right and the egret running its beak under its wing.)

The egret started preening, so I assumed it wasn’t particularly uncomfortable despite the proximity of the heron, but it might not mean that at all (I would be interested if anyone knows what might have been going on, I was surprised because most grey herons I have seen seemed very territorial).

You know… with names likes Telecrex, Crossoptilon, Ithaginis… poults with a face like a skull and grotesque fleshy protuberances… 

I wonder how long you could run a D&D campaign before your players realize that every character they’ve met is some kind of chicken.

s/o to kids that know they’re probably not straight but won’t let them self think about it. You’ll get there

sorry for the delay

I know I usually have posts ready by midnight but I’m running down leads on this next one; if everything checks out then I might make a very powerful enemy in the avian criminal underworld! I already have some evidence but I absolutely have to get it corroborated by a couple more parties or else I open myself up to a bird-libel suit. The avian legal system is no joke, especially for non-birds forced to run that particular gauntlet of jurisprudence! Humans’ve only been in the tribunal game for what, six thousand years? Birds have legal precedents that were set six million years ago. I have to make sure my ass is well and truly covered on this because seriously I do NOT want to be ruled against in Bird Court.

got doxxed, feelin real shit. no new birds until i stop feeling sick