From Mikael Karine Trchn
Hello friends, I’m sharing with you this photo of a barn owl that I received from a friend who lives in the desert of southern Africa. Have a great day.
Coucou les amis je vous partage cette photo d une chouette effraie reçu d une amie qui est dans le desert du sud de I Afrique. Passez une chouette journée.
I believe this is a nest made by the Sociable Weaver. These nests are large enough to hold over 100 pairs of weavers, making them possibly the largest bird-made structures.
Amazing. I wonder what it’s like to live in one.
If it’s cooler than the surrounding desert, I’m all in! 🥵
One other commenter sounded a bit familiar with these nests and said they had a relatively pleasant smell, which is better than I’d expect for something hundreds of birds has lived in for multiple generations, so another plus there.
Much like for the rest of us, I imagine one’s neighbor’s would have an impact on our overall experience. I wouldn’t want to be the bird living across from the hungry looking falcon that just moved in!
Nice link and pic! I spent a while looking at nest photos after figuring out what exactly it was. I was expecting a more peculiar looking bird, but they look like a regular sparrow type bird.
It was a good point in your article about how heavy that must be when it gets soaking wet and how utility poles have to be designed with that in mind there!
The species builds large, compound, community nests, a rarity among birds. These nests are perhaps the most spectacular structure built by any bird
(source)
Learn something new every day, wow :o
I was really surprised reading about the “climate control” provided by the shelter. It looks like it would trap heat, and in a positive way it does. It’s amazing what they have been able to figure out over countless generations.
I think they are fascinating to watch, it’s like a beaver dam in a tree. The barn owls here settle in the dark spots of open roofs I remember they have a distinctive avian smell it’s kind of a gentle smell.
Oh wow, you’ve gotten to see these in person?
It’s funny to think all these amazing things we see online and can’t believe they exist are often times just a regular part of other people’s neighborhood area.
I forget the user, but I remember one Australian here I was talking with, I asked with all their animals that seem extreme to us in North America if there were any American animals they found fascinating and they said squirrels, one of the most mundane and ubiquitous animals here that a lot of people find pesty.
Totally! I also remember reading about something similar:
Differences in position and shape of burrow openings of black-tailed prairie dogs create passive ventilation from wind energy by altering air pressure.
https://asknature.org/strategy/asymmetric-burrow-openings-create-passive-ventilation/
I always wonder how this stuff is passed on. Things like this, or the megapodes or crocodilians that need to keep eggs at precise temps, I have no idea either how they would ever figure it out, determine that there is causality, and then pass it on.
Evolution is fun like that, I wonder what the other variations were like before the evolved this particular way
Exactly! There’s still a huge difference between a bunch of nests next to each other and this.
The more cool facts I kept reading about the nests, I started picturing it as the bird version of a Dyson Sphere. 😆
bird version of a Dyson Sphere. 😆
I’d watch a movie with that premise 😄
I’m a pro photographer and something about this angle is incredibly interesting and wierd lol
Sometimes you get a photo that doesn’t make any fuckin sense and this is one of them
I want the opposite angle: top inside of the nest looking down to the ground! 😆
Looks cozy. A little creepy… But probably not so creepy when you yourself are the biggest creep in the night.
The wiki entry talks about some residents occasionally snacking on each other, but it’s pretty cool it is essentially a mixed use structure used by numerous species, at least as peacefully as wildlife tends to get.
My wife says it triggers her trypophobia. I don’t see why, but that’s phobias for you.
It looks… ominous? Like a malignant growth. Knowing it’s constructed helps, but yeah. I know what you mean.
Honestly, same. This picture makes my bones itch.
I can definitely imagine huge spider legs hanging out of it.
Upside down Sarlacc pit 🙃
Large nesting colonies can be active across many generations, sometimes over 199 years.
Interesting read. Learned about robbbers and squatters, too. Thanks!
One never knows what we’ll learn on Superbowl, but it’s always fascinating!
Absolutely! And activity is increasing, which makes learning more likely, and the conversation is good. Unfortunately I have to get off my duff soon and get busy, but I’m very pleased with the activity and diversity of users itt. Thanks for keeping this magazine active and interesting! Looking forward to hearing about your concert, too!
It’s been exciting to see what other people find to share! I like things like the art today where it’s super interesting but not something I’d know about to seek out.
The concert went well! The tent blew down on the sound guys after our set, but they were fine.
I wasn’t as nervous as I had anticipated after not having played in front of people for so long. I never really got any anxiety though, which was a first. Having taken lessons now for piano instead of being self taught for guitar/bass that I’ve played in public before, I felt I had a lot more competence and confidence in what I was doing, so I didn’t worry as much about what I was doing. I basically sat down and said “let’s do this!” and just gave it my best.
I don’t think I goofed up anything anyone would have noticed, and we sounded pretty good as a whole. Teacher’s already talking about our next event coming up and I’d gladly take part in that as well! It was a fun challenge.
Awesome! I knew you were going to be just fine, and I’m glad to know it went swimmingly well for everyone but the sound guys, but as long as everyone had fun and no one got hurt, and it was successful, it was a win!
Cheers, my friend!
They had lots of people scrambling to rescue them, so they got to enjoy an outpouring of compassion! 😄
Thank you for all your positive support!
You’re so much more than welcome! Thank you for a safe space from the world’s collective shadow self, here. You’ve saved my sanity more than once! 🤗
I was going to say sometimes the small things can make a big difference, but that actually reminded me of another story from the weekend!
The one head lady at the clinic was saying someone called up with a scarily diseased racoon she was handling bare handed, but the call turned into a human rescue! Through the conversation of trying to help the racoon, this lady seemed to be in some kind of abusive situation with a violently drunk spouse, so now she had 2 species in crisis to deal with over the phone!
I don’t know what happened with the lady, but the raccoon did get picked up by another clinic, but you never know who’s going to call the animal helpline! 😦
These nests are large enough to hold over 100 pairs of weavers, making them possibly the largest bird-made structures.
Sietches of Fre
manbirdThat is a very fitting comparrison!
*slaps nest*
You can fit so many Sociable Weavers in this bad boy!
The ultimate in avian modular housing!
For some reason this perspective reeeeeally messes with my head
It was a very odd photo to come across!
I got it from a French owl community, so I couldn’t initially read the what context was. I assumed it was a big nest, but as you said, the perspective isn’t from an angle we look at most things. The whole thing just looks so alien, and it isn’t often a Tyto owl is the least alien looking thing in a photo! 😄
