"I am an animal" - Nature Notes

[goinghome]

For observations about wildlife, pets, birds, and other interactions with nature.

As I already mentioned elsewhere, around the estate where I live are unbuilt sites and common areas, left to largely be re-wilded during restrictions.

About a year ago a group of stonechat birds started visiting the area - https://birdwatchireland.ie/birds/stonechat/


A few months ago a pair of fieldfares became a common site - https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/fieldfare/

And a few weeks ago, some lapwings were seen grazing on several occasions - https://birdwatchireland.ie/birds/lapwing/

While walking the National Park over Christmas, my young nieces spotted a bird the size of a wren hopping on branches of old trees beside the path. We later identified it as a goldcrest - https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/birds/goldcrest/

 

[goinghome]

New research published in the Journal of Animal Ecology found that restoring native forest in cities does indeed bring back native birds – even those absent for generations – and the older the forest, the more species it can support...

in 2021, Wellington's urban eco-sanctuary witnessed the arrival of a pair of titipounamu, New Zealand’s smallest bird, which had been missing from the city for more than 100 years, who had built a tiny nest in a patch of urban forest just a few kilometres from parliament... Other rare species have joined them. Opened in 1999, the sanctuary can lay claim to having boosted urban bird populations and fostered a sense of city-wide unity over conservation - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...s-create-birdlife-boom-in-new-zealands-cities

5 titipounamu chicks; photo credit Melissa Boardman​

 

[goinghome]

In Barry Lopez' 2019 book Horizon - https://knopfdoubleday.com/2019/02/14/horizon-by-barry-lopez/ - the argument is repeatedly made that scientific datasets are too limited and circular as guides to reality, and overlook vital strategies, “epistemologies and ontologies” often understood and practised by those with native knowledge.

He describes Hózhó: singing by Navajos over patients to restore beauty, health and harmony; and how Australian Aboriginals believe they can sing extinct species back into existence. Morrissey is not the only one who knows that, "Without Music The World Dies" 🎶 🐣 🦅

 

[goinghome]

From Sam's twitter feed on Christmas Eve

 

[Aubrey McFate]

In Barry Lopez' 2019 book Horizon - https://knopfdoubleday.com/2019/02/14/horizon-by-barry-lopez/ - the argument is repeatedly made that scientific datasets are too limited and circular as guides to reality, and overlook vital strategies, “epistemologies and ontologies” often understood and practised by those with native knowledge.

He describes Hózhó: singing by Navajos over patients to restore beauty, health and harmony; and how Australian Aboriginals believe they can sing extinct species back into existence. Morrissey is not the only one who knows that, "Without Music The World Dies" 🎶 🐣 🦅

I’m sorry, but however fallible the scientific datasets are, it isn’t possible to “sing extinct species back into existence.” All this “indigenous wisdom” stuff is just religious goo-goo by another, politically correct, name. They’re not a “guide to reality”—they’re wishful thinking. Thank the heavens, no one will be able to sing Homo sapiens back into existence after we’re gone. We don’t need to repeat our uniquely abhorrent treatment of animals all over again. What Morrissey knows well is that “the human race is obsolete.”

 

[gordyboy9]

can you imagine a world without humans,billions more animals left to roam the planet,would be wonderful to see.

 

[sea salt]

I love animals. I have adopted two stray dogs from Greece, I don't eat anything that comes from a slaughterhouse. We must protect them and treat them well.

But the human race is not obsolete. Humans are superior to animals.

 

[Aubrey McFate]

Isn't "humans are superior to animals" purely a human conceit? So far no one of any other species has endorsed it. Only the celestial beings of human-devised myths give it any concurrence. We're surely the most unique, because we alone among the animals are able to say and believe such things, but I don't know if it makes us better.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

Isn't "humans are superior to animals" purely a human conceit? So far no one of any other species has endorsed it. Only the celestial beings of human-devised myths give it any concurrence. We're surely the most unique, because we alone among the animals are able to say and believe such things, but I don't know if it makes us better.

Yes it is possible that animals other than human, believe and say to themselves that they are the most unique amongst all of evolution’s divine creations.

But if true, does it make them better than us? Anyway, how do we define superiority over another? because humans can build atom bombs, and destroy a planet the quickest?



‘I'm mad...and that's a fact
I found out...animals don't help
Animals think...they're pretty smart
Shit on the ground...see in the dark.’



‘I know the animals...are laughing at us
They don't even know...what a joke is
I won't follow...animal's advice
I don't care...if they're laughing at us.’

 

[Aubrey McFate]

Yes it is possible that animals other than human, believe and say to themselves that they are the most unique amongst all of evolution’s divine creations.

But if true, does it make them better than us? Anyway, how do we define superiority over another? because humans can build atom bombs, and destroy a planet the quickest?

Not that you implied this, but just for the record, I don't think animals have the capacity to think themselves superior to us. I'm assuming they're ignorant of the question or even the idea. The only vote for our superiority comes from ourselves, and a unanimous vote of one is pretty suspect. We need an outside arbiter, and the universe isn't offering one. Alone we sit, passing positive judgement on ourselves. A word for this might be "masturbatory."

A better question might be whether humans are more noble than animals.

 

[The Wild Turkey]

Yes it is possible that animals other than human, believe and say to themselves that they are the most unique amongst all of evolution’s divine creations.

But if true, does it make them better than us? Anyway, how do we define superiority over another? because humans can build atom bombs, and destroy a planet the quickest?



‘I'm mad...and that's a fact
I found out...animals don't help
Animals think...they're pretty smart
Shit on the ground...see in the dark.’



‘I know the animals...are laughing at us
They don't even know...what a joke is
I won't follow...animal's advice
I don't care...if they're laughing at us.’

Ain't one superior to the other.
There is a inter connection of everything.
If the trees didn't produce oxygen, no creature could breath.
If the worms didn't work the soil, nothin' could grow.
Nothin' can be superior when it's dependent on so many other things.

 

[goinghome]

I’m sorry, but however fallible the scientific datasets are, it isn’t possible to “sing extinct species back into existence.” All this “indigenous wisdom” stuff is just religious goo-goo by another, politically correct, name. They’re not a “guide to reality”—they’re wishful thinking. Thank the heavens, no one will be able to sing Homo sapiens back into existence after we’re gone. We don’t need to repeat our uniquely abhorrent treatment of animals all over again. What Morrissey knows well is that “the human race is obsolete.”

More than half of wildlife populations that existed in 1970 have been wiped out since. Not so for human beings, whose numbers thrive, for a limited time on the very things destroying the planet - land development (deforestation, clearing sealing, poisoning), ever-growing manufacture, industrial agriculture and food production for excess consumption, ubiquitous use of fossil fuels and by-products etc. The prospect of humanity's impending obsolescence is now admitted as likely by many.

A recent popular Netflix documentary, Ancient Apocalypses by Graham Hancock, is drawing vehement criticism from orthodox archaeologists. Hancock spoke with Russell Brand about the series, covering some of the key issues, among them being the idea that there are different ways of experiencing and learning about the world, even while experts are becoming totalitarian. Science is plural though. Science is defined as knowing, skill, distinguishing. At that rate animals and even plants do it, adapting to various environments. Indigenous people would not just sing alone but would first lay down right conditions and habitat for the return of a creature. As I described my housing project doing, albeit somewhat unintentionally, resulting in the appearance of some more uncommon birds in recent times, and as Sam maybe did for his fox!



from https://www.gracewellslittlesanctuary.com/

The elite kings directing corporate and state affairs at the moment are insecure, mentally ill compulsive hoarders at best indifferent to degradations to quality of life of other beings.

Perhaps the songs most needed are incantations to eliminate their kind, as "..a better world with an economy designed for human needs is what we should be after" (need for plant and animal companions in nature presumably included)?

For individuals, every day of non-harming witness is like rehearsing for that concert o! restoration! What could Morrissey have in mind regarding the world dying without music?

 

[Aubrey McFate]

The elite kings directing corporate and state affairs at the moment are insecure, mentally ill compulsive hoarders at best indifferent to degradations to quality of life of other beings.

Perhaps the songs most needed are incantations to eliminate their kind, as "..a better world with an economy designed for human needs is what we should be after" (need for plant and animal companions in nature presumably included)?

For individuals, every day of non-harming witness is like rehearsing for that concert o! restoration! What could Morrissey have in mind regarding the world dying without music?

We more or less agree that we've reached the point of human obsolesence. I think there's something wrong, though, with the narrative that it's an elite, or the corporations, or any cabal of big meanies, which is responsible for the despoilation of the natural world and the terrible plight of livestock animals. The elites are doubtless trying to enrich themselves without giving a f*ck, but at the same time, there's a whole population of non-elites who are complicit in the whole operation, because without the faithful consumer playing his or her part, the whole scheme collapses. It's a fact of most of the population not giving a f*ck.

And it's not out of ignorance. You can present people with your case; I assure you a vast majority of them will dismiss it, especially as regards eating animals. They might chuck a dime into a donation jar to save a polar bear adrift on an ice floe, but they're not going to quit their bacon cheeseburgers. In most cases there's something truly intractable going on. Many, many humans are ruthless at heart. It may be why we're the most successfully evolved of all species. When you're not only intelligent but discompassionate, there's really very little that can stop you. But no reign can last forever, and we'll get our richly deserved comeuppance soon enough.

I haven't watched the video, but I'm wary of Russell Brand. He's an interesting character, but at this point I think he's only a notch or two away from chakras and crystals (if he isn't already there).

 

[nicky wire's legs]

you people are boring

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

Not that you implied this, but just for the record, I don't think animals have the capacity to think themselves superior to us.

Not having this capacity, that we would say is a limitation, may be the very thing that makes them superior to us.

I'm assuming they're ignorant of the question or even the idea. The only vote for our superiority comes from ourselves, and a unanimous vote of one is pretty suspect. We need an outside arbiter, and the universe isn't offering one. Alone we sit, passing positive judgement on ourselves. A word for this might be "masturbatory."

A better question might be whether humans are more noble than animals.

Many stories of animals performing noble deeds to save humans.

I think we have a far way to go before we can understand animals. Especially when it comes to communication between them. I don’t really get trying to compare the two, the human animal vs animals. As far as I can see, I can easily recognize which one is the bad animal, because the way it treats other animals, humans and the planet.

 

[sea salt]

Animals aren't noble, LOL. They have no concept of "noble", "good" or "bad". Lassie doesn't count, that's fiction. People here have been writing about all the things they do for their sick and dying pets, how they're taking them to the vet (a human) to give them medicines (made by humans) in order to reduce their suffering and prolong their lives. Animals don't take their sick friends to the doctor; they leave their mentally and physically unfit offspring to f***ing suffer and die and get eaten by predators.

 

[nicky wire's legs]

Animals aren't noble, LOL. They have no concept of "noble", "good" or "bad". Lassie doesn't count, that's fiction. People here have been writing about all the things they do for their sick and dying pets, how they're taking them to the vet (a human) to give them medicines (made by humans) in order to reduce their suffering and prolong their lives. Animals don't take their sick friends to the doctor; they leave their mentally and physically unfit offspring to f***ing suffer and die and get eaten by predators.

unless they're elephants cause elephants are f***ing amazing!!

 

[nicky wire's legs]

i like animals but the thing is theyre not poetic

 

[sea salt]

unless they're elephants cause elephants are f***ing amazing!!

My dog is f***ing amazing, too. But he doesn't take me to a doctor to prescribe me medicines when I'm unwell, cause he's a f***ing dog.

 

[sea salt]

Which doesn't mean that I don't love my dog more than most humans. But he's still a dog.