plant learner

Not to brag but I picked the best spot and we got to hear an absolute orchestra of alligator bellowing in addition to witnessing this big guy

Highlight of the morning was probably our Sandhill crane courtship dance impersonation contest, which was fiercely competitive and even drew a small crowd of unrelated spectators. Our winner absolutely became a Sandhill crane for 30 seconds and his vigorous leaping and flapping won him a brand new pair of binoculars as a trophy.

I also made these custom stickers to hand out as prizes for trivia questions and spotting challenges during the walk, and everyone wore them around the reception with great pride.

Mooooooood

Someone in a weaving discord I'm in saw this much-jpg'd image on Facebook. They enjoyed it and crossposted it. I enjoyed it and asked if there was a source. Alas, unattributed. We would never know.

Not so! By their magical librarianship and citation-hunting powers, @ginneke tracked the image first to Pinterest, then a long-defunct blog, then a connection with the 1960s fairytale retellings of Amadel Williams-Ellis illustrated by one William Stobbs. He had the correct whimsical art style - a hit! Another server member suggested a likely candidate tale of Baba Yaga involving a cat and a loom.

Unfortunately, these books have never been digitised, not even the tables of contents, so there was no way to know whether they might be correct. And my various libraries had never heard of the books. However, for about £7 each on ebay they were within my shenanigans budget - I was invested now.

I ordered two, mostly at random. Leafed all the way through both of them, got nearly to the end with some delightful other creatures but not yet the Loom Cat...

..... and then all of a sudden there it was! In a Baba Yaga story in Round a the World Fairy Tales exactly as predicted! Success in tracking down an 80-year-old untitled children's book illustration via several people and much joy. I'm very satisfied and will put the full Baba Yaga tale in a reblog.