and the birds go north again

African Emerald Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx cupreus), family Cuculidae, order Cuculiformes, found in much of Sub-Saharan Africa

Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), taken April 10, 2026, in Georgia, US

"G: Displacement preening or ritual preening

In the usual form of this movement, the bird turns its head, thrusts its bill between body and scapulars, and quickly withdraws it. It is given by the male in situations where he is sexually aroused but unable to copulate or commence the pre-copulatory billing either because the female is not yet giving the appropriate signals or because of his own apparent incapacity. That the same gesture is used in these apparently different situations suggests that it is being used whenever an impulse to bill or to copulate is being frustrated but no other positive tendencies – such as to flee or to attack – are present. It also corroborates Whitman’s (1919) opinion that this act provides auto-erotic stimulation as well as serving as a signal to the mate. It is also an integral part of the ceremony of offering to bill, which male performs before proffering his open mouth to the female.

Part of socializing and having friends is being a good listener even when you don't actually give a shit about the subject.

Your are hurting other people's feelings when you bluntly respond with "Anyway..." and then change the topic.

It can not always be about your preferred topic.

The Animal Photo Reference Repository is an independent, permanently open-access project and funded entirely by donations. Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use all photos in the repository as references.

Anniversary of APOLLO 11 MOON LANDING

On July 20, 1969, 109 hours and 42 minutes after launch, Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin entered the lunar lander ‘Eagle’, made a final check, and the Eagle undocked from the lunar orbiter ‘Columbia’, where the third member of the crew Michael Collins, stayed in orbit around the moon. Partially manually piloted by Armstrong, the Eagle landed 0 degrees, 41 minutes, 15 seconds north moon latitude and 23 degrees, 26 minutes east moon longitude. Armstrong stepped out, and Aldrin followed 20 minutes later: human beings stepped on the moon for the first time. The two men spent 21 hours and 26 minutes on its surface. One of the astounding aspects of the mission was the seeming simplicity of the technology used to get man to the moon. According to Oliver Gassmann, professor of Technology Management, the mobile phone in your pocket has one million times more memory than the Apollo 11’s computer. Same about the procesor: the latest phones typically have more than 100,000 times the processing power of the computer that landed man on the moon 50 years ago.

“It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.” –Neil Armstrong