The first and most obvious cooer is the familiar (and much reviled) feral pigeon. Its common sound is a low-level clucking coo. xeno-canto.org/460854#FiveBirds
Also familiar to most people will be the plumptious wood pigeon. Note its white collar, which is a good identifying mark.
The collared dove, slighter and more elegant than the wood pigeon, opts for a three-note rhythm, often likened to a football fan chanting ‘Un-i-ted – Un-i-ted’. #FiveBirdsxeno-canto.org/671545
The stock dove is less common, but do look out for their uniform grey plumage and black button eye – they sometimes hang out with their feral cousins. Their song is a two-noter. Woo-hup. xeno-canto.org/558811#FiveBirds
My rule of thumb for remembering the pigeons/doves:
Stock dove – two syllables in the name, two notes in the song
Collared dove – three syllables, three notes
Bloody wood pigeon – five syllables, five notes
Our final coo-er is also a cuck-er. Sadly, the cuckoo’s evocative sound, once ubiquitous, is in many places a thing of the past. xeno-canto.org/447343#FiveBirds
When I first learned that Taking Flight was to be published today, I had a decision to make. Sit in the corner grumping about 'that so-called "Star Wars Day"' or embrace it.
So here’s a thread of flying creatures in Star Wars. #StarWarsDay
First the disclaimers:
– I am not a Star Wars person. I’m not *not* a Star Wars person – I have seen some of them – but also I am not a 'Star Wars person'
– All creatures are taken from Wookieepedia
– They only qualify if they appear in the main film series
Aiwha
Massive winged cetaceans, native to the planet Kamino. Strong swimmers & flyers, they were also known as "air whales". They’re peaceful, majestic, and (sob) give out bleating cries when dying.
Given the space, I would happily adopt an aiwha. #StarWarsDay#TakingFlightBook
Morning everyone. Taking Flight is officially published today. If clicking on links is your thing, and if buying books is also your thing, then today is your lucky day. The cover is by Jo Walker. bit.ly/3kthp7C
Taking Flight started with a realisation: flight is amazing and ridiculous and I didn’t really know anything about it.
So I started asking myself questions, writing down all the things I didn’t know.
There were a lot of them.
Then I started looking for answers.
Each answer spawned a new question, and soon I was:
– very confused
– very enthusiastic
tfw, not content with trashing your book, a book group member decides to trash your other career too
Trashing a book in a book group is fine, btw. Part of the deal is bad reviews. But extrapolating a whole thing about the other part of my working life? wtf?
Why not have a go at my parenting while you're at it? Or my cooking perhaps?