Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Nigel, the world's loneliest bird, dies next to the concrete decoy he loved


Bookmarking this sad posthuman, postmodern nature-culture tale:
"Nigel, a handsome gannet bird... lured to Mana Island three years ago by wildlife officials who, in hopes of establishing a gannet colony there, had placed concrete gannet decoys on cliffsides and broadcast the sound of the species’ calls. Nigel accepted the invitation, arriving in 2013 as the island’s first gannet in 40 years. But none of his brethren joined him."

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Hunter knocked unconscious by a dead goose that fell from the sky.



In Easton, Maryland near the Miles River goose weighing some 10-14 lbs was killed by a hunter. It being hunting season, humans would rarely regard this event; however, in this case the bird fell earthward and onto the head of another hunter (one Robert Meilhammer) who was knocked unconscious by the carcass. Meilhammer was nailed. He was taken to the University of Maryland Shock and Truama Center where he was treated for head and face injuries. The trauma of dead birds falling from the sky may linger. 

According to a free-fall calculator that the physics of objects in free fall, when the bird hit Meilhammer, it would have been traveling at more than 50 miles an hour. The Maryland Natural Resources spokesperson Candy Thomson summarized the event: "This is highly unusual." Of course, Thomson did not mean killing geese was unusual, just that the body of the animal would have its revenge.