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   Dr. Eric J. Fielding, PhD (ericfielding@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 12:13:37 JST Dr. Eric J. Fielding, PhD

   in reply to

   • myrmepropagandist
   • Sarah E Bourne

   @futurebird @sbourne I did not find the baby owl photo yet, but here is an adult burrowing owl.

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     Sarah E Bourne (sbourne@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 12:13:38 JST Sarah E Bourne

     in reply to

     • myrmepropagandist

     @futurebird Here's a picture of 2 in a nest, probably only a day or two old. You can see part of a parent's huge brown-feathered body on the right.
     https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-18-at-2.20.37-PM-1280x804.png
     Edit: meant to say, this is a screenshot from Cornell's Lab of Ornithology Hawk Cam.

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     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 12:13:38 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     • Sarah E Bourne

     @sbourne

     This is just devolving into posting cute owls but I don't really care.

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     Sarah E Bourne (sbourne@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 12:13:39 JST Sarah E Bourne

     in reply to

     • myrmepropagandist

     @futurebird Not all baby birds have gray down. Red-tailed Hawk hatchlings are pure white, for instance, and are cuter than heck. They get a little dowdy-looking as the contour and flight feathers come in.

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     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 12:13:40 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     • Sarah E Bourne

     @sbourne

     Can any bird wise person tell me why baby birds have scrabbly gray down?

     My guess it may be because they are small and need to stay warm and match the gray scrabbly sticks in their nest. But are there other reasons? Maybe shedding flight feathers and growing wouldn't be energy efficient? So a temporary puff ball of warm down is better?

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     Sarah E Bourne (sbourne@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 12:13:41 JST Sarah E Bourne

     in reply to

     • myrmepropagandist

     @futurebird They make me feel very queasy. No, I didn't find it "so cute" at all.

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     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 12:13:41 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     • Sarah E Bourne

     @sbourne

     If the owls in the second photo needed to be "improved" what will they do to you and I?

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     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 12:13:42 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     Some day no one will understand what the big deal is in the story of "the ugly duckling" because people will have repainted nature with our own notions of what would be "cuter" and how it ought to be ... missing the less glamours beauty of what is.

     Of course a baby swan can only be a tiny white lovely bird just smaller and cuter with anime eyes.

     Yeah... I really do not like this sort of thing at all.

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     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 12:13:43 JST myrmepropagandist

     I think I'm not getting the worst of facebook by far, but spending just a little time there trying to reach out to people before going dark again has reminded me of ... the less lofty reasons why I left. There are so many post with images like this one, videos of "nature" and although some of the comments recognize it's a fake image just as many think it's "cute" and "nature is so beautiful!"

     IDK it makes me die inside a little.