Unidentified Flying Dinosaur: Uncooperative Little Barstard

Mystery Week continues! I know there’s a lot of awful and outrageous stuff going on, but I don’t have the spoons to write about it right now. Need a breather. If you need my occasional sharp commentary on various breaking news, however, you can click this little button right here if you’re a Facebook denizen:

And then you will be able to follow me as I fume. I also post a lot of pictures of cats.

Anyway. Some of you may remember our little trip to Frenchman Coulee a few weeks ago. While we were there, R and I were serenaded by this little delight.

Image shows a blocky brown column of weathered basalt standing against the sky. There is a small blurry bird perched atop it.
UFD I

You see that it is blurry. That’s because the little bugger wouldn’t hold still. It was swinging its head to and fro and singing at the top of its little lungs. Which was awesome, what with it reverberating from the rocks of the Ribs, and I did try to record it for you, but my battery said “Fuck that noise!” after roughly one second of filming, and by the time I’d got it replaced, the uncooperative little barstard had flown away.

Before all that happened, I did manage to get a couple of relatively clear shots.

Image is a close-up showing the bird sitting on the edge of the basalt column. It is sort of pear-shaped with a long, thing beak. It's a pale gray-brown in this photo.
UFD II

So yes, the lighting was terrible, the angle quite awkward, and the little barstard wasn’t at all cooperative – which makes for a challenge, amirite? Now watch you lot get it in ten seconds flat. You’re just that good.

Image is zoomed out, and shows the same bird on the column.
UFD III

Still, the final shot came out fairly nice. I like those rugged rocks looming up, their patches of gray and green lichens lending a bit of color to their weathered brown. I like the thin filigree of white clouds over the blue sky as an approaching front moves in. I like the play of light and shadow over the crevices and crannies in the old basalt. And then you have that dear little birb perched like a pear with a long stem at the top. Adorbs! Maybe next time we go out there, the little bugger will be back, and wait for me to install a fresh battery.

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Unidentified Flying Dinosaur: Uncooperative Little Barstard
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12 thoughts on “Unidentified Flying Dinosaur: Uncooperative Little Barstard

  1. 5

    Based on shape (especially that beak!) it’s probably a wren. I’m not very familiar with the Pacific Northwest wren species so that’s all I can do.

  2. blf
    11

    That’s poopyhead’s new toy after an unscheduled crash. He was trying to take off vertically by gliding off the cliff-edge, a maneuver not recommended for amateurs without a TARDIS. You were hearing the screaming of the engines across time and space complaining “Ya canna do th’t…”.

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