April 16, 2024
Tuesday Open Comments
À propos of nothing in particular, a quick reminder that red-clad dancers worldwide celebrate the Most Wuthering Heights Day every year. And last July, it was in celebration of her 65th birthday. Although we’re a tad late for the official ceremonies, this is a good time to appreciate Kate Bush, top British pop artist of the 1970s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and more.
Here’s to Kate, in the hopes she managed to enchant her Heathcliff. Or else scare him silly.
Pursuit of this hot bunny trail brought me to the Charismatic Voice, an opera singer who hears pop music for the first time and rates it.
Fab!
And for Optimum, whose snowy raison d’être has melted away, here are some dance steps to work on for Kate’s 66th—especially the “reverse pterodactyl”.
I suspect he needs something to do.
Today’s special animal friend is the Helmeted Guineafowl, Numida meleagris, a large, ground-dwelling bird in the Galliformes order, which includes turkeys and chickens. Like other guineafowl, this one has a large, round body with relatively small wings and a small, bald, weird head. The head of the helmeted guineafowl has red, blue, and/or black skin and a yellow or reddish bony knob on top.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvXU9vjk9OI
They are up to 2 feet high and weigh up to 3 lbs. Except for the head, they are dark gray or black with white spots, reminding me of a cute dress that doesn’t fit me anymore. They can fly, but they usually don’t; when they do, they glide as much as possible rather than flapping. They can run quite fast, keeping that round body nicely balanced, and ornithologists say it is common for them to walk or run more than five miles in a day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lu2vB_Tfho
As you can see, they are gregarious, assembling in flocks of 25 or so that feed and roost together. The flocks are hierarchical, with a dominant male as boss and his sidekick helping him to defend the group. Breeding females prefer the higher-ranking males, and the flock devotes the most care to the chicks of the highest-ranked adults.
They are seasonally monogamous, breeding near the end of the local wet season, which varies across their range. The females make a scrape in the ground in an area with good cover, lining it with feathers and grass. They lay 6 to 12 eggs. Females do the incubation, but males help to brood the chicks after hatching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MobasiNcJFk
The chicks are called “keets,” and only about half live to adulthood. They can live up to 12 years in the wild. The helmeted guineafowl sings a bit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oASLiM5sSDY
Helmeted guineafowl are omnivorous. Outside the breeding season, their diet is mainly vegetable matter: tubers, seeds, miscellaneous agricultural stuff. During breeding season, they turn to a mostly bug diet. Like our friend the banded mongoose, they will eat ticks off the backs of warthogs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZshnzrUFV78
The helmeted guineafowl is a species of Least Concern. They are found all across sub-Saharan Africa. They have been domesticated. You can buy them as food in stores in the U.S. Feral populations are found in the West Indies, the U.S., Europe, and Australia.
This appears to be a pop-culture phenomenon of which I wot not. I had to read "Wuthering Heights" in school, though. I recall thinking that most of the characters were dopes making poor life choices, although in my late middle age I recognize that they had fewer options available than I do.
Good morning. Birds are singing. I'm going over to the nearby Scout camp this morning to pick up some bows and arrows to take up the Scout camp in the mountains on Saturday to teach Archery Merit Badge. Later in the day, Daughter D is going to the eye doctor, and Son F is coming to get his glasses adjusted again.