Our now departed best-ever dog was the most intelligent creature who has ever lived with us. He had an amazing vocabulary and was able to learn many endearing stunts including the ability to find anybody's slippers in any house we visited and would do with the slightest suggestion. But I've never seen an act quite like this one and can't imagine the skill required to teach these beauties to do what they do:
A note came home from Mo's school yesterday warning us that it was going to be cold today and that we needed to dress our kids warm -- the school hasn't been able to light the furnace yet since the Vaux's swifts are still roosting in the school's chimney.
This type of swift usually nests in hollow trees in smaller populations but a few of the school's have chimneys that are very popular spots for the birds.
Since we live only a half block from the school we're used to seeing the swifts but it probably isn't something most people have seen. Mo's school has an estimated population of 5,000 Vaux's swifts. This video is from a different school that has a population of about 20,000.
A spider on top of a frog, on top of a turtle, on top of a human.
I haven't read any of the books but did Terry Pratchett'sDiscworld series inspire this photo or did this photo inspire Terry Pratchett to write the Discworld series?
