Happy Pride! I got 4 compliments on my crochet dress and didn't get sunburned yesterday, so I'm calling this weekend a success.

Happy Pride! This year I got 6 compliments, a bracelet, and a little sunburnt. Calling this one a success.

crested caracara peace and love on earth

Paraglider and black vulture chilling

(via)

I NEVER get tired of this video. It would be fantastic if the bird was just flying near him, but the fact it feels safe and comfortable enough to land ON his paraglider, isn't startled when he pets it, and is NIBBLING HIS SHOES... blessed moment, absolutely fabulous, 10/10 gold stars.

Okay but the bird isn't just nibbling

Note that it doesn't start nibbling until he starts smoothing its feathers.

They're grooming each other.

This has probably been pointed out before, but there's a really good chance that this particular bird actually belongs to the paraglider! If you notice, there are leather straps around the vulture's legs. These are called jesses and are used by falconers to secure a bird on to their glove or perch. So, this bird is probably going on an intentional walk with their human which is why it feels so comfortable landing on them.

It’s baby animal season!

This is the time of year when wildlife rehabilitation facilities get filled up with “orphaned” babies brought in by well-meaning citizens. While plenty of these babies truly are orphans and need the care of a licensed rehabber to survive, there are also unfortunately plenty of babies brought in that were mistakenly thought to be abandoned. So, what do you do if you see a baby animal by itself? Information provided based on recommendations of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota:

–Squirrels: Female squirrels move babies between nest sites, and during this process babies may be visible outside their nest or even at the base of a tree. If you see baby squirrels outside of a nest, leave them undisturbed and keep your pets contained. Keep an eye on them for a few hours–it may take her a while! If she doesn’t return for them by the next day, then it’s time to call your local rehabber. If you disturb a nest, as is common when trimming branches this time of year, leave them be as long as they are not injured. Again, if they are still alone the next day, take them in.

–Bunnies: If you find a nest, try and keep your pet contained and the area undisturbed for a few weeks while the bunnies grow. You likely will not see mom! You can monitor the nest if you’re concerned, you will quickly see a decline in the health of the babies if mom is not returning to nurse them. If your pet disturbs a nest, bring any injured babies to your local rehab center but leave the uninjured animals alone.

–Ducklings/goslings: Mom should lead the babies to the nearest body of water within a day or two of hatching. Do not try and move mom and all her babies as you will likely just end up stressing and potentially scattering them. If a baby is left behind, you can gently capture them and keep them in a warm, quiet place until you can take them to a rehabber. Be very gentle with ducklings and goslings, and do not handle them more than necessary! These babies are very easily stressed. Unhatched eggs should be left undisturbed–they are federally protected.

–Birds: It is a myth that handling a baby bird will prevent the parents from taking care of it. If you find a featherless bird or a bird with fluffy down feathers, you can gently put it back in the nest. If the same bird keeps getting pushed out of the nest, you should bring it to a rehabber as they may be something wrong with it. If the entire nest has fallen, try and put it back in the same place you found it. If you can’t put it right back where it was, keep it within 5 feet of the original location to ensure the parents continue to care for them. Fledgling birds will spend a significant amount of time on the ground as their immature wings develop. They flutter around, but they can’t really fly yet. Parents will still feed fledglings, so you can keep an eye on a grounded bird to see if adult birds are still in the area caring for them.

–In general: If you find a baby animal alone, leave it be and monitor it to see if mom comes back. Keep your pets away from the area, and don’t try to handle the baby unless absolutely necessary as this can result in you stressing out or hurting the animal. If mom doesn’t come back after several hours, you can take them in to a LICENSED REHABBER. Many rehabilitation facilities want you to call before bringing in an orphaned animal to ensure that they are truly orphaned. Do NOT bring the animal into your house to raise! Most people do not have the time or knowledge to raise orphaned wildlife, and by hand raising them, you habituate them to humans and prevent them from having a chance to be released. Also, it’s illegal. If the animal is injured, it is ok to take them to your local rehabber right away! When in doubt, call your local wildlife rehabilitation facility. They can give you more information about specific species and situations. If you really can’t find a wildlife rehabilitator or the animal is in need of immediate medical attention, you can take it to a vet clinic. Veterinarians can provide lifesaving care or humane euthanasia for an injured animal, before getting them to a rehabber.

An added note that if the weather is bad (cold temperatures, raining, etc.) and there’s a baby down that you’re worried about leaving too long, call your local rehab for advice on how long to wait & when to step in. Naked babies can get cold quickly when it’s cool outside, so your rehabber might want them brought in sooner than waiting overnight like you could with a slightly older baby that’s furred/feathered. I know my rehab sometimes instructed people to go ahead & bring in small babies right away rather than leave them to die from exposure. 

Also if you don’t mind me adding an extra animal….

- Fawns! We would get people calling a LOT about fawns found alone (Michigan-based rehab, loooots of deer around). Mom often leaves the fawn on their own while she gets food. She’ll tell baby to stay put & stay quiet, so they’re less likely to be found by predators. You do NOT want to take a baby fawn away from their location if they are laying down & staying quiet. They’re doing what they’re supposed to! Signs that a fawn need help include: obvious injuries; walking around alone with no mom in sight, especially if they’re also calling out & making a lot of noise; if they have a dent in their forehead (indicates dehydration); if they’re near a dead adult female & show obvious reluctance to leave her. Deer take a ton of work to rehab & there are added restrictions in some states (at least in Michigan for sure) due to diseases like chronic wasting disease, so please make sure you’re not kidnapping a healthy fawn that’s just waiting for Mom to come back.

Reblogging for the added commentary on fawns!

Hey this is EXTRA IMPORTANT this year because we have some nasty diseases in our wildlife populations! Please PLEASE make an effort to leave baby animals alone unless they are truly injured or abandoned, because a lot of rehab centers are either at lower capacity or cannot take certain species. This primarily concerns rabbits, which are affected by rabbit hemorrhagic disease, and certain birds. In my area, the local rehab center is not taking waterfowl or raptors due to the concern for high path avian influenza. And even for those of us that are still taking these animals, we are limited too because we don’t have anywhere to send them. We are already struggling to find a place for healthy waterfowl “orphans”, because the local rehab center isn’t taking them right now. Plus we have to hold on to these patients so much longer, which limits space for other animals. Do not bring us animals that don’t need to be rehabilitated!

It’s almost that time again!

Also, for foxes it’s perfectly normal for them to be on their own. The vixen will only make brief visits to the den to avoid drawing attention to it from other predators. Often the vixen will leave the cubs alone for most or all of the day and only return after dark, but she will be lying up somewhere nearby.

Cubs will often come out in the day to play and explore by themselves. This is normal and an important part of their development! Unless the cub/s are crying a lot and acting distressed, visibly sick/injured or in immediate danger then leave well alone.

Donate to the Wild Bird Fund 🐥❣️

on the thirteenth day of christmas my true love was investigated for his many flagrant violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918

To the people in the notes: we are holding hands now

It’s that time of the year again

The funniest thing about the original Goncharov post is that I have seen people do exhaustive amounts of research in order to discern that it's a misspelling/mistranslation of Martin Scorcese's "Gomorrah" and then go "well this explains everything" while never once questioning why it's on shoes

I forgot most people wouldn't understand it on sight, tbqh. Professional blindness.

The thing that matters is not that it was on a shoe, but that it was on a machine embroidered (or machine woven I wasn't looking that close) label.

What happened is, someone at the labels-for-boots factory ran a cool looking piece of text in a language they didn't understand through either an OCR program, or any number of similar software to convert text in a photo to a digital format that can be fed to the embroidery machine.

It came out with good visual balance so off it went, to be sewn onto boots.

The text was from the English language poster of the film Gomorrah.

It was run through an OCR intended for use with both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets, but was not set to recognize English properly, hence some dead giveaways like 'production' becoming 'prdhhhco' and, y'know. The title. Goncharov.

It might have been ripped from a JPEG online but given age of Gomorrah, I would bet it was scanned off an old movie cover or movie poster.

It's on a shoe because shoes often need a big fancy label or decal to make them pass for branded products at a glance. It's the same principle as those "CUGGL" shirts in the "GUCCI" font.

Anyway this happens all the time when clothing is made for both English and Russian speakers by people who do not read either language. It's a lot of fun to browse AliExpress and try to guess what the original text was.

tbh it seems like a good idea to tag goncharov posts as unreality for those who have experience with delusions, hallucinations, or being gaslit.

for any confused or possibly unsettled over the way tumblr is leaping on the goncharov concept: it’s a joke based on a past tumblr post about a fake martin scorsese movie title being printed on a pair of knockoff shoes. there is no real film, the movie doesn’t exist, & people’s posts are just having fun with the concept.

you’re not imagining things & you’re not having an episode! i hope more people tag it as unreality for people’s safety & comfort

I love my future wife so very much and she loves me, but On God we love fucking with each other in Alien RPG.

She's the one running the game and we've been playing with a few other friends for the last 2 ish years.

In ONE GAME she murdered 3 of my pre-gen characters. Joke's on her tho, the last character I chose literally one shot her Queen at the end of the scene and everyone made it safely off planet.

This game she successfully gave my womb soldier a major phobia of shrimp which I have to roll panic rolls for every time they're even mentioned. And then he killed her Queen in one shot at the end and everyone made it safely off station.

New people with empty accounts that are suddenly following me, I really need you to do something that looks like a human person. I've been here long enough now to remember the old wars, and you are coming into my home wearing the uniform of our enemies.

I am real close to just posting users in a callout if they fail the perception check.

How do I rig a Turing test so people have to prove they exist before they follow me. I am literally looking at your following lists to see if it's a coherent set so I can guess if you contain organs.

If you are new: We aren't trying to be assholes. We would love to be welcoming. I support your presence, and I don't mind if you use a hollow blog to follow from. and then you use side blogs to post. That's cool. You do you. But. Y'all. With all possible love: You are indistinguishable from the enemy right now, and we're used to showing no mercy.

Just add a note. Make your blog name 'stealthy follow blog' or 'im new' or 'i'm human stop blocking me' and put a picture of a random object. I don't need to know what you post about. But I am very worried you do not posses any bones, and you are hard failing on insight checks.

For those of you wondering, oftentimes bot, spam and scam accounts look pretty much identical to this. If you're wondering why people block you, this is why. Even something as simple as a headline, a description, and a neat icon is enough to distinguish you from those bot accounts.

Yep. I've recently had blogs that look like that follow me, then a day or two later they're updated to add their payload of spam. Some wait weeks before this happens. It's impossible to tell which blank accounts are going to do this, and which aren't.

The reason why we block spam accounts is not just because they're annoying. Those bots are designed to engage in search engine manipulation: tl;dr, modern search engines are updated by web crawlers, little programs that wander around the internet, clicking on links. The more links they find to a site from trustworthy sources, the higher a result may be placed in the rankings.

These Tumblr bots generate tons of links to the sites they're promoting, and links to other parts of Tumblr. This is intended to make them look like an integrated and trustworthy part of an established website. How effective is this technique? No idea. But that's part of the theory behind social media bots.

So for those newcomers who want to help us fight those bots, please go to your blog settings and give us a sign of life! Come join us in this disastrous little ball pit. It'll be great! I promise.

I know so much of the pre-election messaging is like VOTE!!! VOTE!!! IF YOU DON’T VOTE YOU’RE A MONSTER!! and that can get tiring after so many elections. So I want to take a moment after this election to say: so many of you clearly did get out and vote, despite not always having the most inspiring options, and with SO much on the line 18-29 year olds specifically helped win some of the most important and impactful races across America. So from one of the many “just vote” scolds on the internet: thank you!!