Swallows - Tumblr Posts

Day 24 of posting cute creatures we found on our field trip:

Sand martin (Riparia riparia) is one of the smallest species of swallows. It weighs only around 14g and has a tiny wingspan of 20cm. As all swallows it feeds on small flying insects, but unlike most swallows it doesn’t build its nests. Instead it makes nests by digging holes in sandy cliffs.

These birbs are researched by my ornithology professor. And she adores them. Like she baby talks them all the time as she takes measurements and places little aluminum rings on their tiny legs. “Aww, you’re a wittle baby boy” “Aww such a smaw wittle girl” etc. were things I heard from one the best experts in my country and it was glorious.

I already had ornithology courses with her so she let me show some other pupils how to untangle these birds out of ornithological net and how to properly handle them. But I didn’t work with swallows before, just with pigeons and bee eaters and they are so much bigger. Holding this swallow made me near convulse from cuteness. It’s so soft. And so tiny and light, it feels like holding a sentient furball.

After being ringed, birds are let go and we can track their movements as other scientists catch them again in other countries. It’s an old and very reliable method, especially for birds this small that can’t carry gps devices.

Agreed, swallows and their relatives (particularly house martins) were a familiar sight where I grew up (in the UK), and house martin nests were always something quite special to see!

The only other birds that I've personally seen nesting on buildings are white storks (that was in Germany), but that was mostly on chimneys, and they definitely don't fit the rest of the description!

I've always heard the 'no feet' thing about swifts, though I don't know how much bestiary writers would have differentiated between superficially similar birds, though I do know that idea was translated into the heraldic 'martlet' (whose name I assume was derived from 'martin'.

This was another fun challenge and, again, there's quite a variety of interpretations given the description. The cloud of dust as frowny faces was not intentional, but I can definitely see it now :D

Bestiaryposting Results: Yaggzrok

Welcome to the results of this week's bestiaryposting! Another smaller group of pictures -- I'm hoping this is due to liminalmas and the current run of Birds, and stuff will pick up once we get through them.

Interestingly, multiple artists indicated that they guessed what bird this is, which I found surprising -- I didn't think there were any particular tells, but I'm not an ornithologist, so maybe there's something in here that makes it really obvious but I don't know enough about [redacted] to recognize it as a characteristic behavior.

If you don't know what this is about, you can get an explanation at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting. The entry the artists are working from is here:

So, results in roughly chronological order:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has done a watercolor this time, and as with their previous work, it looks very much like something that Could Be a real animal while not actually being identifiable as an existing species. Like, I wouldn't even blink seeing this in one of those old nature guides where they use paintings instead of photographs (like Audobon or something, though Audobon's style is different). I'd just go "huh, I haven't seen that bird in particular", but fully believe that it's a real species without thinking twice. Anyway, I like them. I think the watercolor came out really well; it has a cozy feel to it. The post linked above has an explanation of design decisions and what real-world birds they took inspiration from.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has depicted a series of different Yaggzrok behaviors. (And described them in their own alt text, thank you.) We see it flying in loops over the water, building its nests on stable houses, collecting mud & twigs, and catching insects on the wing. I continue to be impressed by their proficiency with a fountain pen -- check out that feather detailing. They've also done that thing I really enjoy where background elements are given traditional medieval forms just 'cause; I get a kick out of seeing weird plants or whatever and going, "hey I know that tree, that's Quercus blorbo from my illuminations". In this case, it's not just the trees, but also that bug in the bottom-right panel. I also like the depiction in the upper right of the Yaggzrok being able to recognize what buildings are about to fall and not nesting on them -- poor little villager, though. (And I don't know if this is intentional, but the detailing on the cloud of dust looks to me kind of like a cluster of frowny faces.) As usual, their linked post contains a nicely detailed account of their design decisions and how they relate to the text of the entry, which of course you should check out.

@karthara (link to post here) has drawn us a very fancy-looking Yaggzrok -- I like the light blue spots. They note that they drew inspiration from various species of bird that commonly nest in human habitation, which makes sense. The expression on the birds' faces here is cute as hell, also.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) returns with a watercolor Yaggzrok -- I like the color palette here. This is an interesting interpretation of its nest, which I think really works: the entry is really focused on how regular and well-constructed the nest is, so making it a sphere instead of the more familiar bowl shape makes sense. (I know there are a wide variety of shapes of bird nest, including spheres, but I usually picture the bowl kind and I think that's not just me.)

Speaking of fancy nests, @coolest-capybara (link to post here) has decided to take that to its most absurd possible conclusion, which I absolutely love. Seriously, this is amazing. Like, no, it's not just that their nests are better constructed than those of other birds, they build nests that look like actual human buildings. Nice ones. Look at that thing. It has crenellations and arches and those Gothic windows. Also, I didn't notice this until I read the post explaining the design but the bird in the top left is using its muddy wingtips to paint decorations on the walls and the one in the bottom left is inspecting a crack. Naturally they need to be able to hover in order to do these tasks, which is why these take inspiration from hummingbirds. Brilliant. This is also the only one to depict the healing ability, I think -- that's what's going on in the bottom right. And, of course, this is a gorgeous drawing in general.

Anyway, that's our art for this week, so let's hop over to the Aberdeen Bestiary for their take.

That's a pretty identifiable illustration, despite its relative simplicity. Yes, this week's animal is the swallow. I wonder if the extra circular border is meant to be representative of its nest.

Since I think the majority of our artists indicated that they thought they'd guessed its identity, I'd be curious to know how many were correct and what part of the entry clued them in. (I'm guessing most were correct, as the number of forked tails in the designs seems like a sneaky hint to me.) I legitimately didn't think this one was obvious, so now I want to know what I missed.

After all, coconuts aren't mentioned anywhere.

Me

Sadako, the female ghost from The Ring, appearing at a japanese baseball game between the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Yakult Swallows.

Me

Sadako, the female ghost from The Ring, appearing at a japanese baseball game between the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Yakult Swallows.

As you may have seen @katerinaaqu and I have been discussing about a head canon of hers, tatted Odysseus.

For a while we searched for Scythian tattoos as they are the closest society that allowed tattoos, we weren´t sure if in Mykenean Greece they were frowned upon but in classical Greece they were (criminals, shady or barbaric people wore them).

So to make it plausible we came up with this idea: in the middle of the Troyan war in a resupply day, Menelaus and Agamemnon find Odysseus been tattooed an olive tree by a Scythian, perplexed by this they told him that it was a nothing a king should do, shady look.

But Odysseus told them it was a memory of his home of Penelope and Telamachus, that at least if he died there it would have died with his family. Also is a display of Ody´s more flamboyant personality traits, he didn´t tattoed a small olive or branch, nonono, he tattoed a whole tree!.

As the real design is composed of branches inspired by Scythians tattoos of deer´s antlers, (the lack of trees in the steppes prevented them from forming a more floral and plant style; being deer's antlers where we find more plant 'like designs),

The olive flowers are simplifications of the actual flower,

Flowers for my beautiful wife, whom I longed for, for years

The leaves are blackouts of the originals and the olives are also simplifications.

The sweet fruit of my dear Telemachus whom I never saw growing

The images below are the sketches I made for having an idea of the placement and elements we wanted to include.

We chose the upper arm as it was more concealable and only be fully revealed to Penelope.

As you can see there´s a swallow drawing, it has it reasons, swallows (Hirundo rustica) have a year migration and came back to Europe and Greece in spring, being heralds of the season and all that entails (hope, regrowth, fertility...) but the most important attributes for us were; (Athena transforms into a swallow and flies away from Telemachus in the Odyssey). Also it is mentioned that the chord of Odysseus's bow "sang like a swallow" when he used it to kill the suitors symbolizing his homecoming.

Swallows have always been linked to journeys specially to homecoming. They idea was of one swallow (Odysseus) but swallows are paired and as a small reminder, the biggest and most ornate is Penelope, fully in flight and more artistically and Odysseus is the one below more naturalistic as he is lesser in his eyes than her. The swallows are more linear and not painted as it also seems more secretive and blank spaces for everyone except him (So he can say everything I have been writing to her)

These is the final rendition of the idea!

I hope you have enjoyed and that it becomes your new headcanon!

@katerinaaqu thank you so much for everything! It has been a pleasure!