We don't see skuas much, at least here on the main two Islands. Skua are circumpolar and they live on some of the offshore islands. According to my bird book, the Southern Skua Catharacta antarctica "breeds on the Chathams, Solander, Stewart and outliers, Snares, Antipodes, Auckland and Campbell islands, and also on the Balleny Islands of the Ross dependency. A few pairs have nested in southern Fiordland." It says Southern skua eat penguin eggs and chicks or petrels, fish, eggs of other birds, dead marine mammals and seal placenta, and dead sheep and cattle (in the Chathams). They seem to be mainly scavengers, then, though it says they occasionally harass other birds and force them to regurgitate or drop their prey.
Other vagrant skua species also show up from time to time.
Loved reading this piece! Especially the various, brilliant names for the petrel - nelly, stinker, giant fulmar, glutton, stinkpot, sea vulture. So flattering! I adore petrels. Up here we have storm petrels, gorgeous little moth-like creatures that skim storms and somehow survive in the furious open ocean despite their lightness. A little different to the stinkpot, I think!
We have some beautiful little ones too. I live by Cook Strait, and if you cross on the ferry you will often see them out in the middle of the Strait. It’s like its own ecosystem out there.
So beautiful, all of it! I love how giving the gift of attention unlocks the vocabulary of the birds. Makes sense of their language—their utterances and movements. I really enjoy hearing about your scientific work—how it feeds your beautiful writing. And how it trained your attention. I’m reminded of many years ago, when I was married to a baseball fan and attended a lot of games. The pace of a baseball game sounds identical to your animal observation: a whole lot of nothing happens for a very long time, then all hell breaks loose for a few seconds, then instantly back to utter quiet. 🙂
Thank you Priscilla, I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Oh that's such an interesting parallel! I can imagine the brain needing to harness patience and attention in the same way but - as someone who never watches sports - I'd never even considered the similarity. Thank you for sharing!
How to describe trying to organise one’s own thoughts? The apothecary drawers, the tangled ear buds, those are such interesting analogies! I‘ve never thought of trying to describe it to someone else. It‘s got me thinking!
And your words about how you learned to focus your mind outwards through your work - beautiful. And yes, important and a kind of protest. What a great read. Thank you.
I‘ll forward this to my daughter who told me about seeing skuas when she was diving up that way.
Ooh let me know if you land on an analogy for your own mind! I am always so intrigued to hear what others experience in their heads. The thought of something as organised as a filing cabinet really blew my mind.
Thank you for the kind words, and for forwarding to your daughter! I hope she enjoys the piece.
I realised when thinking about this afterwards, Rebecca, that I have a near-constant "inner monologue" going on. And I was just looking up something I'd read that not everyone has an inner monologue, which seems unfathomable to me! I think mine helps me organise my thoughts, but can also exacerbate worry if I get onto a negative thought spiral.
Oh yes my mind was totally blown when I read that not everyone has a constant inner monologue - and that some people think entirely in pictures, and others have no way to picture something - word or image - at all. It is so fascinating, all these various ways we think. I guess I assumed most people who write would think with an inner monologue, but I recently read an interview with an author who does not have an inner monologue and also cannot imagine scenes/images. They said it makes them describe scenes in minute detail because they takd nothing for granted. Which further blew my mind. All these wonderful ways of being alive and creating!
I wrote this rather rambling piece about the shape of minds:
"I started asking other people whether their minds had a shape.
Mum: “Young people’s memory is like a supermarket, brightly lit, with everything on display, but when you get old it’s a dusty archive, like a musty old second-hand bookshop, with ladders and stacks; and you’re like, I know I left that somewhere, now where is it?”
@betweentwoseas and @wendyvarley this has me pondering an analogy for how I organize thoughts, too. I'm landing on several, and I suspect the one that makes me most uncomfortable is probably right. Definitely something to mull over...
It is such a challenging thing to give words to. I wasn't really a fan of my thoughts as tangled headphones but really felt that description captured them well, nonetheless. The joy for me has been hearing how others think. I am so fascinated by all this variation!
A bonxie’s a hard bird to love. Once I saw a bonny pair of mergansers on the loch by our house and went to get the binoculars. By the time I looked again a bonxie was ripping the male to pieces and eating it while the female looked on, bemused. A years ago a bonxie lifted all five cygnets, one by one while the parents could do nothing. And yet, they’ve been hit so hard by bird flu, I’m now relieved and glad when I do still see one or two. They’ve been very scarce here lately. I do miss that squat Spitfire bird and the ripple of disquiet that surrounds it. Beautifully observed writing, thank you.
Oh gosh I can imagine that was difficult to watch. Someone was telling me that they watched a pair work together to drown a gannet and then tear it apart. But I do love them, despite the brutality. I think it's interesting that there's such distaste for the behaviour of bonxies when they only do what an eagle or a fox or an orca are doing. Maybe something to do with them looking less predatory, so the brutality is unexpected? Or just that we actually observe the brutality, as it's much more common to see a bonxie making a kill than many other apex predators? I completely resonate with the relief of seeing them around after their decimation by bird flu. Hopefully their population will recover.
Wonderful descriptions. I'm quite envious of you having spent time researching jackdaw behaviour, they're such fascinating birds. There's a bus stop I often stand at, where I almost hope the bus will be late so i can watch the jackdaws (and other crows too).
They are such wonderful birds! So full of character and sweetness and mischief. Their lives, when I got to know them intimately, were like a soap opera. They are such sociable critters, and there was always some sort of drama (the most dramatic event i remember is when a male decided he wanted two partners, and his side piece came and laid eggs in his nest while his other, longterm partner was in their incubating her own eggs... chaos ensued!). I can imagine getting hooked in from the bus stop!
I have to practice paying attention too. Such a rewarding practice, though. And political!, I didn't see that coming 😊 And I can very much relate to the headphone situation! I have sometimes described what my mind produces as a mountain of pickup sticks blocking out the sun.. I agree with the others here, beautiful and inspiring prose! And I looked up pictures of the skua. Really looks like a bully!
Oh that's a good analogy, I like that one too. I think humans might broadly fall into two categories - those with the mess and those with the filing system - although I'm sure there must be a continuum, people tend to heavily relate to one or the other! Thank you for the lovely words.
Excellent essay Rebecca! 👏 Our most precious limited resources are our money, time and attention. We should invest them mindfully and wisely, and guard them against all those who would try to steal them.
I saw a skua once, sitting on a nest in the middle of a field, on Shetland. My brother gave it a wide berth, leave it alone he said. Why? Oh they're strange birds, they steal from other birds. I don't like them. So I have always heeded what he said, and now you write about them Rebecca, so beautifully and informatively.
Thank you, Rosalind! They are birds that many harbour suspicion of, and while their behaviour is sometimes brutal, I do have a soft spot for them still. I'm glad you enjoyed the piece!
What you've unpicked here is thousands of years of yoga philosophy: meditation, shedding one's ego becoming one. There are many different paths towards this goal. One of the analogies used is of a mountain - There are many paths up it, but only one summit. That you've taken the path of science is so interesting. And regarding my thought organisation, it's a vortex whirling debris too fast to catch hold of, hence the need for yoga 😅
Oh I love the idea of different paths up the mountain! And that science has been (unexpectedly) my path to getting closer to the peak. Thank you for sharing, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Completely relate to the tangled headphones! I, too, have found peace not by trying to sort them or control them, but to release my attention outwards into the many sentient beauties all around. 🙏
Ah yes. Kleptoparasitism.
Yes! Pirates of the sea, stealing others' treasure. There must be an NZ bird filling a similar niche? Or perhaps you have skuas too?
We don't see skuas much, at least here on the main two Islands. Skua are circumpolar and they live on some of the offshore islands. According to my bird book, the Southern Skua Catharacta antarctica "breeds on the Chathams, Solander, Stewart and outliers, Snares, Antipodes, Auckland and Campbell islands, and also on the Balleny Islands of the Ross dependency. A few pairs have nested in southern Fiordland." It says Southern skua eat penguin eggs and chicks or petrels, fish, eggs of other birds, dead marine mammals and seal placenta, and dead sheep and cattle (in the Chathams). They seem to be mainly scavengers, then, though it says they occasionally harass other birds and force them to regurgitate or drop their prey.
Other vagrant skua species also show up from time to time.
I haven't seen a skua, but I did see this freaky dead petrel on the Winter Solstice- a fellow carrion-eater: https://rosiewhinray.substack.com/p/beach-combing-journal-winter-solstice
Loved reading this piece! Especially the various, brilliant names for the petrel - nelly, stinker, giant fulmar, glutton, stinkpot, sea vulture. So flattering! I adore petrels. Up here we have storm petrels, gorgeous little moth-like creatures that skim storms and somehow survive in the furious open ocean despite their lightness. A little different to the stinkpot, I think!
We have some beautiful little ones too. I live by Cook Strait, and if you cross on the ferry you will often see them out in the middle of the Strait. It’s like its own ecosystem out there.
Lovely work, as always. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks so much Shay! So glad you enjoyed it.
Exquisite. I think ‘paying attention’ is ‘taking care’ - learning to listen in and act accordingly. Like you said, a rare trait in a distracted world.
And also, if you haven’t read the novel Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy, you must x
Oh I completely agree and I love that phrasing! I haven't read Migrations, but I will add it to my reading list. Thank you for the recommendation x
So beautiful, all of it! I love how giving the gift of attention unlocks the vocabulary of the birds. Makes sense of their language—their utterances and movements. I really enjoy hearing about your scientific work—how it feeds your beautiful writing. And how it trained your attention. I’m reminded of many years ago, when I was married to a baseball fan and attended a lot of games. The pace of a baseball game sounds identical to your animal observation: a whole lot of nothing happens for a very long time, then all hell breaks loose for a few seconds, then instantly back to utter quiet. 🙂
Thank you Priscilla, I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Oh that's such an interesting parallel! I can imagine the brain needing to harness patience and attention in the same way but - as someone who never watches sports - I'd never even considered the similarity. Thank you for sharing!
How to describe trying to organise one’s own thoughts? The apothecary drawers, the tangled ear buds, those are such interesting analogies! I‘ve never thought of trying to describe it to someone else. It‘s got me thinking!
And your words about how you learned to focus your mind outwards through your work - beautiful. And yes, important and a kind of protest. What a great read. Thank you.
I‘ll forward this to my daughter who told me about seeing skuas when she was diving up that way.
Ooh let me know if you land on an analogy for your own mind! I am always so intrigued to hear what others experience in their heads. The thought of something as organised as a filing cabinet really blew my mind.
Thank you for the kind words, and for forwarding to your daughter! I hope she enjoys the piece.
I realised when thinking about this afterwards, Rebecca, that I have a near-constant "inner monologue" going on. And I was just looking up something I'd read that not everyone has an inner monologue, which seems unfathomable to me! I think mine helps me organise my thoughts, but can also exacerbate worry if I get onto a negative thought spiral.
Oh yes my mind was totally blown when I read that not everyone has a constant inner monologue - and that some people think entirely in pictures, and others have no way to picture something - word or image - at all. It is so fascinating, all these various ways we think. I guess I assumed most people who write would think with an inner monologue, but I recently read an interview with an author who does not have an inner monologue and also cannot imagine scenes/images. They said it makes them describe scenes in minute detail because they takd nothing for granted. Which further blew my mind. All these wonderful ways of being alive and creating!
I wrote this rather rambling piece about the shape of minds:
"I started asking other people whether their minds had a shape.
Mum: “Young people’s memory is like a supermarket, brightly lit, with everything on display, but when you get old it’s a dusty archive, like a musty old second-hand bookshop, with ladders and stacks; and you’re like, I know I left that somewhere, now where is it?”
https://rosiewhinray.substack.com/p/skull-box-page-box-on-memory-palaces
That's a fascinating piece, Rosie, thanks for the pointer. The memory palace! I love that.
Loved this Rosie! Your journal entry about the structure of your mind was so beautiful. I will have to think about this.
Yes! I read about that author too, Rebecca. Extraordinary.
@betweentwoseas and @wendyvarley this has me pondering an analogy for how I organize thoughts, too. I'm landing on several, and I suspect the one that makes me most uncomfortable is probably right. Definitely something to mull over...
It is such a challenging thing to give words to. I wasn't really a fan of my thoughts as tangled headphones but really felt that description captured them well, nonetheless. The joy for me has been hearing how others think. I am so fascinated by all this variation!
A bonxie’s a hard bird to love. Once I saw a bonny pair of mergansers on the loch by our house and went to get the binoculars. By the time I looked again a bonxie was ripping the male to pieces and eating it while the female looked on, bemused. A years ago a bonxie lifted all five cygnets, one by one while the parents could do nothing. And yet, they’ve been hit so hard by bird flu, I’m now relieved and glad when I do still see one or two. They’ve been very scarce here lately. I do miss that squat Spitfire bird and the ripple of disquiet that surrounds it. Beautifully observed writing, thank you.
Oh gosh I can imagine that was difficult to watch. Someone was telling me that they watched a pair work together to drown a gannet and then tear it apart. But I do love them, despite the brutality. I think it's interesting that there's such distaste for the behaviour of bonxies when they only do what an eagle or a fox or an orca are doing. Maybe something to do with them looking less predatory, so the brutality is unexpected? Or just that we actually observe the brutality, as it's much more common to see a bonxie making a kill than many other apex predators? I completely resonate with the relief of seeing them around after their decimation by bird flu. Hopefully their population will recover.
Beautifully written. Thank you.
Thank you, Nancy!
Wonderful descriptions. I'm quite envious of you having spent time researching jackdaw behaviour, they're such fascinating birds. There's a bus stop I often stand at, where I almost hope the bus will be late so i can watch the jackdaws (and other crows too).
They are such wonderful birds! So full of character and sweetness and mischief. Their lives, when I got to know them intimately, were like a soap opera. They are such sociable critters, and there was always some sort of drama (the most dramatic event i remember is when a male decided he wanted two partners, and his side piece came and laid eggs in his nest while his other, longterm partner was in their incubating her own eggs... chaos ensued!). I can imagine getting hooked in from the bus stop!
Just love, love your beautiful writing. Thank you.
Oh thank you so much, this is so lovely to read x
I have to practice paying attention too. Such a rewarding practice, though. And political!, I didn't see that coming 😊 And I can very much relate to the headphone situation! I have sometimes described what my mind produces as a mountain of pickup sticks blocking out the sun.. I agree with the others here, beautiful and inspiring prose! And I looked up pictures of the skua. Really looks like a bully!
Oh that's a good analogy, I like that one too. I think humans might broadly fall into two categories - those with the mess and those with the filing system - although I'm sure there must be a continuum, people tend to heavily relate to one or the other! Thank you for the lovely words.
Grippingly written and full of interesting reflections about human and nonhuman beings.
Thanks so much, John! I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
Excellent essay Rebecca! 👏 Our most precious limited resources are our money, time and attention. We should invest them mindfully and wisely, and guard them against all those who would try to steal them.
Thank you!! And yes, I could not agree more!
I saw a skua once, sitting on a nest in the middle of a field, on Shetland. My brother gave it a wide berth, leave it alone he said. Why? Oh they're strange birds, they steal from other birds. I don't like them. So I have always heeded what he said, and now you write about them Rebecca, so beautifully and informatively.
Thank you, Rosalind! They are birds that many harbour suspicion of, and while their behaviour is sometimes brutal, I do have a soft spot for them still. I'm glad you enjoyed the piece!
What you've unpicked here is thousands of years of yoga philosophy: meditation, shedding one's ego becoming one. There are many different paths towards this goal. One of the analogies used is of a mountain - There are many paths up it, but only one summit. That you've taken the path of science is so interesting. And regarding my thought organisation, it's a vortex whirling debris too fast to catch hold of, hence the need for yoga 😅
Oh I love the idea of different paths up the mountain! And that science has been (unexpectedly) my path to getting closer to the peak. Thank you for sharing, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I’m going to share your post later with my Vajrasati yoga instructors WhatsApp group. This will be right up their street :)
Thank you!! Hope they enjoy it 🤍
Completely relate to the tangled headphones! I, too, have found peace not by trying to sort them or control them, but to release my attention outwards into the many sentient beauties all around. 🙏
Ah a kindred, slightly tangled spirit! 🤍