Bird eggs

Last night we watched another fascinating episode in PBS's Nature series hosted by David Attenborough. This one was about bird eggs, the variety of their characteristics, and the birds that make them. For example, the cuckoo doesn't make its own nest and hatch its eggs. It lays the egg in the nest of another bird -- a different species and mimicking the color and shape of its eggs -- and that bird hatches it (if successful).

Nothing was said about how the host behaves after the cuckoo egg hatches. Per Wikipedia, the cuckoo chick is much larger than a chick of the host species, but the host doesn't discriminate against a cuckoo chick. The host feeds a cuckoo chick as if it were the host's own.

The entire episode can be viewed online until May 8 here.

China From Above

Monday night I watched an episode of China From Above subtitled Dynamic Coast on the Smithsonian Channel. It was fascinating.

There were aerial views of the big cities with rising populations along the east and south coast.

Part of the episode was about fishermen on icy Chagan Lake. They caught fish from under ice using a huge net, catching several tons of fish in one haul. They have been doing this for many generations.

Part of it was about erecting offshore wind turbines for power generation.

I recommend watching the series. The whole episode of Dynamic Coast is online here, but it seems you have to be a subscriber to a streaming service or have cable TV service including the Smithsonian Channel to get online access. As a Spectrum cable TV subscriber, I am able to see it and two episodes from Season 1.