Sucked into a Steemit vortex by a couple of bird cushions.

There I was walking down the road minding my own business when my eyes fell upon a couple of bird cushions in a shop window.

(Photo taken in Newtown, Wellington New Zealand by @sift666)

They were pretty cool cushions; one of them depicted a Tui, a well known and iconic New Zealand bird. But the other one had a long curved beak and was not a bird I’d ever seen.

Turns out those two birds have very different back stories – one good and one not so good.

The Tui

Image – http://www.wildlight.co.nz

We often get a few Tui in our garden making freaky noises.

“Tui are boisterous, medium-sized, common and widespread bird of forest and suburbia. They look black from a distance, but in good light tui have a blue, green and bronze iridescent sheen, and distinctive white throat tufts (poi). They are usually very vocal, with a complicated mix of tuneful notes interspersed with coughs, grunts and wheezes. In flight, their bodies slant with the head higher than the tail, and their noisy whirring flight is interspersed with short glides”

http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/tui

The New Zealand Woodpecker (Huia)

http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectdetails.aspx?irn=653240&term=huia

Turns out the curved beak bird on the other cushion was a NZ woodpecker (Huia), a species that along with several other iconic NZ bird species, was hunted into extinction by the Maoris, who had a bit of a thing for wearing their tail feathers. The last one ever seen was in 1907.

“The huia was the largest of the five New Zealand wattlebird species. It was a striking large songbird, mainly black with long white-tipped tail feathers. Female and male huia had dramatically different bill sizes and shapes; this was the most extreme sexual bill dimorphism of any bird species”

http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/huia

There are no photos of Huia around because they have been extinct for 110 years, but here is another Tui pic:

Image - http://petitpoulailler.tumblr.com/image/122105038755

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MY WHOPPING GREAT STEEMIT SIGNATURE

Because sometimes I like to do short posts with pictures, art, photos, and funny stuff, and then there is bugger all in my post, I need a whopping great signature to put at the bottom of my short posts to give them some beef.

On my longer posts I’m really just including it to go on about myself, but what the hell, we all need to blow our own trumpet sometimes.

@cheetah likes to point out that I’m plagiarising my own signature, but he is also voting for me, and a vote is a vote, so I’ll call that a good thing.

@sift666 is my Steemit alias. As 666 is the number following 665 and preceding 667, and I’m using the number here on my Steemit account, it might mean I’m a worshiper of Satan. Or it could indicate that I have troll tendencies I need to work out with myself.

My real name is Ian Gregson, aka wheels007. I’m a professional sifter from Wellington New Zealand. My interests include photography, conspiracies , web design, writing, nutrition, art, design, philosophy, technology, anarchy, health, computers, humour (humor), gratuitous arse shots, and anything that makes my eyes bulge while I make squeaking sounds (except torture).

Back in the glory days of Steemit (August 2016), I once made $404 for a post and went on a three day bender. It took months to work off the after effects of the hangover and I’m still attempting to understand how that ever happened.

I’m currently developing a new website portal to rival Steemit called www.frot.co.nz where I’m testing out a new feature called “frottage” that may revolutionise blogging and create a global paradigm shift.

Photos and pictures labeled @sift666, www.sift.co.nz or www.frot.co.nz are my own creations, while pictures with no credits are sometimes ones I found in my image collection and have no idea where they originally came from, or might be my own photos that I haven't put a signature on.

Otherwise, due to pressure to conform, I’m having a crack at including an image credit beneath each picture I copy off the internet. I do have opinions on this subject, but am practicing putting a sock in it.

To tell the truth I often have no idea what I’m going to post next, but I will be sure to include pictures. If you are a person who prefers mainstream opinion, my posts may not be entirely your cup of tea. But if you like to dwell on the wild fringes of conspiracy theory, or you are a whale with a massive blowhole, you might like to follow me on Steemit. It would be great to have you on board.