The body of this goose is upside-down, but he has turned his head rightside-up. Photographed in turbulent weather and explained thus: 
And a video of the process:
“It looks like this bird is in mid-whiffle,” he said. “When geese come in to land from a great height they partake in a bout of whiffling, this involves the bird twisting and turning to spill air from their wings and thus lowering their speed prior to landing. In 36 years of birdwatching I have seen this many times, particularly when watching pink-footed geese on the north Norfolk coast coming in to roost in the late afternoon and evening. I have, however, never seen a photograph of a bird in mid-whiffle like this. It is an amazing photograph.”
Reposted from 2009 to add another photo, from Pictojam -
This was the best video I could find on YouTube of whiffling [why does almost everyone take a perfectly good nature video and then superimpose an annoying unrelated music track?]
Note: Pictojam is a new website developed by one of my oldest cyberfriends. It is very TYWKIWDBI-esque in terms of content. Please take a moment to view the site, and if you have comments or suggestions for changes, please feel free to leave them on this post.
I didn't know that there was a word for it or that "whiffle" was anything but onomatopoeic nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI can believe they do that, having watched a lot of birds, but the light makes it seem so smooth and featherless, like a 3D animation figure simulating the move, and not a real photo.
ReplyDeleteI kept expecting one of them to say, "Aflac."
ReplyDeleteA poster overlaying their preferred sound track is akin to young men in their cars playing their favourite music loudly at traffic lights .... there is only the one person enjoying the noise.
ReplyDeleteI guess it is a symptom of wanting to fit in, although it has the totally opposite effect.
I would like to see a video (with or without Beethoven's Ninth ... I have a mute button) of modern day jets, passenger or military, performing the whiffle.
Here are some fighter jets wiffling:
Delete1. https://fb.watch/7ljIgigtlr/
2. https://youtu.be/dZg0jZfI6Cg
3. https://youtu.be/r_DN7Ky_CUg
4. https://youtu.be/r3h2PIo0tt0