Bark Like A Fish, Damnit!


ursulav

Warblerbrau!

January 30th, 23:02: I was following an online conversation where someone was complaining (not without justice!) that people were much more interested in beer than in conservation.
My solution to this is to combine the two.
The Kirtland’s Warbler is endangered as all get out, breeds only in jack pine forests in Michigan, and is believed to number some 5000 individuals. On the bright side, that’s a lot more than there used to be and conservation efforts seem to be helping a lot.
This was a quick silliness, but if you really must have a print, far be it from me to stop you…

Originally published at Tea with the Squash God. You can comment here or there.
Tags: art

( 43 comments — Leave a comment )

merrycalliope

2013-01-30 11:04 pm (UTC)

Someone needs to actually brew a batch to use this label. Make it A Thing.

carmy_w

2013-01-31 05:28 pm (UTC)

Actually, I was thinking along the lines of Kevin & Ursula doing some home-brewing....

skellington1

2013-01-30 11:05 pm (UTC)

The beer/conservation intersection is clearly an under-served market. Heck, my dad goes out with his birding buddies for hours in the early morning, and then gets very excited about the beer for lunch -- the market is there! I'm sure of it!

neowolf2

2013-01-30 11:27 pm (UTC)

Obviously being all artsy and literary and creative, and being a gardener, and a birder, aren't enough for you.

You need to open a microbrewery!

gabyrippling

2013-01-31 12:06 am (UTC)

Oh man, this makes me wish there was a rum label with Cartagena's unofficial bird (the mariamulata, apparently commonly known in English as the great tailed grackle as far as I can glean).

Anyway, I would totally buy a beer whose proceeds went to a good cause like conservation and had a sweet label like this to inform me of that. .

kevinbunny

2013-01-31 12:24 am (UTC)

I would TOTALLY drink that.

ladywind

2013-01-31 12:29 am (UTC)

~facepalm~ And now in my head, The Goat & Spoon is also a microbrewery.
Damn, I wish I had that Hospitality degree...

t_c_da

2013-01-31 12:54 am (UTC)

The Kirtland’s Warbler is endangered as all get out, ... is believed to number some 5000 individuals.

Down my way we have some really endangered species, for example the Black Robin was down to 5 in 1980, and is now up to about 250 birds. Some spectacular work by Don Merton and his team went into getting them back to something approaching viability. NZ Post issued a stamp commemorating the female ("Old Blue") that single handedly brought them back from the brink when she eventually died, aged 14.

There are some interesting notes about what constitutes a minimum viable population in the Wikipedia article...

Love the poster, by the way!

ursulav

2013-01-31 03:24 am (UTC)

That is one helluva success story! Go, robins!

derakon

2013-01-31 01:05 am (UTC)

See, the way I read this is that the Warbler is being preserved. In beer.

I don't really like beer at the best of times and I don't think this would help any.

rev_ursa

2013-01-31 01:23 am (UTC)

May I pimp this to my many birder friends?

ursulav

2013-01-31 03:17 am (UTC)

But of course!

dark_phoenix54

2013-01-31 01:31 am (UTC)

Heinesiskin
Duck Equis
St. Pipit Girl

incandescens

2013-01-31 01:36 am (UTC)

That bird looks so happy. :)

ysabet

2013-01-31 02:07 am (UTC)

Hmmm... I've been wanting to get back into brewing; I may just have to do this-- IPAs are a favorite of mine. Maybe with some East Kent Golding or Columbus hops, ooohh.....

spotweld

2013-01-31 02:19 am (UTC)

Wow, tricky habitat. If I remember right Jack Pines only propagate after a forest fire has cleared the area.

ursulav

2013-01-31 03:25 am (UTC)

Even worse, they have to be young jack pines and at least 150 acres of them. It's a ridiculously specialized bird.

sauergeek

2013-01-31 05:46 am (UTC)

Given the reproductive needs of jack pines, Kirtland's Warblerbräu might want to be a rauchbier rather than an IPA.

mmegaera

2013-01-31 03:13 am (UTC)

All giggles and truly brilliant inspirations aside, I really do so admire how you give animal appendages handlike attributes without making them look like hands.

This is an excellent idea...

torakiyoshi

2013-01-31 03:22 am (UTC)

I have a friend who is touring Latin America right now... and one of his major observations is that beer is the major icebreaker for most of everything south of the Rio Grande, all the way down to where he is in south Argentina right now. People seem wary of strangers, until they've accepted a beer. The drink suddenly converts them to family, and they open up.

warclaw

2013-01-31 03:36 am (UTC)

It may just be my insane businessman side, but I can totally see one of the less serious-minded micro-breweries going for a whole line of these.

I mean, when you consider some of the offerings already out there....

Add in the conservation angle, and I bet you could get at least some serious interest...

http://sweetwaterbrew.com/vibe/environmental/
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/green-brew-pubs#slide-1
http://victorybeer.com/about-victory/victory-for-the-environment/

Seems like there are a few brew companies already inclined to conservation and environmental action...

Interesting, no?

snowy_owlet

2013-01-31 01:58 pm (UTC)

YES, for heaven's sake.

sanura

2013-01-31 03:38 am (UTC)

Great Ganesh, I love this so much. I don't even drink, but I'd probably buy a case of these for my alcoholically inclined friends. I must, however, point out that the umlaut goes over the a in bräu, despite the multitudes of American beer reviewers who write reviews with it over the u.

ursulav

2013-01-31 04:03 am (UTC)

Sadly, I have just learned this!

Sigh. Will fix tomorrow...

philaros

2013-01-31 09:00 am (UTC)

Speaking of fixing things, in the title of this post you transposed the R and B in "warbler" so it says "wabrler", which is hard to say and is also making my eye twitch. Please, won't you think of an editor's eye-twitch?

ursulav

2013-01-31 03:11 pm (UTC)

Dear me, missed that one!

hbruton

2013-01-31 03:56 am (UTC)

Love this! I was privilaged to see one of these guys at Point Pelee a couple years back. They had a ranger guarding it as there were lots and lots of excited birders. It was a real rock star moment!

dragonsong

2013-01-31 04:10 am (UTC)

I had to send this IMMEDIATELY to one of my homebrewing conservation grad student buddies.

banshea

2013-01-31 05:35 am (UTC)

Apropos of nothing... I read this, and I thought you could appreciate it, Ursula: http://notalwaysright.com/gonna-bay-for-it-now/26844

carmy_w

2013-01-31 05:26 pm (UTC)

OH.
MY.
GOD.

*wipes away tears of laughter*

I used to have a beagle. I thoroughly sympathize with that owner!

banshea

2013-01-31 06:02 pm (UTC)

I am very fond of beagles, but mostly because thus far all the beagles I've met have belonged to someone else.

carmy_w

2013-01-31 06:54 pm (UTC)

HAHAHAHAHA! Good point! And, in addition, preferably someone who does NOT live just right next door!

One of my bosses has beagles; I forwarded the link to him. Haven't heard back yet!

sabine791110

2013-01-31 12:00 pm (UTC)

If you do a label for a porter, I will totally buy it and put it on my next homebrew. It's going to be a dark cherry porter of deliciousness and I would love to dedicate it to whatever endangered critter you feel appropriate.

Hell, if you want, I'll design a line of beer just for you. Not IPA, though, since I don't like beer that hops on its own.

ursulav

2013-01-31 09:45 pm (UTC)

*grin* I'm sure we could work something out! Porter, huh? You know, the Parula Warbler is a gorgeous bird...

saribou

2013-01-31 01:14 pm (UTC)

*Awesome*

I would totally drink this.

On a side note, sorry if I was a spaz at FC. I was running on little sleep and lots of stress as my SO had surgery that weekend as well. :P Normally I try not to be so obnoxious!

ursulav

2013-01-31 03:10 pm (UTC)

You were a spaz? I totally didn't notice, so no worries! And I hope the SO is recovering well!

otterkin2

2013-01-31 03:13 pm (UTC)

I <3 you.

That is all.

zyada

2013-01-31 03:54 pm (UTC)

So we get a line of microbrews dedicated to preserving endangered birds.

Next, I suggest a line of artisanal cheeses dedicated to preserving endangered ungulates, or possibly herbivores in general.

And of course, we have to have a line of junk food helping the endangered carnivores.

So what other creature/product pairing should there be?

snowy_owlet

2013-01-31 04:07 pm (UTC)

Liqueurs in honor of endangered plants?

neowolf2

2013-01-31 04:43 pm (UTC)

Jellies in honor of endangered cnidarians!

Hot pockets in honor of endangered marsupials!

Linguini in honor of endangered tapeworms!

zyada

2013-01-31 06:33 pm (UTC)

"Hot pockets in honor of endangered marsupials!"

This made me laugh!

dornbeast

2013-02-01 12:29 am (UTC)

Linguini? Not vermicelli?

thatcatgirl

2013-02-01 10:02 pm (UTC)

I just like this, the bird is really cute, and it's just...really appealing. But, what got me to come back and comment on this was the chest feathers. I'm working on a pic of a critter that's part hummingbird and rendered lots chest and head feathers, and here is your little bird chest that looks so simple and SO RIGHT. O.O

( 43 comments — Leave a comment )

ursulav

Bark Like A Fish, Damnit!

Warblerbrau!

This is an excellent idea...