Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but at least
Disney/Disney+ will be releasing both ‘Mulan-2020’, and ‘The Falcon and the
Winter Soldier’, into public access by august 2020, so some bright news are
ahead after all. What next?
Well, today I wanted to talk about the peregrine falcon,
which is the bird when it comes to falconry, but first – DC had released the
trailer for ‘Superman: The Man of Tomorrow’ that is coming later this year, (or
next year, whichever date will be better), so let’s mention it first.
What is S: TMT? It
is DC’s reboot of its animated videos’ franchise, especially of the titular Superman.
So far, he looks very much like his initial model, (from the 1990s’ animated
series’ onwards), whereas Luis Lane looks less pin-upy as she did before.
…Judging by the trailer, Superman will be dealing with Lobo
and the Parasite; there is also a scene of him interacting with Lex Luthor, but
it is quite brief, and so there is no certainty as to how specifically the
interactions between those two will go. True, it probably will not be good – there
is no incarnation in which Clark and Lex ever remained friends, even if they
were friends to begin with – but the details are not available yet.
Lex aside, it was also revealed that Superman would be
facing off with Lobo and the Parasite. Lobo appears to be largely like his
1990s cartoon version as well, though he seems to have trouble standing up to
Superman now – in the 1990s version onwards he actually could, through sheer
physical badassery. In this trailer, however, he seems to have a green
kryptonite ring…either that or a Green Lantern ring, but the latter version
seems to be too far out – Lobo just is not a real Green Corps’ material, you
know? …In any case, we see the Martian Manhunter come to help the Man of Steel
out, the two aliens bond, and the rest of the trailer is dedicated to the
Parasite, who is a Superman villain who had fallen out of fashion since the
1990s, and who got a feral new look, rather reminiscent of the White Martians
from the ‘Supergirl’ TV show at their worst. Since unlike Lobo and the Man of
Steel himself, the Parasite used to be an ordinary human who acquired his
powers by accident, it will be interesting to see if Lex Luthor is behind it,
say – but for now, this is it. Now about the peregrine falcon?
…Here is the punchline – while the Man of Steel is faster
than a speeding bullet is, the peregrine falcon is the fastest of modern birds,
and probably the fastest of modern animals, period. All falcons are built for
speed, but the peregrine – especially so; its’ primary trick is to get high
above its’ prey and then swoop down upon it; each of its’ feet has a
specialized, extra-large talon, so if the peregrine scores a direct hit, a bird
the size of a hooded, or an American, crow, can be sliced almost in two.
But that is the peregrine. It is one of the bigger falcons,
(the biggest modern falcon is the gyrfalcon, which lives in Arctic and is not
as known, especially in the New World, as the peregrine is). Smaller falcons,
like the merlin, have their own tricks – in particular, hovering, meaning that
they channel their inner helicopter, (rather than airplane), and stay in one
spot in midair, trying to zoom-in on their prey, usually something like a mouse
or a large insect, (small falcons, remember?). But normally, falcons prefer to
eat other birds.
More precisely, while hawks hunt among trees and eat primarily
both birds and arboreal mammals such as tree squirrels, and eagles often prefer
to hunt various mammals, period, (but we’ll talk about the eagles at a different
date), the falcons are bird specialists…unless they’re like the crested
caracara, of which we have talked yesterday. The ecology of modern birds is a
complex bag, and we will be talking more about it later.
…For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!
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