On the Wing #10: National Geographic Wing Syndrome
The dreaded NGWS as seen on a Northern Gannet. As you can probably guess from the title, I have a bone to pick with the National Geographic Field Guide System. Recently while plodding around the internet looking for a way to get more species on my life list, I noticed an advert for Seven Seas Whaling Trips out of Gloucester, MA. While I'm thrilled that they've been seeing several pelagic species (Sooty ( Puffinus griseus ) and Great Shearwaters ( P. gravis ) mainly), my eye was drawn to a particular picture on the Northern Gannet ( Morus bassanus ) page. It was an image of a Northern Gannet doing something I'd never thought I'd see a bird do ever in the wild. It was making "the pose". "The pose" I'm referring to is National Geographic Wing Syndrome (NGWS for short) and can be seen in the picture on the right. Of course, one could argue it's just the positioning of the bird at a slight angle as to give the suggestion of the wing bending in...