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This article originally appeared on 01.03.22

The pandemic has caused many people to reevaluate their surroundings. When you’re stuck at home more often than you’d like, you start to pay a lot more attention to what goes on in your own backyard.

This type of introspection inspired wildlife photographer Carla Rhodes to get a closer look at the furry friends that live near her home in the Catskill mountains of New York.

What she found was magical.

“The winter of 2020-2021 was particularly brutal to humankind. After months of enduring the Covid-19 pandemic, we were now collectively slogging through winter. As a result of being stuck at home, I focused on my immediate surroundings like never before,” Rhodes said in a statement.

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Rhodes positioned a DSLR camera trap beneath her bird feeder to get an up-close glimpse of the wildlife that came to sample her delicious seeds. The results are an incredible series of photos of birds and other woodland creatures from a vantage point most people never see. Rhodes calls her project, “Beneath the Bird Feeder.”

The birdfeeder photos also gave a new glimpse into the behavior of several species of birds and rodents that call the Catskills home.

“As I got deeper into the project, intriguing observations emerged,” Rhodes says. “I noticed distinct repeat visitors such as a Dark-Eyed Junco with an overgrown beak, a deer mouse with a notched ear, and an irruption of Red-Breasted Nuthatches. Dark-Eyed Juncos always showed up at the crack of dawn and Northern Cardinals would always be the last visitor of the day as dusk turned into evening.”

Here are 15 of the most captivating photos that Rhodes captured from beneath her bird feeder.

1. Dark-eyed junco

“Often overlooked and considered drab ground-feeding birds, Dark-Eyed Juncos hold a special place in my heart due to their funny and curious behaviors. Every day they were first to arrive beneath the bird feeder,” Rhodes says. “Dark-Eyed Juncos were one of the most frequent and curious subjects beneath the bird feeder.”

2. Dark-eyed junco

3. Dark-eyed junco

4. Tufted titmouse

According to All About Birds, the tufted titmouse is “common in eastern deciduous forests and a frequent visitor to feeders.”

5. Mourning dove

​”Observing Mourning Doves was a daily pleasure, especially when they gathered to form a clean-up crew beneath the bird feeder. Mourning doves are monogamous and possibly mate for life,” Rhodes writes.

6. Mourning dove 

7.  Mourning doves

8. Blue jay

“Blue Jays are known for their intelligence and complex social systems with tight family bonds,” All About Birds says. “Their fondness for acorns is credited with helping spread oak trees after the last glacial period.”

9. Northern cardinal

“Northern Cardinals were always the last to show up beneath the bird feeder, shortly after dusk every evening,” Rhodes writes.

10. Black-capped chickadee

“Little flocks of Black-capped Chickadees enliven the winter woods with their active behavior and their cheery-sounding chick-a-dee callnotes as they fly from tree to tree, often accompanied by an assortment of nuthatches, creepers, kinglets, and other birds,” the Audubon field guide to North American birds says.

11. Black-capped chickadee

12. Eastern gray squirrel

Eastern gray squirrels are important members of forest ecosystems as they play a vital role in dispersing seeds.

 13. American red squirrel

The American red squirrel is known for its distinct bushy and dark red tail with hints of a white outline.

14. American red squirrel

15. Northern short-tailed shrew

If you see a northern short-tailed shrew, be careful. It’s venomous and paralyzes its victims with poisonous saliva. In humans, a bite can cause swelling and intense pain.

The Baltimore Ravens entered this season wondering who would be the top receiver after trading Hollywood Brown to Arizona, and after Week 1 it was clear that Devin Duvernay was the most likely player to have a breakout season.

Duvernay picked up a pair of touchdown catches against the Jets, causing Calais Campbell to lament leaving him on his fantasy bench while watching the game from the sidelines, as his speed from the slot helped Baltimore replace some of what they lost from Brown’s departure. In Week 2, Duvernay picked up where he left off and didn’t need Lamar Jackson’s help to get into the end zone from the jump against the Miami Dolphins, as he hauled in the opening kickoff three yards deep in the end zone and took it to the house to put Baltimore up 7-0 with haste.

There’s a reason Duvernay was the AFC’s Pro Bowl return man a year ago, and he now has to be the frontrunner for that honor once again after this gorgeous return, setting up his blocks inside before breaking it to the sideline and flashing his terrific speed. It’s hard to start games better than that, and it’s even more rare to see return touchdowns in this era of fair catches putting the ball at the 25, as most teams just opt for that, but the Ravens have a special return man and show the benefit of that.

Post Malone took a nasty tumble on stage last night at the St. Louis stop of his “Twelve Carat Tour.” While on stage at the Enterprise Center, Post stepped into a hole on the stage.

Visibly hurt, Malone was escorted offstage by medics and given attention. He didn’t take too long to bounce back, as he returned to the stage about 15 minutes after, to an audience cheering “Posty, Posty, Posty!”

Post thanked the crowd for their patience and revealed he cracked three ribs. He continued to perform the rest of his set, however, he was clutching his ribs throughout the remainder of the set, visibly in pain.

Before Post continued with his set, a fan gave him a beer to comfort him.

In an interview with Billboard earlier this year, Post revealed that while touring is one of his favorite parts of being an artist, he admits that touring can be physically taxing.

“I love touring and I love meeting my fans and singing these songs with them,” he said, “but at the same time, it’s such an ass-kicker. My back kills me, my neck kills me, my feet kill me. There’s a lot to think about, and there’s a lot to focus on. You kind of have to have chameleon eyes and look every which way and keep track of what’s going on at all times. It’s the give-and-take. You give up so much and you receive it in love, and that’s what everything is about: feeling loved. That’s what everybody wants.”

Post is still scheduled to perform in Colombus, OH tonight.

One of the reasons Fox NFL Sunday has been as successful as it has for so long is that it has always had the vibe of a bunch of friends watching and talking about football — they just happen to also all be Pro Football Hall of Famers.

On this Sunday, though, that feeling of watching football with your buddies on the couch got a little too real when during a standup segment, someone tried to slip out a fart they thought would be quiet but instead was anything but, causing Jimmy Johnson to briefly stumble over his words from his remote seat as they tried to talk through it.

The standup segment has become a favorite of NFL shows, to create a little more casual conversation and just present a different look from the desk, but it also requires mics to pick up everything, including someone ripping one. Now, the real question is who slipped this not-so-silent one out, because, for one, they clearly tried to hold it in but couldn’t, and two, everyone else did their best to motor through but there’s a clear hesitation as soon as that sound is made from the entire set.

I’m going to exonerate Jimmy as a possible suspect, as he was in the middle of talking and I don’t think his remote mic would’ve picked that up so clearly — and also he looked thrown off by the noise in his ear. Curt Menefee and Michael Strahan The interaction between Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long points me to those two, particularly Bradshaw as he seems to try and cover it up by just making a weird noise and also it’d be incredibly on-brand.

If you are the kind of person who wants to remain as spoiler free of a game as possible before release then you may want to stay off the internet for the next few days. The next mainline Grand Theft Auto, one of the most anticipated games in recent memory, had a massive leak late Saturday night/early Sunday morning where videos of the next game in the series filled places like Twitter, YouTube, and other gaming message boards.

Games leaking during development is not entirely uncommon in this day and age, but usually, it’s a grainy screenshot or some extremely early footage nowhere close to the finished product. The leaks that we’ve seen from the next GTA are missions, gameplay set pieces, and fully voiced cutscenes. Even if it’s still in the early stages of production, it’s the kind of moments that are improved in development rather than outright removed. The leaks are very real too as confirmed by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier which he is currently calling “one of the biggest leaks in video game history.”

Those leaks are now running wild and have spread just about everywhere, but you have to feel for that development team over at Rockstar right now. Having your work leak out like this to the public, when it’s not even finished yet, is brutal on morale. There’s nothing anyone can do about it either. They’re just going to have to continue working on the game, making it the best they can, and hope everyone enjoys the finished product.

The New Orleans Saints will welcome the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Caesars Superdome on Sunday afternoon in an important early season game for New Orleans if they are to compete with the Bucs for the NFC South division crown.

However, they’ll be doing so shorthanded, as Alvin Kamara remains out with a rib injury and they also face a potential issue at quarterback, where Jameis Winston will be suiting up and starting despite four fractures in his back, according to Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer.

Winston will wear extra padding, but one has to wonder how many hits he’ll be able to take from a very aggressive Todd Bowles defense that lit up Dak Prescott and the Cowboys a week ago. The Saints backup is Andy Dalton, who has not had much success in recent seasons in spot duty in Dallas and Chicago, and Taysom Hill remains on the roster as someone who can take some snaps.

It seems risky for Winston to play through a back injury like this, even if doctors reportedly told him there’s no risk of further damage — which, seems hard to know for certain. It’s an important game but it’s still Week 2 of a 17-game season, and the Saints will need Winston as healthy as possible longterm if they’re going to compete for a playoff spot.

Who doesn’t love pizza? It’s delicious, it’s bad for you, and it’s versatile. You can put whatever you like on it, and it so inspires creativity that one city can have dozens of distinctive and delicious pies. But you know who doesn’t like pizza? Those who believe in Pizzagate. They’re so committed to their baseless (and dangerous) conspiracy theory that they even turned on one of the loudest purveyors of weird conspiracy theories.

As per The Daily Beast, TrumpWorld hanger-on and former Nixon fixer Roger Stone innocently posted a portrait of himself sitting in front of a pizza pie, while wearing a pepperoni necktie. He had no idea what he was in for. Soon Pizzagaters were hitting his mentions. “Really? Pizza Roger? Not a very good look with all that’s going on with all the perverts,” one person wrote. Said another, “Not a good look man. Delete or they use against u.”

Stone eventually responded. “Sometimes pizza is just pizza. Nothing more nothing less,” he wrote — a neat summary of how far into the weeds the GOP has gone. The next day, defiant against some of his nuttiest followers, Stone doubled down, writing, “Great Pizza is often found in the most unlikely places.”

Pizzagate was a conspiracy theory that took off in 2016, alleging that a “Democratic sex dungeon” was secretly housed in the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizzeria. Said pizzeria doesn’t even have a basement. Despite being easily debunked — and despite inspiring actual threats of violence — it was just the beginning, helping spawn the likes of QAnon. Apparently it never really went away.

(Via The Daily Beast)

A little less than two weeks until the release of Kid Cudi‘s upcoming album and Netflix animated series, Entergalactic, the audio portion of the album has appeared to leak online. Though Uproxx has not heard the alleged leaks of the album, fans immediately caught wind of the tracks and noticed a certain surprise.

Evidently, the tracks contain fart noises throughout.

The tracks appear to have been removed from Twitter and YouTube, however, fans were quick to address the flatulent sounds, and also to point fingers at Kanye West and Mike Dean.

“F*ck you for leaking #Entergalactic,” said one Twitter user. “@KidCudi put his heart and soul and multiple years into this project and some petty f*ckers who can’t hop off Kanye and Mike Dean’s d*ck leak it weeks before release with fart noises all over it? Grow the f*ck [up], [you’re] the reason society sucks.”

Another Twitter user accused Dean of leaking the album, saying, “I used to think @therealmikedean was cool until I realized he’s just an old weirdo that spreads Twitter hate and acts like a childish school bully lmao. Mf leaked [Cudi’s] album cus he didn’t make the cut of the tour, sh*ts immature and weird to me, especially for a dude that’s like 70.”

Dean has since denied the accusations, and responded to fans using middle finger and poop emojis.

Entergalactic is out 9/30 via Republic, and the accompanying animated series will premiere on Netflix the same day. You can pre-save the album here.

Ever since the FBI searched the resort he now lives in, emerging with evidence that may land him in the slammer, Donald Trump’s rally speeches have gotten even longer and even scarier. On Saturday, the former president was in Youngstown, Ohio, attempting to beef up one of his so-so candidates, J.D. Vance. But his speech was mostly about him. It was dark, ominous, bleak, filled with barely-veiled threats against his many, many enemies. But Trump being Trump, he couldn’t help but do a few lighthearted detours, such as reminding everyone about the so-called pee tape.

At one point, Trump brought up the “phony Steele dossier,” referring to the largely discredited 2016 report that alleged, among other things, that Russia had some truly strange dirt on the then-presidential candidate. The most lurid involved a tape of Russian hookers bathing him in urine. There has never been any proof that such a horrific-sounding video exists, but Trump just keeps bringing it up anyway, including on Saturday.

“How would you like to be me and go home and explain that one to my wife? ‘Darling, it wasn’t true, I swear it wasn’t!’” he joked to the crowd. If people had forgotten about the pee tape — and it was five years and thousands of Trump scandals ago — he was there to remind you. “Remember that one? With the hookers from Russia.”

In the meantime, Trump is set to fly across the Atlantic to attend not the Queen’s funeral but a memorial service, where he’ll have to hobnob with all the other former presidents who don’t like him. While he’s doing that, the lawyers he’s actually paying this time will be a little busy trying to keep him out of jail.

(Via Insider)

So much is available on streamers, and yet plenty of films fall through the cracks. For instance, did you know you still can’t legally stream Cocoon, the sixth highest grossing movie of 1985? The same goes for Dogma, Kevin Smith’s all-star, debatably blasphemous religious epic and the biggest moneymaker in his View Askew-verse. It’s not on any streamers and the Blu-ray is out of print, leaving consumers with only an old, low-res DVD. What’s going on there?

In a new interview with The Wrap, Smith explains the convoluted story of why Dogma is lurking in copyright purgatory, but the short version: It’s Harvey Weinstein’s fault. Smith made Dogma for Miramax, when it was still run by the Weinstein brothers but owned by Disney. Then Disney CEO Michael Eisner balked at the idea of releasing Dogma, fearing the religious backlash. So Weinstein sold the theatrical rights to Lionsgate (“Pre-Katniss Everdeen and the vampires that sparkle,” as Smith put it), but retained the rights.

Jump to fall of 2017 and Smith got a call from Weinstein, asking if he’d be interested in doing a sequel or series or something with Dogma. A week later, reports of Weinstein’s alleged history of sexual misconduct came out. Smith, like most in the industry, cut ties with him. Meanwhile, Dogma’s rights got lost in the shuffle.

Smith tried to buy back the rights, but Weinstein was asking a fortune for it. Besides, he said, “we felt very dirty about because we didn’t want to give him money.” But at the same time, it’s his movie. “He’s holding it hostage. My movie about angels is owned by the devil himself. And if there’s only one way out of this, maybe we could buy it away.”

The rights are now owned by some mystery company, which Smith thinks might secretly be owned by Weinstein. He’s still working on trying to get it back. “My movie about heaven is in limbo,” he said. “What sucks is that he’s also sitting his fat ass on my movie. And the right thing to do would have been to sell it back to me even if you didn’t want to sell for the price that I first said.” He added, “Tell us what that price is and sell me my self-expression back.”

Dogma was Smith’s follow-up to Chasing Amy, and it was his biggest movie to date. It stars Linda Fiorentino as an abortion clinic counselor related to Jesus Christ who goes on an epic journey involving murderous renegade angels (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon), a nicer but easily agitated angel (Alan Rickman), a demon (Jason Lee), an apostle (Chris Rock), a muse (Salma Hayek), a cardinal (George Carlin), and, of course God (played by both Bud Cort and Alanis Morissette). Well, at least you can watch Clerks III.

(Via The Wrap)