Bird Blind

[woozy]

So here's one about bird watching.

The grids a little tough and I have no idea if the meta is easy or hard but themers are at least easy to find.

The answer to the meta is.... something.

https://crosshare.org/crosswords/kiTCvM ... bird-blind

[Cap'n Rick]

Holy cow! Confirmed on Crosshare! Thanks for the workout, @woozy!

[Meg]

Crosshare confirmed. I spent some time with the answer without realizing it was the answer, but that’s how we roll in the metaverse. Nice construction!

[whimsy]

Got all the pieces of the grid in place and from there it was a whirl -- Fun!
Thanks, woozy!

[edestlin]

Oof that grid chewed me up, but the meta (with some Google) made it a satisfying puzzle. Nice job, woozy!

[benchen71]

Good one. Tricky grid, which is what we've come to expect from a woozy puzzle. But the meta was really good. Your best yet!

[woozy]

By the way.... How many does does it say to the reveal? As the creator it... doesn't actually show me. I've been publishing my crosswords privately and making them public later but I don't know how that effects the hide the reveal for a week.

[whimsy]

By the way.... How many does does it say to the reveal? As the creator it... doesn't actually show me. I've been publishing my crosswords privately and making them public later but I don't know how that effects the hide the reveal for a week.

Just went to check it for you but it doesn't show once you've solved, which makes sense.

[woozy]

Should I be giving nudges? I'm sure everyone who was ever interested in this has gone but ... nudges are fun.

A bird blind is a man made structure or wall with slats cut out so the observer can look through the slats in a wall to see birds

We are going to go bird watching. We look for seven birds and one meta answer.

Did you find all the birds? Remember, we are behind a bird blind.

What about the answer?

Remember we are looking at the answer through the bird blind too

[hoover]

Should I be giving nudges? I'm sure everyone who was ever interested in this has gone but ... nudges are fun.

We're not all gone. Some of us were just really lost until we came back to find these nudges.

This was a metanism I hadn't seen before.

[woozy]

Okay, reveal.

This is our bird blind:

It allows us to look through the first, third, sixth and ninth letter and blocks out the rest.

This is our marshland:

So when we look at the clues with Latin names for bird genera through the birdblind:




we see the birds:

(The across birds are HAWK, IBIS, SWAN, TERN and WREN. The down birds are DUCK (which I wasn't able to show graphically at the same time as IBIS as the unblocked ninth letter in IMBECILES is a blocked fifth letter of DRUGSCOOK) and LARK (which I wasn't able to show simultaneously with TERN for a similar reason).

The clue with the (faux) Latin Phrase "Metam Resonsum" is our "Meta Answer"

If we don't look through the bird blind it is

WHITENING

But through the bird blind it appears as

WING.

And WING is the answer.

[benchen71]

Very cool metanism!

[madhatter5]

Wow that is brilliant