June 2011
3 posts
Focusing on the Owl →
He’d been sitting there for twenty minutes, tooting at the young Red-tailed Hawk soaring over head. The hawk was attempting to mind its business, but two Common Ravens were relentlessly…
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Natasha VC: The Bird as Symbol in Current Culture →
I appreciate the overall message, but Natasha you ain’t know shit about birds. Even if you aren’t being literal. Birds bleed, raise their young tenderly, they can tear shit apart just as well as a mammal. And they are warm blooded you dumbshit. I know, I know - not the point of this at all, but your comparisons are very silly. You should respect birds.
natashavc:
I first noticed...
February 2011
1 post
Pak Thale and Spoon-billed Sandpipers →
Sometimes I question my sanity. Here I was, halfway around the world, standing next to fields of salt. I wasn’t lost, I intended on arriving here at some point. But did I really need to…
January 2011
2 posts
Doi Suthep and the First Steps in Tropical Asian... →
Culture shock can come in many forms. I’ve been struggling with something people keep repeating here: “they eat all the animals.” Deciphering whether this is Western racism or simple…
Bangkok to Chaing Mai →
“I wish our common birds were ridiculously colorful.”
Ryan, Scott, and I were eating a “breakfast” of Pad Thai in Chaing Mai, on plastic seats in a street stall facing the river Pai….
December 2010
1 post
November 2010
4 posts
Interview: Ben Freeman and a Spine of Papua... →
Brendan McGarry: I’m guessing that you were working hard for a short period of time and that was about it – did you have any time for recreating or was it just eat, sleep, work?
Ben…
Interview: Ben Freeman and a Spine of Papua... →
Just in case you didn’t snicker enough in the last interview that my initials are BM, here’s another, equally fascinating and envy inspiring conversation. A benefit of starting out young…
Interview: Ben Winger – On Expeditions and Bird... →
I interviewed Ben, a fellow bird nerd and real deal Ornithologist, this fall about exciting expeditions he’s taken in the name of science. Enjoy!
Ben Winger is a graduate student in the…
October 2010
2 posts
The Museums Pt. II →
An ornithological collection is not a bunch of stuffed birds. Devoid of 15-some data points, dutifully transcribed on individualized tags, they would be merely wonders of preservation….
Review: Ghost Bird →
I decided to write a review of the movie instead of listening to someone “uh-huh” me while they played video games. After watching a documentary about an extinct bird, the last thing I…
September 2010
6 posts
San Luis and the Leiton Finca Part I →
After visiting the Ara Project (www.hatchedtoflyfree.org) near San Jose my family and my friend Tiffany (we both studied at La Selva Biological Station in 2006 through a program at The Evergreen…
The Museum →
The landscape of presentation, the selective facts that drive inquisition, and the visual stimulus, combine in the best cases for endless learning. It can be overwhelming because for…
Migration! →
Migration happens once every year. And then again maybe 6 months later.
Really it depends on an number of factors, but around here, starting in late July and extending through late…
Photo Blast: Cactus Wren →
The Cactus Wren is the state bird of Arizona, but that is probably the least interesting of designations. More importantly it is also a member of one of the largest genera of wrens Campylorhynchus
LEWO! →
“Holy Shit, there’s a fucking Lewis’s Woodpecker in the backyard. I gotta call you back.”
I was talking with my friend Ryan on the phone about birding, standing in my parents’ jungle of a suburban…
Summer Ornithology →
As the nighthawks fly with lazy yet determined wing beats I know the road to Hart Mountain is approaching. I’ve been greeted by nighthawks here before. I watch them as I turn onto Hart…
August 2010
1 post
“Follow your bliss”
– Joseph Campbell
July 2010
3 posts
Photoblast #6: Imagination and Nature →
I tend to subscribe to the notion that modern Western society likes to ignore our necessity for the natural world. Frontier living especially, put our predecessors literally at odds…
Avian Beauty →
While I write my next excerpt from my recent trip to Costa Rica I couldn’t help but post this photo of a male Gyrfalcon. I was able to sit with this bird today, on my fist. As I looked at…
Seattle’s Common Nighthawks →
(Quick note – I always strive to use either my own photos or those of my contributors but sometimes you just don’t have the photos you need!)
Two Common Nighthawks (Chordeiles minor)…
June 2010
6 posts
Photoblast #5: New World Water →
One of my favorite musicians, Mos Def, wrote a song about it (give it a listen). Water is a basic necessity yet we seem to have a damned hard time keeping it clean and…
Horrific Deepwater Impacts →
Drew Wheelan has been doing an incredible job of covering the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill through blogging and video content managed by the American Birding Association. If you ask me, this…
Photoblast #4: The Light →
This photo of a Hooded Oriole is an embodiment of enjoying nature. Exploration of living systems is fleeting and one amasses their database for comprehension with repetitious events like…
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MABO 2010 →
A far parcel of Oregon houses a lasting corner of my imagination. Down a seemingly endless road of silty dust, potholes, and bovine distressed shrub steppe, I find myself at a gate in…
May 2010
32 posts
2 tags
Malheur Bird Observatory Time! →
Simone, a large number of our cohorts, and I are off to the Malheur Bird Observatory for Memorial Day weekend. It’s a tradition upheld by Steve Herman, seeing as he is the proud…
2 tags
Photo Blast #3: Guess Who. →
Looks can be deceiving. If you showed me this photo of a Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), there’s a good chance I’d say it was a female. For all intensive purposes, it does…
3 tags
Gulf Aid and the American Birding Association’s... →
As the spill continues, I still find beauty in the unity disaster brings. People make connections, whether to their reliance on a healthy environment or to people they might not have…
Photo Blast #2: Funny Signs →
The abrupt, moist change in Seattle weather combined with a stuffy office got me daydreaming of places distant. Possibly it’s a little morbid, but I think the signs above are pretty…
Photographic Hindsight: The Photo Blast →
In attempt to bring more content, I’ve decided to start doing photo blasts on a regular basis. The general idea is to find a pretty picture that me or one of the contributors of…
2 tags
Wingtrip Does Arizona (Long) →
(When I go on week long trips, see massive amounts, and come back with a lot to say, brevity goes out the door. I appreciate all my readers, however few, and I promise shorter entries in…
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“All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but...”
– Benjamin Franklin
Oil – a slippery slope. →
We all use it – even if you don’t drive and bike everywhere – you indirectly are a part of the system. Oil is dirty and we’ve known a long time. And while we can make a difference by…
1 tag
“There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But...”
– Richard Feynman
Bird-a-thon 2010 (Long)! →
I’d like to preface with a warning. This entry contains the manic depictions of deviants. Birding has many manifestations. Some are the gentle musing of the causal observer, no less…
3 tags
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“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
– Hunter S. Thompson