A Trip to Another World 10/17/2018 The woods at Jacobsburg State Park are surprisingly quiet in spite of all the cars parked in the lot. Birds are heard but rarely seen as we walk from one environment, a deciduous forest, to another, a coniferous one. Leading us is one of the few birds we do see on this day - a white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis). According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds website: "White-breasted Nuthatches are birds of mature woods and woodland edges. They’re particularly
The woods at Jacobsburg State Park are surprisingly quiet in spite of all the cars parked in the lot. Birds are heard but rarely seen as we walk from one environment, a deciduous forest, to another, a coniferous one. Leading us is one of the few birds we do see on this day - a white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis). According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds website: "White-breasted Nuthatches are birds of mature woods and woodland edges. They’re particularly
Learning About Monocultures at SCBI 10/09/2018 A heavy mist pillows and blunts the top of the mountains outside Front Royal, Virginia. Yesterday my son and I rode the foothills of these mountains, our horses gauging their footing on the wet, muddy slopes as we let our hands sit forward on their necks, trusting them to gauge their own steps on what was, to us, unfamiliar land. We rode across the now obscured tracks of horsemen from both sides of the Civil War, as well as those of George Washington. We learned about history on that muddy
A heavy mist pillows and blunts the top of the mountains outside Front Royal, Virginia. Yesterday my son and I rode the foothills of these mountains, our horses gauging their footing on the wet, muddy slopes as we let our hands sit forward on their necks, trusting them to gauge their own steps on what was, to us, unfamiliar land. We rode across the now obscured tracks of horsemen from both sides of the Civil War, as well as those of George Washington. We learned about history on that muddy
Sometimes you ride the horse... 10/02/2018 It is the first really cool day of fall but the morning chill mostly burns off by afternoon. By the time I get to the barn, it is almost too warm for a long-sleeve shirt, but not everything is as it seems. There is still something in the air that whispers, just barely hints, at autumn. Maybe it is the birds, jays and grosbeaks that fly over in a thin migratory stream. Duncan, the quarter horse that I ride, is in an interesting mood. There are no hitches in grooming and saddling him, and I feel
It is the first really cool day of fall but the morning chill mostly burns off by afternoon. By the time I get to the barn, it is almost too warm for a long-sleeve shirt, but not everything is as it seems. There is still something in the air that whispers, just barely hints, at autumn. Maybe it is the birds, jays and grosbeaks that fly over in a thin migratory stream. Duncan, the quarter horse that I ride, is in an interesting mood. There are no hitches in grooming and saddling him, and I feel
Tara Expeditions: A place to begin, a home to return to 09/24/2018 There is little about this late September sky in New York that would make you think about Georgia during the Civil War. The gray clouds had been gathering through the night, thickening all morning, and lacking a consensus on whether they should openly downpour of move along, seem to have agreed now on a meager drizzle. Rather it is a French ocean research vessel that the people who cluster on the dock hoping tour, a schooner whose name references the plantation in Gone With the Wind, that
There is little about this late September sky in New York that would make you think about Georgia during the Civil War. The gray clouds had been gathering through the night, thickening all morning, and lacking a consensus on whether they should openly downpour of move along, seem to have agreed now on a meager drizzle. Rather it is a French ocean research vessel that the people who cluster on the dock hoping tour, a schooner whose name references the plantation in Gone With the Wind, that
The autobiographies of snails 09/19/2018 Aristotle gets short shrift in contemporary writings about animal issues. He is seen as the progenitor of Descartes' ideas about the animal as machine, devoid of the divine light of reason that sets humans apart from other animals. Descartes isn't kind in his writing to animals, equating them with machines. This criticism of Aristotle is not completely untrue, but should perhaps be tempered with a bit of understanding. Aristotle was not just expanding the field of biology, he was in a very
Aristotle gets short shrift in contemporary writings about animal issues. He is seen as the progenitor of Descartes' ideas about the animal as machine, devoid of the divine light of reason that sets humans apart from other animals. Descartes isn't kind in his writing to animals, equating them with machines. This criticism of Aristotle is not completely untrue, but should perhaps be tempered with a bit of understanding. Aristotle was not just expanding the field of biology, he was in a very
Book Review: The Fly Trap by Fredrik Sjöberg- Ensnared By Beauty 09/10/2018 There is a little book that escaped my attention for far too long, The Fly Trap by Fredrik Sjöberg, but having read it I am now ready to join the legion that proclaim not only its merit, but to laud its worth in a time when far too often the news we get about the environment is bad. This is not to say that there are no warnings or concerns in this book, but even more than these there is an overriding sense of beauty and wonder that reminds us of why we love the natural places of the
There is a little book that escaped my attention for far too long, The Fly Trap by Fredrik Sjöberg, but having read it I am now ready to join the legion that proclaim not only its merit, but to laud its worth in a time when far too often the news we get about the environment is bad. This is not to say that there are no warnings or concerns in this book, but even more than these there is an overriding sense of beauty and wonder that reminds us of why we love the natural places of the
Finding an Answer: Goose-Necked Barnacles 08/28/2018 It has taken a book written in Japanese to spur the solution to one of the problems that has been sitting like a dark cloud of ignorance over a beach find during the Maine trip. If you are unfamiliar with the complete lack of Japanese language skills that I have , and the hushed tones in which the words “I hear you are buying books in Japanese again” are spoken by colleagues, then this might make sense. But it doesn't make sense, and yet here in this pocket guide to seashore life, 水の生き物
It has taken a book written in Japanese to spur the solution to one of the problems that has been sitting like a dark cloud of ignorance over a beach find during the Maine trip. If you are unfamiliar with the complete lack of Japanese language skills that I have , and the hushed tones in which the words “I hear you are buying books in Japanese again” are spoken by colleagues, then this might make sense. But it doesn't make sense, and yet here in this pocket guide to seashore life, 水の生き物
Things Too Deep to be Known : Father, Son, and the Ghost of Memory 08/21/2018 (The beginning of a piece that will never end) Tonight: My son and I stand on the dunes at Great Kills beach looking out at a horizon where the slate gray darkening clouds meet the slate gray darkening water. Only the lights from ships moving in and out of New York harbor across the Lower Bay through Ambrose Channel and the Chapel Hill South Channel truly show us where the one meets the other, those lights and the one from the stationary lighthouse of West Bank Horn blinking in the distance.
(The beginning of a piece that will never end) Tonight: My son and I stand on the dunes at Great Kills beach looking out at a horizon where the slate gray darkening clouds meet the slate gray darkening water. Only the lights from ships moving in and out of New York harbor across the Lower Bay through Ambrose Channel and the Chapel Hill South Channel truly show us where the one meets the other, those lights and the one from the stationary lighthouse of West Bank Horn blinking in the distance.
Erring Gulls 08/07/2018 When we arrive at the island we are exploring there is a welcome committee waiting to meet us. A multitude of faces watches us climb the rock slab stairs, but only one of them is human. The rest are gulls, and they are everywhere. They are perched on the roofs of the buildings, settled on the signs that line the rocky steps, walking on the paths and grass around us, and flying through the air above. This island is a breeding colony predominately for two species of gull – the herring gull and the
When we arrive at the island we are exploring there is a welcome committee waiting to meet us. A multitude of faces watches us climb the rock slab stairs, but only one of them is human. The rest are gulls, and they are everywhere. They are perched on the roofs of the buildings, settled on the signs that line the rocky steps, walking on the paths and grass around us, and flying through the air above. This island is a breeding colony predominately for two species of gull – the herring gull and the
