Writes Steve: My friend Jacob Sewall is a climatologist, pigeon fancier, and born (Maine)Yankee among other things. He writes some of the most fascinating stuff on pigeons and domestication in general– one of our perennial subjects here–that I know of. In a just world I would be an editor that could commission abook from him. …
Author: Matt Mullenix
What’s Good For The Goose…
Frozen Dinner (Harrier and Duck Carcass) by Barry van DusenOn terrierman Patrick Burns’s blog today is reprinted an editorial from the Renfrewshire Paisely Daily Express (which seems to be a UK tabloid), entitled “Sky-dancing hen harrier is a truly spectacular sight.” The author, Derek Parker, is a kind of ranger charged with protecting moorland raptors, …
Insurgents, Sectarian Violence and….Camel Spiders?
My friend and neighbor Tyler Williamson (introductory posts here and here) has been serving in Iraq for about a year. During that time he has been shelled and shot at, sunburned and sand-blinded, overworked, underpaid and much too far from home. But he’s the kind of guy who can handle this sort of thing. For …
Guns in a Crisis
A little disclosure before I post this gun note: I’m a registered Democrat. I consider myself liberal (tho that’s lowercase, viewing the word from the root) . More germane to this post, I know almost nothing about the two heirloom firearms I own and will admit to real discomfort around guns. Despite all this, I …
Local Landscapes
Continuing our occasional series on landscape, I thought I’d share a few images from near home. A cool front (the first in weeks) promised some relief from the heat and humid air but stalled out last night and gave us only clouds and light rain. But we could not have hoped for better. Not here. …
Flight of the Kite
A snippet of local birdlife: The young Mississippi Kites are on the wing now and starting to hunt for themselves over the neighborhood. The parents are provisioning some, also; so there is a lot of spectacular kite activity overhead! Last night my twins and I witnessed a moment that would have made a great study …
Rina and The Skunk: A Budding Romance
OK, this is getting stranger but is true. From a note to Steve and other friends regarding recent chance meetings in the woods: “Rina and I have met the skunk again two nights in a row. Last night Rina’s attitude seemed to shift (from predatory interest to….what? Something more benign…?) when I made it clear …
Rina and The Skunk
With Steve and Reid posting lately on puppies, I thought I’d share a recent outing with mine. Skunk lore and stink remedies appreciated in the comment section, please! The neighborhood park where I let Rina run in the evenings abuts a city-owned campground and public stables. There’s pasture for the boarding horses and a riding …
Gub’mint Crackdown?
No. Just Blogger weirdness. We’ve been down for a few days, leaving the three of us scratching our heads about how to fix it. All the posts were there, the template, the whole shebang. But no main page. Complaints started pouring in shortly after we went offline. Apparently, two small Balkan dictatorships were crumbling without …
Matt’s Ten Birds Part 3
Common Yellowthroat [Geothlpis trichas]Photo from: http://www.notason.com/oiseaux/id329.htm It’s sort of a Black-eyed Susan: widespread and so common they made that part of its name. But the flower and the bird are two of my favorites, in large part because they’re commonplace. Why should beauty be rare? This early migrant is among our first, a few arriving …