Some of you know Vadim Gorbatov’s painting of a Turcoman falconer waiting out a sandstorm with tazi and saker. Sir Terence Clarke just sent this excellent little video of hunting there. My Ataika, though born in Kazakhstan, is rather a Turkmeni type. And the falconry is almost just like the kind we practice but for …
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Salt Marsh Spring
Sister Karen and brother in law George Graham check in from the Massachusetts coast about their excellent interface with the wild; the sea’s edge borders wilderness even near the biggest cities. George says: “We’ve been enjoying the wake up in our back yard, Great Esker and the Back River. We’ve identified at least three nesting …
Peter Matthiessen, RIP
Peter Mattthiessen has died at 86. the word had been out that he was not well, but he had been a figure on the horizon for all of us who write about nature for a lifetime, and like Patrick Leigh Fermor it seemed he might go on forever… I thought as a writer he could …
Mississippi Flyway
I was back in Arkansas in January visiting my father and it occurred to me it had been years since I had been there during migration season. I thought I’d use this post to put up a few pictures I took. I was amazed at how Snow Geese have taken over the flyway. If you …
Ivanpah
Back in February, Connie and I flew from Denver to John Wayne Airport in Orange County to visit our kids. Shortly after we crossed the Colorado River into California, we saw flashes of light out our window on the north side of the plane. Knowing solar energy as we do from our work, we quickly …
Hot Links
Archaeologists working in Nebraska have excavated sherds of European ceramics in an 18th century Indian site that they believe may be evidence of the ill-fated Villasur Expedition. In the early 1700s, French traders from Louisiana began to expand their activities west across the Plains into what Spain considered to be its territory. In the summer …
More Trilobites
Another museum stop in San Francisco was at The California Academy of Sciences, also located in Golden Gate Park. While there, I saw these wonderful trilobite fossils. You might recall a post I did early in the month, that linked to a New York Times article on trilobites that had a rather amazing picture of a …
Gottardo Piazzoni and a Friend
Earlier in the month, Connie and I took a trip to the Bay Area. Connie was taking a training course in San Francisco on Thursday and Friday of that week, and while she was in school, I played hookey and hit a couple of museums. On the weekend, we drove up to Sonoma County and …
Big Tom
Connie and I were visiting a local land reserve a few days ago and saw this guy struttin’ for the ladies.
A Very Old Site In Brazil
Last week the New York Times had this article about a rock shelter in Brazil that had yielded a date of 22,000 BP for its earliest human occupation. The article goes on about its implications for dating the peopling of the New World, which if you have been reading some of our posts here, you’ll …