To some of us, the news that Reid posted about below in “Not Aways at the Top of the Food Chain” was not exactly news. One of the main suspects in the death of the Taung Baby is the Crowned Eagle, an enormous and intimidating forest predator. In Birds of Prey of Southern Africa, published …
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The Donner Party and Alferd Packer
One of the great stories of western US history is that of the Donner Party, a wagon train of emigrants bound for California. Their timing for the journey was bad and they were trapped by snow in the Sierras during the winter of 1846-47. They ran out of supplies, couldn’t find much game to hunt, …
Not Always at the Top of the Food Chain
This release from the AP has a humbling title – “Researcher: Early Man was Hunted by Birds.” Close re-examination of the skull of the “Taung child” one of the earliest discovered (1924) australopithecine fossils, shows damage at the rear of the eye sockets consistent with patterns seen in eagle predation of monkeys. We should always …
Alternate Reality?
Crossing several lines through Querencia is the effect of new technology on much older things (namely, places and cultures) and how it might shape their futures. In Eagle Dreams, Steve writes of Mongolian friends in traditional circular tents wired for Internet; of eagle falconers in Mercedes-Benzes. Weird and charming anachronisms are common now but more …
Pairie Mary on 2Blowhards
I love the interconnected nature of the Blogosphere, so it delighted me to see that my Blogfather Michael Blowhard (that term coined I think by Glenn Reynolds) has caught up with my “blogsister” (coined by Reid?) PrairieMary. He has some good things to say about “regional writing” there too. What are the limits? Am I …
Public Access 2
A friend wrote this as a comment on the “End of Hunting” post below, and I thoiught it was important enought to put up front here, with his permission: “The loss of hunting opportunities is a real concern. I have friends from other parts of the country who are driving 100 miles or more to …
Steve’s Flint Cores – The How and Why
Knowing how much I like messing around with these things, Steve took this picture of two prehistoric flint cores in a museum in Turkey and sent it on to me. These are both very nice specimens and you can see the parallel flake scars down the sides and examples of the blades that have been …
Icons in Space!
For Mr. and Mrs. Peculiar: icons in space, and at the Baikonur cosmodrome. Whatever its faults, this ain’t your father’s Soviet Union. Courtesy John Debyshire.
More Flu
Here is a good LAT overview of the state of the H5N1 Avian Flu virus, concentrating on its inevitable spread along wild bird flyways. (Personally I worry a lot more about domestic chickens and ducks in the Asian “bird factories”). And here is a dark view of what could happen, and why “ring vaccination”, though …
Hawk Breeding Regs
This is a long post with contributions by both Matt and me. It is taken from a letter written to the USFWS responding to their request for input on proposed new regulations for falcon breeders. Feel free to skip if it seems too “inside”– but I think tht it (especially Matt’s part) will be of …