Rio was kindly lent me by Brian Millsap after my losing Shunkar aka Birdbrain. He is a three year old passage Harris’s hawk from Texas, and an experienced rabbit hunter. I am still figuring him out. After my many years of emotional falcons and Accipiters he seems a solemn, stolid little owl. Speaking of Birdbrain– …
Harvest Time
From a couple of weeks ago, before the frost: Libby with Maximilian daisies in the garden in front of the homer loft With a fat female mantis, ready to lay eggs that will winter over. Our New Mexico Home Gym (crossed- out New Hampshire at the Nerds’ is a reference to Marko’s New England version) …
Links
Stingray and LabRat at Atomic Nerds have been putting me to shame, blogging up a storm. Go to Stingray for blistering commentary on political and other idiocies, while LabRat has been writing on science at a level that good magazines should be paying generous amounts for (like that’s going to happen these days.) She also …
Return
As Pluvi says, “Sorry I’ve been away so long. No particular reason. Back I am.” I needed time away, badly, and now feel a bit refreshed. I have been in book- writing limbo for months, or years, or at least a year and a half. I hope to write something about that here. Also book …
Sake of The Children, part deux
A local writer (New Orleans’ Times Picayune columnist Robert Marshall) suspects that hunters ourselves—not primarily outside forces—are to blame for the free fall in recruitment of young people into our community. His premise rings uncomfortably true: “A succession of reports has provided hunters with convenient culprits for our demise, things such as ‘lack of access’ …
For The Sake of The Children
Before I left the office yesterday to give a little talk about hawks to my kids’ 2nd grade class, I saw this story on the Yahoo ticker. Here’s the lead: CHICAGO – Warning: young children should not keep hedgehogs as pets — or hamsters, baby chicks, lizards and turtles, for that matter — because of …
Animal cruelty case: a plea and my reply
I received the following letter this morning, forwarded to me by the breeder of my whippet. It concerns the local case of an unscrupulous and (by any commonsense definition) cruel and insensitive person whose many animals have suffered from her neglect and evident greed. The letter calls for a grassroots campaign and for an aggressive …
End of September
These are a few shots from the end of a hunt at the end of September. It’s not just the cheap camera; nothing I shoot does justice to the moment. There were sharper shots in this bunch, but these slightly blurred images somehow get closest. There are much better months than September in terms of …
That Time of Year
One upside to the worst Baton Rouge hurricane in 60 years? Lots of free firewood. I’ve been stocking my woodpile for a couple weekends now, tooling around in my “Suburban” and sawing up stray limbs. Granted, it’s a wee pile compared to Steve’s, but it’s enough for a few late evenings around our little boutique …
A Few Thoughts on Politics
What is it with people this year? I never could get that passionate about electoral politics. Or dream of distorting facts to bolster my candidate. Have you seen Naomi Wolfe on how “Evita” Palan is the stalking horse for the new fascism, how this will be the last election of our lifetime, and how she …