I found this article fascinating: a series of tourism ads that feature pictures of famous prehistoric ruins body-painted on the torso of a beautiful actress, has been found in violation of Mexican law. “The country’s anthropology institute, based in Mexico City, does more than just serve as Mexico’s monument police. It oversees a vast collection …
Peter Rabbit Must Die
I thought you’d all enjoy this unintentionally hilarious NYT piece on city folk who have moved to the country to bond with nature. But once they find out that wildlife treats their gardens as convenience stores they snap and turn into bloodthirsty killers. Some choice examples: “The homeowner, a city-boy artist and illustrator who had …
Friday Feeder Friend
I’m halfway cheating with this picture of a Gambel’s quail. I took it at a feeder in the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge in California. It reminded me of this quail petroglyph from El Morro National Monument in New Mexico.
Mongol Tazi
Andrew Campbell of The Regal Viszla just sent this ink drawing of a Mongolian hunter with a tazi– reinforcing once more that they are most anciently an Asian dog.
Feathered Dinos
Feathered Dinosaurs: The Origin of Birds— the best book on the subject yet, by Australian paleontologist John Long and magical artist Peter Schouten, best known here for his collaborations with Tim Flannery. You look at these and think: THIS is what they looked like. A mother Troodon attends the hatching of her eggs. Much behavior …
Young Hawker
The cover of the Georgia Fish & Game brochure for this year. As Anne Pearse Hocker says, no “Nature Deficit Syndrome” here!
Bo Diddley RIP
Coming back from a sort of bloggish lunch in Albuquerque with frequent commentors and dog- in- laws Paul and Nate, MDMNM of Sometimes Far Afield, his friend Amelia, and a baby hawk, we saw that the flags on the State Police hq near Socorro were at half mast. Turns out the great old rocker Bo …
Summer Reading for Presidential Hopefuls
Tip o’ the hat to Annie Hocker (world traveller, photographer, falconer, writer) for this link to a list of books other writers suggest for each of the presidential candidates. How many have you read? Not many by me, but some, and I’m happy to say my main man Wendell Berry is suggested twice (once by …
Beloved, Numbered Wolf Killed!
Salondotcom, which I understand to be relatively widely read, is a fairly sloppy place, or at least seems that way, given the high production values of its web design, which contrasts quite a bit with the writing therein. That’s not here or there, but they do have a theoretically interesting article about the removal of …
Friday Feeder Friend
A spotted towhee.