Goines On: Ringing

Click image for more vignettes

Goines was late putting out bird seed one morning. He had maundered during breakfast, thinking dreamy apple thoughts, and missed the time by which he usually had their seed out.
    As he raised the silhouette shade over the door from the kitchen onto the back porch, he fantasized – he hoped – that some birds were watching, waiting until he brought out their treats. He hoped they now noticed the shade being raised and were beginning to announce the event. Goines imagined them tweeting, “He’s coming, he’s coming!” Did each species have its own sentinel?

On Franklin Hill Farm: A Great Blue Heron

And other birds I’ve been blessed to see and sometimes photograph

By Bettina Sperry

For the past several years, I’ve had many opportunities to observe our local population of woodpeckers, bluebirds, kingfishers, various owls, and even eagles that nest several miles down the road from Franklin Hill Farm, by our neighborhood lake. I’ve even had the blessing of finding the most beautiful bird’s nest constructed out of duck feathers.

Five Years Ago Today: 2012 highlights of Moristotle & Co.

When the United States had a President we could honor

By Moristotle

[Originally published on December 31, 2012, but with a different subtitle. It’s still my daughter’s birthday, but she’s more likely at home than on a boat.]

Yesterday I went through the blog's 2012 archive [accessible through the bottom section of the sidebar]. The blog began the year as "Moristotle: A sometimes ironic celebration of life on Earth" – or was it still "An ironic celebration of life, love, laughter, and learning" or "...of evolving life and learning on Earth"? However exactly it started out the year, you can see by the masthead how we think of it now.

By way of apology to the wild birds in our neighborhood

Written towards the end of May, just in case

By Moristotle

Besides missing Siegfried, who will be kenneled for the month of June, a sadness of being away from home, mostly in Paris, is the knowledge that our neighborhood’s wild birds will find no seeds in our back yard all that time. They won’t even find their favorite feeders. I took the favorite feeders down this morning to stage the photograph shown above. Though it may look inviting enough to you, I who delight in seeing & hearing birds there, find it a desolate spectacle.

Ayard in springtime

By Moristotle

“We can go abroad, or aloft, why not ayard?” –An old book of adverbs

Ask Wednesday: Who visited your fountain recently?

Uncropped so you can see the arc of
the field scope lens [click to enlarge]

Look at my photos

By Morris Dean

Sunday Review: Winged Migration

In memoriam the birds that didn't made it

By Morris Dean

Our local public library system doesn't have the two Disneynature films The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos (2008) or Wings of Life (2011), which I mentioned in my July 6 review of Earth and Oceans. But it does have the 2001 documentary Winged Migration (directed by Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats, and Jacques Perrin, having no affiliation with Disney), which showcases the immense journeys routinely made by birds during their migrations. And it's a beautiful, eerie film.

Ask Wednesday: What other birds did the editor see at the beach?

By Morris Dean

First he shares some more photos of the Blue Martins and the Pelican at Carolina Beach (that is, in addition to those he displayed on June 15):

Sunday Reviewer's day off

[Click to enlarge]

At the beach with my camera

By Morris Dean

The place was Carolina Beach, North Carolina. The Pelican shown to the right was lounging out near the boat dock on the marina inlet from the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Purple Martins shown below were at work feeding their young, or so I gathered.

The eyes, the eyes!

Ever watchful

By Morris Dean

The joy of the birds on our thistle feeder last Sunday compelled me to set up my digiscoping equipment for the first time in many weeks. These photos have not been cropped.

Second Monday Music: Sounds of the natural world

Music?

By André Duvall

Our world is filled with natural sounds. Inanimate nature has provided aural stimulation for humankind across the ages in the form of waterfalls, rain, thunder, wind, rustling leaves, and ocean waves. Collectively, these types of sounds are termed geophanies. Geophanies have the power to affect human emotions in various ways. The steady flow of a waterfall may calm one’s agitated nerves, a sudden clap of thunder on a dark night may frighten a child, and the sound of waves crashing on the beach may create nostalgia for one who used to live on the coast.

First Saturday Green 101: Goatsucker memories

The author during a pensive moment
behind bars on the Congo/Rwanda border

By motomynd

When I have time on a spring evening to take the old Honda Shadow for a spirited cruise on local country roads, there are two stops I always make on the way back home. One is for the way it looks, the other for the way it sounds.
    The first place has the most vivid sunsets I have been able to find in this part of central North Carolina. Having photographed sunsets in all 50 states and on four continents, I should have seen enough of them, but I’m still a sucker for even the lackluster ones we have in these parts.

First Saturday Green 101: Trail of the Timberdoodle—Act 3 (final)

timberdoodle.org

By motomynd

[Sequel to "Act 2"]

A call to my satellite phone, as I sat in camp hard by the Kenya/Somalia border, brought the crushing news of my uncle’s suddenly failing health. The next two years were a blur of post-9/11 work overseas, and as many rush trips to Upstate as the schedule could possibly allow. Since age 12, I had marveled at Carl’s hunting and fishing tales, and his trophies from Canada and Alaska. On our last few visits I finally had my own trophies to share—photos taken while walking amongst elephants, rhinos, lions, and other animals in Africa.

A tour of California's Central Coast (Part 3)

View from our balcony

Mountain meander around Santa Margarita

By motomynd

[Sequel to "Point Mugu to Pismo Beach"]

After two very short nights of sleep and two very long days of travel—flying from Raleigh, North Carolina to Atlanta to LA, and driving Highway 1 up the California coast—we awake in Pismo Beach feeling surprisingly well rested after six hours of sleep. We have a long day planned—driving and exploring from Pismo to Santa Margarita, then on toward King City—but we have to take at least a few minutes to enjoy the morning at Best Western Shelter Cove.

First Saturday Green 101: Trail of the Timberdoodle—Act 2

timberdoodle.org

By motomynd

[Sequel to "Act 1"]

The American woodcock meanders as it migrates, and it travels less in a year than an Arctic tern does in a week, yet it is still one of my favorite birds. There is something about a bird designed for the shore choosing to live in a forest, and its overall charmingly quirky behavior, that endears it to me. There is a bittersweet attraction as well.

First Saturday Green 101: Trail of the Timberdoodle—Act 1

timberdoodle.org

By motomynd

Most people have a favorite bird. In some cases because of their image of the bird, in others for what it says about their view of the world. Some like the jet-fighter-like flight and strike of the falcon, others the equally breathtaking yet seemingly playful flight of the hummingbird.

2012 highlights of Moristotle & Co.

Looking back at my year

By Morris Dean

Yesterday I went through the blog's 2012 archive [accessible through the bottom section of the sidebar]. The blog began the year as "Moristotle: A sometimes ironic celebration of life on Earth"—or was it still "An ironic celebration of life, love, laughter, and learning" or "...of evolving life and learning on Earth"? However exactly it started out the year, you can see by the masthead how we think of it now.

First Saturday Green 101: What is winging your way on the winter wind?

Eurasian golden plover,
photographed by the author
in Thingvellir, Iceland

By motomynd

In North Carolina the lawns are put away for the season, the leaves are mostly dealt with, and the next big seasonal news is the coming of winter. For far too many people this a time to abandon outdoors activities, hunker down inside, and wait for spring. If that is your strategy, not only will you grow soft and lethargic over the next few months, you will also miss the opportunity to spot unusual and rare birds you will see in no other season.

Alert: Eagle on nest at Jordan Lake!

[This is just an image; there is no
link to the webcam here.]

I just clicked on Moristotle's 10th most popular post all-time and was delighted to see that the nest is currently being sat on:

"Eagle webcam at Jordan Lake"
Many thanks to our former next-door neighbor in Chapel Hill for sending me the link to a webcam posted near an eagle 's nest at Lake Jordan...

Enjoy!
_______________
Moristotle's 10 most popular posts of the last 30 days are listed in the sidebar (not far down).

Eagle webcam in Decorah, Iowa

Bald Eagle

My neighbor who provided a link to the "Eagle webcam at Jordan Lake" has provided me another one. Says she:

The second camera is in Decorah, Iowa. Straight across the upper part of Iowa from my family. I watched it all last year and it has sound and can be seen at night. Right now the parents come at various times to check the nest and eat. They will not lay eggs until the later part of February. It will be fun to watch the different age babies

For more links to nature webcams, go to the site where I found the code:  http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles.