Birds
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Gulls of the Americas
Nicely timed with the arrival of gulls in Arctic Bay has been the arrival of a new guide on gulls, Gulls of the Americas. This large (515 pgs) volume is the first book in the Peterson Reference Guides series, written by Steve N.G. Howell and Jon Dunn. It would make a nice addition to any
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Nauja – The difference a day makes
Early last week the gulls started arriving in Arctic Bay. Standing on our deck I could hear their cries, and saw the odd one flying near the powerhouse. One of my spies (thanks Adam) let me know that there were several down by the ocean at his end of town. But it took me until
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Curse you, Donald Kroodsma – a Review of Raven 1.0
One of the utilities recommended by Donald Kroodsma in his book The Singing Life of Birds is a free software program offered up by Cornell for generating sonograms. I took some time last night to download the program, Raven Lite 1.0. The full Raven Lite program is being offered free (there is also a demo
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Poetry in every blog.
Dave Bonta has such a wide ranging blog, Via Negativa. His interests run to practically all the world around him, the world he approaches in his own intelligent, literate style. I’m always proud when a post of mine pops up on his incomparable Smorgasblog. For it means that I have crafted my words well, that
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Waiting, waiting
This morning, before the wind came up, I was out on the deck having coffee. Funny thing about the wind this time of year it determines if it is winter or spring. Calm days, the sun is intensely warm and even though the outside temperature might be in the minus teens, a t-shirt is sufficiently
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The Singing Life of Birds
Somewhere, always, the sun is rising, and somewhere, always, the birds are singing. That is the opening line of The Singing Life of Birds by Donald Kroodsma, and it is the first glimpse of the passion that he has for birds, and especially birdsong. His passion is a thread that runs through the entire book,
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I and the Bird #48
Wow, time to get the latest Field Guide over at Greg Laden Blog… the Field Guide to the Bird Posts. Go, you know you want it.
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Good Birders Don’t Wear White
Essay collections make up some of my favourite books, and part of the charm of them is that they don’t require much commitment. One can leave the book lying around, pick it up and read an essay at a time, and not worry about keeping the flow going. The latest essay collection to land on
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Clare birds France – In which I realize that the bird identification section of my brain has atrophied into a small dried garbonzo bean
I suppose it is an inevitable part of living up here full time, and not getting out in over four years, and consequently seeing only a couple of dozen species on a regular basis, and only one species for months at a time. I can’t identify birds anymore (looks shamefully at his feet). Now I
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And I’ll call Rusty
I took a walk along the river this afternoon, with my cousin Tracy, and I had the opportunity to watch some birds all along the way. Two things quickly became apparent. For one thing trees get in the way. I’m no longer used to looking at birds in trees. In fact I haven’t seen a