Robert Frost

The Oven Bird

There is a singer everyone has heard,
Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,
Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.
He says that leaves are old and that for flowers
Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.
He says the early petal-fall is past
When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers
On sunny days a moment overcast;
And comes that other fall we name the fall.
He says the highway dust is over all.
The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.

A Promise Is a Promise

Someone kindly reminded me that I hadn't yet posted pictures from our trip to Florida. Actually, it was just an anonymous comment someone left saying "You're a loser," but let's turn that frown upside-down: I had completely forgotten about my promise of actual photos (i.e. not lifted from an open website)! The following photos are instead courtesy of my bro-in-law Joe. Enjoy.

A White Ibis, just chillin'.


Joe's firm built this building, luckily it's near a park and beach filled with birds.


Really, I swear.

A cool photo of my beautiful wife walking the trail at Brooker Creek Preserve.

A crocodilian we noticed as we were taking photos of the WHIB.

A Common Moorhen that seems a little too used to people.

Joe Jr., the newest birder and nature-lover in the family. Note to Mr./Ms. Anonymous: Call me what you will, but don't mess with Baby Joe.

Awww....

My wife is a wonderful woman. She's known for some time that I've always wanted to see an owl. I mean, come on, they're such cool birds. Her friend Andy Beet visited her at the library last week brandishing a photo of an owl in a tree just behind the building. When I got home from work, we took off to go see it. It wasn't a rare bird, there weren't scads of birders lined up looking at it through their scopes. Just the two of us at sunset staring up at an owl roosting in a hole in a tree. And now that I've seen one, I can't wait to see more. Thanks sweetie!

Photos courtesy of Andy Beet

The bird I saw was a red-phase Eastern Screech-owl. So there must be two staying there this summer!

Old MacDonald Had a Farm...

...and on that farm he had a Günther's Wrasse, E-O, E-O-L

The Encyclopedia of Life is up and ready for your perusal. And for the scads of qualified bird experts who read this here blog, please, please consider entering data for some birds. Since the EOL effectively calls the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole its home, it seems as though every fish species is taken care of, while everything else is sorely lacking. Nothing that can't be fixed with a monumental effort to centralize research and data and to present it in varying degrees of scientific detail. Spread the word!

6-word Meme-oir

I was tagged by Ivars of Ivars' Birds to participate in the six-word memoir meme. I thought and thought about how to whittle myself down to six words. As Mark Twain said "I can give you 3o pages in two days. I need 30 days to write two pages." So, as I tend to do a lot in my life, I will paraphrase The Simpsons:

"Nature embiggens even the smallest man."

So now I get to choose five more on this meme's way to conquering the universe. In fact, I think it's high time blogospheres collided, so I'll tag my wife Kellie at Cottage Knitting and send this meme into the knitting blogworld. And how can the other birders have missed Amila at Gallicissa? Are we so afraid of his Scrabble skills that we can't ask him to describe himself in 6 words? Oh, I see. He's out of town; I'm sure he'll have thirty of these waiting for him when he gets back from his tour. Fellow newbie birder and blogger BirdingGirl of BirdingGirl needs to show everyone what it's like to bird Mass and Cape Cod-style. Dan of Nervous Birds has been making sure Ram's Head in Annapolis hasn't gone out of business since I graduated, let's see if he can string six words together after a gig! Over at Hakodate Birding, S.C.E. supplies endless pictures of everyday (to him) exotic (to me) birds. Three words for birds, three for footy, which is what I assume he talks about at the end of his posts.

Okay guys, here's the rules:

>1. Write your own six word memoir
>2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like
>3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere
>4 .Tag five more blogs with links
>5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

William Butler Yeats

The Wild Swans at Coole

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty swans.

The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.

I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.

Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.

But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?

Mute swans, since he's Irish. Photo from Wikimedia. Is it wrong that I don't really care for Yeats?

Flo-ree-da!

Well, we just got back from a long weekend in Florida visiting the wife's family, including our new nephew Baby Joe. My brother-in-law and his wife were very kind in taking us out to a few local parks to let me do some birding and to get Baby Joe into nature. I've mentioned before how great Florida can be for the beginning birder. It's pretty dang good for the slightly more experienced birder as well. Here's the breakdown:

Life Birds: 14

Wild Turkey
Eared Grebe
Red-shouldered Hawk
Short-tailed Hawk
Common Moorhen
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Common Ground-dove
Pileated Woodpecker
Loggerhead Shrike
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Hermit Thrush
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler

Florida Life Birds (excluding above): 22

Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
American Coot
American Oystercatcher
Ring-billed Gull
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Pine Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Goldfinch

And, hey, how about year birds (excluding above): 11

Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Egret
Cattle Egret
White Ibis
Black Vulture
Osprey
Sandhill Crane
Laughing Gull
Fish Crow
Northern Parula

Pics to follow! None of them mine!