Pet store on Main Street, Cañon City. Dim in there. Is that how the animals like it? I went in, curious. A scarlet macaw eyed me from a big cage with gray metal bars and newspaper on the floor, unmoving but for the occasional scream. I couldn’t help noticing the cage was narrower than the […]
Pet store on Main Street Read More »
This evening in rolling pinyon parkland above the little town of Gardner. Quiet and silvery. I was roving at sunset, trying to familiarize myself with the birds. Shy pinyon jays keeping their distance and a lanky common nighthawk whirring overhead. Otherwise no one. The beauty radiating through me, stopped near a hill crest and looked
Gardner, CO (evening June 9th) Read More »
I went on a walk to look for the boot insoles I’ve been missing — just 20 minutes, from the car to the main road and back. The plains are windy and 90% overcast, but the clouds lack the uniformity that can make days like this ominous. Western meadowlarks and horned larks are singing, it feels
They’re letting me do it. Well, Frank is — even after he corrected my final Bird Quiz and scored it 25/40. I mistook Say’s phoebe singing for killdeer. We’ve heard Say’s phoebe a lot during training. Frank was easygoing about it. In our last conversation he showed me a GPS “trail of breadcrumbs” he made
It’s a windy sunny evening at Lake Pueblo, where this summer’s field techs have gathered for training. Several days of rain are on the way. Country music bounces over from the next campsite: “Your love is moooney, your love is moooney! Your love can make a man feel rich on minimum wage!” In my head
I got a summer job as an avian field technician in Colorado! I’ll be doing “point counts” — waking up before 5AM to stand at a series of spots for six minutes each and record every bird I see or hear. The data are used to generate maps of how many birds are in an
May – July 2021: I become a bird surveyor (and other adventures in Colorado) Read More »
Once in a while people ask me some version of the question, “Do you write about your adventures anywhere I can follow?”, and I tell them no. I feel I lack something important and cohesive enough to say to the Public (as I imagine my audience here). I certainly lack the time to say it.
The Parable of the Starfish Read More »
I. Title The name of this blog may change. A word I have always liked occurred to me as I thought about names (surely the most fun and least useful way to spend time on a new project). “Halcyon” slant rhymes with ‘calcium’ and is an adjective that means “like the good old days” –
The aims and means here Read More »
I really don’t want to turn 21. 17 or 18 or 19 would be perfect in perpetuum. But in 4 minutes, July 3rd will end and I’ll never be able to go back. Hence the name of this blog. Sometimes people tell me they wish they could follow me and the things I do in
At the End of the World Read More »