Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

After a few months of using Google Drive, I've finally been able to get Word, Excel, and Powerpoint back on my computer. Then, utilizing the drive, I downloaded my bird lists and resume so that I can tweak them for future (or in the case of the bird lists use them immediately). It was then I thought about what was the bird of the year at least in regards to what was a lifer for me at the time. So I whittled them down to the following. I'll start with 2009 and finish with this year's contestants. The bird of the year this year will be announced on New Years Eve so mark you calendars! 2009: Snow Goose ( Chen caerulescens ) 2010: Swallow-tailed Kite ( Elanoides forficatus ) 2011: Snow Bunting ( Plectrophenax nivalis ) 2012: Long-tailed Duck ( Clangula hyemalis ) 2013: The contestants include are as follows: Limpkin ( Aramus guarauna ) Canvasback ( Aythya valisineria ) Pink-footed Goose ( Anser brachyrhynchos ) American Avocet ( Recurvirostra americana ) Missi...

As many people probably already know, I'm a little bit loopy. Verbally, action-wise, and philosophically, I'm completely off the wall. It's an asset in a job where I'm both batty about nature and batty in general. However, despite my setbacks with my old computer what with losing my life list, year list, and SBMWA property bird list, I'm still determined to hit 350 species this year. I currently have 316 with the most recent edition being a Louisiana Waterthrush ( Parkesia motacilla ) seen in the Stony Brook a few weeks ago at camp. I'm hoping for some excellent migrants in the form of shorebirds, songbirds, and shearwaters. Yeah. You heard me! Welshie's going to sea and wants to find himself some mutton birds! Okay, okay...maybe not that badly, but a whale watch is definitely an excellent excuse to look for pelagic birds like shearwaters, gannets, and terns. Who knows? I might even seen some storm-petrels. It's only mid-August after all and I figur...

To say that I'm a skeptic would be an accurate statement. And yet, I often catch myself looking to sources of inspiration within nature itself. If I wasn't so fastidious when it came to what and where sources of knowledge and accurate facts came from, I'd probably be more spiritually attuned to nature and what I perceived as being the messages and lessons I could derive from it. While I find watching birds to be physically and mentally uplifting, if I were to choose one as a representative totem, it would either be a crow or a raven. Crows and ravens have always had some mystery or dread applied to their blackness or raucous cries. They have always been seen as some sort of ancient deathly hallow or representative, but were also recognized for their intelligence. I see them almost as kinfolk. A species that because of its intellect and social structure mirrors certain behaviors that we would find to be anthropomorphic and almost human in nature and behavior. Recently I...