Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Today i saw 2 vultures walking around in a field. they would peck around, take a few steps then peck around, and keep doing just that. sorta struck me as weird. while i was sitting in a field near a pond waiting for bats, a couple of great blue herons must have realized that something was askew and flew over to check me out. when i spot lighted one in the air it stuttered in its flight and made a bunch of weird gooselike sounds. when i looked them up on a bird web site it described that sound as "Fronk!". indeed, it was a bunch of fronking. this is a pic of a little girl that we caught today.. one of the cutest bats that i can imagine.
Monday, July 19, 2010
We had a few sites set up last night from 8pm until 2am. my site had 3 mist nets. two of them about 20 feet tall and 30 feet wide and then one of them was half that height. all were set up over or beside a stream. we caught a flying squirrel right off the bat, a large beetle, 3 big moths, and a little brown bat (in the pic). we checked for captures every 15 minutes so there was a lot of time to read. i started to learn how to play sudoku. i have a box in my car that serves as a small library: field ID books for mammals, fish, birds, entomology, a compilation of gierach essays, a david ames classic, a book called "good flies", a friend here loaned me a sudoku book... i have all, all, of my fly tying materials and tools (as well as actual fishing equipment) for off-site down time during the day.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Chinese New Year 2008
Guangzhou (which is 7,434.4 km² and is the capital of the province Guǎngdōng) is described to me as the size of 6 Hong Kongs (land size). A Cantonese student in Hong Kong has invited my sister and I to stay with her family for the week of Chinese New Year.
I had seen reports of four inch thick, clear ice on the roads and mass transit trains frozen in place without power. People are mobbing buses. People have died. One was crushed to death in a human stampede. For days people are going hungry and sleeping where they stood on trains. Tanks, military tanks, have been deployed to attack the ice.
Her mother informed us that everything was O.K. and so we decided to go.
I guess that this city must be huge because when I arrived it was 55F and there was no sign of disaster at all. In fact, it was the largest celebration that I have ever seen in my life. It was also the most well behaved crowd that I have ever seen in my life. At one point there were tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of people shoulder to shoulder, front to back in a seamless crowd that was slowly and constantly changing its members and their positions. The crowd spanned a hundred feet across each road and all around a lattice of city blocks.
The family that I stayed with could not have been more welcoming. I felt like I was a visiting cousin. They took us out to climb a hill for a great view of the city and forests, a circus, festivals down town, we all had a fantastic time. ..and when it came to mealtime, I had to learn how to say in Cantonese "Full! Full!" as self defense.I have found a beautiful old bonsai tree to give as a gift to their beautiful old great grandmother (92y.o.) for having such a great family to treat me like they did. I will never forget them.
This is the year of the Rat.
I had seen reports of four inch thick, clear ice on the roads and mass transit trains frozen in place without power. People are mobbing buses. People have died. One was crushed to death in a human stampede. For days people are going hungry and sleeping where they stood on trains. Tanks, military tanks, have been deployed to attack the ice.
Her mother informed us that everything was O.K. and so we decided to go.
I guess that this city must be huge because when I arrived it was 55F and there was no sign of disaster at all. In fact, it was the largest celebration that I have ever seen in my life. It was also the most well behaved crowd that I have ever seen in my life. At one point there were tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of people shoulder to shoulder, front to back in a seamless crowd that was slowly and constantly changing its members and their positions. The crowd spanned a hundred feet across each road and all around a lattice of city blocks.
The family that I stayed with could not have been more welcoming. I felt like I was a visiting cousin. They took us out to climb a hill for a great view of the city and forests, a circus, festivals down town, we all had a fantastic time. ..and when it came to mealtime, I had to learn how to say in Cantonese "Full! Full!" as self defense.I have found a beautiful old bonsai tree to give as a gift to their beautiful old great grandmother (92y.o.) for having such a great family to treat me like they did. I will never forget them.
This is the year of the Rat.
Monday, January 21, 2008
North Pole
Captain's Log Approximate Skydate 1/21/08
I don't know what time or date it is where I am right now and am wondering how time zones work here. I am about 37,000 feet almost directly above the north pole. I have been travelling for 16 hours and still have at least 11 more to go. The time of year, location, and height make it somehow possible for the outside air temperature to be -86F. It's too bad that I won't have an opportunity to take a photo in the daylight because this will be one long night here (it will still be night here even through my return flight in five weeks from now.). Nonetheless, it is a bright full moon and crystal clear skies for an unobstructed aerial view of the ice below. There is an incredible, expanse of mountains everywhere in every direction as far as the eye can see. It is as if billions of tremendous (2000 feet tall maybe. I have no frame of reference.) ice bergs were froze in place to be drifted with snow and weathered into mountains. There are also vast plains (maybe 50 miles across and hundreds long) between groups of mountains like great flood plains of rivers.. but rising sea water instead of rivers. These plains would be the only reasonable passage on ground. The mountains eventually give way to an abyss of flat, fractured ice. This is how I have always imagined the Arctic.. not the mountains, the abyss.
I am bound for Hong Kong from the US Statue of Liberty, over Greenland, the North Pole and the Arctic Circle, Siberia, and the thick of mainland Asia.. 100 pages into "Xenocide" and have plenty of time to read.
I don't know what time or date it is where I am right now and am wondering how time zones work here. I am about 37,000 feet almost directly above the north pole. I have been travelling for 16 hours and still have at least 11 more to go. The time of year, location, and height make it somehow possible for the outside air temperature to be -86F. It's too bad that I won't have an opportunity to take a photo in the daylight because this will be one long night here (it will still be night here even through my return flight in five weeks from now.). Nonetheless, it is a bright full moon and crystal clear skies for an unobstructed aerial view of the ice below. There is an incredible, expanse of mountains everywhere in every direction as far as the eye can see. It is as if billions of tremendous (2000 feet tall maybe. I have no frame of reference.) ice bergs were froze in place to be drifted with snow and weathered into mountains. There are also vast plains (maybe 50 miles across and hundreds long) between groups of mountains like great flood plains of rivers.. but rising sea water instead of rivers. These plains would be the only reasonable passage on ground. The mountains eventually give way to an abyss of flat, fractured ice. This is how I have always imagined the Arctic.. not the mountains, the abyss.
I am bound for Hong Kong from the US Statue of Liberty, over Greenland, the North Pole and the Arctic Circle, Siberia, and the thick of mainland Asia.. 100 pages into "Xenocide" and have plenty of time to read.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Phenomenal
Captain's Log Earthdate 10/17/2007 22:27
I am idling my car so that I can recharge my battery. Basically my car is my house for a while. A 15 year old severely autistic boy, son of a small South Park family that is friends with multiple friends of mine is badly lost in the Roaring Plains of the Dolly Sods. This is a place that I have intended on exploring for years but never thought the vehicle of a search and rescue team would take me there. It is night time and the first few meteors of the Orionids are beginning to appear. They won't let me go out and search for him tonight. In fact, roads and all other access is blocked to the area. This is so that screwheads that want to catch a glimpse of the action (without actually being a part of it) won't interfere with the highly organized efforts of the navy seals, the K-9 units and bloodhounds, the rest of the military and national guard, and the formally trained search and rescue teams. I don't take it personally. I understand. They will turn me loose at 6am.
I'm gathering energy. There is a tremendous buffet of candy bars, crackers, macaroni and cheese, chili, manicotti, gatorade, powerbars, anything that people would donate. There is, in the same room, 50 - 100 cots set up in the Canaan ski lodge. I'm reading Ender's Game (a recent gift from my sensei) in my car in the parking lot listening to a mix cd that a long lost friend of mine from the Sunny Side made for me years ago. This is where I will sleep in my beloved station wagon (Before I bought the car I folded the seats down to perform the tests that proved I could comfortably sleep in it. I will never own a car that I can't.)
I hope to god that this kid buckled down and ran for everything that anything is worth from this incredible landscape. Wednesday is almost over and he's been through 3 almost freezing nights and four hot days since Sunday afternoon. My optimistic side believes that it is just a walk in the park for those of us who are not completely stunned by the fear that precedes awe.
[Update: 10/18/07]
J was found today (at about 14:30) by a team of volunteers that included one of his relatives. He was discovered in a small, thickly moss covered clearing within a dense thicket of rhododendron not far from where he was last seen. He walked out on his own two feet.
For the four days (not including Sunday) there were over 300 volunteers (not including the formal SAR teams and military) signed up per day. There was a superfluous amount of supplies including first aid and even American Red Cross chefs to cook the donated food. Dog food, bowls, mats to put the bowls on, and more was donated to the private search dog owners. Above all, there were so incredibly many human work hours given that it would be impossible to count. When people pull together in great numbers or even act alone in seemingly small acts of selflessness and compassion.. this is the essence of human nature.
I am idling my car so that I can recharge my battery. Basically my car is my house for a while. A 15 year old severely autistic boy, son of a small South Park family that is friends with multiple friends of mine is badly lost in the Roaring Plains of the Dolly Sods. This is a place that I have intended on exploring for years but never thought the vehicle of a search and rescue team would take me there. It is night time and the first few meteors of the Orionids are beginning to appear. They won't let me go out and search for him tonight. In fact, roads and all other access is blocked to the area. This is so that screwheads that want to catch a glimpse of the action (without actually being a part of it) won't interfere with the highly organized efforts of the navy seals, the K-9 units and bloodhounds, the rest of the military and national guard, and the formally trained search and rescue teams. I don't take it personally. I understand. They will turn me loose at 6am.
I'm gathering energy. There is a tremendous buffet of candy bars, crackers, macaroni and cheese, chili, manicotti, gatorade, powerbars, anything that people would donate. There is, in the same room, 50 - 100 cots set up in the Canaan ski lodge. I'm reading Ender's Game (a recent gift from my sensei) in my car in the parking lot listening to a mix cd that a long lost friend of mine from the Sunny Side made for me years ago. This is where I will sleep in my beloved station wagon (Before I bought the car I folded the seats down to perform the tests that proved I could comfortably sleep in it. I will never own a car that I can't.)
I hope to god that this kid buckled down and ran for everything that anything is worth from this incredible landscape. Wednesday is almost over and he's been through 3 almost freezing nights and four hot days since Sunday afternoon. My optimistic side believes that it is just a walk in the park for those of us who are not completely stunned by the fear that precedes awe.
[Update: 10/18/07]
J was found today (at about 14:30) by a team of volunteers that included one of his relatives. He was discovered in a small, thickly moss covered clearing within a dense thicket of rhododendron not far from where he was last seen. He walked out on his own two feet.
For the four days (not including Sunday) there were over 300 volunteers (not including the formal SAR teams and military) signed up per day. There was a superfluous amount of supplies including first aid and even American Red Cross chefs to cook the donated food. Dog food, bowls, mats to put the bowls on, and more was donated to the private search dog owners. Above all, there were so incredibly many human work hours given that it would be impossible to count. When people pull together in great numbers or even act alone in seemingly small acts of selflessness and compassion.. this is the essence of human nature.
Monday, September 10, 2007
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