Birds – Art & Nature

Where The Catbirds Sing

I haven’t used my blog in a while. When I tried to write a post a few minutes ago, I wasn’t able to access the edit function. Took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on. Hopefully that problem is resolved.

In any case, I’m going to try to start using this blog again. I keep saying that and then I don’t get around to it. Well, maybe this time!

Just a quick post to say that I started to do quite a bit of painting in late winter – mostly in watercolours. I’ve cut back on that over the springtime as I’m busy outdoors, but I did manage to pull myself together enough to do an acrylic painting that I’m submitting for the ARCAC members’ exhibit, “Wild Nature” that runs from the end of July through til some time in late August. I’m posting a photo of the painting here today. It’s entitled, “Where The Catbirds Sing”. It was inspired by some Gray Catbird activity in the lilac trees in the front yard. Two Catbirds were vigorously singing – I assume it was two males trying to out-sing each other. It was a sunny day. The lilac leaves were glowing in a certain way. I’m going to post two photos that I took on that day and used to work from in making this painting. I also incorporated a spectrogram of a recording that the BirdWeather PUC station made of the Catbirds that have been singing around the yard recently. I thought that would help to symbolically convey more of a sense of the birdsong that took place that day.

Anyhow, enough about that. Here’s the painting (above) and the 2 photos that I worked from (below).

15 years

Don beside a Redwood along Prairie Creek in California in October 2006.

Today is that day. As of today, it’s been 15 years since Don died and life alone with my dogs began. A couple of weeks from now is our 49th anniversary, so I’ve now spent more than a third of what should have been our time together, living alone. It’s been a pretty strange 15 years of existence. If you haven’t been there, you wouldn’t really get it even if I tried to explain how it feels. Suffice to say that things didn’t turn out anything like what we had hoped and planned for. In spite of the debacle, I’ve tried to make the best of it. I can’t say it’s been easy and, as I get older, I know that life will just become more difficult. However, there’s not much point in dwelling on that reality. I just try to keep on keeping on in the company of my canine tribe.

Anyhow, it’s sort of customary for me to put down a few words on this anniversary, so this is it.

Due to some computer troubles a few weeks ago, I have had to move photo files around on storage drives. Of course, that got me looking at photos from the past 23 or so years since I went all digital. I’ve also been doing some work on my old blogs — cleaning up broken links and doing a bit of editing here and there. And then I started up this new blog. All of this to say that I’ve had occasion to look at a lot of photos from the past and also read many old blog posts from before and after Don’s death in 2008. It’s been both good and sad by times.

Brown Pelicans along the Pacific coast near the Klamath River estuary.

One thing that came out of all of this is that I’m so glad that Don made the trip out west to spend time with me in the final week of my month long autumn photography travels in 2006. I took him to see all of my very favourite places along the Pacific coast, and in the Redwoods. The Brown Pelicans were migrating along the coast at the time, and it felt like we were part of the crowd as we went from beach to beach, meeting up with them again and again, watching them diving, fishing, and flying in strings, so close to the water that, at times, they would disappear behind the waves.

Brown Pelicans skimming over the waves as they head southward along the Pacific coast.

We went up some of my favourite rivers like the Chetco, the Winchuk, Illinois and the Smith. Spent time camped on shoals or in the redwoods where I prepared some of what, I’ve been told, are my legendary fire-cooked dinners made with fresh California produce. And we spent a couple of days of quality time with our good friends, Paul and his father, Bill.

Don beside the Smith River

Don sitting beside the Illinois River in the Siskiyou region of southwest Oregon.

We visited some of my favourite trees in the Redwoods like the Corkscrew tree, and a particular Redwood along Prairie Creek. Such a tree. So fortunate that it was never felled after having a springboard stuck in its side.

Don with the big Redwood along Prairie Creek.

So, yes, I have been looking at those October 2006 photos and thinking a lot about that autumn trip as well as a number of other autumns spent wandering around in Oregon and California. That part of the continent means a lot to me – it is an integral part of my personal mythology. The 2006 trip seems particularly precious — almost like some last marker point at which all was still normal and good. Within a couple of years, Don became ill and died. Then Bill. Then our dog, Sabrina. Then my mom. Then Sage(1) and Shelby. And then my friend, Paul, died this summer. Other friends as well. All gone.

Don on a beach near Crescent City in northern California.

Well, at least we had that very special time out west. When I left home and began travelling out west with my dogs after Don died, I revisited all of those places – and have done so again a couple of times over the years. It wasn’t easy to return, but it was something I needed to do. Sometimes I feel like going back one more time, but I’m sure it would all feel very different as it’s been quite a few years. Things were already starting to change the last time I was there. Oceanview condos starting to crop up all over. Also, the network of friends that always felt like a series of safe port-of-calls across the continent, is pretty much in tatters now that almost all are gone. I expect that wandering around would feel rather empty and weird.

Well, in any case, I’m very glad that we were able to spend some time together on the Pacific coast visiting my favourite places. I’m sorry that Don didn’t get a chance to do more travelling. I tried to do so for both of us. It’s what he would have wanted me to do.

Me beside the drifted Redwood stump at McVay Beach near Brookings, Oregon

What I’m Reading, Watching, or Listening To . . .

I’ll be using this blog to share links to some of the stories I’m reading, listening to, or watching. I’ll be doing so, in part, because I can’t share links to news stories via FB anymore. As most of you probably know by now, Canadians are being blocked from sharing stories from both Canadian and international news services because Facebook is angry at new Canadian legislation. Anyhow, it’s easier and maybe even better to be sharing links to news stories via my blog.

So, here are a few stories that I found very interesting or particularly relevant to nature, ecology and the environment::

Basket makers brace for emerald ash borer impact
Good story on the CBC from August 16/2023, concerning the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer to the Black Ash used for traditional basketmaking. There are quotes from several Indigenous basketmakers, and also a land manager from the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory (which straddles Quebec, Ontario and New York state), saying “”We’ve seen the spread of the emerald ash borer from one corner of the reservation … throughout the entire territory.” To learn more, please read the article. Good photos.

What Wildfire Smoke Means for Birds.
Article from the New York Times – “Bird Project” newsletter on August 18, 2023. This seems to NOT be behind a paywall but you will probably have to sign in using your Google or Facebook account. A summary of some of the ways in which smoke from wild fires impacts birds, especially during migration – causing them to either stop in an unfamiliar place to wait out the smoke, try to fly far far above, or around the smoke, or fly through the smoke and likely suffer respiratory and other damage.

If you found the above article about the effects of wild fire smoke on birds of interest, this is a more in depth paper which is referred to in the NYT’s article. It was published in Ecology (journal of the Ecological Society of America), October 8, 2021. Well worth a read:
Megafires and thick smoke portend big problems for migratory birds

N.S. farmers grapple with stress after string of extreme weather events – Article from the CBC from August 21 — on what Nova Scotia farmers are facing as far as repeated extreme weather events as well as rising production costs — and how this impacts farmers (many are deeply discouraged) — but also what it means for food security here in Nova Scotia. There is a link to a good audio recording from Information Morning as well. Worth a listen.

A similar article from August 25, 2023 in Rabble.ca concerning the situation in B.C.. A lot of this is very applicable to Nova Scotia and Ontario this year. I read a couple of Maritime farming FB groups and the price of hay and grain has been rising (as it is everywhere due to weather extremes). Earlier this summer, there were problems related to drought and wells going dry, heat and humidity bothering animals, rain when trying to harvest crops, and so on. Farmers are having to deal with a lot. That should concern all of us as anything that impacts the farming community is going to inevitably work its way up to the consumer to result in food insecurity.
BC farmers are at the mercy of climate change, and things look grim.

Lastly, a link to a review of a documentary that I have just heard about in a post on a fibre arts group to which I belong. The film has just been released for viewing in the U.K., but hopefully will be available to a wider audience before long. “The Nettle Dress” is just that — a dress that was made from nettles that were harvested and spun by fibre artist, Allan Brown. There’s a lot of backstory – the spinning and weaving of the cloth became part of his way of carrying on after the death of his father and then his wife. He makes the dress for his daughter. I watched the trailer last night. I’d like to see the film when it becomes available. Here’s a link to a review and a director’s Q&A, and to the trailer. I’ll embed the trailer here in this post as well.
The Nettle Dress – a review and director’s Q&A

It’s Time To Do Better At Protecting Birds

Hi everyone,

I spent the past weekend putting together a video (see below), using a collection of video clips shot by Donna Crossland earlier this summer. They depict sections of Highway 8 here in Annapolis County, where contractors have been removing a wide swath of trees and brush along the roads near the power lines. The work is being done to reduce the likelihood of trees falling on the lines and causing power outages. Of course, this is well and good, but the timing for these operations was extremely poor as it was right at the peak of bird nesting season.

For those of you who may not know Donna, her birding skills are excellent. She has been doing bird census point counts for many years. Anyhow, she took her camera and went into the areas that were being cut to see what was there. She carried on a dialogue while shooting footage, so “you are there” with her as she narrates what she is seeing. She also shot some footage after the cut had been done to record bird activity.

I’ve uploaded the video to Youtube to share with friends. It will eventually be uploaded to at least one or two organization websites, but in the meantime, I wanted to get some feedback from those of you who are following my blog. I am trying to convey that, yes, this work needs to be done, BUT there should be greater care with operational planning to avoid destroying bird nests and nestlings. This could easily be accomplished by avoiding doing this kind of work during nesting season. It’s only a few weeks out of the whole year. Surely it should be possible to give the birds some time to raise their young.

Anyhow, here is the video. Run time is about 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Feedback is very welcome in the comments. And by the way, thanks to those of you who have subscribed to my new blog. It means a lot to me.

Give The Birds A Break

Yes, give the birds a break!!

This is for those of you who had the misfortune of not having a chance to see the excellent article about the need to do a much better job of protecting birds under the terms of the Migratory Birds Convention Act (MBCA). The article by Donna Crossland and Nina Newington, appeared as an op-ed on Saltwire on August 7, 2023. I hope to be able to post some video clips that were intended to accompany the article but weren’t used. I’ll try to get those posted somewhere quite soon. In the meantime, you can read the full article and view the photos at the following link.

Give The Birds A Break – Op-ed (Birds & Logging)