(Archive: Hawk•art•science
orienteering) 26 October 2009, Monday
Immoral indeed! Well, for my part, I have at least been deemed 'unofficial' and 'illegitimate' in my reporting of the movements of hawks over the years. Let's see if I can induce the vapors in some, while infusing others with warmth and enthusiasm by way of my very own hearty hawk stew. A recent bit of fanmail caused me to ramp up production on this blog thing: So Tom are you like the Edward Abbey of the hawk
world? Your information is very forward thinking and I would like to
read more? Books? Links? Etc. Please! Also, I'm sure the "OLD
GUARD" doesn't want to hear about this... I am certainly not the late great Ed Abbey... or Scott Weidensaul or Pete Dunne! All those guys can actually write — long and hard, with complexity and wit. Please do go and read them... they've got, like, books and therefore publishers (for good reason). Here we've got, like, scraps of paper and emails, illustrated. Because we are online here, like Amazon.com, fulfillment via overnight shipping is my goal. Getting back to The YouTube, I've make an introductory playlist for your viewing horror, well, a few little gems that I like. My natural anthem, but without any hawks at all. I motivate to go out and look at hawks through many stimuli... music, TV, movies, windows, shaking due to low levels of raptoramine. These little movies are not of birds or wings or Nature for that matter. (Rule #1, of mine: I don't watch hawks, or other natural things on television) If I can't be Abbey, let me be Moody.
21 October 2009, Wednesday
I started using it to add some snapshots associated with the Wolfe Island post a couple of weeks ago. That was during the start-up phase, but here's where I'll explain how it works. When you encounter a single image within an entry, try clicking it. Or if there's a strip of image slices at the bottom, go ahead and click on the left hand one (or any one for that matter). Once the screen dims, the image(s) will unfold. Pre-clicking, on mouseover, the upcoming caption for the image will show. Navigating is intuitive/fun: use your left and right arrow keys to move amongst the pictures; use either the "x" key or "esc" to exit. Your mouse works too: if you move it to one side or the other on an image, a tab appears, just click when it appears (no need to hit the tab itself). You may use your cursor to "Close" the slide show. But the keyboard shortcuts, along with the resolution, are the coolness. Here are five images from last Winter: pretty nice ones, IMHO. I enjoyed sharing them through emails with friends, but they never got posted at Hawksaloft.com. Enjoy.     3 March 2010, Wednesday
It's been a quiet Winter in terms of wintering raptors, but officially Spring migration is underway with the opening of many hawkwatch sites on or about March 1st. So today, I'm looking back... tomorrow, sunny Amherst Island Ontario for some Roughlegs and Snowy Owls. Web statistics show there are fair number of daily visitors and while any reader can work down page and then back in time to catch up, I've archived most posts into topics. These flow from oldest to newest: meaning, if there were a sequence of thought (who knows), it would reveal itself on that topical page. A few entries appear under more than one topic, for this reason. Some, none. Hawk•art•science orienteering and Counter Culture posts present an introduction to why I started this and give a sense of the new wave of young professional hawkwatcher-birder-banders that followed on the heels of Pete Dunne — starting with Frank Nicoletti, Jerry Liguori, Brian Sullivan. Ten Laws and 6 Axioms of Bird ID are my very own formula for originally teaching young birders about how human nature enters into the equation of applied identification (you can see why that would need a hook). Later on, I found these methods work well with adults, who are young at heart. Blending ID with theories of migration, pairings, and wintering, Redtails R Us (7 entries), Fun with Accipiters (7) and About Eagles (4) get specific. Redtails are everywhere and they are of a never ending interest to me... and I hope it's contagious (Kestrels are my thing too). For the accipiter complex, I'm not sure what I can add, but this is about their identification and our data set based on this ongoing problem. With eagles, it's all about the timing... what isn't! There are around a hundred of my own raptor images (thumbnails not included, as they duplicate), plus a few weather maps, assorted screenshots, and then there are the YouTube videos — a few of which I've made myself. This leads us into the science... I bring scientific thinking into the field of hawk identification and migration two ways: through entries in the scientific literature — Science, straight up (14); and then by way of some humor — Seinfeld Science, & other effrontery (7). In the former, it's notes from the scientific literature, but also the occasional trip to Cornell for a live presentation and report... the Raptors & Cuba (3) collection fits here too. Beginning with "The Opposite," Seinfeld Science along with Woolly Bear, Road House, and on through to OJ Simpson Science use popular media to get across some actual science, in my own way. Weather & Climate (14) is, or should be, a subject of great interest to hawkwatchers and other field biologists, but I think the information is in need of a major update... and I'm doing just that. Can't get away from the hawks, the art, or science when checking out the entries on film and books! The dozen posts found here — At the Movies (6) & in TLC's Book Club (6) — introduce books and movies I simply like, but also bear on the hawks and science. As a teacher, I've always used pop culture (including the classics) to get my point across. And last, if you haven't noticed them, I have four quotes over in the right column — from Joni Mitchell, Einstein, Thoreau, and Rachel Carson — that I like a lot and I feel are words to think by. Tomorrow: The Annual Ithaca Redtail Fest is still underway. Where else can you see forty Red-tailed Hawks perched, nearly shoulder-to-shoulder at times, on just a few acres... but why? You might think Cornell is cultivating the beasts for science, but these are free-ranging RTs. Stay tuned. |
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