I did not do a “Year in Review” in 2023. I had taken on a new part-time job in the fall of 2022, and I just could not find the time to do it. And I still have that job so I’m still awfully busy, but I’m determined. So I have decided to do pairs of photos this time, one per month for each year, 2022 and 2023. January 29, 2022 – This beautiful Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) perched on a branch just yards away and posed for me. I was entering Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge to meet a…
One of the reasons I began kayaking is because you can get closer to birds in a kayak than on land. The lower profile of a kayak on water and the smooth, silent movement–assuming you aren’t splashing your paddle!–seems to alarm them less. I came fairly close to the male Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga) perched on a snag over Black Bayou Lake. Was he calling to his mate? Signaling that he was ready to take his turn on their nest? Warning away other birds? Announcing appreciation for the beauty and bounty around him? God told Job, Ask the beasts and the…
Let The Beauty We Love Be What We Do Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.–Rumi
In my imagination, the bulldozer that was gouging the earth to get “fill” to build the highway that runs nearby still sits at the bottom of this turquoise pool. I like to think that when the ‘dozer struck the spring that provides the limestone-rich water that fills the hole it dug, the bulldozer operator had time only to scramble off the iron monster and get to safety before the water sealed its grave. That’s probably not exactly how it happened, although the basics of that story are true: A quarry created to provide fill for widening Louisiana Highway 165 became…
Edge & Essence 