January: Birds & Beaches

Categories: Year in ReviewTags: · · · · · · Leave a comment

It’s really late to be starting my #YearInReview series, but I’m going with “better late than never”! Winter is birding season and January 2025 I participated in the Lake Claiborne (State Park) Christmas Bird Count for the first time. Claiborne is in the northwest corner of the state, so two birding and butterfly counting friends and I met at a nearby hotel the night before so we could begin counting early the designated day. I’m sorry to say, I did not save documentation of the count totals to my computer, but I do recall that the three of us identified…

#AdventWord #Mother

Categories: #AdventWordTags: · · · · · · Leave a comment

We were traveling by pontoon boat down the Sierpe River that flows through the largest mangrove swamp of the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica into the Pacific Ocean. Me, several other photographers and our boat captain and a guide were all scanning the shoreline for birds, crocodiles, iguanas, snakes, monkeys–you name it. The Osa Peninsula is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. I’m not sure who first spied the baby Green Heron (Butorides virescens), still covered with down, struggling among the mangrove and ficus roots along the bank. But no sooner had the shout gone up and…

#AdventWord #Deep/Profundo

Categories: #AdventWordTags: · · · · · 2 Comments

16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?17 Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.”–God, speaking to Job from the whirlwind. “Profundo,” the Spanish word for “deep,” rolls off the tongue with such a… well, profound tone and feel–especially if you can roll that “r” a bit like native speakers do. Both words, profundo and deep, send my mind immediately to the oceans…

#AdventWord #Equity

Categories: #AdventWordTags: · · · Leave a comment

There’s something profound about coming eye-to-eye with a non-human creature, especially a wild one. It shrinks the distance between you and them, the species difference, the size difference, the physical differences, and more. Of course I don’t know exactly how the other creature experiences our encounter. I know I spooked a white-tail deer by locking eyes with her. Up went her flag and off she went. But she had good reason to be afraid. I was holding a compound bow with an arrow nocked. This barred owl, on the other hand, sat quietly and stared back at me and my…

#AdventWord #Heed

Categories: #AdventWordTags: · · · · Leave a comment

One October day in 2019, I turned north on Hwy 39, a.k.a. The Creole Nature Trail, headed home from the Gulf Coast of southwest Louisiana. The Pintail Wildlife Drive of Cameron Parish was on the right a few miles up the road, and I planned to visit before heading on home. But well before I reached the Drive, I spotted this Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) perched on top of a power pole clutching a large silver fish in its talons. As I am inclined to do upon such sightings, I hit the brakes and pulled to the side of the road….