About the Ghost Turtles
150 years after Robert Duncanson painted this luminist scene on the Little Miami River, I stood in the same spot and saw a soft-shelled turtle sunning on a snag. It slipped silently into the water when it heard me. That’s when I knew past is present and destiny, too. That’s when my vision of the Ghost Turtles began. Read more
Ecology of the Senses
Returning to Lake Superior year after year like a migrating loon, I’ve learned the other side of a slow, uncertain process that could be called “going blind.” With the lake as my teacher, I know what lies on the other side. I call it letting go of sight. Read more.Prayer at Big Creek
![Sandhill cranes land on Platte River sandbar roosts west of Rowe Sanctuary’s Iain Nicolson Audubon Center southwest of Gibbon, Nebraska. [Photo by Lori Porter| Kearney Hub]](https://www.ghostturtles.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/sandhill_cranes_kearneyhub_032015-300x225.jpg)
At the threshold of consciousness, as I slipped back and forth between two worlds, I put my mind in the best place I could imagine, a marsh on Lake Erie called Big Creek. I knew I’d find cranes waiting for me. I cannot say whether I prayed for them, or to them, or with them. The cant of words doesn’t matter. I believe in the still, small voice. I believe what the poet Yehuda Amichai said. Gods come and go. Prayer is eternal. Read moreFreedom to Read
![An endangered Whooping crane takes flight. Yhe large bird has a 7-foot wingspan. It is all white except for black wing tips and face markings. In this photo its long neck stretches forward; its wings sweep upward; and its black legs trail straight behind it. [Source: International Crane Foundation]](https://www.ghostturtles.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Whooping-crane-eastern-ICF-080622-300x157.jpg)
Whenever I hear sanctimonious pronouncements about woke, parental rights, and banning books, I think of Whooping cranes. In my family, the gawky, audacious, elusive and endangered birds are synonymous with our values about the First Amendment and the freedom to read. Read more.Sister, Teacher, Pathfinder
A guidance counselor in high school told my sister Diana, “With your eye problems you will never make it in college. Just forget about it. Get married. Raise a family.” That advice only deepened her determination. She did it all in due time, in her own way –college, marriage, family. She became a guidance counselor herself. She certainly was the most important guide and pathfinder in my life. Read more.Flaneur & Bouquiniste
![Mark Willis peruses a 1745 volume by Voltaire at a bouquiniste book stall on the banks of the Seine in Paris. He wears a brown leather jacket and checkered flat cap. He holds the open book in his hands. Rows of old books are seen on shelves behind him. [2005 photo by Ms. Modigliani]](https://www.ghostturtles.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/mw_bouquiniste_05-300x225.jpg)
I remember the book I held in my hands that day. I remember the feel of its time-warped, water-stained pages. I remember its murky, moldy river smell, call it the book’s bouquet, suggesting years of storage on the banks of the Seine. Had I bought it then, I could feel and smell it now and know it from a hundred other books in my library. Read more.R & K: A Rant
Marjorie Taylor Green auditioned for R&K’s Authoritarian It Girl at the 2023 State of the Union address. She and her Republican colleagues yelled like Tarzan swinging through the trees as they jeered and booed the President’s speech. Read Rants & Kisses.R & K: A Kiss
Songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Singers like Dione Warwick and Dusty Springfield. What Do You Get When You Fall in Love? The Look of Love. I Say a Little Prayer. I sit in the car’s back seat and listen. I’m glad it’s dark. I’d be embarrassed if anyone could see the dreamy look on my face. Read Rants & Kisses.
Tag Archives: birding
October 2015 Monthly Census at Ottawa NWR
Here is documentation of the fall migration as of October 4 at the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge on Lake Erie. Thanks to Douglas Vogus., who published the monthly census on the OHIO-BIRDS email list. Continue reading
Posted in Places
Tagged birding, fm2015, Lake Erie, Ottawa NWR
Comments Off on October 2015 Monthly Census at Ottawa NWR
September 2015 Monthly Census at Ottawa NWR
Here is documentation of the fall migration as of September 6 at the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge on Lake Erie. Thanks to Douglas Vogus., who published the monthly census on the OHIO-BIRDS email list. I publish it here so I can marvel at the detail, especially the butterfly count! Continue reading
Posted in Places
Tagged birding, fm2015, Lake Erie, Ottawa NWR
Comments Off on September 2015 Monthly Census at Ottawa NWR
Birding Then and Now – Red Knot
Yesterday was International Vulture Awareness Day. Today is World Shorebirds Day. It’s hard to keep up with all the conservation events out there, but I like the idea that the Red Knot has been selected to be the 2015 “Shorebird of the Year” – as hokey as that sounds. I saw Red Knots once as a kid, circa 1969, either at Cape May or Cape Cod. I wish eBird had been around 50 years ago so I could retrieve details from it to refresh my memory! Several migrating Red Knots have been reported in northern Ohio since mid-August. So they do pass through my current whereabouts Continue reading
Posted in Birds
Tagged bird.org, birding, migration, shorebirds
Comments Off on Birding Then and Now – Red Knot
Link Blog – August 26, 2015
Animal migration tracking: how did we get to bee backpacks? | Alphr 082615 [A good overview of the history of animal tracking technology, with links] “Tiny bee backpacks… These microsensors have been glued to the backs of 10,000 honey bees … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged animal tracking, behavior, birding, citizen science, evolution, John James Audubon, Lake Erie, Minnesota, water pollution
Comments Off on Link Blog – August 26, 2015
Naturalist Notebook – August 16, 2015
Lake Erie Birding Trail Tremendous numbers and diversity of migrant songbirds fill lakeside woodlands in spring and fall. Waterbirds galore pack marshes and the open lake waters, and interesting marsh birds breed in coastal wetlands. Winter brings hardy northern ducks, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged birding, birds, conservation, hummingbirds, Lake Erie
Comments Off on Naturalist Notebook – August 16, 2015
