mthew
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Podilymbus podiceps
When I first spotted this Pied-bill Grebe in the Valley Water, it was amidst a flotilla of Canada Geese.A week later it was the sole bird on the water.You can see why it’s sticking around. * Trump’s pick for National Security Advisor is a real piece of work: ignorant, power-mad, and conspiratorially deranged. I wrote…
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Raptor Wednesday
I didn’t have to leave the house for these, although of course they’re all too far away. Here’s an American Kestrel perched an avenue away. This is the same antenna that has hosted Red-tailed Hawk, Merlin, and crows (could be American or Fish in these parts); usually it’s festooned with Starlings. Same day, earlier, spotted…
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One Way, or Another
Northern Mockingbird defending its territory. Trump’s choice to dismember the Department of Education and feed off its corpse is another of these cultish, right-wing, plutocratic nutbags this country produces far too many of, but of course even most Democrats have been fine with undermining public education. Yet privatization of education, as other public goods, only…
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Ardea herodias
Great Blue Heron.This bird had been hanging out in Green-Wood deep into the autumn. It had got quite used to passersby, in fact several people were concerned about its condition because it was “just standing there.” I last saw it 11/25, when I took these pictures; I haven’t seen it the last two weekends. Perhaps…
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Book Gifts
There’s nothing quite like a book. Erasmus had his priorities right: “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” Alas, it’s now impossible to send the old boy a gift of a book, but I think you and yours might appreciate the following…
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Arteries
Always look to the connections, or, as Deep Throat said, follow the money. Trump’s antics as the ultimate reality TV star front the worst of the worst. More info on the tools of the corporate disinformation system larding his regime.
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Friday
Beauty. Ugliness: the sexual predator of a would-be king’s appointment of the financial predators Wilbur Ross and Steve Mnuchin for the top economic jobs in the country bodes more bad news for a developing cabinet/wrecking crew of billionaires, goons, incompetents, and thieves. I expect my Senators, Gillibrand and Schumer, to do everything in their power…
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Meandering
To meander, wandering this way and that, like the ancient Greek river Maiandros, by way of the Latin Maeander. The word itself has meandered down to us. There was no guarantee it would ever arrive here after its strange journey. That river was in Phrygia, Anatolia, now Turkey. The province also bequeathed us the the…
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Raptor Wednesday Plus Pellets
This Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) female was flying directly towards me across the Crescent Water when suddenly she freaked out. A Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) sped overhead, arrowing towards her. There was much shouting by the Kingfisher, who loudly went hither and yon as the foiled Coop parked itself in a Sweetgum. I see Cooper’s…
Backyard and Beyond 