My late dad and I share a gene that — due to a missed deadline with the Humane Genome Project — hasn’t been mapped for posterity. He dreamed (and I dream) in preposterous anachronisms and juxtapositions. One of Dad’s recurring dreams was about a horse in a penthouse apartment who would fling himself off the…
A Short Visit With Lines Written in Early Spring
I have Frank of EcoSnake to thank for today’s post. He included Wordsworth’s poem in the comment section below one of his photos on Flickr. I can relate to the melancholy of this poem, having many times “sat reclined” in my own grove, contemplating what “man has done to man.” People like Frank are a…
Simple Things Do Help Wildlife
In Jain texts, the term ahimsa denotes the principle of least harm: “Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture or kill any creature or living being.” Jain monks take great care to look out for the least among us, going to lengths to avoid harming insects and so forth.
High Tech Wildlife Rehab
The view from the Marine Mammal Center’s visiting area, above the rehab pens for sea lions and other Marine Mammals.
To Sleep & Dream
Not in the Shakespearean sense . . .
Not the Easter Bunny
Those ears serve this Black-tailed Jackrabbit well. A jack will usually hear you coming long before you see him. And he can regulate blood flow in these ears to adjust for external temperatures. The Black-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) — any jackrabbit — is actually a hare, not a rabbit. This particular jackrabbit wasn’t keen on…
The Ongoing Plight of Seal Pups
I wrote this post last year, but as we move into April 2010, the seal hunt begins anew. It’s been such a difficult issue for me to grapple with over the years, so I thought I’d re-post my comments from last year. The fundamentals remain the same.
Squirrel Girl & The Cherry Blossoms
Squirrels don’t win popularity contests with gardeners and bird feeders. Tree squirrels, agile and clever, have been known to outsmart even the toughest mazes designed to thwart them. In fact, if you never saw the 1990s British documentary Daylight Robbery, check out the video clip at the end of this post. From there you can…
Mudbath
I’m keen to see eyes peering out of mudflats . . . the creatures from the bog, the foraging carp, the bullfrog in camo, a Pacific chorus frog in a dewdrop. I shot this photo at Blake Garden, just north of Berkeley in the Kensington Hills. My vision is tuned to anomalies and, sure enough,…
Jean-Michel Cousteau Speaks Out on Captive Orcas
Just saw this video from Jean-Michel Cousteau who, in the aftermath of the SeaWorld incident, implores us humans to rethink our misguided ideas about captivity for marine mammals. Couldn’t agree more.