I stepped out of a mist and I knew I am. I am what I am. And then I thought, ‘But what have I been before?’ And then I found that I had been in a mist, not knowing to differentiate myself from things; I was just one thing among many things.” ~ Carl Jung,…
Re-Capturing the Clapper Rail
The show Bird Note just posted an audio piece on California Clapper Rails in San Francisco Bay. Bird Note covers an eclectic array of bird stories, from behavioral questions to ecological issues. The stories are short audio bits with related blog posts and resources to flesh out the subject matter. As an adjunct to the Clapper…
Bird Verse: Eastern Gods
They are eastern gods — they meditate. (Yes they are.) “The Owls” by Charles Baudelaire (translated by Edna St. Vincent Millay) The owls that roost in the black yew Along one limb in solemn state, And with a red eye look you through, Are eastern gods; they meditate. No feather stirs on them, not one,…
An American Bullfrog in Berkeley
I don’t usually ignore visual anomalies. They bring me to interesting things. On this Berkeley day, something seemed out of place — that nagging oddity in my periphery. I turned and looked closer in the mud. Sure enough, there was an unusual outline in the creek bed. As quickly as I noticed the frog, it…
Refracted Light, Arcs and Rainbows – Over SF
I’m not a big fan of Descartes. In spite of his genius and complexity, he held some mechanisticviews toward nature and non-human animals. But I’ll give him some love for this explanation of rainbowsI recently read at the UCAR website. He simplified the study of a rainbow to one rain droplet — and how light refracts…
Walking the Bay Trail at San Leandro Marina
** Photo usage and restrictions The East Bay leg of the San Francisco Bay Trail has an extraordinary, long stretch from San Leandro Marina southward to the Hayward Shoreline. Where some of the Bay Trail jogs inland on paved roads, this particular portion runs alongside the Bay and through the heart of the marina itself….
