May 25, 1994. I was late for work hurrying down 33rd street. The train was late and it had rained in the night. As I power-walked head down in the wind, up ahead I noticed a circle of people clustered around something on the sidewalk. I could not help myself. I stopped to [...]
Entries from May 2008
May 26, 2008
Birds and Bugs
I have been bitten or stung by just about every insect in the woods and fields. As a kid I ran barefoot through the grass stepping on my share of bees, both honey and bumble. (It is like stepping on a live coal). We romped in the warm summer evenings until the mosquitoes drove us [...]
May 19, 2008
Call of the wild
I was standing at the lookout scanning the water with perhaps half a dozen other birders. We were calling out species and remarking to each other on their beauty and behavior. When faintly, seemingly off in the distance, there was the call of a loon. Everyone’s heads jerked up. We all looked around. My friend [...]
May 17, 2008
Birding a powercut
I parked the car and stepped out to the hiss and singing of the high-tension wires overhead in the powercut. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise. Until I moved north, I had never considered birding a powercut. Heck, I don’t think I even knew there were birds [...]
May 16, 2008
Last Beech Road Birdwalk
I lay considering the pitter-patter of rain on the windows. Should I go to Beech Road or not? Rain is not much of a barrier with the right gear, but I had to go to work right from the field. On the other hand it is the last scheduled bird walk with Weis for the [...]
May 12, 2008
Birding Clinton Road
Hard on the heels of my disappointed over missing the World Series of Birding because of my delayed flight back from New Orleans; a friend and I spent some time yesterday on Clinton Road. Clinton Road is a 10-mile wooded wonderland that goes from Route 23 to 94. It snakes through the Newark [...]
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