Birds of St. Croix

i was going to write a piece about the similarities we have with mammals, fish, insects and birds that work together for the benefit of the community. Things like cooperative breeding which is a form of communal nesting, flocking and schooling to deter predators or corral prey, penguins staying warm by bunching together, the collective consciousness of bees, ants, and monarch butterflies...and what about how certain organisms can stay in touch with others of their own kind across distances, time and even generations(monarchs).

There was a great piece on PBS called the “Gathering Swarms” that you can view on line at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/the-gathering-swarms/full-episode/8840/#disqus_thread

i highly recommend watching it if you enjoy learning about nature and how it does work together.

i think everyone reading this blog knows that i push the idea that we are all in this living on earth thing more as a communal effort than an individual one. i was going to compare and contrast us with those things i mentioned above but this week has been so great bird wise that i'm posting photos instead.

Hope you enjoy as much as i did some of the birds i photographed on the island recently.

The Snowy Egrets above were in their breeding plumage and really going to town with the displays at Lowry Hill Pond South. i had been driving past and saw this flash of white in the corner of my eye and had to back up to see what was going on there. i

ended up going back to this pond four times because they were so spectacular.

This handsome guy...a Yellow- crowned Night Heron has been hanging out at Cane Bay Beach for a few weeks now. i have loads of photos of him eating, loafing and hunting but this one really shows how regal and beautiful he is.

Another flash of white whooshing past my deck one day led me to finally get a pic you can see of this Leucistic Pearly-eyed Thrasher. He's not an albino because he does have a bit of color on his head.

There was a large flock of White-winged Doves flying around the North shore but this was the only decent pic i was able to get of one of them.

This Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was hanging out on the Osprey's perch the other day.

But this Osprey i spotted over by the Granard South Pond.

This Spotted Sandpiper was hanging out at Altona Lagoon.

Snowy Egret and Common Gallinule

Common Gallinule

Pied-billed Grebe and young with Moorhen in back

Pied-billed Grebe

Green Heron

Great Egret

Green Heron

The Grebes, Green Heron, Gallinule and Great Egret were all at the Buccaneer which is a great place to bird because there are so many ponds all over the golf course.

Helpers

This morning after our swim a friend came up to the house and we had a long conversation about all sorts of things. i was asked what i would write about today and replied that i thought it might be about Helpers. My friend had mentioned the Mr. Rodgers quote as an example of those people always in the background and i thought it would make a great topic.

If you aren't familiar with it Mr. Rodgers once said,  

“ When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

In other words without focusing on any particular event we all recognize that there are a lot of people out there that do not live for themselves, they are the hidden helpers, the Good Samaritans, the ones that appear when you most need them.

i'm sure all of us can recount some example of a stranger or friend coming to our aid. The guy who stopped and changed your tire, the mom that picked up your kids when your car broke down or you couldn't leave work or were sick, the friend that had the tool you needed to fix something, the cashier that called you back to get the bag you'd left behind, the person that found your wallet and returned it, the guy that brush cut the road without anyone asking, the other guy who filled in the pot hole with gravel he'd gotten at the quarry, the neighbors that picked up the trash along side the road and on and on.

There are people all over the world helping in ways we don't ever think about. They are doing it quietly with no notoriety but making huge differences in other people's lives. They are not a minority, helpers are doing something to make someones life better every second of every day. Our problem is we don't see it.

So just to focus on one person in the neighborhood that can make your day i'd like to introduce Otis The Fix It Man. Otis has lived in La Vallee all his life, he has a body shop where he puts cars that have been mashed up back together. He has kids, goes to church, and always greets you with the biggest smile he can produce. He walks with a limp but always manages to take a sea bath sometime during the day.

We park our cars in a row perpendicular to the beach when we go swimming. When Otis has flowers blooming in his garden he cuts them and places sometimes a bouquet or a single flower on each of our side view mirrors. If he has ripe mangoes he will dangle them off the mirror. His thoughtfulness can't help but make you feel good by his simple caring gestures. Its such a treat to come back to your car and find a little gifty hanging there. Thank you Otis.

We focus on the negative. We are trained by our news media to think only bad things are happening every day all day. Wars, disasters, fighting, murders, robberies, child abuse, rape...you hardly ever see or hear about all the good things going on all around us because it doesn't sell. People helping or doing something nice doesn't sell.

Here in the VI we have a lot of complainers that are way louder than the helpers and the doers.  Improving our community starts with all of us...so go out and help someone or do something nice instead of complaining. Don't pass up that next opportunity to stop and help someone in need...it will help you and it will definitely help them.

See ya next week.

Hodge Podge

  i really liked how this guy looked working on filling a spare tire in his trunk. The color of his car, the white rims, and the orange wall behind him grabbed me and i hope he grabs you too. So on todays menu is exercise, mind reading, writing therapy, a little politics, and some of Omar Khayams wonderful poetry at the end.

So moving on....why do you exercise? Personally i've been doing it for so many years that when i don't do it i feel like i missed out on a part of my day that i really and truly enjoy. i get mental, social and physical benefits every day of the week.

According to the Mayo Clinic exercise improves mood which i can totally attest to. How could anyone feel depressed after swimming in our beautiful waters, or walking along our gorgeous roads and trails, or birding in some of our out of the way places. Just being out in nature every day is a dose of EPIC goodness.

Lately i've been involved with refuting a conservatives world view. He gladly rants on about how evil government is, how they are stealing our money, and wrecking the economy while i gladly rant on about governments positives. i recently sent him a piece about a day in a life in the USA and the real impacts government has on us. Believe it or not but the piece is from a site called Government is Good.

http://www.governmentisgood.com/articles.php?aid=1

i don't think any conservatives reading this blog today will go check it out. Too much reading and not enough sound bites or photos or hateful resentful diatribes. It has truth they don't want to acknowledge. i tell  him over and over that conservatism to me is all about resentment and fear. 

Doesn't sit too well with him but it is the truth.

i think the big difference between us is that conservatives are committed to smaller government. While liberals are not committed to big government they are just heavily invested in outcomes that enhance society in general. 

So moving on...i've asked this dude to take me off his forwarding list as the stuff he sends out is god awful. Unfortunately i can't just let this garbage slide by so i respond and tear down all the crap. i should put him in the spam box but i hate the idea of no one fighting back.

Did you know there is such a thing as writing therapy? There are fields of study out there that think writing can heal and that writing down your deepest thoughts, feelings, and emotions can be beneficial to your immune system. James W. Pennebaker started studying writing therapy 20 years ago and has been able to show through reproducible studies that writing can reduce physiological stress upon the body.

i don't know if this really works or not but for a while there i was having feet cramps when i swam. i started eating a banana a day and they seem to have disappeared. Maybe it is coincidence and maybe it isn't.

We have climate change deniers and those(like me) who believe humans are having a direct impact on global climate. Well you deniers check this, 16 retired three and four star generals and admirals claim that climate change is a direct threat to our economy and our security. They claim that extreme weather stands to stretch troops thin, spark unrest in unstable regions, and unravel global networks of trade and resources. Their study released last night brands climate change a “catalyst for conflict.”

Even though their motivation is higher, women are no better than men at reading minds.

And so to close...i love the poetry of Omar Khayam which Juan Cole has been translating and putting on his website Informed Comment. Here are two:

Since you can’t comprehend the mysteries,

why wallow uselessly in grief?  Since you‘re
not going to get your way, be happy in
this fleeting moment for which you exist.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 458

The elders and the newborns trace
the footsteps of each other, and
it is the way of this world that
no one can live forever here.
They have departed and we’re on our way,
and they arrive again, and go again.
Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, Arberry 1949, 5

See ya next week.

Singing underwater

i was passed a book recently that was an advanced reader copy and not for resale. i plowed through it quite happily as it was about a man who decides to go off on his own out into the Pacific. i love ocean going saga's and although this was fiction it had to create an environment surrounded by water that was also believable. So the story was one i knew i could fold into, but the title was "The Plover" which was what initially made me reach for it.

Many sentences from "The Plover" stayed with me and i quite enjoyed the book; but you know how sometimes when you read there will be a set of words that won't let go? Well "singing underwater" would not leave me alone

Last week the piece was on listening and any of us that have ever spent time in the water have probably floated around on top quietly taking in all the sounds. A lot of you have heard the whale music, the crackling of fish as they eat the coral, the sounds of jets as they circulate water in a pool, scuba bubbles, breaking waves, even people's splashing noise as they swim about but how many of you have tried to sing underwater?

i never had so i went searching on line and low and behold i found underwater instruments called SOSNO and a group from France that had actually put on underwater opera's in pools in France and Venice and in the Sydney harbor. One of the organizers said, “The first time one hears Redolfi's especially composed music for underwater reproduction, one is immediately betaken with the depth of the sound, the sense of space and breathtaking timelessness. There is a genuine sonic "rapture of the deep."

There are pictures of people floating on top of the water, in the harbors, and pools listening to the concert. How fun...i would love to have gone to one of those concerts.

So after much searching i found a "sonic rapture" of the deep made by a fish called the Plainfin Midshipman. It's only 28 seconds long and worth the listen. It's not opera but it is certainly something you will recognize. Click on the link and come back. He's a damn cool fish with a great sound.

http://www.dosits.org/files/dosits/midshipman-nesthum-4.mp3

i swim with a snorkel and mask unless in a race because i just can't bear to miss anything. Sure i've made noises underwater, clicking at dolphins and turtles, trying to get someone's attention, crying out in awe with the humpback...but singing...nope.

i was emboldened because on line they say you can't sing underwater. So this morning i took off on my own instead of staying with the group so i could practice singing underwater. i had the Happy song running through my brain and sang into the snorkel as i swam. 

i sang to the fish but they didn't like my singing and scooted out of my way. By the time i got to the buoy i realized that snorkel singing is not singing underwater. Whatever sound the fish thought was coming from me alarmed them more than my usual slicing through the water. So out came the snorkel and after loading up on air i popped under and sang the Happy song.

What a kick...try it some time. Singing underwater is not just music, its bubbles, floating and sound all mixed together and so goofy and wonderful i'm definitely going to do it again. i have no idea if any one else can hear you...but you can sing underwater as long as your breath holds out.

 See ya next week.