That’s your trigger warning, and it’s all you’re getting, except this: if you have a shellfish allergy, do not eat cicadas. I’m here to clarify things and dispute misinformation on websites written by people who have no first-hand experience (or possibly robots), where they talk about one cicada stage and…
NOVEMBER 6, 2020 Something about having a hobby that is dependent on the tides – stand-up paddleboarding – feels ancient, gives me a connection to my most basic existence. I depend on an online chart rather than observing the moon or the water itself, but still, having to put in…
An ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla) is a good one for a beginning birder. They nest in the Washington, DC, area, and during spring and fall, migrating birds show up in great numbers on the way to their nesting grounds as far north as British Columbia (spring) and their wintering grounds anywhere…
It wasn’t a birding trip. I was supposed to be doing some serious biking on this, the nicest day we’d had in at least six weeks. I was in exercise deficit. It felt glorious, being on the bike and not feeling the resistance in the very air that has defined…
I’ve always been interested in how creative people deal with limits and barriers. The pandemic-related restrictions on public gatherings have caused great disruptions for performers like myself and many in my circle. I want to highlight one friend and colleague who has successfully brought his skills to a new medium….
“… the light birds, with no soul but air …” 11th century, translated by W. H. Auden I am a serious birder. (I call my hobby “birdlookingfor” rather than “birdwatching” because often I’m just staring at a tree.) When people start talking about sports statistics or videogames or however else…
SEPTEMBER 21, 2019 WASHINGTON, DC Three billion – the number of birds lost in North America over the past 50 years, according to a study released last week – isn’t a number that I find possible to grasp. Rather, as a lifelong bird observer, I encounter each bird as an…
Ah! To be all alone, in a little cell, with nobody near me…” from “The Desire for Hermitage,” tenth of the Hermit Songs. Words 8th-9th century, trans. Sean O’Faolain Isolation and solitude and loneliness seem to be the buzzwords of the COVID-19 pandemic, but those words describe the opposite of…
