Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Birding Christmas Mountains Oasis

On our way out of Terlingua, we made a side-trip to the Christmas Mountains Oasis, a wildlife sanctuary where Lucifer Hummingbirds had been recently reported.  Upon seeing this photo of a sign on the road to the destination, one of my friends remarked, "I didn't know that birding was an extreme sport."  Let me just say, it is.


The road is well-maintained, so a highway vehicle can slowly navigate it, but if you happen to have 4-wheel drive and high clearance, you could relax more during the approach.


We  saw the Scaled Quail while driving the road, and again in the feeder area.  Unlike the National Parks, which don't place feeders, this sanctuary had many feeding and watering stations to support the wildlife.  We donated to the birdseed fund.


We were not disappointed in the quest to see the Lucifer Hummingbird.



Sunday, May 5, 2024

Birding Big Bend National Park

Though the total solar eclipse set the date of our trip to Texas, we had long wanted to go birding there.  We allowed time before and after the eclipse to visit some of the better known birding hotspots.  We began our trip, before the eclipse, by driving from Austin down to Terlingua, a community adjacent to Big Bend National Park and spent three days birding some popular hotspots in the park:  Sam Nail Ranch, Rio Grande Village, Dugout Wells, Cottonwood Campground, and the Chisos Mountains Basin.

We stayed at sleeper cabins that had no potable water, so it was a good thing we had brought our own water.  The weather was a big change from Idaho where there was still snow on the hills out our window.  Ninety degrees with hot dusty winds gusting to 40 miles per hour was our experience.  At night, the turkey vultures flew in to roost on a cell tower near our lodging.  At dawn, seen below, they stretch their wings to warm in the morning sun.


Our first stop was at Sam Nail Ranch.  Tired from traveling, we were not the early birds, and it was afternoon by the time we walked the trail.  


This colorful lizard was well-adapted to the hot, dry life.


We proceeded on to the Rio Grande Village campground where we were greeted by the begging Greater Roadrunner.  They seemed very acclimated to campground life.


A Ladder-backed Woodpecker was foraging the in the trees.


The next morning while we sat outside our cabin, enjoying the cooler morning temperatures and drinking coffee, we observed a Lark Bunting foraging nearby.


Our second trip into the park took us to the Visitor Center, where this Curve-billed Thrasher was seeking shade and very audibly calling.


We proceeded to Cottonwood Campground, where some helpful birders pointed out the Common Black-hawk, behind the sign that said, "No entry, Black-hawk Nesting Area".


There were also numerous Gray Hawk residing there.


And, Vermillion Flycatchers everywhere.

On our third and final day visiting Big Bend, we first went early (relatively speaking, early for us) to the Dugout Wells area, which was rich with birds even at the hour we arrived.  Bell's Vireo were prevalent.


We then went to wait in line to be permitted to drive up to the Chisos Basin.  The parking is limited there, so when a car came out, another was allowed to drive up.  This was confusing to those at the back of the line, as there was only one volunteer at the head of the line and no explanatory signage.  I did some volunteer work for a while, going to each new arrival and explaining the options which included driving to the head of the line and making a left turn to drive back down the road if one was not interested in the roughly 20-minute delay.



Saturday, April 20, 2024

Solar Eclipse

 Cyndi and I traveled to Fredricksburg, Texas to view the total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024.  It was intermittently (mostly) cloudy, even during the eclipse.  Of the four minutes of totality, we perhaps had 20 seconds of viewing, much of which was spent by me trying to get a photo.  My inexpensive camera was very unwilling to focus because of the soft edges caused by the clouds.


Difficulties and challenges aside, we *did* see the eclipse and the final photo taken shows the corona at left, a loop solar prominence at the 5 o'clock position, and just above and to the right of that is Bailey's Beads just about to flare into the diamond ring ... all through hazy and broken clouds.  Bailey's Beads is a broken arc of bright light points as light from the edge of the sun's sphere bursts through valleys and canyons on the moon to just begin to reveal the sun's disc to viewers on Earth (or as it is about to be obscured, but this image was taken during the reappearance).



Sunday, January 17, 2021

John Hancock's remarks on events at the capitol

The following are the words of John Hancock regarding events at the capitol.  I have made every effort to keep the original meaning and intent, but long sentences have been shortened and emphasis added as noted.

"Security to the persons and properties of the governed is so obviously the design and end of civil government ... [and it is] .. . vicious and infamous to attempt to support a government which manifestly tends to render the persons and properties of the governed insecure.  Some boast of being friends to government; I am a friend to righteous government, to a government founded upon the principles of reason and justice ... ."

"It was reasonable to expect that troops, who knew the errand they were sent upon, would treat the people whom they were to subjugate with a cruelty and haughtiness which too often buries the honorable character of a soldier in the disgraceful name of an unfeeling ruffian.  The troops, upon their first arrival, took possession of our senate-house ... ."

"Tell me, ye bloody butchers! ye villains high and low! ye wretches who contrived, as well as you who executed the inhuman deed! do you not feel the goads and strings of conscience guilt pierce through your savage bosoms?"

"Patriotism is ever united with humanity and compassion.  This noble affection, which impels us to sacrifice everything dear, even life itself, to our country, involves in it a common sympathy and tenderness for every citizen and must have a particular feeling for one who suffers in a public cause."

"Will not a well-disciplined militia afford you ample security against foreign foes? ... When a country is invaded, the militia are ready to appear in its defence ... ."

"There is a heartfelt satisfaction in reflecting upon our exertions for the public weal, which all sufferings of an enraged tyrant can inflict will never take away ...."

"I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for America."

       -- John Hancock, delivered March 5, 1774 in Boston, MA


Commentary:  As you see, I could not resist adding in the historical context about what was meant by "well-regulated militia" as today quite a few Americans do not know the plain meaning and intent of the Second Amendment.  The several states had no armies.  There was no nation.  Defense against a foreign enemy (England) would have to rely upon citizens who were authorized, regulated, and managed by the several states.  The purpose of a militia was not to shoot legislators with whom they disagree, but was originally intended to be a substitute for what we today call the United States military.

In the present day, the United States does have a standing army, despite concerns of some of the founding fathers.  The several states have a well-regulated militia, and it is called National Guard, and is under the control and direction of the state governors.

Groups participating in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on 6 January 2021, acting with military coordination and tactics, wearing body armor, helmets, and ballistic goggles are not a well-regulated militia as envisioned by the framers of the Constitution.  They are vigilante mobs dressed as combat soldiers.  Vigilante justice is no justice at all.


Saturday, January 9, 2021

6 January 2021

I took the day off from work on January 6, 2021 so I could watch our democratic republic on a day that was clearly going to be historic.  It was obvious there would be violence, was it not?  The day before I had discussed with a friend the statements made by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX).  "The bottom line is the court is saying, 'We're not going to touch this.  You have no remedy'," Gohmert stated on a conservative media outlet.  "Essentially the ruling would be 'You have to go to the streets and be as violent as antifa, BLM'," he added.

On the day of the event, addressing the assembled Americans, Rudy Giuliani called for "trial by combat".

The crowd marched to the Capitol building, overwhelmed barricades and police lines, and used makeshift battering rams and force of human phalanxes acting in unison to smash through doors and windows.  A scaffold was erected and a noose hung from it.  Video of the event shows in hindsight that some law enforcement officers stepped aside as the very halls of Congress, where our elected representatives did a duck and cover that was shockingly surreal, were breached and gunfire from within was not sufficient to deter the crazed mob.  Terrorists with zip tie handcuffs, lots of handcuffs, entered the room where moments before the Vice President had been grabbed by each elbow and rushed from the chamber out a back door.

Later that night, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) would claim (the source retracted, but the untruth now spreads given a life apart from reality) that antifa has been identified in the mob.  No fascist has any love for an antifascist, that is a given.  But, let's get off this Patriot - Antifa divide where we discuss the nuance of labels instead of underlying issues.  Can we all agree that those who entered the Capitol unlawfully were anarchists?

One person who read this blog post said the words were elitist, and that not everyone knows all these words.  I would ask, politely, that we all get out our dictionaries and visit Wikipedia, so we can have a discussion instead of a Civil War.  The anger that led to this attack on the American Constitution was caused in part by "alternative facts" and differing views on what words and ideas actually mean.

My mother-in-law asked me, a few years ago, "Are you a communist?"  I explained my leanings were more like a socialist, like in some of those Nordic nations.  But, subsequently I read up on socialism and all the other -isms.  Socialism has led to some lousy outcomes.  I am not a socialist.  I am an American, and my view of our new system of government of the people, by the people and for the people was stated best by Winston Churchill, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others."

My mother-in-law gave me a beautiful, leather-bound, gold embossed history of the United States, and I bought my own leather-bound copy of the founding documents of our nation which included the Federalist Papers, George Washington's farewell speech, and many other writings that comprised the best thinking of the wise people who debated and verbally wrestled to craft the framework of our common political reality.  I hesitate to mention that the Constitution was the first thing I read, because everyone now waves the Constitution as if it would ward off evil and bullets.

A mob with an American flag is a mob.

A mob attacking the foundation of the rule of law while flying a Blue Lives Matter flag is hypocrisy given malevolent evil form with a foul stench and bitter taste.

I expressed to a deeply religious friend, pastor of his church, a person who voted for Trump (Can't we all talk like this, no matter our beliefs, in a quest for understanding and common ground?), "I saw a flag with the Christian fish symbol and an American flag with the words, 'Jesus is my savior, Trump is my President', and I was saddened that one could proclaim a Christian belief while attacking the American system we all hold dear."

My parents are members of the Religious Society of Friends, who you would recognize by the term 'Quakers'.  That Christian faith is perhaps known as the group that refused to remove their hats for the King, and left England for the freedom of the new world.  Many know of their nonviolence practice, which includes Civil Disobedience.  But not all know about a practice of the faith known as 'bearing witness'.

I feel that I am doing my highest duty as an American by bearing witness to the events in our nation's Capitol and by speaking the truth about what I witnessed.

So, let me circle back to what I said in the opening paragraphs.  Can we all agree that a system of government composed of three branches: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial is good; that a system of checks and balances created thereby is good?  Because there is a gathering storm that believes that two of those three are optional, and that proposition is at the heart of what we now debate and take sides over.

When the Judicial branch is criticized to the degree where violence defiles the right to free speech it is not protected speech but anarchy and contempt of court.  A court that declines to hear a case is not cause for violence, it means the argument presented to the court in filings and briefs was so weak that it is without merit and frivolous.  Filing a frivolous lawsuit can have repercussions.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) had such a poor understanding of the Constitution of the United States of America that his case was not heard by the United States Supreme Court.  Saying the next step is mob violence is ignorant and contempt of court.  It is an attempt to tear down our system of government and shows disdain for the Constitution of the United States of America.  Censure for Rep. Gohmert would be a mild outcome and is justified.

Rudy Giuliani's seditious demand for a trial by combat was an incitement to violence and as an attorney he should be immediately and permanently disbarred from practicing law in all jurisdictions for his contempt for our American justice system.  Trial by a jury of our peers is how we do things in this great nation.  Trial by the judicial system is how we do trials, but I guess he missed that part in law school.

Long ago my kind uncle took my mother and me to attend a broadway play, The King and I, starring Yul Brynner.  To this day I recall the meaning and intent of something that was said, that went something like, "A gentleman always means what he says, and says what he means."  I guess it was also stated in The Last Emperor as, "If you cannot say what you mean, your majesty, you will never mean what you say and a gentleman should always mean what he says."   The sentiment is now being repeated as "words have consequences", a lesson I learned at a play in New York City when I was still in grammar school.

I was not happy when the Supreme Court settled Bush v. Gore, stopping the ballot counting and determining the outcome of a Presidential election that was very, very close.  I was aware that the State of Florida had purged the voter rolls by name (not address) of all names of those who had been convicted of a felony.  Said plainly, if your name was the same as the name of a convicted felon, and you were not a felon, and you went to vote in that election you would have been turned away with, "I'm sorry, you are no longer registered to vote."  Was I unhappy?  You bet.  Did I storm the Capitol?  No.

I was not happy when Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump, despite winning the popular vote.  That's the Constitution for you.  We have an Electoral College that substitutes its judgement for the majority of voters following a process prescribed in the Constitution.  I attended a rally and held a sign in my own state capital.  I rallied, I would even say I protested.  But I didn't riot.  I complied with all lawful orders.  I did not trespass.  I broke nothing.  My sign said, "What do we want?  Science-based decision-making.  When do we want it?  After peer review."  (I didn't make that up, I saw it on someone else's sign, but it expressed how I felt.)

So, is there to be common ground, reconciliation, and healing?  My father was a Republican and my mother a Democrat.  Can't we all just get along?

In hindsight, I feel badly that the courts often dismissed Trump supporters' frivolous lawsuits without ruling on the merits, as when the Supreme Court refused to hear Gohmert's wild assertion that the Vice President picks the next President of the United States, instead of the voters and the Electoral College.  These people were so blinded by their passionate quest for power that they were unable to see what the courts intimated.  Perhaps things would have turned out differently if all those frivolous lawsuits had been heard and after their day in court the Judge had said, as Judge Stephaos Bibas did for the 3rd US circuit court of appeals, “Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”  The Judge stated, “Voters, not lawyers, choose the president. Ballots, not briefs, decide elections. [The] campaign’s claims have no merit.”


If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”  
    --Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany


The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing.
    --Edmund Burke, Irish statesman and philosopher


Monday, June 8, 2020

Rockhounding for Kaleidoscopes

I have a rock tumbler (Harbor Freight, in case you want to get one), which is a great way to get into working with rocks one collects while hiking, camping, or enjoying the outdoors. These rocks just came out of my latest tumbled batch: some agate, petrified wood, and other colorful stones.


Some of the smallest pieces are translucent and colorful. Having received a book about making kaleidoscopes for Christmas, I thought those small, glassy, colorful fragments might be a nice addition to the object compartment in my kaleidoscope. Here are a few images through the kaleidoscope.  All of them show rocks I collected along with beads and other items which add interest.







Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Solar Eclipse

Totality, 21 August 2017, as seen from the Lost River Valley at the foot of Mount Borah, Idaho's tallest peak.