J and I were driving from breakfast to a small nature park on Kiawah island in South Carolina last week. We were almost to the gate when we realized we didn't have sunscreen, binoculars or anything else.
We turned the car around to head back to the hotel, when we drove by this great egret just hanging around a bridge. We were able to observe him amazingly close from our car window. J took these photos of him.
Great egrets are large herons found all over the world. Hunters in the late 1800s and early 1900s killed off 95 percent of the population in North America to use their feathers for clothing. Great egrets were almost extinct when two elderly women decided they wanted to protect the species, but women were not allowed to vote at the time. So they enlisted the help of a politician, who formed an organization with them and made it illegal to hunt these birds.Their population recovered nicely.This organization is now known as the Audubon Society.
The oldest great egret on record was 23 years old. These birds are not endangered, but are highly vulnerable to loss of their wetland habitat.
How do you choose your Vox neighbors and friends?
Submitted by gcgal.
I'm guessing that most people think of Vox as a community. I think of it as a gated community. I try to avoid idealizing my online neighbors, but if I were stranded on a large, deserted island with coconut flavored drinks and gorgeous dancing men in palm husks, I'd want my Voxters with me.
This summer semester, I had two classes filled with students from Resource Management. We had a soils class together - we spent long days hiking, digging really deep soil pits in boiling hot weather and sharing a picnic lunch afterwards.
We discussed things like how to repair turtle shells, what personalities we work best with and how to balance being an artist with being a biologist. I love hanging out with these people and I think it will affect my job choice after I graduate. So I now have a local gang as well as an online gang - I've made some good choices!
I try to avoid adding Voxters who show hostility or excessive porn and obscenities. Truly, I'm not a prude but I can find all those things with a quick internet search, in Boston or right in my home town, thank you very much. The most common reason I boot someone out is when I feel like I'm a burden on them - they seem to reciprocate comments infrequently, and the comments seem forced and too polite. Yes, I'm very sensitive but I beleive I have a sixth sense for disinterest, and I don't ever want people to keep me in their neighborhood out of sheer politeness.
Adding new neighbors is tricky - the best thing I can do is spend several months testing the waters with a fellow Voxter, and see if the chemistry is there. Vox is a sanctuary to me and unlike work or school, I get to exclusively choose who is in my community here. As you can tell by my neon goofy colorblast cheeriness, I like to keep things light.
*UPDATE: Okay, it's not really an update. But rereading this post, I realize it sounds kind of snotty. I'm hardly a brilliant wordsmith. Seriously, I only want 2 things from new neighbors
1. To be a nice person
2. To like me and visit me once in a while. Of course being Vox, it's hard to figure out if someone has disappeared or has lost interest in my blog. Sometimes I assume the latter too quickly. If you're still reading, but you're a lurker, please just let me know!!
A while ago I posted about preparation for the 2012 Olympics in London, where feral cats were being crushed to death by demolition activities. Thank you for your responses, and to those who signed the petition. Here's a reward for all of you.
The Celia Hammond Animal Trust worked day and night, and BBC now reports that the last feral cat has been rescued from the site. Many ferals were killed, but thanks to this organization, as many ferals that could be saved, were. Note: check out the BBC story, and take a gander at Blackjack. Isn't he cute?
I'm still going to boycott the 2012 Olympics and their sponsors. And keep in mind, contrary to reports, the Olympic committee did not cooperate with the feral cat rescuers. I will find out who the sponsors are and notify those interested, in a future post. This will be in protest of the disregard for the life shown to the ferals who were crushed to death. What were they thinking?
What's the closest thing you have to a time machine?
Submitted by Verisimilitude.
I loved this question, V! I wonder if I'm the only one who feels transported back in time by this book,to a former life when I may have been an archaeologist.
This book takes place in alternating centuries, the 1100s and the 1990s. Imagine exploring a cave in the Pyranees mountains of France, and finding silver rings and altars, with the symbol of a labyrinth carved inside.
The intrepid Alice makes me want to buy a plane ticket to Madagascar and dig for buried treasure from ancient times. It makes me crave red wine from distant lands too, for some reason. ;)
Great summer reading here, by the way!
I'm playing catch up on Vox. Things have been crazy this summer, mostly because I have been invited to the cypress swamps of South Carolina to conduct my pilot study on chimney swifts.
My research this summer and next year will be to prove that chimney swifts are shifting from the use of chimneys to the use of old growth forests. The 1,000 year old cypress and swamp tupelo forests of South Carolina are the perfect places for my research.
I'm feeling very lucky, not only because I will be working with a really cool ornithologist, but also because J and I will be staying on Kiawah Island again! It's a birder's paradise - especially if you love black skimmers the way I do!
In honor of Canada Day, show us your favorite Canadian.
Although I love many Canadian writers, artists and musicians, I just wasn't in the mood to feature one person today. So I'm thrilled to honor a group who saved my life this past spring, when I was trying to write my chimney swift proposal and plan my pilot study.
COSWEIC is the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. While some scientific articles take a blase and cynical attitude towards chimney swift's decline, COSWEIC took a stand in this document.
In it they had the balls to discuss how people complain about the noise made by nestlings, and how some chimney sweep companies blatantly remove the nest, babies and all, in order to placate their clients. This violates the International Migratory Bird Act, by the way, is a federal offense in the States, and is a crime in any country!
To my delight, they also disucss how the chimney swift hardly has any protection, and how their decline is largely being ignored by the international community. There are many other great things in this document, and COSEWIC is not afraid to speak the truth that others refuse to mention. Thank you, guys!
My older sister used to tease me because I hated being read to at bedtime. I learned to read by the time I was 4 years old, and I loved looking at the newspaper before I went to sleep. I was also very visual, though, so I loved old comic books.
Jamie's post about the Cartoon Network reminded me of the really old comics my mom used to bring home for me. I googled "Comic Books" and found ones I hadn't thought of in years. Some of them were from the 1970's, and some were as old as the 1940's!
From my very vague memory, I knew that some of them were obscure and not surprisingly, had cute animals in them. I agonized over what category they would be in. Well, I figured it out. I found most of them under the genre of "Antropomorphic Animals and Objects".
Yes, it was a Walt Diseny production, but I just loved Scamp. He was the most innocent and sweet little critter. Great for dull winter days - he always cheered me up!
And Little Dot. Everything she went near had dots on it, or would soon thereafter. Get it? I loved reading this one on hot summer days, lying around in the hammock.
Do Voxters have any to add to the list? Ones pre-1970 are my favorite, but any comic would be great!
A very happy Summer Solstice, lovers! Many wishes for bright picnic days, peppermint ice cream, pool parties at night, and tons of homemade lemonade!
In the past week I have learned some amazing summer type facts from my Voxter friends. Jaypo taught me about the Strawberry Moon, and GB taught me really stunning facts about blue whales. Check out those posts for amazing facts.
A quote from Laurie Cabot's book Celebrate the Earth:
"As the Sun blazes upon us.and the Summer skies collide with flashes of heat lightning and thunderclouds, the element of fire is an important part of Midsummer activities. The tradition of hurling fire wheels down from atop a sacred hill was a common practice throughout Europe. In ancient times. Animal herds were driven between the embers of Midsummer fires to purge them of disease. In some regions, the ashes were rubbed on their hides as a talisman for protection."
J and I have a collection of dragon figurines that we place in the windows of each room this time of year, as Midsummer is a great time for Protection spells. May your summer be extremely safe, and fun. Happy Solstice!
Hey guys -
Sorry I haven't been around, right when we got home from vacation, my poor beloved companion, Ives, started having seizures. I have a great vet but these kinds of things are hard to diagnose in cats.
He got a really extensive series of blood tests for toxicity and organ failure, all of which were negative. But his red blood cell count was high, which could be this rare and strange condition so he's being tested again next week.
The vet also thought it could be just dehydration, so please keep Ives in your thoughts for me, hopefully it's nothing serious! Sorry again for my absence. ps I'll probably move this post down a few spots in a week to keep the bummer factor at a low level on my blog. ;)
