Pope Francis – “Biggest Moment in the World”? Uh…No.

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Terry| 2 Comments

And, there’s a new pope.  Pope Francis.  First Latin American pope, or pope from the western hemisphere.  First Jesuit pope.  What a historic moment, a moment we’ll all remember years from now.  Well, that’s the storyline you’ve seen on the news today.  On CNN, one writer wrote that this is the “biggest moment in the world“. 

In reality?  It’s yet another old white guy with an incredibly outdated view on life, a man whose real impact on the world is minor.  The man who wrote that this was “the biggest moment in the world” was, predictably, another western, old white guy.  As expected, on the first day of a new pope, most of the stories are about “Francis’s” views on humility and helping the poor. Admirable views.  What also has come out are his fight against gay rights, with a vigorous opposition to Argentina’s law regarding gay marriage.

This isn’t one of the “biggest moments in the world”.  Despite the “newness” of a South American pope, despite the newness of having a Jesuit, it’s not a move that will dramatically alter the direction of the Catholic Church.  It’s not a move that will make Catholicism more relevant in a 21st century world.  If the man’s history is any indication, the Catholic Church is likely going to continue to alienate large segments of the world population.

It’s a testament to the Western view of the world that this is viewed as the “biggest moment in the world” by so many.  Yes, there are about 1.2 billion professed Catholics in the world.  That’s less than 20% of the world’s population, and there are one hell of a lot of those 1.2 billion who may be Catholic in name, but likely are alienated by the outdated Catholic Church policies.  As for the other 5.8 billion people in the world?  Do they think this is the “biggest moment in the world”?  What do you think Muslims, Hindus, other Christians, atheists, or other faiths think about the announcement of a new pope?  As one of the “biggest moments in the world”?

The sun continues to set and rise.  Governments continue to do their work, for good and for bad.  Wars continue to be fought.  The world continues to march on, and in reality, whoever is named head of the Catholic Church has very little if any effect on how people live their lives. 

And…if Pope Francis continues down the path the Catholic Church has been following in recent decades, that influence will continue to dwindle as an outdated Church and outdated Pope become increasingly irrelevant in a modern world.

Posted in Culture Wars, Deep Thoughts

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Tiny Penis Men Renew Fight to Compensate with Guns

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Terry| 2 Comments

Just a few months after the Newtown tragedy, America is getting back to normal.  With our incredibly short attention spans, the deaths of a few dozen children seems like a distant memory for most folks.  With the incredibly pathetic, half-hearted efforts by the Obama administration and state governments to strengthen gun legislation, we’re returning to the status quo.  Tiny-penis men across America are ramping up the fight to compensate for their shortcomings by ensuring their right to carry the largest, most destructive weapon possible.

The fight has been spearheaded by tiny-penis men in my very own state of South Dakota.  Yesterday, tiny-penis governor Dennis Daugaard signed a bill that makes South Dakota the first state that allows teachers to carry guns in class.  The bill was sponsored by tiny-penis state legislator Scott Craig, a freshmen Republican (duh), who states that now “dominoes will start to fall, people will see it’s reasonable.”  Of course it’s “reasonable”!  Do you have kids?  Picture your kid’s teacher, carrying a gun in class, trying to fight off a nut with an assault rifle.  What?  A little difficult to picture that in your mind?  Hard to see that as more “reasonable” than simply disallowing access to assault rifles?  This is the 2nd bold effort by tiny-penis South Dakota men to ensure gun rights.  Last week, they voted down a bill that would have limited gun access to mentally ill people who have been deemed “dangerous” to others.  Just like tiny-penis men, crazy people have gun rights too!!!

The tiny-penis men of South Dakota are hardly the only tiny-penis men fighting for their right to compensate.  Kansas, a state that along with South Dakota is known for having a large population of weak, tiny-penis men, is considering a bill to greatly expand concealed gun carrying on college campuses. 

Compensation efforts by tiny-penis men extend all the way to the Federal level.  At Congressional hearings this week, miniscule-penis Senator Lindsey Graham stated he owned an AR-15, arguing for folks to imagine a scenario in a post-disaster world where government breaks down and roaming gangs are a danger!  EXACTLY!  WELL thought out, tiny-penis Senator Graham!!  This is EXACTLY the kind of realistic scenario that screams for the right of tiny-penis men to carry large weapons!  In a “Mad Max” post-apocalyptic world that is sure to come, tiny-penis men NEED automatic weapons to fend off gangs of evil-doers!!

FEAR NOT, TINY-PENIS MEN!!!   In America, there are SO many of you weak, tiny-member men fighting for your compensatory gun-carrying rights, that I truly doubt you’ll never have to worry about your right to carry gigantic weapons that you’ll never have use for any practical purpose other than trying to overcome your own insecurity.  With tiny-penis men like Lindsey Graham, Scott Craig, and Dennis Daugaard fighting for you, your right to access massive weapons will forever be secure.

Posted in Culture Wars, Uncategorized

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Sax-Zim Bog Trip – Wolf(!), Owls, and Rude Photographers

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Terry| Leave a comment
Wolf - Canis lupus

Wolf emerging from the forest near Sax-Zim Bog in northern Minnesota. Certainly much larger than all of the many coyotes I've seen, I still couldn't convince myself for sure that I'd seen and photographed a wolf, until getting confirmation after showing the photos to Minnesota DNR folks who work in the area. Highlight of the trip, and it doesn't have feathers! Click for a larger view.

Eight years ago, I had one of the most memorable birding trips of my life.  Birders in northern Minnesota were seeing unprecedented numbers of “winter” owls, particularly Great Gray Owls and Northern Hawk Owls.  Both species are quite hard to find in the lower 48 states, and I had never seen either, so did the 6-hour drive to Duluth and ended up seeing a lifetime’s worth of owls in 1 day, with 30+ Great Grays and Northern Hawk Owls.  This winter, they’ve reported a large number of Boreal Owls, another species I’ve never seen, so I decided to take a trip to the Duluth area again. 

Northern Hawk Owl

Wonderful look at a Northern Hawk Owl, curious as I first walked up, but then very relaxed. When you see these guys up there, they seem to show little fear of humans, making you wonder how much, if any, experience they've ever had in seeing and dealing with a human being.

I left Saturday afternoon and arrived that evening, intent on birding all of Sunday and until about noon on Monday before driving back.  Sunday morning I left before dawn and was nearing the famed Sax-Zim Bog area, when I decided to start taking small gravel roads up instead of the main highway.  I got on a gravel road right around dawn and started driving very slowly, scanning the trees on either side of the road for owls.  Only a few minutes into it, I noticed a bit of motion in the forest to my right.  Given how thick the trees were, I couldn’t see what it was, but I could see motion every once in awhile, and could tell something was paralleling the road, and me, as I slowly drove along.  It seemed like whatever the creature was, it was looking for a chance to cross the road, so I stopped, hoping it would cross the road in front of me.  I got out, crouched down beside my car, and got my camera ready to shoot.

Boreal Chickadee

With the rich chestnut sides and the grayish-brown cap, Boreal Chickadees really stand out from the much more common Black-capped Chickadees in the area. A nice species to find in the lower 48!

About a minute after I stopped, the creature stepped out of the forest and onto the snowy side of the road about 20 yards in front of me, and turned his head and stared in my direction.  One glance and I knew this was a creature I’d never seen in the wild before…a wolf!! I’ve seen plenty of coyotes before, and this animal certainly was much larger than any coyote I’ve seen.  I only ended up seeing him for about 10 seconds, as he paused briefly to stare at me before crossing the road and disappearing into the thick forest on the other side.  With the camera ready, I was able to grab a handful of shots before he slipped into the forest, including the photo at the top.  I may be a “bird” guy, but seeing my first wolf in the wild, at close range?  Definitely the highlight of the trip, and a moment I won’t soon forget.

Northern Hawk Owl

See the rather relaxed Northern Hawk Owl in the first photo? THIS is what happens when a jackass "nature" photographer decides to intentionally piss off a rare, wild owl, just so he can get a "better pose".

The trip was off to a rousing success!  Unfortunately, I had a little bit less luck searching for birds over the next day and a half.  The Boreal Owls I was searching for?  The prior day, two Boreal Owls were spotted in the Bog area, treating several birders who were able to enjoy them.  Despite talking to every birder I came across on Sunday and Monday, nobody I talked to had seen any Boreal Owls or Great Gray Owls on those days.  However, someone had reported a Northern Hawk Owl on “Big Stone Lake Road” at the northeastern edge of the bog, so I headed in that direction to try my luck.

As I arrived, the Northern Hawk Owl was easy to spot, sitting on a branch in a taller tree overlooking an area of scattered shrubs.  The Owl was about 200 yards out from the road, but after a short hike through the snow, I arrived at a reasonable distance and started to shoot.  What a gorgeous bird!  Big Stone Lake Road was also where I saw my first Northern Hawk Owl, 8 years before, so it was a real treat to see one again in the same area.   He gave me a few quick looks before resuming his normal hunting, searching the ground around him for signs of prey.  I snapped a number of photos and left him as I had found him.

Later that day, I found another Northern Hawk Owl on Big Stone Lake road.  This one was closer to the road, but just as relaxed, acting normally as I snapped photos of him on his perch.  Another photographer arrived and approached with a tripod and camera.  He plopped his gear down, set up the camera, snapped a few quick shots, and then said “Are you ready”?  I had no idea what he meant, but he immediately started playing a Northern Hawk Owl call on his iPod!  I am NOT a fan of people using digital calls to lure in birds, but in this case, the owl was sitting right there in front of us!  There was no need to lure the bird in!  Rather startled by what this guy was doing, he said he “wanted a better pose”. 

What WAS a very relaxed, calm owl was now one pissed-off, not very happy owl.  He immediately started fluffing his feathers up, spreading his wings and tail, and even started calling back.  I’m rarely amazed any more at the lengths some “nature” photographers will go to in order to get a shot, but the owl wasn’t the only one pissed off in this situation.  One of the rarest birds to find in the lower 48 states, a bird that could very well be in a stressed state to begin with, and now this “nature” photographer decides he needs a “better pose”, so he PURPOSELY irritates the bird to get it to change poses.  Sometimes it seems the rare birds bring out the worst in some birders and some photographers.  It was 8 years ago, in Sax-Zim bog, that I personally witnessed multiple photographers trying to lure the stressed birds closer by using live pet mice. 

And you wonder why I’m cynical?  Argh.

The rest of the trip was nice, but no more owls of any kind were found.  I did find Boreal Chickadees, Pine Grosbeaks, Gray Jays, and other nice “northern” species, and had a wonderful trip in general.  I’m hoping to get up to Sax-Zim bog again next year, as even without the wolf, even without the owls, it’s a very nice birding and wildlife experience.

Posted in Birding, Birds, Environmental Awareness, Photo Story

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Sequestration Madness

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Terry| Leave a comment

OK, I take it back.  A few weeks ago, I said “let sequestration happen”.  My logic…there’s no way D.C. politicians are EVER going to agree to cut the military by nearly 10%, and I’m willing to survive the pain of the other cuts, if we start to cut our ridiculous military spending.  My own agency, as all others funded by “discretionary” spending, would also take a big cut.  If it were all done wisely (don’t laugh), I do think there’s “fat” that can be trimmed from a lot of places in government.  Hence, my previous post that sequestration may not be such a bad thing.

I was wrong.

For one, I foolishly thought that sequestration could be done “wisely”.  Now that we are 3 days from sequestration becoming a reality, it’s becoming quite obvious how poorly prepared Federal agencies are to address the cuts.  Warnings of up to 22 days of furloughs are going out to Federal employees.  First…what does this solve?  If budgets are indeed cut by 8% or so, what does a furlough solve?  You’re cutting costs temporarily, but what happens at the start of the new fiscal year?  You still have a lowered budget, and are facing the same problem.  Are you going to furlough Federal employees one day a week for all of NEXT year as well?  If cuts are enacted, stop-gap measures such as cutting travel, cutting ALL scientific conference attendance (Ugh…gotta love cutting scientists off from contact with their colleagues or the public), and an ill-thought out furlough solve NOTHING for the long-term. 

DC politicians are continually kicking the can down the road instead of dealing with budget deficits.  It seems Federal agencies are following the same line of thinking, trying to patch together a last-minute set of short-term fixes to deal with what could end up being a permanent budget cut. 

Trying to manage a science project right now in the Federal government?  Next to impossible, given the complete uncertainty as to budgets or staffing.  Government CAN be very efficient and can provide wonderful services to the American people…if only the damn politicians would get out-of-the-way.

Posted in Politics

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South Dakota Legislature: Crazy People Have Gun Rights Too!!!

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Terry| 5 Comments

You gotta love the South Dakota legislature.  They don’t let little things like “fact” or “science” get in the way, as they’ve repeatedly shown in their ground-breaking attempts to somehow legislate away climate change.  They flaunt their world-respected power, voting on United Nations resolutions as if the United Nations gives a rat’s ass what the South Dakota Legislature thinks.  This week, they’ve continued to flash their “conservative cred”.  Hey, they’ve got competition from the Kansas Legislature and other red-state wackos!  Gotta prove who is the MOST conservative!!

To that end, yesterday a committee killed a bill that would have restricted firearm access to the mentally ill in South Dakota.  The law would have submitted the names of “dangerous” individuals to the federal database used for background checks, ensuring they wouldn’t have access to firearms.  Currently, South Dakota does NOT provide that information, meaning the mentally ill, including those deemed to be dangerous, could sail through a background check and buy firearms. 

Makes sense, right?  Restricting gun access to people who have been deemed to be dangerous?  A no-brainer, right?  HELL NO!!  THIS IS SOUTH DAKOTA!! Remember, we’re trying to compete with the Kansas’s of the world for who can be the most conservative, be it in denying evolution, legislating away climate change, or ensuring that a bunch of hairy old white men in the South Dakota Legislature control what women do with their bodies. 

CRAZY PEOPLE HAVE GUN RIGHTS TOO!!  Even people deemed to be DANGEROUS have gun rights!! YOU’LL TAKE OUR GUNS WHEN YOU PRY THEM FROM OUR COLD, DEAD FINGERS!!!!  Rep. Melissa Magstadt said she was “worried” about taking the right to bear arms away from the mentally ill before they had committed a violent act, even if mental assessment indicated they were dangerous to themselves or others.  BRILLIANT, Ms. Magstadt!! We wait until AFTER they commit a violent act before even considering taking away guns from crazy people!!

Rep. Scott Ecklund said the bill would “add to the struggle of people with mental illness”.  Yes, because NOTHING soothes the mentally ill like having a cache of weapons.  It’s MUCH more important that the dangerous mentally ill have gun access and, evidently, less of a “struggle”, than it is to protect the rest of the population! 

Kudos, South Dakota Legislature!!  Kansas, here we come!  You may (currently) have us beat on wacko evolution legislation, but we DARE you to touch our conservative cred on the issue of guns!!

Posted in Culture Wars

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Climate Change and Hummingbird Migration – With Great Photo!

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Terry| Leave a comment
Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Ruby-throated Hummingbird feeding at a honeysuckle plant. In Brandon, South Dakota. On June 9th, 2008. At someone's front porch. With a guy grilling hamburgers nearby. Just a hunch...

Jason Courter from Taylor University, along with his co-authors, published research that examined the migration of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, finding the birds are moving north earlier than they did historically.  The birds are arriving back in North America 12 to 18 days earlier than they did prior to 1970.  Overshadowing the research itself is of course the incredible, fantastic photo that has accompanied the story that’s been carried by the popular press.  The photo is of a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovering in front of an orange honeysuckle bloom.  I happen to have very, very personal knowledge that the photo was taken from the front porch of a private home in Brandon, South Dakota, in between the grilling of hamburgers  (just a hunch).

It is cool to have a photo in a science story like this, a story that’s been picked up by AP and has shown up in a number of news outlets, including overseas in The Guardian and elsewhere.  But of course it’s the science itself that is the cool story here.  The research isn’t the first to show that migration dates have changed in the last century, presumably in response to climate change.  It is yet another very strong piece of evidence that indicates our climate is changing, and that natural ecosystems are evolving to adapt.

Nice story, and the research article is definitely worth reading if you can get a copy.  It is published in The Auk, the journal of the American Ornithologists Union.

Posted in Birding, Birds, Climate Change, Ecosystems at Risk, Environmental Awareness

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Nature Thrives – If we just give it half a chance

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Terry| Leave a comment
Injured Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle near Brandon, South Dakota, with injured bill and missing left eye. Despite all the human activity in the area, despite the injury, I believe he is in one of two nesting pairs in the area. Nature thrives, if we give it just the tiniest opportunity, but given our short-sighted nature and greed, far too often even that tiny opportunity doesn't exist.

I live right next to the Big Sioux Recreation Area, a state park along the Big Sioux River.  I often take walks there, taking trails or going off-trail along the river, through the forest, and through an area of open grassland. This morning I was walking along the river and came across and adult and younger (not totally mature plumage) Bald Eagle, perched on a tree overlooking the river.  Over the next half hour the two would occasionally leave the perch, fly to a different one, or disappear upstream a bit before coming back a few minutes later.  I took a number of photos, and everything seemed fine.

However, when I got home, I noticed the adult bird was missing part of its bill, and it appeared its left eye was also gone.  I don’t think it was a fresh injury, from the appearance, but it was obvious the eagle had undergone some sort of trauma.  Given my cynical nature, and given the idiots around here who blast away at anything that moves, my first thought was a shotgun blast.  What’s amazing though is the bird appears to be doing quite well, despite the setback.

Sioux Falls is the largest city in South Dakota.  OK, at 150,000 or so, it’s not huge by some standards, but there are a lot of folks that live in Sioux Falls and the surrounding area.  The Big Sioux River isn’t exactly the cleanest river in the world.  It’s a typical, slow, meandering, Great Plains river, very muddy and receiving one heck of a lot of agricultural runoff.  Despite the setting just a few miles from the biggest city in South Dakota…despite the cleanliness of the river…and despite this eagle’s injury, there are not one, but two active Bald Eagle nests, including one less than a mile from my house.  What I am always amazed at is how nature can thrive, if you provide it just the slightest bit of an opportunity.

What I find so depressing though is how often human beings are unable to provide even that slight opening for life to thrive.  The USGS center where I work is 15 miles outside of town, and I often used to take gravel roads to work.  It’s all agricultural land here, soybeans and corn, but there were a few tiny pockets of habitat where I would stop on my to and from work, looking for birds.  It’s amazing how often these tiny pockets of land would host a variety of birds.   Nearly all the wetlands on my drive have long since been drained and converted to cropland, but there was one small patch of damp land, not more than 2 or 3 acres, where I would often stop on the way home from work.  Despite being in a sea of cropland, despite being such a tiny bit of habitat, this damp bit of land with some sedges and a few cattails would often hold a lot of birds, including some real exciting birds from a birder’s perspective, such a Le Conte’s Sparrows that I often found there during the fall migration.

This summer, we had a severe drought, and farmers took advantage of the dry situation by plowing up dried up wetlands and installing drain tile to ensure they remained dry in the.  After this summer, I don’t bother taking gravel roads to work any more.  My little damp spot was plowed up and drain tile was installed.  Other little patches of habitat, including brushy fencerows and windbreaks, have also been torn out and plowed under in the last few years, as farmers are capitalizing on high commodity prices by plowing and planting every square inch of available land.

Just a small opportunity…that’s all life needs.  But given our short-sighted, greedy nature, we seem incapable of providing even that tiny opportunity.

Posted in Birding, Birds, Ecosystems at Risk, Environmental Awareness

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South Dakota Redneck fined $85,000 for Killing Whooping Crane

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Terry| 10 Comments
Whooping Crane - Grus americana

Hey...rednecks....does this LOOK like a pheasant or a duck to you? No? Then perhaps you can control yourselves before pulling the trigger next time you see one. Save yourself $85,000....

Well, now I know why I’ve gotten several emails and attempted blog posts from enraged South Dakota rednecks in the last day.  One of their fellow rednecks, Jeff Blachford of Miller, South Dakota, has been fined $85,000 for killing a Whooping Crane last year.

Some brilliant logic from these folks though on why it’s perfectly fine to go out and shoot one of the most endangered birds in the world.  My favorite…the idiot that posted this morning saying that Whooping Crane “mortality rates are high because of natural causes…they just can’t get off the ground fast enough” to  get away from predators (or South Dakota rednecks with guns?).  Brilliant.  They’ve somehow survived for thousands of years despite this “handicap” of not being able to “get off the ground fast enough”.

Surprising, this brilliant person may be the intellectual giant of Miller, given some of the other emails and attempted posts I’ve gotten.  I’m surprised some of these folks are able to log on to a computer and actually produce a message of any kind.

I hope an $85,000 fine has taught you a lesson, Mr. Blachford.  I hope the rest of the Miller redneck crowd realizes how incredibly small and insignificant they are (we all are) in the big scheme of things, and that YES, wiping a species off the face of the earth IS a big deal.

This is South Dakota.  Given the “culture” ( hesitate to use that word here) of the state, you’re allowed to blast away at practically anything that moves.  However, the next time you see an enormous white bird and you don’t know what it is, perhaps you’ll now pause before actually pulling the trigger.  In the meantime, I think I’ll bestow the coveted “scum of the week” award to Mr. Blachford, and to all of the redneck “supporters” who have tried to email or post.

Posted in Birding, Birds, Environmental Awareness, Scum Of The Week

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New – Bird Quizzes

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Terry| Leave a comment
Bird Quizzes

Check out the new bird quizzes, testing your knowledge of bird identification, geographic range, or scientific names.

It’s been a very long time since I’ve updated some of the content on my main website. One feature I have had on my site are bird identification quizzes, which hadn’t been updated in about 6 years.  I took the old quizzes down and have been putting up brand new, improved quizzes.

Bird Quizzes – South Dakota Birds and Birding

I’m up to 10 different quizzes and will continually be adding more, including several more in the next few days.  Each quiz is 20 questions, multiple choice, with 6 possible answers for you to choose from.  Unlike the previous quizzes, which were all photo quizzes, I have three different quiz categories:

1 – Photo identification – 20 bird photographs that you have to identify, under varying degrees of difficulty.

2 – Range maps – 20 maps showing the geographic and seasonal range for species.  With just the range map and one text clue, you need to guess the depicted species.

3 – Scientific names – For the real hardcore bird nut, these are 20 questions, where you’re provided the scientific name and one clue, and you must guess the species.

As I said, I’ll be adding more quizzes shortly.  If you have any quiz ideas you’d like to see, either a category for an existing photo, range map, or scientific name quiz, or even a completely new type of quiz, drop me a line and I’ll see if I can get a new custom quiz created.

Posted in Birding, Birds

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Review: “Rare Birds” by Elizabeth Gehrman

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Terry| Leave a comment
Rare Birds - By Elizabeth Gehrman

Rare birds indeed, with an incredible story of both the Bermuda Petrel, as well as the man who devoted his life to saving the species, David Wingate.

I’m, in many ways I guess, what people think of when they think of a “scientist”.  Socially awkward?  Check.  More at home with my work than with people?  Check.  More at home in the field and out with nature than with people?  Check.  Kind of like Sheldon from “The Big Bang Theory”?  Well no, not that bad, but you get the idea.  I’ve also never been a “hero worshipper” of any kind.  I just don’t care that much about reputation.  I don’t care that much about the scientist himself.  It is the science I’m interested in.  Because of my nature, I was a little surprised at how I reacted to a book I just completed.

The book is “Rare Birds: The extraordinary tale of the Bermuda Petrel and the man who brought it back from extinction”, by Elizabeth Gehrman.  A book about a rare bird? I knew I’d love that part of it. As an avid birder, I knew a bit about the Bermuda Petrel, so was looking forward to reading a detailed account of the species.  Given my personality, what I didn’t know is how much I would enjoy the story of the man who was instrumental in saving the species.

The Bermuda Petrel (also known as a Cahow) was a bird that likely numbered in the millions when explorers first came across Bermuda in the early 1600s.  Due to hunting pressures and introduction of predators on their nesting islands, the species quickly declined, and for a few hundred years (!!!), the species was thought to be extinct.  Many scientists even had begun to doubt that the Bermuda Petrel had ever existed, as a unique species.  In the early 1900s, there were hints that the species had survived, and by the middle of the century, an incredibly small relict population of breeding birds were found on a few tiny islands of Bermuda.  The book is the story of one man, David Wingate, and the plight of the Cahow.

When a twist of fate brought Wingate face-to-face with the first confirmed, live Bermuda Petrel recorded in centuries, he made it his life’s mission to bring the bird back from the brink of extinction.  An exhaustive search of the tiny islands around Bermuda led to the discovery of a mere 7 surviving breeding pairs.  With very little in financial support, the book details Wingate’s tireless efforts to restore Cahow populations.

As expected, I greatly enjoyed the detailed story of restoration efforts.  The book provides a remarkable demonstration of the interconnected nature of ecosystems, and the chain of dependent plant and animal species that contributed to the demise, and to the ultimate restoration, of Cahow populations.  Who would have thought that the reintroduction of Yellow-crowned Night-herons would be necessary to control native land crabs, to control crab foraging on native sedges, to restore better ground habitat on “Nonsuch Island”, the focus of much of the restoration efforts?  The book is a fascinating look at not only the life history of the Cahow, but of the entire ecosystem on which the Cahow depends.

While my appreciation and enjoyment of the natural story of the Cahow was expected, what I didn’t expect was how much I enjoyed the personal story of Wingate himself.  As I said, I’m not a hero worshipper, I’m into the science more than I am into the scientist.  However, I found the presentation of Wingate in the book to be equally as fascinating as the story of the Cahow itself.  The book intersperses narrative accounts of Wingate’s history with quotations from Wingate himself, and quoatations from those around him during this lifelong journey to save the Cahow.  SPOILER ALERT…don’t read the rest of this paragraph if you want to save the story for when you read the book…but the point where I knew I was “falling” for not only the Cahow story, but the story of Wingate himself, was when his beloved wife “Anita” was tragically burned in an accident on the island, and died several days later.  Wingate was obviously every bit the “quirky” scientist, but the book portrays the wonderful relationship with the love of his life, Anita.  As a fellow “quirky scientist” who has always been a bit awkward around people but who (shockingly!!) has my own ‘love-of-my-life’, I more than sympathized with Wingate upon reading the story of Anita’s death.   Given the wonderful writing style of the book, I could almost FEEL Wingate’s pain.

In short, if you’re a naturalist, if you’re a lover of wildlife, if you’re a birder, you’ll love the book for the story of the Cahow.  Even if you don’t traditionally fit into one of these categories, you’ll love the book for not only the story of the Cahow, but for the story of one man’s perseverance and dedication, in the face of incredible personal, social, and political odds.

This book arrived at my house on a Monday, and less than 24 hours after hitting my doorstep, I had completed it.  I strongly recommend picking up a copy.  I can almost guarantee that you too will have a hard time putting it down.

Posted in Birding, Birds, Ecosystems at Risk, Environmental Awareness, Review

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