Hummingbirds occur only in the New World. There are occasional reports of hummingbirds in Europe but they’re thought to be escaped from captivity. Fossilized skeletons of ancient hummingbirds were, however, found in Germany.
Archives for July 2010
Through the Lens of Glenn Nevill
A photograph’s true essence is visceral: How does it make you feel? What does the image inspire? It’s an impression that defies pixel peeping — where the mood and meaning of a photo can be crushed in a haze of digital noise, scrutinized at 100 percent.
Pelicanorama
White Pelicans congregating, fishing and preening at the Baylands.
Seeking Justice for a Sea Otter: It’s a Small World
I received a notice tonight from Defenders of Wildlife, asking for help in finding the killer of a young sea otter. The female otter was found along Morro Strand in June of this year — slain illegally, with the post-mortem revealing a shot to her head. In seeking additional information on this case, I landed…
Lancelot-Guinevere: The Case of the Castle Pigeon
Lancelot (no, Guinevere) — lost himself (no, herself) — along the coast of Scotland, where Picts and Druids and Earls and Scots laid claim to the medieval stones of her landing. Just north of these stones lie the crags and cliffs that offer sanctuary for pelagic birds, the calls of whom may have drawn her…
A Chorus of One
The best things happen in your periphery. It’s the reason I had the astigmatism correction removed from my glasses. The contrast between my sharp, corrected vision — and the blur in my periphery made me chronically queasy. That’s a lousy lede — and I’m too tired to come up with a better one. But workable…
Scrub Jay Way
This Scrub Jay came to us as a tame and inquisitive interloper. He landed on the bannister, then sat and looked in our kitchen window all morning. He’d obviously done this before. But … he’d landed at a kitchen fresh out of peanuts. He gave up. True to jay form (persistence and sweat), he showed…
Creative Commons and the Ripple Effect
The Creative Commons license is sometimes a contentious designation in the world of art and creation. The type of Creative Commons license applied to a work further complicates the issue of copyright, fair use and commercial exploitation. For various reasons, I’ve retained the Attribution license on most of my Flickr photos . . . despite…
A Room With a View
Ever since I saw my first Screech Owl hunkered down in the saddle of an oak, I’ve given extra scrutiny to tree hollows in the woodlands, looking for a bird face peeking out. Our friend in darn-near-the-middle-of-nowhere California found such a face — in a cavity nest in her backyard — a yard that literally…