Posted on

The Challenge

 Ebird, the birding software we use, put up a digital map with stick-on states.  We get credit for a state by entering the birds we’ve seen there. The darker the color, the more birds we have sighted in each state.  We’ve done well, getting birds in every state, including Hawaii, except Alaska.  The problem with this map is that you can click on each state to see how you’re doing with counties in that state. We’re doing well with counties in Arizona We’ve recorded birds in every one of them.  (It helps that there aren’t very many counties in Arizona.) We’ve got a good start on New Mexico. And Colorado.Those are both do-able. But Texas. Texas is a challenge.  There are 254 counties in Texas.  
Posted on

A lone yucca

 Out on a brushy trail. A lone yucca. Here in the Valley and the desert southwest, they’re called Spanish Dagger. They’re a lot different from the yucca in Colorado, or the branching yucca Joshua trees in California. 
Posted on

Birds at the water feature

 At the National Butterfly Center. We’ve got red-winged blackbirds, a northern cardinal, and a starling. And a house sparrow in the foreground.  And a clay-colored thrush.  It’s like a robin, but all brown.   The clay-colored thrush is especially cool because there aren’t many places in the U.S. it can be seen.  The range map looks like this:  
Posted on

This time feels different

 After the massacre of elementary school children at Newtown, the country asked for change.  Nothing happened. After the massacre of music festival attendees in Las Vegas, the country asked for change.  Nothing happened. But after the massacre of high school staff and children in Florida, it feels different.  The children who were attacked are not preschoolers.  They’re old enough to speak for themselves.  They are eloquent, informed, and they’re outraged.  They are not asking for change, they’re demanding it.  No more open season on school children with military assault weapons.  They are demanding change directly from the politicians who have been unable to deliver.  They are saying if you’re not with us you’re against us, and if you don’t choose to protect us, shame on you.  We’ll vote you out and vote in someone who will.   This local movement in Florida almost instantly went national.  Eleven thousand young people turn eighteen every day in the U.S.  That’s four million new voters every year.  If this really is a national movement; if this continues to resonate with all young people; they have the power to make this work; to make something happen that the “adults” have been unable to do; stop the carnage.  I respect and admire these Florida high school students/shooting survivors who are speaking out.  I embrace their mission to ban mass murders of school children. This time feels different.