Happy New Calendar!

Sat 12/31/05 at 3:29 pm

Cold Lang Syne

The coyotes
celebrated New Year’s Eve
down by
the frozen lake.
Their singing
at midnight
woke us
from a deep sleep
snug in our tent
piled high
with bags, blankets and clothes.

I’ve never heard
so devilish a song
so demented an
Auld Lang Syne.

Just when you feared
they might devour us,
the coyotes drove off
in their red minivan
with the bumper sticker that read
“Eat More Sheep” mjh


The ID Faithful Speak!

Sat 12/31/05 at 6:18 am

This week, Eric C. Toolson, UNM Biology Professor, wrote about the Dover, Pennsylvania, legal decision against teaching ID in public schools. His column spawned a counter-attack printed in today’s Albquerque Journal. mjh

ABQjournal: ID UNMasked for What It Is— Religion By Eric C. Toolson, UNM Biology Professor

Judge Jones may have been taken aback by what he heard in his court, but none of this comes as any surprise to scientists who have attempted to counter scientifically absurd claims and the continual efforts to force schools to teach fundamentalist Christianity as science. Deliberate misrepresentation of scientific concepts and distortion of scientific evidence are the stock in trade of ID promoters. Jones’ opinion merely exposes their tactics to public view.

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor

No Hard Evidence Supports Darwin

As a grad student 35 years ago, I was astounded to find out that there is no real evidence for Darwinism at all— not in the fossils, not in the wild and not in the lab. All my teachers had told me that evolution had occurred, but I suddenly realized that none of them had given me a shred of real evidence.

Afterward, I found that most people, including most scientists, think evolution occurred not because of evidence, but simply because someone else told them it had occurred. …

D. RUSSELL HUMPHREYS, PH.D.
Albuquerque

Nobody appreciates hyperbole more than I do (a self-proving statement), but “NO real evidence … AT ALL,” not a “SHRED of REAL evidence.” Puh-lease! Skillful exaggeration is part of debate, but don’t lie to win.

One can only imagine what a disappointment Humphreys was to his teachers. However, Humphreys’ conclusion is important. As students, we have all accepted many things from our teachers as a given. But good students ask questions without assuming they already know more than the teacher. It’s a delicate dance.

Perhaps we should move this debate over to cold mathematics. What is the PROOF that 2 + 2 = 4? Isn’t geometry full of so-called “theorems” and “proofs” — can we really trust any of them? How do you know what pi is and how would you prove it? Trusting your teacher doesn’t count! If you can’t prove it, does it not exist? Is pi a lie?

It wasn’t until I studied Calculus that so much that had to be accepted ‘on faith’ was finally proven. But Calculus wasn’t discovered/invented until a few hundred years ago — was all of math before that just “faith” and no more valid than the Gospels?

Perhaps we haven’t discovered the evolutionary equivalent of Calculus yet (though I think Watson & Crick probably did).

Scientists Can’t Tolerate Change

Why is a designer, dare we say a God, intimidating to scientists? …

Let’s unmask today’s science for what it really is— carefully crafted religion based on Darwin’s gospel, “The Origin of the Species,” which allows for an escape from the obvious conclusion with God there is accountability. With Darwin there is unrestrained proliferation of group think, the followers of which cannot tolerate a challenge to their belief systems.

From this perspective, who are the religious zealots now? …

LINNEA SANDS
Albuquerque

Religious zealots see the world through religious eyes: everything is their religion or someone else’s (false) religion. You project what you already know. Insert the “hammer and nail” aphorism here.

Why is life without a designer so intimidating to Linnea and friends? Don’t be afraid — it’s the same world without a god. You are still accountable to yourself, your family, your friends, your teachers, and your society. Are you really only good out of fear of punishment or promise of reward?

Open Eyes, Check Out All Theories

As a Christian, I find it hard to believe there are people who really recoil at the possibility that there might be a being so indescribable and powerful, who could have created all that the eye can see and then some. …

Let us not be so dogmatic. We should encourage exploration and study of all scientific theory, whether you agree with the outcome or not.

HOWARD DEWITT
Alamogordo

I don’t recoil at the possibility that there might be a being so indescribable and powerful. I’m a big fan of possibilities and certain we fail to perceive more than we do perceive. But not every possibility is a probability and even fewer are realities. There is no god. As an atheist, I find it hard to believe people recoil at that fact.

Evolution Lacks Photo, Fossil Proof

We are told there is no evidence for design. Test it yourself. Write down every speck of evidence that you find for a wristwatch being designed or that the book you are reading did not randomly come together. When you have done this, compare your data to the incredible workings of the human body with its coded DNA, you will see vast evidence for design emerge. …

PHILIP ROBINSON
Albuquerque

Now, this one is really interesting. Does it matter that I don’t own a watch?

The watch is a product of human intelligence and culture. Human intelligence might be argued to be millions of years old; certainly hundreds of thousands of years. Culture has existed at least 50,000 years. How long have there been watches? Non-astronomical, mechanical time pieces may be thousands of years old, but I’m betting wrist watches aren’t 200 years old (too lazy to google it).

Who designed the watch? A human being. IF you allow that human beings are a product of evolution, then evolution had a hand in the designing of the watch, as well as Philip the Doubter and Mark the Believer. We are inside the black box we seek to describe. Our very intelligence is either the product of evolution or fiat — it constrains what we are capable of conceiving and discussing (language is also a product of this process). But, we’ve had this argument before (mjh’s blog — Wherein Mark disproves the existence of god).

Now the earth is at least 4 billion years old — if IDers don’t believe that, what time frame would they allow us to use? If they happen to say whatever number of years Evangelical Christians believe, then that whole claim that the “designer” isn’t just the narrowly-defined Christian god really is a smokescreen.

But let’s say that Adam and Eve sprang from Zeus’ forehead 10,000 years ago. It took 9,800 years to design a watch. Why weren’t Adam and Eve created wearing watches? Or given gold watches on expulsion? Yours really is a vengeful god.

Anyhow, let’s say that self-replicating organisms didn’t come from afar via a comet or god’s fallen eyelash; let’s say it all starts right here. Now, I do NOT believe that after 4 billion years, a watch would appear directly out of natural selection (indirectly, it did), anymore than I believe an infinite number of monkeys will produce a duplicate of an entire play. Why not? Because Life doesn’t need a watch anymore than monkeys need literature. Life produces what life needs. Billions of years allows for a lot of very subtle or abrupt changes, most of which won’t leave a trace (unless it’s in the DNA).

Once we have what we need, humans produce what we want, including pornography and religion, with many noxious bi-products like pollution and zealots. Oh — and watches. mjh

PS: See www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/category/nada/id/ for all my coverage of this topic, a sub-topic of www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/category/nada/ (NADA = New American Dark Ages).


Donald Rumsfeld is Watching

Fri 12/30/05 at 6:01 pm

Note that the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, with its Talon Reports, is different from earlier reports on the National Security Agency (which is also a Defense Department agency, by the way). And it is different from the FBI spying on PETA and others. Or the CIA. Or your city, county and state police. A vast network looking desperately for dots to connect. Are you a dot?

How much spying are we doing domestically? That’s a secret. What’s it cost? That’s a secret. How many mistakes are made? That’s a secret.

Eisenhower warned us about the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex. Raygun revved up military spending ostensibly to bankrupt the Soviets (a model bin Laden is well-aware of). With the winding down of the Cold War, what was a militarist-money-maker to do? Thank god we have an endless war on a shadowy enemy who can never surrender.

I’m not saying that Our Savior is destroying our village to save it just because it makes lots of money for his friends. No, I’m convinced Duhbya is mentally ill with Post Traumatic Shock Syndrome and guilt for 9/11 (perhaps coupled with prolonged oxygen deprivation after that pretzel choking incident). Perhaps Rumsfeld and Cheney are just as deranged. These guys need help, but our healing begins with their departure. mjh

Defense Facilities Pass Along Reports of Suspicious Activity
Raw Information’ From Military, Civilians Is Given to Pentagon
By Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writer

Day after day, reports of suspicious activity filed from military bases and other defense installations throughout the United States flow into the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, a three-year-old Pentagon agency whose size and budget remain classified.

The Talon [which stands for “threat and local observation notice”] reports, as they are called, are based on information from civilians and military personnel who stumble across people or information they think might be part of a terrorist plot or threat against defense facilities at home or abroad. …

Talon reports grew out of a program called Eagle Eyes, an anti-terrorist program established by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations that “enlists the eyes and ears of Air Force members and citizens in the war on terror,” according to the program’s Web site. …

A former senior CIA official with wide counterintelligence experience, who is familiar with CIFA’s growth, said the agency’s mandate is “ambiguous, but the Defense Department is using its assets in its broadest terms.” He added that efforts such as Talon “could be a well-intentioned effort and it could develop important information.” But, he said that in his view, “the Pentagon has chosen to err on the side of over-collection” of information.

His concern, he said, was who does the intelligence “go to, and what do they do with it.”

Infoshop News - 1-800-CALL-SPY: Military intelligence database short on threats, long on stupid Contributed by: arch_stanton

[T]he database, which contains reports such as those called in to the DOD’s 1-800-CALL-SPY hotline, contains almost 50 anti-war meetings or protests, such as an anti-war meeting held by Quakers last year. …

In the program’s first year, the agency received more than 5,000 TALON reports. The database obtained by NBC News is generated by Counterintelligence Field Activity.

I’m a Soldier, Not a Spy by Grant Doty, a lieutenant colonel in the Army

Yes, I took an oath to defend the United States against all enemies “foreign and domestic,” but the implication of domestic intelligence-gathering by the military, even by a limited number of soldiers, should be sufficiently disturbing for American citizens in and out of uniform that we think long and hard about crossing the line, even a little.

Remember right after 9/11, when AssKraft came out in favor of folks like UPS, USPS, & FedEx delivery people, plus meter readers, et. al., keeping their eyes open and letting the government know of anything suspicious. Even in the moment of our deepest shock most people recoiled against that idea. AssKraft is gone (awaiting a Supreme Court nomination), but the ideas live on.

Seeing Wolfowitz’s name throughout this report did nothing to reassure me. mjh


Whatever it takes

Fri 12/30/05 at 2:23 am

Bush’s false choices By Ellen Goodman

We have been handed yet another in an endless series of false choices. Those who don’t blindly trust the president are dismissed as amnesia victims. Americans who don’t connect the dots from 9/11 to Iraq or spying or torture are cast as actors living in a foolish, fearless, fantasy world. Indeed, 9/11 was the day the president became the commander in chief. The words he often repeats were spoken to him by a rescue worker at the World Trade Center: ”Whatever it takes.” …

But gradually, 9/11 became the all-purpose excuse for . . . whatever it takes. …

”Whatever it takes” does not mean ”whatever the president says it takes.” It does not mean becoming our own worst enemies. It does not mean approving torture or domestic spying. And it most certainly does not mean watching silently as a commander in chief takes on the uniform of a generalissimo.

Who owns September 11? The White House has built its own memorial and raised a stiff price of admission. It only allows in those who agree with the president. …


Remember Jack Abramoff in 2006

Fri 12/30/05 at 1:23 am

If you feel you’ve missed some of the details about Jack Abramoff, world-class crook, here’s a good summary. Read it before the next round of details come out as he turns in everyone he knows. Heads will roll in 2006. mjh

The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff

A reconstruction of the lobbyist’s rise and fall shows that he was an ingenious dealmaker who hatched interlocking schemes that exploited the machinery of government and trampled the norms of doing business in Washington — sometimes for clients but more often to serve his desire for wealth and influence. This inside account of Abramoff’s career is drawn from interviews with government officials and former associates in the lobbying shops of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP and Greenberg Traurig LLP; thousands of court and government records; and hundreds of e-mails obtained by The Washington Post, as well as those released by Senate investigators. …

A quarter of a century ago, Abramoff and anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist were fellow Young Turks of the Reagan revolution. They organized Massachusetts college campuses in the 1980 election — Abramoff while he was an undergraduate at Brandeis and Norquist at Harvard Business School — to help Ronald Reagan pull an upset in the state.

They moved to Washington, maneuvered to take over the College Republicans — at the time a sleepy establishment organization — and transformed it into a right-wing activist group. They were joined by Ralph Reed, an ambitious Georgian whose later Christian conversion would fuel his rise to national political prominence. …

Abramoff also worked on behalf of the apartheid South African government, which secretly paid $1.5 million a year to the International Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit group that Abramoff operated out of a townhouse in the 1980s, according to sworn testimony to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. …

When Republicans wrested control of the House from the Democrats in 1994, Abramoff turned his focus back to Washington politics. With Norquist’s help, he reinvented himself as a Republican lobbyist on heavily Democratic K Street. Norquist was one of the intellectual architects of the Republican Revolution and a muse for its leader, Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), soon to be speaker of the House. …

Nearly two years later, Abramoff’s legal troubles appear to threaten the careers of many of his colleagues and political allies. Sources familiar with the Justice Department investigation say that half a dozen lawmakers are under scrutiny, along with Hill aides, former business associates and government officials. …

Alan K. Simpson (R), the former Wyoming senator who was in Washington during the last big congressional scandal — the Abscam FBI sting in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in which six House members and one senator were convicted — said the Abramoff case looks bigger. Simpson said he recently rode in a plane with one of Abramoff’s attorneys, who told him: “There are going to be guys in your former line of work who are going to be taken down.”
—–

Find all my entries on Jack Abramoff


The Beast Master

Fri 12/30/05 at 12:22 am

I’ve long thought that the selection of Duhbya, so obviously unqualified for the presidency, by the Radical Right was part of their campaign to prove government feckless and worthless. Like putting an idiot in charge of a business you want to run into bankruptcy for tax purposes.

If that seems a bit off to you, consider that the Radical Right is deliberately running up the deficit to “starve the beast.” Why not give “the beast” an inept handler? mjh

American Prospect Online - The Death and Life of American Liberalism By Robert Kuttner

The conservative movement is rooted in a coherent, easy-to-summarize ideology: Government doesn’t work, except to protect you from terrorists; you deserve to keep more of your own money; cherished American family values, including national security, are under assault from liberals. The right has fine-tuned and segmented its rhetorical symphony so that the bass notes rock its political primitives while a softer timbre appeals to the moderate ear.

The right’s famed echo chamber now can “narrowcast” complementary messages to every major demographic group. “For conservative voters in Peoria,” says Rob Stein of the Democracy Alliance, “there’s something for everyone. The businessman gets it from The Wall Street Journal editorial page. The soccer mom has FOX News. The 24-year-old beer-drinking guy has Rush [Limbaugh]. The religious right can get the word from Pat Robertson.”

A movement ideology also produces unity. Despite schisms, the right is simply more disciplined. The discipline is reinforced by new forms of patronage — tax breaks for the elite, godliness for the base. Worldly sinners among Wall Street Republicans may smirk at the fundamentalists in their governing coalition, but are happy to share the bounty. They may privately oppose the immense budget deficits, but the heavily Republican Concord Coalition, so publicly alarmed at the (Republican legacy) deficits of the 1990s, is today prudently silent. Conversely, social conservatives may wince at the antics and views of Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the coalition holds. Genuine Republican moderates, meanwhile, have been coerced or co-opted into near silence. The resulting legislative unity is also unprecedented.

Finally, there’s a war on, a conveniently permanent one. The right manipulates fear of terrorism into public and media acquiescence for a politics that would never prevail in normal times.

And yet, this overpowering structural tilt conceals some surprisingly good news. Despite its immense advantages, the right barely prevailed in the last two presidential elections, even against feckless Democratic campaigns. The superior infrastructure just offset the extremism. The country remains skeptical about most Republican policies, from Social Security privatization to the assault on the courts. As John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira have documented, potentially liberal groups are demographically ascendant. There is a latent liberal majority, if liberals can once again learn to do politics.


Another Victim of American Torture: Maher Arar

Thu 12/29/05 at 8:50 pm

Maher Arar is yet another victim of American torture, like Khaled El-Masri. How many more are there that we will never hear about? mjh

Maher Arar
Maher Arar is a 34-year-old wireless technology consultant. Arar was born in Syria and at the age of 17, came to Canada with his family. He became a Canadian citizen in 1991 and in 1997 moved to Ottawa.

In September 2002, Arar was in Tunisia, vacationing with his wife Monia Mazigh and their two small children. On Sept. 26 while in transit in New York’s JFK airport, he was detained by US officials and interrogated about alleged links to al-Qaeda. Twelve days later, he was chained, shackled and flown to Jordan aboard a private plane and from there transferred to a Syrian prison.

In Syria, he was held in a tiny “grave-like” cell for ten months and ten days before he was moved to a better cell in a different prison. He was beaten, tortured and forced to make a false confession.

CBC News Indepth: Maher Arar: Timeline

Oct. 27, 2005
A fact-finder appointed by the Arar inquiry releases a report concluding that Arar was tortured when in Syrian custody three years ago. “I am convinced that his description of his treatment in Syria is accurate,” Stephen Toope wrote. …

Oct. 6, 2003:
Arar returns to Montreal, 375 days after U.S. immigration officials arrested him. …

Oct. 29, 2002:
Canada issues travel advisory to all Canadians born in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan or Syria to reconsider entering the United States. It follows a U.S. decision to photograph and fingerprint people born in those countries who enter the U.S.

mjh’s blog — America kidnapped me


Let Me See Your ID

Wed 12/28/05 at 6:21 pm

Ohio leads the way to a New American Fascism. If you look at the list of those voting, you’ll find Republicans and Democrats on both sides of the vote. Stopping the erosion of our freedoms is a non-partisan activity. mjh

Bill Would Allow Arrests For No Reason In Public Place

The Ohio Patriot Act has made it to the Taft’s desk, and with the stroke of a pen, it would most likely become the toughest terrorism bill in the country. The lengthy piece of legislation would let police arrest people in public places who will not give their names, address and birth dates, even if they are not doing anything wrong.

[I]t would also pave the way for everyone entering critical transportation sites such as, train stations, airports and bus stations to show ID.

“It brings us frighteningly close to a show me your papers society,” said Carrie Davis of the ACLU, which opposes the Ohio Patriot Act.

ACLU Urges Governor Taft to Veto Ohio’s Patriot Act

The most controversial provisions were sections requiring people to provide identification to police officers if they are traveling though “transportation infrastructure sites”, a provision requiring those applying for certain types of licenses to fill out a questionnaire about ties to terrorism, and a section that aimed to discourage municipalities from speaking out against the USA PATRIOT Act.

mjh’s blog — FBI Papers Show Terror Inquiries Into PETA; Other Groups Tracked


Police Infiltrate Protests

Wed 12/28/05 at 6:19 pm

So, cops are free to pretend to be part of any group and even to agitate? mjh

Police Infiltrate Protests, Videotapes Show - New York Times By JIM DWYER

Undercover New York City police officers have conducted covert surveillance in the last 16 months of people protesting the Iraq war, bicycle riders taking part in mass rallies and even mourners at a street vigil for a cyclist killed in an accident, a series of videotapes show.

In glimpses and in glaring detail, the videotape images reveal the robust presence of disguised officers or others working with them at seven public gatherings since August 2004.

The officers hoist protest signs. They hold flowers with mourners. They ride in bicycle events. At the vigil for the cyclist, an officer in biking gear wore a button that said, “I am a shameless agitator.” She also carried a camera and videotaped the roughly 15 people present.

Beyond collecting information, some of the undercover officers or their associates are seen on the tape having influence on events. At a demonstration last year during the Republican National Convention, the sham arrest of a man secretly working with the police led to a bruising confrontation between officers in riot gear and bystanders.

Until Sept. 11, the secret monitoring of events where people expressed their opinions was among the most tightly limited of police powers.


It’s not fascism when we do it!

Wed 12/28/05 at 6:18 pm

I know this is rude, but it is very artfully done. mjh

It's not fascism when we do it!

From www.oldamericancentury.org/ via Cocoposts.


Power We Didn’t Grant

Wed 12/28/05 at 6:55 am

Note that Bush asked for powers he was specifically denied by the Senate and then went on to act as if those powers were granted, only later to claim they were granted when he knows they were not. He does what he want, when he wants, as he wants and lies whenever he needs to — all for our good, of course. mjh

PS: I’m perfectly willing to believe Bush either has no idea what was asked for and denied or can’t remember now. Does it really make things better if he is forgetful or stupid?

PPS: I’m looking for a poll that asks: “If you voted for Bush a year ago, would you vote for him today?”

Power We Didn’t Grant By Tom Daschle

On the evening of Sept. 12, 2001, the White House proposed that Congress authorize the use of military force to “deter and pre-empt any future acts of terrorism or aggression against the United States.” Believing the scope of this language was too broad and ill defined, Congress chose instead, on Sept. 14, to authorize “all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or persons [the president] determines planned, authorized, committed or aided” the attacks of Sept. 11. With this language, Congress denied the president the more expansive authority he sought and insisted that his authority be used specifically against Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.

Just before the Senate acted on this compromise resolution, the White House sought one last change. Literally minutes before the Senate cast its vote, the administration sought to add the words “in the United States and” after “appropriate force” in the agreed-upon text. This last-minute change would have given the president broad authority to exercise expansive powers not just overseas — where we all understood he wanted authority to act — but right here in the United States, potentially against American citizens. I could see no justification for Congress to accede to this extraordinary request for additional authority. I refused. …

[A] strong bipartisan majority could not agree to the administration’s request for an unprecedented grant of authority.

The Bush administration now argues those powers were inherently contained in the resolution adopted by Congress — but at the time, the administration clearly felt they weren’t or it wouldn’t have tried to insert the additional language.


Bush Administration’s obsession with secrecy

Wed 12/28/05 at 1:53 am

IN THE KINGDOM OF THE HALF-BLIND By Bill Moyers

It has to be said: there has been nothing in our time like the Bush Administration’s obsession with secrecy.

This may seem self-serving coming from someone who worked for two previous presidents who were no paragons of openness. But I am only one of legions who have reached this conclusion. See the recent pair of articles by the independent journalist, Michael Massing, in The New York Review of Books. He concludes, “The Bush Administration has restricted access to public documents as no other before it.” And he backs this up with evidence.

For example, a recent report on government secrecy by the watchdog group, OpenTheGovernment.org, says the Feds classified a record 15.6 million new documents in fiscal year 2004, an increase of 81% over the year before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. What’s more, 64% of Federal Advisory Committee meetings in 2004 were completely closed to the public.

No wonder the public knows so little about how this administration has deliberately ignored or distorted reputable scientific research to advance its political agenda and the wishes of its corporate patrons. I’m talking about the suppression of that EPA report questioning aspects of the White House Clear Skies Act; research censorship at the departments of health and human services, interior and agriculture; the elimination of qualified scientists from advisory committees on kids and lead poisoning, reproductive health, and drug abuse; the distortion of scientific knowledge on emergency contraception; the manipulation of the scientific process involving the Endangered Species Act; and the internal sabotage of government scientific reports on global warming

It’s an old story: the greater the secrecy, the deeper the corruption.


squarely on the side of the wealthy, the privileged and the connected

Wed 12/28/05 at 12:52 am

When the Cutting Is Corrupted By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Only the voters can render a judgment on a politics of favoritism that has created a new Gilded Age. It’s clear that the national government has placed itself squarely on the side of the wealthy, the privileged and the connected. …

The Medicaid cuts include increased co-payments and premiums on low-income Americans, and the budget assumes savings because fewer poor people will visit the doctor. …

Ah, say their defenders, but these cuts will be good for poor people. According to the New York Times, Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Tex.), an architect of the Medicaid proposals, said the higher co-payments were needed to “encourage personal responsibility” among low-income people. Spoken like a congressman who never has to worry about his taxpayer-provided health coverage.

And that is just one instance among many of corporate interests being shielded from cuts, while child support enforcement and foster care programs were sliced.


Bosque del Apache

Tue 12/27/05 at 2:34 pm

bird watchingWe made our annual pilgrimage to Bosque del Apache last week. This is the third year we have rented a van to carry six of us: Mer, me, Melissa, Lew, Kathleen and Dave, our ornithologist. Dave’s ability to identify birds with the briefest of sightings or just by sound is very impressive. Where I see “a bunch of birds in a bush,” he sees a dozen or more species.

birding technologywatching me watching youOverall, I think we saw fewer individual birds. In particular, there seemed to be far fewer cranes than usual. Still, we got to see plenty of birds between noon and sunset, including coots, grebes, a pheasant, kestrels, pintails, bald eagles, harriers, red tail hawks, a merganzer, a great blue heron, and a road runner.

A key part of our expedition is grazing. Everyone contributes great food, most of it homemade and gourmet. We munch at stops and have a real meal at on one of the decks. After dark, we stop in San Antonio for burgers, usually at the Owl, but this time at the Buckhorn, which most of us liked more.

sunset at Bosque del ApacheMy favorite bird-specific moment was seeing a harrier (aka marsh hawk) harassing a red-tailed hawk.

The big show is the fly-in at sunset (or fly-out at sunrise, which I think is a little more spectacular — one year Mer and I saw both). There is nothing like the symphony of geese and cranes and the rustle and squeak of the feathers in their wings.

The colors of this sunset were stunning. Though the groups flying in seemed smaller and fewer, we lingered past dark, delighted as always. mjh

PS: See some of my photos from the trip; from there, follow the link to similarly tagged photos from other photographers. My blog-bud, johnny_mango, rode bikes with MaryAnn around the bosque last week; read his entry and see his photos.

Technical Note: if these pictures don’t align to the left or right with text flowing around them, you may need to force a refresh of the stylesheet — try Ctrl+Refresh (hold down the Ctrl-key as you click the Refresh/Reload button).


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