Full Moon Meadow

The moonlight on the landscape has been amazing in this wetter-than-normal summer. Now, with the symphony of bird song slowly winding down as summer peaks and wanes, one of the comforting things I relish most is a long summer evening, when dusk hangs on endlessly. Fireflies, whip-poor-wills, and luna moths take over for the hummingbirds, cardinals, and butterflies. Nature's daily shift change. We sit and watch it all unfold, like the blooms on an evening primrose.

Summer Nature Video Highlights

This summer I've spent a bit of time shooting high-definition video. I am a rank beginner and learning as I go, but it's been an incredibly fun new hobby.

So here is a handful of five-second snippets from the hours of video I've shot (most of which is undeniably deletable). I am saving a few choice clips for later sharing here and elsewhere, though it's tempting to let it all out at once.

I think my dream job would be to be the person who gets to film those "Charles Kuralt nature moments." No voice over, no on-screen graphics—just the imagery and natural sounds of some amazing phenomena: birds, animals, plants, or landscape. I remember his segments so clearly from the CBS Sunday Morning television show.

I hope you like my little montage of clips. There's lots more to come. Thanks for watching.

On Martha Stewart Living Radio Today

For those among you who have some available eartime this afternoon, I'll be appearing on the Martha Stewart Living Today radio show at 1 pm EST. The show is broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio, channel 112.

Host Mario Bosquez is a bird enthusiast and he's always ready with a series of seasonally appropriate questions for me. We always take listener calls, usually with bird questions (866-675-6675). Today's topic will be "the birds of summer." I am relatively certain the topic of bald cardinals will come up during the interview.

If you want to listen, you can use Sirius' FREE 3-day subscription at http://www.sirius.com/freetrial/register

I've been on Mario's show a half-dozen times or so over the past few years, and have even done two of the interviews in the actual Sirius/MSL studio, which was very cool.

Drop me a note here if you hear the show today. I'd like to know if there's "anybody out there."