Mystery Bird

It's been a while since I've posted a Mystery Bird photograph. It's not that I don't have TONS of horrible bird images in which the subject species is utterly unrecognizable (I do). In fact I seem to have a knack for capturing that exact kind of image.

It's just that the whole Mystery Bird thing is done, and done pretty well, in so many other places that it makes a body think: Does the world really need another Mystery Bird Blogger?

This deep philosophical pondering is immediately forgotten when I need to make a new post and... Hey! I know! Let's do a Mystery Bird thing!

So here it is. A bird photographed this autumn in these United States. Yes, it's flying. Yes, it's flying away from you (and me). And them's all yer hints fer now.


Place all of your guesses in the comments section. Good luck and be careful out there.

Songs in My Head on Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day, a holiday that often passes without much notice, especially for younger people. I was never in the service, but my dad was. He served in the Army during the Korean War. He was lucky and talented enough as a musician to spend his service time stateside, playing in the Second Army Band. That's him standing in the middle-back of this quartet.

I got to play a couple of songs with my dad today at my regular Sunday jazz gig. He came down to the hotel to sit in on piano for Bruce DeMoll (himself a veteran of the US Navy Band during the Korean War). Both Dad and Bruce really came into their own as musicians during their time in the service.

More than 1,000 World War II veterans die every day, according to researchers who worked on Ken Burns' incredible documentary, "The War." And with them go their stories, memories, and experiences. Our World War I veterans are nearly all gone, now. My grandmother Thompson, who died in 1997 at the age of 97, remembered, as a young girl, hearing Civil War veterans who worked on her dad's farm, talking about that great conflict. Imagine that!

Two songs came to my ears today--songs that made me think about Veterans Day, and about all those who have served. They also made me think about the horrible waste, and utter sadness and senselessness of war--any war.

The songs are:

Day After Tomorrow
by Tom Waits
The version I heard was sung by Linda Thompson
on her recent album "Versatile Heart."
You can hear her version in the auto-player here.

and

And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
by Eric Bogle
I heard a version sung by Christy Moore.
You can hear a version sung by the song's author, here.
And a short sample of the Pogues' version is here.

Where Dusk and Dawn Are Deafening

Last November we went to Socorro, New Mexico for the Festival of the Cranes held annually at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

Tens of thousands of waterfowl and sandhill cranes spend the winter on the refuge. Every morning the birds—primarily sandhill cranes and snow geese—stage a huge fly-out just after dawn, heading to the nearby fields to eat grain. Every evening the birds fly back in to roost for another night in the waters of the refuge, safe from predators. Headed in or headed out, the birds make a terrific noise--nearly deafening at times.

The birders attending the festival are there every morning and evening to witness the spectacle. Oh my, it's bone-chilling cold out there in the desert early and late in the day. But the birds, the landscape, and the light all combine to make it a magic place to be.

Last winter I captured a bit of (admittedly poor) video of a small gathering of cranes and geese at dusk coming in to roost, along the road into the refuge.



Moments later, the light left us for good, so we headed to the Owl Bar in nearby San Antonio, NM, to warm up with a cold beer and to challenge our constitutions with the Owl Bar's famous green-chile cheeseburgers.