Tag: conservation

Monday Morning Wake Up Call

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Photo 1 was taken this morning.

Photo 2 was taken in March 2022.

Oh, what a year makes.

Yes, different weather.

No, I was not standing in the exactly the same spot, and likely not the same focal length.

But close enough for you to get the point.

Photo 1 was taken after the completion of a major dredging project this winter to remove “sediments and debris” from the marina and channels.

Yes, it is likely that the park’s upkeep depends on marina revenue.

Yes, certain boat owners’ livelihood may depend on the marina.

No, this isn’t close to being on the same scale of the Amazon deforestation.

But…

For more photos from this morning’s walk, click here.

Moved…

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Travel Photographer of the Year 2022: Matjaz Krivic (Slovenia)

Location: Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Nanyuki, Kenya

Caption: Najin 33 one of the last two Northern White rhinos left in the world resting under a hot afternoon sun with her friend and caretaker Zachary Mutai in Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

The Northern white rhino is all but extinct. The two last males died several years ago. The two females are still with us, but too feeble to bear babies. In an Italian lab their eggs are now artificially fertilised by sperm from the late males, and kept at minus 196 celsius, in hopes that surrogate rhinos from another sub species can carry the northern white back from the brink.

Source: dpreview.com, January 31, 2023.

Monday Morning Wake-Up Call

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What would it be like, I wondered, to live with that heightened sensitivity to the lives given for ours? To consider the tree in the Kleenex, the algae in the toothpaste, the oaks in the floor, the grapes in the wine; to follow back the thread of life in everything and pay it respect? Once you start, it’s hard to stop, and you begin to feel yourself awash in gifts.

—  Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and The Teachings of Plants (Milkweed Editions, September 16, 2013) (via acti-veg)

Wally’s Great Adventures (3)

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hello everyone, happy sunday. as promised, dad took me to his magic kingdom: cove island park. it’s not exactly how we had it planned.

as dad was downloading his pictures to his computer this morning, he told mom “she seemed off. cormorants don’t let me anywhere near them, highly skittish, yet this one let me approach. i thought she was ill. now i know why.” he asked mom to look closely at the photo.

we hurried to get dressed. i put on my vest. mom found work gloves, pliers and scissors. dad said something about this being a bad omen, with his spirit bird in distress. i barked at dad and told him that i was here now, and everything would be ok. we hurried out to the park to see if we could help her. Continue reading “Wally’s Great Adventures (3)” →

Big Red. Miracle. All of it.

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It’s Sunday morning, post my Cove Island Park morning walk with Sully. I’m filling the car with gas at Conoco. Sully, all paws, ears and head is at the window urging me to hurry up, barking like a madman.  I lift my head and look across the street.

Here we are on Main St. in Stamford, a stone’s throw from Exit 9 on I-95.  The Red Barn is a failed drive-through grocery store. It sits empty, and presume it follows a succession of other failed retailers that occupied this high traffic location.

But overshadowing Red Barn is Big Red. A magnificent, giant Red Maple, in full bloom. Each year, he perseveres, bundling up in bone chilling winters, crouching down to avoid lightning, swaying to and fro to keep his balance in high winds, and spitting out polluted air and ground water. And, he somehow manages to survive Humans, a series of one new home owner after another, let him stand — and did not take a ax to him because his roots were breaking up sidewalks, driveways or foundations of their homes.

Here’s to Big Red.

May he outlive us all.

More pictures from the Sunday morning walk here.