Happy Memorial Day

This Memorial Day finds us at a challenging time in the history of the world.  Memorial Day was designed to give us a day to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice so we may be free.  In honor of those who gave their lives, and are giving their lives for us, I am posting a variety of pictures of Military aircraft from World War II to the present.

Most of these pictures were taken at the Duluth Air Show a couple of summers ago. The Duluth Air Show is cancelled this year, but I look forward to attending it as soon as we are able have large events again.

B-25 Mitchell

The B-25 Mitchells were used on the famous Doolittle Raid during World War II.  These bombers were taken off the deck of the U.S.S. Hornet, and conducted the first Allied bombing raid on Japan.  It was a huge moral booster for the United States, giving hope that Japan could be defeated.

U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds (F-16 Falcon)

U.S.A.F. Thunderbirds

U.S.A.F. Thunderbirds

 The United States Air Force Thunderbirds and the United States Navy Blue Angels recently did inspirational flights over several cities in honor of the medical professionals on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.  In Minnesota, the C-130's from the Twin Cities, and the F-16's from Duluth flew over hospitals throughout the state as well.  It was a great tribute to all the first responders who are putting their lives on the line so we may survive.

C-130 Hercules

P-51 Mustang

World War II T-6 Texans and T-34 Mentor Aircraft

I saw the four T-6 and one T-34 aircraft fly over the Twin Cities on the 75th anniversary of VE Day (May 8, 1945).  It was an unexpected and inspirational sight!

Thank you to all those have served and are serving this country!  

You are an inspiration to all of us!

Wildlife During a Pandemic

I spent the last couple of months in southern Minnesota with my family, and have just returned to my place on the Gunflint Trail to begin working again.  While in southern Minnesota, I took a lot of walks to the local parks with my family.  There was a lot of interesting wildlife that I was able to photograph in that time.  It was still possible to see  nature while observing the governor's stay-at-home order in the city.  Here are some of favorite photos:

Red Fox

Canada Goose

Painted Turtles

 I sent one of the turtle pictures to WTIP, North Shore Community Radio.  It made it into their newsletter, and on their Facebook page.  During this pandemic, the station has been closed to volunteers, and part of their dedicated staff have been working from home to keep everyone safe.  Two of my recorded shows made it onto the air a few weeks ago, but I have not done any new shows  since the beginning of March.  I look forward to the day when we can all conduct live shows again.

Wood Duck

Wood Ducks

Eastern Phoebe

Great Egret

Osprey over a Ball Field

 The ball field where I saw the Ospreys has stadium lights.  One osprey was on one light.  The mate was on the second light, and the nest was on a third light.

Osprey Nest

Great Blue Heron

It took many tries to get this picture of the great blue heron.  I saw it over the course of several walks around Lake Bennett, but it always seemed to be flying away before I could raise my camera.    It felt great to finally capture it on disk.

Mallard on a Nest

Red-winged Blackbird

Mallard Ducks

These ducklings were the first baby birds I observed this year.  They were in a pond in Howard Johnson Park.

Mallard Ducklings

Wood Duck

Canada Goose on a Nest

 If the weather was fair, I almost always brought along a camera on my daily walks through the local parks.  Wildlife photography is a matter persistence, patience, and a bit of luck.  These pictures were taken over the course of two months.

Cottontail Rabbit

Wild Turkey Hen

  I consider myself very fortunate that I was able to spend the two months off with my family.  When the initial closing of my employer's business followed by the governor's stay-at-home order went into effect, I was already visiting my family.  I had two options, spend the time with my wonderful family, or spend an indefinite amount of time in sheer solitude in my apartment on the Gunflint Trail. Of course I stayed with my family.  We had a very nice time with each other, and I wouldn't trade that family time for anything.

Downy Woodpecker

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

My days were spent doing projects around the house, cooking and baking, working on my blogs, doing weekly shopping trips for groceries, and taking long walks.

Wild Turkey Tom

Initially, we spent a lot of time watching the news and all the briefings.  As time went on, we watched less of the news.  To get a break from all the bad news, we watched a wide variety of movies after dinner, along with a fair amount of comedies from the British Isles.

Wild Turkey Tom in Full Display

To read more of my blog articles, go to my other blog at https://sillimanbirding.blogspot.com.  I started a new feature called Bird of the Day, in which I posted a lot of short articles about specific birds, most of which I observed in the last two months.

On this blog, I started to post book, audiobook, and film recommendations.  I plan to continue these new features on each of my blogs.

Audiobook Recommendation - American Wolf

American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee is a riveting book about the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park.  It can be found in both book and audiobook formats.  The audiobook is read by Mark Bramhall, who does a nice job.

One of the great learning exercises I had in college was in my Environmental Policy course.  Every student was assigned a different viewpoint to defend.  It didn't matter what our actual views were.  The project helped us to see that there are often valid points to more than one side in an issue.  To this day, I still form an opinion on the issues, but I also try to see things from the other side.

This book outlines the long-running debate about reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone National Park.  On the pro-wolf side, you have the people who want to have a balanced ecosystem in our oldest national park.  They are the ones who have also opened up wolf sightseeing tours, and have a significant social media presence getting people to appreciate these often misunderstood animals.

The anti-wolf side are the ranchers and hunters.  Elk populations were huge since wolves were eliminated from the park many decades ago.  The economy of whole towns near Yellowstone are based in large part on elk hunting outfitters.  There were so many elk in the area, that they could pretty safely guarantee a successful hunt.

Ranchers were worried about their livestock.  Statistically, not a lot of domesticated animals get taken down, but one ranch could still lose a lot of animals if the wolf pack zeroes in on that spot.

The book focuses on one of the packs, and an alpha female designed "O6."  She led her pack for many years through many challenges, and still managed to remain in the alpha (top) position.  She was possibly the most popular wolf ever on social media.

[Spoiler Alert] When the wolf was shot by a hunter, people were sad and angry.  She was wearing a collar, but her fur was so thick that the hunter claimed he could not see it.  After she passed away, the hunter was astonished to see the pack emerge from the forest, stand vigil at her side, and howl mournfully.  He backed away, and came back for the body later.  The hunter was interviewed by the author of the book, but his name was changed for his safety.

Ecologically, where was a major ripple effect caused by the reintroduction of one pack of wolves, and a wild pack wandering in at about the same time.  The elk population did go down, which allowed more vegetation to start growing along the shores of the rivers and streams.  Water clarity increased.  Beavers (who had also been eliminated from the park) returned when they saw their favorite food (aspen) growing.  They constructed dams and created ponds.  Many types of life benefit from a beaver pond.

Wolves eat coyotes.  When the coyote population dropped, the rodent population increased.  The increased rodents are a great source of food for raptors, whose populations also increased.  Now there are many beautiful predatory birds in Yellowstone National Park that were not there in as great of numbers before the reintroduction.

In this day and age, it is rare to find someone reporting both sides.  Nate Blakeslee does this well in the book.  He is obviously pro-wolf, but he gives voice to the other side.

I highly recommend this book to young adults and adults.  It is a great way to learn about the benefits of wolves in Yellowstone National Park.  I see the same basic debate happening in Northern Minnesota, and am sure it is happening in many other areas as well.  Some of the content may be a bit troubling for kids, but it is a reality they should learn when they approach adulthood.

Audiobook Review - The Ravenmaster

A great audiobook I listened to in recent years is called The Ravenmaster, written and read by Christopher Skaife.  The author is a Yeoman in the British Army who is in charge of taking care of the ravens in the Tower of London.  Prior to listening to this audiobook, I had no urge to visit the Tower of London, but now it is on my bucket list.

The author freely admits that he is not a scientist, and does not attempt to push the book as a scientific work.  He has had many interesting adventures with these birds, which make it into the book along with some very interesting history and mythology surrounding the Tower of London.

The reason the ravens are kept at the tower is based on a legend that there needs to be a certain number of ravens at the Tower of London, or the monarchy will fall.  He delves deeply into this legend, and comes to the conclusion that no one really knows where the legend started.  In going into the legend, he also goes over a lot of interesting history.

Some of my favorite passages in the book have to do with the mischief in which these birds engage.  For instance, one of ravens is good at getting sandwiches from the tourists.  It lands next to them when they are eating on the picnic bench.  Most people are so surprised at the sight of this large bird, that they drop their sandwich, which the raven grabs and flies away.

Another raven is good at flying in silently, and grabbing bags of crisps (chips in North America).  Before the person knows what is happening, the raven grabs the crisps with one foot, rips open the bag with its beak, fills its beak with crisps, and flies away.

Another interesting aspect of the ravens is the pecking order.  Ravens are highly intelligent birds, and they have a very definite pecking order within their flock.  At night, the ravens are put in enclosures, and they insist on being put in the enclosures in a certain order.  One time, the author and his wife had  dinner reservations to celebrate his birthday.  He thought that he could put the ravens in the enclosures in a different order just for that night; he was wrong.  The raven that thought it should be in first saw what was happening, and would not allow him/herself to be caught.  They never did make it to dinner that night.

The ravens at the Tower of London have their wings trimmed, but they are no longer rendered flightless after an accident several years ago.  One raven walking around near the top of the tower tried to leap from one perch to another, and did not survive the jump.  After that, they decided to lightly trim the feathers to discourage long distance flight.  If a raven is determined enough, it can fly away.  The staff then has to go try to retrieve the raven.  Since ravens are highly unusual in London, people often call the tower if one is seen.  However, some never return.

It was nice to listen to the author reading his own book.  Christopher Skaife is originally from the Dover area of England, and has a fun accent.

I highly recommend this audiobook.  It covers many interesting aspects of life with the ravens at the Tower of London.