This is a funny comic. In general, but also specifically the one to which I'm linking here. This particular comic strip made me laugh.
Pearls Before Swine
I hope that you can enjoy it, too.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Friday, October 28, 2005
In his blog, "That's Debateable," Jonathan Bryan has argued that faith is not a kind of knowledge. In doing so he has inevitably come up against the great St. Thomas Aquinas. Agreeably, he has taken this disagreement seriously and dialogued a little with the past Saint.
I'll take St. Thomas' part here and try to show how his criticism fails due to an incomplete understanding of St. Thomas' position: with the hopeful result of Mr. Bryan's further research into this great Saint, who is one of my most favourite thinkers.
What is meant by "use reasoning to try and show that my disbelief in Calvinism is correct?" I take this to mean that, since faith is knowledge independent of reason, than if reason is introduced than the faith ceases to be faith. And that's a delightful idea, to see what we now hold by faith. But, I think you and St. Thomas don't agree on what "knowledge independent of reason" is. (See "whether sacred doctrine is a science").
St. Thomas would say reason is an important tool that we use to understand the mysteries of God. The difference between that which we hold through faith and that which we understand through reason is that the initial propositions are either common or revealed. Reason from data common to all man (either innate or sensed) = philosophy. Reason from data given by God through direct and special revelation (the Bible or the teachings of the Church to Aquinas) = theology. These are first held on faith, which first has to come through the grace of God. St. Thomas doesn't use his terms very rigidly in that first book of the Summa that I linked to above, so be warned! To clarify in modern terms: Biblical theology would be the study of God through revelation and philosophical theology would be the study of God through common means (presuppositionalists, of course, abstaining).
Aquinas has metaphysical reasons for thinking that you cannot know anything much about God without revelation: that the forms of the heavenly things cannot be apprehended unless the knower is graciously expanded by God himself.
So you and the Calvinist can argue, but it's probably going to have to happen using Holy Scripture.
I'll take St. Thomas' part here and try to show how his criticism fails due to an incomplete understanding of St. Thomas' position: with the hopeful result of Mr. Bryan's further research into this great Saint, who is one of my most favourite thinkers.
Suppose I claim to have “faith” that Calvinism is incorrect? If faith is a way of “knowing independent of reason” then it is impossible to have faith in something that is untrue. The local Calvinist, therefore, will have to believe that I don’t really have faith that Calvinism is incorrect. I must be mistaking faith for something else. But how will he convince me of this? He could not use his faith in Calvinism and pit it against mine. How could we know which of our faiths were genuine? The only thing he could do is use reasoning to try and show that my disbelief in Calvinism is incorrect. If he is successful, I shall have to conclude that my faith wasn’t real (since it is impossible for the truth known by reason and the truth known by faith to contradict, since they are both truth.) But what good then is faith? If the only way to tell whether it is genuine or not if to see if it holds up to reason, what’s the good of having it at all?
What is meant by "use reasoning to try and show that my disbelief in Calvinism is correct?" I take this to mean that, since faith is knowledge independent of reason, than if reason is introduced than the faith ceases to be faith. And that's a delightful idea, to see what we now hold by faith. But, I think you and St. Thomas don't agree on what "knowledge independent of reason" is. (See "whether sacred doctrine is a science").
St. Thomas would say reason is an important tool that we use to understand the mysteries of God. The difference between that which we hold through faith and that which we understand through reason is that the initial propositions are either common or revealed. Reason from data common to all man (either innate or sensed) = philosophy. Reason from data given by God through direct and special revelation (the Bible or the teachings of the Church to Aquinas) = theology. These are first held on faith, which first has to come through the grace of God. St. Thomas doesn't use his terms very rigidly in that first book of the Summa that I linked to above, so be warned! To clarify in modern terms: Biblical theology would be the study of God through revelation and philosophical theology would be the study of God through common means (presuppositionalists, of course, abstaining).
Aquinas has metaphysical reasons for thinking that you cannot know anything much about God without revelation: that the forms of the heavenly things cannot be apprehended unless the knower is graciously expanded by God himself.
So you and the Calvinist can argue, but it's probably going to have to happen using Holy Scripture.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Monday, October 24, 2005
Friday, October 21, 2005
Tennyson's Idylls and the Weird Battle of the West
And Arthur said, 'Behold, thy doom is mine.
Let chance what will, I love thee to the death!'
To whom the Queen replied with drooping eyes,
'King and my lord, I love thee to the death!'
And holy Dubric spread his hands and spake,
'Reign ye, and live and love, and make the world
Other, and may thy Queen be one with thee,
And all this Order of thy Table Round
Fulfil the boundless purpose of their King!'
I recently finished reading most of the Idylls of the King. I say most of because my Norton Critical Edition of his poetry comes lacking four of the Idylls. I find that annoying. It doesn't have "Gareth and Lynette," "The Marriage of Geraint," "Geraint and Enid," and "Balin and Balan." That's a lot of the book! The editor apologizes, excusing himself on the basis of economic need. As this is a volume interested in presenting the work of Tennyson with a focus on his thoughts, and not on the works for their own sake, that can be understood. Nevertheless, the necessity is tragic.
I am very fond of Tennyson's poetry, and reading it was a great adventure. I first took it off the shelf because Laura Ingalls Wilder recalls reading the Lotus Eaters when she was a young girl in one of the Little House books. I kept reading it because he wrote about King Arthur. I love the stories of King Arthur, and Le Morte D' Arthur was really an amazing book (well, the Senegral was).
Anyway, I have come to very much enjoy reading Tennyson. In some ways, the Idylls read to me (especially the first and last) as if they were another attempt at English epic poetry. The Arthur stories would be a good source, but even by the time of Tennyson that age was long past. In another way, Tennyson is fascinating because he plugs the gap for me (somewhat) between the late Romantics and T.S. Elliot. He was still young when Lord Byron died, an event that so impressed itself upon his person that he went out into the moors and scratched on a rock with a knife: "Byron is dead", and so is another age after this age with which I personally am very familiar. The Idylls were finished in the 1870s, and there is interesting poetry still between Elliott and the 1870s, but it still fills in a bit of my unfinished education.
The editors in the critical edition draw heavily from notes by Tennyson about the allegorical purpose of the Idylls. In this way, the more interesting Idylls are clearly the later ones, for in the later Idylls Tennyson meditates on the rise of materialism, darwinism, and the decline of Christianity and idealism. In one way, the death of Arthur and the destruction of the Round Table is seen to be the destruction of an age of high idealism. The table is a group of knights that are all besworn to high purposes, and must keep them. But the sin of Lancelot and Guinevere (shown in this account to be an explicit denial not only of traditional and proper morality, but of the very table and nation's order as well) drives a wedge into the integrity of the table.
This turns out to be very pessimistic. Can any ideal be perfectly kept? Is there room for grace?
There is room for grace, but it won't necessarily keep us from the terrible consequences of our sin here. Arthur shows us the image of grace when he forgives Guinevere in the abbey to which she's run after the affair's found out by Modred. The Idyll "Guinevere" tells of the disollution of the Round Table in civil war between Lancelot and Arthur and then Arthur and Modred, through her eyes, from a distance and only second hand. But the Idyll ends with Arthur coming in through the gate of her abbey and forgiving her, urging her to repent so that they can be reunited in heaven, and going off foreknowingly to his death.
Justice is kept in the war with Lancelot, but grace is granted to Guinevere. I am not sure that I understand the implications of that.
I especially like that Idyll because it's got some great descriptive poetry. For example, there are these lines that follow Arthur's forgiveness of Guinevere. Guinevere has been lying on the floor, too ashamed to look at Arthur, during his speech to her. Now he is leaving, having blessed her. She hasn't even seen him yet.
Doesn't that make you shiver? The martyr is going to his death, leaving this world forever, but Tennyson thinks, finding a better one yet. And then, he'll come back. To which I can only say, the sooner the better.
Does the poem have a practical application (Torrey's so habituated me to ask)? The question to me is this: What do we do when Arthur dies?
That's what Sir Bedivire wondered, too, being the lone Knight of the Round Table left.
Arthur answers him from the barge that's taking him to Avalon:
I believe we are now firmly within that era which is ushered in by the death of Arthur, though the paynims are not yet finished with their plunder. As the last rays of the west illumine the beautiful creations of the west, those that are left and are faithful must still pray. Here's the interesting thing about what Arthur says, he doesn't condemn outright the inevitable new pagan order. Arthur says, God's going to show himself differently now, also.. pray! So, as the Christian era goes out and the new materialism comes in (so perfectly inevitably) we should pray. Good, but I think they should also fulfill their vows, and maybe, just maybe it is Tolkien who is right, not Tennyson.
Let me explain what I mean:
An interesting question that this brought up in my mind, also, was the relation between Tolkien, Lewis and Tennyson. Tennyson of course predated them by many years, and the critics were very harsh on him during their formative years, but it seems difficult for me to imagine that this work did not have a very strong impact on both of their writing, because they are interested in myth and fairy stories. And the spirit of Tennyson's Idylls reminds me of the spirit of some of their storiers some what. But most of all, I wonder about Tolkien. Here we have a king going off into the myst to fight a final deadly battle (a pyrrhic victory) in the West. Arthur's lost is parralleled by Aragorn's victory. Is the mind of Tolkien, being more Christian, thus more optomistic? Is Tolkien, in part, penning the Lord of the Rings as a literary reply to Tennyson's work?
I wish that Tolkien had wrote in an epic style of blank verse, because it really is enjoyable to read. Not that I mind his prose, though. I really do like it.
Anyway, if anybody knows of any papers that treat on this subject, let me know, I'm curious.
And Arthur said, 'Behold, thy doom is mine.
Let chance what will, I love thee to the death!'
To whom the Queen replied with drooping eyes,
'King and my lord, I love thee to the death!'
And holy Dubric spread his hands and spake,
'Reign ye, and live and love, and make the world
Other, and may thy Queen be one with thee,
And all this Order of thy Table Round
Fulfil the boundless purpose of their King!'
I recently finished reading most of the Idylls of the King. I say most of because my Norton Critical Edition of his poetry comes lacking four of the Idylls. I find that annoying. It doesn't have "Gareth and Lynette," "The Marriage of Geraint," "Geraint and Enid," and "Balin and Balan." That's a lot of the book! The editor apologizes, excusing himself on the basis of economic need. As this is a volume interested in presenting the work of Tennyson with a focus on his thoughts, and not on the works for their own sake, that can be understood. Nevertheless, the necessity is tragic.
I am very fond of Tennyson's poetry, and reading it was a great adventure. I first took it off the shelf because Laura Ingalls Wilder recalls reading the Lotus Eaters when she was a young girl in one of the Little House books. I kept reading it because he wrote about King Arthur. I love the stories of King Arthur, and Le Morte D' Arthur was really an amazing book (well, the Senegral was).
Anyway, I have come to very much enjoy reading Tennyson. In some ways, the Idylls read to me (especially the first and last) as if they were another attempt at English epic poetry. The Arthur stories would be a good source, but even by the time of Tennyson that age was long past. In another way, Tennyson is fascinating because he plugs the gap for me (somewhat) between the late Romantics and T.S. Elliot. He was still young when Lord Byron died, an event that so impressed itself upon his person that he went out into the moors and scratched on a rock with a knife: "Byron is dead", and so is another age after this age with which I personally am very familiar. The Idylls were finished in the 1870s, and there is interesting poetry still between Elliott and the 1870s, but it still fills in a bit of my unfinished education.
The editors in the critical edition draw heavily from notes by Tennyson about the allegorical purpose of the Idylls. In this way, the more interesting Idylls are clearly the later ones, for in the later Idylls Tennyson meditates on the rise of materialism, darwinism, and the decline of Christianity and idealism. In one way, the death of Arthur and the destruction of the Round Table is seen to be the destruction of an age of high idealism. The table is a group of knights that are all besworn to high purposes, and must keep them. But the sin of Lancelot and Guinevere (shown in this account to be an explicit denial not only of traditional and proper morality, but of the very table and nation's order as well) drives a wedge into the integrity of the table.
This turns out to be very pessimistic. Can any ideal be perfectly kept? Is there room for grace?
There is room for grace, but it won't necessarily keep us from the terrible consequences of our sin here. Arthur shows us the image of grace when he forgives Guinevere in the abbey to which she's run after the affair's found out by Modred. The Idyll "Guinevere" tells of the disollution of the Round Table in civil war between Lancelot and Arthur and then Arthur and Modred, through her eyes, from a distance and only second hand. But the Idyll ends with Arthur coming in through the gate of her abbey and forgiving her, urging her to repent so that they can be reunited in heaven, and going off foreknowingly to his death.
Justice is kept in the war with Lancelot, but grace is granted to Guinevere. I am not sure that I understand the implications of that.
I especially like that Idyll because it's got some great descriptive poetry. For example, there are these lines that follow Arthur's forgiveness of Guinevere. Guinevere has been lying on the floor, too ashamed to look at Arthur, during his speech to her. Now he is leaving, having blessed her. She hasn't even seen him yet.
Then, listening till those armed steps were gone,
Rose the pale Queen, and in her anguish found
The casement: "peradventure," so she thought,
"If I might see his face, and not be seen."
And lo, he sat on horseback at the door!
And near him the sad nuns with each a light
Stood, and he gave them charge about the Queen,
To guard and to foster her for evermore.
And while he spake to these his helm was lower'd,
To which for crest the golden dragon clung
Of Britain; so she did not see the face,
Which then was as an angel's, but she saw,
Wet with mists and smitten by the lights,
The Dragon of the great Pendragonship
Blaze, making all the night a steam of fire.
And even then he turn'd; and more and more
The moony vapor rolling round the king,
Who seem'd the phantom of a giant in it,
Enwound him fold by fold, and made him gray
And grayer, till himself became as mist
Before her, moving ghostlike to his doom.
Doesn't that make you shiver? The martyr is going to his death, leaving this world forever, but Tennyson thinks, finding a better one yet. And then, he'll come back. To which I can only say, the sooner the better.
Does the poem have a practical application (Torrey's so habituated me to ask)? The question to me is this: What do we do when Arthur dies?
That's what Sir Bedivire wondered, too, being the lone Knight of the Round Table left.
"Ah! My Arthur, wither shall I go?
Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?
For now I see the true old times are dead,
When every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance brought out a noble knight.
Such times have been not since the light
That led the holy Elders with the gift of myrrh.
But now the whole Round Table is dissolved
Which was an image of the might world'
And I, the last, go forth companionless,
And the days darken round me, and the years,
Among new men, strange faces, other minds."
Arthur answers him from the barge that's taking him to Avalon:
"The old order changeth yielding place to new,
And God fulfils himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
Comfort thyself; what comforth is in me?
I have lived my life, and that which I have done
May He within himself make pure! But thou,
If thou shouldst never see my face again,
Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men etter than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
I believe we are now firmly within that era which is ushered in by the death of Arthur, though the paynims are not yet finished with their plunder. As the last rays of the west illumine the beautiful creations of the west, those that are left and are faithful must still pray. Here's the interesting thing about what Arthur says, he doesn't condemn outright the inevitable new pagan order. Arthur says, God's going to show himself differently now, also.. pray! So, as the Christian era goes out and the new materialism comes in (so perfectly inevitably) we should pray. Good, but I think they should also fulfill their vows, and maybe, just maybe it is Tolkien who is right, not Tennyson.
Let me explain what I mean:
An interesting question that this brought up in my mind, also, was the relation between Tolkien, Lewis and Tennyson. Tennyson of course predated them by many years, and the critics were very harsh on him during their formative years, but it seems difficult for me to imagine that this work did not have a very strong impact on both of their writing, because they are interested in myth and fairy stories. And the spirit of Tennyson's Idylls reminds me of the spirit of some of their storiers some what. But most of all, I wonder about Tolkien. Here we have a king going off into the myst to fight a final deadly battle (a pyrrhic victory) in the West. Arthur's lost is parralleled by Aragorn's victory. Is the mind of Tolkien, being more Christian, thus more optomistic? Is Tolkien, in part, penning the Lord of the Rings as a literary reply to Tennyson's work?I wish that Tolkien had wrote in an epic style of blank verse, because it really is enjoyable to read. Not that I mind his prose, though. I really do like it.
Anyway, if anybody knows of any papers that treat on this subject, let me know, I'm curious.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Jonathan and I won't see each other for a couple of days, so we decided it was a good night to go out to dinner. We chose a very special place in our hearts. A place we have loved for over a year and a half now. A place we had not actually eaten at until tonight, however. Bernie's Restaurant. Our love for Bernie's began in February of 2004 when we spotted it on Beach Blvd. in Buena Park. It looked cute and small, and claimed to be "Family Owned for (I-don't-remember-how-many) years." We thought, "that would be a great place to eat sometime. It sounds fun." So, a couple of weeks later, on a Sunday, we tried to give it a shot. But they closed early on Sundays and we were too late. Ok, another time, then. We actually tried two other times last year in the Spring and early Summer. Every time we went there, it was closed. Then one day last summer, as I was on my way to work, I passed it like I did everyday, and this time I noticed something very sad. Bernie's was closed. CLOSED. Not for the day, but forever. There were boards on the windows. I almost wept. We had tried three times and been unsucessful. Now we would not have another chance. EVER!!!!
Or, so we thought.
You see, a few months later we noticed a sign on that old Bernie's building, saying they were moving and would have a new location opening up on Harbor and Imperial in La Habra. Our hope was restored. One day, we would eat at Bernie's Restaurant. It has recently opened, and today was our chance to experience the joy of actually eating at Bernie's instead of always just talking about it. We took it.
Bernie's claims to offer "homestyle cooking." It delivers. A dinner there very much has the feel of a big midwest meal. Lots of food. Meat, mashed potatoes, veggies, rolls, salad. The main course had rather a lot of grease included, but that doesn't conflict with my idea of "homestyle cooking" in the midwest, so I wasn't too surprised at that. We'll probably go again and try their hamburgers or sandwiches and see what those are like.
It feels quaint and has nice, warm decorations. I felt happy there. It wasn't noisy or too busy. Just right.
And the people! Very friendly.
Give it a try! Bernie's Restaurant on Imperial and Harbor in La Habra. It's right next to Mongolian BBQ.
Or, so we thought.
You see, a few months later we noticed a sign on that old Bernie's building, saying they were moving and would have a new location opening up on Harbor and Imperial in La Habra. Our hope was restored. One day, we would eat at Bernie's Restaurant. It has recently opened, and today was our chance to experience the joy of actually eating at Bernie's instead of always just talking about it. We took it.
Bernie's claims to offer "homestyle cooking." It delivers. A dinner there very much has the feel of a big midwest meal. Lots of food. Meat, mashed potatoes, veggies, rolls, salad. The main course had rather a lot of grease included, but that doesn't conflict with my idea of "homestyle cooking" in the midwest, so I wasn't too surprised at that. We'll probably go again and try their hamburgers or sandwiches and see what those are like.
It feels quaint and has nice, warm decorations. I felt happy there. It wasn't noisy or too busy. Just right.
And the people! Very friendly.
Give it a try! Bernie's Restaurant on Imperial and Harbor in La Habra. It's right next to Mongolian BBQ.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Pretty Much the Best Birding Day Ever
This last Saturday, Libby and I pretty much had our best birding day ever. We saw the most birds we'd ever seen in a day, and all in one place. Bolsa Chica proved its worth once and for all!
Now, if this post inspires you to go and see the wonders of Bolsa Chica, be warned! They've closed the boardwalk on the beach side of the preserve, so you can't walk out into the water and watch the birds play like you've been able to in the past. It looks like they're rebuilding it (which is good, I suppose), and it has no projected opening date. Which means that it will be probably forever before it opens again.
This was just a really cool trip to Bolsa Chica. We left very early in the morning (6:30 from Libby's apartment, arriving at the backside at 7:00 - we just drive straight down Valley View from Libby's Apartment) in order to beat the sunrise. The idea was that it would be very beautiful in the morning, and that we might see a coyote or a fox or something like that. It was fun. As you walk in the backside of Bolsa Chica you're on top of a hill, and looking out over toward the sea, the plain was packed with a while mist, illumined from above by a barely rising sun. Hovering above the mist, looking down, was a silhouetted white-tailed kite searching for something with which to break his fast. That's a bird that's always a priviledge to see, but in this case it was a sublime vision. To our right, the sun began to lit up a field, and we turned at the sound of a dog barking to see a coyote yipping with its nose raised to the sky. I think we could tell from the start that it was worth the loss of an hour or two of sleep.
Basically we just walked everywhere that we could in the park and looked at the birds that were there. Because there are so many habitats in the park, we got to see a lot of birds. Seeing five species of raptors was an especial treat.
There are some flats in the park, next to a channel of water that runs inland, and most of the raptors we saw were sitting on the dead snags in the middle of those brackish fields. As a pair of kites fed on two snags, a kestrel cruised between some other ones, to be joined by a young Cooper's Hawk. The kestrel flew away annoyedly, while the Cooper's took up a serene post on his tree. He only sat there for a few moments, however, for in a moment he took flight away from us, cruising along the ground till suddenly he began flapping his wings, hovered, and dropped. A rabbit burst from the bushes in mad flight: zig-zagging from immediately below his talons. I'm not sure that the hawk could have eaten the rabbit, it was at least half the weight of the bird, if not more, and I can't see him carrying it off very successfully, but it was very exciting for us, and the rabbit, anyway. The hawk gave up after a short attempt at catching the rabbit, and sat himself on the ground nearby, looking at it. That was really cool.
Oh, another thing, don't go to Bolsa Chica on the third Saturday of the month: that's the day that they plant native plants. There was a huge group of people there, and they all walked in from the Warner parking lot at the same time we walked towards the Warner parking lot. Which doesn't work very well, to say the least.
Now for the list!
1. Eared Grebe
2. Pied billed grebe
3. Western grebe
4. American White Pelican
5. Brown pelican
6. Double Crested Cormorant
7. Black-crowned night-heron
8. Snowy egret
9. Great egret
10. Great Blue Heron
11. Mallard
12. American wigeon
13. Northern shoveler
14. Blue-winged teal
15. Greater Scaup
16. Ruddy Duck
17. Turkey vulture
18. Osprey
19. White-tailed kite
20. Cooper's hawk
21. Red-tailed hawk
22. American kestrel
23. American coot
24. Killdeer
25. Black necked stilt
26. Willet
27. Greater yellowlegs
28. Spotted sandpiper
29. Marbled godwit
30. Least sandpiper
31. California gull
32. Forster's tern
33. Black skimmer
34. Rock dove
35. Mourning dove
36. Anna's hummingbird
37. Belted kingfisher
38. Black pheobe
39. Say's pheobe
40. Blackpoll warbler (R)
41. American crow
42. Common raven
43. Bushtit
44. House wren
45. Swainson's thrush
46. European starling
47. Yellow-rumped warbler
48. Common yellowthroat
49. Green-tailed Towhee (very rare: accidental)
50. California Towhee
51. Savannah Sparrow (Belding's)
52. White-crowned Sparrow
53. Western meadowlark
54. House finch
Many thanks to Libby for actually putting it together. It's cool that we saw a kingfisher again, this time a female with its ruddy breast. The two new birds we saw were the blackpoll warbler (we had a devil of a time identifying this bird: its fall colors are light years different than its summer colors: it goes from black and grey to yellow and black) and a green-tailed towhee. The green-tailed towhee has been seen at Bolsa Chica before during this last summer, so I wasn't too surprised to identify it, but it was still really cool to see.
This last Saturday, Libby and I pretty much had our best birding day ever. We saw the most birds we'd ever seen in a day, and all in one place. Bolsa Chica proved its worth once and for all!
Now, if this post inspires you to go and see the wonders of Bolsa Chica, be warned! They've closed the boardwalk on the beach side of the preserve, so you can't walk out into the water and watch the birds play like you've been able to in the past. It looks like they're rebuilding it (which is good, I suppose), and it has no projected opening date. Which means that it will be probably forever before it opens again.
This was just a really cool trip to Bolsa Chica. We left very early in the morning (6:30 from Libby's apartment, arriving at the backside at 7:00 - we just drive straight down Valley View from Libby's Apartment) in order to beat the sunrise. The idea was that it would be very beautiful in the morning, and that we might see a coyote or a fox or something like that. It was fun. As you walk in the backside of Bolsa Chica you're on top of a hill, and looking out over toward the sea, the plain was packed with a while mist, illumined from above by a barely rising sun. Hovering above the mist, looking down, was a silhouetted white-tailed kite searching for something with which to break his fast. That's a bird that's always a priviledge to see, but in this case it was a sublime vision. To our right, the sun began to lit up a field, and we turned at the sound of a dog barking to see a coyote yipping with its nose raised to the sky. I think we could tell from the start that it was worth the loss of an hour or two of sleep.
Basically we just walked everywhere that we could in the park and looked at the birds that were there. Because there are so many habitats in the park, we got to see a lot of birds. Seeing five species of raptors was an especial treat.
There are some flats in the park, next to a channel of water that runs inland, and most of the raptors we saw were sitting on the dead snags in the middle of those brackish fields. As a pair of kites fed on two snags, a kestrel cruised between some other ones, to be joined by a young Cooper's Hawk. The kestrel flew away annoyedly, while the Cooper's took up a serene post on his tree. He only sat there for a few moments, however, for in a moment he took flight away from us, cruising along the ground till suddenly he began flapping his wings, hovered, and dropped. A rabbit burst from the bushes in mad flight: zig-zagging from immediately below his talons. I'm not sure that the hawk could have eaten the rabbit, it was at least half the weight of the bird, if not more, and I can't see him carrying it off very successfully, but it was very exciting for us, and the rabbit, anyway. The hawk gave up after a short attempt at catching the rabbit, and sat himself on the ground nearby, looking at it. That was really cool.
Oh, another thing, don't go to Bolsa Chica on the third Saturday of the month: that's the day that they plant native plants. There was a huge group of people there, and they all walked in from the Warner parking lot at the same time we walked towards the Warner parking lot. Which doesn't work very well, to say the least.
Now for the list!
1. Eared Grebe
2. Pied billed grebe
3. Western grebe
4. American White Pelican
5. Brown pelican
6. Double Crested Cormorant
7. Black-crowned night-heron
8. Snowy egret
9. Great egret
10. Great Blue Heron
11. Mallard
12. American wigeon
13. Northern shoveler
14. Blue-winged teal
15. Greater Scaup
16. Ruddy Duck
17. Turkey vulture
18. Osprey
19. White-tailed kite
20. Cooper's hawk
21. Red-tailed hawk
22. American kestrel
23. American coot
24. Killdeer
25. Black necked stilt
26. Willet
27. Greater yellowlegs
28. Spotted sandpiper
29. Marbled godwit
30. Least sandpiper
31. California gull
32. Forster's tern
33. Black skimmer
34. Rock dove
35. Mourning dove
36. Anna's hummingbird
37. Belted kingfisher
38. Black pheobe
39. Say's pheobe
40. Blackpoll warbler (R)
41. American crow
42. Common raven
43. Bushtit
44. House wren
45. Swainson's thrush
46. European starling
47. Yellow-rumped warbler
48. Common yellowthroat
49. Green-tailed Towhee (very rare: accidental)
50. California Towhee
51. Savannah Sparrow (Belding's)
52. White-crowned Sparrow
53. Western meadowlark
54. House finch
Many thanks to Libby for actually putting it together. It's cool that we saw a kingfisher again, this time a female with its ruddy breast. The two new birds we saw were the blackpoll warbler (we had a devil of a time identifying this bird: its fall colors are light years different than its summer colors: it goes from black and grey to yellow and black) and a green-tailed towhee. The green-tailed towhee has been seen at Bolsa Chica before during this last summer, so I wasn't too surprised to identify it, but it was still really cool to see.
Friday, October 14, 2005
A nostalgic blast from the past:
A Washington Post Article on The Best Comic Strip Ever
*sigh*
10 years this year since Calvin and Hobbes said farewell. We miss you, good friends.
Want to buy me something soooo super cool for Christmas?
A Washington Post Article on The Best Comic Strip Ever
*sigh*
10 years this year since Calvin and Hobbes said farewell. We miss you, good friends.
Want to buy me something soooo super cool for Christmas?
It's true! I'm not so high because I was honest and said that I couldn't fly. But that's good, I don't want to be all Peter Pan, just part Peter Pan. Donald Duck is a good second place. Goofy's rediculous. I am nothing like Goofy.
 | You scored as Peter Pan. Your alter ego is Peter Pan. You are a child at heart. Anything you believe is possible, and you never want to grow up.
Which Disney Character is your Alter Ego? created with QuizFarm.com |
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
I've been tagged by both Emily and Sarah to blog about 5 songs that I'm enjoying at the moment. Here goes:
1. Sugar Sugar by The Archies
I hear it every once in a while on the radio (and just heard it a couple of days ago, in fact), and it always makes me think of my dad. My earliest memories of my father are of him drying me off after giving me a bath. He would rub his hands rhythmically on the hooded part of the towel, (you know what I'm talking about--those cute little towels with the attached hood) while singing this song, to dry my hair. Hearing it always makes me smile and think about how much I love my dad!
2. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by J.S. Bach
On Sunday Jonathan and I met with the organist for our wedding, and got to listen to her play a lot of really cool music, this song included. We're going to use it for the bridesmaid processional.
3. Moon River sung by Audrey Hepburn (music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny Mercer)
Audrey Hepburn is just cool. And this is a song that Jonathan put onto a CD he made me for my birthday this year, so I've been listening to it a lot lately.
4. Wouldn't It Be Nice by The Beach Boys
Here's another song that Jonathan put on my CD. Whenever I hear it I think, "Yes. The answer is yes; it would be nice."
5. Kookaburra by Marion Sinclair
This is a fun children's song that I learned from my piano book when I took lessons as a kid. I recenlty was reminded of it after we saw that Belted Kingfisher last weekend, because a Kookaburra is another kind of Kingfisher.
And there you have it. :-)
1. Sugar Sugar by The Archies
I hear it every once in a while on the radio (and just heard it a couple of days ago, in fact), and it always makes me think of my dad. My earliest memories of my father are of him drying me off after giving me a bath. He would rub his hands rhythmically on the hooded part of the towel, (you know what I'm talking about--those cute little towels with the attached hood) while singing this song, to dry my hair. Hearing it always makes me smile and think about how much I love my dad!
2. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by J.S. Bach
On Sunday Jonathan and I met with the organist for our wedding, and got to listen to her play a lot of really cool music, this song included. We're going to use it for the bridesmaid processional.
3. Moon River sung by Audrey Hepburn (music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny Mercer)
Audrey Hepburn is just cool. And this is a song that Jonathan put onto a CD he made me for my birthday this year, so I've been listening to it a lot lately.
4. Wouldn't It Be Nice by The Beach Boys
Here's another song that Jonathan put on my CD. Whenever I hear it I think, "Yes. The answer is yes; it would be nice."
5. Kookaburra by Marion Sinclair
This is a fun children's song that I learned from my piano book when I took lessons as a kid. I recenlty was reminded of it after we saw that Belted Kingfisher last weekend, because a Kookaburra is another kind of Kingfisher.
And there you have it. :-)
Monday, October 10, 2005
Another Monday Birdwatching Post
Saturday was another day of birdwatching for Libby and me. This time we went to Carbon Canyon Regional Park for what turned out to be a short visit. But in the hour and a half that we birded, we saw 21 species, most of which were exciting. The bird of the day you can see above.
Carbon Canyon is your typical California chapparral and scrub regional park. It also advertises the largest Coastal Redwood grove in Southern California. We never made it to the grove, though. There were signs saying that the nature trail was washed out and closed. With a little more time, I think we may have made it. And in a little more time, we probably would have picked up a bunch more birds! This was a really fun trip because it was a return to the Southern California coastal hills inland kind of birds. Generally we've been visiting water-side locations lately. It's nice to see a spotted towhee again. With cooler weather coming, this kind of trip will be more feasible.
I guess it's about time to go back to Tucker!
There's a small lake in the park, but the best birding we found was on the edge of the park. There's a hill that slopes up from the creek that was full of fun birds. It also was full of the sounds of birds singing (mystery birds: we never actually saw them, though they were probably a kind of wren).
We saw:
1. red-tailed hawk (there was a pair of them hanging around the side of this hill, we even saw one land on a tree there)
2. cooper's hawk (as we walked through a little nature trail, it burst out of the top of some conifers directly overhead.
3. american kestrel
4. american coot
5. mallard
6. california gull
7. belted kingfisher (see the picture above: bird of the day)
8. yellow rumped warblers (a lot of these!)
9. western blue bird
10. american robin
11. western scrub jay
12. american crow
13. western wood peewee
14. black phoebe
15. california towhee
16. spotted towhee
17. downey woodpecker (we said to each other, it would be nice to see a woodpecker, we haven't seen one since we were in Mammoth. And so we walked a little way and there it was. And I said, "remember the hairy woodpecker we saw by the cabin?" And Libby did.)
18. black-chinned hummingbird
19. Anna's hummingbird
20. lesser goldfinch
21. rock pigeon
22. mourning dove
23. common raven
24. house finch
25. Bushtits
This trip was exciting just because we hadn't seen these birds for awhile, and it's nice to get reaquained to old favorites. Plus, you don't see a western wood pee wee or a black-chinned hummingbird every day. And we got such good close looks at the Cooper's and the Red-tailed hawks! We even got to hear the red-tails calling as they came swooping down to the hillside.
The bird of the day came while we were trying to get a look at some female Anna's in some flowering trees by the lake shore. I was thinking that there might be some roufous hummingbirds showing up soon as the migration season wears on, and as I was trying to get a closer look, I turned toward the lake in time to see a large bird with white patches under its wing swooping down from a tree near the near shore. As it dropped it let out a trilling noise, and I said, "Libby, a kingfisher!" And so we both got a really good look at it. It flew across the lake from us, and then over again to another side, so we got to watch it for awhile.
That's a first in Southern California for me! And a first for Libby at all!
Saturday was another day of birdwatching for Libby and me. This time we went to Carbon Canyon Regional Park for what turned out to be a short visit. But in the hour and a half that we birded, we saw 21 species, most of which were exciting. The bird of the day you can see above.
Carbon Canyon is your typical California chapparral and scrub regional park. It also advertises the largest Coastal Redwood grove in Southern California. We never made it to the grove, though. There were signs saying that the nature trail was washed out and closed. With a little more time, I think we may have made it. And in a little more time, we probably would have picked up a bunch more birds! This was a really fun trip because it was a return to the Southern California coastal hills inland kind of birds. Generally we've been visiting water-side locations lately. It's nice to see a spotted towhee again. With cooler weather coming, this kind of trip will be more feasible.
I guess it's about time to go back to Tucker!
There's a small lake in the park, but the best birding we found was on the edge of the park. There's a hill that slopes up from the creek that was full of fun birds. It also was full of the sounds of birds singing (mystery birds: we never actually saw them, though they were probably a kind of wren).
We saw:
1. red-tailed hawk (there was a pair of them hanging around the side of this hill, we even saw one land on a tree there)
2. cooper's hawk (as we walked through a little nature trail, it burst out of the top of some conifers directly overhead.
3. american kestrel
4. american coot
5. mallard
6. california gull
7. belted kingfisher (see the picture above: bird of the day)
8. yellow rumped warblers (a lot of these!)
9. western blue bird
10. american robin
11. western scrub jay
12. american crow
13. western wood peewee
14. black phoebe
15. california towhee
16. spotted towhee
17. downey woodpecker (we said to each other, it would be nice to see a woodpecker, we haven't seen one since we were in Mammoth. And so we walked a little way and there it was. And I said, "remember the hairy woodpecker we saw by the cabin?" And Libby did.)
18. black-chinned hummingbird
19. Anna's hummingbird
20. lesser goldfinch
21. rock pigeon
22. mourning dove
23. common raven
24. house finch
25. Bushtits
This trip was exciting just because we hadn't seen these birds for awhile, and it's nice to get reaquained to old favorites. Plus, you don't see a western wood pee wee or a black-chinned hummingbird every day. And we got such good close looks at the Cooper's and the Red-tailed hawks! We even got to hear the red-tails calling as they came swooping down to the hillside.
The bird of the day came while we were trying to get a look at some female Anna's in some flowering trees by the lake shore. I was thinking that there might be some roufous hummingbirds showing up soon as the migration season wears on, and as I was trying to get a closer look, I turned toward the lake in time to see a large bird with white patches under its wing swooping down from a tree near the near shore. As it dropped it let out a trilling noise, and I said, "Libby, a kingfisher!" And so we both got a really good look at it. It flew across the lake from us, and then over again to another side, so we got to watch it for awhile.
That's a first in Southern California for me! And a first for Libby at all!
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Oliver Twist
Libby and I saw Oliver Twist last night. It was fun. Cute kid, interesting story.
Watching movies made now that are adaptations of books written a hundred years ago or more, makes me want to read the book so that I can critique the director's intention.
The great achievement of this Dickens adaptation was that it was completely interesting, the whole way through. And that is why I have not read Oliver Twist (I think, I actually suspect I may have, but I don't remember). I may have this conceit in my mind regarding Dickens becuase the first novel of his I read was David Copperfield. That was soooo long, and it was sooooo slow. I finished it, though, and liked it in the end. That's how it often is with such slow novels.
Another attempt at this art (making slow Victorian novels palatable to modern fast-paced audiences) is Pride and Prejudice. Yet another version is coming out this fall (or Winter, I don't remember).
How low-brow of me to be bored by Austen and Dickens. Call me Mr. Neandrathal!
Libby and I saw Oliver Twist last night. It was fun. Cute kid, interesting story.
Watching movies made now that are adaptations of books written a hundred years ago or more, makes me want to read the book so that I can critique the director's intention.
The great achievement of this Dickens adaptation was that it was completely interesting, the whole way through. And that is why I have not read Oliver Twist (I think, I actually suspect I may have, but I don't remember). I may have this conceit in my mind regarding Dickens becuase the first novel of his I read was David Copperfield. That was soooo long, and it was sooooo slow. I finished it, though, and liked it in the end. That's how it often is with such slow novels.
Another attempt at this art (making slow Victorian novels palatable to modern fast-paced audiences) is Pride and Prejudice. Yet another version is coming out this fall (or Winter, I don't remember).
How low-brow of me to be bored by Austen and Dickens. Call me Mr. Neandrathal!
Monday, October 03, 2005
Birdwatching in L.A.
This Saturday, Libby's roommate Bethany and her fiance Wade, Libby and I went birdwatching together at Ken Malloy Harbor City Regional Park.
The idea of going there stemmed from two facts:
1) Chantry Flats is inaccessible
2) I saw a website about how it had such good birding on the internet.
I had no idea that this very park was the park where Reggie the Alligator made his murky abode. Nevertheless, such was the case. We stepped into a scene from Jaws itself! Surrounding the water was an orange fence. Caution tape circled the lake at a further distance. Ominous signs warned us of the imminent danger of going too near the water.
After all, Reggie is seven feet long. He could eat you!
Soon after we arrived, we were standing by the shore of the lake, looking through our binoculars at birds, when a truck pulled up behind us. A man in a tank top jumped out and walked over to us. "Do you see him?" he drawled. Apparently this man was an expert alligator hunter from the Southern half of our country. After a moment's confusion (at the time, birds were more on our mind than reptiles), I responded that no, we hadn't. I asked him if he'd seen him, and he assured us that he had for the last two evenings seen him. As for his plans for the great lizard,
"I have something special planned for him."
I wish I had asked what that was!
Perhaps it was the ladder that they roped into a pontoon-style boat. And by roped in, I mean that they had it standing up, with ropes going from the railings of the boats to the legs, so that it wouldn't tip over. The park rangers drove this boat around the lake, and this fellow (whom Libby affectionately styled her friend) sat on the top of it, gazing down into the waters around the edge of the lake. I don't think they saw him, unfortunately.
The day was, on the whole, a very slow day for birding. We saw a lot of birds that we see a lot of all the time, anyway. Soon the consuming idea was to see Reggie. Reggie is way cooler than a bird. Mostly because he eats people. Unfortunately, we never did. All the same we had an interesting time, and near the very end of the trip we did see some neat birds, including one or two listers. (domestic muscovy duck and a flock of chipping sparrows).
The bird list:
1. rock doves
2. great tailed grackles
3. ruddy ducks
4. brewers blackbirds
5. red-winged blackbirds
6. canada goose
7. domestic duck
8. greylag goose
9. domestic goose with the hump on its nose (what's the name, again?)
10. muscovy duck
11. black crowned night heron (several immatures)
12. great egret
13. snowy egret
14. great blue heron
15. green heron
16. american coot
17. mallard
18. black pheobe
19. cassin's kingbird
20. american crow
21. red-tailed hawk
22. kestrel
23. california towhee
24. say's pheobe (woo-hoo for seeing our engagement bird: a first in so. cal for me!)
25. pied billed grebe
26. white-crowned sparrow
27. western meadowlark
28. bushtit
29. chipping sparrow
30. california gull
31. Lesser goldfinch
32. Mourning dove
I thought maybe we saw a Bonaparte gull, but it was too high to get a good read on it. Shucks!
This Saturday, Libby's roommate Bethany and her fiance Wade, Libby and I went birdwatching together at Ken Malloy Harbor City Regional Park.
The idea of going there stemmed from two facts:
1) Chantry Flats is inaccessible
2) I saw a website about how it had such good birding on the internet.
I had no idea that this very park was the park where Reggie the Alligator made his murky abode. Nevertheless, such was the case. We stepped into a scene from Jaws itself! Surrounding the water was an orange fence. Caution tape circled the lake at a further distance. Ominous signs warned us of the imminent danger of going too near the water.
After all, Reggie is seven feet long. He could eat you!
Soon after we arrived, we were standing by the shore of the lake, looking through our binoculars at birds, when a truck pulled up behind us. A man in a tank top jumped out and walked over to us. "Do you see him?" he drawled. Apparently this man was an expert alligator hunter from the Southern half of our country. After a moment's confusion (at the time, birds were more on our mind than reptiles), I responded that no, we hadn't. I asked him if he'd seen him, and he assured us that he had for the last two evenings seen him. As for his plans for the great lizard,
"I have something special planned for him."
I wish I had asked what that was!
Perhaps it was the ladder that they roped into a pontoon-style boat. And by roped in, I mean that they had it standing up, with ropes going from the railings of the boats to the legs, so that it wouldn't tip over. The park rangers drove this boat around the lake, and this fellow (whom Libby affectionately styled her friend) sat on the top of it, gazing down into the waters around the edge of the lake. I don't think they saw him, unfortunately.
The day was, on the whole, a very slow day for birding. We saw a lot of birds that we see a lot of all the time, anyway. Soon the consuming idea was to see Reggie. Reggie is way cooler than a bird. Mostly because he eats people. Unfortunately, we never did. All the same we had an interesting time, and near the very end of the trip we did see some neat birds, including one or two listers. (domestic muscovy duck and a flock of chipping sparrows).
The bird list:
1. rock doves
2. great tailed grackles
3. ruddy ducks
4. brewers blackbirds
5. red-winged blackbirds
6. canada goose
7. domestic duck
8. greylag goose
9. domestic goose with the hump on its nose (what's the name, again?)
10. muscovy duck
11. black crowned night heron (several immatures)
12. great egret
13. snowy egret
14. great blue heron
15. green heron
16. american coot
17. mallard
18. black pheobe
19. cassin's kingbird
20. american crow
21. red-tailed hawk
22. kestrel
23. california towhee
24. say's pheobe (woo-hoo for seeing our engagement bird: a first in so. cal for me!)
25. pied billed grebe
26. white-crowned sparrow
27. western meadowlark
28. bushtit
29. chipping sparrow
30. california gull
31. Lesser goldfinch
32. Mourning dove
I thought maybe we saw a Bonaparte gull, but it was too high to get a good read on it. Shucks!
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