Earlier this week I spent a few days in Montana. Two highlights: locating #600 on my ABA life list, Baird’s Sparrow at the Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge just east of Malta; and taking the auto loop route on the western side of the Charles Russell National Wildlife Refuge and BEING THE ONLY PERSON THERE FOR THE ENTIRE THREE HOURS! We’re talking over a 100 square miles of some of most beautiful vistas in the country. Much to be said about visiting places on weekdays, and to protected spaces off the beaten path. Montana is very birdy in a lot of places, particularly in the northeastern plains; I now know where the sparrows, larks and buntings go to breed! And there’s a lot of waterfowl and shorebirds.
Governor Mark Sanford’s acknowledged infidelity is sad, particularly when you read the statement that came out today from his wife.
But that aside, as sad as it is, the hypocrisy of so many high level Republicans unable to maintain a monogamous relationship after their holier-than-thou pronouncements of indignation during the Clinton/Monica Lewinsky episode is just mind boggling.
Hey Republicans, remember how all you guys were so aghast at Bill’s indiscretions? You guys just wouldn’t stop. Remember the old saying about throwing stones from glass houses?
Look, Democrats cheat. Republicans cheat. But Republicans are forever shamelessly trying to take ownership of the high road of the ‘sanctity of marriage’ and proudly seeking membership in groups like the Promise Keepers (Senator John Ensign).
Here’s a truth: the more self-righteous a person is on the topic of sexual mores, the greater the probability that they are screwing around, either in a Minneapolis restroom or with a gay call guy in Denver (Reverend Ted Haggerty).
Weeks ago I decided to hold back on so many postings on politics. 7/9 update: With Palin’s latest announcement, who knows if she is in or out of the 2012 presidential race.
Many decades ago, a homestead was established a few miles east of Melrose, New Mexico (about a 3 hour drive southeast of Albuquerque). The owners planted trees, like cottonwoods, not indigenous to the desert grasslands of this part of the country, and over the years, they grew and created this incredible bird migrant trap:
I flew to Albuquerque yesterday to visit the trap in the hopes of seeing a rare Fan-tailed Warbler, that had been seen the previous two days. No one had seen the bird early in the morning of my flight, so I knew that the bird probably moved on. But I was heading to New Mexico and the Sandia Mountains, to track down a Flammulated Owl. But that happened later in the day (actually located over 15 in the campground areas heading up to Sandia Crest; #598 on my ABA Area Lifelist). Back to the migrant trap. When I got there, a couple guys had been birding the area pretty hard the previous several hours and there had been no sightings throughout the day. A disappointment, but I proceeded to bird the area and was really blown away by all the rarities that were there: a female Hooded Warbler, a first year male American Redstart, Blue Grosbeak, really cool. This is a very cool birding spot. The birds get lost in the middle of the desert, and then they spot this oasis and spend time there recharging for the next leg of their migratory journey. Oh, and one more observation yesterday: in the interior of these woods, a golden-colored rattlesnake:
Viewership on Meet The Press is down 25% since David Gregory has taken over, with the competition picking up the slack. Here is the problem: Tim Russert was a master of appearing to be in the middle. 99% of the time I was comfortable with his tone and ‘body english’ in his line of questioning, both in terms of the questions asked and HOW they were asked.
I am constantly wincing with Gregory. He has a clear, albeit slight, conservative slant. Even worse, the manner and style in which he tries to stir things up is irritating.
Crescent-chested Warbler - YES! Only the 10th record in the United States, I located the bird this morning at the Pinery Campground in the Chiricahua Mountains near Portal, in southeastern Arizona. Fortunately, about 15 people who were all there looking for the bird were able to get good looks. This bird was originally found a few days ago.
ABA #597, three to go.
People who put their photos on the Internet can get very touchy about using their photo for a blog(even with a full credit), so if you’re interested in seeing what the bird looks like, here is a link to some great shots taken of the bird we saw:
During spring migration, warblers and other passerines huddle up on the shores of Lake Erie in northwestern Ohio in large numbers, prior to them flying over the lake. I have always wanted to visit Crane Creek/Magee Marsh, and we finally did the past couple of days. Total of 22 species of warblers, 21 in one day. The weather was nice, and the birding was a lot of fun. And, boy, can you get close to the birds walking the boardwalk through the swamp and woods (here are some examples using my Flip Mino):
OK, so there is one little thing I didn’t like about Crane Creek: the place is jam-packed with people (albeit nice):
Not often you get this close to a bird that just became a lifer. We’ve been in Florida for the last five days, starting in Key West. On Wednesday took the boat to Ft. Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas and added three to my lifelist during the trip. Today in Palm Beach area added Florida Scrub Jay and later, at dusk, Limpkin (with young).
See that little speck of an airplane in this photo? Well, it’s actually Air Force One, and it is carrying George Bush after Barack’s Inauguration, heading back to Texas. Brent took it from the 14th St. Bridge as we were walking back to Virginia after the festivities. Tomorrow, when I reflect on these remarkable past 100 days, this pic, taken 100 days ago, sort of sums it all up for me: bye, bye Bush.
Throughout my previous 25 year career in retailing, I have experienced the constant change within the retail industry with the rise and stall and fall of new concepts, all part of the Darwinian process that has included mergers, consolidations and bankruptcies. Survival of the fittest.
Whenever I’m traveling, I am forever a student of retail. I can’t help myself but view a retail scene and specific stores and concepts with a critical eye. I am trying to dial that down a bit, but admittedly, it’s not been that easy for me! So when we were in LA this past week, and walked the higher end retail areas of Rodeo Drive, Robertson and Melrose, I was jarred by all the closings and boarded up stores. I lived in Los Angeles from 1988-1991, and I visit there with some regularity and I have never seen anything like this.
We all read about the bankruptcies and liquidations of retailers like Circuit City, Mervyn’s, Linens-N-Things, The Sharper Image and Fortunoff. But to really see how the global economic crisis is impacting the ‘high end’ customer is pretty startling. I just read that real estate prices in The Hamptons are down about 25% for the same kind of property from a year ago; certainly some areas were Bernie Madoffed big-time. But it’s much, much more than that.
The main point I’m trying to make here is that this pullback is MAJOR and has hit almost everyone, and that it will take a long, long time for these vacant places to be filled with retailers again. It is much worse than anything I have seen in over 25 years.
This past week’s election in South Africa has prompted me to make this post.
The first night we arrived in Cape Town this past February, our friend Judy Mayotte had organized a dinner at a local restaurant with about 25 of her friends to celebrate Barack’s election. We brought along assorted campaign items – buttons, pins, decals, etc. – for everyone that attended. I filmed some video of people speaking in very touching terms as to how Barack’s election brought new hope about their feelings about America and it’s place in the world, but I am hesitant to post without getting their permission. But here is a quick clip of the dinner taking place:
In addition to celebrating the election of a new President in the United States, there was also much discussion about the upcoming elections in South Africa. At the time, the person who ended up winning this past week, A.N.C.’s Jacob Zuma, was embroiled in a criminal corruption case that was dropped only three weeks before the election. At the dinner, we spoke to a guy who had recently switched allegiance from A.N.C. to COPE, a new party that was running on an anti-corruption, smarter government platform.
The A.N.C., which has been the dominant party since Nelson Mandela launched it in a nation that is 80% black, won with 66% of the vote. COPE received only 7% of the vote, and the Democratic Alliance (which received almost all of the white and mixed race, or ‘colored’ as it is called in South Africa, votes - mostly from the province that includes Cape Town) received 17%, an improvement from 12% it received in 2004.
Bottom-line, unlike the huge change that took place in the United States with the election of Barack Obama, South Africans, as far as I can tell, voted to essentially maintain the status quo with respect to national leadership.
Of all the things we did last week in LA, the most fun for me was spending a couple of hours on the set of HBO’s “Entourage.” We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the cast or of the ‘set’, which happened to be at a home in the Hollywood hills (all I’ll divulge is that this wasn’t the first time they have filmed there). I want to honor the 'confidentiality’ of what we saw and heard, with the exception of two pictures above - click twice to make pics larger. The first is taken from Vince’s rental house of the Hollywood skyline (interestingly, the home that is used as Ari’s house is actually the one on the left - next door neighbors, but only in the real production world). The other house that is on the other side up the hill: not sure what to say, except that our hunch is that it’s a certain character’s girlfriend’s, so we took a pic of it.
Anyway, what really struck me about the experience:
1. There are a lot of people on site associated with the production, most of them union members that comprise “the crew.” Everyone is on a mission to get things done; the unions don’t work weekends and they have pretty strict rules about overtime, etc., so there is a genuine sense of urgency to get things done, and done right. And then move on to the next scene. Time is clearly money.
2. I have this heard this before, but the time in between scenes and sometimes between takes is substantial. While the crew is working a pretty steady clip, there is A LOT of down time for the actors and their own respective entourages. Stop and go. Although, now, most of the actors are constantly text-messaging on their Blackberries in between takes.
3. What am about to say is not specific to what we saw on the set, but the whole 'personal assistant’ thing in LA has been taken to a new art form.
4. The food at “base camp” that we had for lunch was pretty darn good. And the Sprinkles cupcake truck set up outside where they were filming was terrific!
Last night after Dancing with the Stars we went to the premiere of “The Soloist” at Paramount Studios. You get a real appreciation of how crazy the paparazzi are with celebrities like Halle Berry (who is not in the movie), even when they’re on the red carpet:
Picture on Huffington Post today (who is the guy in the background?):
I bought the Flip Mino HD a few months back before we went to the Inauguration and Africa, and I am just getting around to posting my first video. This one was when we were on ATV’s riding on the dunes of Namibia:
Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com has completed an incredibly thorough, city by city estimate of attendees at all of the FoxNews and Freedom Watch promoted Tea Bag Parties. 311,000 people. In a country with over 300,000,000 people. After all that hype. That’s the best Fox can do?
What part of "Everyone making over $250,000, representing over 95% of taxpayers, will be getting a tax cut" do these people not understand?
As Jon Stewart said this past week, “they are confusing tyranny with losing.”
