For anyone who hasn't seen any of these diaries, these photos are my dad's. I can't take responsibility for them. My dad travels to India quite frequently, and he always makes some time for birding. He sees some incredible birds there.

Like the Asian Koel:

More to see if you'll follow me over the jump...

You can say that this story starts with a single photo:

I took the photo above in February of 2007.  There's a hawk which frequents our neighborhood that I'd assumed for ages to be a red-tailed hawk.  But that photo doesn't really look like a red-tailed hawk.  It looks like a red-shouldered hawk.  

But look at the hawk's tail.  That tail is red, a marker not generally found on the red-shouldered hawk. And notice the wings: on red-tailed hawks, there is always a dark line stretching from the neck across the front of the wing.

In short, nothing about this bird makes sense: not red-tailed; not red-shouldered.

Is it because the birds are hanging out in places they are unaccustomed to?  Or is it some new twist on kicking the dog after a bad day at work?  From the BBC:

[P]olice in Devon arrested a 21-year-old man who had been luring gulls by throwing bread, before attempting to shoot them with a BB gun.  The RSPB [Royal Society for the Protection of Birds] said there have also been reports of gulls being kicked or beaten to death.  Garden birds like pied wagtails, blackbirds and blue tits have also been hit.

"The statistics and details that have come to light through this report are shocking and disgusting," Ms Atherton added.

Perhaps it's both?

Last week's pictures were, to be blunt, not the best ones. I'm saving the best ones for last.

I'm not quite sure what this one is... <you could have your name here if you help me identify this. I think it's some sort of oriole>

Follow over the jump for more...

I have recently returned from a journey, more than a vacation, where I paid homage to personal and public shrines that I would describe as liberal. It had been many years since I’d seen them, since I set foot upon Oregon's shores. My prints were once common there, having studied, lived and loved there for nearly twenty years. I went to revisit my old trails, to see family and old friends and perhaps to seek new paths to travel with my eye on the idea of survival for the future.

There is water there.

There are liberals there. There are people who know how to grow food, to build and sustain community, to care for the land, to work with their hands. There are artists, poets and musicians there. There is public land; parks, beaches, wilderness areas, forests and preserves. I paid homage to as many of these as possible within the limited time I had.

Yet, underneath all these hopeful characteristics, behind the edges of forested corridors, in the back rooms of many Coastal businesses, the signs of decay and dilapidation are undeniable. Communities are suffering. Oregon has taken an especially hard beating during these years of Bush depravity.

More below with pics

One of the main reasons that I really enjoy politics is that I love philosophy. Some people love nothing more then the idea of sitting around discussing philosophical tenets, while others would find watching paint dry or getting their fingernails pulled out as a more welcome option then a discussion of philosophy.

This diary, I hope, is for those people in the first camp. In a prior diary a few days (weeks maybe?) back a discussion came up and this is a continuation of that topic.

<More after the break.>

Last time I mentioned that my dad travels a lot. He frequently flies to India on business. Of course, time is always set aside for birding.

He also brings back tons of pictures. Enough to last me quite a while.

Eurasian Spoonbill

::  More below the fold  ::

Did you ever hear the story of the frog and the scorpion?

Once again, I've decided that I've done enough political writing that I'd rather photoblog tonight.  I'm still recovering from this annoying virus, but a little better than I was on Monday.

I won't go through the whole introduction I did on Monday; this time I'll just say "hope you enjoy the photos."   As usual, clicking on the photos leads you to larger ones with more detail.  Feel free to use this as an open thread, share your own photos, etc.  

I'll start with a couple mystery bugs from our garden from today:

More photos after the fold.

Sorry for posting this later than usual. I just got back from seeing "The Dark Knight" (It was awesome). The past few weeks have been very busy for me, so I've had very little time for diarying. (I have, however, had lots of time to comment.)

The subject of today's diary, the Black-Crowned Night Heron, is found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica.

Black-Crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)

Its range in the U.S. and Canada

Just because I loved typing the words "Marauding bear pack".

Not really a diary as much as a mid week break.  This is a tradition I share with a few friends via emails and we have fun with it - helps relieve the work stress, family stress, and just day-to-day grind. Let's see how it works here.

First, I would like to apologise to  anyone who was offended for my participation in yesterday's Obama diary flash-mob.

I was asked week before last to do a guide on Austin birding for Netroots Nation. Since most of my birding is done in my back garden, this one won't be as personal as some of the others.

A lot of work went into last week's diary, and it only got 15 comments. I guess I posted it in the middle of the whole purity troll outbreak.

I'll have another story next week. In the meanwhile, I have some pictures that don't really have stories behind them, but are still too good not to post.

Like this one, a painted bunting that visits every summer to eat at the millet feeder.

More pics below the fold  ::  ::

Welcome, Kossacks, to this week's installment of The Left Wing. After a week of trolls and troll diaries (and I guess I would consider myself a "Troll Hunter" so I was pretty busy) I need a good bird diary.

As promised last week, this one is about wood ducks.

I'm feeling a little better about my writing style, so this one will contain some attempts at humour. Many of those attempts will probably fail. Just ignore those ones.

More below the fold ::  ::

I'm writing an introduction to this poem that is indeed the body of what I've been arguing in prose for over three years by now, once upon a time with some frequency in Daily Kos.  Over one hundred million possible voters are still sitting on the sidelines, tired and bored by phony "conservatives" who don't conserve anything at all, and annoyed by phony "progressives" whose 'progress, growth, development' will send spend us deeper into the ecocatastrophe if not stopped and reversed.
The only thing phonier than today's war and waste "conservatives" and wipe-out-the-creation "progressives" is this total myth called "the center" that both candidates are supposed to be seeking.  

Time for a break.  Time to walk away from the newspapers, the TV and the computer.  Time to take a breath of fresh air, let the sun warm your face or take a walk in the rain (depending on where you are right now).  Take some time to listen to the birds songs, watch the bugs and butterflies.  Just sit back, relax, look at the wildflowers in bloom and watch a vegetable garden grow if you can.

It's the first day of summer, and it's a special time, a day, a moment to go outside and just enjoy and celebrate all of the natural wonders that surround us (yes, even in the middle of a city and sometimes in places where you least expect)!

Are you willing to go outside and take a First Day of Summer walk with me?
Look for the Eastern Bluebird after the break ;)

V2: Hey, I saw people were going to the Geraldo of Homosexuality the "Homosexuality getting married is icky" topic, so I thought I needed to bring people back...so a poll!"

WHO should I marry? You pick! See below!

I thought this might be of interest for discussion.

For those that want to track down the full article:

'Genetic and Environmental Effects on Same-sex Sexual Behaviour: A Population Study of Twins in Sweden', Niklas Långström, Qazi Rahman, Eva Carlström, Paul Lichtenstein, Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 7 June 2008, doi 10.1007/s10508-008-9386-1.

This was in summary a study on twins, (7600 pairs of Swedish male and female twins, in 05-06). Of the total, 7 percent have had a same-sex partner.

I do not, sorry to say, have access to the whole article, just to a summary report. If someone can get the whole article to share that would beyond fantastic.

<more after the break>