Which way, Mom

I was blessed to be with my mom Monday. She died peacefully at age 92 shortly after sunrise. I can't imagine how much I will miss her.

The next morning, I was thinking of going for a sunrise walk on the beach, but decided to go to a place where I see lots of wildlife. One thing I've never seen at the wetlands is deer. That morning, I was blessed with a doe and her fawn walking in the new light. As I turned, a Great Blue Heron flew to her nest to feed her chicks which were nearly her size. Some images below.

Last night my wife, daughter and I decided to walk the beach under the full moon. As we were getting ready to leave we saw a turtle emerging from the surf a couple hundred feet away to go up the dunes to lay her eggs. As we watched her, another came up out of the waves about half the distance closer. We turned around, and another was coming up a couple hundred feet behind us. As we were watching those, silently from up the dune line another came down from her nest and walked a few feet behind us, returning to the ocean. That experience lives in our memories, and not in any pictures.

Walking with mom

Feeding the children

Hoh, Hoh, the headless photographer

On June 29, 1938, Congress created Olympic National Park in Washington. One of the major wonders of the park is the temperate rain forests between the Pacific and the Olympic Mountains. I was hiking in the Hoh rain forest early one April, and no one else was on the trail as I walked deep into the forest.

Hoh Rain Forest

I heard a woodpecker and stepped off the trail to follow the sound. One of my favorite birds, the Pileated Woodpecker was building a nest in a trunk.

Pileated Woodpecker

I then heard someone coming down the trail. As I looked, a man and a young girl were coming up the trail. The man was carrying a tripod--a kindred spirit. Then I noticed there was head on the top of the tripod--a human head.

The nearest town of any size is Forks, WA, and as fans of the Twilight series know, the area around Forks is inhabited by vampires and werewolves. And I had thought that was a work of fiction. I wasn't so sure now.

As the man got closer, I could see the head on the tripod was of a mannequin. I felt a little bit better. Just a little. The man said he and his daughter were out for walk, and the tripod head was holding stereo sound recording equipment. Gordon Hempton was an Emmy winning sound recordist and I've since purchased many of his remarkable recordings of the sounds of nature. He collects sound. He said just up the trail was a place he calls One Square Inch of Silence, which may be the place most free of human noise in the U.S. His book of the title of that place is part of his activism as an acoustic ecologist to help preserve the natural soundscape in National Parks. Here's an interview of him by Krista Tippett: https://onbeing.org/programs/gordon-hempton-silence-and-the-presence-of-everything/

In the interview, about 12 minutes in, he includes a recording of the remarkable sound of a winter wren. Here's an image of one of those little fellows I saw -- and listened to -- on my hike that day.

Winter Wren, Hoh Rain Forest, Olympic National Park, WA

100, 101, 102

I travel Illinois for work, and occasionally practice in different courthouses. Sometimes, I would take a picture of an interesting, historic courthouse. About six years ago, I began a personal project to get images of courthouses from all 102 counties. I'd usually only add one or two counties on my way to or from a meeting. I was stuck at 98 counties for quite a while. A trip to visit friends in Galena last month helped me knock off the two counties in the extreme northwest part of the state. Last week I checked off number 100: Henry County courthouse in Cambridge.

And then 101: Mercer County courthouse in Aledo.

And finally Wednesday, number 102: White County courthouse in Carmi:

I got a fitting historical bonus in Carmi to conclude the project. Down the block from the courthouse is the Robinson-Stewart House, one of the oldest in the state. Originally, a log house built in 1814 (with some of the logs showing on the side), it served as the county court until 1828. It was later owned by John Robinson, who was a state Supreme Court justice.

Citizen Action

This is an image of Pectol's Pyramid on the Hickman Bridge trail in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. Teacher and businessman Ephraim Pectol and Wayne County High School principal Joseph Hickman organized community members to protect the local natural features they called Wayne Wonderland. They raised money to hire a photographer to capture the wonders. Pectol showed the images to President Roosevelt who issued an executive order to create Capitol Reef National Monument in 1937. In 1971 Congress designated it a National Park.

For the first time since the Antiquities Act was passed in 1906, a president is now seeking to eliminate protections to our heritage that his predecessors ordered. Comments and petitions need to be submitted before July 10, 2017.

Pectrol's Pyramid from Hickman Natural Bridge trail, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah