The House & other Arctic musings

Let's see, where was I?

A lot has happened in the social mediascape since last I updated this blog. I mean it has almost been 11 years and things move fast these days.  But it seems like a good time to revive it.  For me. I'm not sure there'll be an audience anymore, but I also didn't think there'd be an audience when I started back in, wow, May 2005.  

But one of the things that made this enjoyable, besides the community that grew up around it, was writing. It was through this platform that I grew to think of myself as a writer. Apart from poetry, I don't do much of that anymore.  

So, welcome, if you happen to find this.  Let's see where this renewed journey takes us. 

Playing in the dark

I know I've been a bad blogger.  My muse is on vacation.  But, I do have a new post up on 10,000 Birds.  Dark deeds, indeed.

Opening the flood gates

I've got a new post up on 10,000 Birds, And so it begins.  My new schedule there is the last Sunday of each month. So go visit and show me some love.

Migration is underway up here and although I speak of it as a large influx, it is nothing compared to the fall out that happened recently on New Brunswick's Machias Seal Island.  Go here to see the amazing photos (scroll through them) and this is the brief account from the photographer, lighthouse keeper Ralph Eldridge.

Message from the lighthouse keeper:

Wed, 25 May 2011 06:31:45 -0300

From: Ralph Eldridge

Subject: MACHIAS SEAL ISLAND REPORT

 

The wind drop and shift overnight seems to have encouraged heavy migrant movement. The movement through here was easily the largest this year and one of the largest that I've ever seen. The fog and rain showers prompted lots of fall-outs. There was a good mix of species including shorebirds and Gr. Blue Herons.

Thrushes and Catbirds were noted but the mass was warblers. At one point, while on the light taking a few photos, I counted 15 warblers perched on me comprising 11 species. They feel odd when they cling to your beard or cozy down to sleep in your hair.

A Blackburnian Warbler and Yellow Warbler squabbled for several minutes to see which would perch on my right index finger, both oblivious to the finger's movements as I took photos and made camera adjustments. Evenyually, both the warblers lost the apparent prime perch to a male Common Yellowthroat. That fellow kept his position for nearly a half hour, interrupted only briefly when I had to reach into my pocket a couple times.

Six years

If not for a comment from a reader I'd have missed my blogoversary Saturday. That is kind of indicative of the drop in attention I've been paying to it of late.

Six years I've been at this game. For someone with my attention plan that's an incredibly long time.  I'm proud of this little space and over the last six years it has waxed and waned, evolved and grown. When I first posted, inspired by the wonderful nuthatch, I really thought it would be something I'd try out and likely let it fade. And although my postings have dropped off, the shine has not come off this thing for me. It is still an exercise that I very much love. I just don't feel the pressure if I don't post every day.  Blame it on feeds and my own irrepressible procrastination.

Traditionally, on my blogoversary I post links to a selection of posts from each of the past 12 months. Not one to forgo tradition, I give you a sampling of the year, not the best of each month just pieces to give you a flavour of the blog.

June 2010 - And now you die - A reflection on the anniversary of my namesake's death in Normandy

July 2010 - Summer's Ebb - A drive on the brink of Fall, complete with cute baby bird photo.

August 2010 - Tank Commander - One of those slices of living in the High Arctic - water tank cleaning.

September 2010 - Umiarjuannguaq - Polar Bear photos, need I say more?

October 2010 - Brought Down - The rescue and release of a Gyrfalcon.

November 2010 - More than a pittance - Some thoughts on Remembrance Day, one of a couple related to that important day.

December 2010 - Taking a stand and raising awareness - It can't always be sweetness and light, a rant on slacktivism and Facebook memes that was the most commented on piece of last year.

January 2011 - Trails of light - The annual New Years snowmobile parade.

February 2011 - The Sun, now with even more lens flare - The return of the sun to Arctic Bay, in a month that apparently marked the beginning of the slow down in posting.

March 2011 - Tsunamis and albatross - A post on the tsunami and albatross, as if that needed explanation.

April 2011 - Not the Arctic landscape you think you know - A trip to Cowboy Canyon.  But there were other posts this month that I could have shared, including a short eulogy to my friend Indigo.

May 2011 - Predatory songbirds - Just what it says.

Thanks for visiting, it never ceases to amaze me that you all stop in a read what I have to say. I appreciate it more than you can know.

 

Panegyric

There are few things that helped establish me as a blogger as much as I and the Bird. Way back in the Dark Ages of blogging when I started out, well the Renaissance is probably a better analogy, I discovered carnivals. I believe that the first one I sent a post to was the Tangled Bank, a Natural Science carnival. I contributed a couple of posts to them, but I never felt like I belonged there. Then I discovered that there was going to be a carnival about birds, a new one called I and the Bird and I thought I'd give it a shot.

Now a carnival, for those of you unfamiliar, is a venue for people to re post something they've written. They come out a regular schedule, the host rotating amongst those that contribute. Posts are collected and combined, usually with a theme. They were a great way of driving traffic to your blog.

I'm not sure how I heard about I and the Bird, I had only been blogging for a couple of months back in July of 2005. I was still poking around, enjoying the experience, happy with my 13 or so hits a day. When I and the Bird #1 came out, I was there. Suddenly I had a couple of hundred people come visit, and a bunch stayed. Some of those have come back almost every day since, unbelievably reading every bit of drivel I have spewed out along the way.

When I look back at that first issue, I see familiar friends, people who I have come to know, albeit only through the internet, but people who I count among my friends. My blog mom, Nuthatch was there.  Her blog bootstrap analysis is still going, not often enough, but it still exists.

The Dharma Bums were there for the first I and the Bird. Of course that was so far back that they were known as the Dread Pirate Roberts and Rexroth's Daughter, before they became Roger and Robin. More friends. Dave, my fast Alaskan friend, he of Bird TLC and Around Anchorage. John, from the other US shore the Atlantic, the Jersey Shore. His A DC Birding Blog also still going strong. And Duncan, of Ben Cruachan, all the way on the other end of the earth in Australia. Not quite where I'd end up if I dug a hole straight through the earth, but damn close enough.

Most of the contributing blogs from that first edition still exist. Some have fallen by the wayside, but surprisingly not many. Three of us, myself, John and Duncan contributed to the latest edition, #149.  Well, four if you count 10,000 Birds, but we'll get to them in a moment. Duncan, I believe, has had a post in every single edition. 149 posts is more than many blogs produce in total, his loyalty to I and the Bird is quite simply astounding.

I continued to find more great blogs and great people throughout the years of I and the Bird. People like Seabrooke of The Marvelous in Nature, David Ringer of Search and Serendipity, Carel of Rigor Vitae, Liza, and Susannah of Wanderin' Weeta, and many more. And of course Mike, Corey of 10,000 Birds and Charlie, formally of 10,000 Birds and Charlies Bird Blog. I and the Bird made the world closer, and birding and birders more accessible to me. Through it I got to rub shoulders with some great people I otherwise wouldn't have. At times I feel like a guy invited to a party he doesn't really belong in. It is a world I'm welcomed in, in a large part because of I and the Bird.

Hosting I and the Bird was a most satisfying experience, not easy, stressful, but very rewarding. The hard part is coming up with a new way of presenting the various and varied posts. Something cohesive and unique, and above all interesting. It is a bar that got set very high. I hosted twice, IATB #11 and IATB # 71. I think I acquitted myself well, or at least didn't embarrass myself.

Hosting drove an incredible amount of traffic my way.  When I hosted #11 and was kicking around 100 or so hits a day, to suddenly see 1000 a day was startling. And while most visited and left, many stuck around, adding to my circle of virtual friends.

But now its over, I and the Bird #149 is the last one. The changing face of the internet and social media makes carnivals a model that no longer works well. It had a good run, a damned good run. It lasted just short of 6 years, coming out every two weeks. It outlasted every other decent carnival out there, by far. A damned fine run indeed.

And that is a testament to the energy and vision of its creator, Mike of 10,000 Birds. IATB is, or rather was, his baby, his creation. It is something he should be very proud of, I'm sure he is. Its time had come perhaps, but while it was here it was a magnificent thing, and he should be puffing his chest out with pride. And we should all be stopping by and thanking him for his accomplishment, it made the blogging world a better place.

So stop by and read his eulogy for I and the Bird and tell him you appreciate what he did.  Visit Twin Cities Naturalist's latest edition, the last #149.  Stop by the I and the Bird page where all the past editions are linked to (all except for #13 which was lost in a server mishap). Perhaps all good things must come to an end. Perhaps not all of them should. But no matter what should or must be,  I and the Bird has ended its run.  And what a run it was.

Cold comfort

I've a new post up at 10,000 Birds (a couple of days late), The Stab of Cold.  Go show them some love.

Best April Fool's fall ever.

The names have been changed to protect the guilty. (and because the person reads the House).

This is a paraphrasing of a telephone conversation I just had. It brightened my day, because its not often you get an April Fool's reaction twelve days after.

 

Hello

Hello Clare, it's Frances, how are you?

Great. You?

Good, I just got back from vacation, it was awesome. I've been reading the blog and I see you've got big news.

[crickets]

The job!

Uh...

Your move, how did you score that job? Oh wait, I just noticed the date. Was that an April Fools' Joke?

Bwahahahahaha. 

 

Sorry, you know who you are.

How's your SAT score?

The latest I and the Bird, hosted by the Mike, the man behind IATB, is up at 10,000 Birds. Always worth visiting, this version is guaranteed to raise your SAT scores as well.

Its the best of Bird Blogging, go visit now.

On tilt

Just a quick note to point you over to my latest post at 10,000 Birds.  Time and the Tilting Earth.*

Okay, now where was I?

Well, its clear the wheels have come off this thing. And I wish I had some huge overarching excuse for it. But I don't. Mostly I've been gripped by procrastination that is overwhelming even for me, and I define myself by how much stuff I can put off. 

Work on the reno has slowed, I'm way behind at work, and other things as well including mailing off the prizes for the Nunies.  There's a lot to write about, and hopefully this is a start. 

It won't be much of a start but every journey starts with one step. So here is that step. I'm back. Now to shake off these doldrums and get back at 'er.