Chris, your writing continues to amaze me years after becoming acquainted with it. I recognise its matter-of-factness while languishing in its poignancy. Thank you!
The walrus migration visual really captures something most climate writing misses tho. Seeing the females and pups scrambling for pack ice that keeps receding is way more visceral than just reading temperature data. I've been working on envirnomental projects where the abstract numbers never land the same way these real-world behavioral shifts do, and the fact that Nature still has that patient pacing makes the loss hit diferent when it actually shows up.
You make a great point, and it helps me better understand why I was so taken by this particular animated graphic—and the power of combining old school nature documentary film techniques with the sort of insights and representational imaging computing can do bring data to life. Thanks 🙏
Our turkey vultures hiss, but I do not speak, and do not care to speak, their grunt-and-hiss language. However, I would like to be fluent in redtail hawk.
Keep writing. Does not have to be posted weekly or monthly. Your insights are always appreciated.
Ha! I kinda thought so too, but it’s a talk to the members of the Philadelphia Horticultural Society, who do tons of ecological restoration work in empty urban lots.
Your description of grackle calls put me in mind of this piece by David Dunn called "Mimus polyglottos", which does not feature grackles but is in its own way a kind of attempt at inter-species communication
Basically Dunn recorded a tape of horrible obnoxious synthesizer noises (mostly based on square waves, which are notoriously difficult for analog stereo systems to reproduce) and then played it for mockingbirds around L.A. to try and engage them in a sort of game/dialogue a la "Dueling Banjos"
I admit it sounds kind of haphazard, but from the program notes it's pretty obvious Dunn took the brief very seriously, from designing the audio "prompt" (which he wanted to "engage the birds but also challenge their ability to mimic") to spending time with mockingbirds to learn "proper mockingbird etiquette" before approaching birds with his tape -- I guess if you want to make it with L.A. mockingbirds you have to be on top of your game
It also reminded me of this very melodramatic but hilariously apt description of grackles I read recently in "Under the Volcano":
"Birds came swarming out of the southeast: small, black, ugly birds, yet too long, something like monstrous insects, something like crows, with awkward long tails, and an undulating, bouncing, labored flight. Shatterers of the twilight hour, they were flapping their way feverishly home, as they did every evening, to roost in the fresno trees of the zocalo, which until nightfall would ring with their incessant drilling mechanical screech. Straggling, the obscene concourse hushed and pedaled by."
This is amazing! We need to try something like that here. And I love Lowry’s description of the grackles of the Zocalo—sounds like his character had a hangover. Thank you so much for sharing this!
It is! We did it a decade ago in a little rental car and it was epic. Was glad to see it hasn’t changed much, though they have improved the border checkpoint on the Chilean side and built a weird casino.
I highly recommend the PBS Nature episode on ice pack killer whales. (Although perhaps a little intense for a first grader, since you see them collectively topple icebergs to eat seals.)
Chris, your writing continues to amaze me years after becoming acquainted with it. I recognise its matter-of-factness while languishing in its poignancy. Thank you!
Thanks, Adam! I hope all is well in your world.
The walrus migration visual really captures something most climate writing misses tho. Seeing the females and pups scrambling for pack ice that keeps receding is way more visceral than just reading temperature data. I've been working on envirnomental projects where the abstract numbers never land the same way these real-world behavioral shifts do, and the fact that Nature still has that patient pacing makes the loss hit diferent when it actually shows up.
You make a great point, and it helps me better understand why I was so taken by this particular animated graphic—and the power of combining old school nature documentary film techniques with the sort of insights and representational imaging computing can do bring data to life. Thanks 🙏
Our turkey vultures hiss, but I do not speak, and do not care to speak, their grunt-and-hiss language. However, I would like to be fluent in redtail hawk.
Keep writing. Does not have to be posted weekly or monthly. Your insights are always appreciated.
Thank you so much! I also owe you a follow up about your book.
contrail, in deed. this post shooting through long lapsed time with bird highlights :)
🙏🦜💚
always enjoy your blend of observant and thoughtful, but...The Philadelphia Flower Show?
Ha! I kinda thought so too, but it’s a talk to the members of the Philadelphia Horticultural Society, who do tons of ecological restoration work in empty urban lots.
well kudos to them as well as you!
Your description of grackle calls put me in mind of this piece by David Dunn called "Mimus polyglottos", which does not feature grackles but is in its own way a kind of attempt at inter-species communication
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9veOLaHUzg
Basically Dunn recorded a tape of horrible obnoxious synthesizer noises (mostly based on square waves, which are notoriously difficult for analog stereo systems to reproduce) and then played it for mockingbirds around L.A. to try and engage them in a sort of game/dialogue a la "Dueling Banjos"
I admit it sounds kind of haphazard, but from the program notes it's pretty obvious Dunn took the brief very seriously, from designing the audio "prompt" (which he wanted to "engage the birds but also challenge their ability to mimic") to spending time with mockingbirds to learn "proper mockingbird etiquette" before approaching birds with his tape -- I guess if you want to make it with L.A. mockingbirds you have to be on top of your game
It also reminded me of this very melodramatic but hilariously apt description of grackles I read recently in "Under the Volcano":
"Birds came swarming out of the southeast: small, black, ugly birds, yet too long, something like monstrous insects, something like crows, with awkward long tails, and an undulating, bouncing, labored flight. Shatterers of the twilight hour, they were flapping their way feverishly home, as they did every evening, to roost in the fresno trees of the zocalo, which until nightfall would ring with their incessant drilling mechanical screech. Straggling, the obscene concourse hushed and pedaled by."
This is amazing! We need to try something like that here. And I love Lowry’s description of the grackles of the Zocalo—sounds like his character had a hangover. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Love the avian dinosaur content. ;) In some ways they are about 90 million more years advanced than us.
We love having feathered pterosaurs skronking in our backyard
That road from Santiago to Mendoza is glorious switchback heaven.
It is! We did it a decade ago in a little rental car and it was epic. Was glad to see it hasn’t changed much, though they have improved the border checkpoint on the Chilean side and built a weird casino.
I highly recommend the PBS Nature episode on ice pack killer whales. (Although perhaps a little intense for a first grader, since you see them collectively topple icebergs to eat seals.)
Thanks for the tip! The jaguars + sea turtles one was plenty intense in that “nature is metal” way, so we will check out the orcas.
you have been missed...
Christopher, another wonderful piece—thank you. Your mention of “The Year We Make Contact” made me smile, because I just wrote about this very topic—and how 2026 may be the year it happens. Hope you enjoy this piece: https://open.substack.com/pub/drstevenshepard/p/interspecies-communicationfantasy?r=n28l5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web. Cheers.