The Urban Pantheist

This is my favorite picture from today's Urban Nature Walk in Forest Park, a huge city park in the third largest city in Massachusetts, Springfield. I grew up two towns away from here, but had never explored it quite like this. Here's my favorite picture from the walk, from about halfway through. But let's see how we got there!

( lots and lots of photos )

A great walk! If you'd like to get in on the action go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/68443835849/

I went and visited my dad this weekend. At one point, Charlie got up in his lap in the passenger seat.


I helped remove an air conditioner from a window. Once it was out I was surprised to find a bird's nest had been built in the little nook there. You can see how the back of the nest bears the imprint of the a/c's vent louvers.


Then we went to South Hadley to pick up a piece of furniture from craigslist. On the way we passed this house with all this interesting poultry. Guineafowl, both barred and white, up above, and turkeys below. Also a cat.

I can't seem to bring myself to write anything about the conference.  I spent all day cramming stuff into my head, that trying to unpack it at you tires me out just thinking about it.  I'm learning a fair amount of interesting stuff, and as I expected, I really enjoy being surrounded by people who are into the same thing as me.  I do feel a little inadequate, like they can see my lack of a science degree, and I'm not being as social as I expected.  But I did end up speaking up and asking some clarifying questions and got into a couple good conversations.  Did you know there are skunks on Martha's Vineyard?  I spoke to a researcher who tagged and radio-collared a bunch of them to study them.  Boy did she smell. 

Kidding!  No one made any smell jokes!  After a 20 minute presentation about catching and tagging skunks and whatnot!  Apparently that island was connected to the mainland, so they have pretty much everything else that the rest of Massachusetts has.  I also learned that a 1996 law that outlawed body gripping and leg-hold traps is responsible for the massive amount of human/beaver conflict in the State lately.  That presentation made me want to buy a fur coat, or maybe a nice beaver top hat.  The best presentation so far was a late addition to replace a cancellation; a British researcher studying badger control tested the efficacy of ultrasonic repellent devices.  He concluded that not only don't the devices repel badgers, but when one badger tripped one of the motion detectors (buried bowls of peanuts were the bait), all the badgers in the area came running.  The local badger quickly came to hear the things as dinner bells.  Also, it doesn't hurt to be a dry witty Englishman when you are giving a powerpoint presentation, just for future reference.

I can't believe I have two more days of this.

I'm guiltily enjoying the unstructured time afterward.  Now I'm sitting in a cafe in Northhampton, using the free wifi.  I'm kind of loving the Pioneer Valley, where I grew up and was desperate to leave.  I actually considered moving here a decade or so ago, but they haven't fixed their little snow problem out here.  In fact they actually get more snow than Boston most of the time.  But it's perfectly wonderful in June--not that it feels much like June.  I like western Massachusetts better than where I'm really from in Connecticut.  Even when I lived here, in order to do anything fun we would always head due north and come to Springfield, Northhampton or Amherst.  Going south to Hartford or elsewhere in Connecticut never really crossed our minds.  Now driving around I see the many small farms and farmstands, and the small town centers, and think it looks a lot like where I'd like to live some day.