About the Ghost Turtles
150 years after Robert Duncanson painted this luminist scene on the Little Miami River, I stood in the same spot and saw a soft-shelled turtle sunning on a snag. It slipped silently into the water when it heard me. That’s when I knew past is present and destiny, too. That’s when my vision of the Ghost Turtles began. Read more
Ecology of the Senses
Returning to Lake Superior year after year like a migrating loon, I’ve learned the other side of a slow, uncertain process that could be called “going blind.” With the lake as my teacher, I know what lies on the other side. I call it letting go of sight. Read more.Prayer at Big Creek
![Sandhill cranes land on Platte River sandbar roosts west of Rowe Sanctuary’s Iain Nicolson Audubon Center southwest of Gibbon, Nebraska. [Photo by Lori Porter| Kearney Hub]](https://www.ghostturtles.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/sandhill_cranes_kearneyhub_032015-300x225.jpg)
At the threshold of consciousness, as I slipped back and forth between two worlds, I put my mind in the best place I could imagine, a marsh on Lake Erie called Big Creek. I knew I’d find cranes waiting for me. I cannot say whether I prayed for them, or to them, or with them. The cant of words doesn’t matter. I believe in the still, small voice. I believe what the poet Yehuda Amichai said. Gods come and go. Prayer is eternal. Read moreFreedom to Read
![An endangered Whooping crane takes flight. Yhe large bird has a 7-foot wingspan. It is all white except for black wing tips and face markings. In this photo its long neck stretches forward; its wings sweep upward; and its black legs trail straight behind it. [Source: International Crane Foundation]](https://www.ghostturtles.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Whooping-crane-eastern-ICF-080622-300x157.jpg)
Whenever I hear sanctimonious pronouncements about woke, parental rights, and banning books, I think of Whooping cranes. In my family, the gawky, audacious, elusive and endangered birds are synonymous with our values about the First Amendment and the freedom to read. Read more.Sister, Teacher, Pathfinder
A guidance counselor in high school told my sister Diana, “With your eye problems you will never make it in college. Just forget about it. Get married. Raise a family.” That advice only deepened her determination. She did it all in due time, in her own way –college, marriage, family. She became a guidance counselor herself. She certainly was the most important guide and pathfinder in my life. Read more.Flaneur & Bouquiniste
![Mark Willis peruses a 1745 volume by Voltaire at a bouquiniste book stall on the banks of the Seine in Paris. He wears a brown leather jacket and checkered flat cap. He holds the open book in his hands. Rows of old books are seen on shelves behind him. [2005 photo by Ms. Modigliani]](https://www.ghostturtles.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/mw_bouquiniste_05-300x225.jpg)
I remember the book I held in my hands that day. I remember the feel of its time-warped, water-stained pages. I remember its murky, moldy river smell, call it the book’s bouquet, suggesting years of storage on the banks of the Seine. Had I bought it then, I could feel and smell it now and know it from a hundred other books in my library. Read more.R & K: A Rant
Marjorie Taylor Green auditioned for R&K’s Authoritarian It Girl at the 2023 State of the Union address. She and her Republican colleagues yelled like Tarzan swinging through the trees as they jeered and booed the President’s speech. Read Rants & Kisses.R & K: A Kiss
Songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Singers like Dione Warwick and Dusty Springfield. What Do You Get When You Fall in Love? The Look of Love. I Say a Little Prayer. I sit in the car’s back seat and listen. I’m glad it’s dark. I’d be embarrassed if anyone could see the dreamy look on my face. Read Rants & Kisses.
Author Archives: Mark Willis
Internet Naturalist – November 11, 2013
Spring Valley Wildlife Area – Ohio This 842-acre wildlife area is situated in the gently rolling agricultural region of southwest Ohio just east of the Little Miami River, eight miles south of Xenia and four miles north of Waynesville. The … Continue reading
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Internet Naturalist – November 4, 2013
JSTOR: Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Nov., 1982), pp. 385-405 "The Lakota Ghost Dance: An Ethnohistorical Account" by Raymond J. DeMallie [DeMallie_1982_ghost_dance.pdf]
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Ghost Dance: Links and Sources
The Ghost Dance by the Oglala Lakota at Pine Ridge. Illustration by Frederic Remington, 1890. [Source: Library of Congress/Wikipedia] Ghost Dance – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Ghost Dance (Caddo: Nanissáanah,[1] also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) was a … Continue reading
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Tagged Ghost Dance, myth, Native Americans, rituals
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Internet Naturalist – October 30, 2013
An adult male Rufous hummingbird. [Photo by Allen Chartier / Great Lakes Hummernet / Michigan Radio] See other photos documenting Ohio/Michigan sightings. It’s getting colder, but hummingbirds haven’t left the state yet | Michigan Radio 102413 With the chill in … Continue reading
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Tagged birds, evolution, links, Michigan, perception, snakes
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Herpetologists Question Animal Care in ‘Snake Salvation”
Pastor Jamie Coots holds a snake at Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name Church of Middlesboro, Ky. [Source: NPR] Serpent Experts Try To Demystify Pentecostal Snake Handling : NPR 101813 Two weeks ago, NPR of Pentecostals in Appalachia who handle … Continue reading
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Michigan Radio’s Environment Report: “In Warm Water: Fish and the Changing Great Lakes”
Links to Michigan Radio’s Environment Report five-part series on “In Warm Water: Fish and the Changing Great Lakes” Continue reading
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Tagged climate change, ecosystem, fish
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Internet Naturalist – October 14, 2013
Antarctica Through the Eyes of Emperor Penguins – The Takeaway 100913 Due to a lapse in appropriations caused by the government shutdown, funds for certain government Antarctic research programs will be depleted by October 14, 2013. What’s it really like … Continue reading
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