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
Birding Then and Now – Red Knot
Yesterday was International Vulture Awareness Day. Today is World Shorebirds Day. It’s hard to keep up with all the conservation events out there, but I like the idea that the Red Knot has been selected to be the 2015 “Shorebird of the Year” – as hokey as that sounds. I saw Red Knots once as a kid, circa 1969, either at Cape May or Cape Cod. I wish eBird had been around 50 years ago so I could retrieve details from it to refresh my memory! Several migrating Red Knots have been reported in northern Ohio since mid-August. So they do pass through my current whereabouts Continue reading
Posted in Birds
Tagged bird.org, birding, migration, shorebirds
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Today is International Vulture Awareness Day
The first Saturday in September each year is International Vulture Awareness Day. | Vultures are an ecologically vital group of birds that face a range of threats in many areas that they occur. Populations of many species are under pressure and some species are facing extinction. Continue reading
Posted in Birds
Tagged bird.org, conservation, vultures
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3.04 Trillion Trees Are Not Enough
[Crowther et al 2015] Anstract: The global extent and distribution of forest trees is central to our understanding of the terrestrial biosphere. We provide the first spatially continuous map of forest tree density at a global scale. This map reveals that the global number of trees is approximately 3.04 trillion, an order of magnitude higher than the previous estimate. Of these trees, approximately 1.39 trillion exist in tropical and subtropical forests, with 0.74 trillion in boreal regions and 0.61 trillion in temperate regions. Biome-level trends in tree density demonstrate the importance of climate and topography in controlling local tree densities at finer scales, as well as the overwhelming effect of humans across most of the world. Based on our projected tree densities, we estimate that over 15 billion trees are cut down each year, and the global number of trees has fallen by approximately 46% since the start of human civilization. [Nature (2015) doi:10.1038/nature14967] Continue reading
Posted in Ecologies
Tagged climate change, ecology, trees
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Link Blog – August 31, 2015
Nature Watch: Rattled by the sounds animals make at night | lehighvalley live.com 083015 Arlene Koch: “One day last week my husband David and I drove to Lansdale to visit a bakery we’d heard about. Normally, buying baked goods in … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged birds, hunting, naturalist-writers
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Link Blog – August 29, 2015
Couple’s journey of love and adventure leads them to dock in Duluth | Duluth News Tribune 082915 Oney’s boat is registered in Delaware, and other cruisers in New York marvelled at how far they had come.“Ah, no, we came all … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged fish, Lake Erie, Lake Superior, sailing, shipping
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Link Blog – August 28, 2015
Little Miami Scenic Trail The Little Miami Scenic Trail is part of an 80-mile trail network that extends from eastern Cincinnati to Buck Creek State Park near Springfield. | The dream of a hike/bike trail between Xenia and Yellow Springs … Continue reading
Stone Laboratory: Assessing Lake Erie’s Algal Bloom
One of the news stories references “an annual two-day science and environmental writers’ gathering” held this week at the Stone Lab. I’ve searched for more information about this meeting and how to attend it, but haven’t found any ready answers. As my Lake Erie writing project develops, I’d like to plan to attend this meeting in the future. If any reader has details, please let me know. Continue reading
Posted in Places
Tagged Gibraltar Island, Lake Erie, Stone Lab, water pollution
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