Moody Blues with Orcas
For the Love of Animals
Spotted Owl
Washington State Fair
Several photos were accepted for the Photo Salon in this year's state fair at Puyallup. This photo of a Spotted Owl swooping in the Cascade Mountains won an "Honorable Mention."
The photo was hung in a special exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Find more photos of these two engaging and affectionate birds in the Photo Gallery, under "Albatrosses."
More Photos
What's New?
National Geographic article:
New piece on smuggling African grey parrots, and the second featured photograph, of three parrots in morning light--it's mine! This Talking Parrot is Disappearing
"Talking to Penguins":
This past fall, I gave a talk about my conversations with penguins, especially a king penguin on South Georgia Island. Here is a video version of the talk, on Vimeo. Just click on the link below. The password is: plu (all lowercase):
What Else is New?
New Photo Galleries of Cockatoos, Indonesia, Italy, and More.
Plus, Return to Uganda
We've added new galleries of photos after wonderful excursions to Italy and Indonesia. We've fallen in love with Assisi, and I've come completely under the spell of St. Francis Assisi. You'll see a landscape photo of Assisi, at sunset, which for me defines this place as a land of visions, home of one of the great mystics. St. Francis is also a great nature lover and animal lover. He spoke to animalas of all kinds. He convinced a wolf to be friendly to the people of Gubbio, and he gave a famous sermon to birds he encountered in a tree. Pope Francis is the first Pope by that name, and you must read his Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality. Clearly, the Pople is inspired by St. Francis.
Indonesia; it was my first visit to these islands, and I loved them. We embarked on something of an expedition, getting to tiny islands which local people often did not know existed, going by cargo boat and using a fishing boat to cross 12 miles of open ocean. Totally worth it to see the rarest of the rare---Abbotti's Cockatoos on one tiny island, the last place they survive. Only twenty left, but the good news is they're breeding and also the local people have taken to protecting them as an icon of the islands in thie Java Sea. You'll see here photos of nesting Abbotti's Cockatoos, displaying to each other, preening and loving each other, and standing at the nest hole. A magnificent experience.
Plus we went to Seram Island, the original Moluccan Island, where Portuguese traders came for spices and other exotic cargo. These are the Spice Islands. Here we found many species of parrots. Two are especially noteworthy: the incomparable Moluccan Cockatoo, and we helped with a release of several of these heavily trafficked cockatoos back into the wild. And the Pygmy Parrot--at 2 inches long, it's the world's smallest parrot.
Please enjoy the images and the narratives that lie behind them. I'm off now on a return to Uganda.
Here's the Microsoft blog where the Microsoft editor introduces my theme, Wild Beauty.
--"Finally Free to Fly"--the cover story on the winter 2014 PLU Scene magazine.
Come back often--here you'll find a place for news, thoughts, stories, and points of view--otherwise called attitude--on all things nature and animals!
There has been a lot of publicity lately for our work last summer with Jane Goodall. Nevis Granum and I helped the World Parrot Trust in the first release ever of African grey parrots, smuggled out of Africa and returned to the continent to be set free in the wild. Uganda was beautiful. The PLU Scene magazine has a cover story on our work, with our photos.
Slate.com has just published my essay on the experience, with reflections on the way the legal trade supports and encourages the illegal trade. Check it out!
