On Art and Nature

Each year I make a calendar and each year I make a resolution.   

Last year, my New Year's Resolution was to paint every day.  That certainly did not happen.  I have switched recently from mostly watercolors to mostly oil paintings.  Considering that we often travel up to six months a year, I can only bring along my painting gear on road trips, not airplanes.  And often there is hardly time to sketch.  In Peru for a month, we took long birding treks during daylight with only candle light and flashlights after dark.  So my resolution never stood a chance.  Another flaw was that "every day" clause.  Once you miss one day, you're done!

I began creating the calendars after a wondrous three week safari to Kenya.  With Photoshop, I added children and grandchildren to the wildlife photos--Mike with his arm around a lion's mane, Charlotte riding a giraffe, Kenna and Sedge on their tricycles next to a rhinocerous.  In years that followed I made photo calendars of Yellowstone (bison, wolves, marmots), of Vietnam and Thailand (water monitors, elephant artists), of Borneo (orangutans and hornbills), and of Polynesia (stingrays and seaturtles).  For 2013, I selected the best of my photos from remote Amazonian and cloudforest regions of Peru (hummingbirds, macaws, toucans and tapirs). 

So it is time again for a new resolution.  After last year's failure, I tried to compose a more acheivable goal for 2013.  And it it took me all this week for an idea to hatch that seemed just right.

In 2013 I resolve to complete 12 paintings that are worthy of publication in my 2014 calendar.  There are always a handful of paintings I might use, but never enough.  I fall back on my photos instead, year after year.  As the year goes by I can measure whether I am on track, as I need to complete an average of one per month.  Yet if I fall behind, all is not lost.  Wish me luck!

I took this snapshot of Lions in the Masai Mara in Kenya in 2006.  What a magnificent variety of wildlife we saw on that visit!  What inspired me to dredge up that photo over six years later?

According to today's New York Times Green blog, Africa's savanna habitat is shrinking even faster than the world's rainforests.  Dr. Stuart Pimm of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University has issued a study showing that only 25% of Africa's savanna remains.  He also looked at what that means for the lion population.  There are less than 35,000 lions today, down from 100,000 in 1960.  Their fate is even more precarious, since he found only ten areas that support large stable lion populations.  

About one p.m., before preparing our one-course holiday meal of Oysters Rockefeller, we took our daily walk around nearby Lake Mac.  We often take a pair of binoculars and occasionally a camera with us, to better see and record the seasonal variety of birds and other feral visitors to the lake.   Today we had binoculars but no camera.  

Thanksgiving is about the latest date that the local White Pelicans leave for their warmer wintering grounds.  Last week we counted one hundred on the lake--yesterday there were seven and today only one laggard remained.  Gulls gathered along the shore while grebes and a lone Bufflehead glided atop and then dove under the lake's surface.  

As we walked the path along a fence separating us from pastoral open space fields, we suddenly noticed a coyote, walking along with us just on the opposite side of the fence.  He was no more than ten yards away.  In the seven years that I have routinely circled this lake, I have seen a coyote only twice before--and at a great distance.  Once again, I reminded myself--always bring a camera!  

His fur was glistening and healthy looking, his gaze alert, and his body muscular and well-fed.  He was busy examining mounds of earth near some drainage ditches.  We watched him, he watched us, and we walked along together for several minutes.  As the wind picked up, we quickened our pace.  We turned back every few minutes to see where he was.  He had lagged behind, and the binoculars came in handy.  He had caught something and was dragging it through the grass.  He would pause, bend his head down to take a few bites, then look around to see who was watching.  As a few dog-walkers approached his spot, he lifted his prey and marched further into the field away from the fence.  Now we could see what his Thanksgiving dinner was--he had caught a muskrat.  

No doubt he had been nearby many times before.  In the middle of the field, we would never have spotted him.  His fur blends like perfect camouflage into the sepia tones of the November grasses.

By the way, Happy Thanksgiving!      

This past weekend we saw a field full of elk grazing near Mary's Lake in Estes Park, Colorado.  At the center was a twelve point bull elk surrounded by a harem of about 60 females.  Every now and then he lifted his head to emit a triumphant bugle.  

These two sparring males were at the edge of the herd.  An over the hill male was practice fighting with a young male, preparing him for a challenge to take over a harem in future years.  

This is one of the glorious sights of October, and the eerie elk bugle one of the glorious sounds that reverberates through the crisp air! 

About two years ago, we unplugged our television and found entertainment and intellectual stimulation in reading more books.  Today I want to share with you one of the best nature books I have ever read.  I have just finished reading it, and will read it many times more.

The Peregrine by J.A. Baker is a deceptively simple book about a winter spent obsessively observing peregrines.  When I first took up birding, peregrines were a favorite--they are rare, powerful raptors, with distinctive markings easy for a beginner to identify.  Baker, about whom little is known, wrote this, his first book, at age 41.  He had recently been diagnosed with a serious illness and threw all his energy into studying the peregrine.  He no doubt felt a bond with this bird since it was the late 1960's and many raptors, including peregrines, were threatened with extinction as their egg-shells were weakened by excessive concentrations of DDT.

Written in the form of a diary, Baker draws the reader into his obsession.  Each day he sets out to seek the local peregrines where he lives in Essex, England, and to watch them bathe, rest, hunt, soar, stoop, kill.  He becomes one with his prey.  "I scanned the sky constantly to see if a hawk was soaring, scrutinized every tree and bush, searched the apparently empty sky through every arc.  That is how the hawk finds his prey and eludes his enemies, and that is the only way one can hope to find him and share his hunting."

Not only is this a delightful book for birders, Baker has an artist's eye.  He captures the play of light on the bird and the sky in poetry.  He fills the pages with rich detail, evocative imagery, painting a portrait in an ever-changing landscape. 

On December 1st, after sighting a distant peregrine, he writes: "Crisp and golden in the sunlight, he swam up through the warm air with muscular undulations of his wings, like the waving flicker of a fish's fins.  He drifted on the surface, a tiny silver flake on the blue burnish of the sky.  His wings tightened and bent back, and he slid away to the east, a dark blade cutting slowly through blue ice.  Moving down through the sunlight, he changed colour like an autumn leaf, passing from shining gold to pallid yellow, turning from tawny to brown, suddenly flicking out black against the skyline."

Baker's diary stretches from October to April .  "Autumn begins my season of hawk-hunting, spring ends it, and winter glitters between like the arch of Orion."  Despite the routine, he sees anew each day.  This book contains riches to be savored many times over.      

For only the second time in the last 28 years, a new species of monkey has been discovered in Africa.  The Lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis) is reputedly a shy creature, similar to the owl-faced monkey but with a mane of blond hair.  It lives in a fairly small territory within a remote region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.  After genetic and morphological studies confirmed it as a new species, it is being provisionally categorized as vulnerable under the IUCN red list of threatened species.  I hope that this exposure bodes well rather than ill for the monkey's survival.    

Contrary to scientific models that predicted the complete melt of the Arctic Ice cap will occur in 2050, mounting evidence of actual melting over the last 6 years are leading scientists to the realization that the ice may be gone by summer of 2015.  

Look at the contrast in news reporting on this accelerated ice melt.  Representing the US, I present coverage in the New York TImes.  Here’s a headline from the New York TImes (on Sept. 18):  “Race is on as Ice Melt Reveals Arctic Treasure.”  The article sums up the so-called opportunity from global warming this way.  “At stake are the Arctic’s abundant supplies of oil, gas, and minerals that are, thanks to climate change, becoming newly accessible along with increasingly navigable polar shipping shortcuts.”

Representing news reporting outside the US, I turn to The Guardian, a London newspaper.  The Guardian has much more thorough reporting on environmental topics, with numerous articles on the ramifications of Arctic ice melt.  In their editorial published Sunday Sept. 16 they wrote:

Here is a quote (from our hotel placemat) about the Sacred Valley:  “Donde los hijos del sol gobernaban la tierra.”  Translation:  “Where the children of the sun ruled the earth.”  One of the things I love the most about Peru is the ancient connection to the sun. From the Incas  to the modern-day currency (Sol means sun), there is a straightforward acknowledgment of how much our planet needs the sun.  

This is our last day in Lima and the sun is shining--a rarity here.  We shopped for a few souvenirs for the grandkids.   We asked our hotel staff to recommend any nearby shops with Peruvian handicrafts.  They sent us on a long walk across Miraflores to the Costa Verde where the upscale international hotels are located.  Built into the cliffside is the Larcomar Mall with lovely views of the Pacific ocean.  Although TripAdvisor rates it #1 of 9 shopping malls in Lima, there is nothing local about it.  Restaurants are all American fast-food or chains from Starbucks and Burger King to TGIF and Chili's.  Stores are mostly what you would find in any US mall--Radio Shack, Adidas, Timberland, Guess, etc.  It is not at all what we had in mind.  On our return walk to the hotel we did find a small local shop with some cute bracelets for the granddaughters and a combination cap/scarf made of baby alpaca wool for the grandson. 

We knew this would be a long travel day with our American Airlines flight scheduled to leave Lima at 10:40 pm and after several transfers, deposit us in Denver at 3:50 pm the following day.  

Such was not to be.  Our Lima flight was delayed to 1:00 am.  We were seated in the last row next to the bathrooms and served “dinner” at 2:00 am.  But the worst part was that our plane landed at 8:00 am (2.5 hours late) and American Airlines never even offered us any coffee.  We were very lucky that our shuttle bus from Miami to Fort Lauderdale was leaving just as we emerged from immigration and customs.  We never had a chance for coffee until we were seated on our SouthWest flight out of Fort Lauderdale, about 11:00 am.  Our transfer in Austin, Texas was also delayed, so it took us a full 24 hours to reach home.

We are starting to recover, and have time to savor our experiences.  I was very pleased to count up the birds I’ve seen on this trip and find that the number totals well over 400 with 253 Life Birds.  I realize that many of the A team of listers racked up over 600 birds.  Considering that I participated in only about half the outings, I am quite pleased with my record.   

Our Hotel Royal Inka has a three-story mosaic mural on one wall of the Cusco cathedral, bulls, horses, warriors, etc.  Two life-size llamas made of wood and clay stand in a corner of the lobby.  A conquistador’s armor and two long-handled axe-like weapons frame a doorway.  Live palms and cecropias adorn the dining room and balconies.  Much of the Peruvian motifs are similar to US southwestern designs.  I had a made-to-order omelette and many cups of cafe con leche for breakfast.

Our scheduled plane from Cusco to Lima was cancelled, so we stood in a long line that didn’t move for quite some time.  When we finally reached the front, the agent told us to move fast--there was room on a flight leaving before ours, leaving immediately.  We raced to the gate and arrived in Lima half an hour early.

We are staying our final night at Casa Andina Centro in Miraflores.  We decided on Panchita, a recommended restaurant four blocks from the hotel.  Panchita had some Peruvian specialties but the bulk of the menu was devoted to Argentinian grilled meat.  We had bife de chorizo, with bearnaise sauce, blood sausage, and salad.  We left very happy and very full.

We took a morning birding walk along the river, including the lower level walking path to Machu Picchu.  Later the group followed the railroad tracks.  We had a wonderful view of a Cock of the Rock on a nest in a rock crevice overhanging the opposite side of the river.  A torrent duck with duckling stood atop a smooth white river boulder.  It was a cool, sunny morning.  As we climbed the walking path toward Machu Picchu, we saw a nest-hole, and watched it for a while.  An Oceollated Piculet arrived to feed its chick.  

Four local dogs decided to join our “pack” of birders.  When we stopped to look at a tanager, they lay down in the road beside us, and when we moved on, they trotted among us, despite a few feigned kicks from Silverio.  

We had an excellent lunch at IndioFeliz.  Judy bought a woven shoulder bag for her bird book.  At eight dollars, it was a bargain.

On the 3:20pm train back to Cusco, we had views of the river with soft Andean pan-pipes in the background.  Once it was dark, they cranked up the music and a dancing devil pranced up and down the aisles of the train, plucking the young girls from their seats to dance with him.  (I think he kissed Bill!)  The clapping, fashion show and music continued the last two hours of the train ride, leaving us all overdosed on pan flute.  

We got to Cusco only to discover that Casa Andina had lost our reservations.  This threw plans in disarray for a number of us.  Gwen and Ralph needed to connect with their daughter, and Bill and Judy were expecting tickets delivered to the Casa Andina hotel.  We were rebooked at a funky hotel nearby--the Hotel Royal Inka.  It was a difficult ending to the trip for Silverio--none of it his fault, but you always like to end a trip on a high note.  After the final bird tally, Phil, Kevin and I went to enjoy a final dinner with Silverio.