Witt’s End

After a few nights of air-you-can wear, it was comforting to have to dig out the puffy jacket while gazing at the stars. No skunks this evening. I suppose they’re not back from their field trip to Washington D.C. for the big birthday bash. The coyotes were practicing for their summer concert series. I really like their rendition of, “‘Till We Eat Again.” A real classic. My focus last night was on M5, a globular cluster found in the constellation of Serpens. It’s thought to be one of the older (13 billion years old), certainly larger, of the globulars, about 25 million lightyears away. It contains an estimated 500,000 stars. The red/orange stars you see here are old, the blue ones new. If our sun were part of this cluster it would be so dull we could not find it. That bright star to the lower left is 5 Serpentis—a huge subgiant, twice the radius of our sun. Image made with SeeStar S30 scope, 480 stacked images. Post processing in SeeStar. Okay, I got a bit nerdy. Not much else going on until tomorrow. Stay tuned.

As every seasoned birder knows, you should always be prepared for anything and everything when you’re out on the trail. Basics kit, like binoculars and camera, along with a notebook and pen, should be second (or first) nature. A couple days ago I was not prepared; no binoculars, no camera, nothing, when I had an up-close and personal encounter with an American Bald Eagle—sort of.

Here’s what happened: I was out taking my daily health walk on the nearby hike and bike trail. I was on the home stretch, thinking about a cup of tea since it was 24 degrees and windy, when about 50 yards ahead of me I saw a bald eagle coming straight for me. The bird was flying at eye level, pumping like crazy, trying to get some altitude. Gorgeous white head, black body and wings—the symbol of America coming right to me!

I froze in place, the “flight or fight” messages passed through my brain, sending mixed signals to my thinning blood. All I could manage in the thought category was, “I hope this critter knows what she’s doing and gets a bit higher.”

The bird was about 25 feet away when it suddenly banked right. I was going to yell, “chicken” when I realized it was not a bald eagle. It was a basic American Crow carrying a sandwich-size piece of white bread.

One of the joys of travel is that sometimes you’re in the right spot at the right time. Too often you’re not—as in, “ya shoulda been here yesterday.” Well, for Susan and I, along with our friends Bobb and Kathy Barnes, on Indigenous People’s Day this past October, we were spot on. Santa Fe, New Mexico, hosted its second annual tribal nations Powwow. Twenty-three tribes, Nations and Pueblos in New Mexico were present. The Plaza area was filled with music, dancing and native crafts. The sights and sounds were overwhelming as dancers and drummers entertained for hours. Surrounding the Plaza area, tables of native crafts and foods were displayed. The costumes of the dancers, some ranging in cost of more than three thousand dollars were the highlight for thousands of people gathered for the celebration. And while it might seem like this was a glimpse into the past, it’s real every day life for Indigenous People in this country.