PEACHFRONT SPEAKS

Recent entries july 4, 2018 - 2018-07-04 the triangle continues of courtney, boobear, & nyota - 2018-07-03 Cookie so cute telling, "Hello" to sparrows - 2018-07-01 lovebirb in love - 2018-06-30 wren with fluffffff - 2018-06-24 Read my new book, The 10 Best Things You Can Do For Your Bird at Amazon or at many other fine distributors like Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, and more. By public demand, and after a delay of an embarrassing number of years, I've finally put my notorious essay, Ender and Hitler: Sympathy for the Superman, free on the fabulous internets. A bibliography of my published books and stories. Here's a simple card-counting FAQ to get you up to speed on the basics. Here's the true story of the notorious DD' blackjack team, told for the first time on the fabulous internets. No other team went from a starting investor's bankroll of zero to winning millions of dollars. A Sadean take on Asimov's classic Three Laws of Robotics can be found in Roger Williams' NOW REVIEWED ON SLASHDOT!!! The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. Adult readers only please -- explicit sex and violence. For updates on the "Dead Tree Project" and other topics, you may visit the official fan site, Passages in the Void.. My Bird Lists -- My Louisiana State Life List, My Yard List and, tah dah, My World Life List. HEY! What happened to the Peachfront Conure Files? The world's only OFFICIAL Peachfront Conure site now features free peachfront conure coverage, including a magazine length Intro to Conures previously published in American Cage-Bird Magazine, now free on the web. I offer the best free Peachfront Conure information on the internet. If you have great Peachfront Conure info, stories, or photos to share, contact me so I can publicize your pet, your breeding success, your great photograph, etc. on my site. Thanks.

maine trip report part 4: acadia national park, with bagpipes 2008-06-14 - 6:04 p.m. all photos � 2008 by elaine radford view of bar harbor from cadillac mountain, acadia national park We slept in, enjoying the sea breezes under a pile of no-doubt-atmospheric quilts. I meant to make coffee -- aren't all coffee machines alike? -- but I couldn't figure out this one and ended up brewing a Swiss Miss hot chocolate in the microwave instead. Then down to breakfast on the porch. Today, the male goldfinch pretended to be nervous and refused to approach the feeder until the House Finch male had already tried it out. Then, as he condescended to nibble on the adjacent feeder, a female goldfinch took a brief snack from the House Finch's feeder and then flew to a nearby tree. Aha. Was she even hungry at all, or was she just trying to get the male's attention? Was he even hungry at all, as he flew to a carefully chosen perch on her same tree that caught his feathers in the sunlight in all their golden splendor? The GPS unit for reasons best known to itself took us on a different path out of Jonesport and down to Bar Harbor -- a beautiful path that fully merited the "high pollen" alert I'd received about the area last week. Purple iris in the bogs, purple lupine in the ditches near the road. The old railroad track completely overgrown with yellow and orange-red flowers. And, of course, a sprinkling of classic daisies here and there. DH pulled over at a random lake, so that we could inspect an attractive Red-Breasted Merganser enjoying the crystal clear water. At some point, our first (!) Turkey Vulture of the trip soared lazily over the road. White churches with steeples, ornate wooden houses with big bay windows. Yellow fields full of dandelion. a view from along the easy "ocean path" trail We arrived at Acadia National Park earlier than I'd planned, so that we were able to meet with the rangers studying the Peregrine Falcons on Champlaign Mountain from the Precipice Trail parking lot. Alas, the catch to this beautiful sunny, springlike day is that, to a Maine Peregrine Falcon, it's hot as holy heck at 11 A.M. and the babies had already retreated far back into the cool of the nest cave to where we couldn't see them. Hot? It was maybe 80 degrees. Wimps, I concluded. But, be that as it may, if I want to see baby Peregrines, I will have to try again earlier in the day. We did the Park Loop Trail, stopping to stroll part of the Ocean Path Trail. Thunder Hole was quiet, thanks to an absence of wind and surf, but the landscapes (oceanscapes?) were dramatic. As I've said before, stay tuned for pictures, since I can't edit and process and post them until after my trip. We did the Cadillac Summit Drive, a most impressive viewpoint, and one -- alas!-- that photos can't describe, since they flatten out the nearly 360 degree view of the landscape. Words can't describe either, at least not my words. Pink granite, green lichen, blue water, white boats, green islands. You felt as if you could see for a million miles. There was a singing male Eastern Towhee at the peak of Cadillac Mountain, king of the world and good for him. There was a sixtysomething male hippie, beard down to his knees, rules didn't apply to him and he climbed over various rocks we weren't supposed to climb over to have his wife (?) photograph him because "I'm trying for an optical illusion" and if it's art, who cares if rare mountain plants grow by inches and are killed by feet. We actually found a moment to do laundry today in a laundry being used by only two other people, both students who knew each other. They gossiped. "Well," asked the boy, "Did you talk to her on the phone? What was your impression?" Girl: "She sounded like fun." Long exhaled sigh of relief from the boy. "She IS fun." His instincts validated. Hell, he's probably doing better than the male Goldfinch. We skipped lunch because my stomach, as always these days when I'm traveling, has tired of eating. Therefore for dinner I had some appetite and was able to enjoy the "early bird" lobster at the Chart Room overlooking a bit of stony beach. A young man dressed in kilt played the bagpipes -- from the opposite end of the beach. I suspect if he'd gotten any closer to the restaurant he would have been told, "Look, son, your mama doesn't want you practicing bagpipes at your house for a reason." Not that he was bad. He wasn't. It's just that it was bagpipes. a view from cadillac mountain, hard to photo since there's 360 degrees of view back - next All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2002-2017 by Elaine Radford