tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post7174168703395110020..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Edward Dorn: Notes from the Fields: An Exaltation of Larks, a Murder of CrowsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-26601033736579117852012-08-21T08:34:51.380-07:002012-08-21T08:34:51.380-07:00Something tells me the clever and extremely bossy ...Something tells me the clever and extremely bossy city crow has a sensitive side and can tell when it is being disrespected. <br /><br />Ever since I typed the words "...so much easier to like than the crows", the crows here have been going bonkers in the upper tiers of the redwood, squawking their brains out in the general direction of the freeway-feeder rush hour traffic, us, and civilisation in general. As is their wont. <br /><br />(Though of course, they do this every morning, whether suffering deleterious comparisons or no.)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-60093622403461008702012-08-21T08:20:25.735-07:002012-08-21T08:20:25.735-07:00Lovely to hear from you always, Marcia.
Yes, the ...Lovely to hear from you always, Marcia.<br /><br />Yes, the wonderful meadowlarks of the prairies, so much easier to like than the crows. <br /><br />But -- "all part of God's creation," as folks used to say. <br /><br />(That was, I guess, back in the day when "God" still meant Nature and not a big shiny scaffolding for Republican fatcats to hang their foaming-at-the-gills political agendas on -- or from?).TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-70757225462866946012012-08-21T08:05:43.103-07:002012-08-21T08:05:43.103-07:00Thank you for posting this today, Tom. I love mea...Thank you for posting this today, Tom. I love meadowlarks and miss seeing them and hearing their beautiful song which everyone I knew used to say sounded like "I want a sweet potato." Crows were a little less loved, but still a part of the world I once knew. Marciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17150292834089323928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-45373369491621179372012-08-21T03:05:12.063-07:002012-08-21T03:05:12.063-07:00Larry,
I did remember your joy in those uplifting...Larry,<br /><br />I did remember your joy in those uplifting prairie larks, in putting this together.<br /><br /><br />Susan,<br /><br />Those are indeed the duties -- not forgetting of course that working with zeroes also means working with ones and twos. Duty in the old Roman sense of "office". Office hours, every blesséd minute in the world.<br /><br /><br />Brad,<br /><br />"...in speaking so delicately and truly of birds, seems also to be speaking of us, the non-birds among us."<br /><br />That double speaking seems to me the source of much of the beauty of the piece. The elation of the larks and the mathematical abilities (data-entry skills) of the counting crows do subtly suggest fabular aspects in the tale; which nonetheless equally remains a small marvel of close observation of nature. <br /><br />There are free spirited dazzling low-fliers in the human world too, but "progress" would seem latterly to have designated the (human) bean counters for (d)evolutionary preference.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-71742287313114003572012-08-20T21:01:09.846-07:002012-08-20T21:01:09.846-07:00I love this, very much. The note, alongside the ph...I love this, very much. The note, alongside the photos, in speaking so delicately and truly of birds, seems also to be speaking of us, the non-birds among us. But in a way you can't so readily identify -- all the better and appropriately, given the tendency of such things to take flight at a moment's notice. I will be mulling this over for a while, I suspect. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-22917327743639057962012-08-20T15:16:14.032-07:002012-08-20T15:16:14.032-07:00Here's to the murder, the flight, the muster a...Here's to the murder, the flight, the muster and deceit in the wisp, the cast and bevy--Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-80760659061743131952012-08-20T10:36:19.681-07:002012-08-20T10:36:19.681-07:00I can't decide which one looks more like Ed, t...I can't decide which one looks more like Ed, the inward craggy rainbow Northwest Crow (Corvus caurinus)at the Esquimault Lagoon or the distracting Sturnella neglecta, singing its heart out.<br />Both of the Edwardius Dornus species: building exhaltation, some unkindness, and falling, charming, building a dissimulation towards a kettle, a parliament.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-41280666121749563922012-08-20T10:20:43.752-07:002012-08-20T10:20:43.752-07:00Duty of the meadow lark:
ignore the wind (direct...Duty of the meadow lark: <br />ignore the wind (direction meaningless) organize everything later. Just see what happens in the other dimension over the "yellow stubble of the field...complexly and exhaustively, on the air, at that sleight..."<br /><br />Duty of the crow: work with zero<br /><br />Duty of Ed Dorn: all of the aboveSusan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-82645617426583572282012-08-20T08:25:04.257-07:002012-08-20T08:25:04.257-07:00What an exquisite observer Dorn is, you are so for...What an exquisite observer Dorn is, you are so fortunate to have been his friend. The photos match well, as always. Delighted to read again the list of bird collectives, worth memorizing and observing their rightness.larry whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05659637420532771765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-53327611866566791042012-08-20T06:54:24.063-07:002012-08-20T06:54:24.063-07:00oh...that is amazing and keener than me...:)...tha...oh...that is amazing and keener than me...:)...thanks Tom!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-47099641072073255032012-08-20T06:47:19.399-07:002012-08-20T06:47:19.399-07:00Thank you, Sandra. You are my keenest observer.
B...Thank you, Sandra. You are my keenest observer.<br /><br />By the way, the subtitle of the post came not from the author but from the blogger.<br /><br />Who in turn got it from a long tradition of birders, who have contributed the (often quite poetic) collective nouns for groups of specific birds.<br /><br />Many of these are quite wonderful. Here is a selection: <br /><br />A bevy of quail<br />A bouquet of pheasants [when flushed]<br />A brood of hens<br />A building of rooks<br />A cast of hawks [or falcons]<br />A charm of finches<br />A colony of penguins<br />A company of parrots<br />A congregation of plovers<br />A covert of coots<br />A covey of partridges [or grouse or ptarmigans]<br />A deceit of lapwings<br />A descent of woodpeckers<br />A dissimulation of birds<br />A dole of doves<br />An exaltation of larks<br />A fall of woodcocks<br />A flight of swallows [or doves, goshawks, or cormorants]<br />A gaggle of geese [wild or domesticated]<br />A host of sparrows<br />A kettle of hawks [riding a thermal]<br />A murmuration of starlings<br />A murder of crows<br />A muster of storks<br />A nye of pheasants [on the ground]<br />An ostentation of peacocks<br />A paddling of ducks [on the water]<br />A parliament of owls<br />A party of jays<br />A peep of chickens<br />A pitying of turtledoves<br />A raft of ducks<br />A rafter of turkeys<br />A siege of herons<br />A skein of geese [in flight]<br />A sord of mallards<br />A spring of teal<br />A tidings of magpies<br />A trip of dotterel<br />An unkindness of ravens<br />A watch of nightingales<br />A wedge of swans [or geese, flying in a "V"]<br />A wisp of snipeTChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-87704726642524523782012-08-20T06:27:08.716-07:002012-08-20T06:27:08.716-07:00what a wonderful sequence of photos...beautiful in...what a wonderful sequence of photos...beautiful interesting note..!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com