Yesterday Jeff and I went to Sussex County Delaware's Return Day.. an event that has been going on for some 200 years ..when after the elections the results are read..both parties get together and then bury the hatchet... It is an all day celebration here..with a parade, speeches and ends with free ox roast sandwiches... Senator Joe Biden VP elect was there to celebrate it was great to be able to see him and see how much his state loves him.
I am thrilled we have elected Barack Obama for our Next President... Listen to his wonderful speech...I am speechless...I have hope... I am amazed... This is a great thing!
But Obama said something else in that speech, something both simpler and more profound that has special resonance now that his improbable candidacy has prevailed. He made the political spiritual. "In the end, then," he said, "what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand—that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us." He asked the American people to be fair and just, to be kind and generous, to put prejudice behind them and be one people because that is, not a legal or social imperative, but a moral one.
There will be learned discussion in the years to come about the specific meaning of this moment, about whether it will be more symbolic than substantive, about whether having a black president will lull Americans into believing that racism is a thing of the past. But for just a moment consider this small fact: for a long time a black man in many parts of the United States was denied even the honorific "Mister" by the white community, and was instead called by his first name, like a child, no matter how elderly and esteemed he might be.
Now a black man will be called Mr. President.
They never thought they would see the day, people said, especially the older ones, who could remember the murders of Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers and Malcolm X. They wept, some of them, and so did I. Perhaps it was because this man seems so young and vigorous in a nation that seems old and tired. Perhaps it is because he promises change and hope, and both are so badly needed. He is the president for our children's generation, a more tolerant and diverse society, so insensible of bright dividing lines that one of them would idly wonder whether Theodore Roosevelt was a black man. They belie a time when there was a crayon labeled "flesh" in my Crayola box, a crayon that was a pale pink.
But I suspect that, like many others, I wept for myself, too, because I felt I was part of a country that was living its principles. Despite all our prejudices, seen and hidden, millions of citizens managed, in the words of Dr. King, to judge Barack Obama by the content of his character and not the color of his skin. There were many reasons to elect him president, but this was one collateral gift: to be able to watch America look an old evil in the eye and to say, no more. We must be better than that. We can be better than that. We are better than that
Howdee All... Yes we left Cape May...we had a great time birding the area. We took the ferry from Cape May to Delaware today...Hour and a half boat ride. We are now staying at Cape Henlopen State Park....it is sooo quiet here...nothing like staying at a park out of season... We have the park pretty much to ourselves... No electric hook ups here so we run our generator an hour or so to charge our batteries... I took a nice bike ride around the park while Jeff washed Homey... Tomorrow we plan on going to Bombay Hook to do some ....humm....what do u think??? Birding. I don't know how long we will stay in this area before continuing our journey south.. Stay tuned...
what is the name of this butterfly??? what do u think beach girl...so far you won both contests...will you be three for three?
Howdee...
Here is a quick handheld..digiscoped video of the Western Tananger we saw today at Higbee beach, Cape May. Read this article about the bird...and the rare bird alert.
first video shows the scene....birders looking for the rarely seen bird...
the bird
I have been playing around a bit with digiscoping...not so easy handheld...but here is another video..
thats my shadow third from left...HI..and our scope head left...wonderful evening birder shadows..
Howdee all...
Yes we are bird brains here in Cape May....think...dream...seek...read....birds.... I guess being here in Cape May has put us into Bird Mode...all these birders in one area is very exciting and energizing and makes it so much easier for us novice birders to learn..learn ...learn... Hopefully some of this info will sink in and we will be able to ID a few birds... We continue to enjoy our new scope and yesterday we had great views of Northern Gannets, Lots of scooters, surf and black, Double crested and Great cormorant, common and red throated loons and lots of other birds.. Life birds for this trip so far are..
Jeff is out birding now...I stayed in this morning to hang out with my little fur boy and catch up on Internet stuff... I have been adding bird links and a few mushrooming links to my blog.. I am finding plenty of birding blogs that are great...but having a hard time finding wild mushroom picking blogs...bummer...if any of you have favorite blogs that I might like leave the url and I will check it out.
For those who know me I have my eyes on the ground as much as I have them in the clouds... I love to find things...pick wild mushrooms...bird...and enjoy the great outdoors... as well as the internet...tee hee......
Well i better get ready for some afternoon birding...and ground watching...If anyone knows where I can get xtra eyes let me know..
i just called jeff as he was birding...says a western tanager female was spotted and lots of birders out looking...he is coming to pick me up now..,..i have seen the bird our west...but what the heck..
I have a new contest...guess the bug that makes this sound for a nice prize..... first one to guess gets the prize... good luck....
We did some birding this morning...a walk around Higbee beach...we didnt walk the beach ...but walked around fields and woods. Then grabbed a little lunch and Headed out to the Hawk watch area...... In the video below...Jeff talks a little about our new scope.
Yep thats right...Jeff and I bought a Scope....never had one of our own and thought it would be great to have one...So after much research...by Jeff,,, and hanging out at the CMBO Feather Edge Optics shop for hours on end...(Thanks to Brian for all his help and patience).....Jeff tried out all the scopes...tripods..heads... carried the scopes around on different tripods...Yikes I was getting impatient after a gazillion hours....Jeff finally decided on a nice little package that should keep us Happy Birders for many years...
We ordered a digscoping attachment so that I can take some close up bird pics and videos. I did try handheld digascoping.....holding the camera by hand up to the scope lens...very difficult...as u can see by the video below...
this is our rig.... KOWA TSN-883 Kowa 20-60x Zoom Eyepiece Manfrotto 128RC Quick Release Tripod Head Gitzo GT2540 Carbon Tripod
Today was a cold, windy day...but we went out anyway to check out our new purchase... I am ready to head south...its burrrrrrrrrr
So today was the start of the Cape May Autumn weekend bird festival...
We had an excellent day of birding....
Great birdwalks and talks Kenn Kaufman, Peter Dunn , Kevin Karlson, Norman Smith and others....I even met the Birdchick I found her blog recently and love it....We were busy with birding from 730 until 1030 in the evening...so you only get two pictures...one of a group we did some shore birding with and the other...is Jeff mailing our absentee ballots for....hummm.....who do you think???????????
