WILD THINGS: MOB RULES OVER KEY WEST
I was up at Hugh’s View a few weeks ago, on the roof of The Studios of Key West, making small talk about art and stuff, when...
WILD THINGS: MIGRATING BIRDS, CIVIL WAR REENACTORS & DEAD POETS
Migration was over, at least officially, so a common yellowthroat shouldn’t have been in the seagrape, but there she was, flitting around as if schedules and range...
WILD THINGS: THESE BIRDS ARE MESSING WITH ME
It’s not often that an animal messes with you just for the fun of it.
Stuart, my half pit bull, used to do it. If you took him...
BLACKPOLL CONUNDRUM WARBLER SPOTTED KEY WEST
A male blackpoll warbler is easily identified by the black cap that makes it resemble Moe from the Three Stooges or, arguably, me, intermittently, from 1970 to...
WILD THINGS: BIRD MIGRATION IN THE KEYS
You want to see signs of rain when you wake — puddles that weren’t there the night before, maybe wet streets. You don’t want it to have...
WILD THINGS: NORTHERN GANNETS ARE THE POINTY-HEADED MOUTH-BREATHERS OF THE SEA
The wind was up, so it was likely to be “sporty” crossing the Northwest Channel, but as I cleared the anchorage behind Wisteria Island and moved through...
WILD THINGS: Drama in the distant treetops
Certain aspects of your life are hard to explain. For instance, I would not want to answer to a jury of my peers why I wasted so...
WILD THINGS: SINGING WITHOUT KNOWING THE WORDS
There’s an oft-quoted line from “To Kill A Mockingbird”: “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy … but sing their hearts out...
WILD THINGS: SOUTHERN SEADUCK REDUX
When I got there, Ellen Westbrook was standing on the South Roosevelt seawall with her binoculars up, staring out at the horizon, which was a bad sign.
Gah,...
WILD THINGS: WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT PAINTED BUNTINGS
The name bunting comes from a Scottish word that basically means plump. That seems judgmental. If they are plump, they are pleasingly plump, and no one talks...
