Ryerson Woods, Lake County, Illinois, April 28, 2005

Today my parents are visiting Illinois from Iowa. We were in the mood to do a walk in the woods, so we went over to Ryerson Woods in Lincolnshire, Illinois.

Ryerson Woods is a unit of the Lake County Forest Preserves, and one of the premier birding spots in the Chicago area. It is prominently featured in both Sheryl DeVore’s excellent travel guide, Birding Illinois, and in Carpenter and Greenwood’s equally fine book, A Birder’s Guide to the Chicago Region.

It was a beautiful spring day and the woods were lovely in the new spring green leaves. The forest floor was covered in wildflowers. Trilliums, large white flowers with three point flowers, were prominent, and violets were everywhere. There were several others which I didn’t know the names of. (Birds I know, but wildflowers are another matter.)

Ryerson Woods is a place were you hear many more birds than you see, and although we didn’t see many birds the air was full of music. Most of the singers were goldfinches, on the edge between the woods and a prairie area in the middle of the preserve, but there were also blue jays, cowbirds, cardinals, flickers, and red-bellied woodpeckers. The Des Plaines River runs through the center of the preserve, and we could hear the rattle of a kingfisher out of sight just down the river. There was one persistant song which I could not quite recognize, but later determined to be a Wilson's warbler.

The sight of a single tree swallow, and the chilly temperatures, prompted the observation that one swallow does not make a summer. The prairie area had several bluebird houses set up, and there was at least one potential tenant among them.

I had never stopped by the visitor’s center, and we saw it was open, so we stopped. The staff was smart, friendly, and eager to please. The building is a beauty, resembling an old plantation house. There was a small natural history library and bird exhibit. We were told that they often have art exhibits there, but they did not have one up at that time.

Ryerson Woods is a joy to visit and highly recommended to any nature lovers visiting the North suburbs of Chicago.

The New Pope (Same as the Old Pope)

Some might say that I am unqualified to comment on the Pope. I have never been Catholic, and although I am very much attracted to the pomp and ceremony of the traditional Catholic mass, there is probably no chance that I ever will be Catholic.

That being said, the Pope influences a lot of people, and what he says and does makes a difference to all of us. From my point of view, the selection of the rigid traditionalist Joseph Ratzinger as Pope, though not unexpected, is very bad news. Pope John Paul II was never a friend to those who love the natural world and care about the future. Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, is a man cut from same material as JP2.

We humans are rapidly crushing the life out of this world by the shear weight of our ever-increasing numbers. I know there are some economists and conservative ideologues, of the Julian Simon school of thought, who say this either isn’t true or it doesn’t matter. But under scrutiny their arguments on this subject boil down to: “You can’t convince me of anything, because I’m not listening.” It is happening, and it does matter to anyone with a soul and a conscience. Pope JP2 did more than any other single person of our time to encourage this tragic trend.

I remember a few years before his health started to fail, JP2 took a trip to several African countries. Africa is were the loss of our natural heritage is occurring the fastest. The causes of this are many and complex, but rapid population growth is undeniable the biggest factor. Population growth also contributes to poverty and hunger in Africa, which in turn lead to political instability, war, and genocide. What was the Pope’s message as he traveled around Africa? He warned the people there of the evils of birth control and praised them for having so many children! I could not even imagine a more evil thing for him to say.

JP2 tried to do some positive things. I commend him for trying to reduce hostility between various religions. He rightly condemned the industrialized countries for our excessive materialism. And, although I cannot think of anything better to improve the conditions of the poor than reliable family planning (the one thing the Pope tried to deny them), I think JP2 was sincere in his compassion for the poor, in his own peculiar way. Still, from my point of view, his opposition to family planning outweighs all the good things he did by as much as an elephant outweighs a grasshopper.

Toronto Sightseeing - March 2005.

I took my family to Toronto, Ontario, for a vacation towards the end of March. On our first day in Toronto, we saw the famous CN Tower, which dominates the skyline of Toronto. The day was fairly clear and we could see all the way across Lake Ontario.

Big Zoo
The second day we saw the Toronto Zoo, which is possibly the largest zoo I have ever seen. We couldn't see the whole zoo in one day, just two-thirds of it. It is not only big, but a lovely zoo as well. Worth a visit for any zoology lovers visiting the city.

Massive Propaganda
We spent the first part of the next day in the Art Gallery of Ontario, a rather small art museum. They had a special exhibit going on called "Massive Change" which was massively advertised around the city, but which we weren't really wild about. The concept had to do with how designers are dealing with the problems of global change. Okay in concept, and interesting in execution, but for my taste it showed much too much of the point of view of the corporate sponsors of the show. The message was that there are all these world problems that just happen to be out there, and these wonderful corporations were inventing ways to deal with them. There was no sense that the corporate economic and political system is itself a big source of the problems. (For a contrary point of view, see one of my favorite documentaries, "The Corporation", which I think is now available on DVD.) We liked the permanent exhibits of European and Canadian art in the Art Gallery better.

More Interesting Than It Sounds
We also saw the Bata Shoe Museum. A museum dedicated to shoes actually turns out to be more interesting than it sounds. Its interesting how this one subject, shoes, which I didn’t think I had any interest in, can touch on so many things which I am interested in: anthropology, history, even religion.

Rich Guy's Digs
The following morning we saw one of the better known tourist spots in Toronto: Casa Loma. This was a huge castle-like mansion built in the early 1900's by a wealthy industrialist who then proceeded to lose all his money on bad investments after World War I. It was interesting for people who like extravagant architecture. In the afternoon we saw the Science Center of Toronto. This is a hands-on museum aimed at children about my son’s age, and he really enjoyed it. It turned out to be another thing which was too big to see in one day, and it was kind of crowded due to it being a holiday.

Feathered Dinosaurs
On our last full day there, we spent most of it at the Royal Ontario Museum. This would have been another thing which would have been too big to see in a day, but much of it was closed for renovations. Even what was opened was quite a variety of thing. It had natural history, art, and archaeology exhibits. It had a fascinating special exhibit called "Feathered Dinosaurs" about some recent discoveries in paleontology. If you have ever seen "Jurassic Park", you might be interested to know that the Velocaraptors, the scaly bad guys in that movie, should probably have had feathers, because they were actually flightless birds, and fossils of some of their close relatives have feathers.

Speechifying
After the museum we stopped at the Ontario Parliament building, but we were too late for the last tour. They did let us into the visitor's chamber where we could watch the politicians speechifying. They sounded not too different from US politicians.

Petition to save Giant Sequoia National Monument

Please go to the link below and sign the petition to stop George Bush's plan to clear-cut Giant Sequoia National Monument.
http://www.sierraclub.org/petition/sequoia-give-dm?Promocode=D05DSQW125&asking=35

Also, this link will help you write a letter to your representative, asking to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
http://www.capitolconnect.com/audubon/summary.asp?subject=378

Tamalpais State Park, Marin County, California – March 5-6, 2005.

This is an entry transcribed from my journal, and edited somewhat for brevity and clarity.

I had a wonderful time this weekend camping at the Pan Toll campground of Mount Tamalpais State Park. I drove up to Marin County from my apartment in San Mateo on Saturday morning. The camp site I chose was on a ridge overlooking Muir Woods National Monument. It was a most pleasant camp site, even though it was quite a walk from the camp ground parking lot.

After setting up camp, I took a hike along beautiful oak savannah hillsides and then along a stream which descended steeply though a densely wooded canyon in a series of gorgeous waterfalls. The woods were filled with the songs of juncos, winter wrens, and brown creepers.

In the evening the stars were very bright overhead, so I tried looking at them with my spotting scope. I don’t know much about astronomy, so I didn’t really know what I was looking at, but I think I found some nebulae in Orion’s sword which I didn’t know were there.

In the wee hours of the morning I was awaken by an owl going “hu-hoo, hoo”. I couldn’t really tell for sure what kind of owl it was, even though it was quite close to my tent. I think it was probably a great horned owl, though I tried hard to convince myself that it was a spotted owl.

After breakfast, I hiked down from my campsite to Muir Woods, through the stunningly beautiful old-growth redwood forest. As I got to the bottom of the valley, the trails got crowded with people, as they always are there on the weekends, but unlike the first time I was there (several months ago), I was savvier about avoiding the crowds. When I am among those giant firs and redwoods, I feel as if I am in church, only much more so. To me, quiet reverence seems only acceptable attitude. Unfortunately, so many others there act as though they are at a carnival side show, and I get a bit annoyed with them.

After having lunch at the Muir Woods visitor’s center, I hiked a round-about path back to my car at the campground parking lot, going along the sunny chaparral to the west of the national monument. The usual sunny hillside birds were they, including western bluebirds, band-tailed pigeons, and several birds of prey. I got a beautiful view of a peregrine falcon perched in at large broken fir tree at the forest edge.