Category Archives: Uncategorized

Rare Bird

Posted on April 30, 2025 by wings of a tern

In this third installment of my series on the Azores, I’ll take a short flight from an otherwise long excursion. As always, feel free to comment if you like. I’m always open for the chance to start some dialogue. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Azores, bullfinch, conservation, poetry, Portugal, priolo, rare bird, Sao Miguel, travel, writing | 12 Comments

Mt. Pico, the Azorean

Posted on April 22, 2025 by wings of a tern

The following is my second of three or four installments for the Azores series. If you missed “Wild Rainbows, the Azores,” you might want to check my previous post. Mt. Pico is the highest mountain in Portugal, reaching nearly 8000 … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Azores, birding, islands, lava, mountains, Mt. Pico, Pico, poetry, travel, vineyards, wine, writing | 10 Comments

Wild Rainbows, the Azores

Posted on April 15, 2025 by wings of a tern

I’d like to present several posts from a recent trip to the Azores (April 3-April 11). The following is a first installment. As always, thank you for stopping by and feel free to comment. Stepping into some of the loveliest … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Azores, birding, family, natural history, Portugal, rainbow trout, Sao Miguel, travel, wild trout, writing | 18 Comments

Keeney Swamp: A Haibun

Posted on March 20, 2025 by wings of a tern

I crossed a small wooden bridge where Black Creek drains Keeney Swamp and slides quietly toward the distant Genesee. A great blue heron rose, clumsy at first, its long sinuous neck unfurling like a snake, to circle with an awkward … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged haibun, hiking, Keeney Swamp, natural history, nature, poetry, preservation, Walt Franklin, wetlands, wildlife, writing | 11 Comments

From Poultry to Poetry, Better Late Than Never

Posted on March 6, 2025 by wings of a tern

In 1924, William W. Christman, Helderhill farmer and family man, was 59 years old. He had yet to write a serious poem, but a pre-dawn incident changed him like an aubade filling a despondent lover with a song. He woke … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged chickens, human nature, Micheal Hurley, poaching, poetry, poultry, prose-poem, Walt Franklin, Will Christman, writing | 12 Comments

Getting a Grip

Posted on February 25, 2025 by wings of a tern

I’ve had a difficult but productive winter in New York. I don’t mean Big Apple difficult. New York City would be difficult for me in any season. I mean here, in Bootleg Hollow, 300 miles from NYC. Generally, I like … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged birds, Blue Jays, hawks, nature, Omar Khayyam, poetry, struggle, winter, writing | 8 Comments

Two Ravens (Redux)

Posted on January 30, 2025 by wings of a tern

[Four years ago, I posted an earlier version of the following sketch. This re-do is included in a book that I’ve been bringing to fruition, a work about my life with birds. There’s a certain timeliness to the raven tale … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged birds, Brian Eno, mythology, nature, poetry, two ravens, Winter hikes, writing | 18 Comments

The Blue Pencil (Treasure of a Weed)

Posted on December 6, 2024 by wings of a tern

Years ago, I received a special letter from my late friend Mary Stiver, a poet living out her last years in South Carolina. The letter was a copy of some gentle criticism sent to her in 1958 from the renowned … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged blue pencil, editing, goldfinch, nature, poetry, Thoreau, W.C. Williams, Walt Franklin, weeds, writing | 12 Comments

How Adventures (Sometimes) Play Out

Posted on November 22, 2024 by wings of a tern

[This post is a rather quick follow up to the previous one portraying my best fish of the season so far. Check out the earlier post, if you haven’t looked there yet. With this, I close my northern visits for … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged brown trout, Charles Darwin, creation, fishing, freedom, God, John Fowles, Thanksgiving, writing | 22 Comments

I Saw the Sunset in its Leap

Posted on November 14, 2024 by wings of a tern

With nothing much to celebrate this autumn, I looked back to a more colorful time for me, October days with friends and family near the woods and oceanside Rhode Island (Block Island), fishing the Great Lakes region, trying to stay … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged angling, brown trout, environment, fly-fishing, nature, Rhode Island, salmon, serendipity, travel, tributaries, writing | 18 Comments