"This work is unlike any other, in its range of rich, conjuring imagery and its dexterity, its smart voice. Carroll-Hackett doesn’t spare us—but doesn’t save us—she draws a blueprint of power and class with her unflinching pivot: matter-of-fact and tender." —Jan Beatty

Posts tagged ‘birds’

Daily Prompt Love <3 Bold

24 March 2019 

First line I wrote in my journal this morning: “The birds have become bold….”

Make art about becoming bold, about the boldness of nature, about being bold, or wishing you were. 

bold bird

Daily Prompt Love <3 Landing

22 February 2019

“My heartbeat sends the vulture away. Circling, circling
the ruin, deciding where to land.”- Nick Stanovick 
Make art about deciding where to land. 
vulture

Daily Prompt Love <3 Quoth the Raven

14 March 2018

Make art about what the raven said. 

common raven

 

Daily Prompt Love <3 Warmth

6 January 2018

Make art about staying warm. 

sparrow

 

Daily Prompt Love <3 Sharing Space

4 January 2018

The dogs and I footprinted our two inches of snowfall, and left some breakfast out for the others with whom we share this little patch of woods.

Make art about someone with whom you feel blessed to share space. 

crow apple

Daily Prompt Love <3 Natural Elegance

1 August 2017

el·e·gance

  (ĕl′ĭ-gəns)

n.

Refinement, grace, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners.

Tasteful opulence in form, decoration, or presentation.

Restraint and grace of style.

 

Make art about the elegance of the natural world.

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Monday Must Read! Katie Fallon: Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird

Angels walk among us, and Katie Fallon is one of them. Her talent, compassion, humor, and committed love for this sweet planet are all breath-taking. You just gotta read Vulture.

katieKatie Fallon is the author of the nonfiction books Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird (University Press of New England, 2017) and Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird (Ruka Press, 2011). 

Katie is also the author of a beautiful book for children, Look, See the Bird!, written with Bill Wilson of Birds & Beans Coffee Company and illustrated by Leigh Anne Carter, from Hatherleigh Press.

A finalist for the Reed Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment, Cerulean Blues is “part journey, part documentary, and wholly engaging; a tribute to a bird that bridges continents with its wings and to a rising star among contemporary nature writers,” according to Pete Dunne, former Director of the Cape May Bird Observatoryand author of Hawks In Flight and other books.

Katie’s essays have appeared in a variety of literary journals and magazines, including Fourth GenreRiver TeethEcotoneBark MagazineAppalachian HeritageNow & ThenIsotopeFourth Riverthe minnesota reviewThe Tusculum Review, and elsewhere. Her essay “Rebirth” (published in River Teeth, Fall 2013) was listed as a “Notable” in Best American Science & Nature Writing 2014, and her essay “Hill of the Sacred Eagles” was a finalist in Terrain‘s 2011 essay contest. She has been nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize. Katie has taught creative writing at Virginia Tech and West Virginia University. Her first word was “bird.”

Katie is also one of the founders of the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving wild birds through scientific research; outreach and public education; and rescue and rehabilitation. The ACCA is based near Morgantown, WV, and each year treats more than 200 injured wild birds, conducts dozens of environmental education programs, and sponsors citizen-science research projects.

Katie’s website:

Visit Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia

Buy Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird

Buy Look, See the Bird!

About VULTURE: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird

VULTURE chronicles the life and times of one the world’s most under-appreciated and overlooked birds: the turkey vulture. Part ecological memoir, part travel narrative, part scientific exploration, and part love story, this book examines the roles turkey vultures–and all vultures–play in healthy ecosystems. Fallon travels to India, Arizona, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and her own backyard in her quest to study, care for, and observe this often unloved though vitally important (and uniquely beautiful!) bird.

Praise & Reviews

When you read this book you will know why I consider it to be the most eloquent and beautiful depiction of a vulture ever… A heartfelt and authoritative account of the world’s most numerous and misunderstood avian scavenger. Written in a style reminiscent of Edward Abbey and John McPhee, Fallon successfully captures the natural history of the species and its ability to succeed in both natural and man-made landscapes. Destined to change the mind of anyone who reads it.” — Keith L. Bildstein, PhD, Sarkis Acopian Director of Conservation Science at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

Naturalist and bird rehabilitator Fallon (Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird) presents an entertaining, well-researched title that nominally concerns the familiar turkey vulture but ranges widely, incorporating up-to-date information on condors and vultures worldwide… She displays great passion and enthusiasm yet writes knowingly and dispassionately on the science of her subject in an engaging, literary style.” — Library Journal, starred review

This book is about vultures in the human world, but nowhere in the story does the human aspect overly intrude. The great birds are front-and-center, consistently painted in a positive and empathetic light. It is to Fallon’s credit that she is able to coax the reader into the same love affair with vultures that she herself enjoys, without romanticizing her subject to the point of putting off her audience.” — Sense of the Misplaced

Who would have suspected the astonishments of vultures? Katie Fallon has given us an ingenious, funny, delightful book.”—Janisse Ray, author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

More from Katie Online

Listen to an interview with Katie on BirdCallsRadio, September 2016.

Essay “Hill of the Sacred Eagles” published in Terrain and named a Finalist for its 2011 Creative Nonfiction Contest. This piece appears in a different form as a chapter in Vulture.

Essay “Dogs Bring Comfort in Wake of Virginia Tech Tragedy” in Bark Magazine, 2011.

An excerpt from Chapter Two of Cerulean Blues in The Tusculum Review, 2011.

Happy Reading!

xo

Mary

Daily Prompt Love <3 What I Found in the Wild 

5 April 2017

My company this morning ❤ 

Make art about the comfort of wild things. 

hawk

 

Happy National Poetry Month! Beginning by Lia Purpura

BEGINNING

In the beginning,
in the list of begats,
one begat
got forgot:
work begets work
(one poem
bears
the next).
In other words,
once there was air,
a bird
could be got.
Not taken.
Not kept.
But conjured up.

conjure bird

Daily Prompt Catch-Up! Finally! 24 New Creativity-Inspiring Prompts!

And hopefully I’m back on track with these 🙂 ❤ Love y’all!

10/10/2016

Make art about buried treasure.

10/11/2016

Make art about working toward a goal.

10/12/2016

Make art about the sound of walking.

10/13/2016

Make art about frailty.

10/14/2016

Make art about a youngest child, that last child.

10/15/2016

Make art about what’s revealed in the moonlight.

10/16/2016

Make art about birds on a wire.

10/17/2016

Make art about going back in time.

10/18/2016

Make art about leaving an inheritance, or receiving one, on what’s inherited.

10/19/2016

My mama used to quote the Bible, saying, “Never a prophet in your own land.” Make art inspired by this quote.

10/20/2016

Make art about transitions.

10/21/2016

I really want to take a ceramics class. Make art about what you want to learn.

10/22/2016

Make art about excavation, literal or metaphorical.

10/23/2016

Canning apples for days. Make art about the fruits of autumn.

10/24/2016

Make art about every day angel encounters.

10/25/2016

Make art about the sacredness of water.

10/26/2016

Make art about making a trip home.

10/27/2016

Make art about what kind of road your heart would be.

10/28/2016

“When born, you inherit what’s burning.”~Liam Rector Make art inspired by this quote.

10/29/2016

Make art about night driving.

10/30/2016

A friend came across an old painting that looks just like me. Make art about doppelgangers.

10/31/2016

I set out food for the ancestors, cornmeal and milk for the wee folk, lit a fire and watched it burn. Make art about ancient traditions.

11/1/2016

Sometimes the sorrow is so deep, all I know to do is cook. Make art about process sorrow in an unexpected way.

11/2/2016

Make art consoling, receiving, or giving, consolation.

11/3/2016

Make art about feeling paralyzed.

______________________________________________

Back to the daily daily tomorrow!

samhain_altar-e1413813945680

 

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