It’s apparently a saw-whet owl, and it’s been sitting there hanging around all morning. UPDATE: The bird was sitting on a mouse it had caught, and after sleeping and eating, it flew away, leaving part of a mouse corpse in my pine tree. UPDATE: And now it’s back, sleeping in the pine tree, somewhat higher up with its back to me. Beautiful little bird. UPDATE: The owl stayed in our tree all day, sleeping and eating. I was able to view it quite closely from the upstairs window. When we closed up the drapes at dusk it was still there, … Continue reading →

As ever, George Packer is much more eloquent than I am. He talks about the imminent extinction of the great apes. The passing from the world of our closest relatives is not a political tragedy, like Burma; it is not a humanitarian nightmare, like Darfur; it is not an ideological disaster, like Iraq. All the same, it makes me unspeakably sad. How lonely to inhabit the planet without that familiar and alien gaze to keep us company. The fact that magnificent, uncomprehending, essentially helpless animals have to pay the ultimate price for our indifference seems at times like a worse … Continue reading →