Dear Diary: This Is My Life in Quarantine / under LockdownThank you for being on board here. If the mood strikes, comment below and I'll share your thoughts and experiences….
Sensing that they’re living through a historic moment, many people are journaling [and blogging] to create a keepsake of life during the pandemic. The time we’re living through will one day become history. This is always true, of course, but the coronavirus pandemic has, perhaps more than any other event in living memory, made people hyperaware that their present will be remembered in the future. And this new, strange sensation has compelled many to capture the moment for posterity.
New blues…
“Sh**hole country,” anyone?Irony of ironies: America shut its southern border to South Americans while Canadians shut their southern border to Americans.
I’ll dare to say it: “What goes around, comes around.” Or, rats clinging aboard ship….
Since March, the U.S.-Canada border has been closed to all but essential traffic in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus. But Americans being Americans, they are flouting the new regulations in the pursuit of their usual summer fun.
“Canadian border patrol has effectively prevented caravans of Americans” from crossing the border. Most are arriving by sailboats and luxury yachts.
Those crossing the border have often told officials that they are heading to Alaska to circumvent the new regulations. …
One reason Americans are being spotted is that Canadian boaters are using technology to monitor them. With the requirement that all passenger boats have to be equipped with tracking devices to help prevent weather-related accidents, anyone with an internet connection can monitor border-crossings and identify vessels by type and country of origin.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
During a recent visit to Karkloof Conservancy, I spotted wattled cranes flying over the hide (aka “blind”), but they settled in a field out of reach of my camera lens.Karkloof Conservancy hides were built by local farmers, foresters and landowners to provide visitor safe access to the region’s biodiversity. Posters decorating the hides’ interior whet the appetite of novice crane-seekers.
View posters:
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| Poster wattled crane Click to read. |
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| Poster blue crane Click to read. |
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| Poster grey crowned crane Click to read. |
After all, recent visitors shot gorgeous video of wattled cranes at the Conservancy (0:33 mins). If they saw wattled cranes, so can I. Hope spring eternal.
Wattled cranes bring to mind the thousands of sandhill cranes that migrate to California’s Sacramento Delta each winter. I hear them from my houseboat and a 10-minute walk reveals vast flocks grazing and nesting.
Not a hardcore “birder,” my motto is, shoot first, ask questions later. I’m frequently unsure of what birds I’ve captured on camera. Can you identify those at the bottom of the page, Spying on garden creatures?
Wattled cranes bring to mind the thousands of sandhill cranes that migrate to California’s Sacramento Delta each winter. I hear them from my houseboat and a 10-minute walk reveals vast flocks grazing and nesting.
Not a hardcore “birder,” my motto is, shoot first, ask questions later. I’m frequently unsure of what birds I’ve captured on camera. Can you identify those at the bottom of the page, Spying on garden creatures?
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