Michael,

We have pretty tough tulips out here. When I first shot this weekly/daily/hourly sequence of the tulips in our front yard, I thought the tulips were doomed by the ice storm and snowfall on Easter weekend. But on Easter Monday, they revived and are still thriving.

–rakkity

Peace Keepers

Diane and I spent our off day shopping for chairs suitable for problematic backs (highly recommended by Adam and Tricia) and visiting one of our favorite old haunts, Halibut Point.

Travis popped in on iChat last night and told me this story .

As discussed at breakfast with Mike, Adam and Mark this morning, this man’s mission is to change the world by dispelling preconceived notions we hold about WE and THEM (Western World vs. Third World).

He’s doing this by making world demographic data available and giving it life in stunning visual time-sequences, and by teaching through presentations like this one (played during a break at my WOPR software performance testing conference during a break yesterday).

Kate played in the New Hampshire Music Festival which featured the best band members from all the state’s high schools. Photos weren’t permitted while songs were performed – we were told it was too dangerous – but I snapped a few before, after and at our celebratory dinner.

FierceBaby, who flew out from Minnesota for the forty-five minute performance, leaves this morning.

A photo from another day in the life of Travis and his bicycle.

Alexander von Humboldt’s name is associated with hundreds of species and places : Humboldt Current, Humboldt penquin, squid, etc. etc.

His research station – photos here – is in the middle of this fantastic open range surrounded by active volcanoes, and it’s up for sale – if you have a million dollars, you can buy this – with over 2,000 acres of wild open land!

Inside the research station are lots of skins and stuffed animals from his research days with all the furnishings as he left it. We had lunch there and visited with the caretakers, a young family (dad and baby on horseback in the above photo).

Andean (or Black Faced) Ibis.

The Ibis world population is about 40 with all of them in Ecuador. We saw 24 in a magnificent private reserve – open only to birders – that surrounds the preserved Humboldt research station. Alexander von Humboldt (famous among science lovers like myself) was German (Prussian?) and worked in the 1800′s in South American….primarily inthe fields of botany, and geology — but also geography.

I drove over to Erickson Grain Mill to buy bird food and caught this truck driver napping. Even I can’t sleep in that position.

More photos from BirdBrain’s recent trip to Ecuador. Hikes in Yanachocha reserve (1 hour outside of Quito), the enchanted Polyleptis forest, an as yet unidentified volcano, and the Market at Otavalo.