Light and Shadow
  • Home
  • The Rains Come
  • ecographs
  • Monochrome

Rayz Reviewz Volume 1 Number 18

8/14/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Rayz Reviewz Volume 1 Number 18
 
Welcome to Rayz Reviewz. Past editions are archived on my web page. My feature article, Whale Watch: A Cape Cod Memoir, follows the Travel Close to Home section and the Opportunities section. This week’s photos are from the Curtain Pole Road portion of the Tennessee Riverpark in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Travel Close to Home
 
For the past few weeks, the Curtain Pole Road section of the Tennessee Riverpark has been my “go to” location for nature photography. I have spent several mornings there, collecting photographs of Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons and Green Herons, and more recently, dragonflies, robber flies, and cicadas, as well as fruits and flowers.  
 
Meanwhile, the Chickamauga Dam is still productive for viewing Osprey, Double Crested Cormorants, and Great Blue Herons.  If you want to know more about the birds mentioned here, see the online field guide of the National Audubon Society.
 
The picnic area of the Tennessee Riverpark near the Hubert Fry Center has some lovely flower gardens which are productive for butterfly observation and photography.
 
The American Lotus at Amnicola Marsh are rapidly losing their flowers. The large seed heads are prominent and green with some turning to brown. Soon the duck and geese populations should be more visible.

Chattanooga Outdoors provides information about outdoor sports on their web page https://outdoorchattanooga.com/. This is the place to find out about bicycling, kayaking, white water rafting and other opportunities.

Picture
Opportunities for Writers 

Owl Canyon Review offers a short story contest with an October 1 deadline. They supply the first and last paragraph and your write 18 paragraphs. The contest FAQ is available online.
 
Ecotone Magazine promotes place-based writing. The editors recently posted the current issue. For Submission information, consult the submissions page..
 
Still, the Journal publishes an annual edition celebrating Appalachia. To know what they like to publish, read selections on their web page: Guidelines for submissions are also available there.
 
Frontier Poetry has a $3,000 award for new poets competition. The deadline is September 15. Guidelines are available on the web.
 The Missouri Review publishes in all genres Submission Guidelines are available online.
 
The Avocet is now accepting nature poetry for the fall edition. If you simply like reading the poetry, a subscription if $24 for a quarterly bound journal and a weekly edition delivered viz email. Subscriptions should go to The Avocet, P.O. Box 19186, Fountain Hills, AZ 85269
Include yours email address if you want to receive guidelines for submissions.

Picture
Whale Watch: A Cape Cod Memoir
 
I exclaimed about the size of the beast, but the shipboard naturalist pointed out, “That’s the whale calf, the mother is over there.” She was an adult Right Whale, possibly 50 feet long, and as much as 79 tons. As do all mother Right Whales, she swam in tandem with another adult whale, her escort. The second whale could have been male or female and stood by to help fend off potential predators.

In bygone days, they were the right whale to kill. That’s how they got the name. They floated when dead. Slow swimmers, they were easy targets. They yielded tons of blubber; rendered to oil and stored in barrels. It fetched a good price on the docks. The baleen plates in their mouth, designed to strain food from the water, became corset stays. Whalebone corsets where fashionable.

After the whaling ships had done their work, few remained. On that day in 1988, the world-wide population was about 300. The three we saw amounted to one percent of all North Atlantic Right Whales. They were the first whales I ever saw and they became all whales for me. Though I would later see humpback whales and finback whales, sleek and fast, I will always think of rotund, slow swimming Right Whales, rarest of the rare, when I hear of whales.

The calf came close to our boat to wave and splash with an energetic tail. It rolled to one side and waved a fluke. I wished the calf a long and healthy life; growth to maturity without being cut down by killer whales or an illegal whaling ship. I wished it survival without loss to accident or disease.
I have since read that the North Atlantic Right Whale population has increased to 450 individuals. Today, it pleases me that somewhere off the American coast, mother Right Whales swim with escorts who sing to them as the calf nurses, filling with milk so rich in butterfat it would be toxic to humans. After drinking its fill, the calf circles mother and escort with the boundless energy of all young things.

Shameless Self Promotion

A few months ago I wrote an article about Robert Sparks Walker for The Chattanooga Pulse.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    ​Archives                

    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012

    Categories

    All
    Environment
    Literacy
    Nature

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly