compadres

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One of the good things about going out of town is that you make new friends.

So was the case when I journeyed to the Trails & Trilliums Festival in Monteagle to speak about birds at The Dubose.

There, I met and made friends with Dr. Jim Peters, Professor of Philosophy and Coordinator of Environmental Arts and Humanities at Sewanee: The University of the South. Jim and I talked for two hours, and although we became fast new friends, karmic compadres, it was like I have known him for over 20 years, some sort of a past life connection. I know. Easy to write, hard to fathom. 

We bonded over birds and natural history. I write about and draw birds and Jim takes the most wonderful photographs of them, sometimes even catching them in mid-wingbeat. 

Once asked why I am so fond of birds? I answered "it's simple, they are such splendid creatures that do not foul their own nest, home or planet."  

Jim sent me one of his recent prizes. A photo of a male pileated woodpecker tending to the young at the nest. Pileateds normally chisel out their nest hole in a dead tree 15- to 80-feet off the ground. So how did Jim manage this photograph at virtually eye-level? That's his secret. 

It also shows that woodpeckers are EXCELLENT fathers! At my "Bad Dads, Good Fathers" talk last Saturday at Wild Birds Unlimited: 7240 Kingston Pike, I shared this very same sentiment. Growing up is so much easier when you have a good father. 

But don't stumble over the name. Pileated comes from the Latin "pileatus" and it means capped or crested. 

Keep up the splendid work. See you again soon, Jim!   

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