Red-tailed Hawk youngsters, Riverside Park, NYC, 18 June 2009
Hi All
went down to the Riverside nest (in Manhattan’s Upper West Side) this afternoon to check out the three youngsters, one of which has properly fledged, one of which still seems to be in the advanced branching stage, and the third which is still in the nest. As I arrived an adult swooped in with a squirrel, which was a pretty spectacular thing to see. I was very keen to lay my eyes on some NYC Red-tails after spending 6 weeks in this amazing city last year with them while shooting a programme for SABC’s Healing Power of Nature series.
The light was shocking so the images are not great (800 ISO and hail-Mary shutter speeds with no depth of field) but here is the nest-bound youngster and the advanced ’short-flight’ brancher (note crops bulging with squirrel meat).
Curious little buggers, young Buteo jamaicensis — they’re constantly looking around. If the one on the nest did not fledge just after I left I’m sure it’ll go in the next couple of days. It was standing around a lot on the edge of the nest and eyeballing the ground met ernstige mening.
You can read more about the Riverside Red-tails at Bruce Yolton’s blog
http://urbanhawks.blogs.com/urban_hawks/
Cheers
Adam
Robert Mugabe speech to the nation of Zimbabwe, 4 March 1980
Hi All
found this little 8-sided, A5-sized pamphlet of Robert Mugabe’s first speech to the nation of Zimbabwe in a second-hand shop somewhere in Cape Town, I think in Kalk Bay, some time ago. It’s printed on very poor-quality paper, and seems to have been destined for circulation in the USA (see inside front page). The speech was given before he was sworn in as Prime Minister, and before the formal Independence of Zimbabwe. It seems to be his first formal speech to the nation as a whole, give that it’s published as ‘For the record No.1′.
I thought I’d put it up here for interest’s sake, seeing as the Old Man is still there almost 30 years on. It’s quite remarkable to see how some of his views have changed in that time (!)
Here is the cover:
and the inside front cover:
the first page of the speech itself:
the second page of the speech:
and the third, and final, page of the speech:
The remaining three pages in the pamphlet were blank.
I know this is not the sort of stuff that usually appears on this blog, but I thought it worth putting up here.
Cheers
Adam
Note, 28 Sep 2009: I’ve just discovered this copy of this speech on the Web Archive — it seems to have been deleted from the Zimbabwean government’s website, possibly because it so obviously contradicts Mugabe’s current views and actions.
