live on Substack bird dreams, riding the waves - please subscribe to my substack

 https://open.substack.com/pub/fredakarpf/p/bird-dreams-riding-hope?r=3v9ql&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Please subscribe to my sub stack, and you'll hear recordings of bird dreams. I'm gonna read the entire book Each small recording is also provided with a transcript, and followed by the narrator's notes, also known as bungalow notes It's summer. It's time to listen to the birds.

2025 season for osprey - not looking good

 https://conservewildlifenj.org/2025/06/25/photo-from-the-field-grim-outlook-for-ospreys/

Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ Read on blog or Reader Photo from the Field: Grim Outlook for Ospreys This Summer By Ben Wurst on June 25, 2025 A hatchling osprey with two unhatched eggs. June 13, 2025. This year is shaping up to be a terrible one for ospreys in New Jersey. Early season surveys, which we began to conduct more of in recent years, after nor'easters and shortages of prey caused nesting pairs fail to produce young. These early surveys provide valuable data on the outcomes of nests and insight on nest failures. This spring and early summer, we have observed a high number of nest failures in an area around Long Beach Island on Barnegat Bay. This has also been observed directly through live streaming osprey cams from Cape May to Oceanville and reported by some of our dedicated volunteers in other areas. Right now all signs point to lack of food, which either caused adults to abandon incubation or starvation of their young. A crucial prey item for ospreys is Atlantic menhaden, a forage fish that is found in the ocean and estuaries. They are found all along the Atlantic coast and are widely considered to be the most important fish in the sea. Not only are they filter feeders but they are food for a very wide variety of wildlife, from humpback whales and dolphins to ospreys, loons, tuna and striped bass, etc. They are also a very valuable fish that is used as whole bait, meal (solids, mainly for use in aquaculture as food for farm raised fish) and oils. In 2016, over 323 million pounds of menhaden was landed in Virginia alone. In coastal Virginia, osprey populations have collapsed and the likely culprit is lack of prey.  This spring adult menhaden were not very plentiful, especially after a nor'easter impacted the coast in late May. Observations of ospreys showed some were still catching menhaden but much smaller fish. Since then it has been a cascading effect of adult male ospreys not being able to find enough food to feed their mates and their young. When they can't find food, they spend more time and energy searching and hunting and less time at their nests, leaving their mates to do more incubation and often times starving. This is when incubating females have to leave their nests and then their eggs or young are exposed to predators or harsh environmental conditions like extreme heat, which results in nest failure. There are still plenty of fish available to ospreys but fewer adult menhaden, which ospreys are more dependent upon, especially during this time of year when they are foraging more frequently to provide for their families. As a bioindicator species, ospreys showing us the shortage of menhaden in real time through the lens of their failed reproduction. We hope learn the full extent of food stress on ospreys this year during upcoming nest surveys. For those who watch a nest or have a pair that nest near your home, you are encouraged to report osprey nesting activity online, via Osprey Watch. Since ospreys were recently upgraded to stable as their conservation status, we are concerned about their long term stability in a rapidly changing world. Your support to help us monitor ospreys during this time is crucial, as we do not receive any state or federal funding to carry out this important fieldwork. Donate today Comment

new live recording on Substack with narrator's comments

 first time posting audio on substack for bird dreams - a wild imagination, a dream of ecological sanity and the heart and soul of an osprey lover's hopes for the world - bird dreams, riding hope - chapter 1, elements of dragon with the narrator's response #birds #osprey #democracy #ecology #MagicalRealism

https://birddreams.substack.com/p/bird-dreams-riding-hope-elements

i know

  

I know the contours of your voice and all the meanings each word can contain. I can hear your joy before you tell me why. I can guess what troubles you just after hello. I know how you love the fog. I know you know loneliness. I know you wait for the longer light of spring just as the winter solstice arrives. And that you celebrate the summer solstice with a wee bit of sadness knowing that August will still be rolling you toward its glory. And I know that if you could, you would go back in time so that you could garden sooner. And I know that the silver light of the moon touches you and you can’t find words to say how; and that these perfect days, warm, in the 80s, with low humidity, are more than just weather. They’re more love than you feel you can hold. And each one is a great gift you wish you could send to everyone.    freda

bird dreams, riding hope is now available as an audio book

 

Have a listen, be a pal, the birds are singing, the dawn chorus is now.  Follow the story from the first awareness of something special through the linked soul meanderings of the narrator's journey from featherless to feathers. Oh yeah, there just might be dragons.  Bird dreams is an homage to the creative spirit, the love of nature and birds and all those who have protected our world. Join the flock.