(no subject)

Other birds I have seen around here recently:


- A few minutes after the Cooper's hawk the other day, I spotted a bird somewhat smaller than a sparrow flying in a weirdly irregular manner. The wings were too visible for it to be a hummingbird, but it was definitely trying to stop, hover, change direction on a dime, etc. Given my personal rule of thumb that if a bird is flying like a pok gai it's probably going after insects I can't currently see, I waited to see if it would land- and it did, on the phone wire above me, giving the slightest little whispery twittwit a few times. Flickered its way over to a nearby bush, where it was close enough to eye level for me to focus on its actual coloration. Turned out to be a golden-crowned kinglet, when I finally got a good enough look. They are teeny.

- Yesterday afternoon, around 3:45, a Carolina wren. Heard first, spotted eventually. This is a bird that is in serious contention with mockingbirds for loudest damn thing in the area with feathers, but which is maybe halfway between a golf ball and a street handball in size.

- The usual suspects- sparrows, finches, starlings, seagulls, etc. Hopefully I can get down to the water sometime while it's light today; this is the time of year when we start seeing mergansers and eiders in earnest.

Just got this email, if anyone's interested

I'm trying to remember how I got on the MIssissippi Center for Justice's mailing list. I think it may have been a donation in response to ICE raids. Not sure. Anyway, point is, they sent me this today and I think some of the people who follow this journal might find it noteworthy as well.


Dear Friends of MCJ,

Don’t miss this special opportunity!

Beth Israel Congregation, Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, and the Mississippi Center for Justice are pleased to offer you a free screening and panel discussion of award-winning filmmaker Aviva Kempner’s new film Rosenwald.

The film will be available for everyone who registers at http://rosenwald.rsvpify.com. An email with a link to view the film will be sent to all registrants the morning of Sunday, November 8. The film is available for viewing from Sunday, November 8 to Tuesday, November 10.

The panel discussion featuring the filmmaker along with representatives from MCJ and ISJL will be streamed live on the Mississippi Center for Justice’s Facebook page at 5:00 PM CST on November 10.

Inspired by the Jewish ideals of tzedakah (charity) and tikkun olam (repairing the world), the social justice teachings of his rabbi Emil Hirsch, and a deep concern over racial inequality in America, Julius Rosenwald used the wealth he built as part-owner of Sears and Roebuck to become one of America’s most effective philanthropists. By his death in 1932, Rosenwald had funded the building of 5,400 schools across the segregated American South, providing 660,000 Black children with access to education. Recipients of his seminal Rosenwald Fund for African American Artists included Gordon Parks Jr., Augusta Savage, Dr. Charles Drew, Katherine Dunham, Ralph Ellison, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Langston Hughes. In the film there are interviews with Julian Bond, Congressman John Lewis, Maya Angelou, Rabbi David Saperstein, Benjamin Jealous, A’lelia Bundles, Eugene Robinson, George Wolfe, David Levering Lewis, Ossie Davis, David Levering Lewis, Rita Dove, David Driskell, Congressman Danny Davis, and Gordon Parks. This is an important new film from Aviva Kempner (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg).

Questions can be directed to Beth Orlansky at borlansky@mscenterforjustice.org.

Click here to register. You must register in order to receive the link to view the film.

Click here to view the panel discussion at 5:00 PM on November 10.

Enjoy the show!