The Ed's Up - Ain't That a Kick in the Heeeeeead
Earlier this month, I travelled to the Maasai Mara in Kenya to do some reporting for the book I’m currently working on. And while I was there, as is my wont, I did some birding. A lot of birding. I saw 140 new species in just 5 days; 125 were lifers and around a fifth I saw from the balcony of my lodge room. I saw martial eagles, crowned cranes, marabou storks, lilac-breasted rollers, and a smorgasbord of incredible starlings, swallows, and more. But there was one bird I wanted to see above all others: the secretarybird.
Statuesque and distinctive, the secretarybird is a unique raptor that strides around the sub-Saharan savanna on extremely long legs, which it uses to bludgeon small animals to death. Rodents, lizards, snakes… all get stomped on the head. Researcher Steve Portugal once described the bird to me as a “ninja eagle on stilts”, and added that “their default option if they don’t want to mate with it, or raise it, is to kick it.”
Our guide had heard about a nearby secretarybird nest, but when we went to check it out, we instead found two lappet-faced vultures. These are the biggest and most powerful of Africa’s vultures, with huge bills that can tear into carcasses that smaller species can’t penetrate. Not the birds we were looking for, but iconic nonetheless, and I was happy to see them. The next day, we went back and found both vultures in the same tree… along with a secretarybird! I was overjoyed… and then all hell broke loose.
The secretarybird flew down to the ground, and the lappet-faced vultures followed suit. A second secretarybird appeared out of nowhere, and all four birds seemed locked in a stand-off. And then one of the secretarybirds just straight up attacked a vulture, kicking it in its lappety face. This happened twice, and the vultures eventually fled to a neighboring tree… but as we drove off, we saw them flying back, possibly for round two.
For me, wildlife-watching is at its most rewarding when I get to see behavior. Seeing a secretarybird is incredible enough, but, at the risk of being a little reductionist, seeing a secretarybird kick something is to see the essence of the bird. And to see it tussle with another of Africa’s avian icons… reader, it was, in fact, me who got a kick out of it.
The Extent of The Infinite Extent
Speaking of the book, I’m about a quarter of the way through the timeline for The Infinite Extent—my third book about life at different scales. This year is all about research and reporting; next year is when the writing happens. By now, the shape of the book is clear to me. I know what each of the 12 chapters is about and the order in which they’ll appear. I know what roughly 90 percent of the stories in those chapters are going to be, and roughly the order in which they’ll appear.
I’ve done about a third of the reporting trips I want to do, with support from my Guggenheim Fellowship. I’m usually loathe to disclose everything that’s going to be in the book before the final work is ready, so let me offer the following to whet the appetite. I have witnessed marvels in the dead of the South Carolina night and the heat of the Kenyan sun. I’ve seen wonders on an innocuous Southern California hillside and an unassuming Montana forest. I’ve touched antiquity, pondered immortality, and met perhaps the single most mind-blowing organism I’ve ever encountered. I have served myself a sumptuous intellectual banquet and let me tell you, I have eaten well.
These trips have probably been my favorite of any project I’ve previously worked on, and I’m so excited about transforming experience into prose.
Not-Bird Photos
I whittled down over 8500 shots from Kenya to my 450 (!!!) favorites, so you’re going to get a slow drip-feed over the next few months. To begin, some not-birds:
Sports Are Binary, Human Bodies Are Not
I highly recommend listening to TESTED—the amazing new podcast and passion project from Rose Eveleth.
TESTED tells the unfolding stories of elite female runners who’ve told they can no longer race as women, because of their biology. As the Olympics approach, they face hard choices: take drugs to lower their natural testosterone levels, give up their sport entirely, or fight. You’ll meet athletes who chose each of these routes, and you’ll learn about the 100-year history of sex testing in sports—policies all fueled by men who felt the need to test women to see if they were really women. (This is, to be clear, not a show about trans athletes, although many of the issues it raises are obviously relevant to that topic.)
TESTED is an incredible piece of journalism. It’s fascinating, necessary, deeply reported, and charming. Rose is one of my closest friends, and I’ve seen how hard they’ve pushed, over many long years, to make this show a reality. It was worth it, and well worth your time. Please listen, and spread the word!
Upcoming speaking events
Come say hi; please wear a mask
15 August - Golden Gate Bird Alliance Annual Meeting in Berkeley CA.
17 September - University Forum at The University of Southern Mississippi.
24 September - Saint Mary's College of California.
23 October - Goucher College in Maryland.
That's it for this week
I’ve been laser-focused on the book and consequently, haven’t read very much that isn’t related to it. So, with apologies, this month, I’m going to skip my usual round-up of links about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, other matters of importance, and books I think you should read. More of that in the future.
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Stay safe.