About this report
Over the years, these reports have evolved with the technology available. With the advent of good digital photography, we find ourselves relying ever more on pictures rather than words to tell the story of the year. We've included a brief write up on each photograph, so be sure to follow the links to get the full effect. If you want a quick start, check out the Photo Gallery, or just skip to the Best Nature Photos of 2005.
Also, note the small picture at the top left of every page (well, almost every page). This is a random selection from the year's photos. Click on the small picture to get the story behind the photo.
The Classical Annual Report and Executive Summary
As we have for the past several years, we have an Executive Summary of this year's report that fits the old format of a single page front and back. A PDF version is available online. Read it now>>
The Year's Quotations: Storms
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage, blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!
— William Shakespeare (1564–1616), in King Lear, act 3, sc. 2, l. 1-3.
We for a certainty are not the first
Have sat in taverns while the tempest hurled
Their hopeful plans to emptiness, and cursed
Whatever brute and blackguard made the world.
— A.E. Housman (1859–1936). Last Poems, no. 9 (1922)
O my soul’s joy,
If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have wakened death!
And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas
Olympus-high, and duck again as low
As hell’s from heaven!
— William Shakespeare (1564–1616) Othello, act 2, sc. 1, l. 185-9.
After many years of talking about birding in interior Belize, we finally had a good opportunity courtesy of the American Birding Association. The ABA sponsored a trip for donors and we jumped at the chance to have someone else make all the arrangements. After a day spent mostly waiting for planes to take off, we arrived at the marvelous lodge in the middle of the Belizean forest. Five days of dawn-to-dusk birding, with a short time out for siesta, rewarded us with a great list of birds and other critters. (Don't miss the huge bug found in a neighbor's cabin, for example.) Read the complete write up.>>
In what will likely become an oft-told Texas Legend, millions of people fled the coast as Hurricane Rita approached. We had our share of unexpected visitors. Everyone has a story about the event. Read ours here>>
